Kirito's POV
There were four types of relationships that two players could have
within the SAO system.
First was two people who didn't really know each other. The second
was friends. People who had listed each other as friends could send
short messages to each other no matter where they were. They could
also search for each other's locations by map.
The third was guild comrades. Apart from the above benefits, they
also gained a slight increase in their stats when they partied with
members of the same guild. However, they had to give up a bit of the
Coll they earned as a sort of tax to the guild.
Up until now, Asuna and I were friends and members of the same
guild, despite the fact that we were taking a break from the guild. But
we had decided to enter the last type of relationship.
Marriage— although getting married was very simple. Once one
person sent the proposal message and the other person accepted it,
then they were married. But the difference between marriage and
friends or guild members was incomparably different.
Marriage in SAO meant the sharing of all information and items. One
could see the other's stat window at will, and even their inventory
windows had fused into one. In others words, it was entrusting one's
most important safety nets to their partners. In Aincrad, where
betrayals and fraud were common, few went as far as marriage even
amongst the closest couples. Of course, another important reason was
because of the extremely unbalanced male-female ratio.
The twenty-second floor was one of the most sparsely populated areas
in Aincrad. Since it was one of the lower floors, it was especially
large; but most of it was taken up by the forests and the numerous
lakes that were scattered around the area; therefore, the living area
was so small that it could be called a hamlet. Monsters seldom
appeared on the field, and since the difficulty level of the labyrinth
was exceptionally low, the level was cleared in three days and most
players didn't remember much of it.
Asuna and I decided to buy a small, round cottage within the woods
on the twenty-second floor to live in. Even though it was small, it still
cost a considerable amount of money to buy a house within SAO.
Asuna offered to sell her house in Salemburg, but I was strongly
against it, because selling such a perfectly furnished house would be
far too regrettable. So in the end, we gathered all of our rare items and
sold them with the help of Egil, which managed to provide just
enough money to buy the house.
Although Egil said with a sad expression that we could use the second
floor of his shop if we wanted, I thought that spending a newly-wed
life within a merchant shop was far too tragic. Furthermore, I didn't
even want to imagine what would happen once the fact that the allfamous
Asuna had gotten married became known. I thought that we
should be able to spend our days peacefully on the sparsely populated
twenty-second floor.
“Uwa— what a beautiful view!”
Asuna leaned forward, out of the window in our bedroom; although it
was called the bedroom, there were only two rooms in the entire
house.
The scenery outside really was breathtaking. This was near the edge
of Aincrad, so one could see the glittering lakes, the green forest, and
the wide-open skies all at once. Because we usually lived with a stone
ceiling about one hundred meters above us, the open skies gave us an
inexplicable feeling of freedom.
“Just don't fall off while you're looking at the scenery.”
I stopped organizing the household items and wrapped my arms
around Asuna. This woman was now my wife— as I thought that, the
warmth of bright sunlight in the winter, the marvelous feeling of
wonder, as well as the surprise of how far we had gone all rushed me
at once.
Until I became trapped in this game, I was just a kid who went to
school and then back home without any goal in life. But now, the real
world had become a faraway past.
If— if this game was cleared, we would be able to return to the real
world...that was what all the players, including Asuna and I, wished
for. But I couldn't help feeling anxious whenever I thought about it. I
unconsciously began to apply strength to my arms that were around
Asuna.
“It hurts, Kirito-kun... Is something wrong...?”
“S-Sorry... Hey, Asuna...”
For a moment I stopped talking, but I had to finish asking.
“...our relationship, is it only in-game...? Is it going to disappear once
we return to the other world…?”
“I'm going to be angry, Kirito-kun.”
Asuna turned around and looked at me with her eyes full of emotion.
“Even if this was just a normal game rather than this strange situation,
I still wouldn't like another person so casually.”
She squeezed my cheeks with both her hands, and then said:
"I learned something here, and that was to keep trying and never give
up. If we make it back to the real world, I'll definitely come find
Kirito-kun again, and I'll still like you."
How many times have I marveled at Asuna's honest and strong heart?
Or maybe mine was just too weak.
But even if I was the weak one, it was still all right. I had forgotten
for such a long time how comfortable it was to depend on someone
else and have them depend on me. I didn't know how long we would
be able to stay here, but at least we were away from the battlefield
during this period of time—
I let my thoughts wander and concentrated my feelings on the softness
and the sweet smell that filled my arms.
