Chapter 4

Something's wrong with you, Keiko.

That was what a friend from elementary school had said when the two of

them had run into each other at random at a train station the previous week.

They'd agreed to go for tea and caught up with each other, and that was when

the topic of ALO had arisen.

Her friend's expression had been serious. She wasn't teasing, and she wasn't

disillusioned; she was sincerely worried.

But even then, all that Keiko Ayano, aka Silica, could do was smile awkwardly.

She knew from experience with her parents and counselors that the more she

tried to explain how she felt, the bigger the gap between them would become.

You were stuck in bed for two whole years because of that whole crazy thing,

and now you're back to playing VR games again. Something's wrong with you.

In an objective sense, her friend was probably right. Many people believed

that every last SAO Survivor should despise the full-dive interface that locked

them in that VRMMO and never approach such a thing again. She wasn't going

to complain about that viewpoint. In fact, there were plenty of students at the

special school for SAO Survivors who had sworn off VR games for good.

But Keiko didn't want to do that.

That was all it came down to, so why wouldn't people leave her alone about

it?

Despite all that's happened, I still like playing full-dive games, she mumbled,

but her friend had persisted, asking her to explain it. The school counselor had

said the same thing, and so did her parents.

She couldn't explain it. Even Keiko didn't know where this feeling was coming

from, shining with light from deep in her chest, igniting longing and

anxiousness. She felt bad that she kept worrying her parents, and she was

deeply grateful to them for not trying to force her away from VR games, but

that was why she didn't want to answer the question with clichés.

There was something there.

If you boiled it down to the deepest point, that was probably it.

Full-dive VR worlds had something in them that drew Keiko to them. She

wanted to know what that was, but she didn't need to understand it. She just

wanted to feel its existence. Now and forever. No matter what happened.

That was what she told herself, but…

"…I don't think I ever expected this to happen, Pina," Silica whispered. The

little baby-blue dragon on her head chirped in response. Lisbeth was weaving

dried grass a little ways away; she looked up and asked, "Did you say

something?"

Silica shook her head. "No. Nothing."

"Oh…"

Normally, Lisbeth would persist until she found out what was bothering Silica,

but this time she just went back to her labor. She had to be really tired by now.

The black-haired little girl working diligently next to her beamed. "We can do

this, Liz! If we just make twenty-two more ropes and sixteen more dried-grass

bundles, and find forty-five more sturdy branches, we're done collecting

materials!"

"…Y-yeah…," mumbled Lisbeth, her expression going blank when she heard

the actual numbers left.

The three of them were sitting in a circle, inside a depression at the foot of a

cliff. It wasn't far enough in to be a cave, but it was about ten feet deep and six

feet tall, so it made for a good temporary shelter. And there was fresh

underground water dripping from a crack in the back wall, too. A little fire built

of dried branches crackled in their midst.

They were surrounded by arid wasteland and hadn't found a single source of

water on their trek here. The dripping of water happened about once every two

seconds, but when their thirst points started dropping, they couldn't be choosy

about it. They needed to build up some means of survival as soon as possible.

In keeping with this line of thought, Lisbeth slapped her cheeks with both

hands and exclaimed, "Yeah, we've survived this far! Let's not get down now,

Silica!"

In response, Silica raised the rope she'd just finished making. "I've been

working hard this whole time! This is the fourteenth one!"

"What?! You're not gonna beat me!"

Lisbeth began working her hands with a renewed fervor, while the blackhaired girl, Yui the artificial intelligence, pumped an adorable little fist toward

the night sky outside the hollow and cheered, "That's the spirit, Liz and Silica!"

Three hours had already passed since the mystery incident that hit ALO,

sending the floating castle New Aincrad crashing to earth and completely

altering the game system. It was eight o'clock in the real world.

When New Aincrad stopped floating and started falling, Silica, Lisbeth, and Yui

were in a canyon at the edge of the forty-fifth floor. The snail-type monsters

there bearing rock shells were really hardy but had low attack power, which

made them perfect for skill leveling.

They had been working on their weapon skills and getting ready to leave the

canyon to take a break to wait for Kirito's group to show up when the ground

began violently trembling. They'd hastily spread their wings and leaped into the

air but hadn't realized the entire structure of New Aincrad was falling, and they

collided with the bottom of the floor above.

By following Yui's orders, they made it to the outer aperture somehow and

did their best to get away from the falling castle, but they had distanced

themselves no more than a hundred yards when New Aincrad crashed into land

behind them with all the force of the Tunguska event. Silica held Pina and

Lisbeth held Yui as the shock wave threw them through the air to land in a

barren landscape they didn't recognize.

It had taken about fifteen minutes for them to confirm they weren't in

salamander or imp territory, their stats had been completely reset, their wings

and all items except for main weapons and armor were gone, and that Yui had

lost her navigation pixie capabilities. The three of them plus Pina wandered the

wilderness in search of water and shelter, until they'd found the overhang

about an hour ago.

Silica and Lisbeth had both logged out once already, gone to the bathroom

and replenished their fluids, so they knew this new world wasn't some

inescapable death game like SAO. But they also discovered new problems in

doing so—like ALO, logging out while still in the open left your avatar in place

for a certain amount of time.

In the area around the hollow prowled dangerous giant scorpions and sandcolored wolves that were much too tough to be starter-zone monsters; if their

empty avatars were discovered by these predators, they wouldn't last more

than a few seconds. Until they knew exactly what death meant in this game—

whether simply returning to a resurrection point or more severe consequences

like losing experience, money, or items—they wanted to avoid losing all their

HP.

So they took the pre-log-out warning seriously—If you do not log out in a safe

location, you may die while disconnecting—and made it their first priority to

acquire that safe location. Liz happened to discover the Beginner Carpentry skill

and, upon activating it, saw a single name in the structures category: something

called a crude hut.

"Here I was, planning to buy that same old two-story shop with a waterwheel

from SAO when the forty-eighth floor opened up…and now I'm trying to build a

crude hut," Lisbeth grumbled, looking out of their little hollow in the rock. The

sun had gone down, and there was no light out in the wilderness.

"I wonder what happened to New Aincrad," murmured Silica.

Yui stopped working and looked away, her long eyelashes downcast. "At the

moment New Aincrad made contact with the ground, I still had access to the

map data…and everything from the first to the twenty-fifth floor was

completely obliterated."

The mention of the twenty-fifth floor caused Silica to gasp. Lisbeth twitched

visibly. But Yui quietly continued.

"The floors that escaped total destruction were still partially damaged in

places. I also detected that about twelve hundred of the ALO players still inside

the structure of New Aincrad died upon impact."

Silica simply stared, taking in the enormity of that statement.

A part of her had been hoping that this was all a dramatic surprise story

event, but hearing that over a thousand players died eliminated that possibility

for good. This was still the grace period, so she assumed the dead had been

revived without a harsh penalty, but beyond that, it was too far outside the

bounds of being a scripted game event.

When Yui resumed weaving her grass, Lisbeth asked hesitantly, "Um, Yui…you

lost your powers around the same time that we lost our wings, right?"

"That's correct," said the girl in the little white dress. "It was at precisely

17:05 on September twenty-seventh that a number of phenomena occurred at

once. The hexagonal pattern that appeared five minutes prior vanished, all the

in-game UI systems changed, my system access privileges were revoked, and

my avatar transformed from pixie to human. According to the game system, I

am now classified as a player, like you. I have no special capabilities…"

The little girl hung her head. Silica reached out as far as she could and

wrapped her hand around Yui's shoulder. "It'll be all right, Yui. I'm sure we'll

find a way to get you back to normal."

"…Thank you. I'm sorry for worrying you," the AI said, bowing. To their

surprise, she mumbled, "The truth is…a part of me is a little happy about this

situation."

"H-happy? Why?"

"Now I can carry items and equip weapons and armor. I have an HP bar. If I

lose all my HP, I'll die like you. It's not clear what will happen after that, but for

the first time, I'm another VRMMO player…I'm in the same position as you and

Papa and Mama. I'm scared of losing HP, but even that fear is a new and

fascinating sensation for me."

It was hard for Silica to understand exactly what all these things were

supposed to mean, but a part of her understood perfectly.

Yui had always been an observer of everything—from SAO, to ALO, to the

Ordinal Scale incident, to even the Otherworld War in the Underworld. At last,

things were different in the mysterious new world of Unital Ring. She had a

human-sized avatar—though still smaller than even Silica's—with four new

status bars. She'd lose TP when she was thirsty, SP when she was hungry, and

HP when she was hurt. Yui wasn't an observer anymore. She was one of the

protagonists of this world.

"…Then we'd better find you some good weapons and armor!" Lisbeth said,

brandishing her newly woven rope like a sword.

She and Silica were still wearing their weapons and armor from ALO. It was

how they were able to defeat the scorpions and camel spiders that attacked in

the wilderness, but all Yui had was a thin dress, which was basically no defense

at all. And if Yui's guess that they were in a temporary grace period was correct,

it was quite possible that Silica and Lisbeth would be over-encumbered when it

ended and no longer able to equip their gear. It was clear that they needed

equipment for the three of them.

"But first, we need to get ourselves a home!" Silica insisted.

Lisbeth snorted mightily. "I just finished my twentieth one of these."

"What…? When did you get past me?"

Impressed by her friend the crafter, Silica worked feverishly on her task.

When you wove the dried grass from end to end, the whole thing flashed faintly

and turned into a firm rope. Yui finished her task at about the same time, which

meant that of the items they needed for the hut, they'd put together the sixty

crude whithergrass ropes.

If she tapped the freshly made rope, the properties window included a brief

description beneath the item name and durability meter.

A crude, narrow rope woven from whithergrass, which grows in arid regions. It

is tough but susceptible to dampness. The Bashin people are said to boil and eat

them.

"I guess this means that if you make a rope with other kinds of grass, the

properties will change," Silica murmured.

Lisbeth looked over her shoulder to read it and said, "Hmm…I suppose so.

Ugh, this game is so much work…And I really don't want to eat these…"

"I agree with you on both points."

Yui giggled at the two of them. The mention of Bashin people in the text was

curious, but she banished the thought from her mind to focus on the task at

hand.

"Well, now we need sixteen bundles of dried grass…"

"And forty-five sturdy branches. We'll have to go gathering supplies again,"

said Lisbeth gloomily, looking out of the hollow.

Normally, if you went outdoors in the middle of the night in VRMMORPGs, it

was never truly dark. There was always some level of ambient lighting in SAO

and ALO, enough to see the contours of the ground at the very least. But this

place was as dark as the real world was at night. If they went out without a

light, they could easily tumble off a cliff without even realizing it was there.

Lisbeth raised her right hand and enunciated familiar spell words.

"Ek skapa ljós!"

That was the elementary spell for light, something most players in ALO had

memorized. But unsurprisingly, there was no ball of light in her hand, nor even

a puff of black smoke for failure. Lisbeth sighed, turned around, and shrugged.

"There's magic here, too, right?"

"There's an MP bar, so I would assume so…but I have no idea how you

actually use it," said Silica, shrugging, too. Her hands fell onto her lap.

Many VRMMORPGs allowed players to use magic, but their execution fell into

three broad categories. You could speak Spellwords aloud as in ALO, perform

physical gestures with your hand or staff, or simply select them from a magical

grimoire or holo-window. If it used words or gestures, they'd never guess them

at random, and they had no spellbooks on hand.

"I suspect there will be an NPC who will teach the Magic skill—or something

of that nature. Magic will have to wait until then," Yui said. Silica nodded in

agreement.

If they couldn't use magic, it was tempting to wait until it got light out, but if

this world was on ALO's sixteen-hour day, they'd have to wait six hours until

morning. On a twenty-four-hour day, that would be more like ten hours. It was

very possible their grace period would end before then, so they needed to risk

danger and leave the hollow to gather the other materials.

Silica reached out and pulled a longer branch from their little campfire. She

tapped the safe end of the twig with the weak little flame at the tip.

Burning Thin Branch, Weapon/Material, Attack Power: 0.43 striking, 0.37

burning, Durability: 1.44, Weight: 0.69.

The durability number was decreasing by 0.01 about every two seconds. It

would burn up in less than five minutes. It wouldn't be much good as a torch if

it couldn't last at least twice that long, and the light it offered was weak, to

boot.

"Um…how is a torch different from a regular branch again?" Silica wondered.

Lisbeth just inclined her head in confusion. Fortunately, Yui could provide an

answer.

"A torch is a stick with the end wrapped in a cloth soaked in flammable

solution."

"Flammable…solution…?"

"Usually oil or sap. The Japanese word for torch is written with the kanji for

pine and light because they traditionally used turpentine, which is distilled from

pine trees."

Lisbeth looked at Yui with amazement. "Yui…did you just search for that

information?"

"No. I cannot connect to the external Internet right now…It is information

saved in my primary memory space."

"Whoa…," Lisbeth gasped. She walked over to Yui and ruffled her hair with

both hands. "You really are amazing, Yui! Even without your navigation, you can

help in so many ways. You should be more proud of yourself!"

"Heh…heh-heh…" Yui giggled awkwardly, unsure. "But…just knowing how

torches were made doesn't help us very much in this case. We don't have any

turpentine or cloth…"

"That's not true!" insisted Lisbeth. She crouched and began to collect the bits

of dried grass that scattered around during the rope-making process. Then she

wrapped the bunch around a branch that hadn't been used for the fire yet.

When done, the branch flashed. Lisbeth checked the properties window and

then pumped her fist.

"See, dried grass can be flammable, too! The item name is just crude torch,

but it'll last longer than the stick by itself."

"Ooh, this is actually very clever for you, Liz!" said Silica, clapping her hands

twice and following her lead. When she placed the crude torch into the fire to

light it, the effect was much brighter than the branch alone.

"This should really help with gathering the other materials!"

"You bet. Now let's go rustle up some more dried grass and branches!"

With their torches alight, they took a few steps toward the hollow when

Lisbeth turned back around.

"Wait, Silica. What did you mean, very clever for me?"

"What a late reaction!" Silica shouted. Yui giggled with delight, and Pina even

chirped to join in the fun.

There were no green plants in the wilderness around the cliff hollow, but

dried grasses with sharp, jagged edges—the whithergrass in question—and

withered trees the color of bone were here and there, so it wasn't that hard to

forage for what they needed. Still, the only blade they had was Silica's dagger,

so she had to be the one to cut the grass, while Lisbeth focused on whacking off

the branches of the dead trees with her mace. Yui offered to carry the torches,

but they needed to get her a weapon soon. Only then would they know if an AI

could fight as well as a player could.

Silica walked next to Yui with the impromptu torch for a light source, and

when she found a whithergrass, she grabbed the whole bundle at the root with

her free hand, then sliced through it all with the dagger and tossed the plants

into her inventory.

Issreidr, her dagger, was an excellent weapon she acquired in Jotunheim.

Originally, it had a bunch of special effects like added ice damage and increased

stats and resistances. But looking at the properties now, it only inflicted physical

slashing damage, and everything else had vanished. But the damage number

itself was far higher than the tree branches, so she had to rely on it for now. If

Yui's suspicions about a grace period were correct, however, and it ended, or

she removed it from her equipment screen at any point, it would probably be

too heavy for a level-1 character to lift again.

The same could be said of Lisbeth's mace, so they wanted to get new

weapons not just for Yui, but for themselves as well. However, there were no

shops out here in the empty wilderness, and even if there were, they didn't

have a single copper coin to their names. At this rate, within a couple of hours,

they'd be forced to wear clothes woven of grass and carry wooden clubs like

primitive folk.

If it comes to that, I want to make sure Liz dresses down first, so I can get my

laughs in, she thought as she chopped off another whithergrass plant.

At that moment, Pina growled deep in its throat, from atop Silica's head.

"Krrruuu…"

It was a warning. Silica had known her companion for years and could

understand the finer nuances of its vocalizations. Multiple things are

approaching from a distance, but I don't know if they're hostile was the

message. Silica's triangular ears swiveled, and she got the feeling that she heard

footsteps on the night breeze.

"Put out the torch, Yui!" she said quietly. Yui promptly stuck the flames into

the sand. It was immediately dark, but not complete darkness. Lisbeth was still

striking a tree less than twenty feet away.

"Liz, something's coming!"

Lisbeth was a blacksmith by trade but an excellent macer in combat, and her

reaction was quick. She smacked the torch against the ground to put it out,

then rushed back, her steps light and quiet.

"Wolf? Scorpion?" she whispered, but Silica shook her head.

"Pina doesn't know what it is, so it must be neither of those. Something new."

"Probably best not to rush out and attack wildly, then," said the blacksmith.

She pointed to a large nearby rock. They moved over to hide behind it, side by

side. At this moment, the darkness of night was welcome. If it was the kind of

monster that targeted by sight, it would have a hard time spotting the three of

them here.

Silica listened again. She didn't know if the cait sith's listening bonus still

worked here, but the footsteps were clearer than before. It seemed to be

coming from the northeast direction on the map—the opposite of where New

Aincrad landed.

Suddenly, she was aware of a faint vibration. It was Yui, her body pressed

against Silica, trembling.

I guess even an AI is frightened in this situation…

Instantly, Silica felt ashamed for thinking that. Yui was an AI, but she could

enjoy and take delight in things, as well as feel love, so of course she could have

the opposite feelings, too. She'd just been given an HP bar for the first time in

her life, and now she was out in the darkness, listening to some unknown thing

approaching. Her being afraid was only natural.

And because Yui was helping them with their skill leveling when New Aincrad

went down, she'd been separated from Kirito and Asuna. She must have been

dying to see her beloved parents again, but rather than logging out, she was

staying here with Silica and Lisbeth to help.

She had to protect Yui herself.

With that in mind, she pulled Yui's shoulder closer and whispered, "It's all

right. Even in this situation, Liz and I are pretty tough."

"That's right. If anything comes at us, kapow! Strike one!" Lisbeth murmured,

holding her mace with both hands like a baseball bat.

"Liz, a strike is when…"

…the batter swings and misses, Silica was going to say, but she didn't get to

finish. They heard a deep, thick voice from a surprisingly close distance.

Not the growling of a monster. A human voice.

But no matter how hard they listened, the words themselves were

unintelligible. It wasn't an issue of volume; the voice was not speaking Japanese

—or any other language Silica could recognize.

" , ."

The strange voice was oddly warped, like some kind of magic spell rather than

words. It echoed off the rocks behind them. Then another voice responded.

" , ."

Silica held her breath and clutched Yui's body harder. Lisbeth raised her mace

at the ready.

A number of footsteps sounded, sifting the sandy ground. They approached

the group from the right, passed just behind the rock—then began to move

farther on to the left.

But it was too early to relax. If this was some kind of staged event battle, the

footsteps could fade out, then come rushing back, or suddenly jump at them

from the opposite direction. If the voices belonged to monsters or NPCs rather

than players, the game system would be well aware that the three players were

there, after all.

Silica listened to the fading footsteps, being cautious of not just the left side,

but the right and above. Once she was sure the figure was far enough away, she

finally pulled her back off of the rock and carefully peered around the side.

Three human beings were walking across the wilderness.

They did not appear to be players. All three were men, wearing simple armor

made of cloth and leather, carrying large torches in their left hands and spears

or axes in their right. Their exposed skin, of which there was a lot, was grayishbrown. Their hair was tied into narrow braids that hung from the top of their

heads to nearly the waist.

The trio walked in a straight line, occasionally looking around them. They

were heading for the tall cliff that spanned the wilderness from east to west.

And as soon as she recognized this, Silica gritted her teeth, realizing their

mistake.

A tiny spot at the foot of the cliff was faintly glowing. It was the campfire they

had left burning at the hollow.

For an instant, when they were leaving the campfire behind, she had

considered putting it out. But it had been a difficult process of striking different

kinds of rocks together to spark the fire in the first place, and she didn't want to

go through it all over again. Clearly, the men had noticed the light of the fire

from a distance and gone to inspect it.

If they put out the fire, that was one thing. But there was also that pile of sixty

whithergrass ropes in the hollow with it. If they destroyed or stole those, that

would significantly decrease the chances of building a proper shelter before the

grace period ended.

"Our ropes," murmured Lisbeth, who was thinking the same thing.

Should they focus on safety and hide here? Or chase after the men for the

sake of the ropes? Silica wasn't sure which was the better option.

What would he do in this situation? What would the Black Swordsman's

choice be?

Give up on the items and stay hidden? No, he wouldn't do that. He might not

launch a preemptive attack, but he would at least make contact with them and

try to protect what was worth protecting…and he'd find a way to enjoy the

situation for what it was.

New Aincrad had fallen, their characters were reset, and the whole game

system was different—but it was an undeniable truth that Unital Ring was still a

game. You could log out, and since they were using AmuSpheres, losing all your

HP didn't mean dying. She was level-1 again, but she still had her gear and her

Short Sword skill. The proper choice was to act.

"Yui…you stay here," she whispered after three seconds of gathering her

courage.

"But—," Yui protested. Silica squeezed her tight, then let go. She made eye

contact with Lisbeth, and they were ready to go.

Silica pressed Yui against the side of the rock, then leaped out of the hiding

spot and began to sprint. Lisbeth was soon at her side. They'd put their torches

out, but the men had light of their own to follow.

After weaving around a rock about Silica's height, they could see the trio.

They were already at the entrance to the hollow, peering inside with their

weapons raised.

Once they were within ten yards, the men sprang upright.

" !!" shouted the spearman, spinning around. The two axmen took

positions to the sides. Based on his equipment and decorations, the one with

the spear was their leader. They had fierce war paint on their faces, but even

beneath that, it was clear that their expressions were hostile, too.

Silica stopped about fifteen feet away from the men and shouted desperately,

"W-we do not wish to fight you!"

She slipped the dagger in her right hand into the sheath behind her back.

Lisbeth pointed her mace straight downward and announced, "We just don't

want you to take those ropes away from us!"

But their expressions didn't change. One of them inched forward and again

shouted, " !!"

It sounded less like words and more like some kind of totally unintelligible

electronic noise. That meant their own speech probably meant nothing to the

other side. And these were definitely not players, but NPCs.

" …," growled one of the axmen. The tall spearman nodded back. He held

out his weapon, its metal tip gleaming and sharp, as he moved closer to the

girls. A battle seemed unavoidable.

Silica was preparing for the worst when a voice said, "Keep talking to them a

bit longer!"

She gasped. It was Yui, who had left the rock behind and followed them here.

If it turned into a battle with these men, and they lost all their HP, Silica and

Lisbeth would either revive somewhere else or, in a worst-case scenario, be cut

off from the game. But there was no guarantee it would work the same way for

Yui. If it was some kind of error that she'd been turned from a navigation pixie

in ALO to a player here, there was no telling what might happen if she died.

Perhaps it would cause damage to her core program on Kirito's PC…or worse…

They'd have to attack first if they were going to protect Yui, Silica thought.

She clenched the hilt of her dagger, but Yui spoke again before she could strike.

"What they're speaking is a variation on the default JA language setting of the

Seed format! It's Japanese! There's just a multilayered filter on it. If I have more

samples, I might be able to decode it!"

Silica found it difficult to understand what she meant. But she got the general

gist of it: The gray-skinned men were actually speaking Japanese—it just didn't

sound that way to her.

She threw her hands out and shouted, "Wait! We don't want to fight you!"

Pina picked up on her intent and squeaked "Kweee!" from atop her head.

The spearman's eyes passed over Silica's head, and he shouted back, " ,

!"

The axmen at his sides replied, " ! !" Their hostility did not fade. The

pointy end of the spear grew closer and closer. In another three feet, Silica

would be within the enemy's striking range.

"…If they start with us, Silica, you pick up Yui and run away," Lisbeth

whispered, and Silica nodded back. It would hurt to lose those sixty ropes, but

they weren't worth Yui's safety.

I'll wait three seconds, then kick up sand and run for it, Silica thought. She

tensed, putting strength in her right foot. One, two…

" , !!" said a voice that did not belong to the three men.

It was Yui. The distorted and noisy affect sounded exactly like the men's

voices.

The spearman flinched and leaned away, blinking with shock. His expression

of pure hostility shifted into one mixed with confusion and hesitation as he

turned to look at his companions.

"… ?"

Silica couldn't understand anything the man said except that it was a question

somehow. Yui answered with something else. Their conversation continued

back and forth briefly, and to the girls' disbelief, the men suddenly lowered

their weapons and smiled with relief.

Yui came walking up past them, then turned around in front of the girls.

"Silica, Liz, it is safe now. These people are warriors of the Bashin tribe that

lives on the highlands north of here. They saw New Aincrad fall and came to

investigate what happened. They were afraid we were demons transformed

into people, but when I told them that we were simply lost, they believed me."

"…Demons…," Silica mumbled.

Liz shook her head. "I mean, talk about rude. Have you ever seen a demon

this cute?"

"You're about as greedy as one."

"Did you say something?"

"Not at all."

While they bickered, the spearman walked into the hollow and pointed at the

heap of whithergrass ropes stacked up on the floor. He looked at them and

asked, " , ?"

"He is asking Did you make these?" Yui interpreted. Silica nodded, and the

spearman spoke some more.

"He is asking Do you know the proper way to eat them?"

"…"

She and Lisbeth shared a look, then shook their heads in unison.

" ."

"He says: I will teach you the way if you follow us."

"...…"

They didn't seem to have the option of refusing. The spearman beckoned

them, and the group started walking with the men in the direction they came

from.

"…Well, we've passed the plate of no return," said Lisbeth.

"I think you're mixing your metaphors," said Silica, who trotted into the

hollow and lifted up the pile of ropes. They'd have to pause their material

gathering for now, but at this rate, they might not need to build a shelter after

all.

Please let there not be more trouble after this, Silica prayed as she and her

friends followed the Bashin warriors to the northeast.