Lyfa tumbled back to her seat. She started to protest, but the dark eyes staring into her own from nearby quieted her. As he held her gaze, the until-now relaxed Kirito addressed her in a firm tone. “No, you should log out now. I will protect your avatar until it disappears.” “Eh?! Wh-why?” “It is now half past two. Didn’t you say that you are a student? Today, you have been in FullDive over eight hours for me. I can’t let you stay with me any longer.” “...” The suddenness of Kirito’s comments left her grasping for words, but he merely looked at her and calmly continued to speak. “Even going straight we don’t know how long this will take. If we avoid the very large monsters’ detection range, it will increase our travel distance. Even if we reached the stairs, it would be around morning. I have a reason that I must go to Aarun, but today is a weekday, so I think you better log off. “ “No, I’m okay. Just one all-nighter...” Forcing a smile, Lyfa shook her head. Kirito, letting go of Lyfa’s sleeve, lowered his head to make his final speech. “Thank you for coming this far with me, Lyfa. If it weren’t for you, I would probably have taken several days just to gather information. But thanks to you, I only needed half a day to get here. No matter how much I thank you it wouldn’t be enough.” “...”