Healing

Time was still frozen after the message, so I assume I was given time to check my rewards before everything resumes? Or perhaps it's another error, which is equally likely with the amount of glitches I've encountered; at this point, I wouldn't be surprised. It seems that everything that comes out of Japan is indeed cursed.

However, I don't object to what is convenient to me.

Going into my inventory, scrolling down, I saw twenty new slots, nineteen of them being unfilled, with the filled one having some Cor in it.

Checking the amount, I saw that it was… 3,500.

Well, it's more than nothing.

Further, with nineteen unused slots, each carrying one-hundred items each, I technically can carry 1,900 more items.

Good for me.

However, interrupting this train of thought, time resumed.

{Nero? Nero, are you there?}

{Yes, I am, Silica. So what's the issue? The king invited you for dinner but said I wouldn't be there?}

I can deal with all this at a later date, I have a few things to do now.

"Excuse me, sir. Do you feel better after taking that healing potion?" asked the plague doctor looking man.

Two conversations at once? I can deal with this easily enough.

{Yeah, so what should I do? I really don't want to be left… alone with him.]

"Yes, my knee is completely fine now."

I'll prioritize my conversation with the doctor, because waiting to give a reply to Silica will make it seem like I'm thinking about what she should do, while if I wait to give a simple answer to the doctor, it'll seem like I'm ignoring him.

Use common sense, and you'll figure out the best way to deal with such pests

{Well, what else are you supposed to do but accept? You can't say no without being rude. You'll be fine even without me, I'm not actually your dad.}

"Great. Now then, I sent the knights away to deal with Heimrich, so I'm afraid that I don't know where to take you by myself. I can't let a guest wander around the castle, either. Would you like to stay here until someone who knows what to do arrives?"

{BUT- but I don't want to be left alone with him!}

Why is she so worried about him?

And why would the king not want to invite me?

"Could you give me a tour of the castle instead? I'm afraid staying here would make for an awfully dull visit, but if you have other duties to attend to that is fine," I responded.

Just an excuse to scout out the castle.

{Did he tell you when the dinner will happen?}

The king's actions here are strange, there has to be some piece of the puzzle that I'm missing.

Coming to conclusions is exactly like forming a puzzle. You'll have various pieces of information, all you have to do is form them into one coherent story.

The harder conclusions will be a larger puzzle, with more pieces to deal with, or they'll be like a puzzle with no picture on the front to help match them together, and you just need to guess where they fit.

"Tending to one of the king's guests would be my pleasure. Could you please wait here for a bit while I get someone to work in my stead?"

"Very well."

He began walking away, and my head kept getting bombarded with Silica's worries.

{He didn't tell me anything about it! He just said, "We'll be having dinner later today," and when I asked him if you would be there, he said, "No, I'm afraid not. Sir Nero and I will have another chance to converse." C'mon there's a way out of this right? There has to be… I can ask him when the dinner is, though, if you want.}

{Please do that, Silica. I appreciate your bravery.}

{Th-thanks! I'll ask him now, we're still in the throne room together, but it's just awkward. He's telling me about the history of each king in each painting in the room.}

He's not very good with modern ladies, is he?

{When there's a way to ask him naturally, without seeming too random and making it feel like you're interrupting him, ask him then. Doing it like this would seem rude.}

{Okay… So what are you doing? Did you get your injuries fixed?}

Is she that bored when being with the king? If it's showing to his face that Silica is uninterested and uncomfortable, I'll gut her. Keeping a good relationship with him is paramount at this point.

{I'm all good now. Make sure you have full attention with the king and don't outwardly look uninterested, it'd be rude.}

{Alright…}

{Why are you so worried about the king though?}

{I-I'm not worried! You're worried!}

I hate my teammate, even disregarding the fact that she's Japanese. She's too childish.

{Silica, what is it? You can talk to me, y'know.}

{...The king is creepy. What kind of guy wants an underage girl to act as his lover? I bet he's a… pedophile…}

…

Does she not know that in medieval times, people got married when they weren't legal? Lifespans were short, so people married early. An aristocrat being interested in a young girl was the norm, there were actual pedophiles that went for really young girls among them.

{You don't have anything to worry about. I'm always with you in your mind, just talk to me when you're worried.}

I feel disgusted with myself. What I want to do is strangle her, but I can't without killing myself because of this damned quest.

{A-ah thanks! I-I'll be focusing on the king now, l-like you asked!}

Just stop bothering me.

"Alright, good sir. I'm back."

Interrupting the silence of the room, an average looking man with black hair and black eyes came from the stairs with another plague doctor trailing behind him.

"Are you the doctor who tended to me before?" I asked.

"Yes. This is my colleague, Gaston. He'll be taking over for me while I guide you around."

Is there some Plague Doctor Order that I don't know about?

"Thank you kindly. What is your name? I'm afraid I don't know it."

I'm not speaking in the Old English that was used in medieval times, with "thou", "thee" and all that because no one here is speaking it, but I am taking measures in not speaking with modern lingo and trying to sound minimally refined.

I don't sound like a high fantasy character, it's more like how British people talk.

"Forgive me, my name is Jacques. Now, care to follow me around?"

"Let us go."

We walked up the stairs and through the castle, finding many rooms along our route.

I made sure to memorize it as best I could.

"This is the courtyard," said Jacques, pointing to where I came from through a window.

"Why does the courtyard have a marketplace?"

"A courtyard has many possible uses, and our king decided to devote those uses to the common people. This castle has this as the main courtyard, as well as a smaller one used as a garden. The knights used to practice in the courtyard, but now they go outside the castle for it."

…

"Wouldn't the knights being far away from the castle be a security issue?"

"Yes, and that is why many people opposed the king's decision to remove their practice sessions from the courtyard. However, he held true to himself, and now the courtyard is used for the common people."

Clearly the king is trying to gain favour from his people, but an enemy spy could also use this courtyard as an opportunity to plan an entry into the castle. Further, there wouldn't be many knights on hand to deal with breaches. This kingdom is too lax, as if it doesn't expect any threats.

He may also be downgrading the quality of his knights, because they most likely can't practice as much anymore.

With these two puzzle pieces, it wouldn't be dumb to assume the more sensible sentient NPCs dislike the king. He lets the vox populi make his decisions after all; that's a recipe for disaster when it comes to making decisions for an entire country.

Or maybe there's some hidden motive or something I don't know at play behind his decision, but it does certainly sound like he is trying to pass for a benevolent monarch. Well, I might as well play along.

"That's very noble of him. My respect for the king has increased tenfold."

A straight faced lie; it's actually the opposite.

My mental image of the king is now that he's a foolish man unsuited to monarchy, governing with emotions and morality.

"Let's continue. I would take you to see the knights practicing, if they were actually practicing here at this moment and weren't practicing outside the castle walls."

We started walking along the hallways once again, we came across a large ballroom, though it was empty.

"This is where the king holds his parties and social gatherings. He sometimes has parties for the servants, and not just for aristocrats and officials. He doesn't cheap out on it either, the parties are nearly as extravagant as the aristocratic galas."

Is he trying to curry favor with the common folk, or is he just being weak and trying to do the 'right thing'?

Most likely the latter.

But it's difficult to say. After all, he did praise Silica in the marketplace, and was patient with her despite her insolence, but he clearly had a more lewd motive behind his actions. He wasn't just doing it out of politeness or benevolence.

"That's extremely kind of him. It's nice to see such a benevolent ruler, nowadays, people are wicked and brutish."

"Exactly! This is why all the common folk revere the king, even though he's not as charismatic as the Warrior Crown Prince. I assume you know of him?"

"Yes, His Majesty told me about his brother."

"Indeed, he was a great man. Let us continue."

POV Switch - 1st (Kirito)

Alright! While training, I need to look for that bastard, otherwise, if I try backtracking across this area after I'm fully ready, it'll take a long time.

Besides, I'm experienced at this game. I've been seeking out quests to level up my Searching skill, and now I should be able to detect Hegemaniac before he notices me. The quests took me on scavenger hunts across the town area and surrounding forest, but I didn't see any sign of Hegemaniac. He must have fled somewhere else. I don't know where, but it can't be too far out, or he'd run into monsters that he can't deal with. Hopefully his Hiding isn't too developed.

The plan is to level up and train while keeping an eye out for Hegemaniac, and when I find him, kill him - or, if I'm feeling righteous, just throw him in jail.

I could put him in jail by knocking him out or challenging him to a duel that isn't set to death. But he killed Daisuki!

He must be the devil himself if Daisuki put the winning condition to death. Daisuki would never hurt anyone, the only reason he would is to protect his wife or a close friend, not to mention killing someone.

He was a good man.

I bet Hegemaniac killed his wife.

I'll lock up that villain if it's the last thing I do.

Traveling back to the starting town after a day of hunting, my level had gone up and so did my confidence in beating Hegemaniac.

To beat Daisuki, he had to have surged ahead in level somehow. There's no other way he could've - in the beta tests, me and Daisuki trained constantly in duels.

Even though I was a higher level and had better reflexes, he beat me the first couple of times. His Strength was higher than mine, while I initially `increased Agility so that I could explore, finish quests, and level up faster. Somewhat embarrassingly, I had also thought that it would increase the speed of my sword attacks, but it turns out it just worked for running speed.

While I was still figuring out these basic things, he seemed to know most of the game like the back of his hand.

When I asked him politely for tips, after he delivered a humbling beatdown in our first fight, he gave me several pointers which I still remember.

His teachings were more valuable than any time I had spent gaming.

It went something like this:

"I've played many games like this before, Kirito. I'm something of a veteran. I'm not proud of it, these games are full of all sorts of crap, fanservice, bad design, you name it. Well, this game's virtual reality is a large step above the rest, but the gameplay itself is something I've been through many times before. The main part in these games is not reflexes or anything like that - while they are important and better to have, they are not the be all and end all.

"To win, you have to know the game, and you have to know your enemy. So you need to pay attention to the meta. Even in a shooter game, where reflexes can be really important, it's still important to have knowledge about the details of the game, so you know the course of each battle. Knowing where everything is on the map and how to take advantage of it all, as well as how to counter and deal with certain opponents and guns will lead you to victory, more than just improving your headshot accuracy. And here? Well, it's not a shooter, so your reactions have their limits. Even though you'd react to my attacks more quickly, it's easy for me, because I deal more damage and can react more decisively.

"Say, in that last fight. You could parry most of my blows, and even adjust in time to cover my feints. Still, you can't just keep doing that, or I know how to double up my strikes, switch angles, or charge forwards quickly, and you'd be tied in knots. You'd be forced into a shell, inching back and trying to keep out my strikes like trying to bail out water. And if you attack, then I know what openings each attack will leave, so I can easily counter-attack and my attacks will be more devastating. What happened in this fight was even easier, you leaned forwards in an attempt to counter-attack, since you were losing balance trying to block, and I just had to parry and then deal damage while you were leaning in my direction.

"You shouldn't pay attention to each cool move, going 'Wow, they're so cool!' and not pay attention to all the strategies used in the battle. I won from the start, because I understood my advantage, but if I had gone into the fight and tried to outmaneouvre you then I would have lost in seconds.

"I'm not an amazing player either, Kirito. My mind isn't extremely fast, I'm not particularly smart, and I don't even have much game knowledge in most games I play, despite knowing those are the ways to win. I'm just familiar with this kind of genre, and I got into the rhythm of this game faster than you guys. I also can't play as much now as I'd need to in order to be truly great, due to my wife and, um, alcohol issues which I've fortunately recovered from. Still, that has its perks as well. But I try to be better than a mindless idiot swinging around his sword with no thought put behind everything, the equivalent of a button-masher.

"You, though, have some of the fastest reflexes I've seen in this game. You're practically playing in bullet-time. And I know that you're doing something right, since I know this game's quests better than you, but you've levelled up more quickly. At some point, you'll outmatch me easily! So maybe your lower Strength gives you other advantages, and being weaker in one-to-one combat isn't as important. That's also strategy! So just try to deal with battle in the same terms. My build is just because I enjoy the fights more and testing myself to see how high I can fight 'above my level,' so I can impress the wife, heh. But you're doing the boring parts better, the quests and errand-running, and on release day you'll probably fly ahead in levels even faster. So I'm sure my advice won't be wasted, if you take it.

"Don't look so humble. You have incredible potential, just put it into use. C'mon, I'll spar with you again after a few hours. Smell ya later."

He was a friend, a rival, and a mentor.

But over the week I sometimes noticed him seeming hungover and starting to play less, despite claiming he had recovered from alcoholism. He used to talk about his family life as being idyllic, was it really? Whatever it was, he clearly loved his wife a lot, and spoke highly of her... I never got to meet her, though.

For Hegemaniac to beat someone like him, that was completely unexpected. Hegemaniac barely seemed to know what he was doing early in the fight, he let Daisuki get the upper hand quickly. If he was a beta tester, then I doubt he would have fallen into such an easy error. Besides, I don't recognize him. So maybe he's some sort of pro gamer from another game? How else could he level so quickly, and even defeat Daisuki?

His level was above Daisuki, that's obvious because he could even deal decent damage without a weapon. After all, if he was at a similar level to Daisuki, his Strength would probably not be much higher. Daisuki invested more stats in strength than agility, and I did the opposite, with more in agility than strength. He preached that having both was incredibly important, though, and also complained constantly and sent tons of messages to the GM's about how there only being two stats was, "the dumbest thing he had ever seen in an MMO," but they never responded.

He said that players found it too simplistic compared to the other MMOs they had played, and that it limits the complexity and strategic aspects of the game because there aren't many builds to choose from, but they still never responded.

I think he wrote a Twitter thread on how it would push the veteran and serious players away from the game while discouraging tactical play and making the game monotonous and boring, and they still didn't respond. He once told me that he was going to their headquarters to ask why they don't respond to their players, but he was probably drunk and I doubt he went through with it.

But he was a great character, and helped the rest of us out as well.

I would have been teaming up with him and challenging difficult quests, but he told me that his wife was coming, so he would have to help her through the early game... And now it's too late.

Arriving at the town, I went back to the plaza, where the search parties for Hegemaniac had gathered.

I didn't participate, because levelling up to face him is more important. I desperately wanted to chase after him and avenge Daisuki right then and there after the duel, but I forced myself to think logically like Daisuki said to. If he could beat Daisuki, perhaps he could beat me.

But I know the game better, I'm fairly sure. I doubt that Hegemaniac's level advantage will survive over time, but, even if it does, I can probably catch up enough to stand a good chance.

I also remembered another lesson Daisuki taught me at that moment, about the concept of risk:

"Don't just rush in, and attack without looking. If you're attacking, then you're going close to the opponent, so the opponent can also attack you. It's all about managing risks. If your opponent is weak, make sure that your attack is decisive, so that it can't turn into a losing situation due to some surprising move from the opponent. Remember, your opponent knows what they're doing, better than you. If you're fighting a strong, knowledgeable opponent, which is OBVIOUSLY what I prefer to do, then you can rarely be sure of what will happen. While the fight might be epic, there's too much power creep on both sides, either could leave their opponent helpless in a couple of seconds. So you have to sound out the opponent, then figure out how to take a risk that still leaves you the biggest chance of an advantage. It's risk management."

If I attacked then, I would be rushing in blind, so to speak, without taking advantage of the things that are in my favour. I'd be risking it all for one cathartic attack, while I'm still emotional, and could get myself killed. I'll prioritize my 'strengths' by leveling up quickly, rather than sacrificing that along with strategic and logical thought in the heat of the moment.

As a beta tester, I'm one of the players who should take responsibility and deal with Hegemaniac, and if I died in a blind rage then it would let everyone else down.

In other words, if I went after him then, I'd be doing the opposite of what Daisuki taught.

So instead, I trained constantly, until I was tired enough to turn back. Well, even when I was too tired, I pushed myself for about an hour before coming back.

After all of that adventuring, I was also famished.

Arriving at the plaza, I only saw a bunch of arguments.

"SO! HOW HAS NO ONE FOUND HIM?!"

"We're not sure. Now stop yelling, it's not like you did any better!"

The guy who was yelling grumbled to himself and settled down.

No one found him?

Walking over to the crowd, I sat down on a nearby bench and watched.

It's not like I have any information on him that can help. Knowing that he's probably super strong because he beat Daisuki isn't…

Wait.

A girl with chestnut hair, lit almost blonde by the sunlight, sat next to me unexpectedly. She seemed to be inspecting her inventory with a slightly sullen expression.

It's even more surprising because I recognize who she is. She's Asuna, a popular female player. She even has fanboys - and stalkers. She has a small face and fragile, slightly dainty, frame, but since she's both a strong player and attractive, she gets plenty of attention. She must have come here to escape the constant attention.

I knew it was her, because she's wearing the red-and-white uniform of the Knights of the Blood guild. They're well-known, even though barely anyone has seen their leader, Heathcliff. She's one of their better-known members, and probably a bunch of guys surged into the guild just to join her.

She notices me looking at her. Oops, I'll have to find some excuse.

"So, are you from the Knights of the Blood guild?"

"Yes," she responded, smiling politely. "I am Asuna Yuuki."

"I see. Call me Kirito. I've heard of you, I think one of my friends said you carried his group through a few quests. You must be quite strong?"

She blushed lightly, mostly out of humility. "Well, I'm not bad. Actually, alright, fine, I'm quite high-leveled. Also, I just came back from levelling up my cooking stat, which is one of the highest in the game, I'm proud of it."

I almost sighed, but managed to hold it back. She's a skilled player, not even a beta tester, but she's spending her time levelling up cooking? That skill doesn't even help in combat. It's a pity if she wastes her talent.

But I tried to be courteous. "Ah. Well, that's a rare talent, your guildmates must appreciate it."

"You look like you would appreciate it," she teased, noticing how tired I looked after the fight.

"Maybe. But I'm not the only one who looks tired," I replied. She had a few stains of dirt across her elegant, red-and-white dress, which meant that she was probably coming back from a journey to the forest.

"Oh, well, that's true. I've just been out in the forest, gathering supplies and all. But I'm kind of disappointed, no really impressive cooking ingredients... I did get a decent rapier, though."

I saw that she had an elegant, thin silver rapier curving across her hips, in a black leather sheath.

"But you care more about the cooking ingredients?" I said light-heartedly, confident that she'd feel that way based on what she had said so far.

"Yeah, yeah. I was hoping I'd get an A-class item, maybe even S-class, but this is even worse luck than I had this afternoon."

"Tell you what," I said, scanning over my familiar inventory for an item which I had mostly ignored, "I do have a Raga Weasel's meat, it says that's a cooking item."

As I drew out the raw meat, she suddenly leaned closer and grabbed it.

"That's S-class!" she exclaimed. "Can I have it? I'll cook for both of us."

"Well, sure... I mean, you're the expert cook here. You deserve the chance. What about your guild, though?"

"They're not around at the moment, I'm sure I can leave something behind. But I haven't got the chance to cook with something this great before, I can't wait for them!"

I smiled at her exuberance.

"I think I found this on some weasels near the forest's river, they're slightly hidden. Though I don't know what a raga weasel is, like, a stoned dancing weasel?"

"I dance like a weasel," she smiled. "But yeah, who knows."

As she led me off to the kitchens, I noticed a couple of Knights of Blood members from the nearby crowd turn to face me with a slight hostility. They seemed to be studying me carefully, on seeing me follow Asuna, but then relaxed as she gestured to them quickly. Who were they? I had heard rumours that Asuna had bodyguards, to hold off unwanted attention. That must be who they were.

She looked at me confidently, with her flashing hazelnut eyes, and led me on.