Asuna has always set her morning alarm to seven-fifty.
If you were to ask why it's at such a vague time, it's because Kirito's
morning alarm goes off right at eight. Waking up ten minutes
beforehand and looking at him, asleep beside her while she's still in
bed, is a hobby of hers.
This morning, Asuna once again woke up to the mellow sound of
woodwind instruments and continued lying down, gazing at Kirito's
sleeping face while resting her head on her hands.
She fell in love half a year ago. They became clearing partners two
weeks ago. And only a mere six days had passed since they had
married and moved here, within the forest of the twenty-second floor.
Despite being her most beloved, she is certainly still in the dark about
many things related to Kirito. For one, as she peered over his sleeping
face, she gradually became less sure of his age.
Just a while back, due to his uncaring and aloof nature, she had
figured that he should be a little older than her. However, the sight of
Kirito, deep in sleep, extruded such naive innocence, that he could
only look like a young boy, no older than her.
Asking for something like his age probably— would not be a problem.
However, breaching into affairs of the real world is frowned upon,
and besides, the two of them are already husband and wife. Rather
than age, to meet again after returning to the real world, exchanging
information from actual names and addresses to contact details, would
be much more reliable.
However, Asuna was not quite able to bring herself to say that out
loud.
She was afraid that after speaking of matters from the real world, this
«married life» would feel like nothing more than a flimsy figment of
her imagination. To the current Asuna, her single, most important
reality, are these gentle days in this forested home; even if it becomes
impossible to escape from this world, with their actual bodies
welcoming death, she will still be satisfied, being able to continue
living this way till the very end, passing on without regrets.
That is why she will not wake up from this dream just yet— Thinking
so, Asuna softly stretched out her hand and caressed the sleeping
Kirito's face.
Even so, it sure is a childish sleeping face.
There is certainly no need to doubt Kirito's strength at this moment.
The extraordinary amount of experience accumulated from playing
through the beta test period, as well as the numerical stats acquired
through continuous fighting, and to use those effectively, his
