Chapter 413 ~ Grimlock

“Yuuji-san…!”

Schmidt raised into a half kneel. His paralysis had worn off, but having his life flashed before his eyes still drained the strength off his legs. 

Steadying his breath and putting one of his feet on the ground was his current limit. 

“You have my gratitude for saving us… But how did you know those three meen were attacking us?”

Yuuji held out a hand for Schmidt to take, and pulled him up with seemingly no effort back to his feet. 

“Well… I’d have to admit, it’s quite the leap in logic on my part. I just suspected someone would try to kill you here. Laughing Coffin was only the worst outcome of all. I didn’t expect those bunch to really be the ones coming here.”

A sigh escaped his slips as the others all looked at him with questions written all over their faces. 

Then, Yuuji turned towards Yolko and Caynz.

“Yolko-sans. Caynz-san. Those weapons… You asked Grimlock-san to make those weapons, didn’t you?”

The two looked at each other, a silent conversation in each of their gazes. Then, Yolko lowered her head.

“He was reluctant about it at first… He wanted Griselda-san to rest in peace.”

“But, we pleaded as hard as we could, and he eventually made those weapons.”

A look of pity flashed across his eyes, unseen by the two phantom avengers. 

“Unfortunately… He didn’t oppose your plans for Griselda-san’s sake.”

“Eh?”

The three looked at him. And when they found nothing that could serve as an answer, they turned towards Asuna, only to find pity and a flash of anger in her eyes. 

“Let me ask you a question.”

Yolko, Caynz, and Schmidt all snapped their heads and gazed back towards Yuuji. 

“Marriage in this world is significant, not only because of its emotional significance, but it impacts players mechanically as well. Because once you’re married, you share your inventory with your spouse.”

Yuuji raised his left hand, revealing the glimmering ring on his ring finger. And Asuna also showed them her own ring as her cheeks tinged with pink. 

“Now… If your spouse dies, what happens to the items?”

A look of confusion flashed across their faces. 

Then, a grim realization. 

“You mean…”

“Grimlock…?”

“You mean… So he was the one who gave me the note and killed Griselda?”

Yuuji shook his head. 

“From Yolko-san’s story, I don’t think he’ll dirty his own hands. He probably hired some red players who specialize in dirty work to do the actual killing. And Laughing Coffin is the worst amongst them.”

Yolko shook her head.

“If that’s true… Then why would Grimlock-san cooperate with us on our plan?”

“Because you told him your entire plan…”

“Eh..?”

Yuuji looked at the dead tree, the gravestone below it, then Schmidt.

“He knew you wanted to confront Schmidt-san. And when the three of you gather in this one place, he could bury the ring murder case for good.

That’s how I know the three of you are targeted.”

Yuuji then turned towards the distance… Into the fog, and spoke to it. 

“Am I right, Grimlock-san?”

The three of them snapped their heads to the sound of footsteps. 

Then from the fog, a familiar man in a long overcoat, black circular shades, and a hat appeared, approaching them. 

Kirito and Sachi followed behind him, pointing their sword and spear at the man. 

“Wow… I truly didn’t expect you to deduce this much with so little information, Sword God. To even kill one of the executives of Laughing Coffin as well… I see your tales precedes you.”

Yuuji kept his silence. He seemed like a statue. But observant as he was, Grimlock could feel it emanating from Yuuji. 

A chilling loathing. Or perhaps, repugnance. 

It was as expected from a real-life hero. His sense of justice would make him dislike a murderer like him. 

“Hey… It has been a long time, everyone.”

Grimlock turned towards his former guild mates. Familiar figures he thought he would not see again. 

“Grimlock-san… Are you… Did you really…?”

All of them froze, their gaze wide in disbelief. 

Yolko began to tremble, her voice filled with disbelief and anger.

And at Grimlock’s silence, emotion burst from within her. 

“Why, Grimlock?! Why did you kill Griselda-san, your own wife, and steal the ring for money?”

Tears burst from her eyes. The image of the beautiful, gallant woman she admired flashed across her mind, and the mere memory of her only made Yolko even more confused and angry at the absurdity of Grimlock’s actions. 

“Money…?”

A sneer. But hidden beneath it… A deep anger. 

“Money, you say…?”

All eyes turned to him, stunned, as Grimlock began to chuckle. A sneering, derisive laughter. As if Yolko’s words held an absurdity even greater than his actions. 

“It wasn’t for money… I had to kill her, no matter what… While she was still my wife.”

Yuuji’s eyes narrowed. His sword shifted as he clenched it tighter in his hand. 

“She was also my wife in the real world.” 

“What…?”

Gasps accompanied the revelation that shattered all of their perception. Even Yuuji could not help but voice his confusion of such absurdity. 

“She was an ideal wife in every way. She was cute, docile… We never fought even once. But after we were imprisoned in this world, she changed…”

“I was the only one who feared and cowered from this death game that we were forced into. While she seemed so much more vibrant and fulfilled here than in the real world.”

“I had no choice but to accept the fact… That the Yuuko I loved no longer existed! Then… How can you blame me for using the fact that murder is legal in this world to preserve Yuuko within my memori-”

*THUD!*

Grimlock flew across the field of dead and landed amongst the detritus with a heavy thud. 

His eyes wide with shock, not only at his blinking red HP bar, but at what caused it. 

“You…”

Yuuji appeared before him. No one, not even Asuna noticed his movement. In a blink of an eye, he had crossed several meters of distance in an instant and appeared before Grimlock. 

“Silence. I don’t want to hear another word from a trash like you.”

Grimlock’s mouth shut, as if something forced it close. His body shook like leaves as he gazed up below the hood, and looked at Death in the eyes. 

“You… You killed your own wife for that…?”

A chilling wind blew across them, blowing Yuuji’s hood off his head. Sharp breaths resounded behind him. 

While Grimlock… He didn’t expect for death to look so perfect. 

“How dare you claim to “love” her… That is not love…! It was only your ugly desire to possess her! How dare you talk about love!”

“Uggh!”

Grimlock struggled as Yuuji lifted him up by the neck with one hand. His feet dangling in mid air as he clutched his steel-like arms. 

But before death, his struggle was as futile as any. 

“She’s her own person! Not yours! Even if you were her husband, you don’t own her life!”

It was unfathomable to Yuuji. 

He, who loved seeing his own beloved shine brightly, could not even begin to fathom Grimlock’s perspective. And the mere notion of trying to understand it disgusted him to the bone. 

“If you truly loved her, you would’ve supported her in this world where she could shine so brightly! Her happiness would be your happiness as well, just as yours would be to hers!”

“!!!”

Yuuji pulled him close and let him see deeply into his eyes. 

“Love is about trust. Love is liberation. Liberation from your own anxieties. Liberation from your need to control others. If she was truly your other half, trust her as you would your own soul. That’s love!”

His words reverberated not only in the silent grave, but in the hearts of every single person there. 

A look of realization sunk in Grimlock’s face as memories of his wife flashed across his mind. His struggle stopped as he hung limply by Yuuji's hands around his collar. 

Seeing the light fade in Grimlock’s eyes, Yuuji threw him towards Schmidt and Caynz.

“Deal with him how you like… Just never let me see him again. If I do… I wouldn’t mind being a red-player for some time.”

Yolko, Caynz, and Schmidt stared at him in awed shock. 

Then, at his words, they all scrambled into action. 

“O-Of course! We’ll deal with him appropriately. Thank you, Yuuji-san…”

Caynz and Schmidt lifted up the lifeless Grimlock, supporting him by their shoulders, and left with Yolko following closely from behind. 

And when they finally disappeared in the fog-covered distance, dawn came. 

Light filled the dreary graveyard, enough for Yuuji to shield his eyes as he turned around.

When suddenly, Asuna leapt into his embrace and wrapped her arms around his neck.

“Yuuji! I love you!”

“E-Eh? What? I-I love you too…”

He caught Asuna as she began to nuzzle into his neck, and looked towards Kirito and Sachi with confusion. 

But instead of answers, he became even more confused. 

Sachi looked at Yuuji with starry eyes, her cheeks tinged with pink as she hooked her arms around Kirito’s, hugging him. 

Meanwhile, Kirito looked at him with a strained smile, and an embarrassed blush on his pale cheeks.

“Well… how do I say this. I’m impressed you can say those things with a straight face…”

“???”

Yuuji tilted his head confusedly. 

And at his obliviousness, Kirito simply sighed. 

“Nevermind. We’re done here, so let’s go back to civilization and get some rest.”

--------------------------------X--------------------------------

Yuuji laid on his bed, winding down from the day’s events with the former Golden Apple members and Laughing Coffin. 

Nuzzled to his side with hands clutching on his shirt, Asuna also laid on his bed, resting her head on his chest. 

Yuuji stroked her head as she closed her eyes, her lips curled into a satisfied smile, while he scrolled through his inventory. 

‘Ah, I forgot to give this to Silica… I better give it to her the next time we meet.’

He scrolled past the “Shadow Blade” and continued looking through his inventory.

‘Hm… Another sword, huh?’

His current sword, “Savior”, had and was still serving him well. Made from a super rare drop a high floor boss, forged by a high level Blacksmith, and enchanted to the maximum, it was one of, if not, the strongest sword currently in the game. 

But his ambush on Laughing Coffin earlier in the day had revealed something to him. 

‘If I had another sword… I could’ve killed, or at least, wounded PoH as well in that ambush.’

He had used his highest burst damage sword skill to kill Johnny Black in one hit. And afterwards, he could’ve used another sword skill by activating it just after his first swords skill ended and before the Post-Motion delay started to inflict damage to PoH. 

It was a technique he found out by accident during one of his grinding sessions… In the heat of combat, his mind was always faster than his digital body. There was always a disconnect between them. But normally, he was able to adjust and adapt to it. 

One time, however, he immediately tried to activate another sword skill right after his last one ended. 

The moment he tried, his mind immediately realized the mistake. Based on his knowledge of the game, it shouldn't have worked.

But it did.

It was then he discovered this technique; “Skill Connect”. 

With this technique, he was able to chain several sword skills in succession without any delay.

He was confident that it would’ve hit PoH, given the element of surprise he had, both with the ambush and the fact that he was able to use two sword skills without any delay. 

He simply didn’t, because he didn’t intend on actually killing PoH or reveal his trump card to him. 

But “Skill Connect” still had two limits.

First was the order in which these sword skills could be chained. And the second, was the number of sword skills that could be chained. 

Both of these limitations stemmed from a single mechanic of the game itself; the pre-motion needed to activate sword skills. 

No matter how perfectly Yuuji could activate a sword skill in the brief instant between the moment his previous sword skill ended and the post-motion started, his pose at that moment would still need to fit the pre-motion of his next sword skill. 

This limited the combination and order he could activate his sword skills, as well as the number of sword skills he could chain. 

But if he had another sword… and with his “Unique” skill that had evolved from “Meditation” a few months ago that allowed him to use sword skills with two swords, he could use the other sword to perform the pre-motion of any sword skill and chain his skills infinitely. 

Not to mention the new skill tree he would unlock…

‘But there’s a problem…’

He opened the item description for his current sword and stared at it. 

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SAVIOR

Long Sword / One Hand

• Range: Short
• Type: Slash
• Attack: 9100-9700
• Durability: 1600
• Weight: 180
• Requires: 80
• Equip: +200
• Agility: +52
• Strength: +70
• Armor

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It was an extremely remarkable sword. It was incomparable to swords he had in his Gate of Babylon, but it was remarkable for this game.

And if he were to have another sword, he’d need something on par with this. 

But such a thing would be extremely difficult to come by.

‘I have some good materials… But I don’t think they’ll be enough.’

He began scrolling through his inventory again. Rare drops from mobs. Extremely rare drops from Floor Bosses. Even special item drops from field-bosses, floor-bosses, and special monsters. 

Some of these had the potential to become a sword on par with Savior, but he needed an expert’s opinion. 

But not just any expert… He needed one he could trust. 

“Asuna…”

“Hm?”

She looked up, eyes half closed and groggy, to see his smiling visage.

“Wanna go visit a friend?”