While Akimi and Asuna were leisurely enjoying their afternoon tea, Kirito, on the other hand, ran into a bit of trouble—
Since it was such a sunny day with a gentle breeze, even the raid maniac Kirito decided to take the day off and use the chance to get his equipment—whose durability was nearly gone—properly maintained.
When he arrived on the 27th Floor and found a suitable blacksmith player, just as he handed over his weapons and armor, a figure suddenly darted up to him, grabbed his cheeks, and started kneading them.
Without a doubt, it was Argo.
"Well, well, Kiri-bou, been avoiding me on purpose, huh?" Argo grinned wickedly.
"Finally caught you today—don't expect me to be nice about it."
Ever since the last time Kirito faked his death, he hadn't contacted Argo once.
Even when he needed information, he would have Akimi buy it for him, and during boss raids, he'd make sure to avoid her entirely.
Naturally, this had annoyed Argo for days.
She first tried to coax Kirito's location out of Akimi—but that iron-willed guy would never betray a brother… well, truthfully, it was mostly because Kirito had paid him too much already, so selling him out would've felt wrong.
Of course, with Argo's information network, finding Kirito would've taken at most two days.
But buying the info from Akimi would've been faster, so she decided to ask the price—
The moment she saw Akimi hold up five fingers, her patience snapped, and she shouted in frustration, "Are you robbing me?! That's way too expensive!"
But Akimi was no pushover.
Raising an eyebrow, he replied with a tone that was three parts annoyed, three parts irritated, and four parts impatient:
"How is that expensive? That's the same price Kirito's been paying all along, don't just open your eyes and spout nonsense! Keeping secrets is hard, okay? And I, Akimi, am not the kind of guy who'd casually sell out a brother. Kirito is my dearest friend, my sworn brother!
Sometimes you need to look at yourself—have you even been selling the info? Have you really been trying to pitch it? Kirito's been paying this price for ages—I'm seriously losing my mind here…"
Just as he was about to launch into his final monologue, Asuna clapped a hand over his mouth, and with a slightly apologetic smile said to Argo, "Sorry, Kirito specifically asked us to let him be alone for a while…"
After flipping Akimi the middle finger, Argo smirked and said, "Fine, I'll let it slide for your sake, Asu-chan… but tell Kiri-bou this—two weeks, max. I'm only giving him two weeks."
Then she turned and left without looking back.
Once Argo was gone, Asuna immediately threw Akimi to the ground with a clean over-the-shoulder throw, then said flatly, "Talk like a normal person, OK?"
Akimi, naturally, chose the path of least resistance and nodded furiously in agreement.
Now, more than half a month later, Kirito, who had treated Argo's warning like it went in one ear and out the other, was finally caught red-handed.
"Ugh—mmph—"
Kirito, having his face relentlessly mauled, was at a loss for words.
After struggling for quite a while, he finally blurted out, "Argo—let go of me first!"
But Argo didn't care in the slightest—her hands kept rubbing and twisting his cheeks, as if determined to release every ounce of pent-up frustration from the past weeks.
Honestly, if it were only Argo, Kirito wouldn't have considered it a real problem—he just needed to wait for her to finish venting… unfortunately, before he could resolve the Argo situation, an even bigger problem arrived.
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After more than half a month of Keita's patient and persistent persuasion, Sachi finally agreed to step outside the inn.
However, she still refused to speak to Ducker and the others, and stubbornly insisted that Keita not follow her.
Even after Kirito's "death," Sachi had kept the shared inventory that she and Kirito once used.
From time to time, she would gaze at the various items Kirito had prepared inside it, lost in thought, her expression tinged with hesitation.
On the seventeenth day after Kirito's departure, Sachi finally made up her mind—she removed the "One-Handed Sword with Shield" skill from her skill slot and replaced it with "Cooking."
Her goal for going out this time was to look for ingredients with a spicy flavor—and as for why spicy… well, most likely because Kirito liked spicy food.
After learning that there was an ingredient called "rock pepper" on the 27th Floor, Sachi went straight there via the teleport gate.
What happened next was obvious—while Kirito was in the middle of bickering with Argo, he ran into Sachi, who had come to buy rock pepper.
And by "ran into," it was a literal face-to-face collision—because, for some unknown reason, Kirito tripped.
As a result, Kirito, along with Argo, ended up falling in front of Sachi in a rather compromising position…
When Sachi saw Kirito, Kirito also saw her.
And then, once Argo—her face flushed red—scrambled off of Kirito, she too saw Sachi.
And so, all three of them froze in place.
"Um…" ×3
All three spoke at once, then stopped at once.
In the end, it was Kirito who slowly stood up and said, "…Sachi… do you need me to explain?"
But Sachi didn't answer.
She simply stood there, wearing the exact same sorrowful expression she'd had back under the bridge, tears gradually welling up in her eyes.
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