A journey to another world starting from a sword

“Welcome back, Kio.” A slightly indistinct, sweet voice flowed from her red lips. Then the girl looked at Dante, Asuna, Kizmel, and Argo, her blonde hair swaying gently with the movement.

She first looked at Argo, "Argo, are they the companions you mentioned?"

“Yes, but it’s not just these people. Everyone else went to eat first.” Argo spoke to the girl in a manner similar to his usual way of speaking.

Only then did Dante and the others truly see the name above the girl's head—"Nelune."

Upon hearing Argo's words, the girl named Nyrunel immediately looked at Kio, at which point the maid bowed slightly. "The finest banquet has been arranged."

Is this the reward for surviving an attack by fallen elves far exceeding the strength of the building? Dante wasn't sure exactly what the highest level was, but the meal he prepared must have consumed a considerable amount of Cor.

"That's good." Nirunel nodded in satisfaction, then looked at Dante and the others again, "You guys have really angered Grandpa Korroy. Thanks to you, we've also noticed their contact with the Fallen Elves."

"A fallen elf!" Kizmel exclaimed, "Why...?"

“Knight of Leussra, a rare guest indeed.” Nilunier seemed to only then notice Kizmel’s ears. “I know you have many questions, and I will tell you as much as I know, but before that, let me introduce myself.”

"Let's start with you. Your gaze is quite blatant, though I don't find it offensive."

It was just a normal observation, but the battle maid next to him glared at him, her eyes seeming to say, "I already told you not to be rude." Dante took a step forward, flicked his wrist, and bowed in a bard-like gesture.

"Nice to meet you, Miss Nerunel, my name is Dante."

Asuna then made a greeting gesture she had only seen in movies. She gently lifted her skirt with both hands, stepped back with her right leg and bent her left knee, and then introduced herself.

"Nice to meet you, my name is Asuna."

Kizmel, who was silently gazing at Nyrunel, knelt on the carpet with his left knee, then placed his right hand on his chest and bowed deeply.

“I am a knight of Leussra, named Kizmel, and a friend of Dante and Asuna.”

The reason Argo wasn't mentioned is probably because Kizmel wanted to emphasize that he came to protect Dante and Asuna.

“Yes.” Nyrunel nodded readily, then asked them, “May I call you… Dante and Asuna?”

Most AI-controlled NPCs will confirm the pronunciation of their names, just like Kizmel did before, so Dante and Asuna were used to it and answered at the same time, "Okay."

"Well then, please take a seat."

After saying that, she pointed to the long sofa opposite her.

Following where they had been standing, Dante was sandwiched between Kizmel and Asuna, while Argo sat down next to Asuna.

At this moment, Qiao had already poured tea on the low marble table, and then stood quietly between the two sofas.

After saying "Excuse me" to the four of them, they took a sip of the tea. It was pure black tea without sugar or milk, but it had a muscat grape-like aroma and a hint of sweetness.

At the same time, Dante heard Asuna's murmur of "This is delicious" coming from his right, indicating it must be a very high-class tea bar.

"Where can I buy this?" Dante Chaoqi asked, raising his glass.

“This is high-grade elven black tea.” When asked, Kio replied coldly, “The Leusslavs around you should know this very well.”

After Dante turned his gaze over, Kizmel nodded to him, "This tastes like royal black tea. I've had it at banquets in the palace before."

“If you want to buy it, I’ll take you when you get to the upper floor,” she said with a light laugh to Dante and Asuna, then added playfully, “But it’s very expensive, you know. I certainly wouldn’t buy it as a regular drink.”

The upper level they mentioned is probably the ninth level. As for the red tea, it's likely that only players who have completed the Elf quest and are allowed to enter the Dark Elf Royal City are qualified to buy it. Players with insufficient Elf reputation might not even be able to enter the city.

"It's expensive... Kele is no problem at all," Dante thought to himself.

"Hmm, where should we begin?" Nirunier coughed lightly, lay back down on the cushion, and murmured as she swung her bare, crossed toes in the air.

"Then why don't we start with the bloodline of the hero Farohari?" Dante suggested, relaxing as if ready to listen to the rest of the story.

“Alright!” Then Nirunier began to recount the origins of the two families.

The dragon-slaying hero Faruhari married the girl who was originally a sacrifice and had two boys, which is the origin of the Nakutui and Korroi families.

Chapter 154: Ice cream is a commoner's treat!

The two heirs inherited Faruhari's ability to tame monsters and, in accordance with his will, determined the successor to Worubda through five monster contests.

As a result, the monster contest unexpectedly attracted a large crowd to watch, so the two brothers decided not to decide on a successor but instead used the opportunity to build a large casino to make money.

The five matches that were supposed to determine the winner were repeated over and over again, and Worubuda grew from a small fishing village into a city.

“This is the version that’s been circulating outside,” Nirunel added at the end.

That concludes the explanation. Seeing that Nyrunel remained silent, Dante and the others knew that she wasn't going to reveal the truth, even though Dante knew the real situation.

Faruhari, as the "Lord of the Night," slayed the dragon only to obtain "dragon blood" to strengthen himself, not to save the girl. However, the villagers at the time respected him as a hero after learning that he was the "Lord of the Night," so he stayed in Worubda in a good mood.

The "Lord of the Night" has a long lifespan, but it is difficult for his hybrids with humans to inherit his bloodline. His two sons, not inheriting their father's longevity, gradually aged. In the end, they hated and greedily killed their almost immortal father and took over Worubda. As for the five matches, they were just a gimmick they created to make money.

Incredibly, Nyrunel, as a descendant, unexpectedly revealed Farruhari's "Lord of the Night" bloodline.

"Taming monsters?" Asuna was clearly puzzled.

"SAO also has a skill for taming beasts, although it seems to only tame small monsters," Dante explained.

In the future, Silica will become a beast tamer by luring the small dragon monster "Winged Dragon" with "Bag of Nuts" on the eighth floor "Felipan".

“I didn’t know about this at all,” Argo said subtly, peeking out.

"Really?" Dante was taken aback. "So there are things Argo doesn't know."

"What? Of course there are things I don't know." Argo replied lazily, without pressing for the source of the information.

"Ahem." Chio coughed lightly, reminding Dante and the others.

"Ah, I'm sorry." Argo apologized to Nyrunel across from him, sounding both sincere and insincere.

“It’s alright.” Nirunier didn’t show any anger. Instead, she listened with great interest, seemingly quite interested in their meaningless complaints.

That's true. As the "Lord of the Night," he must be living a rather lonely life.

Her long lifespan resulted in few friends, and she also had an elder who resented her longevity and was eyeing her with hostility. Dante completely understood this.

Seeing that Dante and the others had stopped talking and turned their attention back to her, Nyrunel did not speak immediately, but instead moved her left hand and held it in mid-air.

Kio quickly picked up a bottle from a nearby table, poured what looked like a jet-black liquid into a glass about two fingers' height, and placed the glass in Nyrunel's hand.

This was indeed wine; Dante, with his keen sense of smell, immediately detected the aroma of grapes in the air, exactly the same as when he had just entered.

He then turned to look at Asuna. Asuna didn't express any doubt about "Doesn't Aincrad have any laws prohibiting minors from drinking?" She probably tried her parents' bar at home. Although it's illegal, as long as you don't drink in public, you won't be held legally responsible.

"What's wrong?" Asuna asked with her eyes, but Dante smiled gently and shook his head to indicate that nothing was wrong.

After taking the glass with her left hand and drinking the liquid in one gulp, Nyrunel spoke softly at a certain moment.

“Badain used to treat me very well.”

Perhaps because she had been drinking, she did not maintain respect for her elders and addressed them by their first names.

"But as his life gradually came to an end, he began to think only about how to escape death. In order to buy the little life he had left, he chose to focus on making money and couldn't see anything else. It's his own fault that the tricks he used in the arena were exploited by you."

“Their retaliation will be quite severe,” Dante said, raising his hand.

In order to take away the prizes redeemed with so many chips, he actually needs to fight a boss-level enemy one-on-one. If the opponent is an arthropod monster, he may die because he cannot predict the opponent's movements.

With a slight upturn of her rosy lips, Nirunier looked at Dante with an approving gaze. "I didn't expect you to be able to defeat the Neousi assassin hired by Badan. My original plan was for Kio to lead a group to cover your retreat. I was quite surprised when I heard that. You're really amazing."

"So the other party made a deal with the fallen elf because they wanted to buy his life?" Kizmel, who had been listening in, suddenly asked.

She explained to Asuna and Argo, who looked puzzled,

“Neusi is a very ancient term that means ‘one who does not belong to either side’. They are neither dark elves nor forest elves, but rather fallen elves. However, this is the greatest insult and provocation to them, and it is taboo to even utter it. No one uses it anymore.”

It's actually just like the Mudbloods in Harry Potter.

Kizmel also explained why she appeared: it was because Badan's furious act of sending out his men had alerted the dark elves, who already suspected some kind of deal between the human nobles and the fallen elves. Then, the dark elf priests on the seventh floor used magic to detect the movements of the fallen elves.

“Yes.” Nirunier nodded casually. “But you know this is a trick of the fallen elves, right?”

"There's no way to extend lifespan, is there?" Asuna understood what Nerunel meant.

“At least not among the Fallen Elves,” Nirunel replied after receiving further confirmation from Kizmel. “The Fallen Elves exploit people’s fear of death, and many nobles and wealthy people have been deceived because of this.”

As she spoke, she curled her lip in disdain. The change to "fallen elf" was only out of respect for Kizil, but she still despised such behavior.

Then Nyrunel looked at Argo and said, "Argo, you haven't done a good job with the task I gave you."

"!" Asuna was startled and quickly looked at Argo.

"It's not that there's been no progress at all," Argo said, waving his hand dismissively.

“We do know exactly how they cheated,” Dante added.

"What?" Asuna exclaimed in surprise.

"Ah..." Dante and Argo looked at each other across Asuna, their eyes exchanging messages like, "You didn't say that?" and "I thought you did."

"You two—"

"Hahaha, Xiaoya, sorry, I accidentally forgot." Argo tried to brush it off.

"I'm not angry! What did you two find out? Tell me now!" Asuna straightened her back and showed off her beautifully curved chest.

"Actually, the opponent—Bardan—should have used some kind of dye to disguise the superior monster as a lower-rank monster that could participate in the competition." As he spoke, Dante took out a red handkerchief from his inventory, but it wasn't blood on it.

Kio walked over, took it, and presented it to Nyrunel, then unfolded it.

“…” After examining her carefully, Niru Niel’s eyebrows stood on end. Her beautiful face no longer showed any trace of childishness, and the aura she exuded was completely unlike that of a young girl.

Moreover, she raised the empty glass straight up, ready to throw it on the ground, but at the last moment she maturely restrained herself and handed the glass back to Qiao.

Then she let out a long breath with a "whoosh," though her voice still carried a hint of red anger.

“Badan actually did such a thing! No matter how much the Kutai and Korroy families fought in the past, they always abided by the rules regarding the Worubda Casino. But Badan crossed the line for a little money. He must be punished.”

Suddenly, a question mark appeared above her head, the kind of question mark an NPC would use to issue a quest. Asuna was stunned. She had really thought the other person was a real person. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between a game and reality.

"Is there anything we can help you with?" Dante asked, using the standard dialogue for accepting a quest.

“Hmm.” Nirunier nodded, then turned to Qiao, who was standing beside her, and said, “Immediately arrange for someone to request an emergency investigation from the other party. They don’t know about our relationship for the time being. If we can convict them in one fell swoop, that would be best. If not, we can go to the captured fallen elf for evidence, okay?”

“No problem,” Kizmel replied.

"Yes, sir." Qiao bowed respectfully.

"Oh, and Argo and the others must be hungry too, let's take them to eat."

Normally, they should have eaten together, but the other person had no intention of doing so. It seemed that they wanted to stay quietly in the room, so Dante and the other three went out with Chio.

When they arrived at the restaurant, they found out that Mitt and the others had already finished eating and gone to their rooms to rest. Now it was just the right time for them to take a nap.

Asuna had originally intended to talk about the mission, but she had to give up and decided to fill her stomach first.

Unsurprisingly, the food at this restaurant was the best I've ever had, perfectly showcasing a high-end quality.

The dishes included richly flavored red wine braised beef, baked lobster with a strong cheesy aroma, pan-fried tender fish with crispy skin, sashimi rice bowl with ingredients likely sourced from the nearby sea, juicy fried pork cutlets, a chocolate cake (my first time trying one), and refreshing strawberry cream pancakes...

What pleased Asuna the most was the soda sundae and fruit sundae after the meal. Dante's soda sundae was even scooped up by Asuna and Argo without any hesitation.

This is the first time I've ever had ice cream in SAO. I wonder how they make their sundaes.

"Ah, I wish we could eat this in the summer too." Asuna whispered her budding desire, her eyes squinting like a lazy cat, so cute that you just wanted to put your hand on her head.

“I’ll take charge of the investigation. There must be a way to make it,” Argo said, patting his belly contentedly. “Like those ice cream machines from the last century.”

Ah—it's one of those manual devices that puts ice and milk into a bucket and keeps turning and churning it, right?

Dante is also looking forward to Argo finding out how to do it, and maybe even opening an ice cream shop. It would definitely be a huge hit, and even if it's priced at 500 or 1000 kels, people would definitely buy it.

When he voiced this idea, he was met with disdainful looks from Asuna and Argo.

"Really, I would never do such a thing."

"Dante, you're too greedy! Ice cream is a commoner's treat."

"..."

“Hehehe…” Kizmel couldn’t help but laugh when he saw Dante’s suddenly stunned face.

Chapter 155: Envious?

When they returned to Nirunel's room, she was still in the same position, lying on the sofa cushions, like a doll placed in the room.

“Argo, sneak into Badan’s room and find out at least some evidence that he’s been in contact with the fallen elves.”