Editing Sword Art Online:The Day Before (section)

===Part 5===

"...I-It's completely pointless if you come here toO!<ref>Argo has an odd speech quirk where she accents the last syllable in her sentences or sentence fragments. It is reflected in the translation by capitalizing the last letter at those positions.</ref>"

And that was the first line from the player who asked for help in the log house.

Approximately ninety seconds ago—

Asuna, the dog and me were swallowed into the small tornado and flew above the roof of the flying log house, then sucked into an open chimney at its corner, one after another. Beyond the dark, narrow tunnel was a spacious living room with a plain wood finishing and an astounded female player stood alone before us, who landed on our bums.

To re-activate her head that was frozen by the stunning turn of events, I stared intently at the prior visitor while sitting on the floor. Surprisingly, her face was one I was extremely acquainted with, but as I didn't have the energy to express my shock yet again, I tried saying some greetings.

"Good day. Long time no see."

And that was how the exclamation from earlier came about.


One way or another, we should first exchange our information.

And that female player agreed and loosened the tension in her shoulders at my suggestion, pointing at the round table set up on the living room's floor with her right hand. After Asuna, still clutching onto the dog, and I sat down side-by-side, the girl took a seat as well, a large distance away, on the opposite side.

It seems Asuna had finally returned to her usual mode by this time and greeted the female player who was a mutual acquaintance of ours.

"It's been a while, Argo-san."

"...Hello, Aa-chan. And you too, Ki-bou."

Patterns of three whiskers were distinctly painted onto each of the cheeks of this female player who waved her hand nimbly with a delicate expression on. The name of this girl who stuck to this face paint for roughly the two years since the start of the death game, no, adding one month on when including the beta period, was «Argo the Rat». Aincrad's most resourceful information broker.

She was an associate of Asuna and I since the starting of the game, selling and buying information from us countless times. Aside from that, we have saved and gotten saved by each other on several occasions, but there were clearly no feelings of antagonism between us. Hence, it doesn't make sense for Argo to display caution towards us like what she was doing now of all times, but let's just put that aside and get to the main topic.

"——So. Argo, what exactly happened?"

This was a question asked as I waved my right hand around, indicating the entire log house which was radically flying, even now, and the information broker's two eyes blinked incessantly deep within her golden auburn curly hair.

"What you ask, Ki-bou, if you've gotten in 't this far, you should've gotten 't too, righT? It's a quesT, a quesT!"

"Ah, aah... well..."

When I glanced at the tyke dozing off while held at Asuna's chest, the ? mark above its head was lit up. In other words, it meant that some sort of quest was in progress, but—

"But rather than receiving a quest, it clearly feels like we've been dragged into one, you know..."

I said that and Asuna gave a curt nod as well.

"That's right. We got blown here merely by me picking up this kid, after all. How should I say this... it's like I picked up a quest that someone left behind halfway, that's what it feels... like..."

Her mouth suddenly shut close after saying that and she met my glance. I instantly realized what the girl had figured out.

If «a quest that someone left behind halfway» was what brought around this situation, the one responsible could be no one other than this Argo the Rat right before our eyes.

Argo lowered her head as though she understood what was up when Asuna's and my sight flicked towards her simultaneously, and spoke.

"......I'll start from the beginninG."

—Recently, I got the information that several strange new quests have been occurring on the lower floors of AincraD. Like a masked ogre that revives over and over again even when defeated, or a jump spinning, fire-breathing tortoise, or a white-clothed female undead creeping out from a cursed message windoW.


—'Twouldn't be possible to publish the «Complete Quest Walkthrough Guide Book» if I didn't get information on the new quests immediately. That's why, the day before yesterday, I came to investigate this southwestern area of the twenty-second floor, where there were rumors of a new quest and 'twas fine until I succeeded in finding the quest's starting point, but there was a slight complication with the quest's descriptioN. When I leapt into this house without bringing along the key character required to proceed with the story, the house was suddenly engulfed in a tornado, totally surprising mE!

And that's why for the two days after that, I was stuck inside this flying house, waiting for someone to reset this quesT.


When her explanation reached that point, Argo spread her arms out in exasperation.

«Resetting a quest» was the action of returning a partially-finished quest that has been left alone for a long time to its initial state, through a menu operation. There were quests that couldn't be taken up by other players at the same time in SAO, though few, so such a mechanism was prepared. Of course, you would have to first get close to the NPC who was the starting point, though.

In other words, if we opened the Quest tab in the Main Menu when we noticed that ? mark above the head of that pup, «Toto», below that cedar tree, the reset button—might have been there. However, now that we got on the quest, neither Asuna nor I would be able to reset.

"...Well, I more or less understand the situation now, but... there are still parts I don't get. Argo, what did you mean by the 'complication with the quest's description' earlier?"

When I voiced out the doubt that naturally came to me, the information broker made the aforementioned delicate expression and sneaked glances at Asuna... or to be specific, the small, moving object sleeping in Asuna's arms.

"W-Well, that'S... even I have things I'm good at and those that I'm not reallY..."

"Aah, so that's it. Argo-san, so you're bad with dogs!"

And in that moment, Asuna completely saw through her with a smile on which caused the three whiskers on the information broker's cheeks to narrow.

"I-I can't help 'T, that's just how my base stats werE! And Aa-chan, I heard the news that you're bad with Astral-type mobs toO!"

"Th-That's because those are ghosts! It's only natural to be scared of ghosts. But puppies are cute, you know? Here, how about you try hugging it?"

"St-Stop 't! Just let 't continue sleeping therE!"

—And leaving aside Argo and Asuna, who were showing their intimacy through their actions, I took some time to ponder.

If Argo (despite being a «Rat») was bad with dogs, the fact that the quest in progress mark atop the dog's head was lit up means...

"Hahah, I get it. Argo, you managed to start the quest, but with the key character being a dog, you dashed away with all your AGI and after you jumped into this house, the quest continued making you fly up, but got stuck because the dog couldn't enter the house, getting you trapped here in the sky for two whole days... that's it, huh. Hahaha, looks like you've been through a pretty fun experience, huh. If you put stories of your experiences in a book like, "Argo's Great Adventures", in the future, it'll sell."

Upon hearing my talk while laughing, the Rat momentarily made a face that said, "Will it really selL?" before she shouted.

"'Tis no laughing matter, Ki-bou! With things this way, both Aa-chan and you are stuck now too, you know!"

"Don't make such a fuss about it, at the most, we'll just have to use a teleport crystal to travel to some other city, right?"

It happened just as I was about to start laughing again after replying so—an odd expression appeared on Argo's and Asuna's faces at the same time. They exchanged a quick glance and Asuna took the initiative to open her mouth.

"...Hey, Kirito-kun. I don't think there's any chance that Argo-san hasn't tried that out yet."

"Heh?"

"It depends on the quest, but during these compulsory events, most of them prevent teleporting, don't they? Right, Argo-san?

"Of course 't does!"

"......Seriously?"

Seeing me finally breaking out in a cold sweat, Argo replied with a nod and an expression that seemed to show her disappointment.

"Well, as a last resort, there's always still jumping out from the window and teleporting immediately before crashing into the grounD... I don't quite want to try that, reallY."

"I-I don't want to do it either, reallY..."

I took a peek out at the sky extending out beyond the window and realized something after all that side-tracking.

In the first place, what exactly happened on this quest. If one were to receive the quest from the dog in the forest and enter the house together, the house will take flight through the tornado? The links between each part of the story make too little sense at this point. The ones in charge of the SAO game servers' administration should have already been separated from Argus, the developers, so it's not like the quest's scenario could have been written by staff from Argus. In that case, exactly who was one who thought up these illogical developments? And at the present moment when the GM Call does not function, how can we escape from this stuck status...?

".....Wait, hold on, now that I think about it."

Asuna, who was stroking Toto's head, and Argo, who was looking in that direction with a wary glance, turned in unison at my words.

"If the reason why this quest got stuck was because the dog... Toto was left behind on the ground, that should have been dealt with already... —So, doesn't that mean that the quest should have been back in motion...?"

"Ah...!"

Argo snapped her fingers and dashed right beside the window in a breakneck motion. She looked down towards the ground and instantly shouted.

"W-We're movinG! Or rather, it looks we're nearly going to lanD!"

"R-Really!? Thank goodness, looks like we'll be able to go back before it gets dark."

Asuna spoke, relieved while looking towards the windows as well, but I couldn't be as optimistic. You could call it a hunch.

Having an introduction of making an entire house take flight was rather major as a quest. A story that starts this flashy was unlikely to end so easily. In all likelihood, it would make us go this way to search for something, go that way to help someone out... I believe such a development would definitely happen. First of all, even if we work hard at clearing the quest, there was no guarantee that this log house will return to its previous status of being on sale. In that case, would Asuna and I really be able to marry...

"Ugh."

I gave a weak moan and took a look at Argo's meager frame from behind as she kept a subtle distance away from (the dog within the arms of) Asuna.

She was an old friend of mine, but there was no way I could let her find out about my marriage with Asuna before it happened. If the cat gets out of the bag, an article will end up on the newspaper, «Weekly Argo», with a flourish and I will be cursed to death by everyone in Asuna's fan clubs.

Hence, it's risky to have her stick around for too long to complete the quest. There's no choice, but to clear it in haste and say "Good work!" before the «Rat's» nose senses something.

At roughly the same time as I got up while making up my mind, a dull sound rang out from the log house, announcing its arrival at a location unknown to us.