Sword Art Online - Alternative Reality

The Vice-commander and The Scout CHP.2

Saying our thanks for the food to the NPC hostess, we exited the bar at the edge of town. My partner of 10 months and counting took one last look at the establishment before turning around and with a surprised look on her face.

"You know, how did you end up finding this place? It's a nice place for privacy, but it's really out of the way."

"Ah, I bought the info from Argo after our usual places began getting packed. I found some other places that fit the bill, but they take a bit longer to get to."

"Hmm, let's try eating out in those places next time then. Well, let's get going then."

Setting off towards the center in town, I picked up my pace and started walking at the side of the vice-commander of the KoB, the level 51 fencer, Asuna. It was already 8 pm, so the streets of the frontier town Skell were empty as people began to settle in for the night or head out for another round of late-night grinding. Usually, after our meetings, I would split off from Asuna to do another round myself, but since we were going to spend her day off together, it would be better to head to bed early. Sneaking a glance at her side profile, the memories of when this sort of schedule started began to surface.

5 months ago, back in April, I had half-succeeded in convincing the fencer to join a guild. Originally, I wanted her to join alone because my presence was more likely to limit her growth, but she ended up dragging me into the KoB alongside her. As the freshly established vice-commander, Asuna wasted no time in organizing not just our guild, but the entire clearing group as a whole. After the disaster that was on the 25th floor, morale and hopes were abysmally low, and the familiar despair that had surrounded everyone when this death game first started returned. But just like I expected, Asuna managed to rally the groups together, coming up with new plans and strategies that minimized our risk while maximizing our clearing efficiency. The 26th floor was cleared perfectly, and until now there have been zero casualties in the clearing group.

As the vice-commander, Asuna was in charge of leading the main body of the guild in our floor conquests, as well as managing the guild with our treasurer, Daizen, and the guild leader, Heathcliff. When we first joined, she had worked for two weeks straights, and apparently, she was going to refuse any days off. Fortunately, Godfree, one of the sub-commanders, shot me a message while I was on my way back to town, and I got to the meeting just in time to get the approval for a mandatory day-off each week, although, maybe using a teleport crystal to get to the meeting faster was a bit excessive...

With Asuna busy powering up the guild and effectively leading the clearing group, I was busy fulfilling my role as 'scout', gathering as much information as I could ahead of time to try and make her life just a bit easier. Since we ended up staying together, I had to put my all into making up for my past mistakes, and that my presence wouldn't dim the light of hope that she represented. Although she has scolded me a few times for 'going overboard', considering it was nothing in comparison to what she was facing, I've just had to sit through big-sister sessions and switch out any gear that was too damaged when we met up. Still, how did she notice my sword had taken a beating today...

As a result of our hectic schedules, outside of boss meetings and raids, the only times we got together were our daily info exchanges, maintenance trips, or when our days off aligned, which to be fair, happened surprisingly often. Although now thinking on it, it was the guild leader who was in charge of setting the dates for those...

Lost in thought, it took me a second to realize we had reached the center of the town and that Asuna had stopped, looking straight at me. I thought she was leading us to the inn the KoB was staying out, so what was the issue?

"Is something wrong?"

"No, but I don't know the inn you're staying at, since you didn't say anything, I thought it was near the center of town."