.
While I was flying back from the tower, catching up with Reia, I was wondering how Ryuu would take the news that I had to tell him. I imagined a number of different possible reactions, but wasn’t really satisfied with any of them. So, I didn’t have any specific expectations.
I had a long conversation with Erebos about our options, and there were several. Only one actually involved killing an incarnation of the demon king, and it was the least desirable, if the goal was to limit the suffering of the mortals under his thumb. That was to aim for somehow killing him exactly when he achieved incarnation, or as soon as possible afterword. Then, the thousand-plus years of spiritual preparation he needed in order to create a proxy spirit to inhabit a new incarnation would be lost, and send him back to the starting line.
The least desirable, but also the most achievable. The other options were far more difficult.
I turned the helm back over to Dilorè, and unfolded a jump seat from the wall to sit before I began talking. Chiara still had the navigator’s chair and Ryuu kept looking down at his crossed arms with his back against the aft bulkhead of the boat’s cockpit. When I finished, Chiara and I both watched him with some concern.
After all, the summoning spell’s demand for a perpetually victorious champion had locked onto a powerhouse of the MMORPG world with no physical strength worth mentioning and yanked him across the dimensions without his permission out of his comfortable life on Earth in order to fight somebody else’s fight on a world with no computers, smartphones, video games or internet. It was surely unpleasant to hear that they had done that to him without an actual demon king to defeat.
It turned out that his reaction was continue looking down, leaving me unsure what to say next.
“Mr. Kowa,” I hazarded after we had watched him for several silent seconds. “Does this make you angry?”
Still looking down, he shook his head. “No, not angry. I have some questions, more than anything.”
“You’re confused?” Chiara asked. “About what?”
He looked up at her, visibly considering his words, then said, “The first thing that the princess told me when I was summoned was ‘The Demon King has appeared in Regaritae. That empire has already fallen to his armies and he now turns his eyes eastward, toward our kingdom.'”
I tipped my head. “Princess Amelia said that?”
He nodded. “She was reading it from a scroll, so maybe somebody else wrote it for her. The magic still seemed to be going on, so I guess it was part of the spell.”
This was the first time I had heard that she was part of the hero summoning. I did see her bid him farewell when we left Atius, so I knew she had met him, but it seemed odd for them to have included her in something as dangerous as high-level arcane magic.
The author back on Earth had somehow missed that. The line had been in the book, but it was read by a ‘beauty in priestess clothing.’ Of course, another ‘beauty in priestess clothing’ had conducted the ceremony, and that turned out to be Mother, who is also no priestess, to my knowledge.
“That was the intelligence we had,” I told him. “The archdemons have been coordinating their armies and the demons are declaring themselves to be fighting for the Demon King, as if one were commanding them. They never work together without a demon king. But it turns out he simply found a way to command them from his imprisonment.”
He then looked at me in the eye and stated, “Then she said that the Royal Augurs had divined that the hero who could defeat the Demon King was not to be found in this world, and had to be summoned from another.”
I was still having trouble getting a sense for what was bothering him. “So, if they said the hero had to be summoned from another world, then the hero summoned must be able to defeat the Demon King?”
“Maybe it’s a foregone conclusion that he is going to end up incarnating?” Chiara suggested. “So you were summoned early enough to have time to get strong enough?”
“Maybe,” he said. “Or maybe…”
His eyes swiveled back to me. “Look, I’m not the only one here who came from another world anymore, am I?”
Outside, I was calm, but inside, I wanted to let out a deep groan. He was thinking I was the actual hero? His summoning was a mistake?
The last thing Ryuu needed was to dig the hole deeper for himself.
I hardened my voice and gave it to him bluntly. “Mr. Kowa, you were summoned, and the spell gave you a unique growth gift that no known magic can replicate. That means divine power is at work, and it means that you have a purpose here for which that gift is necessary. The celestial beings consider me to have a role here too, but that doesn’t make it the same role as yours. My current suspicion is that my role is to make you strong enough. Maybe it’s to make you strong enough to do something I can’t. Maybe it’s to make you strong enough to do something that requires the two of us together. But I can tell you with utter certainty that you are not redundant or unnecessary.”
“How can you be so sure?” he demanded.
“Summonings use the same sea of knowledge as divinations, to find the right guy for the job and give him the right ability to meet the requirement. That sea of knowledge contains only truthful information. I can state with utter certainty that you, Mr. Kowa, are needed. The summons would not have picked a man who would courageously rise to the challenge and given him a cheat so blatantly designed to make him over-powered unless it found the need for an over-powered hero.”
I strongly disliked the arrogant jerk Ryuu Kowa. I was frankly not too happy with this depressed, self-doubting Ryuu Kowa either. But I had a suspicion that the guy half-way between the two might be a decent guy I could get along with. But I was now getting worried that I would never find that guy.
Dilorè called me to the helm a short while later, reporting we were passing over Anto and entering Relador. We switched out so that it would be my seal guiding the boat.
Since I was just reversing the exact path that Manlon’s launch had followed on the way out, it was a relatively easy job navigating through Oberon’s [Great Labyrinth] spell. As long as the points were Anto, Royses and Tëan Tír, I would be fine. If I ever needed to go anywhere else, though, I would have to learn the route.
I was still sweating as we came upon the first ‘gate’, but we made better time than I had made while I was learning. We made it from Anto to Tëan Tír in less than half the time I had taken the other direction, despite Reia being much slower than the launch.
Dilorè, noticing that we weren’t headed to the valley portal as we drew near to Tëan Tír, wondered, “Aren’t we going to visit the Castle before we go to your place?”
“I’ll bring you guys to my mountain first, then go talk to Mother,” I told her. “They might try to keep me overnight, but Little Jia will accommodate you while you wait for me. You need to acclimate to the spiritual levels of the small world before we train, anyway. Are there any obstructions between here and there?”
“You’re about to come up on one, Your Highness,” she told me, leaning over my shoulder to point out the faint glow of a spell barrier in the distance. “The flying route requires you to circle around and come in from the North. Turn Northeast for now. You will reach another gate in that direction.”
Before we reached that gate, a squadron of flying warriors began chasing our stern. I brought the craft to a halt mid-air, then went to the hatch.
“Do you want me to go with you?” Dilorè asked.
“No. If by some unlucky event I have to go with them, can you pilot the boat into Tëan Tír from here?”
“I can, Your Highness. There’s no gate between this point and the valley portal.”
I grew my wings as I stepped out of the hatch and flew, ready for another tiresome round of flexing by the locals.
The leader turned out to be one of the two fairies who had been with Mára when she intercepted me over Tëan Tír, just before my first meeting with Princess Tenre. Her eyes darkened considerably when she saw me, not hiding the fact that that the “Field and Forest” faction still had no love for me, even with the Fate Magic dispelled.
After performing an aerial bow, she gave me her name for the first time.
“Cili marcorheá Enoraydd söanmiloëo. Rebe Norle Tamerà ci cyralinëo. (This humble one greets the royal knight. I am named Tamerà of the Water Forest.)”
“Ëi onar lâ, Fele Tamerà.” I nodded, not identifying myself, since, by calling me ‘royal knight’, however reluctantly and potentially with sarcasm, she had already identified me.
Her lips quirked and she admitted, switching to Dorian, “I am not yet Fele, so I am styled Rehëu in my clan.”
Translation: like Dilorè, she was only an apprentice, but was called ‘My Lady’ as a noblewoman.
She raised her chin and announced, “I apologize for stopping you, Enora. While patrolling as part of the defenses of Tëan Tír, we observed an unknown aircraft, at a time when tensions between the factions are still high.”
I didn’t comment about how she went out of her way to call me Enora, Royal Knight, rather than Fele. Avoiding the standard honorific might have been a low-key insult, but I didn’t have time to play stupid noble games.
Instead, I answered, “This craft is temporarily serving as my mobile base. We are headed to my mountain.”
Her eyes blanked for a moment, then she asked, “Your mountain?”
I nodded. “It isn’t far. I have a favor to ask, however. Once I bring the boat there, I must go report to the Castle. It’s bothersome for me to go through the ground portal. Can you help me arrange for the aircraft portal to open?”
“We can escort you through it, if you wish,” she suggested.
I wondered if they were willing to do so because they wanted to keep an eye on me. But I smiled and replied, “That would be most helpful, Rehëu. Thank you.”
As I piloted the boat the rest of the way, I noticed them following us. It wasn’t very surprising, I suppose. An aerial patrol of the region outside the valley shield would be made up of those who could navigate the [Great Labyrinth] spell, and they were indeed keeping an eye on me.
As we approached Mount Ciddan, I saw that it was now a completely barren mass of rock, lacking any trace of vegetation. Erosion had long since swept all soil away, living only hard rock surfaces. In my memory of ten thousand years ago, it had been covered in pine forests below the timber line.
After bringing the boat to a halt and turning on the self-management, I focused on the mountain, in the upper reaches, and spread my voice across it using Xa-Ne child speech.
Senhion of the Third Legion seeks access to her abode.
I received an immediate response, not from the portal system, but a familiar voice… the voice of my first Mortal Realm body. Of course, it was Little Jia using it.
Greetings, Commander! Welcome home!
Little Jia, I replied with a smile. Can you see the craft that I am piloting?
I can indeed. We have already scanned it. You have a Servant and two mortals accompanying you. Are the beings following the vessel also with you?
The squadron of fairy and half-fairy warriors were still escorting the boat. I smiled and shook my head.
They are merely escorting the vessel. They will wait for me outside while I am within. Does the portal system still have the ability to create temporary vehicle portals in the mountain airspace?
I have maintained all defensive, offensive, transportation and communications systems in perfect order, Commander.
For a moment, I detected a slightly hurt tone in her response. I hurried to smooth any fur I had rubbed wrong.
As expected of my trusted assistant, I observed proudly. Please portal this boat into the small world immediately.
Dilorè, watching over my shoulder, gasped when, in the next instant, the mountain filling the windows vanished, and was replaced by an impossible view.
