Sword Art Online Volume 16 – Alicization Exploding Chapter 18 – War of the Underworld 41 Their right hands left the sword handle and chair, and formed a sign of respect before their left breasts. “Es… esteemed knight! We are terribly sorry!” Renri shook his head and interrupted the red-haired girl who continued her apologies with a pale face. “No… it was my fault for startling you. Besides, I’m… no longer an integrity knight…” Though the latter half barely even made it as a whisper, the girls blinked with puzzled looks. Their confusion came as no surprise. The white mantle hanging around his back and the cross joined with a ring, the Axiom Church’s crest, shining in the middle of his breastplate served as definite proof of his status as an integrity knight. Renri placed his right fingers at the crest, as though to hide it while exposing the truth with his twisted mouth in self- depreciation. “I left my station and fled earlier. The fighting had already begun at the frontmost line. It must be chaos at the unit under my command about now. There must be causalities too. And despite that, I can’t move from here; how could I be considered a knight?” He bit down hard on his lips while glancing upwards. He saw himself in the widely opened eyes, in the colors of autumn, belonging to the red-haired girl. Grey hair hanging down slightly from the forehead. Those round cheeks. And two feminine eyes with long lashes, lacking all knightly fortitude— A failure of a knight, confined eternally at fifteen years old. It was when he quickly averted his eyes from those features he despised. The red-haired girl covered her mouth with a hand as though assailed by some new cause for surprise.