[Congratulation]
[You have received 10,000 EXP]
[Level Up]
Ren's finger lightly brushed across the glowing lines of text hovering before his eyes, the motion gentle and familiar, no different from a habitual, everyday gesture.
Throughout the long advance into the labyrinth, his experience bar had been filled little by little, more than halfway complete from scattered skirmishes along the way. The remainder, the defeat of the fifth-floor boss, had simply pushed it past the final threshold.
Level 18.
Not a remarkable number, yet one that carried a very clear meaning.
It was the common baseline of the players standing on the frontline at this moment.
After a period of being left behind or more accurately, choosing to stand outside it, Ren had finally returned to the same starting line as the others.
He closed the experience interface and switched to the loot window.
Roughly twenty thousand Cor appeared first, followed by several shimmering gemstones. Just a glance was enough to guess their value, somewhere between five and ten thousand. Not bad. At least, not bad at all.
There wasn't much in terms of equipment.
A set of armor with a rough, unrefined appearance, as if carved directly from solid stone, and a short spear with a heavy feel, favoring raw power over flexibility.
Ren paused for only a very brief moment.
There was no Flag of Valor.
Even though Kirito had described the item clearly before, a spear with a banner attached to its shaft, impossible to mistake, Ren still couldn't help but hesitate for a split second.
For an instant, his eyes had almost lit up as they passed over the spear listed among the loot.
But it wasn't it.
Just an ordinary short spear. Heavy. Crude. No glow. No emblem. Nothing that evoked the name the entire raid had been silently aiming for.
…Perhaps he had never been a lucky one.
The thought passed quickly, leaving no lingering bitterness. After a battle that had dragged on until exhaustion, Ren's state of mind was strangely calm, as if everything had simply fallen into its proper place.
He raised his hand, the armored finger poised to tap the button to close the loot interface.
Then, as if recalling something.
A vague notion flickered through his mind. His finger curled back instinctively, pulling away from the icon, as though something had just tugged at him, a small detail he had nearly overlooked.
'Then… who got the banner?'
The thought had barely surfaced before it spread through Ren's mind like a fine crack, quiet, yet impossible to stop, gradually occupying his entire train of thought.
Instinctively, Ren shifted his gaze toward Kajiro and Rin's group. They were the ones who had charged in at the final moment, their blades and strikes bringing the Colossus's existence to an end. Almost simultaneously, Ren realized he wasn't the only one looking that way.
Other gazes were converging as well.
Not just a few.
But nearly everyone's.
In the brief lull after the battle, while the fragments of pixelated light had yet to fully fade, a shared assumption quietly formed in everyone's mind: the Flag of Valor was in that group's hands.
They were the ones who had delivered the finishing blow.
No one spoke.
The silence no longer carried the weight of post-battle exhaustion. Instead, it felt like a thin, taut membrane, waiting for the slightest touch to shatter.
Players' eyes began to shift back and forth between Kajiro and Rin, then back again to the loot notifications still hovering before them.
Kajiro was the one who broke the silence.
He stepped forward half a pace, small, yet enough to place himself at the center of every gaze.
On his familiar, gentle face, a faint smile slowly appeared. It wasn't a smile of joy, nor exactly one of provocation, but a confidence carefully measured and restrained.
"Looks like everyone's waiting for an answer," Kajiro said, his tone as mild as ever. "I just checked the loot."
He paused for a beat—long enough for the air in the room to sink another degree.
"The Flag of Valor… did drop."
A wave of murmurs erupted instantly, no longer held back. Sharp intakes of breath, hushed whispers, even subdued mutterings of regret echoed throughout the chamber.
Rin felt her stomach sink.
She turned to look at Kajiro, the tension in her eyes impossible to hide. She knew exactly what he was doing—seizing the initiative, deliberately making everyone wait, steadily reinforcing his position before delivering the final conclusion.
"And?" someone asked impatiently from the back.
Kajiro tilted his head slightly, as though he had just heard an interesting question.
"And according to the system's distribution," he continued, "theoretically… the recipient of the item… is me."
The air froze.
Rin felt a ringing fill her ears in that instant. Even though she had anticipated this possibility, hearing it stated so decisively still sent a wave of discomfort crawling up her spine.
Her gaze swept across the surrounding faces, unmasked envy, disappointment, and the beginnings of silent calculations taking shape.
In another corner, Ren remained still.
He showed no obvious emotion. Only his eyes, hidden behind the black visor of his helmet, quietly followed Kajiro taking in every small detail of his posture, his breathing, the carefully balanced confidence that stopped just short of arrogance.
'As expected…,' Ren thought.
The Flag of Valor had found its owner.
And from this moment on, the balance of power on the Frontline...even if only slightly had begun to shift.
The first reaction came from Kirito.
He didn't speak right away. He only frowned slightly, very faintly, like an unconscious reflex.
His dark eyes swept past Kajiro, then settled on the system icon confirming item distribution that still hovered in the air.
It wasn't distrust in the system, Kirito had never believed the system could be "wrong", but rather the familiar discomfort that arose when a crucial piece fell into the hands of someone he still couldn't fully read.
"…I see."
Kirito let out a low breath, quiet enough that only he himself could hear it.
Asuna, standing beside him, didn't hide her reaction either. She frowned more openly, her hands tightening unconsciously.
A cold glint of caution flashed in her chestnut-colored eyes, not envy, but the wariness of someone who understood all too well how quickly power could shift the balance of the battlefield.
"The Flag of Valor," Asuna said softly, her voice lowered. "So from now on… Kajiro can raise his own banner."
Kirito didn't reply, but he understood perfectly what Asuna meant. A banner wasn't just an item. It was an invitation. A claim. The perfect pretext to gather others beneath one's name.
On the guilds' side, the reaction took on a different color altogether.
Shivata crossed his arms over his chest, his gaze sharper than usual. He didn't look surprised, merely gave a slight nod, a gesture of acknowledging the result, though not quite one of satisfaction.
"The finishing blow belonged to your team," Shivata said, his tone calm but weighty. "The system distributing it that way is reasonable."
After a brief pause, he looked directly at Kajiro.
"But I hope you understand," Shivata continued, "an item like the Flag of Valor will draw a lot of attention. Not all of it will be friendly."
Kajiro smiled and inclined his head slightly, a polite gesture of acknowledgment. "I'm prepared for that."
Across from him, Liten made no effort to hide her displeasure. She leaned against her shield, her gaze sliding over Kajiro from head to toe, then let out a soft chuckle, a short laugh devoid of any real amusement.
"Looks like," Liten said, "the frontline's about to get a lot more lively."
Okotan remained silent. Too silent.
He didn't react immediately, only lowered his head slightly, the brim of his helmet casting a shadow over half his face. But anyone perceptive enough would notice: his hand had tightened around the grip of his weapon more than usual.
Agil, acting as the mediator, spoke up to cool things down.
"The loot's been distributed," he said, his voice carrying through the room. "The boss is down. There's no dispute. That's enough."
Agil's words functioned as a formal full stop.
But everyone knew… only on the surface.
In one corner of the room, Ren still stood silently as before. He observed the entire scene as if watching a chessboard that had just been forced into a new position, the pieces not yet settled, yet the scent of conflict already beginning to seep into the air.
"No…"
Ren's voice rose low and clear, cutting through the simmering thoughts in everyone's mind.
"The Flag of Valor… isn't on him."
Just one sentence.
The entire room felt as if it had been yanked out of its previous inertia. The whispers stopped. The searching gazes instantly shifted, converging all at once on Ren.
Kajiro turned as well.
His face was so calm it bordered on expressionless. No confusion. No immediate rebuttal. He simply looked at Ren with the gaze of someone waiting to see which piece his opponent intended to move next.
Ren felt his throat dry. He swallowed, the cold metallic sensation of his armor spreading along the hand that slowly tightened, before he spoke again.
"You said… 'theoretically.'"
Ren emphasized the phrase, each word falling with deliberate clarity.
"So in the end...did you actually receive the banner or not?"
His voice wasn't loud. But in a space that had just endured a life-or-death battle, where everyone was used to the clash of metal and screams of exertion, that calmness became the heaviest pressure of all.
Ren turned his head slightly, his gaze brushing past Kirito. Just a faint nod, an unspoken signal, no explanation required.
"And if," Ren continued, his tone even, neither aggressive nor conciliatory,
"you truly are holding the Flag of Valor… then under the original agreement, it isn't an item that belongs unconditionally to any single individual."
The air in the room tightened perceptibly.
Ren went on slowly, each sentence clearly weighed.
"Of course, you have the right to use it. No one denies that. But its use must be placed under collective oversight."
He paused briefly.
"Or you may transfer the right of use to a guild, or to other raiding groups."
This time, the corner of Ren's mouth lifted ever so slightly, not a smile, but an expression close to impassive.
"Naturally," he said, "no one is asking you to hand it over for free."
"Either of the two guilds or anyone who wishes to use the Flag of Valor for their own purposes… will have to pay a commensurate price."
The room fell into a heavy silence.
Not because Ren's proposal was too forceful...but because it was too reasonable.
Kirito lowered his gaze for a moment. Asuna understood first; her brows relaxed slightly, her look shifting from caution to reassessment of the entire situation.
Shivata said nothing, but the arms crossed over his chest tightened, as if he were recalculating the guilds' next moves.
Kajiro finally spoke. "You're right. I don't have the banner… even though I very much wanted to… but unfortunately, that's the truth."
(Hello everyone. Wishing you all a smooth, peaceful, and prosperous New Year. Although the beginning of the year hasn't brought many major obligations, a pile of small, tedious matters kept me tied up until now. I'm finally getting back into writing again.)