Published at 7th of January 2021 08:40:41 AM
Aincrad, 59-th floor . . .
This is a floor with a rather complex geography . There are mountains, hills, highlands, forests, and even caves here . . .
Walking around on this floor is like travelling the world in the sense that the scenery changes from an area to another . It's like somebody downsized the world and turned it into a floor .
There are scenic areas and then there are not-so-scenic areas . If you're lucky, you can find places where the scene can give the Garden of Flowers on the 47th-floor a run for its money . Of course, there are also places that are so frigid it's more desolate than the western area of the snowy mountains on the 59th-floor .
In a small town known as Danac, the scenes here are to die for .
Located in a wide, open, hilly grass fields . The color green is a very familiar color for the players here . When the breeze arrives, one can tell from the gentle swaying of the grass here . The buildings here are also old-fashioned . It looked like a town constructed with conservatism in mind . There are nostalgic chimneys at the top of the houses here . This didn’t spoil the experience for the players here, it was refreshing in its own unique manner…
The wedding ceremony between Lisbeth and Kirito will take place on a grassy field with a boundless horizon .
Kirito and Liz only invited close friends to this nuptial ceremony . Unlike Wu Yan & Asuna who invited major guilds and top players, effectively involving the entire player base of Aincrad .
This is one of the reasons why they chose this place to hold the wedding . It wouldn’t get as crowded even if the players found out . It’s unknown if Liz preferred to keep her big day low-key or because Kirito preferred to stay out of the public’s view, either way this event turned out to be a small-scaled one .
Wu Yan’s two cent on the matter is that Kirito didn’t have that much money to throw a lavish wedding, even if his wife is the boss of one of the best equipment shops in this game .
The 59th-floor’s labyrinth isn’t that far from Danac . The players who tried their hands at the labyrinth know about Danac for the most part . When Asuna led the raid team, she made this place their temporary holdout . This is why they were familiar with the layout of Danac .
Thus, the household of three descended the teleport platform with Asuna leading them .
It has been 3 years since SAO’s server fired up . The raid players working hard to clear this game are operating on the higher floors . The 59th-floor is still a challenging floor for sure but it isn’t as hard as the upper floors . Few players came to this place . On the way here, Wu Yan, Asuna, and Yui didn’t spot a single player .
Walking on the dirt road, the buildings were sparsely distributed to the left and right sides . The NPCs are going about their daily chores, drawing water from the well, washing clothes, making food, and jogging . Come tomorrow, these NPCs will still be doing the same things and it didn’t look like they had any complaints .
Their repetitive actions formed a part of the beauty that made up the soul of this beautiful little town . A scenery is only beautiful when life is bursting at the seams . The NPCs played a crucial role in giving this place an exuberant air .
Soon, there were no more buildings to be seen and the NPCs also stopped appearing . Grass replaced the buildings as the color green took over everyone’s vision . A great grassy plain appeared in front of Wu Yan & co .
On this vast expanse of grass, a few white-clothes-lined tables were set up with a giant tree providing the shade . Dozens of players could be seen going around the tables . They were either chatting loudly or busy with whatever they were doing with their hands . They could faintly discern the sound of cheerful laughter from where they were .
Wu Yan & co knew they came to the right place .
“Oh~~~”
When Wu Yan & co approached, the sharp-eyed Klein noticed them first . He laughed heartily .
“They are here! They are here! The model family is here!”
Wu Yan and Asuna both exchanged a smile . They accepted Klein’s praise with relatively grace . Quickening their steps, they approached the venue .
“It has been a while, you’re still as quirky as ever…”
Wu Yan teased Klein .
Klein didn’t take it to heart .
“Oh, your achievements as the Fae Swordsman is something I regularly see on the news!”
Souta nodded . He started praising him .
“I didn’t think you could clear the 96th and 97th floor consecutively, you sure live up to your title as the strongest player…”
“It was pure luck . I found the floor boss room so I just went in there and wasted the boss…”
Agil’s lip twitched and he rubbed his smooth bald head .
“I think you’re the only player in this game that can talk about killing a floor boss like you’re just farming a bunch of creeps…”
“Yo, you guys came…”
Wu Yan , Asuna, Yui, Klein, Souta, and Agil turned around at the same time . They saw Kirito emerging from behind the giant tree with a white tuxedo . He looked at Wu Yan and he started laughing out loud .
“If you came a bit later, I would have barred you guys from entering the venue…”
“Well…”
Wu Yan shrugged .
“I would like to see you or anyone else try…”
Kirito pursed his lips as he threw Wu Yan an annoyed look . Asuna congratulated Kirito with Yui in tow .
“Kirito-kun, congratulations!”
Yui passed Kirito a box containing a gift .
“Uncle Kirito, congratulations . This is our gift to you two!”
“Oh? . . . ”
Kirito received the present and he rubbed Yui’s head .
“Thank you guys so much!”
Alas, we will never know Kirito’s reaction to the box filled with fishes that were stacked on top of the clothes Asuna made .
Well, clothes can’t get stained in SAO and fishes don’t smell bad like they do in the real world so it should be fine…
“A present? . . . ”
A hand reached from behind Kirito as the owner excitedly scanned the gift .
“A present from you two? I am looking forward to unboxing this…”
“Liz!”
Asuna started telling Liz who was wearing a white bridal gown off .
“It’s your wedding, mind your manners…”
“It’s fine, it’s fine!”
Liz waved her hands .
“We all know each other here, there’s no need to put up a front!”
“You…”
Asuna wasn’t sure if she should cry or laugh .
“Liz!”
Sachi, Shion, and Silica came running over . They glared at Liz while panting hard .
“The guests over there are waiting for you to greet them, don’t run off on your own like that!”
“Ahaha…”
Liz scratched her cheek in a bashful manner . She started defending herself .
“I am properly greeting the guests, look, Asuna and her gang came!”
“Onii-san, you guys came…”
Sachi beamed politely at them . She shifted her gaze downwards and she squatted down to greet Yui .
“Yui-chan, you came too? . . . ”
“Nn!”
Yui nodded her head repeatedly .
“Yui wants to see the wedding!”
“There’s nothing much to see here…”
Shion mumbled .
“You should have seen Yan and Asuna’s wedding, now, that’s a wedding . It was huge and fun . This wedding ceremony… meh . ”
Silica nodded when she recalled the wedding between Asuna and Wu Yan back then . Of course, Liz got mad .
“You girls!”
Liz gnashed her teeth .
“It’s my wedding today . If you’re gonna say stuff like that then…”
“Wah!”
Shion and Silica yelped as they scampered off . Liz yelled: “Get your butts back here”, and she gave chase while the others couldn’t do anything but gasp at this scene .
Is this a party or a wedding ceremony?