Kirito grabbed her collar before she even finished talking. “I’ll tell you this: I’m a solo; becoming an orange for a day or two doesn’t even mean anything to me.” Kirito spat out coldly before dragging her up and over to the corridor. Rosalia resisted as she flailed her arms and legs about. “Wait, please, stop! Forgive me! Huh?! …Ah, right, you, won’t you work with me? With your skills we could take down any guild…” She never finished what she was saying. Kirito threw Rosalia headfirst into the corridor. After she disappeared, the corridor shined brightly for a moment and then vanished. Everything was calm again. The spring field that was full of the natural sounds, of chirping birds and running water, became quiet again as if everything that just happened a few moments ago were a lie. But Silica couldn’t move. Her surprise about Kirito’s true identity, her relief at the disappearance of the bandits, all of these emotions flooded in at once, leaving her unable to even open her mouth. Kirito tilted his head and silently watched the speechless Silica for a while before he finally said something in almost a whisper: “…Sorry, Silica. It seems I ended up using you as bait. I considered telling you about this beforehand… but I thought that you would be scared so I didn’t.” Silica tried desperately to shake her head, but she couldn’t; countless thoughts spun about her mind at the same time and were overwhelming her. “I’ll take you to the village.”