During dinner, after spending quite a bit of time discussing where they should go next, Akimi and Asuna finally decided on their plans and headed straight home.
Of course, calling it a “discussion” wasn’t exactly accurate—it was more like Asuna listing out all the places she wanted to visit.
For Akimi, traveling usually just meant changing locations to lie around in.
Expecting him to contribute any useful ideas was about as realistic as expecting him to grind through and clear SAO in one go…
And of course, both were things he simply couldn’t do.
Fortunately, Asuna seemed quite familiar with planning trips.
“Of course I am. Sometimes I even helped my dad schedule parts of his company’s agenda—since my school had related courses. But my mom always said a girl didn’t need to bother with that…”
That was what Asuna said.
But when she mentioned her mother, she seemed to recall something, and her voice trailed off.
She lowered her head slightly, biting her lip.
Soon after, she quickly regained composure and murmured an apology to Akimi.
Akimi had originally wanted to tease her—like, what kind of school teaches “corporate scheduling”?
But her sudden apology made him pause.
Given her family’s expectations, Asuna had been raised under elite-style education, always attending prestigious all-girls’ academies.
Having a class like “corporate scheduling” wasn’t all that surprising.
She rarely talked about her family, but little details sometimes slipped out during her casual conversations with Akimi.
Still, Akimi didn’t dwell on that.
Seeing the faint sadness in her expression, he sighed softly, stepped closer, gently lifted her face with his hands, and said:
“You’ve had it hard, haven’t you—carrying all those expectations.”
As he spoke, he brushed aside a strand of hair falling over her eyes.
While Asuna was still caught off guard, he continued, “I can tell, Asuna… deep down, you’ve always wanted someone to confide in, haven’t you?”
Asuna didn’t answer, but her downcast eyes told the story.
Her father and brother were always busy with company affairs; most days she only saw them at breakfast and dinner, with little chance to talk.
Her mother, a university professor, was strong-willed and unyielding, always approaching conversations with an intimidating sharpness.
Over time, Asuna had stopped opening up to her altogether.
While she remained silent, Akimi pressed his thumb gently against the corner of her lips, lifting it slightly as he said, “I’ll always be here… Though Asuna with that expression was beautiful, you really do look even better when you smile.”
At his words, Asuna sniffled, then, pouting slightly as she rubbed at her eyes, said in a delicate voice, “I didn’t expect the Young master to have such a thoughtful side. Fine then—get ready to be my emotional outlet!”
Akimi just looked at her with a warm smile—making a faint blush spread across Asuna’s cheeks.
After taking a few deep breaths to calm herself, Asuna gave a small hum and said, “Alright, let’s stop talking about this… We should rest early. Our vacation officially starts tomorrow.”
“Eh—Why does the way you say it make it sound like we’re overworked office slaves with no holidays? I don’t think we’ve gotten to that point yet…”
“Alright, alright, don’t sweat the little details.”
—————-
For the first stop of their vacation, Asuna chose the 19th Floor, one of the lower levels.
But Akimi had almost no memory of that floor—he only vaguely recalled that its main town was called “Labelle,” and that the boss battle had been cleared in just five days.
It wasn’t surprising that Akimi couldn’t remember the 19th Floor.
After all, the floor had no real standout features.
Its streets and scenery were unremarkable, the monsters were fairly generic, the food was mediocre, and even the boss had been taken down by the raid group with ease.
Unless players needed to farm specific materials found there, very few visited the floor.
In fact, according to Argo’s statistics, the 19th Floor had one of the lowest player retention rates in Aincrad.
Still, it was clear that while the floor might seem ordinary, it wasn’t completely without value—otherwise Asuna wouldn’t have included it in her itinerary.
About twenty minutes away from the main town was a place called Cross Hill, home to the most astonishing special event of the entire 19th Floor.
Argo had dubbed it “A Dream Within the Game.”
Yes, it was yet another of her discoveries.
Nobody knew how she did it.
To date, about 70% of boss-related intel had been discovered first by her, nearly half of all side quests had been cleared by her, and the methods to obtain countless materials and items could be found in her info compendiums.
Ridiculously, her records even included the relationship charts of hundreds of NPCs.
There were other information brokers in Aincrad, but compared to Argo, they were leagues behind—both in speed and accuracy.
Argo was practically superhuman.
Naturally, for something to be praised by Argo, the system event officially named “The Somnolent Labyrinth” had to be unique.
As a special hidden event, entering the Somnolent Labyrinth required a key item called Dreamseed.
Argo had never disclosed how to obtain it.
According to her, that was because only three Dreamseeds existed in total.
They never respawned, and all three were currently in her possession—so there was no point in publicizing the method.
The Dreamseed that Akimi and Asuna now carried had been a gift from Argo after a past trade.
And simply possessing a Dreamseed was only the first condition.
Triggering the event required a series of strict steps: activating it at an exact second, performing five item-use actions in sequence, and following the proper entry procedure once the event began.
For Akimi, all of this was just troublesome busywork for something whose purpose he didn’t really understand.
But Asuna, on the other hand, was quite interested.
And so, on the morning of August 20th at precisely 11:00, after thoroughly exploring Labelle, the two of them arrived at Cross Hill—a place that seemed outwardly ordinary.
At the top of the hill stood an old, crooked tree that looked to have been there for centuries.
It was twisted, stunted in height, and unimpressive at first glance.
The only thing that spoke of its age was the weathered cross-shaped gravestone beneath it, worn down and covered in moss.
The inscription had been eroded to near illegibility, with only a single character faintly visible: “Dream.”
After waiting for a short while and seeing that the trigger time was about to arrive, Asuna withdrew the item called Dreamseed from her inventory.
The so-called Dreamseed was a small jar filled with mist, swirling in hues of blue and pink—or more precisely, it was the mist inside the jar that mattered.
— The end of the Chapter–
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