Chapter 30: Kento Yamamoto: Tower At the Top of the World

Kento and the Archmage Ledas Sanders sat around a decorated wooden coffee table in the pristinely clean wizard’s study. The windows had frosted glass over them, but it was clear that it was day outside. The sun was shining.

“So, how do they control heroes?” Kento examined the room. Everything looked handmade and exquisite.

"Do you know what is the weakness of all men?" The old mage filled two cups with steaming water and dropped thick brown leaves inside. The thick brown leaves unfurled slowly, filling the room with the scent of citrus.

"Women?" Kento remembered how easily the goddess swayed him. He thought that after that mortal women would have no power over him.

"Yes, partially."

The hero hummed. "So, that's how summoned heroes are controlled?"

"Well let’s start with this. There were seven of us when we got summoned to the City of Magic. All together," the Archmage took out a pipe and continued.

"For two millennia, dead noble souls who gave their lives for a cause were summoned by priests of Mother and allied Mages to fight the Lord of The Wicked.”

Kento silently nodded along. “So this is what they call the demon lord here. This is sure some kind of anime.” Kento contemplated in his mind.

“The Wicked One would gather forces of the cursed abominations resembling humans and animals, humanity would summon heroes and gather armies. Unless relationships with Elves, Dwarves, and Beastkin were not in shambles by a conflict, they would join too. For almost twenty times that filth was reborn and as many times he was defeated one way or another."

"So, you want to make heroes work again as the wicked one was reborn, or what?"

"This is the complicated part. I sealed his powers, and he was not reborn. That's what makes me terrified. There are natural phenomena each time he is born and gets bestowed his powers, but they didn't occur this time. Humanity should have a decade or two till his new iteration would be born and grow up into an adult body." the Archmage telekinetically moved a sugar bowl on the coffee table. Someone claimed the name though. Еverywhere that person goes, normal people, not monsters, are praising his name, as if he was some kind of saint."

"So you sealed this 'Lord's' powers and now he is no longer acting evil. Maybe it's a copycat, or his powers made him evil?" Kento took a sniff and his face puckered from the sour smell. He quickly added two spoons of sugar.

"I don't think so. He reveals his identity when cities are chanting the name he has given them in admiration. I think, that he is carefully sowing seeds of discord. In the last ten years, many nobles pledged their lives to his name around the region and made blood oaths to him only for him to tell them that he is The Wicked One."

"Still don’t see why this guy is evil, and we shifted away from how countries control the summoned heroes," Yamamoto interjected.

"Right… First - brainwashing or propaganda, call it however you like. My generation of summoned ones was the first where all of us knew how to read and write and had experience with brainwashing. Most of us were extremely politically inclined to the point where we almost killed each other over it…" The Archmage took a deep sigh.

"Someone from the SS, and another a Jew? A Chinese, and a Korean?" Yamamoto conveniently forgot who the Chinese and Koreans hated during WW2.

"No, the Pole - Andrew almost killed the Ukrainian soldier Dmytro, who participated in the attack on Poland for a few very poor remarks. The Spaniard: Alejandro fought with the Armenian: Armen. The Spanish guy died fighting for communism and the Armenian was killed by commies. At least those two weren't trying to kill each other."

"That's why I hate discussing politics," Yamamoto said as he shrugged, the new clothes no longer felt uncomfortable. "Did it work on your team?"

"It didn’t at all. Second is love and lust. All men want to be loved and craved. Send them a gorgeous woman or women who can play the strings of their souls and they will be very timid. That's how they got me. The day I figured everything out was the second worst day of my life," The Archmage's voice quivered slightly. His wrinkled hand grabbed the pipe stronger. His eyes lost focus and he stared into the distance. There was an exquisite bookshelf in the direction of where he looked, filled with leather-bound tomes hidden from dust by glass panels, but he was not looking at the oak furniture.

"I'll try to be careful." Yamamoto thought about his encounter with Noritz, he considered that he should be very cautious.

"Khem… Two of us got 'lovers' as the main hook, Alejandro got a title and land with people praising him, playing into his weakness of obligation to the poor. Gunther was blackmailed and shamed, he killed himself because of it, Mateo was drugged, Dmytro was given prestige, praise, and money, Andrew, I probably mispronounced his name again, was made a General."

"So it's women, money, and fame with drugs and blackmail." Yamamoto took mental note of things to avoid.

"Magic to control someone is limited. It can be dispelled easier than applied."

"So you and that guy with A starting his name got 'sent' lovers?"

"Armen was prepared more than I was, I always thought he was paranoid to be honest. That was until after the last fight he told us about the fake lovers, what happened with Gunther and how Mateo really died, and the hooks I was on, that I didn't want to see."

"That sounds tragic. But why would he wait till that moment."

"It was devastating. He waited when all of the people spying for us were dead or away. Only four of us survived from summoning to the last battle. Later, when I was busy sealing The Wicked One's powers to end his reincarnation cycle for good I learned that Alejandro died in strange circumstances. Presumably, he was poisoned in his home."

"That's terrible. Is that how it always went?"

"No, people of the twentieth century were just way harder to control. Hard to brainwash someone who already has propaganda in his head. Usually, heroes died of old age, as renowned legends with all their needs taken care of, princesses as their wives and their own lineages."

"So I have to find other summoned ones and bring them together somehow to fight this Demon Lord? That would be hard considering what happened to previous ones. They are separated and surrounded by people who try to influence them."

"What demon lord? They are not summoned now to fight The Wicked One. Kings are idiots who believe that our group succeeded at finally defeating the bastard for good."

"Didn't you say you sealed his powers?"

"I know that his powers are sealed as the seal is connected to me, I'd know if it was broken. But it looks like something has changed. I feel that without powers he might be even more dangerous."

"Why would someone without a superpower be more dangerous?"

"He did almost the same thing with different variations twenty times: Gather an army of abominations, march, pillage and rape, burn cities and take slaves. Then he would sacrifice some of them to increase the strength of his army and repeat until stopped. Simple and straightforward."

"And? Now he is easier to beat, no?"

"Making people believe he is a saint is no longer straightforward."

"Is this why you summoned me, and is that why the others are summoning their heroes?"Kento figured out he would be fighting a parody version of a Demon Lord from a comedy anime.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

"They summon them for war and consider the Lord to be a copycat or a fanatic because no omens appeared. The normal ways of summoning when the Lord was born did not open."

"It makes no sense. How do they do the summonings now?"

"There was always another way, an ancient way not used for a millennium. It rarely worked before, but three years ago the Thalassian Empire summoned one."

"But somehow it works now… Do you know why?"

"No. I read the ritual but nothing in it indicates that it's for summoning us." The Archmage levitated the empty cup in his hands and it magically became clean.

"So: there is this ritual which summons people, they get boons from Noritz and superpowers. We can turn into one-man armies, and countries summon us as an arms race while they try to keep us in check so we won’t go against them?" Kento paused, checking if he misunderstood something. Sanders nodded.

"And you want me; an office worker to go around meeting summoned people, who are having entire countries pleasing them and convince them to join a fight against an enemy whom everyone believes to be a copycat of a demon lord?"

"Who's this Demon lord? And aren’t you a soldier?"

"Lord of whatever, I'll call him a demon lord. And no I am not."

"Strange. Yes, you are correct, that's the plan."

"I know most people naturally like me, but I am not that great at persuading. Can I just train and beat the shit out of this Demon Lord myself?"

"You can try, but no one has succeeded at defeating him singlehandedly yet."

"Didn’t you seal his powers? It will be easier to find and beat him up than to find other summoned ones." Kento finally took a sip and his face puckered and contorted so hard he was unable to open his eyes for a good minute. It was like drinking concentrated lemon juice.

"He is still unfathomably strong without his magical abilities. Finding the other ones won’t be such an issue on the other hand. The first one who was summoned is now the Emperor of Thalassia. But I'd leave him for last."

"Huh?"

"He organized a coup a year ago and now rules it with the support of the army."

"Wow, that's impressive." Yamamoto had a 'Not Bad' expression on his face. “And I was just asking myself why aren’t heroes capturing countries. Maybe I should just train and capture one?”

"I have intel on where there will be a summoning in the near future," Ledas Sanders grinned, ignoring the question. "An old student of mine wrote me a letter."

"We've talked for around an hour, you said you had something to eat." Kento felt his stomach growl from the acidic substance the Archmage drank as tea.

"Oh right."

The two left the study and moved down the wooden ladders of the wizard's tower. Everything felt sturdy and precisely crafted. There was no kitchen on the first floor, it was some sort of an alchemical lab instead. Archmage opened the exterior door and freezing cold blew in. When Kento stepped outside cold, thin but soothing air entered his lungs. The sun shone on his face gently blinding him for the moment his eyes adjusted.

He saw towering rocky peaks covered in snow, and intensely green pine forests in the deep valleys. Kento never knew that skies could be so divinely blue and mountains so breathtaking. That was despite the fact that he grew up among them.

The wizard's tower was high in the mountains, with platforms protruding from an almost vertical slope. He was standing on a bridge to nowhere, ending with a two-person table and chairs next to the glass-looking railings.

"Take a seat, Kento," Mage moved his hands and a cauldron appeared next to the table, and the table was instantly furnished with tablecloth, plates, silverware and napkins.

Life prepared Kento for many things. Magic was not one of them.

"Where are we?" Kento took a seat.

"At the border of the civilized world. Look there." He pointed his hand downstairs through the magical railings Kento incorrectly identified as glass.

"Is that a fortress?" Kento saw a small fortified village below him.

"Look more carefully. Pay attention to details. Imagine that you can see further."

Kento imagined himself to be an eagle as he stepped to the edge of the bridge. He tried to follow the instructions and imagined himself zooming in like a camera.

Nothing happened. The small settlement with a wall looked exactly the same.

He tried again, opening his eyes wider, then squinting. He imagined himself seeing from up closer and his vision blurred seeing only dark green all around. He stepped back as he felt his head spin and put his hands on his knees waiting for the effect to wear off. He was somehow seeing, not from his position, but it was a blob. When he tried to look up he saw the sun, which was also a blob across his whole vision.

"Sit." Archmage moved his hand and one of the chairs levitated right behind Kento.

"What was that?"

"Sorcery."

"Like magic wizards use?"

"Yes and No. Mages use spells they have to understand. Summoned heroes and aberrations don't need that. They just force their will on reality. We are not restricted like mages, priests, or knights."

"Neat!" Kento looked around as his eyesight returned to normal.

"You will have to learn to focus your will, and pay attention to mental fatigue." Archmage filled the deep plates with stew from the cauldron.

"Alright." Kento tried again, but this time seated. And again. And again. He lost his sight once again. He stopped trying to project his vision, instead, he tried to narrow his vision.

"I will fix you if you get yourself permanently blind," Archmage said casually, sipping the acrid substance he called 'tea'.

In a few minutes, Kento saw the fortress as if through a spyglass. A small stone fortress was surrounded by around twenty houses encircled by a tall and thick stone wall. He saw a wall going sideways from it, continuing for hundreds of meters to another small fortified settlement, and another and another...

Each kilometer was a small fortified settlement forming a line across the mountains. It felt strange that he didn't notice it without magic. It reminded him of a toned-down version of the Great Wall of China.

"Are we on some kind of a border?" he asked the Archmage, whose face he could see across the table as close as if he was looking point blank. His eyes started to go blurry.

"On the border of the civilized world. As I said before."

"And what's on the other side?"

"Were you even listening? Abominations and monsters!”

“So I can just go there, kill monsters, level up, and get the Demon lord… Gramps, will they allow me out or should I jump over the wall?” Kento Yamamoto flexed his muscles a bit with his eyes closed.

"Putain, qu'est-ce qui cloche avec ce mec ?" The Archmage was definitely cursing. “The whole place on the other side is a minefield for kilometers. Does my offered quest sound so hard? What do you want as a reward?”

“I am a fighter, I fight. Getting EXP sounds easier.”

“T'es débile ou quoi ? What eks pi you are talking about!? You said you were an office worker!"

Kento realized that it was a very strange assumption. Just because the plotline was very similar to some low tier anime he watched on the train didn’t mean it would have experience points, level-ups, and systems.

“Old man, you will have to explain to me how this world works before I head out.” Kento sounded confused and felt dizzy. He just willed magic into existence, it felt natural for this world to have systems, levels HUD, an adventurer’s guild, and many other things.

“That’s the plan. Around a month to study the basics. Eat now, You are so out of magic, you become delusional.”

As Kento took his first bite of the stew, a thin veil lifted from his perception. He had this dish before, it was a venison stew he once had when he went on holiday with his parents and siblings to Canada twenty years ago. It was a good time.

He felt a lot at the same time. He felt nostalgia, his will and body drained. He felt a tinge of sorrow too, but he couldn’t form in his mind what made him feel that way. The filter that had separated him from this world, suddenly dissolved.

He had a bit of time to process things over. He felt how utterly bizarre it all was: he had died, reincarnated without his brain cancer, slept with a goddess, and awakened in these mountains.

In mere hours, he'd learned simple but potent magic from a wizard around a century old who talked weird things and entrusted him with saving the world.

In his mind’s eye, he pictured [Do You Accept The Quest to Save The World Y/N] written on a blue screen hovering in front of him.

Kento looked up at the Archmage. "Old man," he said quietly, "I think you might be right…"

“Eat the stew.” The Mage stopped him. “You are drained, it’s fine to have a bit of mental disarray when you are. We will start tomorrow morning, so rest, and don’t try to use magic...”

Kento mentally pressed the button Y he imagined to himself.

He was going on a quest.