Chapter Eighty-Four: A Pause in the Advance-The Roaming Homebody(Just a lolicon.)

As the others were discussing the simple intelligence they had obtained after locating the boss chamber, preparing to analyze the boss’s attributes, attack patterns, and any unusual traits from their separate reports, an untimely sound drifted in.

A vein popped on Asuna’s forehead as she presided over the meeting as vice-captain of the Blood Alliance. The others immediately decided that self-preservation was the wiser course; everyone, including the members of the Blue Lance guild, stepped back half a pace with expressions that plainly said, “We’re just here to stand around, do as you please.”

And in the center of the stone chamber, someone who had been curled up asleep was finally exposed.

“Blue Lance—”

The voice was not loud, but the drawn-out cadence made the speaker’s foul mood perfectly clear.

“Ah... is it over?”

Like a cat just waking from a midday nap, Blue Lance stretched and rubbed his eyes. His clothes had become slightly disheveled. That complete lack of any self-consciousness as a pretend girl caused more than a few lonely hearts in the crowd to swallow hard.

But the newly awakened fellow looked at the clearly parted crowd and assumed the discussion had ended and everyone was about to disperse. Naturally, he stood up and beckoned to several guild members still trembling behind him, signaling for them to follow. Yet the several of them kept sneaking looks at Asuna, trying in vain to warn Blue Lance with their eyes. He paid them no heed, wasting all their good intentions.

Ever since that previous time, Blue Lance had worn that iconic coat only during raids and not otherwise. After all, he really did worry that if he kept wearing it he might end up in the anti-romance brigade and never get out. But because of that, something rather strange had happened.

Basic details such as names and health bars could be seen at a glance, and gender was supposed to be part of those basic details. Unfortunately, Kayaba Akihiko never imagined there would be someone like Blue Lance.

At least, according to the information he had collected, everyone else possessed plainly visible traits. But Blue Lance had obtained the game through something akin to the will of the cosmos itself, and Kayaba Akihiko had been thoroughly played. A game supposedly capable of recreating another world had, because it lacked the attribute called gender, produced the one and only discordant element.

Countless innocent guild members, unwilling to ask him directly because of Blue Lance’s lingering authority, had tacitly placed Blue Lance in the role of “queen” rather than “big brother.” A few old members had known Blue Lance since the first floor, but in order to enjoy the spectacle they had not stepped forward to clarify anything. As for Blue Lance, he had been kept entirely in the dark.

Led by what they believed to be their queen, the group marched out in a great bustle. The meeting had already nearly concluded, and Asuna, seeing that one person still looked half-asleep, could only cover her face in helpless exasperation.

At least Blue Lance had not forgotten his task. Before leaving, he glanced back and asked, “Same as always, right? Just send the simplified map straight to my mailbox. I’ll study the tactics for tomorrow’s raid.”

Though he was not a commander like Lancelot or Gawain, the way Blue Lance handled his team’s operations was undoubtedly better suited to the current standard: fewer people, clearly defined targets, and intelligence already confirmed. For small-scale battles like this, his handling surpassed even Gawain, who was famed for tactics.

The raid group itself was divided into two basic teams: attackers and defenders. The commander had to possess enough authority to direct everyone. The leader of the defense team was unquestionably that certain man who embodied Kayaba Akihiko, and only their first guild had the strength in this game, where shield skills granted no special bonus, to deliberately organize players into learning shield use. Ordinary players usually only needed to block with their weapons.

As for the attack team, the original commander should have been the raid’s top damage dealer, the black-clad swordsman. But Kirito did not always join every raid, and so command had gradually passed to Blue Lance. As the head of a large frontline guild, and possessing sustained damage output no less impressive than Kirito’s, along with even stronger burst damage, he had naturally become the commander.

Asuna could only snort in response as Blue Lance waved from afar and left. Since he had not forgotten his work and had already departed the scene of trouble, she could not keep venting her anger. So she shouted to the scouts in front, “List every map detail and every characteristic of the boss. Not a single omission!” Her tone was unmistakably sharp, as though issuing an order.

The several people were members of smaller guilds rather than direct Blood Alliance personnel, but seeing the one with nowhere to release her anger, they all wisely decided not to touch the live wire. Besides, who could remain unmoved by a beauty known as the Flashing Asuna? They did not want to ruin their image in the goddess’s eyes. After all, she was still unattached, and who knew whether they might yet have a chance? So they could only keep their heads down and work diligently, at most exchanging information with one another in order to produce a more accurate map and more precise intelligence.

And what of the one who had lit the powder keg?

On the clock tower, Blue Lance stretched languidly, and when he opened his eyes he was startled by what he saw before him.

After leaving, he had told the others to return to their homes and families, then found a place that resembled a clock tower and climbed up alone.

“If Kirito’s intelligence was correct, today should be the single best weather day in the entire game.” Blue Lance murmured as he watched the white clouds drifting across the sky. “Well, never mind. Even if Kirito comes out to rest today, he’ll probably be with Sachi. As for Asuna, forget it. Let fate decide.”

He once again praised his own foresight in having tied Kirito down. At least in the worlds of the Sword Art game and the fairy game, that fellow remained fairly single-minded.

Watching the endlessly changing clouds, Blue Lance truly began to treat this place as the real world. Yet the hollow sensation within his body, and the vanished aura of the divine demon within his right arm, reminded him again that this was only a false world. Slowly, he recalled everything that had happened since meeting Lotus.

After thinking for a long while, Blue Lance gradually drifted into sleep.

When he woke again, Asuna stood before him beside the railing in full battle attire.

Just as Blue Lance was about to greet her—

A gentle breeze passed by, lifting the red hem of Asuna’s skirt.

White...

That was Blue Lance’s final thought before he felt a heavy blow to the head.

One hour later—

“Where am I?” Blue Lance sat up, rubbing his head.

“Ah, Blue Lance, you’re awake.” Asuna, who had been facing away from him, turned at once and spoke to him, though a blush had already risen across her cheeks.

“Oh, it’s you.”

Then he immediately fell silent.

Though he had been struck hard, Blue Lance had not forgotten what had happened before. Looking at Asuna’s faintly flushed cheeks, he decisively chose to play dumb. Otherwise, there was no telling whether he might suffer another attack.

“By the way, what time is it now? After leaving, I came here to sleep. I only just woke up.”

After confirming repeatedly that Blue Lance’s expression had not changed at all, Asuna silently comforted herself: that blow must have made the newly awakened Blue Lance forget everything.

“About eleven in the morning,” she said. Then, as if deliberately covering something up, she added, “Oh, I have some extra food here. Do you want it?”

Blue Lance never refused free things and took it at once. Besides, he had indeed been struck by a heavy blow, so this counted as compensation.

“Not bad. This sandwich doesn’t have quite the same feeling as the real thing, but it’s still pretty good. At least that familiar cheese flavor is just...”

Blue Lance dug up every word he could find in his mind, trying to divert her attention. But his wild stream of chatter clearly failed to interest anyone.

Fortunately, the other party also seemed intent on shifting the subject, and after a few replies the conversation wandered here and there before finally circling back to the question Asuna cared about most.

“By the way, Blue Lance, why were you sleeping here?”

Seeing Asuna’s face full of curiosity, Blue Lance shamelessly stole Kirito’s hard-won labor and passed it off as his own.

After learning that today was in fact the best-weather day, Asuna also sat down.

“Do you really want to clear this game that badly? To actually spend time gathering this kind of intelligence.”

“Would you mind if I rested for a while too?” Even a strong woman like Asuna could not withstand the sheer number of matters that had accumulated as the floors rose over these past days. At that moment, she too wanted to be lazy for a while.

“Whatever you like.”

Blue Lance did not care. Still, to complete his wicked little plan, he lay down first. A little later, the sound of even breathing could be heard.

Seeing that Blue Lance had fallen asleep, Asuna finally relaxed and found a place beside him to lie down.

Fifteen minutes later—

“Mm... collecting little trinkets every now and then really is useful.”

With that, he placed a cat-ear accessory on Asuna’s head. Because these things were not equipment, there was no need to manipulate them through someone else’s status window; they could be used directly. And perhaps because it was a game, the headband disappeared once worn, leaving the two cat ears seeming to exist naturally, twitching lightly with Asuna’s breathing.

There were cat tails and cat paws and all sorts of things too, but if he did that, he would definitely wake her, so he could only give up in regret. Yet watching the former iron-blooded career woman now wearing the smile of a child, Blue Lance could not help but smile as well.

As time passed, Asuna slowly awakened. At first, still drowsy, she kept rubbing her eyes, and the cat ears atop her head moved slightly with her motions. Soon, however, she was fully awake—and at that moment she heard someone singing nearby.

Vines and morning glories long since bloomed upon the walls,
Swaying in the wind as they bid farewell to the lean horse fading in the sunset,
The shadow of an aged blade dissolves and swells in the rosy light,
And circling through the night sky are crows.

The heroes of fairy tales, in the wind of the real world,
After the devil is vanquished, who will sing my praise?
The knight’s spear grows heavy; that old rose-red hue,
Has it already blurred in the princess’s heart?

A coat long faded, a miracle no longer performed,
Who still cares for storm and rain beneath the clouds?
How urgent must the cleansing be?
The once-flashy scenes of youth have slowly withered away with the wind.

Who still remembers those shadows faded to the very limit?
The departed scene was the stirring spectacle of trampling banners,
The demon dragon shrieking beneath my feet,
Golden champagne,
A blazing radiance carving a heavy name into the tale.

All the people of the world are calling for my miracle,
I kneel on one knee and solemnly swear, taking the princess’s name as my surname.
Such glory, to this day, is called madness.

====

A vulture crossed the forest and landed in the barren grassland,
Ravenously devouring the rotting corpse.
The earth sank under the dying sun, the stream almost dry,
And through the slit of my fingers I squint at the moonlit haze.

An unkempt beard, a biting autumn wind slicing the body,
The knight’s silhouette cast a lonely pall over the dense forest,
Too silent, and yet impossible to see clearly.

A gray sky hangs over the knight’s slender back,
The emaciated warhorse droops its eyelids, its ribs sharp and stark,
The north wind rises again, scattering dead leaves by the knight’s ear,
A cold spear clenched in whose palm?
Who is it that wanders in exile?

Year after year, day after day, the sun rises each morning,
Yearning for the lush sorghum fields of home.
Every breath seems as weak as the hoofbeats of an exhausted horse,
And the silhouette stretches westward, step by step.

Children at play mock the beggar,
While in the ocean at the horizon, the waves crash with fervor.
The rings of time keep growing; the years left are fewer and fewer,
Where can drifting clouds, vague and far, possibly come to rest?

An unkempt beard, a biting autumn wind slicing the body,
The knight’s silhouette cast a lonely pall over the dense forest,
Too silent, and yet impossible to see clearly.

Asuna watched the figure standing atop the clock tower sing in silence, and suddenly felt that she might be very fortunate. Who else could see this man, who always wore a smile at the corner of his mouth, so quietly sorrowful? Usually he seemed like a shameless old rogue; in battle he was like a true warrior. Yet now, he was like a lonely wolf silently licking his wounds beneath the full moon.

“Oh, you’re awake.”

Just as Asuna was lost in thought, the singing suddenly stopped, and what met her was that same shameless smile.

Though her thoughts were in turmoil, she still answered as she always did.

Well then, that four-thousand-word thing—I’ll count it as two updates. Tomorrow is a good friend’s twentieth birthday, so I probably won’t make it back... First there’s a formal dinner with his family, and then the rest of us are going out for a late-night meal or something. You know how it is: those dishes are delicious, but they never fill you up... So, sorry about that.