Sword Art Online 20: Moon Cradle, V20 by Reki Kawahara and abec

Author:Reki Kawahara and abec [Reki Kawahara and abec]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Yen On
Published: 2020-08-02T00:00:00+00:00

7

The air was full of the brassy three o’clock bells’ ringing.

Asuna set down her cup of dark cofil tea on the table and said, “Kirito, you should eat something. Even a snack would be good.”

“Mm…Oh…”

Kirito looked up, arms crossed, and started to reach for the wooden tray of treats before pausing to look at her. It was as though he’d just realized something.

“Wh…what is it?”

“Oh…Just remembering that you used to say that to me all the time,” he said, wincing. Asuna knew at once that he was talking about the real world, not this simulation. She sat down in the chair next to him and smiled.

“That’s because whenever you get fixated on something, you forget to eat, and sometimes you never even realize you’re hungry.”

“Yeah…Yui would scold me for that, too,” he said wistfully before throwing her a look. He must have sensed something in her expression, because he reached out and gently stroked her hair. She let him do it, and the stabbing pain in her chest began to ease, bit by bit.

They would probably never again see their “daughter” Yui, the top-down AI created in the original SAO. Even Yui’s processing power would be completely inadequate to match the hyper-accelerated pace of the Underworld, and there were no means of connecting anyway.

At the end of the Otherworld War, Lisbeth and Silica had explained how it was Yui who guided them, Sinon, and Leafa to the Underworld. She’d summoned the whole gang, explained the state of the Underworld and Alice’s importance, and asked for their help.

If it hadn’t been for Yui, the decoy force that Asuna joined would have been wiped out, and Emperor Vecta would have gotten away with Alice in his clutches. The thought that they would never see the daughter who’d done so much for them—without even the chance to say thank you—was incredibly painful, but she would surely understand. She would know that Kirito and Asuna had no other choice, and that even separated by the walls of time and space, they would forever love her.

Apparently, Yui had described Alice as “the evidence of the existence of all the VRMMO worlds, beginning with SAO, and the many people who lived in them.” In that case, Asuna had to give her everything to protect this world. Now that the path to peace between the two realms was finally opening up, she had to do whatever she could to prevent war from returning.

“…We’ve got to be strong,” Kirito murmured, as though reading her thoughts. He patted her back with the hand he’d been caressing her hair with, then picked up a nougat treat filled with nuts and fruit and popped it into his mouth. The Underworld was a virtual place, but unlike in Aincrad, if you were hungry for long enough, it would eventually affect your life value, and lack of nutrition could lead to disease. Eating was just as important here as it was in the real world.

To no surprise, the investigation at the South Centorian

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