Sword Art Online-Vol 2 Chapter 2.2: Warmth of the Heart (Aincrad 48th Floor, June 2024) Part 2

Part 2

Rumors about «That Metal» began to circulate amongst the blacksmiths about ten days ago. Of course, the ultimate goal of SAO was to reach the top floor and beat the game. But other than that, there was also a variety of other missions: quests from NPCs, guard missions, treasure hunting, and more. But because the reward usually included desirable equipment, most quests had a cooldown time after they were completed before they would become available again. There were even quests that could only be finished once, which really drew attention from the players.

One of these missions was found in a hamlet in the corner of the 55th floor. A certain white-bearded village leader NPC would say—

There was a white dragon that lived in the mountains to the west, which ate crystals each day as its food and stocked large quantities of it to create an extremely valuable and rare metal within its stomach.

This was obviously a mission that awarded amazing materials, so a large number of people immediately formed an assault party that would be able to easily defeat the dragon.

—But they didn't get anything. The dragon dropped only a small quantity of Col and some poor quality equipment, which didn't even reimburse the cost of the healing potions and crystals used.

After that, everyone guessed that the metal had only a chance of dropping, therefore many parties spoke to the elder and then defeated the dragon, but still no one found the metal. Within one week, countless white dragons had been killed, but not a single party managed to find the metal. Someone finally suggested that there must be special conditions which must be met, so now everyone was trying hard to find out what those were.

After listening to my explanation, the man named Kirito, who sipped on the tea which I didn't want to make, who sat on my workshop chair with his casually crossed legs, replied 'Ah...' and nodded lightly.

"I've heard about this too. There does seem to be a chance to get rare ingredients. But so far no one has gotten anything right? Would we really get anything if we go now?"

"Amongst all the circulating theories, one of them claims that 'the party must include a blacksmith', because there aren't many blacksmiths who properly trained their combat skills."

"So that's why; actually that does sound kind of right — if that's the case, then we should get going soon."

"......"

I stared angrily at Kirito's face.

"I'm surprised you've managed to live till today with such a lack of common sense. This isn't goblin hunting! We have to form a good party and..."

"But if we do that, then even if the material drops, there's a chance we won't get it right? What floor is that white dragon on?"

"...55th floor."

"Heh— Then I should be fine even by myself; you don't even need to help."

"...Are you insanely strong, or just insanely stupid? Whatever, I don't care, the sight of you crying while teleporting away also sounds pretty interesting."

Kirito simply chuckled, finished his tea without answering, and placed the cup back down on the table.

"I'm ready to leave anytime; what about you, Lisbeth?"

"Ah— Never mind, since you're not going to add an honorific anyway, just call me Liz... the white dragon's mountain isn't very big, so we should be able to return today. Let me just make a few simple preparations."

After opening a console window, I first put on some simple armor over my skirt, then confirmed that my mace was in my inventory and made sure that I had enough potions and crystals.

I closed the window and said ok, then Kirito stood back up. Luckily, there were no customers in sight as we went from the workshop to the shop entrance. I quickly flipped the sign on the door.

I raised my head and looked out; the sunlight passing through was still bright, so there was still quite some time before it gets dark. Whether we retrieve the metal or not — the latter being more likely no matter how I thought about it — I wouldn't want to come back too late.

That being said.

—How did I wind up in this strange situation...

After leaving the store, I walked towards the gate plaza while thinking deeply.

I definitely had a bad impression of the black-dressed man leisurely walking beside me — as it should be. Not only did everything he say make me angry, he was also some arrogant megalomaniac, and most of all, he broke my masterpiece.

But still, I was walking alongside a man whom I just met. We even formed a party and prepared to hunt monsters on another floor; it was just like— like a da...

Arriving at this, I immediately forced a stop to that thought. I had never experienced anything like this until now. Although I was pretty close to several male players, I've always made excuses to avoid going out with them with just two people. I wanted to make sure that the first person I paired up with would be someone I really liked, or so I thought.

But when I came to my senses, I was already with this weird man... How did it end up like this!

Completely oblivious of my inner turmoil, Kirito saw a food vendor near the gate of the plaza and rushed over. By the time he turned around, a huge hot dog was already in his mouth.

"Doo yu van son duu?"

...My inner thoughts were instantly filled with a sense of helplessness and I felt like an idiot for being the only one worrying over it. So I yelled back:

"Yeah!"

The crisp taste of the hot dog — more precisely, a mysterious food that looked like a hot dog — still lingered in my mouth when we reached the rumored hamlet on the 55th floor.

We also didn't have any trouble with the monsters in the field.

Considering that the front line was on the 63rd floor right now, the monsters here were pretty strong. But my level was about 65, and that braggart Kirito should be just as strong, so we went through quite a few battles almost completely unscathed.

The only mistake was that the theme of this floor involved fields of snow and ice—

"Achoo!"

I sneezed loudly as soon as we entered the small village and relaxed. Because all the other floors were in an early summer season, I became too careless. Not only was there a layer of snow on the ground here, but every building still had huge icicles hanging from the roofs.

This bone-chilling winter cold made my entire body shiver like crazy. Kirito, who stood beside me, put on an exasperated expression and said:

"...You didn't bring any other clothes?"

"...No."

Then, the seemingly lightly-dressed Kirito operated his window. A black leather cape materialized, which he placed over my head.

"...Are you alright yourself?"

"It's all a matter of willpower."

Every line this man said gets on my nerves. But the fur-lined cape looked pretty warm, so I couldn't resist it and quickly put it on. I let out a sigh of relief as the cold bite of the wind immediately disappeared.

"Umm... which one do you think is the elder's house?"

As Kirito said this, I looked around the tiny village, and found an especially large house across from the central plaza.

"It should be that one right?"

"Right."

We both nodded and started walking.

—Several minutes later.

As we predicted, we found the white-bearded elder NPC and successfully initiated a conversation. His story was full of useless details that started from his long and boring childhood, into his teenage years, past his difficult days in adulthood, and then abruptly mentioned a white dragon in the mountains to the west. By the time he finally finished, the orange light of the setting sun had already covered the entire village.

We left the village elder's house feeling completely wiped out. The snow that covered the houses were stained orange by the setting sun. It was an image beautiful beyond comparison, yet—

"...I never expected just receiving the quest would waste that much time..."

"Unbelievable... well, what now? Should we wait until tomorrow?"

I turned my head and looked at Kirito.

"Hmmm— I've heard the white dragon is nocturnal though. Is that the mountain?"

Looking towards the direction Kirito pointed at, I saw a white peak reaching into the sky. Although I say that, the structural limitations of Aincrad meant the height couldn't possibly exceed 100 meters, so climbing the mountain shouldn't be difficult.

"Alright, let's go then. I want to see your crying face as soon as possible anyway."

"Just don't become overwhelmed by my magnificent sword skills."

We both turned our faces away from each other with a 'Hmph'. But somehow, how should I put it, even though I was arguing with Kirito, my heart began to feel a little shaky—

I forcibly shook my head to get rid of these stupid thoughts and then began to crunch my way through the snow.

Although the white dragon's mountain looked dangerously steep from far away, we discovered that it was actually very easy to climb.

When I thought about it, many impromptu teams managed to accomplish this without any trouble, so there was no way it could be hard.

Even though it was already evening, which affects the strength of spawned monsters, the strongest that would appear right now were ice skeletons called «Frost Bone». Furthermore, bone-type monsters were no match for my mace. I simply continued to smash them apart with clear crunching sounds.

After walking up the snow-covered roads for several dozen minutes and turning towards the plunging icy cliffs, we had already reached the mountaintop.

The bottom of the next floor was extremely close. Huge columns of broken crystal pillars stood out from the thick layer of snow. The purple light of the setting sun refracted through these columns and scattered into the rainbow colors of the spectrum, painting a scene that can only be portrayed in dreams.

"Whaa...!"

Just as I cheered without restraint and was about to dash over, Kirito grabbed onto my collar to stop me.

"Oi... What are you doing?!"

"Hey, get ready to use the crystals first."

Against his extremely serious expression, I could only meekly nod. I materialized the crystals and then put them into my apron pockets.

"Also, it'll get dangerous from here on out, so it would be best if I continued on alone. Once the white dragon appears, just hide behind that crystal pillar over there and absolutely do not come out."

"...Why? My level is pretty high too! I wanna help too!"

"No!"

Kirito's black pupils stared directly into my eyes. The moment our eyes met, I understood that this person was truly worried for my safety from the bottom of his heart, so I let out a huge sigh and backed off. I didn't say anything and simply nodded lightly.

A smile spread across Kirito's face as he patted my head and said "Alright, let's go." I could only keep on nodding.

It felt like the atmosphere suddenly changed entirely.

After travelling all the way here with Kirito, could it be that my feelings had changed? Or did I get caught up in the mood—? Either way, I completely did not recognize this as a life-threatening encounter.

Over half of my experience came from forging weapons, so I had never entered any merciless battlefields.

But I felt that this person was different. He had a gaze that only one who fought every day in the most dangerous places could have.

I continued to walk with my scrambled emotions before we soon arrived at the center of the peak.

We quickly looked around, but found no sign of the white dragon. However, we saw an area sealed by crystal pillars—

"Wow..."

There was a gigantic cave opening of at least ten meters in diameter. The light reflected off the walls reached down the deep hole, while an impermeable darkness covered even the deeper regions.

"That's really deep..."

Kirito kicked a small chunk of crystal into the hole. The falling crystal glittered briefly before completely disappearing without even a sound.

"Don't fall down."

"As if I would!"

Not long after I replied, a sharp feral screech pierced out from the cave and spread across the entire mountain through the air that was stained blue by the sunset.

"Hide behind there!"

Kirito pointed towards a gigantic crystal pillar nearby and spoke in a commanding tone. I hurriedly followed his instructions while waving exaggeratedly at Kirito's shadow and yelling:

"Hey... The white dragon's attacks are slashes using both claws, freezing breath, and blizzard assault... B-Be careful!"

After quickly adding that last phrase, I saw Kirito, who kept his back towards me pretending to be cool, gave a thumbs-up with his left fist. The space in front of him began to shake, and a huge shape exploded outwards from the hole.

Various large, strangely-shaped polygons appeared in a continuous stream. As those polygons appeared — they began connecting with one another and the identity of the huge shape grew more evident. The shriek that made people quiver uncontrollably resounded once again. Countless shards scattered outwards in every direction before disappearing into the light rays.

A white dragon covered in scale-like shards of ice had appeared. It slowly beat its gigantic wings while hovering in the skies. The situation was frightening — or it could be more appropriately described as extremely beautiful. It stared with large, ruby-colored eyes, casting a contemptuous look down upon the two of us.

Kirito calmly reached his hand towards his back and unsheathed his jet-black one-handed sword with a perfect chime. Then, as if the sound had sent off a signal, the white dragon opened his huge jaw — and with a hardened sound, sprayed out a wave of white gas.

"It's the breath! Get out of the way!"

Even though I screamed, Kirito didn't budge a single inch. He stood perfectly still and thrusted upwards with the sword in his right hand.

There was no way such a thin weapon could block a breath attack—

As soon as I thought this, the sword began to spin like a windmill centered in Kirito's hand. Based on the light green color of the effect, it must be a sword skill. In just a second, the sword reached speeds invisible to the human eye and looked like it had become a shield of light.

The icy breath streamed directly towards the light shield while emitting a dizzying white light, which forced me to avert my eyes. But, when the cold air slammed into Kirito's sword-shield, it dispersed as if it had evaporated.

I quickly focused on Kirito's body to confirm his HP.

Maybe it was impossible to completely block the breath, because his life bar was slowly draining. But the shocking part was, the damage taken was recovering within just a few seconds. This must be the really high level battle skill «Battle Healing» — but to raise this skill, one must sustain enormous amount of battle damage. Considering the current floors, that was impossible to do so without endangering oneself.

Kirito — just who is he...?

Only now did I begin to seriously wonder about the identity of this black swordsman. His absurd power made him seem like a key strategic player. But his name wasn't amongst the list of KoB-dominated top guild players.

At this moment, Kirito, who accurately predicted the end of the icy onslaught, made his move. He burst through the snowy mist and leapt towards the dragon hovering in midair.

Normally, when fighting a flying enemy, one should first attack with a halberd or some sort of throwing weapon; only after long-range weapons knocked the enemy down to ground-level first did the short-ranged weapon users join the fray. But shockingly, Kirito flew upwards until he almost touched the white dragon's head, where he began to initiate consecutive sword combination techniques in midair.

With a sharp ring, Kirito's onslaught pummeled the white dragon's torso at a speed faster than the human eye could follow. Even though the white dragon retaliated with both of its claws, the difference in their capabilities was simply too much.

By the time Kirito slowly descended back down to the ground, the white dragon's HP bar was already down by over a third.

—It was single-handed slaughter. Watching this unbelievable battle made my spine shiver endlessly.

Suddenly the white dragon aimed at the grounded Kirito and blasted its icy breath, but this time he sprinted to dodge the attack and then leapt back up into the air. With a deep and heavy sound, a single powerful attack struck the target, and the white dragon's health dropped significantly.

The HP bar immediately changed from yellow to red, and the battle should conclude with just one or two more attacks. I decided that this time I would honestly praise Kirito's skill and took one step out from behind the crystal pillar.

At that moment, as if he had eyes on the back of his head, Kirito suddenly shouted:

"Idiot! Don't come out yet!"

"What? It's obviously about to finish right? Just hurry up and end it..."

As I replied in a loud voice—

The dragon, flying even higher than before, fully expanded its wings. As its wings beat forward, the snow directly below the dragon went flying with a *bang*.

"......?"

As I stood frozen in shock by the scene before me. Kirito stabbed his sword into the ground several meters in front of me and moved his mouth like he wanted to tell me something, but his profile was immediately blocked by the snow. A moment later an incredible pressure, like a wall of wind, hit and easily blew me into the air.

Crap... The blizzard attack!

As I tumbled across the air, I finally remembered what I myself had just said about the white dragon's attacks. Thankfully, this skill didn't have much attack power, so I took virtually no damage. I spread open both my arms and took a posture for landing.

But as the snow dispersed — there was no ground in the clearing up ahead.

It was the gigantic hole atop the mountain peak. I had been blown into the air directly overhead this huge pit.

My thoughts immediately stopped; my entire body completely froze.

"You've got to be kidding me..."

With my mind completely paralyzed, I could only utter these words, while my right hand reached towards the air in vain—

—A hand covered in only a black-leather glove suddenly grasped my fingers.

My unfocused eyes suddenly sprang open.

...!

Kirito, who had been confronting the white dragon far away, sprinted over here at a frightening speed and leapt into the air without hesitation. He extended his right hand to grab onto mine and then pulled me into his embrace. After that he loosened his right arm to wrap around my back and hugged me tightly.

"Hold on tight!"

As I heard Kirito's voice reverberating beside my ear, I forgot myself and tightly hugged his body with both of my arms. We began to descend only an instant later.

In the center of the cave opening, the two of us fell straight down while holding onto each other. The wind howled in our ears and our coats flailed about wildly.

If this hole extended down to the surface of the floor, then falling from this height meant certain death. This thought suddenly passed through my mind, but I just didn't feel like this was actually happening right now. All I could do was to keep staring dumbly at the disappearing circle of white light.

Suddenly, Kirito's sword-wielding right arm began to move. He raised the sword forcibly and then swung it forward. A flash of light burst out, accompanied by the loud echoing *clang* of metal striking one another.

The strong counterforce changed our fall trajectory, pushing us towards the cave walls. The blue icy walls gradually approached, and I couldn't help but bite down my teeth. We were going to crash—!

Just as we were about to collide with the wall, Kirito raised the sword in his right hand once again and stabbed it into the wall at full power. Fiery sparks exploded outwards as if the weapon had struck a whetstone. The sudden attack slowed our falling speed, but it was unable to completely stop our descent.

The screeching sound of metallic cutting continued as Kirito's sword kept on cutting the wall of ice. I turned my neck to look down and noticed that we could already see the white snow-covered bottom of the cave. I watched it come closer and closer, until there were only a few seconds left before we crashed. I wanted to at least refrain from screaming, so I bit down on my lip and tightly held onto Kirito.

Kirito let go of his sword, used both arms to hold me tightly, and rotated his body so that he was on the bottom. Then—

An impact. A huge sound.

The snowflakes that were blasted into the air by the force of our fall began to land lightly on my cheeks before melting away.

The cold sensation pulled back my scattered thoughts. I opened my eyes, and my gaze met with that of Kirito's black pupils as he laid extremely close to me.

Kirito was still hugging me tightly; he raised the corner of his mouth and smiled weakly.

"...Still alive?"

I nodded back weakly and replied:

"Yeah, still alive."

For several dozen seconds — or maybe several minutes, we simply laid motionlessly in that position. The heat from Kirito's body allowed my entire self to relax and my mind to go completely blank.

After a while, Kirito let go of my arm and slowly stood back up. He first picked up the sword that fell nearby and returned it to his inventory, and then pulled out from his waist pouch a bottle of what was probably a high-class recovery potion, as well as another bottle for me.

"Anyhow, just drink it."

"...Okay."

I nodded and sat up to receive the potion while checking my own HP bar. I still had about one-third left, but Kirito, who had struck the ground directly, was already in the red zone.

I pulled off the cork and gulped down the sweet liquid in one breath, then turned towards Kirito. Remaining in my relaxed posture, I began to move the lips that have such a hard time saying anything nice.

"Ummm... Th-Thank you for saving me..."

Kirito weakly showed his usual sneer and replied:

"It's still too early to thank me."

He quickly glanced towards the sky.

"...Thank god the white dragon didn't chase us, but how are we going to get out of here..."

"Eh...? Can't we just teleport?"

I reached into my apron pocket and pulled out a sparkling blue crystal to show Kirito. But—

"That probably won't work, since this is a trap made especially for players, I doubt we'll be able to get out that easily."

"How could this be...?"

Kirito hinted at me with his eyes to try it out, so I held the crystal tightly and commanded:

"Teleport! Lindus!"

—My shout echoed emptily off the frozen walls before finally disappearing. The crystal simply continued to sparkle silently.

Kirito squeezed my shoulders lightly without making any sound.

"If I thought we could use crystals, then I would have already used it when we were falling. But because this place felt like it would be an anti-crystal zone..."

"..."

I dropped my head in despair; Kirito put his hand on my head with a *pat* and tousled my hair.

"Alright alright, don't cry. If we can't use crystals, then there must be another way out of here."

"...Maybe not, maybe this is an inescapable pit that guarantees death... Or should I say, we're already dead!"

"Hmmm, maybe you're right."

Watching Kirito nod in agreement made me lose all the energy in my body once again.

"What...What kind of attitude is that!? Can't you be a little more positive?"

After I suddenly yelled, Kirito smiled and said:

“That angry expression is much more like you, keep it up!”

“Wha......?”

My cheeks flushed red and my body froze in place. Kirito then lifted his hand from my head and stood back up.

“Well, let's try some things out. Any ideas?”

“...”

I smiled bitterly at Kirito, who was clearly unaffected by the situation we were in and kept up his usual attitude. Feeling a bit more cheerful, I slapped my cheeks with both hands and stood up.

I surveyed my surroundings; the cave's bottom was a flat surface of ice with a hint of snow. The diameter should be about 10 meters just like the cave's opening. The icy walls near the top continued to reflect rays of light from the setting sun, but this place would soon be completely engulfed by darkness.

I looked around, but there was no visible way out on either the walls or the floor. I put both my hands on my waist, ran my brain at full capacity, and told Kirito the first idea that came to mind.

“Mm... Can we ask for help from someone?”

Kirito denied it instantly:

“Uh—— I'm guessing this place is considered a dungeon.”

Players registered as 'friends,' such as Asuna in my case, can communicate through a type of mail called 'private message.' However, that function cannot be used within a dungeon, nor could the 'trace system' be used to locate them.

I opened the message window in blind hope, but as Kirito said, it was unavailable.

“Well... How about we shout at other players who come to hunt the dragon?”

“I think we are about 80 meters away from the apex, so my guess is that our voices won't reach that far.”

“I guess so... Wait! Now you come up with an idea!”

When I retorted at Kirito, upset at him for constantly putting down my ideas, he replied with something preposterous:

“Run up along the wall.”

“......Are you an idiot?”

“Well, let's find out.”

While I stared at him with a dumbstruck expression, Kirito walked up to one side of the cave and started dashing toward the walls on the opposite side with unnatural speed. The snow blew off the floor and a gale of wind smashed into my face. Just as he was about to hit the wall, Kirito crouched and leaped upwards with explosive force. He stepped on the walls at an unbelievable height and then started running diagonally along the wall.

“Oh my god...”

As I watched in awe, Kirito was already far above me and running upwards in a spiral along the walls like one of those ninjas from a third-rate movie. His silhouette got smaller and smaller—

Then, as he was a third of the way up, he suddenly slipped.

“Ahhhhhhhh!!!”

Kirito floundered about as he fell towards my head.

“Kyaaaaa!!!”

As I backed off screaming, a human-shaped hole appeared right where I was standing. A minute later, after Kirito finished his second health potion, I sat down next to him and sighed.

"I kept thinking you were an idiot, but I never even considered that you were this stupid..."

“I would have succeeded if the initial approach was longer.”

“Not a chance.”

I blurted out softly.

Kirito ignored my words and returned the empty potion bottle to his pouch. After stretching his arms, he said:

“Well, it's getting too dark, so let's just camp here. Fortunately, I don't think any monsters spawn in this hole.”

The sun had already set, and the bottom of the hole was getting quite dark.

“I guess so...”

“Well then...”

Kirito opened a window and materialized several things. A camp stove[1], a pot, several small sacks that I couldn't tell what they were for, and two mugs came out.

“...You always carry these around?”

“I tend to camp out in the fields quite often.”

He said it with such a serious expression that I don't think he was joking.

He clicked on the stove; it lit with a *fwoosh* and illuminated the place with a soft orange glow. Kirito put a pot over the stove, then tossed in a few chunks of snow before pouring in the contents of those small sacks. He closed the pot with a lid and doubled clicked it; a timer window for cooking then popped up.

Soon I began to smell a herbal aroma. Now that I thought about it, I hadn't eaten anything since that hot dog in the morning. My stomach suddenly demanded food loudly as if it just remembered that it was starving.

The cooking timer disappeared with a *pin pon*, and then Kirito split the contents of the pot into two mugs.

“Don't expect too much, my cooking proficiency is zero.”

“Thank you...”

The warmth transferred to my hands through the mug that Kirito handed to me. It was a simple soup of dried meat and herbs, but the ingredients' item levels seemed to be high and it was more than delicious. The heat also spread throughout my cold body.

“What a mysterious feeling this is... I don't feel like this is real.”

I mumbled as I drank the soup.

“I mean this situation, camping in an unexplored area and having a meal with a stranger...”

“Ah, I guess so... since you are an artisan. I make PuGs[2] with random players and camp with them quite often.”

“Hmm, really? ...Tell me some more, about the dungeons and everything.”

“Huh? Mm...okay. I don't think it's that interesting though... oh wait, before I start......”

Kirito collected the empty mugs and pot, and returned them to his inventory. He opened the panel again and materialized what looked like two rolled up chunks of cloth.

After he unfolded them, they revealed themselves to be sleeping bags. They looked similar to their real world equivalents, only significantly larger.

“These are high-end items. Perfect heat preservation, plus a hiding effect against aggressive monsters.”

He tossed me one as he smiled. When I laid it on the snow, it looked like it could fit three people of my size. Dumbfounded by the size of it, I spoke to Kirito:

“It's remarkable that you bring these things everywhere, and especially two of them......”

“Well, I should utilize my inventory space for something.”

Kirito quickly unequipped himself and laid down in the sleeping bag on the left. I also unequipped my cloak and mace, and rolled into the sleeping bag. It was a high-end item all right; the inside was very warm, and a lot fluffier than it looked. We were a meter apart with the stove in between us. But I was still feeling a little... embarrassed, so I spoke again to get rid of the silence:

“Mm...yeah, go on with the story...”

“Oh, sure...”

Kirito slowly started talking after he laid his head on his hands.

He told me about the time when he got trapped by MPK —— criminals who purposely gathered mobs to ambush other players —— in a dungeon. And a story of fighting a boss mob with low damage but an obscene amount of health for two full days by taking turns to sleep with other players. There was also the time he rolled dice with 100 other players for a rare item. All of his stories were thrilling, delightful, and somewhat humorous. His stories also made one thing obvious—— he was one of the Clearers, those who risk their lives on the frontline. But that also meant this person was burdened with the fates of thousands of players. He wasn't the type of person who should risk his life just to save me.

I turned toward Kirito and looked at his face. His black eyes were reflecting the light from the stove.

“Hey... Kirito, can I ask you something...?”

“—Why so serious all of a sudden?”

“Why did you save me at that moment...? There was no guarantee that you would have succeeded. Well, it was more likely that you were just going to die with me, so... Why......?”

Kirito's expression hardened for a second, but he immediately relaxed to his usual face and responded with a calm voice:

“...I would rather die alongside them than watch someone else die without doing anything. Especially if that someone is a girl like you, Liz.”

“...You really are an idiot. You are probably the only one who would say such a thing.”

Although I retorted sarcastically, my eyes couldn't help but weep. A part of my heart ached, and I tried my hardest to control and hide it. I haven't heard such stubborn, upright, and warm words since I came to this world. No, I haven't heard such words even before in the real world.

The painful feelings of loneliness and wanting to interact with others more that had been buried deep within a corner of my heart suddenly flared and engulfed me like a tempest. I wanted Kirito's warmth close enough for my heart to feel—

Without realizing it, the words spilled forth from my mouth:

“Would you... hold my hand?”

I turned towards Kirito, pulled my right arm out of the sleeping bag, and reached towards my left.

Kirito's eyes widened slightly, but he answered 'Yes' in a small voice and held out his left hand. When our fingers touched, we both jerked our hands away for a second, but then reached in again to grasp our hands together.

I held onto Kirito's hand tightly, which was a lot warmer than the soup that I just ate. Although the back of my hand was still laying on the ice, I didn't feel any coldness. I felt human warmth. I felt like I had finally figured out what the longing was that had settled in a corner of my heart ever since I came to this world.

Because I was afraid of becoming aware of the fact that this world was an illusion— that my real body was somewhere far away, unreachable no matter how hard I tried, I continued to set goals for myself and focused everything on my job. I convinced myself that leveling up my blacksmithing skills and expanding my store was my reality.

But some part of me always knew that this was all a fake, nothing more than simple data. What I starved for was true human warmth.

Of course, Kirito's body was also data. The warmth that I feel now were just electric signals for my brain to react to. But I finally realized that it didn't matter. I could feel his heart —— whether in the real world or in this simulated world, this was the only truth.

As I held Kirito's hand firmly, I smiled and closed my eyes. Although my heart was beating faster than ever, sleep came to me regrettably quick and dragged my consciousness into the pleasant darkness.