June 16, 2023. 3:50 AM — Harelfort, Floor 29

  Yuiha turned in bed and, without really waking, reached out for him.

  Her hand met empty sheets.

  Her eyes cracked open. Silver wasn’t there.

  She sat up slowly, tugged her short pajama top into place, smoothed her hair, and stepped into the small sitting room.

  The inns in Harelfort were absurdly expensive for their size, but they offered the most lavish comfort Aincrad had shown so far: golden chandeliers, gemstone accents, curtains made from some impossibly soft fabric, thick and light at the same time, nothing like anything from the floors below.

  The Anti-Criminal Code made that kind of luxury possible. No one had to worry about theft.

  Almost nobody stayed in town anyway, except the big guilds eager to show off their money. Even they usually rented only a few rooms for their upper ranks, not entire inns, the way they did on other floors.

  Yuiha and Silver had taken a room without overthinking it.

  They were exhausted.

  Earlier, while mapping an outdoor zone, they’d stumbled onto the labyrinth leading to the floor boss. They hadn’t gone deep, but in one dead-end corridor they were ambushed by six Cursed Orcs; medium speed and intelligence, but brutal strength, the kind that could drop a player with a single well-placed critical.

  Silver had tanked like always, trusting the Queen’s Warden set to make him nearly untouchable.

  He hadn’t imagined, couldn’t imagine, that two of the monsters would ignore taunt completely and charge straight for Yuiha.

  She handled them with agile, controlled movement, turning them like raging bulls and cutting both down in under a minute.

  A minute that, to Silver, felt endless.

  He couldn’t help recklessly; if he shifted even slightly, the other orcs might break off, and then Yuiha would be the one paying the price.

  When they made it out alive, they went back to the city. They didn’t even try to return to Tolbana, where they usually stayed. They just rented a room in Harelfort and stopped.

  Yuiha knew the problem was never physical fatigue for Silver.

  It was what came after.

  She found him exactly as she expected: sitting on the floor with his back against the wall, knees drawn up, arms resting over them, staring out the window without really seeing anything.

  She sat down beside him the same way, without a word.

  Silver spoke only after several minutes.

  —I don’t get why it didn’t work.

  —It did work, —Yuiha said gently. —As enemies get stronger, some of them can resist taunt. That’s normal.

  —But we’re not even a third of the way up the tower, —he muttered, bitter.

  Yuiha finally moved, laying a hand over his.

  —Hey, —she said softly. —I could deal with those two because you were holding the other four.

  —But they could’ve hurt you, —he said, voice cracking.

  —Love… —Yuiha rested her head against his shoulder. —I’m not some princess waiting to be saved. I’m your partner. I don’t want to fight behind you. I want to fight beside you.

  Silver went quiet, feeling the light weight of her against him.

  —And besides, —Yuiha continued, —most pairs would barely have made it out of that alive. I’m lucky I have someone who protects me. But that doesn’t mean I want you protecting me all the time. I want to protect you too.

  He looked at her, eyes full of raw, unguarded fear.

  —I can’t lose you, Yuiha.

  There it was.

  Silver never said I don’t want to lose you. He said I can’t. Like it was a law of nature. Absolute. Terrified.

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  Yuiha had once wondered if it was the auto-translation glitching. She even turned it off.

  He’d said it anyway, in English.

  She rose onto her knees so they were at eye level and wrapped her arms around him.

  —What’s going on? —she asked, worried.

  —I can’t lose you, —he repeated, clinging to her back.

  Yuiha kissed his hair and stroked the back of his neck slowly.

  —You’re incredibly strong, Silver. And I’m not weak. But this world is dangerous. Nobody’s safe outside the cities.

  She kissed him again, trying to settle him.

  —It scares me when you get like this. Because if something ever happens to me… I need you to keep going. For both of us.

  Silver held her tighter.

  —Please don’t say that. I couldn’t go on without you.

  —I don’t know what I’d do without you either, —she said with a sad little smile. —But I know I’d try. For both of us. To keep what we built alive; at least in memory.

  Silver stopped trembling as much and met her eyes.

  —I’m not going to let you die. Not while I’m still standing.

  —I’m not going to let you die either, —she replied, voice soft.

  Yuiha drew a steady breath, careful not to let emotion crack her words.

  —Let’s do this: we buy belt holsters, keep them equipped, and always carry a teleport crystal where we can grab it instantly. If anything turns bad, we run, together. Immediately.

  —Okay, —he said. —You use it, and I follow.

  Yuiha stared at him, then cupped his face in both hands.

  —No. We use it together. And we leave together.

  Then she kissed him; gentle, decisive, like sealing it.

  Silver smiled for the first time that night.

  —We run together.

  Yuiha stood, satisfied.

  —Back to bed. We didn’t pay that much to sleep on the floor, —she said with a mischievous grin.

  * * * * *

  June 16, 2023. 4:12 AM — Stonecross, Floor 20

  Ryuho jolted awake, one hand flying to his face as he fought to steady his breathing.

  The nightmares were becoming a pattern.

  In the real world, he almost never had nightmares. His mind had always been a place he controlled; cold, orderly, rational.

  In Aincrad, he hadn’t dreamed anything that rattled him.

  Not until Warinka died.

  “Of course I trust you.”

  “If something happens, you’ll save me, right?”

  Her words stabbed him every night.

  Sometimes he saw her smiling… and then saw that same face twisted, slick with blood. Dead eyes, fixed on him like an accusation.

  —It was your choice, —he spat into the empty room, anger packed tight in his throat.

  The scene replayed in high definition.

  Warinka had walked in with confidence, heading for the chamber with the chest. She crouched and opened it.

  And then, like some invisible alarm had been tripped, the room flared with red light from nowhere, and mobs from higher floors began materializing right in front of her.

  —Warinka! —Iorin and Daphne21 rushed in after her.

  —Ryuho! —Miwa’s shout snapped through him. —You have to help her!

  The moment the three of them were inside, the wall that had revealed the room slammed shut again, sealing them in while more enemies kept spawning.

  —Ryu…! —Warinka’s voice was swallowed by the thickness of stone.

  But the screams still carried through: panic, frantic orders, pleading.

  Miwa didn’t hesitate. She sprinted to the wall, trying to force it open.

  A hand stopped her.

  —Goose…? —Miwa stared at him, stunned. —We have to save them!

  —We can’t, —HappyGoose said; too calm, enough to freeze the blood in her veins.

  —You don’t know that! —she shouted. —If we open it, we might be able to help!

  HappyGoose shook his head.

  —Traps like this have shown up on other floors. They’re designed to wipe full parties. If more people go in, it just increases the spawn rate.

  —So what… we just stand here while they die?

  —No, —Ryuho said coldly. —We’re not staying. There’s nothing we can do.

  —You’re leaving Warinka? Seriously? —Miwa’s eyes shone with tears.

  —It’s on them now.

  Ryuho started walking toward the dungeon exit, pulling Miwa by the arm. HappyGoose placed a steady hand between her shoulders, guiding her forward; firm, not rough.

  I didn’t make you go in… You chose that.

  The sentence came back like a hook.

  Ryuho sat on the edge of his bed now, face in his hands.

  None of the three returned to town that day.

  The next morning, he sent HappyGoose to check the black monolith, the trace of life, to confirm what they already knew.

  They’d died in there.

  No one knew exactly how.

  Miwa didn’t blame him.

  HappyGoose was on his side… for now.

  If it had been him and Miwa inside instead of Warinka, they probably would’ve died too. That was proof enough; he’d made the correct call.

  He kept his sister safe and let someone else carry the risk.

  That was what an Onodera did.

  And still… there was that heavy pressure in his chest. Something unfamiliar. Persistent.

  And he hated it.

  He couldn’t sleep because of her.

  —I did what I had to do to keep Akane safe, —he told himself, like he needed to hear it out loud.

  But the weight didn’t lift, no matter how many times he repeated that he’d acted exactly the way Takeshi Onodera was supposed to act.

  He got out of bed. The cold stone under his feet forced him fully awake. He crossed to the window, drew the curtain back a fraction, and watched the moon sinking behind the rim of the floating castle.

  —You went in because you wanted to, Warinka.

  The words sounded hollow even to him.