When Argo and Sachi finally rushed to the location of the hidden room, nearly half an hour had already passed.
By this time, the battle inside was also nearing its end.
Only three monsters remained, Akimi and Asuna's HP had dropped into the red zone, and Kirito… was nowhere to be seen.
Seeing Ducker and the others pacing anxiously at the hidden room's entrance, Argo said nothing and immediately began rummaging through her inventory to see if she could find anything useful.
But after searching for quite a while, she still came up empty-handed—
When Sachi had found her and told her that Kirito's group had entered a trap room and were in danger, she hadn't even thought it through before rushing over.
She hadn't considered whether she could actually solve the problem.
This made the face hidden under Argo's cloak grow even darker.
She slightly turned her head toward Sachi and asked in a low voice,
"You were in a party with Kirito, right? What's his status right now?"
But Sachi, her voice breaking, replied,
"I… I don't know… Kirito cut off the party connection not long after the trap was triggered, and now…"
After wiping the tears from the corners of her eyes, she said, her voice trembling,
"Miss Argo… Kirito and the others will be fine… right?"
Argo didn't answer—because she couldn't be sure either.
A few minutes later, the doorway to the hidden room, which had vanished, suddenly reappeared.
Argo's group instantly perked up and rushed to the entrance.
They saw Akimi and Asuna staggering out, supporting each other.
Their HP bars were down to a bare sliver—combined, they didn't even have a hundred points left.
Argo immediately took two healing crystals from her quickbar and restored their HP to full, smiling as she said,
"Aki-bou, you'd better pay me back for those crystals later… Oh, right, where's Kiri-bou?"
As she spoke, she glanced into the room, trying to spot the guy who was always dressed in black.
But the room was empty, its walls restored to their normal blue.
In response to her question, Akimi and Asuna just lowered their heads in silence.
The only thing that betrayed their feelings was the slow tightening of their fists.
Their reaction made Argo's heart sink to the bottom.
She forced out a laugh,
"Haha… you're joking, right? That's… not funny at all…"
Argo, losing her composure, grabbed Akimi by the collar.
A mist of tears welled up in her eyes, and her lips trembled, but no words came out.
Sachi's gaze went dull.
She murmured vacantly,
"That's impossible… Kirito said he'd always protect me… He wouldn't lie…"
Ducker and the others also showed expressions of disbelief, then, as if going mad, forcefully pulled Akimi aside and rushed into the hidden room, scanning their surroundings.
After confirming that Kirito was indeed not inside, they collapsed to their knees with a thud.
"Ah…"
Akimi let out a soft sigh, then slowly pried off the pair of pale, tightly clenched hands gripping his collar.
Shooting Ducker a sidelong glance, he left with Asuna, leaving behind Argo and the others, who could not accept the truth.
———————
"Kirito… is dead?!"
The news struck Keita like a bolt from the blue.
The key he had only recently obtained slipped from his hand to the floor, but he seemed not to notice, staring blankly at Ducker's guilt-ridden face.
Thinking back on the moments he had shared with Kirito over the past two months, Keita's expression kept shifting until it finally turned deathly pale.
With reddened eyes and a sob in his voice, Ducker said, "It's all my fault… If I hadn't insisted on opening that box… Kirito and Akimi had both warned me…"
Sasamaru and Tetsuo also stood silently beside Ducker, heads lowered, faces full of regret.
"You…"
Keita managed to utter just one word before he could no longer speak—what was the point of blaming them now?
Now… what should they do?
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