After some time had passed, the day of the boss raid finally arrived. Or maybe I should say nothing much had changed. Even with the raid coming up, I'd done nothing but keep grinding levels as usual, and before I knew it, I'd reached level 16.
Even Kirito and Asuna, who had come to tell me about the Nezha incident—or rather, the Naza incident—were looking at me with expressions somewhere between shock and exasperation. Asuna aside, that probably meant Kirito was level 15.
Which meant I was currently the highest-level survivor in SAO... Yeah. Honestly, that position felt better than I'd expected.
Anyway, back to the main point. According to Kirito, once the trick was exposed, Nezha confessed without much resistance.
For someone who'd taken the name of a hero with such lofty ambition, he had poor eyesight, and after the game turned into a death game, he'd been so afraid that he couldn't even hunt properly. Crushed by self-loathing, he'd ended up working as a blacksmith instead... that was the rough outline of the whole incident.
Kirito said he felt sorry for him and gave him the rare chakram he'd obtained before... That surprised me. I never thought there'd be someone else specializing in [Throwing Blade], even if not in the same way I did.
"So, is this Nezha guy joining the boss raid today?"
"I don't know. He said he was going to start over, but... whether he'll come to the raid or not..."
Kirito answered in a half-negative tone. Beside him, Asuna turned toward me with curious eyes.
"By the way, what were you doing, Kazuma? We didn't hear anything from you for two days."
"Seriously! He even kept it secret from me and kept disappearing somewhere. I don't know why he has so many secrets."
Wholeheartedly agreeing with that question, Kazuha puffed out her cheeks in complaint and piled on.
Even though I always came back around dinner and we still ate together, she'd been a little sulky lately just because we'd been apart for a little while.
Of course, I had been pushing hard on leveling during those two days too, but the real reason was to raise the proficiency of my Unique Skill, [Thrown Blade Arts].
It needed secrecy, after all. I had to stay aware of my surroundings, and even if the swords I was using were the cheapest ones on the First Floor, they still weren't something I could buy endlessly, so I had to practice carefully.
It had been a period of absurd mental exhaustion, so hearing Kazuha talk like I'd been casually going out to have fun made something a little dark start wriggling up inside my chest.
Huh? I felt like this should be making me feel bad, but instead it felt like the corners of my mouth were rising.
"...All right. If that's what you want, Kazuha..."
"Hic?!"
Maybe she sensed the bad aura coming off me as I muttered under my breath, because Kazuha's shoulders jerked up in an instant. Kirito and Asuna both broke out in a cold sweat and took a step back too.
"U-um... Kazuma? You're kind of scary right now...?"
"Wait, wait, Asuna. This feels like a really bad time to interfere."
Ignoring the noisy pair completely, I took one step toward Kazuha, who was trembling in tiny little shivers as if driven by instinct.
To an outside observer, her small-animal-like fidgeting might have looked cute, but right now I wasn't feeling that at all.
"Listen, Kazuha. This time, if we finish the Second Floor boss raid and make it to the Third Floor..."
"Y-yeah."
"I'll personally, thoroughly teach you hunting. Without letting you out of my sight for even one minute, one second. Nothing but hunting. 'Just short of killing you.'"
"...Uh, eeh."
"Your. Answer?"
"Y-yes?!"
I said it all with a broad smile on my face, and Kazuha answered at the top of her lungs. Mm-hm. She really did answer well.
'Kazuma... that's what people call sadism...'
'Elia?'
'...My apologies. I'll be quiet.'
Mm, very nice. Maybe conversations really did go better when you smiled.
"Wahhh... Kazuma is scary..."
"Yeah, I'm putting him at number one on the list of people not to provoke."
I could hear Kirito and Asuna whispering from a slight distance away, but I let it slide.
A light atmosphere was fine in moderation, but that didn't mean today was a light day.
**
Clang!Clang!Crash!
The labyrinth zone of the Second Floor. In this place, where people rarely came, an unusually large group was bustling about, filling the air with the sound of blades clashing.
The occasional screams of bulls seemed to tell us that, while not quickly, we were steadily advancing toward the clear.
Our group of four stayed a little to the rear, taking down the monsters that the two future guilds up front failed to finish off.
That said, with Kirito and me already as high-level as we could get, plus Asuna and Kazuha's talent, we were cutting down monsters so fast that it felt quieter than expected.
"So the boss is coming up soon... Kirito, the Second Floor boss was [Baran the General Taurus], right?"
"You know your stuff. Yeah, the boss I knew was him and his subordinate... [Nato the Colonel Taurus]. Two of them."
"They both use battle hammers as weapons, and both use stunning skills through the shockwaves from their hammers. But Nato uses the same [Numbing Impact] as the Taurus underlings up ahead, so as long as you don't touch the ground, you won't be stunned. Baran's [Numbing Detonation], though, stuns you as long as you're inside the area, even if you aren't touching the ground."
Listening to Kirito rattle off the boss information like an encyclopedia, I fell into thought for a moment.
It wasn't that I disliked what he was saying. I just felt like something about it was off.
"...Baran the General Taurus... 'General,' huh."
"Yeah, definitely. He was exactly the kind of brute you'd imagine."
Kirito frowned briefly, probably recalling the beta, then tilted his head when he noticed my expression.
"What's wrong? Something bothering you?"
"Yeah... or maybe I should say it just doesn't sit right with me."
"Doesn't sit right?"
Kirito narrowed his eyes, his expression turning serious. He knew as well as I did from the First Floor that this official version of SAO was clearly different from the beta.
Once you realized there were differences like that, you had no choice but to be cautious. In this place, even a tiny discrepancy in information could mean life or death.
"Yeah. Because logically, doesn't it seem strange for the boss to be a 'general'?"
"...?!"
Kirito's eyes suddenly widened as if he'd realized something, and Asuna immediately reacted and fired off a question.
"Kazuma, are you saying the boss being a 'general' doesn't make sense?"
"Yes. Compared to the kobold we fought before, who was a 'lord,' this time having the boss be a 'general' feels off somehow. Especially if you think about how the First Floor was supposedly harder than in the beta."
"No way... are you saying there's a 'lord' too...?!!"
At Kirito's muttered words through clenched teeth, Asuna and Kazuha must have pictured it too, because their faces turned a little pale.
"It's too early to be sure. I'm just saying it's possible. It's only something that feels strange to me."
"No, it makes perfect sense. Colonel Nato is only a little stronger than the normal mobs, and General Baran can be beaten without much trouble as long as you watch out for [Numbing Detonation]. Put another way, the fact that it's that easy is what feels strange."
"Especially since the official version changed everything and introduced variables everywhere. There's every reason to consider it. There's no way Akihiko Kayaba wouldn't have upgraded the Second Floor boss too."
Kirito immediately agreed with my attempt to step back from the idea, and was practically convinced already.
"But this is still just speculation... Damn it, even if we tell those guys right now, I doubt they'll believe us. We don't have any proof..."
"Why not tell them anyway? We don't know the details either, so just present it as a possibility."
At my advice, Kirito nodded at once and walked over to the guild guys. Watching his back, I called Elia up into one corner of my mind.
'Elia. How many quests on the Second Floor are there that I haven't cleared yet?'
'There are two.'
'...So there really were some.'
Not that it was surprising. I'd been so focused on practicing [Thrown Blade Arts], which I'd only recently gained, that I hadn't paid attention to quests. But it was already too late to turn back now. Most likely, the remaining quests had been strategy hints mentioning the real boss.
The one saving grace was that if Elia could identify the quests, that meant someone had already cleared them. In that case, maybe support could still come from the rear. Whether they'd make it in time, though, was another matter.
For now, all we could do was keep that possibility in mind and fight as hard as we could.
When I turned back, Kirito had returned with a troubled look on his face.
"As expected... I told them, but they don't really seem convinced."
"That's enough. If we've gone that far, then we've done our part. Now everyone has to take responsibility for themselves."
Yeah. That was the extent of our role. You could lead a horse to water, but the horse had to drink on its own. There was no need for us to clean up after them.
At my cold response, the other three stared at me with surprised eyes.
"You really are... merciless, Kazuma."
"I kind of suspected it, but..."
"Uuuu..."
"I'm right, aren't I? Come on, the boss room is right ahead. Get your heads in the game now."
Ignoring their complaints with ease, I headed toward the boss door now standing before us.
There, where two groups had already gathered in clusters and the members of [Legend Braves] were assembled, the usual human spectacle was already playing out.
"Whoa... is this a standoff...?"
"..."
The two men standing at the front of the two groups both looked familiar...
"Kibaou and Lind, huh?"
"Who's this Lind guy?"
Kazuha tilted her head, apparently not very interested in the First Floor raid members.
"You know Kibaou. Lind was one of the people who used to stick with Diavel."
"Ah..."
Roughly understanding the situation, Kazuha gave an awkward smile and shrugged.
Breaking through that stiff atmosphere, a familiar voice—or rather, Egil, who I'd registered as a friend—walked over to us.
"Yo, two pairs over there."
"We are not pairs. This is only a temporary cooperative arrangement. Hello, Egil."
As Egil addressed us in a playful tone, Asuna snapped her head away almost reflexively and answered firmly.
Apparently flustered by her reaction, Egil broke into a nervous sweat and looked at Kirito with a pitiful expression.
As expected, he really was good at reading the room.
"Uh... Egil. So, well, the thing is, this raid is barely making eight parties as it is, so..."
"Oh, that's exactly why I came over. To ask you to join our side."
"Ah, r-really? Is that okay? I mean, as you know, I'm..."
Kirito stammered in surprise at Egil's easygoing invitation, but Egil cut him off with a wave of one hand.
"I know what you're trying to say, more or less. But like you know, I don't care, and only a tiny handful of people still call you a beater. And besides..."
Egil trailed off and smiled at me.
"Thanks to a certain someone, even that's mostly been forgotten by now."
I quietly looked away. Seeing that, Egil chuckled and turned back to Kirito.
"So yeah, you can join without worrying about it."
"Then, gratefully."
Seeing Kirito still hesitate, I quickly stepped in before him and accepted the party invitation Egil had sent.
Kazuha followed my lead and accepted right away, and even Asuna pressed the button.
"Kirito."
I turned back toward the still-frozen Kirito and spoke firmly.
"Just do it. Sometimes people need to know when to bury the past."
Hearing that, Kirito flinched, then finally pressed the accept button with a resigned expression.
"I really don't want to hear that from someone my own age..."
"Then act your age."
At my sighing reply, Asuna, Egil, and the others let out small laughs.
"Besides, around our side, people call you by a different nickname anyway."
"Oh? What do they call him?"
Asuna asked with interest, and Egil answered immediately.
"'The Black Swordsman,' or 'Blackie.'"
"...Pfft."
"Hey, Kazuma. Asuna. You laughed just now, didn't you?"
"No, I did not."
I answered in as solemn and serious a tone as I could manage, but Kirito still stared at me suspiciously.
Naturally avoiding his gaze, I turned my attention to Lind, who had stepped forward after apparently reaching some kind of compromise.
"So Lind's the leader this time. Come to think of it, what happened to Diavel? I was sure he'd show up for the boss raid."
Behind me, Kirito shifted his gaze to Lind as well and muttered the question.
Egil, who'd been listening from behind, casually answered it.
"He stepped back from the front lines. In the end, what he was doing wasn't much different from the beta testers, and he was aiming for the last hit too, so I guess the guilt hit him pretty hard. At the very least, you can assume you won't be seeing him in strategy meetings anymore."
"Where'd you hear that?"
"From Argo."
Egil answered my short question just as briefly, then slowly turned serious as he looked at Lind organizing the formation before the raid.
He was someone who clearly knew how to separate business from personal matters. I could add that to my assessment of him.
Just as Egil's rating rose another notch in my mind, Orlando from [Legend Braves] stepped forward as if to interrupt that flow and stubbornly insisted that his group would join the boss raid as well.
It was obvious they were planning to rely on their equipment, level quickly, and jump straight into the upper ranks of the raid force.
When I looked to Kirito for silent agreement, he nodded immediately.
"...Those guys really do live tiring lives..."
Letting out a low sigh, I lost interest. All that remained was to do our best and make the situation turn out as well as possible. No matter how much you blamed the environment you were given, nothing would change.
The next matter decided was that our H University group would take on Colonel Nato. Normally, that meant a single party would be facing a miniboss-class monster, so Kirito and Asuna both looked ready to protest... but Egil somehow managed to barely hold them back.
After a short negotiation, though, it still ended up being us who would handle the boss side.
And just as we were about to set off... another unexpected—no, just plain annoying—person barged in.
"Hold it right there!"
"...What is it, Kibaou?"
Lind frowned a little and urged him to make it quick before the departure signal, but Kibaou paid that no mind. Instead, he curled his lips into a nasty-looking grin.
"See, Lind's been clingin' to that there strategy guide this whole time. But sorry to say it, the one who wrote it's just an info broker who ain't even seen the boss room herself, right? Can ya really say that's enough?"
At that line, Lind's expression twisted further in irritation.
"I can't say it's enough, but what are we supposed to do about not having more? Unless, what, are you volunteering to scout the boss by yourself beforehand?"
That made the green-jacketed members of the Liberation Squad murmur among themselves, but Kibaou himself only grinned more firmly and replied.
"What I'm sayin' is, there's at least one guy here who's seen the boss with his own eyes. So ain't there a way to hear it from him directly, eh?"
...Here we go again. Even after being warned on the First Floor, he still seemed weirdly fixated on Kirito. Was it jealousy, or...?
Kirito jumped like someone had pressed a stun gun to him, then quickly hid behind Asuna.
"Well then, what d'you say, Mr. Black Beater? Why don't ya give us a few words on this boss raid?"
The gaze of the several dozen people gathered there was apparently too much even for Asuna to evade, and Kirito was finally exposed despite her impressive attempts to shield him. His shoulders slumped in defeat.
"What... do you want me to say?"
"What d'ya mean what? Ain't it obvious?"
"There's a strategy guide, isn't there? I don't know anything beyond that. You know it's impossible for me to explain every little detail like exact weapon timings and attack windows down to the second. I've got nothing else to say."
"You swear that's true...?"
"Yeah, it's true. Other than that, the extra speculation I told you earlier is everything."
Seeing Kirito stare straight back at Kibaou without flinching, Kibaou seemed to lose steam. He nodded and stepped back again.
"All right then! Like I told everyone, dodge the second attack no matter what! Keep that in mind, and we can clear this without a single casualty!"
"Wooooooah!!"
With a shing, Lind drew the scimitar at his waist and shouted at the top of his lungs.
"...Let's take down the Second Floor boss!!"
"Uoooooh!!"
The roar shook the dim corridor.
With his blue hair fluttering as he placed his left hand on the door, Lind looked uncannily like Diavel had in that same spot on the First Floor.
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