Alicization Beginning

305 Pages·2012·8.68 MB·English

by  Kawahara Reki

ソードアート・オンライン – Sword Art Online
Volume 9: アリシゼーション・ビギニング – Alicization Beginning

Prologue I
The Seventh Month of Human World Calendar 372
Part 1
Grasping the axe.
Swinging upwards.
Striking down.
It might be just those actions, but if the mind was distracted even slightly, the reaction
from the hard bark would bounce back relentlessly to both arms. Breathing, timing,
speed, shifting of body weight, all of them must be perfectly controlled from the
beginning, transmitting the hidden power from the heavy blade of the axe to the tree,
producing a pleasant, clear, high-pitched sound.
While he could understand the theory well, actually doing it wasn't that simple. Eugeo
was given this task in spring when he was ten, and it would be the second coming of
summer since then, yet he could only get that pleasant feedback once out of ten swings.
He was told by the fellow axe users that his predecessor, Garitta-jiisan always hit the
bull's eye, and even though he didn't show his fatigue after brandishing the heavy axe,
but after merely fifty times Eugeo's hands went numb, his shoulders became sore, and
he could no longer lift up his arms.
"Forty...... three! Forty...... four!"
He counted with his loudest voice to push himself while striking the axe on the great
tree's trunk, the sweat gushing out caused his eyes to blur, his hands became slippery,
and his accuracy continually decreased. Partly due to his desperation, he grasped the
woodcutting axe tightly and brandished it over his body.
"Forty...... nine! Fif......t......y!!"
His last strike was a big deviation from his usual skill, it hit the bark a distance away
from the deep cut on the trunk, producing an ear-splitting metallic sound. Due to the
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ソードアート・オンライン – Sword Art Online
Volume 9: アリシゼーション・ビギニング – Alicization Beginning

reaction which was as if it could make a spark come out of his eyes, Eugeo dropped the
axe, staggered a few steps back, then sat down on the thick moss.
While he repeated his rough breathing, he heard a voice mixed with laughter from his
right.
"The good sound came out three out of fifty times. So the total is, erm, forty-one huh. It
seems today's Siral water is your treat, Eugeo."
The owner of the voice who lied down slightly further away was a young boy of similar
age. Eugeo didn't reply immediately, but fumbled for the leather water canteen then
picked it up. He drank the water which had become completely warm greedily, and after
he became comfortable, he closed it with the hard cork, then said,
"Hmn, yours is only forty-three, isn't it? I'll catch up soon anyway. Here, it's your
turn...... Kirito."
"Yeah yeah."
Kirito was Eugeo's childhood friend and also his best friend, he was the partner of this
melancholy «Sacred Task» since spring last year, Kirito wiped the sweat off his black
forelock, stretched his legs straight and raised his body. But he didn't pick up the axe
immediately, his hand was on his hip while he looked up above his head. Attracted by
his action, Eugeo also looked up toward the sky.
The mid summer sky of the seventh month was still ridiculously blue, stuck at the
center was the sun god Solus, which shone its overwhelming light from the sky.
However, the light was obstructed by the branches of the great tree outstretched in all
directions, most of it didn't reach the roots where Eugeo and Kirito were.
At the same time the countless leaves of the great tree devoured the sun god's blessing,
its roots also relentlessly absorbed the favor of the earth god Terraria, allowing it to
recover from Eugeo and Kirito's hard work of steadily cutting it down. No matter how
much they did during the day, after a night's rest, when they came back the next
morning, the tree would have already recovered half of the cut wounds from the
previous day.
Eugeo sighed lightly as he looked back to the tree from the sky.
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ソードアート・オンライン – Sword Art Online
Volume 9: アリシゼーション・ビギニング – Alicization Beginning

The great tree —— the «Gigas Cedar», its sacred name was given by the villagers, was
the monster with a diameter of four mels, and had a height of seventy mels. The bell
tower of the village church, which was the tallest building in the village, was only
one-fourth its height; to Eugeo and Kirito whose height only passed one and a half mels
this year, this ancient titan was a very suitable opponent.
Is it unreasonable to cut down this guy using man power? —— Eugeo couldn't help but
think about this after seeing the cut on the trunk. The wedge-shaped cut wound had
finally reached a depth of one mel, but the remainder of the trunk with three times the
thickness was still healthy.
In spring last year, when he and Kirito were taken to village chief's residence, as they
were at the suitable age for the duty of «Chopping the giant tree», he had heard a
mind-boggling story.
The Gigas Cedar had stretched its roots here long before the Rulid village where they
lived was founded, the duty to axe the tree was passed down the generations since the
first settlers' time. Counting from the first generation to his predecessor Garitta-jii who
was the sixth generation, Eugeo and Kirito were the seventh generation, more than three
hundred years had passed before they were given the duty.
————Three hundred years!
At that time, it was an unimaginable time for Eugeo who had just reached his tenth
birthday. Of course, it hadn't changed even though he was eleven now. What he
somehow could understand was, from the time of his parents, his grandparents, the time
before that, and the time even further back, the amount of axe swings combined from
those with this duty could be said to be infinite, and the result was just this cutting
wound less than a mel deep.
Why did they have to cut down the great tree to that extent? The reason was told in a
strict tone by the village chief.
The Gigas Cedar, with its huge body and its excessive vitality, took away the blessings
of the sun and earth gods from its surrounding area in an enormous range. Seeds sown
on the land in the shadow of the great tree wouldn't grow, any effort to plant anything
near it was futile.
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ソードアート・オンライン – Sword Art Online
Volume 9: アリシゼーション・ビギニング – Alicization Beginning

Rulid village was a part of the «Norlangarth North Empire», one of the four empires
that divided and ruled over the «Human World», and in addition, it was also located in
the remote northern region. In other words, this place could literally be called the edge
of the world. North, east, and west, these three sides were surrounded by a steep
mountain range, so in order to expand the fields or pastures, there was no way other
than to cut down the forest in the south. However, that couldn't be done due to the Gigas
Cedar which was rooted at the entrance of the forest.
It had been said that its bark was as hard as iron, and even fire couldn't cause the
slightest burn, digging it up was also not possible as its roots were as deep as it was tall.
Therefore the village founders had decided to chop its trunk down using the «Dragon
Bone Axe» which could cut even iron, and the duty to do so had been passed down
generations since then——
The village chief finished telling the mission in his trembling voice, it made Eugeo feel
terrible, so he asked, why shouldn't they just leave the Gigas Cedar alone and open up
the forest further south.
Then the village chief replied in a frightening voice that cutting down the tree was their
ancestors' vow, that vocation had turned into the village's custom to entrust chopping
duty to two people. Next was Kirito, who tilted his head while wondering aloud why
those ancestors chose to build the village here in the first place. The chief lost his words
for a moment before raging angrily like fire and hit Kirito's and even Eugeo's heads with
his fist.
It had been a year and three months since then that the two continued taking turns with
the Dragon Bone Axe and challenging Gigas Cedar. However, most likely due to their
immature arms, their axe swing couldn't make a deep cut into the tree trunk. The cut in
the tree up until now was the result of the three hundred years of work, so it was natural
that the hard work from the two young boys wouldn't make much difference, they
couldn't feel any accomplishment from their work as a result.
No —— their mood, not only could it be seen, their clear form of depression seemed
like it could be verified in reality too.
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