Silica stared anxiously at the bushes, but she could not see anyone. After a few tense seconds, the leaves suddenly stirred, and a player cursor popped into view. Its color was green, not that of a criminal.
But the figure who appeared at the far end of the short bridge was, to her surprise, someone Silica knew.
Flame-red hair. Lips just as vividly red. Glossy black enameled leather armor. In one hand, she held a slender crossgun.
"Mi... Miss Rosalia...? Why are you here...?"
Rosalia did not answer Silica's stunned question. She simply lifted one corner of her mouth in a smile.
"To see through my hiding like that, your Search skill level must be quite high. Looks like I underestimated you."
Only then did she finally turn her gaze toward Silica.
"Judging by the look of you, you managed to get the Pneuma Flower. Congratulations, Silica."
Unable to grasp Rosalia's true intentions, Silica took several steps back. An indescribable sense of dread rose inside her, and her instincts were not wrong. A second later, Rosalia said something that left her speechless.
"Well then, hurry up and hand over that flower."
"Wh... what are you talking about...?"
Yurnero, who had remained silent until now, stepped forward and spoke slowly.
"The Pneuma Flower may be a rare item, but very few Beastmasters can actually use it, so it isn't worth that much. You couldn't even sniff that out? You're not even fit to be called a dog. I thought the guild leader of a criminal Guild with a grand name like Titan's Hand would be a little sharper."
Rosalia raised an eyebrow, and the smile vanished from her lips. Silica, struck by yet another wave of shock, stared blankly up at Yurnero.
"Huh...? But... Miss Rosalia is green..."
"Even in an orange Guild, there are plenty of cases where not every member has a criminal-colored cursor. Green members pick targets in town, blend into their parties, and then lead them into ambushes. The one who eavesdropped on us last night was one of yours too, wasn't it?"
"H-how... how could...?"
Silica stared at Rosalia's face in disbelief.
"Then... does that mean the reason you joined that party for the past two weeks was..."
Rosalia's poisonous smile returned.
"That's right. I was assessing that party's combat strength while waiting for them to earn a nice pile of money during their adventures and turn into fat prey. I was planning to make a big haul today too."
She stared at Silica's face and lightly licked her lips.
"But the prey I was looking forward to most, meaning you, ran off. I was wondering what to do about it, and then it turned out you were going after a rare item."
She paused, shifted her gaze to Yurnero, and shrugged.
"But you, mister. You knew all this and still went along with that kid like it was nothing. Are you stupid? Or did she really seduce you with her body? That flat little figure of hers has no value at all. Or are you just into that kind of thing?"
Rosalia's insult filled Silica with such rage that her vision almost turned red. Just as she moved her arm to draw her dagger, someone gripped her shoulder firmly.
"Rosalia, I've been looking for you too."
Yurnero pulled out a cigarette and placed it between his lips.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Ten days ago, you attacked the Silver Flags Guild on the 38th Floor. Seven members were killed. Only the guild leader managed to escape."
"...Ah, those poor losers."
Rosalia nodded without the slightest interest.
"The man who used to be their guild leader spent every day from morning to night at the Teleport Gate plaza on the front lines, crying as he searched for someone who would avenge them. It even became news on the front lines for a while. Eventually, an information broker took notice of him, and the request finally made its way to me."
There was a trace of boredom in Yurnero's voice.
"Still, that man seems to have kept at least one last shred of reason. He didn't ask me, the one who accepted the commission, to kill you. He only asked that you be locked up in the prison beneath the Black Iron Palace."
Hearing that, Rosalia raised an eyebrow and answered with a look of irritation.
"What? Why are you taking it so seriously like an idiot? Even if we kill someone here, there's no proof that the person really died because of it. That means there's no way we'd be treated as criminals after returning to the real world. Besides, we don't even know if we can go back at all. Justice, law, all that nonsense. Don't make me laugh. I hate people like that. The ones who drag their strange principles into this world."
A brutal light gleamed in her eyes.
"So you took that guild leader, who didn't even manage to die, at his word and kept looking for us? You must have a lot of free time. Or did you think I couldn't do anything on my own...?"
"You're mistaken. There was only one reason I accepted that commission. For once, it gave me a clear target to hunt down. But looking at you now, you're still just second-rate trash."
Yurnero looked at Rosalia for a long moment, his expression faintly disappointed.
She abruptly fell silent and began searching the area with an uneasy expression.
"Don't tell me you have accomplices hiding here too...?"
"No. It's only me and this child."
At those words, Rosalia's smile turned knowing as she raised one hand.
Suddenly, the bushes on both sides of the road leading to the opposite bank shook violently. One figure after another rushed out. Several cursors appeared in Silica's field of vision in rapid succession, almost all of them a hateful orange. There were ten in total. Among that sea of orange, only one person had a green cursor. With that needle-like spiky hairstyle, it had to be the man she had glimpsed in the inn hallway last night.
The ten newly appeared bandits were all male players covered in silver accessories and extra equipment, dressed in flashy gear from head to toe. Malicious smiles hung on their faces, and their eyes crawled over Silica's body.
Overcome with disgust, Silica hid in the shadow of Yurnero's cloak.
"Yu, Yurnero-san... there are too many of them. We have to run...!"
"Hmm. There are a lot."
His calm voice answered, and then he started walking toward the bridge. Silica stood frozen in place. No matter how she looked at it, this was far too reckless, so she shouted again.
"Yurnero-san...!"
The instant her cry echoed through the training area...
"Yurnero...?"
One of the bandits suddenly muttered to himself. His smile vanished, and his brow furrowed deeply. As if something had been triggered, his gaze wandered over the player approaching step by step, searching through his memories.
Casual clothing. No visible weapon. Except for that familiar, slender and elegant black curved sword, like a katana.
Scattered fragments of memory slowly connected with that nickname, piecing together into recognition.
In that instant, his face went pale, and he instinctively took several steps back.
"Boss! This guy... could he be the former Vice Commander of the Divine Dragons Alliance, the one who caused all that uproar a year ago?!"
At the man's words, the other members' expressions stiffened. Silica was just as stunned, staring blankly at the not especially tall figure standing in front of her.
From the battles so far, she could tell that he was a very high-level player.
But Silica had never dreamed that he had once been the Vice Commander of the Divine Dragons Alliance, a famous member of the assault team that kept challenging unexplored labyrinths on the front lines and defeating boss one after another.
She had heard that they poured all their energy into clearing SAO and almost never came down to the middle floors.
After standing speechless for a few seconds, Rosalia seemed to snap back to herself and shouted.
"There's no way someone from the assault team would be wandering around a place like this!"
"N-no, that's not it... I heard he was expelled from the assault team on their own initiative. He once fought another player on the 36th Floor and killed him, right in front of almost the entire assault team."
The man spoke nervously.
"He's already a wandering red player himself!"
"If he's no longer in the first group, then there's nothing to fear!"
"B-but... it wasn't just that he became a red player. In that incident..."
Before he could finish, the agitated Loriasha cut him off.
"What are you afraid of? He's just someone who got washed out of the front lines. We have this many people. Are you saying we can't handle one man?!"
As if carried along by the force of her words, a tall two-handed swordsman standing at the front of the orange players shouted as well.
"R-right! And since he used to be in the assault team, he's got to have a lot of money and items! This is one seriously fat catch!"
Amid their voices of agreement, the bandits drew their weapons all at once. Countless blades flashed with a vicious gleam.
"Yurnero-san, run! Hurry up and run!"
Silica clutched the crystal tightly and screamed with all her strength. Just as Rosalia had said, no matter how strong Yurnero was, there was no way he could win against this many opponents. Yet Yurnero did not move. He did not even seem inclined to draw his weapon.
Taking his stillness as surrender, the nine men, excluding Rosalia and the green player, raised their weapons, bared savage grins, and charged forward. Their footsteps clattered across the short bridge.
"Oooooh!"
"Die!"
They surrounded Yurnero, who remained standing in place, in a semicircle and brought their swords and spears down on him one after another. Nine slashes struck him at once, making his body sway from side to side.
"Stop it!"
Silica covered her face with both hands and screamed.
"Please! Stop! Yurnero-san will... he'll die!"
But the men did not listen.
"Ahahahaha!"
"Hey! Damn it!"
They were drunk on violence. Some laughed loudly, others cursed without stopping, all while hacking at Yurnero with their weapons. Rosalia stood near the middle of the bridge, an uncontrollable look of delight on her face as she licked the fingers of her right hand and watched the cruel spectacle unfold.
Silica wiped away her tears and gripped the hilt of her short sword. She knew that even if she rushed in, she would not be able to help much. But she could not bear to stand there and watch any longer.
Just as she took a step toward them, she noticed something and froze.
Yurnero's HP bar had not gone down at all.
No, to be precise, the constant attacks were shaving it away little by little. But after a few seconds, it would rapidly recover all the way back to the right edge.
Before long, the men began to realize that the vagrant in front of them showed no sign of falling, and confusion spread across their faces.
"What are you doing?! Hurry up and kill him!"
At Rosalia's impatient order, the rain of slashes continued for several more seconds, but nothing changed.
"Hey... hey, what the hell is with this guy?!"
One of them stopped swinging and staggered back several steps, his face twisting as if he had seen a monster. His reaction made the other eight stop attacking as well, and they all pulled away.
Silence settled over the area.
The man standing at the center slowly raised his head and spoke in a voice filled with absolute disappointment.
"Roughly 400 every ten seconds. That is the total damage the nine of you can deal to me. My level is 83. My HP is 15,790. On top of that, my Battle Healing skill automatically restores 600 HP every ten seconds."
The men stood frozen, mouths hanging open in shock. After a while, the two-handed swordsman who seemed to be the deputy leader spoke in a hoarse voice.
"No way... no way that's possible... That's way too ridiculous..."
"If enough pieces of trash could surround a target and wear them down, this game would have been cleared a long time ago."
Yurnero smiled coldly and spat the words out.
"And it seems one of you knows what I did in the past. Then do you understand why, even though the fact that I'm a criminal is out in the open, no one has stepped forward to accuse me?"
"No one can control me."
As if crushed by the emotion barely held back in that voice, the men began to retreat. Their expressions shifted from shock to fear.
"Tch!"
Rosalia suddenly clicked her tongue, then pulled a Teleportation Crystal from her waist, raised it into the air, and shouted.
"Teleport!"
But before she could finish speaking, there was a faint sound like air being split. In the next instant, Yurnero was already standing in front of her.
"Wh...?"
Yurnero gently took the crystal from Rosalia's frozen hand. Then he grabbed her by the collar and dragged her to this side of the bridge.
"L-let go of me! You bastard, what are you trying to do?!"
Still without saying a word, Yurnero threw Rosalia behind him.
Only then did she realize that nearly all of her companions were missing limbs. They writhed on the bridge, howling in terror. Just a second ago, they had been whole. She had not even seen him attack.
Yurnero reached into the pouch at his waist and took out a blue crystal, its color darker than a Teleportation Crystal.
"This is a Corridor Crystal bought with the entire fortune of the man who entrusted me with this request. Its exit is set to the prison area of the Black Iron Palace. All of you will pass through it and teleport there. After that, the Liberation Army will take care of you."
Still sitting on the ground, Rosalia bit her lip. After several seconds of silence, a defiant smile appeared on her red lips.
"And if I say no?"
"Then die."
That brief answer froze her smile in place.
"At the core, I'm just like you. A red player. Did you forget?"
Yurnero pulled the pitch-black curved sword from behind his cloak and sneered.
No one dared to act tough anymore. Seeing that everyone had lowered their heads in silence, he spoke.
"Corridor, open."
The crystal shattered instantly, and a vortex of blue light appeared in the space ahead.
"Bastard..."
The first to jump in was the dejected, towering two-handed swordsman. The other orange players vanished into the light one by one, some cursing, others silent. The green player who had been responsible for eavesdropping followed after them. In the end, only Rosalia remained.
Even after all her companions had disappeared into the corridor, the red-haired female bandit stubbornly refused to move. She sat cross-legged on the ground, glaring up at him defiantly.
"...Go ahead and try, then. You used to be a red player, so you must have gone through the trouble of completing an atonement quest to turn green again. But an atonement quest can only be done once! If you dare touch me now, you won't get another..."
Rosalia had only spoken halfway when her hand had already left her body.
"..."
The woman stared at him in disbelief.
"Strength, nerve, scheming... You aren't even qualified to be his dog. In that case, there's nothing left to ask you."
"Wait, stop! Stop it! Please! Forgive me! How about this... why don't you form a party with me? You can do anything you want to me!"
She never finished. Her other hand was cut off in an instant. Even though there was no pain, she still screamed desperately. In the end, even her legs were removed, leaving only her torso.
Yurnero threw Rosalia headfirst into the corridor. Once her figure disappeared, the corridor gave off a blinding light and vanished as well.
Silence returned to the surroundings.
Birdsong and the murmur of the stream drifted across the spring meadow. The uproar from only a few minutes earlier felt like a lie, and the peaceful, sunlit scenery returned.
But Silica still could not move. Shock at Yurnero's true nature, a faint trace of fear, relief now that the criminals were gone. So many emotions rose in her chest at once that she could not even speak.
Yurnero tilted his head and silently watched the frozen Silica for a while before finally speaking softly.
"Silica, this is what I meant by mutual benefit. I used you as bait. I did think about telling you, but I was afraid you would be scared, so I didn't mention it."
Silica could only shake her head desperately. Countless emotions swirled inside her like a vortex.
"Let's go back to town. This is over."
Yurnero said that and began to walk away. Only then did Silica manage to call out to his back.
"Um... my legs... I can't move them."
"..."
...
On the way back to the Weathercock Pavilion on the 35th Floor, the two of them barely said a word. Silica had so much she wanted to say, but her throat felt as if it were blocked by a small stone, and nothing would come out.
By the time they reached the second floor and entered the room, the red glow of sunset was already pouring in through the window. Only then did Silica finally speak in a trembling voice to Yurnero, who stood in that light like a black silhouette.
"Yurnero-san... are you leaving...?"
"Of course. I still haven't found him."
"..."
"I... I..."
Silica stood there, biting her lip hard as she desperately held back the emotions about to spill over. Those feelings turned into two streams of tears, sliding endlessly down her cheeks.
"Level is just a number. Strength in this world is nothing more than an illusion. There are things more important than that, aren't there?"
"Okay..."
Silica stepped back and looked up at Yurnero's face.
"Bring Pina back."
"Okay!"
Silica nodded, waved her left hand to call up the main window, and scrolled through her item list to materialize Pina's Heart.
She placed the aqua-blue feather that rose from the surface of the window onto the round tea table, then summoned the Pneuma Flower as well.
After taking the pearly glowing flower in her hand, she closed the window.
"Sprinkle the dew stored inside the flower onto the feather. That will bring Pina back."
"I understand..."
Looking at the long aqua-blue feather, Silica whispered in her heart.
Pina... I have so much, so much to tell you.
Tears welled in her eyes as Silica gently tilted the flower in her right hand over the feather.