Chapter 144 - Busy Morning

It was 5:55 AM the next day when Drifter woke up on his own, 5 minutes before the alarm he had set, like he always did.

There was a weight on his chest, and he didn't need to look to know that it was Yuna snuggled up to him. Somehow, regardless of their arrangement when they went to sleep, it always ended up with his wife using him as a pillow by the time he woke up.

Not that he minded, of course. There was little he wouldn't give to wake up with Yuna in his arms everyday.

The spearmaster laid there contentedly for the next several minutes. While his own internal clock had woken him up at the usual time, Yuna was never a morning person, and he knew better than to try to wake up the sleeping tiger - err, songstress.

Shifting his body a bit to better distribute Yuna's weight and free a numb arm, Drifter caressed her silky hair. When he first met her, Yuna's hair was only shoulder length, but she had opted for letting it grow after finding out how much he enjoyed running his fingers through it.

"Humm... Hm."

This was the way to rouse Yuna from her dreams without risking her being grumpy all day, Drifter had learned. He continued to pat her hair as his wife slowly stirred awake.

"Good morning, my songbird."

A smile graced his lips when he watched Yuna sleepily open her eyes. Truly, he was blessed to have earned her love.

"Nng... Good morning, dummy. What time is it?"

"Past 6 o'clock already."

"Hmm... Can't we just laze around in bed today? I don't feel like fighting."

Drifter chuckled and pecked her cheek. They had the same argument every morning, and it always ended up the same way. Frontliners had little time to rest.

"SAO waits for no man or woman. But I'm sure a few minutes won't be a problem."

They did just that. For the next several minutes, the couple simply snuggled together, sometimes whispering softly to each other, but mostly silent, just content to be in each other's presence and feel their warmth.

By a tacit understanding, neither mentioned the meeting that took place yesterday. It would take time for Argo and Akari to turn up concrete results of their investigation, and, until then, discussing the Laughing Coffin situation would be useless.

"Alright, as enjoyable as this is, we really do have to get up. Argo is here, and she won't leave us alone with the innuendos if we are late."

After more than 15 minutes, Drifter finally patted Yuna's head and sat up. Since she was basically draped over him, her body was dragged over, causing her to yelp cutely.

Due to the sudden movement, the sheets slipped down, revealing Yuna's naked upper body. But the woman made no motion to cover up, and even crossed her arms and snorted.

"Hmph! She can make all the innuendos she wants. We are married! She should find her own husband and stop being jealous of mine."

Drifter's fingers reflexively tightened at the idea of the little rat, his little sister for all intents and purposes, finding a boyfriend, much less a husband. But he shook his head, noticing the upturned corners of Yuna's mouth, and knowing she was just joking.

"She is 15, silly."

"So are Asuna and Kirito, and don't you act like he hasn't come to you to talk about marrying her. Asuna sure did with me."

Drifter raised an eyebrow. Kirito had, indeed, asked him how it was like to be married, and Drifter had answered to the best of his abilities. After all, the circumstances surrounding his marriage with Yuna couldn't quite be considered 'standard'.

Then the spearmaster saw the smirk on Yuna's face, and knew she was thinking up ways to tease their lovebird friends, and probably Argo too.

"Kirito should just ask her already. I've only ever seen one person more obviously in love than him."

"Oh? Who?"

Yuna seemed genuinely curious, and Drifter found her obliviousness all the more endearing. He pulled her by the waist and kissed her neck, feeling her body shudder in his arms.

"Myself, of course. How could I not, when I have you? My songbird?"

Yuna's eyes glazed over, and she grabbed his head.

"Drifter..."

...

They were late for breakfast.

Nautilus, Agil, and many others shook their heads with wry smiles when they saw Drifter and Yuna walking down the stairs so close to each other that they were almost one body.

The pair was very rarely late, so they let it slide this time. Also because questioning them could only lead to awkwardness.

Just as well that they weren't the only ones who slept in today. After last night's heavy talk, many had difficulty falling asleep, and only ended up drifting into the dream world after 2 or 3 AM.

After Drifter and Yuna sat down at a table with Nautilus, Agil, Wolv, and Vallerk, it didn't take long for Argo to skulk over, heavy bags under her eyes. But at least, her expression was that of her normal trickster persona.

"Mornin', Dri-bou, Yu-chan."

"Good morning, little rat."

"Good morning, Argo."

Drifter ruffled Argo's head, and the girl huffed and pushed his hand away. She really hated being treated like a little kid, which only made Drifter want to do it more.

"What are yer plans for today, Dri-bou?"

The player considered it while spearing some sausages of unknown precedence with his fork.

"Leveling and exploring this floor, I guess. We still have to find out how to get to the ocean half."

"I heard two guys from the ALS tried to swim all the way up there, but ended up backing off after a bunch of Amihenta Decoys attacked them."

Wolv interjected, and Vallerk rolled his eyes.

"That was a stupid idea. Even if there were no mobs, did they really expect to make it to the top without breathing?"

"I suppose they could stick their heads out the side when they needed? Have to be careful not to fall though."

"There's so obviously another, proper way to get to the other safe zone. Bunch of idiots. And they called Kirito a cheater when they are trying to find shortcuts like that."

Yuuki and Ran appeared out of nowhere, completely derailing the conversation. Argo face-palmed and tugged on Drifter's sleeve, pulling him aside so they could talk properly.

"What's up, little rat?"

Following Argo to a somewhat quieter corner of the inn - with about 20 people in their guild, nowhere Reaver's Requiem was was ever truly quiet - Drifter tilted his head and looked at the info-broker.

"I was hopin' to borrow ya for today, Dri-bou. I wanna complete that Pluck the Starlight quest quickly so I can focus on Laughin' Coffin."

Hearing that, Drifter sobered up very quickly, his good mood vanishing. He frowned.

"We can definitely do that, little rat. If it's like the previous quests in the series, it'll also give us intel about the floor boss, so it's in our best interest to get it done swiftly."

"I thought ya would say that. Thanks a ton, Dri-bou."

The spearmaster grinned weakly and messed up Argo's hair again. This time, she let him do it without squirming much.

"Don't sweat it, little rat. I'm also curious to see how it goes."

They stayed in companionable silence for a few minutes, watching the chaos that was Reaver's Requiem's breakfast time. But eventually, someone had to address the elephant in the room.

"Argo... About Laughing Coffin and the red players. I know you are the best for the job, no matter how much I hate the idea of you putting yourself in danger."

"Hm."

"Just... Promise me you will be careful, okay? The two Fuumaningum ninjas who died, Ermao and the other player... It's sad, but I didn't know them. I don't really know any of them apart from Akari."

The info-broker turned her head to look up at him. She saw so many emotions swirling in his eyes. Most of all were love and care.

"Don't die. Don't get hurt. Don't even put yourself in danger, little rat. Please. Or I'll really hunt them down and kill all of them."

It sounded like a threat. Emotional blackmail. And it was, in a way. But it was also Drifter's purest, raw emotions. To him, not even all of Fuumaningum's players could compare to Argo's life.

It was bad to think like that, and he knew it. He also didn't care. He would rather 20 players he didn't know die than see Argo be harmed.

The info-broker stared at him, and for a moment Drifter saw something that looked suspiciously like tears in the corners of her eyes. But then Argo hugged him tight, and he was patting her head.

"Gotcha."

...

"Are ya sure it's a good idea for just the two of us to come, Dri-bou?"

Drifter raised an eyebrow at the informant. Despite her words, she was skipping along without a care in the world.

"What? Don't you trust your own information, little rat? I might have to switch brokers if the quality is declining this much."

"Hmph! Annoyin' guy!"

The spearmaster laughed, happy that he managed to distract Argo. He knew very well what she was afraid of was exactly that. That her information network couldn't be trusted anymore.

For the info-broker, that would be her greatest nightmare. If she sold information that turned out to be inaccurate or wholly untrue, all that she had built would collapse in the span of hours. Furthermore, wrong intel also put lives at risk, and, at least in Argo's mind, all that blood would be in her hands.

"The questline is mostly in the safe zone anyway. The worst we have to do is get some medals from those mole-like mobs."

"For now, yeah. But there's still gonna be a boss later on, Dri-bou. And even if we only have to fight the puppets, it ain't like they are weak mobs."

"True for both. But when we have to go farther than the surroundings of the town, I'll call over the others. As for the Ashara Puppets, I'm still Broken Spear Drifter, aren't I?"

The spearmaster struck a pose when he said that, and Argo stared at him for a painfully long time. It took him a few seconds to realize that she was taking a picture of him.

"That should sell for a good amount of cor."

"Wait, little rat! Don't you dare!"

He lunged and grabbed her shoulders, but he couldn't interact with her menu or stop her. The info-broker just snickered.

"Ya better never piss me off again or I'm sendin' this to Yu-chan, Dri-bou. Also never make that pose again, even if it's perfect blackmail material. I almost gagged."

Argo squirmed and escaped his grasp, jumping out of reach. Drifter just sighed dejectedly, knowing that before the sun was down, every player in Reaver's Requiem would have seen the picture.

"Alright, you win. Let's just get the items we need."

Defeated, Drifter led Argo through the town gates and out of the safe zone. Almost instantly, it was as if they had become two different people. Their eyes darted around, searching for threats, and they kept turning their heads from one side to the other, slowly, calmly, never missing anything around them. Argo had her claws equipped, and Drifter held his spear in hand.

They were barely 70 meters out of the city when the sand in front of them started pulsating in the now familiar pattern, and an Ashara Puppet emerged.

It was still the same white-furred mole-like humanoid, but this one was holding a pair of wickedly sharp metal rings, not dissimilar to Nezha's chakrams.

"Long-range weapons. Close in, little rat."

"I know, ya don't need to nag me."

Even before she was done speaking, the info-broker had already dashed forward, closing the distance between her and the mob before it could even think of throwing the rings.

"Tiger Claws!"

Crisscrossing wounds appeared in the Ashara Puppet's body, and it howled in pain before trying to clumsily slash at Argo with its rings, only for Drifter's spear to pierce its shoulder and push it back.

The spearmaster quickly retracted his weapon before stabbing again, a simple Sting breaking through the hasty defense the mob put up, and opening a hole in its throat.

That wasn't enough to finish off an enemy on the current highest floor of Aincrad, of course. But with Argo at extremely close range, clawing away at it with her unorthodox weapon and Martial Arts skills, and Drifter at mid-range restricting its movements, the Ashara Puppet couldn't make use of the greatest feature of its throwing rings, which was their long effective range.

Pah!

A Vertical carved a red line over the right side of the mob's torso, and it collapsed, dead. Amidst the flickering shards, Drifter looked to Argo and laughed.

"We aren't a bad team, little rat."

The info-broker flipped her hair with a grin.

"Heh! Don't think that just 'cause all of yer a frontliner ya can look down on little ol' me, Dri-bou. What do ya think? Should I join the Assault Team?"

Argo jested, and Drifter played along by making a horrified face.

"Please don't. Kirito, Asuna, Yuuki... If I have to look after another reckless kid, my heart might actually give out."

The next 15 minutes were spent trying to dodge Argo's claws. After all, he had already seen first-hand what they did to the poor mob, and he didn't fancy getting the same treatment.