"I trade with people, and I am absolutely innocent. 」

After the guard elf boy said with a proud face, he began to operate the trading window. After seeing all the props they had gotten, the fire elf kept moving her fingers with a happy expression.

Lifa said to the man a little unbearably:

"You, this is your companion's equipment, aren't you?"

As a result, the man said after a few "tsk" sounds:

"You don't understand that. It's just that when you get those rare props to show off to me, the refreshment will be doubled. Of course, I can't equip them with me. It's good to sell them all and buy a house. 」

After leaving the phrase "It's good to wait for a few days when things calm down before going back to the territory", the fire elf walked back to the exit the same way he came.

Now that I think about it, the deathmatch that took place ten minutes ago was like a lie, and Lifa stared very seriously at Kirito, who had returned to his previous attitude.

"Huh, that's it?"

"Ah, that...... That raging demon just now should be Kirito, right?"

After asking, Kirito raised his gaze and scratched his jaw.

"Uh-oh, it should. 」

"What should it be...... Isn't that for the fire elves to be deceived by the appearance of monsters and then create a chaotic battle?"

"No—I didn't think about it that much...... I sometimes do what I did...... I went crazy in the middle of the battle, and then I had no memory......

"Wow, that's scary!"

"But I still have some memories of what happened just now. Follow Yui's instructions to use magic, and suddenly become quite huge yourself. Then the sword was gone, and I had no choice but to grab it with my hands......

"I also bit people with my teeth~"

Yui added happily on Lifa's shoulder.

"Ah, indeed. This experience of transforming into a monster is really good. 」

Looking at Kirito with a smile on her face, a question suddenly appeared in Lifa's heart that she wanted to ask no matter what, only to see her cringe and ask:

"That...... Fire Elf ...... Does it smell like anything?"

「…… The taste and texture are like grilled meat that is a little burnt......

"Wow, that's enough. Don't say it!"

She shook her hand desperately at Kirito. But suddenly the hand was caught—

"Quack!"

Kirito yelled, opened his mouth wide, and bit down on Rifa's finger.

"Ah——!h

Lifa's screams and the subsequent crash of "pound bang!" shook the surface of the underground lake slightly.

"Woo, it hurts~......"

Kirito staggered as he touched his cheek, which had been slapped hard by Lifa.

"It's all bad for dad just now!"

"That's right. It's rude!"

After Lifa said this to Yui on her shoulder, Kirito protested like a scolded child:

"The scene was full of the atmosphere of killing after the battle, and I was just a witty joke to ease the atmosphere......

"Next time I do this, I'll cut you in half!"

After Lifa closed her eyes and angrily stopped looking away, the speed of her feet began to increase.

In front of them, a huge stone gate reached the top of the underground cavern. It was the gate of the mining city of Luguru.

Due to the need for supplies and the fact that there was a lot of information to be sorted out, they decided to spend the night in the town. It took a lot of time to spend on the unexpected, large-scale battle just now, and it was close to twelve o'clock in the morning in the real world.

Then Alpheim really started to get busy, but Lifa was still a student, so no matter how late it was, she would go offline by 1 a.m. When she told Kirito this, he thought about it for a while, but finally nodded in agreement.

As they walked side by side through the city gates, an orchestra of NPCs played light music in place of the background music, welcoming them to the sound of hammers beating one after another.

The town is not very large, but there are many shops and workshops selling various materials such as weapons and armor, as well as sake and food on the rock walls on both sides of the central street. The appearance of these stacked buildings next to each other is quite spectacular. The number of players is also more than expected, and you can also see a team of musical elves and leprechauns who are good at smelting, and other races that are rarely encountered, chatting and laughing as they pass by.

"Wow~~~ Is this Ruguru-"

Lifa couldn't help but cheer at the underground city she had seen for the first time, and was immediately attracted by the sword display shelves in front of the nearby shop. Although the staff at the weapons shop is not very good, the shopping can still make people feel excited.

"Then again—"

When she took the silver sword in her hand and carefully tasted it, Kirito behind her said in a leisurely tone:

"Huh?"

"Didn't someone send you a message before the Fire Elf attacked?"

"Ah......h

Lifa's mouth opened wide and she turned.

"I forgot. 」

She hurriedly opened the window to confirm the message. But even after reading Reagan's message again, she still couldn't figure out what it meant. Maybe the connection was interrupted due to a sudden connection problem, but then no more messages came in.

When Lifa thinks, "Then I'll send him a message," Reagan's name is grayed out in the friends list. It looks like he's offline.

"What, are you already asleep......

"Why don't you get in touch with him in the real world?"

Kirito's words made her fall into deep thought.

To be honest, she doesn't really like to bring the Alpheim thing to the real world. He has never been a member of the online community about ALO, and he and Regan-Shinichi Nagata hardly talk about games in the real world.

But the mysterious message just now is really interesting.

"Then I'll go out and check it out a bit, Kirito, you wait for me for a while. I'll leave my body to you, Yui—"

She added this sentence to Yui on her shoulder.

"What's the matter?"

"Keep an eye on your dad and don't let him play any pranks on me!"

"Got it!"

"I—I said!"

After smiling at Kirito who shook his head and said, "You're thinking too much," Lifa sat down on a nearby bench and waved her right hand.

After pressing the logout button, the fourth World Movement of the day began. While feeling a feeling similar to dizziness, I let my consciousness emerge towards the real world.

"Hoo ......"

The long login that she didn't usually have made her feel a little tired, and Naoba exhaled greatly because of this.

She was lying on her bed, still wearing AmuSphere, and glanced at the alarm clock. It's almost time for Emerald to go home. Maybe it's better to show your face in front of Cui-

Naoba thought so as he picked up the phone that was placed on the head of the bed with his hand. On the EL panel integrated with the case, she has a caller ID during login.

"What's going on?"

As soon as he saw the panel, Naoba's eyes widened. It showed a total of 12 missed calls, all of which were from Shinichi Nagata. If it is a phone with an emergency tag attached to a family, police, or hospital, it will be automatically logged out by linking with AmuSphere. But Nagata's phone is not in this range, so the system will not respond at all. But what is so important about this kind of time?

Just as she opened her phone with a snap and was about to call back, what seemed to be the thirteenth call had just come in, and the shell began to flash blue. Naoba pressed the answer button and put the phone to his ear.

"Hey, Nagata-san, what's going on?"

"Ahh

"What really. It's not because of some problems in the game.

"No, it's terrible! Sigroot, betrayed us...... And、And not only that, he even betrayed the lord, Shuo Ye!"

"You say betrayal...... What do you mean? You make things clear from the beginning!"

"W-it's almost too late...... That--when we were attacked by the fire elves in the ancient forest yesterday, don't you think it's weird?"

Although Nagata said that the matter was urgent, at this time he had returned to his usual slow tone. When talking face-to-face, if Nagata dared to call her directly as affectionately as he had just now, Naoba would definitely physically attack him and make him change his words. But I couldn't do that on the phone, so I had to acquiesce.

It's just that that incident only happened yesterday, which actually surprised Naoba a little. It feels like I've met Kirito a long time ago.

"Huh——? you say it's weird...... What's strange......?"

To be honest, because the impression left by Kirito was too strong, I can't remember the previous air battle clearly.

"Didn't Sigroot offer to be a decoy when eight fire elves attacked him at the beginning, and then he lured three enemies away by himself?"

"Uh-huh, I remembered when you said that. But he didn't survive in the end, did he?"

"That's right. But now that you think about it, don't you think that doesn't look like something Sigroot would do? If it were a normal day, when the team was going to separate, he would have thought that he should stay as the captain and let someone in the team be the bait. 」

"Ah——...... It's true......

Sigroot is indeed a very good combat commander, but he is also very selfish to say, always thinking that he must be at the top. He really wasn't the kind of person who would sacrifice himself to let his companions escape.

"But what does that mean......?"

"I mean......"

Nagata continued as if he had bitten something disgusting:

"That guy secretly has a secret relationship with the fire elves. It should have started a long time ago. 」

"What?"

This time, Naoba was really startled from the bottom of her heart, and she was completely speechless when she held her mobile phone tightly.

In the ALO, where there is a constant power competition between races, it is not uncommon to find players using unwanted accounts to spy on them. In the Wind Elves based in Si Yiluban, there must be a few other races, especially the disguised characters of the Fire Elves.

So basically, players with low skill level and low contribution, who are not usually very active, will be considered to be spies and will not be able to approach the center of the Ruling Department at all. Even Lifa had only recently been allowed to enter the Lord's Pavilion behind the Tower of Wind.

However, Sigroot has been actively involved in the governance since the dawn of the ALO, and he has been in second or third place in all four lord elections held so far, but even if he loses the election, he has volunteered to serve as an assistant without discouragement, and has now become a fairly important player in the center.

It's hard to believe that he could be a spy for the Fire Elves.

"I'm talking about you...... Do you have any evidence for this?"

Naoba couldn't help but lower his voice and questioned Nagata.

"I've always felt weird in my heart, so I've been using the 'Void Body' to follow Sigroot since this morning. 」

"You're really idle......

The so-called "virtual body" is Regan's transparent spell. You won't be able to use this spell if you don't fully learn advanced covert magic and stealth skills.

The original English pinyin of the name Reagan was written as "Recon", in fact, in the American military terminology, it refers to the reconnaissance unit - but the correct pronunciation seems to be Ligan - he strengthened the ability to conduct reconnaissance in advance during hunting when the character was created, so tracking can be said to be what he is best at. He once abused this ability to invade the hotel room where Lifa was resting, and although he later explained that he was secretly putting a birthday present for Lifa in the room, Lifa beat him half to death.

Nagata ignored Naoba's teasing voice and continued:

"That guy said those rude things to Lifa at the Tower of Wind, and I was so angry that I was going to poison him and follow him just to find an opportunity. And the result—"

"Wow, you're horrible. 」

"That guy just put on a transparent cloak and disappeared in the alley, and I thought there must be something strange about it. But how can that kind of prop escape my eyes? 」

"Don't show it off, hurry up and move on. 」

"Then we went into the sewers, and after about five minutes of walking, there were two strange guys waiting for him in the very middle. They wore transparent cloaks as well, but when I took them off, I was shocked because they were fire elves!"

"Huh, but you can't fool the guards with a cloak alone, right? I guess I was hacked to death when I entered town...... Do you ...... say?"

"That's right, you guessed it. They wear badges. 」

The so-called "pass badge" is a pass-like item. It can only be issued to other races who want to trade in the territory after a close examination. At that time, only a few people in the ruling ministry could issue items, and they could not be transferred, and of course Sigroot had the right to distribute them.

"I was about to say I got it, but I pricked up my ears and heard him say to the fire elf