Hi! Long time no see,

I’ve already shared this story on Twitter and the Wikia Discord, but on the release day of Vol. 29, I met and spoke with Kawahara-sensei in person! I had to run and even tripped on some stairs to make it in time before his staff closed the venue, so I was so exhausted that I couldn’t talk to him as properly as I wanted to…
There are chances I’ll be able to speak with him again in a more professional setting in the future due to my line of work, but I’d always wanted my first meeting with him to be as a fan..!

———
This side story was a bonus distributed at Animate book stores with the purchase of Vol.29 on release day. It doesn’t contain any spoilers for Vol. 29 (or any major Unital Ring spoilers), so feel free to read it even if you’re not caught up with the series!

Apologies for the poor quality of the cover scan this time, I won’t be home for quite a while so I’ve had to use the classic konbini scanner…

Lastly, I thank and apologize Redbluezero for putting up with my poor writing skills.

— Celest

Credits

Translation, raws: Celest
Editing: Redbluezero

【TRANSLATION】 Sword Art Online Vol.29 Animate bonus Side Story – The Definition of Life

Sword Art Online – The Definition of Life

“Say, Alice.”

As she was called by Integrity Knight Edith Synthesis Ten, Alice Synthesis Thirty, who had been spacing out on the sofa, blinked repeatedly.

“Ah, yes, what is it, Lady Edith?”

“I’ve been asleep for three hundred years, so there’s gotta be all sorts of new Sacred Arts by now, right? If there are any interesting ones, could you show me?”

“Sacred Arts, you say…”

It seemed that Edith was as bored as Alice. After thinking for a moment, Alice generated a Crystal Element on her left hand and started chanting.

“Form Element: Hollow Sphere Shape.”

With a tinny sound echoing out, the prism transformed into a transparent sphere about two centimeters in diameter. When Alice cut her concentration, without chanting any invocation, the sphere started rolling gently across the palm of her hand.

Edith reached out with her right hand, plucked it with her fingers, and examined it closely.

“Eehhhh…… So it’s not just a simple sphere, it’s actually hollow inside. If we made the same sphere out of Cryogenic Elements and put liquor in it, I bet it’d be delicious.”

“Um, if you say so…”

“I’ll steal one of Fanatio’s treasured hundred-year aged bottles, so let’s put our theory to the test next time.”

“Well, okay…”

Forcing an awkward smile, Alice waited for Edith to say “just kidding”, but she made no such correction. Instead, she tightened her fingers around the sphere. The sphere shattered with a faint sound, and the slim, scattered shards instantly dissolved into the air.

Once every last shard had been converted back into Sacred Power, Edith dusted off her hands and looked at Alice.

“To thank you for showing me this interesting Sacred Art, I’ll teach you one of my secret Arts.”

“Huh….. You will, Lady Edith?”

“Ah, I bet you think that a knight from three hundred years ago would only know the basics, huh?”

“N-no, of course not! I would never.”

She shook her head hastily, but it would be a lie to say that this particular assumption had been entirely absent from her mind. The Supreme Priest Administrator had been unwilling to teach even a fraction of the vast Sacred Arts she knew to anyone, which had left the Axiom Church’s Knights and Arts-users with no choice but to discover the incantations on their own.

Yet, Edith confidently extended her right hand and, without any introduction chant, generated two Steel Elements on top of the table. She then chanted the incantation:

“Form Element: Lizard Shape.”

The dull, silver glowing Steel Elements fused and formed into a small lizard, about roughly seven centimeters long. The sculpting of its delicate limbs and tail was impressively crafted, but the Sacred Art by itself wasn’t particularly rare. Though one would normally make a lizard from Heat or Cryogenic Elements and have it run along the ground to attack enemies, both were elementary arts.

However, the next thing Edith chanted was an incantation that Alice had never heard before.

“Animate.”

There was a faint flash of light. The lizard’s eyes, which had been as flat as mirrors up until then, turned into translucent, red rubies… and blinked twice.

“Huh?”

Before Alice’s astonished gaze, the silver lizard observed its surroundings, then ran toward her with movements reminiscent of a real lizard. She brought her hand closer to it without thinking. The lizard ran up her fingers decisively and stopped on her wrist.

“……Lady Edith, this Art……”

“I learned it a long, long time ago from Jarmie…… the Fourth Knight. Aside from Her Highness, probably only she and I know about it.”

“…… So is it an art that………… breathes life into a creature made of Elements?”

As Alice timidly asked this question, Edith gently shook her head.

“Unfortunately, it only moves like the real thing, but it doesn’t actually have real life inside it. Well…… That only raises the question of what Life even means in this world……”

Alice looked at the Knight’s profile in wordless silence as she murmured those words. She closed her mouth, which had been half-opened up until then, and looked back at the lizard. The tiny creature stared at her with unblinking crimson eyes, as though it already knew its lifespan would soon come to an end.

“……Lady Edith, let’s go find Kirito.”

“Huh? Why?”

“If anyone, Kirito could be able to use Incarnation to give this lizard a real life…… Well, that might be asking for too much, but he should at least be able to stabilize its lifespan for now.”

“What?”

Edith’s eyes widened as Alice grabbed her by the arm and stood up. She knew deep down that it was a meaningless whim, yet she couldn’t help but want to defy the laws of this world―Underworld.

Raising her right hand with the lizard on it and pulling Edith along with her left, Alice dashed out of the Black Lotus 02 Cosmic Fortress’s observation room and started running down the long corridor.

(End)