Demon Swordsman: Remastered (Sword Art Online X Male Reader)

Chapter 8 - Red-Nosed Reindeer Part 2

December 24th, 2023. Over a year since SAO started.

The part that never made sense is how people could be so happy while trapped within a literal Death Game. The sounds of jingling bells and constant cheerful laughter and voices filling the open space of one of the many towns within Aincrad felt wrong. In my opinion. Not that my opinion mattered since I was sitting off to the side, watching everything like some creep. Then again, it was this way back in the real world anyway. I never understood the concept of celebrating Christmas, despite Violet's attempts at trying to change that. She always went out during the holidays.

When I say all out, I mean all out.

Violet always put up a tree, decorated the entire house, baked all day, and got presents, despite it only being her and me during these holidays. The family wasn't big. It was only us. Her job kept her busy most of the year all around, and I was a kid trying to make it through school with a gaming addiction. Yet these celebrations became a tradition one year after I went to stay with Violet, so it felt weird staying crammed within an Inn room today, so that's how I found myself sitting in the main plaza of a town while keeping to myself.

One year, she even wore a red and white suit. It was... amusing.

Grabbing my face, I sighed, "Violet," and looked at the sky. Falling from the sky were droplets of snow, piling on the ground to create a layer of snow across everything around Aincrad. It looked festive. However, my eyes were looking past these droplets of snow in my vision, staring at the stars littering the bottom of the next floor above since seeing real stars within Aincrad was impossible.

I wondered what Violet was doing now that I was trapped within a Death Game. Would she continue the tradition? Was she in the hospital room with me, wondering if I was fighting or hiding? It sounded like a depressing Christmas, in my opinion. I didn't even know if Violet had friends she could spend the holidays with. Seeing how her nephew was stuck in a Death Game, she might not want to.

It wasn't like my plans were any better. I wanted to continue learning the Mark of Darkness and how it worked, which had progressed over the months since I first awakened it, but since I wanted to participate in the family tradition, I decided to take a break today. I never did much for Violet, never verbally said anything about how I appreciated the tradition and how she made an effort with me, so I owed this to her even if she wasn't going to see it because I was inside a Death Game.

Maybe when this is over, if I'm still alive by then, I could make an effort to celebrate with her.

It had already passed, but one year had already passed since the start of this Death Game since we were told we were trapped within a game and the only way out was to clear the summit of an impossibly huge tower. It didn't sound as impossible as it did back then, though. The frontlines had progressed quite far. The frontlines were now the forty-ninth floor of Aincrad, one floor from the halfway point. The thought of being freed from this game was nearly there, and maybe that is why everybody seemed so cheerful. The Clearers, a team working closely to clear each challenging floor, was progressing against the overwhelming number of floors.

But I wouldn't know firsthand anymore.

A little after obtaining the Mark of Darkness, maybe roughly past the last time I saw Kirito and our final competition, I stopped attending the boss fights and meetings. I effectively parted ways with the Clearers. Did that make me a Clearer by name? Maybe. Who knows. Was I still a Clearer? Probably. Did I have plans to go back? Right now, yeah. Some day. My progress with the Mark of Darkness was going nicely, so heading back wasn't out of the question. Asuna had bugged me about it when we ran into each other on a lower floor. She asked me about Kirito, but I didn't know much, which made her frown before leaving the topic behind. I still question that to this day.