Always Deadly - Arc 2

Chapter 11
[August 29, 2023 – Floor 39]

“Hm? Did you say something?” I asked as we made our way through the forest.

Phage seemed extremely flustered.

“N-No! I didn’t say anything!”

I stopped and turned to look at her.

“Are you really alright? Your face is redder than that Ranken Udon bowl.”

It really was. I assumed she just said something really embarrassing while I wasn’t listening. I moved closer to her so I could get a better look, which produced unexpected results. Her face was glistening in the moonlight just like the night when I last used my mask. It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. I felt the blood rush to my cheeks. We were having what some people called “a moment.”

“Nedeli-kun… are you… blushing?” Phage asked.

“I think I am…”

“But why?”

“It’s just that…”

“What?”

“You look so beautiful…”

Phage was taken aback by my comment, but only for a second.

“N-Nedeli-kun… you…”

My heart was pounding. Our faces drew closer and closer together. Our lips were about to touch when we were suddenly interrupted.

“Finally found you!” Nemesis shouted from the trees.

Phage and I both jumped back in surprise, with me falling on my bottom.

Nemesis jumped and landed on a tree directly behind us, and hung upside down from a branch.

“Huh? Were you two in the middle of something?”

“N-No!” Phage exclaimed.

I was too stunned to say anything.

Nemesis tilted her head.

“Are you sure it was nothing…?”

I finally got myself to speak.

“W-Well, it wasn’t anything that big…”

“(I see.) ”

I got up and said, “Should we get going?” They both nodded and I turned to face the direction we were originally going in. I heard Phage say, “Get down from there,” and then the sound of leaves and branches rustling, and then a thump. Nemesis consequently said, “Owww…”

---

[April 13, 2024 – Floor 59]

It had been several months since I rescued Phage and we almost kissed. Over half of the 10,000 players of SAO have died. The clearing group had been making stable progress on beating the floors, Phage, Nemesis, and I included. We had been getting even stronger and faster than before, with the only problem being that our equipment items were running out of enhancement slots.

“Hey, Nedeli-kun, did you hear about the murder in the safe area that happened yesterday?” Phage asked.

I looked up from my usual bowl of noodle soup. “Hm? Oh, that.”

“It’s scary, isn’t it?”

“Well, wasn’t it already resolved?”

“Eh?”

“Yeah, they said that his armor breaking was really the cause of the shards and he used a teleport crystal at the last moment.”

“Oh? So that’s it.”

I nodded and went back to eating my soup. Even though Floor 59 was considerably higher than Floor 39, the soup tasted exactly the same. Not that I was tired of the taste, though. It was good soup, but I was disappointed that it didn’t really taste any better than it did on previous floors. Just then, Phage received a message.

“Asuna wants my help again with the Knights of The Blood Oath, “ she said. “I guess we’ll have to do that thing later then, Nedeli-kun.”

“Oh, (sister), can I come too?” Nemesis said with her mouth full.

“Eh? Why?”

“I need to level up a bit more, so isn’t it fine if I come?”

“But this isn’t exactly a-“

“Please?”

Phage sighed. “Alright, but don’t complain to me.”

Nemesis finished her food and got up.

“Let’s go.”

“What?” Phage replied. “But I’m not done with my food yet.”

“(Too slow! Hurry up!)”

“(Y-Yes!)”

Phage started eating faster than any other time I’d seen her trying to eat fast. I said nothing and continued with my noodle soup.

“Okay, done! Let’s go!”

“(Yeah!)”

I felt like Nemesis’s “(Yeah!)” was done halfheartedly. I shrugged then went back to eating my soup, but then I realized that I had eaten all of it already. Leaving it there for the NPC waiter to clean it up, I left the inn and went out into the town of Danac. I checked the time, and saw that it was 13:02.

“A little grinding and a few quests couldn’t hurt, right?” I said to myself as I went into the open area outside of Danac. It wasn’t really anything special, just normal grassy plains and some trees. There were a few monsters too. This wasn’t the area with the best exp or loot drops, so I decided to clear every monster along the way. I pulled out my sword, got into a running stance, and said, “3… 2… 1… Go!”

---

I sheathed my sword and bent down, panting. The time was 17:46. I’d been grinding quests and monsters for over 4 hours. My equipment durability was getting low too.

Time to head back, then, I thought.

I took a look around.

Wait, where am I…?

I was in unfamiliar surroundings. When I checked my map, it seemed that I had wandered into a dungeon that wasn’t listed yet. Which meant that it hadn’t been discovered. Which meant that there was nothing to help me get out. I checked the dungeon’s name, and it said, “The Ever-Changing Cave”. That explained why I didn’t recognize the area I was currently in. But that also signified that the way out changed locations. The entrance I came through was now a wall of solid rock. After checking my potion and crystal stores, I decided to explore. The cave itself was the same in terrain and material, but the layout changed every so often. Navigating through it shouldn’t be too difficult. The ground was rock with a little sand; a few puddles of groundwater here and there, and there were a series of torches on the wall that never seemed to go out. I wandered around, keeping one hand against the wall. The vast corridors seemed to go on forever.

After a short while, I walked into a room with an unguarded treasure chest sitting on a stone pedestal. I opened it, expecting some kind of rare loot, but instead I got 50,000 Col.

Better than nothing, I guess, I thought to myself as I closed the chest and looked towards the exit, which had become a stone wall. I looked for the new exit, which was nowhere to be found. None of the walls had any doors, or anything that resembled a secret panel. There was no ceiling exit or trapdoor hidden underneath, either. I sighed. The only way out was to wait until the layout changed again. I sat down with the treasure chest against my back and explored the game settings.

==

“(Welcome, Master~!)” Phage said with a smile. “I see you already have a cup of our special Lavender Tea. Our special today is the Love Love Omelet Supreme. Would you like that, our Nekomimi Noodle Soup, or the Super Energy Steak?”

“Can I have…you?” the man sitting at the table asked.

“Ah, (sorry, Master), but I’m not on the menu…yet.” Phage replied with a wink.

“Haha, then I guess I’ll have the Love Love Omelet Supreme.”

“Okay! Coming right up, (Master!)”

“This is so embarrassing!” she thought.

Phage walked to the kitchen, and put on her apron, which was hanging from a wall hook. The smell of fresh food being “prepared with love” and several ingredients nonexistent in the real world filled her senses. The walls were covered in striped pink wallpaper, with recipe instructions covering one section. There were several outfitted girls cooking at stoves. Asuna was inside cooking a steak.

“Asuna, do we really have to do this?” Phage asked.

Asuna made a wry smile.

“There’s nothing we can really do about it. The KoB really needs the funds.”

“But couldn’t they have thought of something else?”

Phage emphasized the maid outfit she was wearing.

“This is too embarrassing!”

“I’m sorry,” Asuna replied with another wry smile.

Phage sighed and started up an open stove, heating a pan placed on top of it. She cracked open an egg and poured its contents into a bowl, where Phage mixed it together to make a yellow liquid. Phage poured the yellow liquid into the pan, and when it had hardened enough, she added various other ingredients into the omelet before folding it up and placing it on plate. She turned off the heat on the stove and grabbed a bottle of ketchup near her. With it, she wrote the words “Made with love, to Master” in English along with a drawing of a heart on the omelet.

“How’s your steak going, Asuna?” Phage asked, looking over to her friend.

Asuna wiped sweat from her forehead.

“It’s going slower than I thought. This meat is tough.”

“That’s weird. The meat’s supposed to be soft.”

“I could just get another steak, but then the customer might start to complain.”

Phage untied her apron and hung it on back on its wall hook.

“Hopefully mine won’t do anything weird.”

Phage took the omelet plate and walked out of the kitchen. She took the plate to the customer who ordered it, and served it with a smile.

“(Sorry for the wait!) Here’s the Love Love Omelet Supreme you ordered, made specially just~ for~ you~!”

“Aw yeah! (Let’s eat!)”

Phage stood there, trying as hard as she could to keep the generic smile on her face as she watched the man wolf down the omelet like a starved predator.

“How is it?” she asked.

“This is so freakin’ amazing I love this food,” he said, with his mouth completely full of said food.

“That’s good!” Phage replied.

“Although it’s not as nearly as amazing as how horrific your eating habits are…” she thought.

---

“Ah…(I’m so tired…)” Phage said as she entered the break room, where she found Asuna inside.

“(Good work),” Asuna said upon Phage’s entrance. “How many customers have you served today?”

“42. 14 of them hit on me.”

“You deserve this break then.”

“Yeah…”

A voice came from the changing rooms.

“U-Uhm…(Sister…?)”

Phage and Asuna got up to find the source of the voice, and saw Nemesis cowering behind the curtains to one of the stalls.

“What is it?” Phage asked.

“I can’t go out like this…” Nemesis replied.

“Like what?”

Nemesis let go of the curtains and opened them, revealing the maid outfit she had put on. She was also blushing profusely.

“Haaaa!!” Asuna squealed. “(So cute!)”

Nemesis once again used the curtains to hide herself, and this time her face was covered too.

“Discord Esper Shuvi does not approve of this outfit! It is unsuitable for interdimensional combat!” she exclaimed.

“But it really is cute on you,” Phage said.

“That’s the problem!”

Phage opened the curtains and dragged her sister out.

“Look, you’re the one who wanted to come with me, so you’re going to be a maid whether you like it or not.”

“Unhand me, foolish mortal!”

Phage swatted away the hand that Nemesis was using to cover her eye.

“You’re not going to get any customers like that.”

“(B-But!!)”

Phage dragged her all the way to the entrance, where a customer just entered the store.

“Go, do what you were instructed to do,” said Phage as she lightly shoved Nemesis towards the customer. Nemesis regained her balance and looked up towards the tall man that she was supposed to serve.

“(U-Um! W-Welcome, Master!)” she said with all the courage she could muster. “R-Right this way!”

The man nodded and headed to the table Nemesis pointed out. Nemesis herself hadn’t moved from her spot and looked back at her sister.

“(Sister, help me!)”

Phage smiled and said, “(Nope~)”

“Uwaaah…”

==

Eventually the dungeon changed again, and I was finally able to get out of that room. It was getting really late, so I decided to run through the dungeon to find the exit. For some odd reason, there were a lot fewer monsters than I thought there would be. While running through the corridors, I noticed a figure in the shadows. Seeing it had a player cursor, I was originally relieved to find someone else in there with me, but then I realized that it was an orange cursor.

I drew my blade, hoping to ambush this person who could be a player killer. I was about to land a hit on the player’s side when he pulled out his own sword and blocked mine. We locked swords, and I was able to get a better view of the player’s face. I saw that it was actually a girl, with long, pinkish-white hair and grayish-teal eyes like that of a ghost. Despite that, her eyes seemed to be filled with energy and strength. She was wearing sleeveless black armor with a red scarf circling her neck. She also wore a black skullcap on her head I recognized her immediately, and it seemed she knew me too.

“The Orange Blur…”

“The One-Cut Killer…”

Then we both smiled.

“Nedelin.”

“Seira.”