Yuya Kondo
Yuya Kondo
The Demon Lord headed to the casino, ready to summon his next advisor, the professional agoraphobic. He seemed eager to take a look inside the building while he was at it. As the automatic doors slid open, a cool draft came through.
“No electricity required, as always...”
As a high-end facility, the casino was as opulent on the inside as it was on the outside. The entrance opened to an enormous lobby, featuring numerous golden chandeliers dangling from the ceiling and a fountain with an angel statue set in the center of the lobby. Through the lobby stood pillars that resembled Greek temples, each decorated with crystal décor. (This is totally over the top, if I do say so myself...) The ceiling above contained vibrant stained glass windows depicting various scenes, and the floor below was layered with an impressive red carpet; everything about this place gave off the aura that it was the perfect place for important people to play with their money. (The interior is one thing, but food storage is another.) With familiarity, the Demon Lord walked through an employee-only door, taking a direct route to his destination. The Casino hosted a lavish bar called the Golden Tree that had been written to serve food.
The Demon Lord flung the doors to the storage room open with anticipation, but soon looked dejected. (It’s no good... It just came out as an empty pantry.) According to the Casino’s setting, there should have been various foods in the storage room, including delicacies like exotic fruits from around the world. Alas, there wasn’t a single box of food in sight. (Dammit... What about booze?!) He carried on down the hall to the wine cellar and came to a room full of wine racks and shelves, most spaces occupied with bottles that were gloriously not empty. The Demon Lord thrust his fists into the air.
“There’s the booze! This is what I’ve been waiting for!” The Demon Lord stepped into the cellar and beamed as he spotted barrels of various sizes that held wine, sake, and shochu. At long last, he could pour himself a drink without spending any SP. (This is the stuff! You can’t have a casino without booze. And... girls in bunny suits?) The Demon Lord cackled, recalling Tahara’s comment and imagining the Bunnies working the casino. It would be quite the sight to see the Bunnies roam these golden halls. (Now to the cold room...) With his confidence restored, he headed to another storage room and threw the door open to find rows of industrial refrigerators. “Here they are! Here they are! Hah ha ha!” The Demon Lord couldn’t contain his excitement anymore. The refrigerators were packed with beer, chuhais, highballs, and chasers, making for an impressive display. He couldn’t help but reach in, grabbing a can of beer labeled Bud Heavy. Just holding the can made him salivate. “What sort of owner would I be if I didn’t taste-test before serving it to guests...? Ooh-hoo!” The Demon Lord chugged the whole thing. The crisp yet refreshing sensation was one he had not felt in a while. “Ice cold, too... That’s the stuff!” Then he took out a can of Byeneken, cracked it open, and threw the contents down his throat. “Ahh! One taste-test wouldn’t cut it, of course. As the owner, I must take full responsibility for quality assurance.” He jumped for joy like a mouse with a wheel of cheese before “taste-testing” a few more things he remembered from the good old days, assuring that they were of serving quality. Even as he indulged in this impulsive day-drinking, he saw nothing wrong with his actions under the excuse of quality assurance.
“Demon Lord is drinking again...”
“Woah!” He turned around to find Tron floating in the air, giving him a dirty look. He cleared his throat in an attempt to regain his authority.
“Didn’t you see the ‘employees only’ sign?” he asked.
“I’m M Ploy E, too.”
The Demon Lord groaned. “Oh, fine...”
“Very fine,” Tron deadpanned, and the Demon Lord chuckled in resignation. There was no arguing against Tron and her special eyes. “I want a drink too.”
“As if, kid. Besides, this is an important job called QA. Worst case, if anything’s mislabeled, the media will have a field day with it, besmirching the casino name that we’ve carried on for fifteen years.”
“I don’t understand.”
“C-Come on! We’re getting out of here.”
“Ohhhh myyyy...”
The Demon Lord rushed out of the cold room, carrying Tron under his arm. Seeing how she didn’t actually protest, Tron seemed to want to see other locations around the casino. For a child like her, the cold room was simply a boring space with rows of bizarre silver boxes. (I guess I’ll take a look if I’m headed back to the lobby...) The Demon Lord passed through the lobby and onto the actual casino floor, filled with modern equipment in immaculate condition. In addition to casino staples like poker, blackjack, baccarat, and craps, the second floor hosted keno and slot machines, while the third floor held things such as the Game of Life and escape rooms. There were ample opportunities for guests to test both their luck and intellect.
“Fishies...” Tron, still floating along in the air, clung to a giant transparent wall that held a massive aquarium. “Never seen such pretty fishies,” she muttered. “They’re adorable.”
“They’re nice, I suppose...” The Demon Lord didn’t have any personal liking for keeping fish. He simply wanted to provide a little something to break the tension on the cutthroat casino floor. The aquarium tank held varying vegetation as well as water wheels, caves, and mossy rocks that framed the fish happily swimming around. Illuminated by the gentle lighting of the casino floor, the tank itself could have been called a kingdom underwater.
“Amazing. This makes it complete,” Tron said, still glued to the wall of the tank.
The Demon Lord couldn’t help but feel like he had brought a child to the aquarium. (I’ve heard that the practice of keeping tropical fish in the house has been around since the 19th century...) He wanted to provide her with some information about tropical fish, but had no knowledge on the matter. Fish were food to him, all things considered. The more he tried to think of something to say, the more his mind was occupied by fillets of sashimi and grilled fish. (Now I’m starting to get hungry... Tuna, salmon, sea bream, yellowtail, amberjack, flounder... I can barely get sashimi around here.) The Demon Lord’s brain was now occupied by thoughts of various fish, all deliciously filleted and served raw. Tropical fish, on the other hand, were still outside of his pay grade.
“If you want to see something else beautiful, look up,” he pointed.
“Up...?” Tron looked up to see a ceiling that had an ordinary planetarium projected on it. To her, it was a piece of the universe itself, silently twinkling above. “Incredible... It’s like I’m in a dream.”
“You’ll occasionally see shooting stars or the aurora borealis. Some of the players were convinced that seeing a shooting star would increase their odds.” The Demon Lord chuckled at the nostalgic thought.
Tron floated over and wrapped herself around his arm. “I want to live here. Sparkle with Aku!”
The Demon Lord wore a grin. Although the opulence of the place might have been appealing, he was sure that there could not have been a less relaxing space. “This is the casino floor, so you can’t live here. I plan on reserving the 13th floor for the guests. Pick any room you want from there.”
“A room for me... I’ll live with Aku.”
The 13th floor consisted of the grand suites, one of them dubbed the Royal Suite, which the Demon Lord expected to somehow be claimed by Luna.
“I just gave Aku a Secret Lair the other day... That might be more to your liking, actually.”
“Secret... Lair?”
The Demon Lord thought that the base might provide a sense of security to Tron, who had been hunted for being a Firebrand. He couldn’t help but recall the beaming smile on Olgan’s face as she was freed from the threat of pursuit.
“Do you want horns...?” The words had slipped through his lips before he realized it. After seeing how much they meant to Olgan, he was curious to see what they meant to Tron.
“I don’t want them. I just want to live the rest of my life in this village with everyone.”
“I see...”
Olgan longed and fought to live, while Tron simply wanted a quiet life. That somehow made sense to the Demon Lord.
“But I do have a wish,” Tron admitted.
“Oh? Why don’t you tell me?” the Demon Lord prompted, lighting a cigarette. He hadn’t heard Tron mention anything like this before.
“I want to marry Zero.”
The Demon Lord began coughing. The situation seemed horrifically similar to when Olgan had asked if he wanted children. “Think about the age difference,” he said with difficulty. “How old are you, anyway?”
“I don’t know. I was too busy to keep count.”
“I know it hasn’t been easy...” Politely, the Demon Lord didn’t prod for more details, as he already knew that she was persecuted by humans and Hellions alike before finally ending up with the Satanists. “Let’s say you’re thirteen. The same age as Aku, so it’s easier to remember.”
Despite the audacity of dictating someone else’s age, Tron looked back at him with her eyes widened, smiling. “Same as Aku? I like it.”
“So it’s settled that you’re under sixteen. None of that marriage nonsense,” the Demon Lord declared and then turned to the elevators.
Tron grabbed him by the sleeve, stopping him in his tracks. “Demon Lord,” she called. “You’re not getting away that easy.”
This world had no age restriction, culturally or legally, when it came to marriage. In fact, many nobles were arranged to marry someone on the day of their birth. It was the norm for marriages to be used as a political tool, regardless of how the actual participants felt. Even those born to impoverished families were sent off or sold off to places that needed cheap labor.
“Don’t run away, Demon Lord. Give me an answer.”
“Let go of me! We’re going upstairs!” Grabbing Tron under his arm, the Demon Lord hurried into a cylindrical elevator that matched the casino’s style. Buttons numbered 1 through 13 were lined up on one of the walls, but the Demon Lord placed his index finger on the fingerprint scanner above them. As soon as he did so, the elevator began to move.
“It’s floating... Going up.”
“You know how they use ropes and wheels to lift heavy things high up? This contraption does it automatically.”
The history of the elevator dated back farther than most realized. According to history, the Roman emperor Nero had three of them installed in his palace. Of course, those were somewhat different from modern iterations in the sense that they were operated by manpower.
“You always make amazing things,” Tron remarked.
“What’s amazing to me is that you can float around in the air all you want...” The Demon Lord admitted. While humans had evolved through technology, the sky still remained unconquered. Regardless of how many machines humans invented to fly, they were still incapable of flight themselves. Any random bird could do it so easily, but not for humans. (Perhaps humans are creatures robbed of their wings by some force...) This fleeting thought seemed surprisingly important, somehow. Just as the Demon Lord began to expand on that idea in his head, the elevator door opened with a ding.
Tron giddily floated out of the elevator and into the penthouse, even more lavish than the casino below. One of the walls was fitted with floor-to-ceiling windows, providing a view of the world below. Only screens of various sizes were outside the windows, with nothing else impeding their view. Tron floated over and pointed upwards.
“Look, Demon Lord! We’re so close to the sky!”
“Close to the sky, huh...? Interesting way of putting it.” The Demon Lord looked up at the striking blue sky, the clouds lazily swimming across it. After watching the aquarium downstairs, even the clouds somehow looked like fish.
“I can see the entire world,” Tron said.
“Nothing but desert as far as the eye can see... The real Las Vegas is in the middle of a desert too, but this is something else...”
Despite the refreshing breeze on the rooftop, the view was thoroughly arid. However, Tron seemed to see something beautiful before her. “I want to show this to Zero.”
“If he shows up here, he’ll just run around on his bike.” At the same time, running around in that empty expanse with a motorcycle sounded incredible. There were no police, speed limits, or even stop signs. “Just so you know, he’s no hero. In fact, he’s a bosozoku from the olden days. He’s on the opposite side of law and order.”
Tron simply tilted her head. She seemed to see that the Demon Lord didn’t believe what he was saying, deep down. “Zero is a depiction of who you want to be, Demon Lord...”
“No...! I just took the simple hero idea that any kid would come up with... Tweaked it for laughs, and sure, I made him badass once in a while but—Wait, what are we even talking about now?!” The Demon Lord irritably smoked his cigarette, turning away.
Tron giggled at his reaction. “Zero is my lover. Demon Lord is my sugar daddy.”
“Don’t ever say that again!” the Demon Lord protested. He looked more like a kidnapper now, standing next to Tron. “Listen to me. I have some work to do... Go play with Aku, won’t you?”
“Okay. See you...tonight.”
The Demon Lord groaned. Every time he returned to the village, he usually ended up sleeping between Aku and Tron. He wasn’t even married, and he felt like a dad with two kids. “I’ll tell you how to use the elevator...” he said, but it was literally just pressing a button.
Tron disappeared behind the closing doors, her tiny hand waving at the Demon Lord. He watched the door close and the elevator descend before breathing out a big puff of smoke and throwing the cigarette into his portable ashtray.
“Didn’t expect that... I’d better get started.”
As he prepared to summon a new advisor, the Demon Lord wore a hint of severity in his expression. This time, his mind was set on Yuya Kondo, who possessed eyes with special abilities. His optically-centric powers involved 360-degree vision, seeing a bird’s-eye view, brief premonitions, and even stealing his enemy’s eyesight. Because of his powers, no player could dodge Kondo’s attacks. Once they’d poked this particular bear, all they could do was brace for the scorching return fire. Naturally, Kondo was largely ignored during most of the countless battles over the Sleepless Castle. He never initiated attacks, and remained in his room as long as no player provoked him. In other words, picking a fight with Kondo would have all cons and no pros.
(Kondo...) The Demon Lord wanted to groan at his current roster of advisors: a genius obsessed with a little sister, a doctor who gets off on dissections, an uncontrollable warhead of a woman, and now a hermit. Even someone with much more managerial confidence than the Demon Lord would have been in torment. (Why did I have to make all of the advisors so ridiculous...?) Lament as he did, he couldn’t do anything about it. The Demon Lord had no one but himself to blame, as he was merely feeling the repercussions of spitting upwards at the sky. (In any case, he’ll be the one to keep the village safe. Come on, Kondo...) After a deep inhale and exhale, he opened the Admin Screen, feeling his heart beat faster. The summoning had begun.
“Kondo, come hither to my presence...!” With this beckoning, two balls of dark and white light each appeared before him. When they merged into one...it morphed into a boy.
“Wait, where am I...? Ahhh! Mister Secretary!”
“Mm. Thanks for coming.”
“Wh-What can I...? D-Did I d-do something t-to make you m-m-mad...?”
(He’s stuttering...) The Demon Lord noticed that Kondo was more twitchy than he had designed him, and terribly skittish. Kondo only spoke occasionally to the other young advisor, and rarely held a conversation with anyone but Kato. His social anxiety was no joke. It was safe to say that he felt nothing but fear for the Demon Lord of the Empire, and worse yet, his boss.
“Wh-Wh-Where am I...? Why did you bring me here...?” Kondo’s legs shook like he was a newborn deer, causing his body to quiver like he was experiencing a personal earthquake. The Demon Lord, simply standing before him, seemed like Yama, the Hindu and Buddhist lord of the underworld, charged with sentencing the damned.
“Calm down, Kondo. It’s just you and me here.”
“Th-That’s exactly why I’m panicking! Ahhhh!”
(How disrespectful can you get...?!) The Demon Lord shook at how terrified Kondo had become at the mere sight of him, but managed to maintain a dignified demeanor. He gently put his hand on Kondo’s shoulder, peering into his face, which was almost too pretty to be masculine.
“I didn’t summon you here to yell at you,” the Demon Lord whispered. “I need your help. That’s why you’re here.”
Kondo muttered something unintelligible, nearly sobbing.
“There’s nothing to be afraid of... Understand?”
“Y-Yes, sir...” Something clicked within Kondo that stopped his shaking. In exchange, his cheeks were now reddening. Whether he was flushing from relief or embarrassment, the boy had finally calmed down enough to hold a conversation.
“I summoned you here, Kondo, because...” The Demon Lord went on to summarize what had happened to him so far. As it was his fourth retelling, the tale seemed more refined. Combined with Kondo’s disposition for the fantasy genre, he seemed to accept his new reality more smoothly than any of the Demon Lord’s previous advisors had. Of course, he made some uncalled-for assumptions along the way.
“Y-You mean you’ve been summoned across these worlds...?” said Kondo, “As a demonic tyrant, an emperor of Hell, or a genocidal magi-beast...”
“Th-That might not be the way I’d put it...”
“I knew if you’d ever be summoned to another world, Mister Secretary, that you’d be a demon lord! Annihilating a world or two with the snap of your fingers, enslaving the entire female population to create a world-wide harem, defeating a heroine and making her beg for mercy...”
“No such plans on the agenda, as of now...” The Demon Lord was starting to feel dizzy at the accusations that Kondo was innocently throwing at him. As a full-blown geek, Kondo almost never engaged in conversations he had no interest in, but became very talkative when it came to conversation topics in his wheelhouse.
“I think you can build a world more sinister than any hardcore game out there, Mister Secretary! You would wage war against gods, stripping goddesses naked and tossing them to orcs and goblins, maniacally cackling as you defile every virgin in the world, and not to mention—”
“Calm down, Kondo.”
“Agh!”
The Demon Lord’s deep voice struck Kondo, through and through. That was all it took to apparently shatter the bones in his legs, causing the boy to crumble to the ground. He had no problem holding a conversation when it came to the realm of fiction, making him pathetically talkative.
“I-I’m sorry...” he sheepishly said. “One of the light novels I liked went something like that. Most protagonists are run over by trucks before they’re reborn. If that were you, Mister Secretary, I think you’d blow the truck to smithereens before tearing the driver to shreds and using his skull as a goblet.”
“What kind of person do you think I am...?”
“There’s a rise in the ‘stabbed in an alley’ trend lately, but you’d do more than kill the mugger, first by blowing the entire city off the map. If you were summoned by a goddess, I feel like you’d bed her in a matter of seconds. What’s more, you’d stuff the Goddess with your seed guaranteed to insemin—”
“Calm down, Kondo.”
“Agh! I’m sorry! Please don’t be mad at me...!”
The Demon Lord covered his face, as if the repetitive conversation was causing a migraine. Apparently, Kondo was almost more terrified of him than he was of the literal lord of the underworld.
“Listen carefully. This is a different world than the one we were in,” the Demon Lord cautioned. “Naturally, we will act and behave differently.”
“Y-Yes, sir...”
“Different world, different lives. You understand, don’t you?”
“I-I think, I... understand.”
The Demon Lord, satisfied by the answer, outstretched a hand to Kondo, who still sat on the ground. If they kept at it at this rate, it would be nightfall before they would get out of there.
Even after heaving him up to his feet, Kondo stared at the Demon Lord, looking up from his downturned face.
“What’s the matter?”
“N-Nothing... It’s just that, you really seem... different... I’m still terrified, but...”
“Hm...” The Demon Lord would feel a little dejected to have an advisor of his own creation remain in fear of him. What’s more, unlike Tahara and Yu, Kondo was only sixteen. “The Empire, our foundation and source of power, does not exist in this world. In a sense, we are a boat drifting without a fleet.”
“A boat...?” Kondo was shocked, to say the least. He had only ever known the members of the Department of Citizen Happiness Management to quietly, but literally, rule the world. Having their leader, the Demon Lord of the Empire, refer to them as something so small was a stark contrast.
Having given the boy a reality check, the Demon Lord lit a cigarette as he gazed out at the horizon. “That’s right. The only force we have to cultivate our future with is our unity. So, I need you to not be afraid. Trust me. Rely on me. In the same manner, I will be relying on you.”
“Y-You’ll be relying on me, Mister Secretary...?”
“Indeed, I will.” The Demon Lord smiled meaningfully.
After a beat, Kondo beamed back at him. At that instant, Kondo shook in a fierce jolt. “Woah...! Something zapped me ag-g-gain!”
“What are you talking about...?”
“R-Really! Something zapped—Agh! There it is again!” Kondo’s body was penetrated with glee, being trusted by his omnipotent creator. He leapt into the air at the sensation that could only be described as electrifying. Despite the almost touching sentiment, Kondo was reacting like a love interest in an X-rated video game who was having her vibrator controlled remotely.
“In any case, I’ll show you around the village and introduce you to some people. You’ll work under Tahara moving forward.”
“Y-Yes, sir...”
“I’ve built a Hot Springs Resort in this village. Why don’t you join me for a soak tonight?”
“Wohoah! Another zap!”
“Calm down, Kondo...”
“Eek!”
Another advisor summoned, another bizarre conversation loop. Now that he had four out of his eight advisors from the Empire, the Demon Lord finally had half of his full force reassembled. (I need a huge pile of cash and a lot more activity within the territory to unlock more features... Which means I’ll need a good number of laborers and merchants in addition to more village residents. Then, of course, there’s SP.) He was short on all accounts, leaving him no choice but to carry on like an avaricious juggernaut. Regardless of his intentions, war had already begun.
Yuya Kondo
Race: Human — Age: 16
Weapon Moonstriker
A beautiful bow Kondo always keeps with him. Combined with his skills, it can unleash an unbelievable barrage. Holds infinite arrows.
Armor Street Clothes
As someone who spends most of his time in his room, he doesn’t wear any proper armor. His set of skills protects him more than sufficiently. Infinite durability.
Item Realm of Fiction
Kondo carries anime, manga, light novels, and video games from various cultures and time periods. They had absolutely no effect in the game, but in this world...
Level: 1 — HP: 3000/3000 — Stamina: 600/600 — Attack: 40 (+50) — Defense: 25 (+5) — Dexterity: 20 — MP: 0 — Magic Defense: 0
Equipped Skills: First: Surprise Attack Second: Petal Dance Third: Squall Strike
Combat Skills: Raze, Hammer Smash, Forceful, Vigorous, Deadly Poison, Paralysis, Doom Fire, Avenger, Counter, Self-Preservation, Storm Blow
Survival Skills: Deactivate Trap, Recover, Hawkeye, Camaraderie, Escapism, Tiger Vision, Inheritance, Suicide Note, Murder-Suicide, Self-Destruct
Special Abilities: Panorama-Vision, Eye Jack, Defender of Law, ?