Chapter 333

“Red Wings…?”

At this moment, even Silica was just as surprised as everyone else that it was so obvious just from seeing her face.

No one is SAO didn’t know about a guild called Red Wings. Even though recently, some players began to question whether the one who fit to be called the strongest guild should be Red Wings or Knights of the Blood, but the fact that Red Wings was a well-known guild remained unchanged.

For these Players who were 20 Floors away from the frontline, a Player who was part of this guild was basically a legend.

“Why a Red Wings’ members here out of all places?”

“Don’t ask me!”

The Players in the in murmured and whispered among themselves.

Even the party leader who invited Silica earlier was stiff as a rock with a somewhat expression on his face.

Seeing these scenes, Rozen just walked straight toward Silica, ignoring everyone else.

Rozen then extended his hand toward Silica, no, to be precise, toward Pina that was lying on Silica’s head.

Rozen then said briefly.

“Come.”

Upon hearing Rozen’s word, the little dragon on Silica’s head responded to Rozen’s call.

“Kyru!”

After letting out a pleasant cry, Pina immediately flapped its wings and flew from Silica’s head.

“Pi…Pina…!?”

Silica spontaneously shouted.

“Kyru!”

Pina perched on Rozen’s hands as if it did not hear Silica, who was her master.

“Good girl.”

Rozen petted Pina’s chin and took out some small fruits in his storage and fed it to Pina.

“Kyru!”

Pina cried happily and immediately chomped the fruits that Rozen gave, which shocked every Player in the inn, especially Silica.

Theoretically, Tamed Monster won’t touch the food that wasn’t from its tamer. They won’t even bat an eye to the food in Outer Field, let alone a food from other Players.

Tamed Monsters won’t remind their tamer to feed them even if they were hungry, and if the tamer kept forgetting to feed them, the intimacy parameter, which was hidden from Players, would gradually decrease.

Once the value was low enough, the taming status might be nullified, and the Tamed Monster would escape. In the worst-case scenario, they might even attack their tamer.

That was why Silica always had Pina’s favorite nuts in her storage and an earring with a timer effect to remind her to feed Pina.

However, even if Silica did forget to feed Pina, Pina wasn’t supposed to show interest in the food that others gave.

But there was a more serious issue here, Pina actually ignored Silica and responded to other Player’s call, which should be impossible.

Tamed Monsters weren’t supposed to heed other Players’ call aside from their tamer, yet why did Pina approach Rozen when he called?

Of course, Silica didn’t know that no one was even close to Rozen when it came to comprehending the Tamed Monsters.

Rozen was the only one who knew how to exploit the borderline within the Tamed Monster’s AI without violating its fixed parameters.

And that was exactly what Rozen was doing now. He didn’t order Pina, he simply induced Pina’s AI to make its own judgment, and as a result, there it was eating the food that Rozen gave.

The Feathered Little Dragon was basically like a puppy in front of a dog trainer. However, even though Rozen was capable of inducing a Tamed Monster, he hasn’t completely understood everything about Tamed Monster’s AI since it was so complex, and achieving such a thing was no small feat.

“It seems that your Tamed Monster really likes me, Silica-san.”

Rozen casually said to the girl named Silica while feeding Pina.

“Would you like to team up with me?”

Rozen asked once again, but this time, there was no hateful gaze among the crowds.

Being one of the Red Wings’ members alone was enough to change the attitude of those Players, and suddenly they were surprised once again by how easily Rozen wrap his finger around someone else’s Tamed Monster.

After seeing Pina was casually eating the fruit in Rozen’s hand for a while, Silica asked.

“That’s… May I know your level first?”

It seemed Silica had her doubts, because if Rozen really was a Red Wings’ member, then he should be around the same level as the Clearers’ average level, which was high enough to deal with every monster in the 35th Floor easily, and thus there should be no need to form a party with her, what if the boy in front of her had ulterior motives?

After all, Silica was only a 13 years old girl. Leaving the Safe Area with a guy alone was too dangerous.

In response to Silica’s question…

“I’m level 45, which happens to be the safe level for this Floor. Just because I’m a Red Wings’ member doesn’t make my level as high as the main force. There are many Players who belong to the support division like me, after all. And I come to this Floor just to fetch some weapon materials.”

Rozen said indifferently.

If Kirito tagged along with Rozen, he would’ve had a hard time holding back his laughter since that excuse sounded really familiar.

Luckily, since no one recognized Rozen, his words managed to relieve the tension in the air.

“That scared me for a moment, turns out he’s just a supporting Player…”

“As I said, it’d be weird for the strongest guild’s member to be here, asking to form a party to begin with, turns out he’s not the main force.”

“Yes, now it finally makes sense.”

The Players inside the inn murmured while trying to rationalize what was happening.

Silica’s question was also answered, but she now felt hesitant, because frankly, there would be no benefit in forming a party with the boy in front of her.

If the boy in front of her really belonged to Red Wings’ supporting division, there was a high chance that he wasn’t that strong, and most of the Skills on his Skill Slot was probably crafting and item creations, and by that logic, it’d be better to join a more balanced party like earlier.

Not to mention going alone with another male Player was simply worrying. Even if there was a feature called ethic code to prevent sexual harassment in SAO which will send those who violated it straight to prison, there were ways to find the loophole, for example, slipping a paralyzing trap in their drink and then lifted the ethic code while the target was unable to move.

Therefore, after considering various possibilities, Silica believed she should decline Rozen’s offer.

However…

“Kyru!”

Seeing Pina ate the treats happily, Silica murmured

“Pina seems to really like him…”

Because of this, Silica made her decision.

“Th… Then I’ll be counting on you!”

Silica bowed and accepted Rozen’s party invitation.

Seeing Silica’s response, Rozen raised his brow at first and then smiled slightly.

“Same here.”

Those two then left the inn together.

“What the hell……”

The crowds had no choice but to dismiss themselves in disappointment, but there was one person who observed Rozen and Silica closely until they left the inn with joy in that person’s eyes.