EPILOGUE
Nord’s unconsciousness—more of a coma, really—lasted far longer than Emi had envisioned. It had already been a week after Gabriel took him and Ashiya from Villa Rosa Sasazuka and two days since he’d been brought back, but Nord Justina was still in such a weakened state that he showed no sign of waking.
Maou knew the man had spent some length of time living in Japan, but without any ID on him or any idea where he lived, he couldn’t take him to a doctor for treatment. He tried asking Acieth, but the response—“Umm, Mitaka?”—was a little too broad to be allowed by the national health insurance system. Regardless, Suzuno’s estimation was that he’d escape mortal danger as long as he woke up within three days, so for the time being, he was safe and resting in Room 101 of Shiba’s apartment building.
Emi, for her part, had returned to her own apartment in Eifukucho just long enough to make sure the electricity worked. Apart from that, and a quick outing to furnish Room 101 with a futon and the other bare essentials, she had been holding vigil by her father’s side.
In terms of people recuperating at the moment, Urushihara was a more present worry. Amane was being weirdly tight-lipped about it, but judging by the hints Chiho dropped, his hospitalization had a lot to do with Shiba, their landlord. Exactly how—and for that matter, what hospital he was admitted to—was still a total secret.
Once back in Japan, Ashiya was naturally frantic about how they would pay for Nord’s medical bills. But, really, their little jaunt to Ente Isla had already given them a litany of questions to ponder. Questions they’d all have to tackle, one at a time, and hopefully with Shiba’s cooperation.
Meanwhile, despite the unintentional wringer Maou had put him through while in Devil King form, Gabriel was miraculously still alive. Shiba was housing him at her place, claiming it was still far more touch-and-go with him than Nord. Maou was eager to start grilling them for information, but just imagining the sorts of dreadful horrors waiting inside her place made his hair stand on end. The silence from Ashiya, the only demon to actually step into the house, only stoked his fears further.
As his anxieties ballooned in his mind, Suzuno, back in her usual kimono, rang his doorbell and came in.
“Devil King, may I have a moment with you?”
Despite the grandiose airs she presented as a Church cleric on her home planet, it was clear she wouldn’t be back here without the immense strength of Emeralda and Rumack. Archbishop Olba’s betrayal, and the collusion between Saint Aile’s royal force and the Church, would be more than enough to topple the power balance in the religion’s topmost echelons. But having it all exposed by Crestia Bell, who (by words or by force) was the highest-ranked of Church reformers, showed many observers that the Church was now doing its best to heal itself.
That allowed it to escape the worst of consequences. It also meant that Crestia Bell now held life-and-death power over the entire Church. She knew, in fine detail, all about the darker side of its operations, and she was now deeply linked with the empire of Saint Aile—itself linked to the religion strictly through faith and goodwill, not through bribery. Many were those among the Eight Scarves who lauded Bell as another “Heroic companion,” to be ranked alongside Emeralda Etuva and Albert Ende, and anyone who dared impede her now would face the wrath of the surviving Church bureaucracy.
Suzuno, for her part, had no interest in conducting a purge of the Church. To her, protecting the faith came first, although when she shut down Emeralda’s trial, she made sure Archbishop Cervantes was aware that mercy should not be given to those who twisted the faith for their own purposes. According to Emeralda, when Archbishop Robertio heard news of this, it was enough to make him fall to the floor in terror.
To sum it all up, it was safe to say that Suzuno—or Crestia Bell—was de facto the most powerful official in all of the Church. One whose efforts to rescue Emilia and save the world in Olba’s place gave her more freedom to act in Ente Isla than almost anybody else.
“I told Chiho when I would be conferring with Shiba, and she texted back to say she would join us.”
“Oh, that?” Maou reached for his phone. “She texted me, too.”
“Indeed, I imagine she sent it to both of us. But I wanted to ask you: Have you noticed Chiho acting strange as of late?”
“Strange?” That crying fit when they first came back was certainly a sight to see, but it didn’t seem too out of character in Maou’s eyes. “I dunno, I guess she doesn’t use as many emojis as she used to? Not that I mind, but…”
The phone was now out of his pocket, and it was still in just as many pieces as it had been inside the Cloud Retreat.
“Would you consider a new handset already? If you plug that in to charge it, you might electrocute yourself.”
“Oh, sure, if you’re payin’. I’m counting on someone else to cover that, but…you know, it’d be mean to hit her up right now…”
He pointed down at the floor.
“Ah,” Suzuno said. “Well, indeed, there are Chiho’s texts to consider, but I had another concern.”
“Oh?”
“The day we went back, it seemed to me that…perhaps, for just a moment, Chiho was scared of something. Or sad about something, you could say.”
“You think so?”
This took Maou aback. To him, Chiho was displaying nothing but pure joy at their return.
“Yes. But I am not entirely convinced, so I wanted to ask you. I wondered, has she discussed anything with you? Or have you done something thoughtless yet again to offend her?”
“Uh, hey…”
“Can you provide a yes-or-no answer for a change, please?”
“Man, you’ve been really needling me on that lately…”
Maou was sure it wasn’t his imagination. For a while now, Suzuno had been sticking her nose into his and Chiho’s relationship quite a bit more than she ever did before. He had no idea what he wanted from her, but either way, it made for a lot of uncomfortable moments whenever Ashiya was around, including now.
“Well, all joking aside…”
“That didn’t sound like a joke to me!”
“Emilia has asked me to pick up a few things, but it is a tad too much for me to carry by myself. Can you come with me?”
“Huh?” Maou groaned. “Why’re you asking me?”
“You do not have to act so peevish about it,” Suzuno replied, looking a tad hurt.
“N-no,” Maou said, shaking his head, “I just mean, if it’s for Emi, I can’t help but react like that sometimes…”
“You told me you needed to buy a thank-you gift for the people you swapped shifts with, no? I simply thought you might like some company. You don’t have to snap at me.”
“What nonsense is this, Bell?”
“Hmm?” Suzuno gave Ashiya an honestly confused look.
“Never in a moment would you think of doing anything together with my liege before now. Can you blame him for being confused?”
“Is…is that it, you think?”
Suzuno took a step back, as if Ashiya’s point physically pained her. But just as she did, everyone’s attention was distracted by the front door opening behind her. There was somebody on the other side.
“…Oh!”
Rika Suzuki, feeling the eyes of three people upon her, fidgeted nervously.
Emi awoke to the sound of the Room 101 doorbell. Rubbing her eyes, she realized she had dozed off in a seated position.
Her refusal to sleep for a moment as she cared for Nord had brought her exhaustion to its peak. It was funny—she fought against an otherworldly overlord for over ten hours on Ente Isla, but simply staying awake for longer than twenty-four hours made her feel half-dead inside. She looked at the clock; it had jumped half an hour in her absence.
The doorbell rang again. It was probably Suzuno, back from the errands she asked of her.
“Oh, sorry, Bell. Just a second.” Emi brushed her bangs away from her face. “Thanks for carting all that heavy stuff over for—”
The sight of the person on the other side when she opened the door made her stop mid-sentence.
“Hey. Long time no see.”
For someone she hadn’t seen in a month, it was a markedly short greeting. It came with a plastic bag that Rika now offered to her.
“Rika…”
Emi paused, hesitating to take the bag for a moment.
“Come on, this is heavy.”
“Oh, sorry…”
She hurriedly grabbed it. Then she just stood there, wincing and trying to find the right words, not bothering to check the bag’s contents.
“Uh, um, Rika…”
“I figured I better tell you what’s up, so I asked Suzuno if I could get this stuff for you instead. It was just a little over three thousand yen, so I’ll give you the receipt later.”
“Oh… Um, so, Rika…”
“One sec. There’s something I wanna say to you first. I’ve got some good news and some bad news—which one d’you want first? I kinda wanted to tell you myself, so…”
Now she was acting just like she always did. Emi still wasn’t sure how to react.
“Uhhmm…maybe the bad news first?”
The old TV-show logic seemed worth trying.
“Okay. Well, sorry, but they fired you. The floor leader tried to hold out for you, and me and Maki did our best to cover when we could…but if you go silent for a month, there’s not a lot we can do.”
“Oh… No, I guess not.”
She tried to take it stoically, but the “bad news” was a lot worse than she’d anticipated. She was a veteran of life in Japan, and in that workplace, for a while now. Even if she couldn’t reveal the whole truth, being barred from returning to a community she treated dearly took a surprising toll on her heart. In some ways, it was worse than that moment her will to go on as Hero was crushed. She supposed, just like then, that she deserved it. All the shallow lies.
“So, the good news… Could you put that bag down for a minute?”
“Oh, uh, sure…yeah.” Emi put the bag on the floor and looked back at Rika. Her Japanese friend gave her a cynical smile and looked her right in the eye.
“I’m gonna give you the chance, right now, to decide what you want me to call you…Emilia Justina.”
“…” Emi felt her heart tighten. “R-Rika… I…”
Her eyes burned; her lips shook. But she couldn’t cry. Crying in front of Rika, in front of her best friend in this world and a woman she had constantly lied to all this time, would be the height of cowardice. But Rika was quick to observe the change in her.
“Whoa, no crying! That’s not fair. I had to go through some really scary stuff, thanks to you. You should be letting me cry instead! Which I did! Like, a lot!”
“…You’re right.”
“But if I could cut to the chase a little, if there’s anything I want an apology for, that’s really about the only thing, actually.”
“…Huh?”
“Yeah, it was a huge surprise and all. I mean, I thought maybe you were born outside of Japan, but outside of Earth? And you’re some hero with Superman-style powers? And you’ve got a name as highfalutin as ‘Emilia Justina’?”
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