Hataraku Maou-sama! - Volume 13 - Chapter 4

THE DEVIL AND THE HERO FACE UP TO REALITY 
The western exit of Shinjuku station’s Keio Line, the sight of dramatic events last night that were sadly witnessed by nobody on this planet, had a remarkable number of people hanging out by the turnstiles. 
“Whoa! Acieth! No running around! Just sit tight like Erone!” 
“Oh, come on, Amane! I can smell it! The curry! It is making me the very pulse pounding!” 
“Curry spices don’t work that way, man! Chill out or it’s back home for you, Acieth!” 
“And after all that rice she ate before we left… I tell you, Alciel was about to cry his eyes out.” 
“Are you feeling all right, Erone? You weren’t scared of the train, were you?” 
“No, I’m fine. Thanks, Nord.” 
“I would thiiink the traaain would be more scared of hiiim…” 
“Keep it down, Emeralda! Erone’s got a lot of hang-ups about that, okay?” 
“Heavens be! Certainly are a lot of people in this station! Aren’t there, Emilia? Hey, and I wish you could tell that kid to get used to me by now, mm-kay?” 
“No thank you. If you want him to, try getting out of Alas Ramus’s sight first!” 
“Nnn. Why’s Garriel here…?” 
If they weren’t all packed into a corner of the station, they would be a large enough crowd to block the flow of traffic during the evening rush hour right now. 
Once all the bickering and carrying on subsided, the group assembled for the big tour of Laila’s Japan residence began with original members Maou, Chiho, and Acieth, then expanded out to Emi, Alas Ramus, Suzuno, Nord, Erone, Amane, Emeralda, and special guest star Gabriel. 
“Really, Amane, why is Gabriel here?” 
The archangel certainly stuck out from the crowd—both in his social position and in his clothing. He had been Maou and Emi’s nemesis for quite a while now, and even in this early winter day, he was still in his toga and T-shirt. 
“Aww,” Amane replied, “well, if Erone’s goin’ on the train, then we all know for a fact that if something happens, I ain’t gonna be able to clean up the mess by myself, right? I think we all learned that the other day.” 
“…Would you like some curry, Erone? You, too, Acieth.” 
“Huh? Really, Dad?!” 
“Are you sure?” 
“Nord’s spoiling them again…” 
Picking up on Amane’s discussion of the danger Erone posed, Nord decided to distract Erone himself with the stand-up curry restaurant right by the turnstiles, adding Acieth to the mix. Maou normally would’ve stopped them, but he could tell Nord was just trying to save Erone unneeded trauma, so he relented. 
“So yeah, um, I’m here ’cause Ammie asked me to help, mm-kay? Mikitty gave me very careful instructions, so I promise I won’t pull any funny business with all you guys.” 
“‘Ammie’…?” 
Whether Shiba was that much stronger than him or not, why was Gabriel acting so kind to the landlord and her niece, to the point of doing whatever they instructed him to do? It was a riddle to everyone in Villa Rosa Sasazuka. 
“Yeah,” Amane herself added. “And, y’know, they’re all stable now, but there’s no tellin’ what kind of trigger might set Alas Ramus and Acieth off. If worse comes to worst, I’d have to face three Sephirah solo, you see? If you were me, you’d want a little extra muscle, too.” 
“Sure thing, Ammie! Gevurah is one thing, but I’m kinda used to Yesod stuff by now, so— Though that pretty couple over there’s sure givin’ me the stink eye, so hopefully nothing happens, mm-kay?” 
““We’re not a couple!!”” Emi and Maou intoned. 
“““…To the last millisecond,””” Chiho, Suzuno, and Emeralda all sighed in unison. 
But Gabriel had a point. Emi had seen Alas Ramus go out of her control once, in the pursuit of Acieth. When fighting Camael’s force in the Eastern Island, Maou could still remember how much Acieth’s personality took on a violent streak. They both had to accept Amane’s assessment. 
“But stiiill, do you think we should let Erone and Acieth have curry right nowww? We meet with Laila at siiix, yes? Only five more minutes…” 
“Nothing to be concerned about,” Suzuno blithely replied. “I know Acieth is more than capable.” 
Chiho, for her part, pointed back at the restaurant. “See? They’re already out.” 
“Wha—? That’s rather faaast, isn’t it?!” 
It hadn’t even been three minutes since Nord took the two Sephirah inside. 
“Mmph. Yes, that will last the thirty or so minutes.” 
“Yum…” 
“Urp…” 
Compared to the completely nonchalant Acieth and Erone, Nord looked blue in the face and ready to hurl at any moment. Noting the horrified looks from the other diners rubbernecking at them from out the entranceway, Emi guessed at what just transpired. 
“Must’ve tried keeping up with them. You all right, Father?” 
“I—I think so…somehow. But I think I have discovered one of the grand truths of this world, Emilia.” 
“Oh?” 
Nord glanced sideways at Acieth and Erone—Chiho currently wiping both of their mouths with a handkerchief. 
“Curry is really a beverage after all, isn’t it?” 
“…” 
She knew there was no point convincing him otherwise. 
“So that’s what chugging is, then? I thought it was discouraged as hazardous to your health, but…” 
It was unclear exactly what her father was referring to. Emi wasn’t sure she wanted to know. He was the one who should be yelling at them for eating that way. 
“I better take better care of your diet, Alas Ramus, huh?” 
“Oooh, only Accith again…” 
Alas Ramus, in the newly resolute Emi’s arms, gave a distressed frown once more when— 
“Emilia?!” 
Everyone on the scene turned around at the high-pitched voice. 
“…………Laila.” 
Laila was standing there, a puffy jacket worn over her usual denim. She had both hands over her mouth, eyes glassy, a look of sheer shock on her face as she looked at Emi. 
“You…showed up?” 
“Not because I wanted to.” 
Emi readjusted her grip on Alas Ramus, keeping her distance. Her mother, she feared, looked ready to leap forward and embrace her. 
“That’s all right. I don’t mind that. Thank you for making the time.” 
“……” 
Laila was almost shedding tears of joy. Emi couldn’t look her in the face, silently turning away instead. Not even for a moment did she want to see her mother happy. It might make her think, for the tiniest bit of time, that coming here was the right thing. Nord nodded deeply at this, even as he bit his tongue. 
“And all of you, too… Thank you very much for taking the time to come here.” 
She wiped her eyes a little, then bowed her head deeply at Maou and everybody else behind Emi and Nord. 
“Ah, you don’t have to count me and Gabe. Aunt Mikitty just ordered us to serve as bodyguards, if it came to it.” 
“…Yeah.” Erone solemnly nodded. 
Laila took a moment to run a hand through Erone’s black hair. “Really,” she sadly stated, “there should have been a place for you to live your lives freely…but we took that from you.” 
“It’s not only your fault, Laila,” Erone quickly replied. 
“Hey, uh, yeah, sorry about that and everything, but should we really be talking about that in the middle of this station?” 
Compared to the crestfallen Laila, Gabriel sounded like he couldn’t care less. 
“Besides, apart from Erone, Acieth Alla, and this little kid, we’re all on the same page in terms of what we know, right?” 
“On the same page…” Chiho raised an eyebrow. “Are we?” 
Was he talking about Laila’s doomsday dossier? Chiho had taken a read through it, and Maou and Nord must have as well. Amane knew about Laila since long before, too. But Emi and Emeralda had been almost entirely hands-off with her, and—perhaps following her friends’ lead—Suzuno hadn’t had any particular relations, either. Ashiya and Urushihara, as potential negotiation partners for Maou, had to have heard the basics, but since Laila’s plea was to save humanity on Ente Isla, a pair of demons like them couldn’t have been terribly interested. 
Besides, regarding Ashiya, Chiho had a concern that could barely be called a concern but still wasn’t anything she could ignore. Was Maou aware of the fact that Ashiya hid enough demonic force to return to demon form before Rika’s eyes? There was no way Ashiya could be attempting to overthrow Maou or anything—but it was hard to imagine him retaining that force without a solid reason. 
Ashiya wasn’t part of the group today—to keep the wholly uninterested Urushihara in check, as Chiho heard. But she couldn’t believe that keeping an eye on Urushihara ranked higher in his mind than helping Maou come into closer contact with Laila. It seemed terribly out of place, like a piece of gristle in an otherwise fine piece of meat loaf, but discussing it with someone else could cause deep wounds to Rika’s pride down the line. 
Laila, picking up on her concerned expression, must have thought it was in response to Gabriel’s question. She smiled a little at Chiho as she spoke to him. 
“Enough of that topic for now,” she firmly stated. “It is a violation of the terms Satan and I agreed on.” 
“Yeah, yeah.” 
Then she turned to the others. “Amane, I am unsure if Ms. Shiba told you or not, but my housing within the nation of Japan is located in the Nerima ward of Tokyo.” 
“Nerima?!” 
“That’s so nearby…” 
“A decent distance from Mitaka,” Nord felt it prudent to add. 
“Wow,” Maou added. “I’ve been put on support duty at Fushima-en over there all the time.” 
“You have?” a wide-eyed Laila asked. 
The easiest way to reach Nerima from Shinjuku was to take the Toei Oedo Line in the direction of Hikarigaoka. Fushima-en, one of the most notable amusement parks within Tokyo city limits, was accessible by taking a branch of the Seibu Ikebukuro Line from Nerima proper. MgRonald had a franchise within Fushima-en, and with Kisaki’s coworker and childhood friend Yuki Mizushima serving as manager over there, they sometimes traded personnel with each other. 
“I’ve never been to Fushima-en, but I live in an apartment about five minutes’ walking distance from Nerima Station. Ms. Shiba is my landlord, and she gave me a discount on the rent there. When I have work, I travel to Shinjuku from there.” 
“Work?” Chiho asked. 
“Yes, I mean to explain that to you all today, too—what kind of life I’m leading in Japan.” 
“I see,” she replied, before noticing something. “Wait, Laila, are you not feeling well?” 
“Hunh?!” 
Chiho’s observation made Laila, for whatever reason, send forth a near scream of horror. 
“Yeah,” Amane rather rudely added, “you got these dark rings under your eyes.” 
“Oh, that, um…” 
She made Laila lose her presence of mind for a moment, eyes turning to and fro before they settled on Nord. 
“Listen, I know I said this before…” 
“Oh?” 
“But don’t be too surprised, okay?” 
“About what?” 
“I tried. I tried really hard…but I’ve been so busy that I let things slide for far too long. There was only so much I could handle in one day’s time.” 
What was she talking about? Nobody there had a clue. 
“But—but anyway, let’s get moving! Nobody has any objections to the Oedo Line?” 
She tried her best to amplify her voice, despite her pallid complexion, as she took the lead. 
“…What’s with her?” 
“I don’t know.” 
Maou and Nord didn’t know what to make of the bizarre tension Laila was letting off, but the whole group followed her anyway. Going through the Oedo Line turnstile to the right after passing through Keio Shopping Mall, they descended deeper down to the platform, barely in time to catch a train for Hikarigaoka. Compared to Tokyo’s other rail lines, the rolling stock serving Oedo was a unique, more compact type. Acieth and Alas Ramus spotted it right off, and even Suzuno and Emeralda gave the trains furtive, curious looks, much to Maou’s exasperation. 
Laila sat down next to Nord, occasionally daring glances toward Emi, who would instinctively meet her gaze, then immediately avert it. This cycle repeated several times, forcing Emi to rather awkwardly turn toward Chiho each time. To Maou, well used to riding the Oedo Line and finding it not so rare of an experience, he felt painfully out of place. 
Soon they were at Nerima Station. Back at street level, Laila once again took the lead as they walked the city blocks. They took a right past the turnstiles, winding up on a wide street that ran parallel with the train tracks, the Nerima Ward Office offering some eye candy to look at as they walked five minutes toward a residential neighborhood. 
“…This is my apartment. On the third floor.” 
Laila had stopped at just another ten-floor apartment building in the area—walls of beige, no doubt housing a bunch of studios like every other structure on this street. 
“Nothing very surprising so far,” a wary Nord observed. “Compared to the apartment the Devil King Satan calls home, it hardly seems exceptional for an angel to be living here.” 
“It seems much less expensive than Lord Sariel’s residence,” replied Suzuno. 
“I’d be surprised if it was,” a smiling Chiho remarked. As the only regular human being in the group, she couldn’t help but grin at this. After hanging around with Devil Kings and angels for so long, not even God himself living the next block over would shock her anymore. 
“Pretty boring,” came the final, damning appraisal from Acieth. 
“It—it’s pretty easy to live in, at least. The entrance is out behind the main street, so you don’t hear much traffic. The government office and a lot of stores are right nearby, and so’s the station…” 
“Yeah, great,” Maou moaned. “I’m still not believing you until we go inside.” 
“Oh…right…” 
But here, of all times, Laila began to act all indecisive again. 
“…This is your place, right?” 
“It—it is. I really live here. Don’t I, Amane?” 
“Yeah, pretty much. It matches everything I’ve heard anyway. Why don’tcha look up there, Maou?” 
“Mm?” 
Amane motioned up at the gold-plated sign adorning the building. 
“Royal Lily Garden Toyotama…” 
Having a name like this for such a humdrum, nondescript apartment building was definitely a Miki Shiba touch. 
“All right. Sorry. Need to rev myself up a little… Come on in. I think we can all fit in one elevator.” 
Laila headed into the lobby. 
“…Hey, Chi?” Maou whispered toward the back of the crowd. 
“Y-yes?” she replied, instinctively straightening her back a bit at the sudden voice. 
“I’m sorry, but can you make sure you observe everything carefully here?” 
“Observe… You mean in Laila’s room?” she whispered back. 
“Yeah. Like, whether Laila really lives here. Whether it really feels lived in to you.” 
“Lived in?” 
“I mean,” he said as he scrunched up his face, “whether it looks like a woman lives in there alone or not. I don’t know what that should look like, so I might not notice if it looks all fancy on the outside. I want a female perspective. If you see anything that looks weird or unnatural, tell me, no matter how small it is.” 
“I—I dunno how much I can help with that, but… Oh!” 
The elevator opened for them just as they made it inside. 
“Um, sorry. Take the next one.” 
It filled up instantly, leaving only Maou and Chiho behind. There were twelve of them in all, counting Laila, a pretty tight fit for an elevator serving studio apartments. There might be larger elevators in bigger places for moving purposes, but it looked like this building had only one. 
“We can take the stairs. Third floor, right?” 
“Thanks! See you up there.” 
Gabriel jabbed at the DOOR CLOSE button the moment Maou stopped talking. 
“…Sorry to put this on you,” he muttered to Chiho as they stared at the closed door and heard the motor hum. “Like always, I’ve taken you too much for granted, and I knew that.” 
“Ah…” 
Chiho gasped at this unexpected confession. 
“You were willing to deal with it, so I always had you hang out with me, and I’m always making you tag along for stuff like this. I’m really sorry about it.” 
Just as, for example, she was assigned the stairs because she happened to be with Maou. 
“I don’t… I mean, I’m here because I want to be, so…” 
“Yeah, but still, it’s outrageous, the way I’ve used you without even trying to guess what was lurking behind your feelings. Ashiya really gave me an earful about it yesterday.” 
“Ah…?” 
The unexpected introduction of Ashiya’s name to the conversation made Chiho’s heart skip a beat again. Why did he say something like that to him? 
But Maou simply laughed instead of answering Chiho’s curiosity. “Who knows when he was last that angry, huh? The day before that was pretty eventful, too, and even Urushihara is too afraid to butt in with his sass. Out of the frying pan into the fire, you know?” 
She didn’t know what those events were or what “that angry” meant. But if that was how Maou was putting it, she could easily imagine Ashiya reaching a level of rage that went beyond even what she personally witnessed. 
“But…you know, Chi, you’re so nice to me, I couldn’t help but do it. Even now. I’m sorry.” 
His voice was halting—because he was at a loss for words, because he was choosing them carefully, or maybe because he still hadn’t worked everything out in his mind. 
“Man, I’m a wreck,” he awkwardly continued. “I can’t even put a sentence together. Um, if I’m being a burden on you, then just—” 
“There’s been a lot of times lately where I felt maybe I was being forgotten by you, Maou.” 
The word burden made Chiho open her mouth before she knew what was happening. 
“But I told you a long time ago: I love you.” 
“Eahh?!” 
The straightforward declaration made Maou yelp. 
“I’ve never thought of you as a burden. You’ve always trusted in me, and that makes me so happy. If I could have the chance to spoil you, Maou, that’s no problem to me.” 
She glared at the man, her lips tense. 
“I’m still a young woman. I want to know why you put that trust in me or why you think I’m spoiling you. Just a little bit is fine. But I want to hear it from you, if I can.” 
“Uhhmm…” 
The words that had reflexively come out of her mouth, Chiho realized, could be hiding the key to undoing the haziness in her heart. 
“I don’t doubt your trust or anything, and you aren’t a burden at all to me. But really, I’ve never had any idea why you’ve placed so much trust in me.” 
She wasn’t powerful like Emi or Suzuno. She didn’t have any old bonds with him, like Ashiya or Urushihara. She hadn’t saved his life, like Laila. She was just this new girl at work, and yet Maou was relying upon her for so much. Why? Trust between people, of course, is accumulated over lots of little events, often getting based on nothing more than vague impressions. That made it all clear how lacking Chiho was, socially, for all this trust heaped upon her. 
“Could you tell me why sometime?” 
But if such an answer existed, it would likely be the same thing as the other clear answer Chiho was waiting for. The answer to her question about Maou’s own love. An answer that wasn’t worth forcing out of him while people were waiting upstairs. 
“…Honestly speaking, I really don’t know myself…” 
“If you don’t, that’s fine. But if you do figure it out, I want you to tell me first.” 
“…All right. I promise.” 
If Kaori were here, she’d probably chastise Chiho for giving Maou yet another reprieve. But this was about the best she could manage. A single choice made during his talks with Laila, and Maou might put himself into a deep, dark, potentially lethal situation. Asking him for this would be like trying to dissect his very psyche. It’d be nothing but stress, and Chiho didn’t want to be a source of that for him. 
“Let’s go. Laila and everyone are waiting.” 
“…Yeah.” 
Guided by Chiho, Maou staggered his way over to the stairway toward the side of the lobby. The bewilderment clear in his behavior was heartrendingly painful to see, but the fact Maou had been seriously thinking about her made Chiho happy nonetheless. She grabbed his hand, pulling him forward. 
“Hurry up or Yusa’s gonna yell at you.” 
They hurried up the stairway, steps echoing upward, as Chiho felt the sensation of Maou’s hand in hers. The dry winter air and his daily working habits made it feel cold, dried out, and a little rough. It reminded Chiho of the first time they had held hands. Back then, when the seedlings of yearning were building the foundation needed to bloom into true love, taking his hand required the most courageous decision she had made in her life up to then. 
“Do you mind if we…uh, hold hands?” 
“Sure, whatever.” 
The moment she felt a new sort of heat in her hand, she thought her heart was going to leap out of her throat. It was so surprising, so joyous, that she didn’t even remember how Maou’s hand felt. She was sure, though, that the way he reflexively clenched his hand around hers as she pulled it forward was exactly the same then as it was now. After everything she had gone through, she had no reason to doubt it. 
“Not to put more pressure on you!” 
“Huh?” 
“But if I can be with you, Maou, I’d like to take the stairs slower than the elevator!” 
“Wh-what’s that mean?!” 
“Exactly that!” 
Maou seemed too confused to know what she meant by it. But that was fine for now. Chiho could feel the black morass that dominated her mind for the past few days finally go away. 
“Did you have trouble finding the stairway?” 
Laila was fidgeting on the third floor as she waited. 
“Oh, we kind of lingered in the lobby a bit,” Chiho said, bowing slightly before Maou could speak. “Sorry to keep you.” 
Laila didn’t seem concerned. “No, I’m sorry you had to use the stairs. Anyway, that’s my place over there. Room 306.” She pointed at a door in a corner down the hallway. “I already told everyone else, but…try not to be too surprised, all right?” 

 

Her continued warnings were starting to make even Chiho nervous. She tried to hone her perception like Maou asked, but her imagination couldn’t help but go on flights of fancy. What if the door was connected to some kind of subspace, and she was sucked into another world the moment she opened it? 
Taking a key out of her coat pocket, Laila inserted it in the door, took a deep breath, then turned back toward Nord, then Emi. 
“I think this might be another trying…or, at least, embarrassing experience for you.” 
““Huh?”” 
“So I’m really sorry, all right?! This is my home in Japan!!” 
Finally throwing all caution into the wind, she unlocked the dead bolt and threw the door open. 
“Th-this…?!” 
And the first exclamation of surprise came from none other than her husband, Nord. 
 
“Oh, man…” Moau groaned with glossy eyes. “There’s no way that wouldn’t freak me out.” 
“It was certainly a shock,” Chiho agreed. “I mean, something like that goes beyond sane living conditions…” 
“Not even Lucifer would descend to that level,” Suzuno added. 
“Nooo, I am hardly in a position to criiiticize myself, but oh my worrrd…” 
“I heard the two of them had squabbled in Emi’s apartment,” said Amane, “but this… Well, I hope Nord doesn’t file for divorce.” 
“Mmm, yeah, they say irreconcilable lifestyle differences is one of the top reasons given for divorces, y’know?” Gabriel hummed. 
“Yummmm!” 
“I like this.” 
But even after that dreadful sight, Acieth and Erone still had the wherewithal to order yet another bucketload of food from the MozzBurger inside Nerima Station, leading Maou and Amane to question their sanity. 
“Maou! The fries, they are more thick here than MgRonald’s!” 
“…Great.” 
“But the burgers are messier. I don’t like them as much.” 
Seeing the Sephirah children express not a care for the world (or their blood sugar levels) made Maou feel overwhelmingly desperate for Alas Ramus’s future. 
Gabriel sipped on an Aserolla Hard Soda next to them. “So, Devil King? You more convinced about Laila now?” 
“I sure wish I wasn’t,” the pallid Maou replied, shaking his head. He thought he wanted to know more about Laila’s personal life, but he had no idea it was anything like that. Amane and Gabriel’s chatter about divorce suddenly didn’t seem like such a joke any longer. 
 
“What…is this?” 
Emi was the first to come up with a complete sentence. 
“My goodness,” Nord groaned again. 
Laila remained there by the open door, looking apologetically toward the side. “…I’m sorry. I tried, but it was at such short notice, so…” 
“Mommy, it’s all dark!” 
“For real…?” 
“Whoaaa…” 
“What on…?” 
“Whaaa—?” 
“…Pretty cramped.” 
“Um, are we safe in here?” 
“What a mess.” 
The sounds of wonder and disgust filled the hallway, rounded out by Acieth exclaiming, “Ooh! Such the pigsty!” 
It was, as she suggested, not even worthy of being called a home. Normally, it’d be a compact studio, maybe hitting two hundred square feet, with a kitchenette and unit bath attached. But as far as could be seen from the door, it was hard to tell where the kitchen ended and where the main living space began. 
Around 40 percent of the floor space was occupied by books, 20 percent by clothing, and about 10 percent by cardboard boxes. The rest was merely piles and piles of…well, stuff, stacked up in the most disorderly fashion. Not stored—stacked. The door to the closet, normally used for clothes and bed linens, was taken completely off, a thick pole hung from it to the other end of the room. Dangling from it was such a grand variety of clothes that it formed a thick curtain blocking the view to the rest of the apartment. There were no bookshelves; instead, books of all shapes and sizes were haphazardly stacked everywhere, forming a sort of incline from the walls to the center of the room like an ant lion’s pit. In the middle was a small heap of blankets, coiled around in a bird’s nest–like clutch. Near the border toward what they assumed was the kitchenette was a low sitting desk like the one Urushihara used, a computer monitor perched on top of it that looked pretty vintage to Emi’s eyes. 
“This…is after you did your best to clean up…?” 
““Ah!”” 
Her husband and daughter both gave her looks of disbelief. 
“Um, well, when I’m not visiting your apartment in Sasazuka, it’s usually because I’m pretty busy with work…” 
“Work…? Hey, what do you do anyway?” 
“Well…” 
Laila reluctantly turned toward Chiho. 
“Huh?” 
“I’m actually a registered nurse. I pick up spot shifts instead of being assigned to a single place, but lately I’ve been settled down at the Seikai University Department of Medicine’s clinic in Tokyo…” 
““““Whaaaaaaat?!”””” 
The gathered shouts of Emi, Chiho, Suzuno, and Maou broke the silence. 
“That’s the hospital Chiho and Lucifer were kept in!” 
“You—you’re a registered nurse?!” 
“No wonder you showed up in there!” 
All three women were tremendously flustered. Not even Maou could hide his shock. 
“Yo, Nord. Did you know that?” 
“N-no, I heard she was in the medical field but not the exact location… Attaining a nurse’s license isn’t that simple a task, is it?” 
“No. Not that I know the whole process, but you can’t just get it in a year’s time or anything.” 
Now nobody could hide their confusion. Laila’s life seemed to be surrounded by layers and layers of surprise. 
“I, um, I’m not lying. It’s true. I made sure to frame my license and put it on the wall so it wouldn’t get buried. Um, you might trip and fall if you aren’t used to getting around, so let me grab it.” 
Were there trip wires installed in this room? What kind of place was this? Either way, Laila removed her shoes and went inside. 
“Ow! Oh, um, I’m caught on something…” 
They could hear her valiantly attempt to extricate herself. Then, after another pause, she came back with a picture frame. 
“Here. See?” 
She was right. It was a graduation certificate from a nursing institute, dated over ten years ago, certifying she had passed her qualification exam. And the name on it— 
“‘Laila Justina’… You kept your original name?” 
Emi’s eyes widened as she saw the name written out in katakana on the certificate. 
“Y-yeah, I’m a naturalized citizen of Japan. I went to vocational school on a student visa first, and then I applied for citizenship after five years. Ms. Shiba’s relatives helped out a lot with that. My records have me as being born in the UK.” 
Maou wondered if having her name out in the open like this exposed her to danger from her pursuers in heaven. But Laila was apparently resigned to that. 
“I had thought about using a Japanese name, of course. But when I thought about how I could become a citizen and have the humans who live in this world recognize me by my name, that really made me want to use my real one. I wanted to think this was a world where people would accept me and the name I was given as a human.” 
Another piece of trivia that was picked up on by Emi, Suzuno, and Emeralda but no one else: Laila apparently wanted to have the last name she received from Nord be her official one in Japan. 
“So now do you see how I’m officially established here?” 
Emi wasn’t sure how to respond to that. Her mother was far more committed to living here than even she was—although judging by this room, she wasn’t exactly capable of going anywhere else. 
“Oh, um, and if you want evidence that I’m working in a hospital, my next work assignment is in a couple days, so I’ll make time if you want to visit!” 
Laila must have taken Emi’s apparent confusion as outright suspicion. She was all too eager to convince her daughter that she belonged here. 
“All right? If you’re worried, I can go find my residence certificate real quick. I think my electric and gas bills are somewhere nearby. Also…um…” 
“…Any comment, Father?” 
“Huh? Umm…” 
Emi decided to address Nord, if only to remind her mother that she wasn’t the only person in the room. He fiddled with his beard as he gingerly surveyed his wife. 
“L-Laila?” 
“Yes…?” 

“Unless my memory is failing me…I don’t recall you living in such squalor.” 
“I-I’m sorry! I, um, I’m on call at the hospital a lot, and there’s all the Ente Isla stuff, and it’s keeping me so busy that I’m hardly here at all unless I’m sleeping!” 
Laila earnestly apologized at the expression of concern—or hopelessness—from Nord. 
“Ummm,” a voice called out, “I thiiink Laila isn’t lying. It seems like her abooode to me.” 
“Eme?” 
Emeralda gingerly raised a hand. It notably brightened Laila, (incorrectly) assuming she was throwing her a life preserver. 
“After Laiiila left, one of the dorrrm rooms in the Holy Magic Administraaative Institute was quite a bit like thiiis.” 
The life preserver turned out to be on fire, exploding in Laila’s face. Her smile froze solid. 
“Um—umm… I apologize for leaving it in that state…” 
It was admirable of Laila to not make excuses for it. But she was no longer able to lift her head back up. The thought of her daughter’s reaction scared her too much. 
“While I was having Ms. Shiba help me establish myself here…seeing all these human beings living and thriving here, like nothing I’d seen before…it made me get a little carried away. Which I regret.” 
“In the middle of what’s supposed to be a recession, too,” Maou butted in. But Laila shook her head, expression serious if a bit covered in a cold sweat. 
“I’ve seen too many countries where children who lose their parents are forced to finish their short lives begging on the streets. They say times are tough, but if a nation’s full of people trying to make tomorrow better than today, that’s what I call thriving. If everyone’s looking in the right direction, the world’s bound to reach a better place. That’s such a happy thing to see.” 
“Yeah,” her daughter said from beyond her eyesight, “but if you call this room of yours ‘thriving,’ then I’m not sure I agree with your interpretation of that.” 
“Oof.” 
“Lucifer’s the exact same way. You angels are all such slobs. Now I’m a little worried about how Sariel and Gabriel are living.” 
“…I have nothing I can say.” 
“Yeah, I sure don’t,” Gabriel added for some reason. 
“Uggh…” 
Laila’s body shrunk down at Emi’s unseen sigh. But— 
“…Yusa?” 
Chiho noticed her face. It was surprisingly composed, vivid with color. 
“If you’ve messed the place up this bad, do you think you’re ever going to get your deposit back? Do you even know what living in an apartment means?” 
“I think Aunt Mikitty will give it back to her as long as she didn’t really mess up the walls and floor.” 
“That’s not the issue, Amane. If you’re living in a rented space, you’ve got an obligation to adhere to a bare minimum of cleanliness, at least.” 
“Oh, but wasn’t there a Devil King who came to my shop because the room he rented had a gigantic hole blown in it?” 
“That was this guy’s fault, Amane.” 
Gabriel shot back at the spreading flames. “Hey! Not me! Your kid did that! This isn’t the first time I’ve had these wild allegations against me, mm-kay?” 
“What I mean is, even the Hero and Devil King need to clean their apartments once they go back home. I don’t know what motives you have for lurking behind the scenes all this time, but I don’t want to listen to someone who can’t even keep her place decent.” 
“That…” 
Laila’s face was full of remorse, but given how obvious Emi’s assessment was, it was difficult to take her side. 
“…Hey, Emeralda, what’re we gonna do about that? Emi’s found another excuse not to listen to her.” 
“…Yeah, I wish she’d giiive up on it alreaaady…” 
But it was also clear that Emi’s indecisive attitude—a transformation in her personality brought on by her inability to decide on an approach to Laila—was starting to wear on her friends. Having lived in Emi’s apartment all this time, Emeralda in particular had a front-row seat to this attitude of hers. Now they were all scared she’d use this dump as an excuse to turn on her heels and walk away. 
But then Emi herself let off a bombshell. 
“So I’m not going to listen to your story today…but I am going to clean this place up.” 
It instantly restored the color to Laila’s cheeks. 
“…Emilia?” 
That offer was one thing. The mere act of Emi stepping inside and addressing her mother to her face was another. 
“R-really?” 
Emi took obvious pains to keep from locking eyes with her. “I just don’t want my friends to think my own mother’s living in a pit like this!” 
“Emilia… Th-thank you… Thank you!” 
In a roundabout way, Emi had acknowledged Laila as her mother. It made tears instantly well up in Laila’s eyes. 
“And let me just say, don’t forget that you owe Eme, too. Trying to sponge off your daughter’s friends… Could you get any more embarrassing?” 
“I—I know…” 
“And I can’t believe you forced Father to take full care of Acieth even though you lived right near him. And don’t tell me you weren’t involved with Alas Ramus just getting tossed into Villa Rosa Sasazuka without a word. Do you have any idea how much pandemonium it was at first?” 
“I know… I’m sorry.” 
“But…” 
Here, finally, Emi softened her voice. 
“I didn’t imagine anything like this, but for the first time in my life, you’re actually acting like you’re alive to me. That’s something, at least, I can take away from today.” 
“Yusa…” 
“Emilia…” 
“Oh, enough of that aaattitude, Emiiilia…” 
Emeralda, along with Chiho and Suzuno, were all ever so slightly relieved to see Emi try to get a little closer to Laila, even with all the words she needed to get there. 
“I could help you, Yusa…” 
Emi turned Chiho down. “Thanks, but it’ll be hard for too many people to navigate through all this. This is a family issue, and it’s gonna take a family to fix it. And…sorry for everything, guys.” 
That short apology contained her fervent desire to atone for how weak willed she had acted for the past month or so. She rounded it out by addressing Maou, the man who had wanted to learn of Laila’s lifestyle even more than Emi. 
“What about you, Devil King? Seen enough yet?” 
“…If you’re happy, I’m happy. Go ahead and clean this place if you want. It’s not like seeing this immediately changed my mind or anything.” 
“Ah. Well, thanks.” 
She informally raised a hand to see him off. 
“…Hey. We’re going.” 
“Whaa—?! We go now? Why did we come here?!” 
Acieth had a point, but this peek into Laila’s personal life was pretty much the beginning and end of Maou and crew’s objectives. Acieth and Erone were brought along simply because their guardians couldn’t leave them alone. But to Acieth, at least, she saw no point in going home yet. 
“Huhh?! Come on! This is the total waste of time!” 
“Ugh… Fine, you wanna eat somewhere?” 
“That’s the spirit, Maou!” 
This carrot was the only way Maou really knew to keep her from whining until the cows come home. 
“You just had some curry. Keep it light.” 
But now, he already sensed doom ahead as Acieth all but tied the bib around her neck right where she stood. 
“We’re headed home, Nord.” 
“Oh?” 
The farewell left Nord uncharacteristically silent. Emi was already busy dissecting Laila’s room behind him. 
“Right! We’re gonna throw away everything you aren’t using any longer!” 
“Wait, Emilia! I like those piglet-print socks! Those were the first ones I bought when I came here…!” 
“No back talk! If they’re that important, then wash them, fold ’em up, and put ’em away! Do you have any idea how neat the Devil King keeps his place? Have you no shame?!” 
The cleanup battle between mother and daughter was off to a lively start. 
“Do—do I have to stay?” Nord found himself asking. 
“Of course you do. This is your wife and daughter here,” Emeralda replied succinctly. 
“N-no, I know that, but…” 
“Have fun taking caaare of your faaamily!” 
“No, Emeralda, umm…” 
“Father, give me a hand! Go to the pharmacy and buy us some dust masks! I’m gonna get asthma if I breathe everything in the air here!” 
“See? Yusa’s calling for you.” 
“Um, good luck…” 
“I guess this’ll be some good quality time for you guys.” 
“Yeah. Tell Laila that we’ll hold down the fort on our end.” 
“Whoo-hoo! Time for the eating!” 
“Hey, where should we go…?” 
“Father! Buy some trash bags and twine and scissors, too!” 
“Please, Emilia, wait! I’ll wash these! And those are my textbooks! I still open those up sometimes! Don’t throw them away!!” 
As Nord blankly watched Maou and his cohorts file away from the apartment, screams and shouts began to erupt from inside. 
“Honey, say something!” 
“Don’t spoil her any longer, Father!” 
“…Granddad?” 
Feeling something tugging at his pants leg, Nord looked down. 
“Mommy an’ her’s kinda scary.” 
“They sure are.” 
Alas Ramus came to his aid, looking concerned. He lifted her up, a look of sorrowful resolve on his face. 
“Better step up and help them out…” 
 
“You think they’ll make up?” 
Chiho’s eyes were watching far beyond the window. 
“Who knows? They’re closer to each other, at least, but I don’t know if they’ll go all the way.” 
“Well, if they’re cloooser, at least that presents more of an opportuuunity.” 
Compared to Maou, Emeralda was certainly far less pessimistic, if not wholly optimistic, about their chances. 
“But how was she planning to make a whole bunch of angel feather pens in that mess?” 
“Oh? Pens? What do you meeean?” 
Surprised, Emeralda took one of those feather pens out from the shoulder bag she purchased in Japan. Chiho marveled at the dull glow. 
“Whoa! I haven’t seen one in real life before! It’s pretty!” 
The angel feather pen in Emeralda’s possession was granted to her by Laila long ago, allowing her and Albert to travel to Earth in search of Emi. 
“Yeah,” Maou retorted, “and Laila claimed she could make one for all of us in that room if she wanted to. I dunno if she meant it as a reward or so we could all do something for her with them.” 
“…In thaaat room?” Emeralda frowned. “I don’t know how they’re maaade, but the end results would be rather dusssty, I imagine.” 
“No doubt. We know archangel feathers are used for them, but we don’t know exactly how they’re made at all. Hey, Gabriel? They didn’t try writing with their own feathers long ago or something, did they? Like some kinda fairy tale?” 
Gabriel gave this his usual cheese-eating grin. 
“What if they did, hmmm?” 
“If they did, it’s kinda gross.” 
They may have been angels, but if you saw one on the street, they looked human, pretty much. A lot of wigs are made from real human hair, but that worked because they were processed in just the right way, used in the proper situations, so that it all worked without issue. The idea of angels plucking out their own feathers to make these pens was yet another blow to any sense of divinity they emanated in the demons’ minds. 
“Well, not that it matters if you know or not, but they aren’t physically plucking out their feathers, mm-kay? There’s a secret technique.” 
Gabriel’s nonanswer made Chiho and Emeralda realize something at the same time. 
“Ohhh? But…” 
“Yeah. I heard the same thing.” 
They both looked at Maou. 
“I think you told us, Devil Kiiing…” 
“Demons aren’t capable of using angel feather pens, right?” 
Maou casually nodded. “Oh, yeah, I did say that, huh?” 
These pens could only be harnessed by those in possession of holy force. Demons, who by definition don’t have that, were blocked. A young Maou learned that from Laila himself way back when. But why didn’t Maou react when Laila claimed she’d make a feather pen for him? 
“I do not know how it applies with that feather pen, but if demons cannot use them, then what about Lucifer?” Suzuno asked from the side. 
“It’d only half work, I guess? Maybe it’d make a Gate, but I wouldn’t know how stable it was unless we tried.” 
“So…what about you, Maou?” 
“Well, first, I figured maybe there was some special trick that’d let me use it. Second, the angels are still against us, so I thought we could glean some important info from them. That’s it, pretty much.” 
“Ohhh, I see…” 
“Some special trick, huh? I have my doubts.” 
Chiho thought about this a bit. Suzuno, on the other hand, continued giving Maou a concerned look. 
“…” He shrugged, not indicating whether he noticed her or not. He continued, “Either way, Emeralda’s right. No feather pen coming out of that hoarder’s place is gonna work at all, and for all we know, she may be lying about the whole thing. Like, should a licensed caregiver really be living in such a mess?” 
“I had no idea she was a nurse, though… Maybe she took care of me while I was unconscious in the hospital.” 
“Oh, she had to. There’s only so many people who could’ve slipped that ring on you while you were sleeping, Chi.” 
“True.” 
Chiho recalled the ring with the Yesod fragment on it, still safe in its accessory case. 
“’Course, it ain’t so weird to think of Laila as a nurse at all. She used to work as a doctor long, long ago, so I’m sure studying for medical exams must’ve been a breeze for her, yeah?” 
“Huh?” 
“What?” 
Maou’s eyebrows shot up at the revelation Gabriel casually tossed into his reply. “Laila was a doctor?” 
“Mm-hmm.” 
“Do they have…occupations, so to speak, in heaven?” 
“They do, or they did kinda… But y’know, you can’t expect everyone up there to be a first-class philosopher like Lucifer, mm-kay? Most of ’em are unemployed, and I’m not too sure any of ’em would work as hard as the salarymen of Japan. But hey, I’m employed. I’m guarding the Yesod, remember? Probably got fired long ago, for all I know, but…” 
He smiled broadly to himself as he watched people go through the turnstiles to the Seibu Ikebukuro Line out the window. 
“But back when Laila was a real doctor… Boy, that was back before we had become angels.” 
“Before you became angels?” 
Suzuno and Emeralda gave each other concerned looks as Maou pouted. 
“Ahh,” a convinced-looking Amane replied, “that kind of thing? I couldn’t get it out of your friend at Sentucky Fried Chicken, but when did you guys become angels?” 
“Oh, you knew Sariel, Ammie? To put it in a Japanese kinda way, he used to sort of be a lawyer, by the way.” 
“What kind of crappy HR department do they have in heaven?” 
Gabriel laughed off Maou’s joke. “Well, we measure time on different scales up there so I can’t give an exact figure, but… We’ve been angels for, what, maybe about ten thousand years?” 
Ten thousand years. To a human being, who’s extraordinarily blessed if they reach a hundred, it was a fearsome, incalculable amount of time. 
“Gabriel?” 
“Hmm? What’s up, Chiho Sasaki?” 
“Do you know why Laila’s doing what she’s doing?” 
“Oh, more or less. We weren’t in contact, so I don’t know all the details…but I learned she was married right when you invaded Ente Isla, Devil King. Kinda indirectly once I learned about Emilia, but still…” 
He must have known when the Yesod fragments were first deployed in Emi’s holy sword and Cloth of the Dispeller. 
“Now, unlike Laila, I’m more of a ‘wait and see how things pan out’ kinda guy, mm-kay? She decided to leave us, and I decided to stay put. That made for a pretty huge difference. Sometimes, we’d go for a century or so without talking to each other. But, like, it’s the same for you guys, ain’t it? If you go out with a friend for the first time in years, you start chattin’ all day about the past, don’tcha? It’s like that.” 
Maybe the situation was similar, but to a normal person, several months was quite a difference from several centuries. 
“Can I ask a question out of curiosity?” 
“Shoot.” 
“Laila wants Maou and Yusa to save the people of Ente Isla, right?” 
“It wouldn’t be totally right to say it’s just that, but in the end, yeah.” 
“Um… How much time will that take?” 
“Chi?” 
Chiho’s voice was serious, unshaken. 
“Why d’you wanna know that?” 
“When you kidnapped Yusa and Ashiya, all I could do was sit here and wait. I didn’t want to join them, since I knew I’d be nothing more than dead weight, and Maou and Suzuno said they’d be back here as soon as they could. But it’s not like a quest to rescue someone from another world normally takes only a week or so, the way it did with them.” 
“Hmm. Well, how much time do you think it’d take? You’re one of the Devil King’s ordained witnesses. I’m sure Laila told you at least some of the story.” 
“…She did.” Chiho nodded, recalling the content of Laila’s doomsday file. “And, um, if you asked me for a prediction, I’d say a month at the shortest, maybe even a hundred years or so at the longest.” 
“Wow!” 
“Wh-wha—?!” 
“A hundred yeeears?!” 
“……” 
Suzuno and Emeralda, unaware of the file and Laila’s story, almost leaped out of their chairs. Gabriel lifted his eyebrows in fascination. Maou stayed silent, head down. 
“Man. Chiho Sasaki. What a gal, huh? No wonder Laila counted so much on you, mm-kay? Can I ask,” Gabriel said without denying the figures, “what made you come up with that time range?” 
“You and Laila have been preparing for this for at least several centuries. People with your strengths and your life spans still needing that much time to work it out—it can’t be anything too easy. But I also thought that maybe, as long as all the conditions were right, it’s the kind of thing you can wrap up pretty fast once it’s underway.” 
“Mmm. But that’s not all of it, is it?” 
“No.” Chiho shook her head. “The Yesod fragment we call Alas Ramus is with Laila’s daughter; Acieth is with the demon Maou. With everything positioned all crazy like that, the possibility of a really long-term mission seemed plausible, too.” 
“W-wait, Chiho. That doesn’t make sense.” 
“How so, Suzuno?” 
“Long-term or not, a hundred years? It is simply far too long. How would Emilia figure in that? It took her less than five years to defeat the Devil King, from start to finish.” 
“But this is different from beating the Devil King. I mean, Laila’s basically asking Maou and Yusa…” 
Chiho laid out the truth with barely a shred of emotion. 
“…to defeat the almighty god of Ente Isla for her.” 
““Wha…?!”” 
Suzuno and Emeralda gasped. 
“God, huh?” Amane listlessly asked as she stole a French fry from Acieth. “Of all the times for that to really show up. Talk about bad luck.” 
“Why would it come to that, Chi…?” 
Maou attempted to halt Chiho in her tracks, before this idle chitchat at the MozzBurger in Nerima Station became too apocalyptic, but it was Gabriel who stopped him instead. 
“She was asking out of curiosity, mm-kay? You already know about all that, and the negotiations are strictly between you, Emilia, and Laila. But even they have the right to know the truth and think for themselves, yeah?” He vacuumed up the last of his soft drink and placed the cup on the table. “And they’ve got a right to turn to you for help, mm-kay? Even Crestia Bell and Emeralda Etuva. They’re still Ente Islans, and they’ll be rescued by all you guys, too.” 
“…Let me just say…” 
He was right, but Maou didn’t want to have Gabriel reminding him. On the other hand, he had nothing to counter with. So he merely gave Gabriel a goading stare before turning to Suzuno and Emeralda. 
“You know,” he warned, “I still haven’t accepted any responsibility to do anything yet.” 
“Y-yes…but, Devil King, what will Alciel and Lucifer think of—?” 
“Ashiya’ll say to ignore it, what do you think? And Urushihara isn’t sayin’ anything at all.” 
“…Nothing?” 
Maou meant to emphasize that his demon cohorts were acting perfectly normal about this. Suzuno wasn’t about to fall for it. 
“When will you finally face facts, Devil King? You are not lying, but you are not telling the truth, either.” 
“What?” 
Suzuno frowned and stared at him. “If Lucifer really was against it, then he would say something like, ‘Don’t get me involved in this; it sounds like work and I want no part of it.’ He wouldn’t be silent. But he is, because he feels this is something he cannot afford to ignore, am I wrong?” 
“……” 
Maou looked suddenly daunted. 
“I hate to agree with Gabriel, but I am still concerned about all of you, too. You could at least try to trust us a little.” 
“…Gahhh… I swear, what is with you people…?” 
Maou brought a hand to his forehead, unable to look Suzuno directly in the eye. 
“Maou,” Chiho said, “I don’t want to be separated from you and Yusa. I can put up with it for a year or so, like Gabriel said. But I can’t wait a hundred. If you two were together for a hundred years, then I have to admit, that will make me pretty jealous.” 
“Oooh, Chiho! You go, girl!” 
“But, I mean, I really love both of you, so…” 
Chiho was all too receptive of Acieth’s half-joking cheer. 
“And not only me, either. There’s Suzuno and Emeralda and the rest of the Ente Islans. There’s Ms. Kisaki and Suzuki and Shimizu and Kawacchi and everyone else in Japan. There are tons of people who like you both. And none of them want to see their precious friends go somewhere far away for a hundred years. That’s why I want to ask. Why did this thing you have to do wind up being something like that?” 
“Didn’t Laila tell you everything?” 
“You know things that she doesn’t, don’t you, Gabriel? You told her that you’d take care of us for her.” 
“…This is just so hard to deal with, you know,” Gabriel said, sounding like he was having much more fun than his complaint indicated. 
“And Laila still hasn’t compensated Maou and Yusa the way they need to be. She hasn’t even made an offer yet.” 
“You mean about the metal? Or about having someone strong do something for her?” 
Gabriel’s strange analogy about Laila’s compensation made Maou wince once again. The term metal reminded Suzuno of something for a moment, but Chiho spoke before she could fully recall it. 
“I don’t really understand what you mean, but I think it’s probably the latter.” 
Her provoking eyes prodded Gabriel. 
“And I haven’t heard anything from you, Gabriel, or Laila, either, about how the Hatagaya MgRonald is going to plug the holes in the shift schedule if Maou and Yusa leave Japan.” 
Having someone who should be there just disappear—Chiho knew full well how heavy that really was. 
“Holes in the schedule? Ha-ha-ha!” 
It was Amane who laughed at Chiho’s statement and the self-assured boldness she delivered it with. 
“I like that kinda thing. Like, really.” 
Up to this point, she had been acting incredibly bored, ignoring the conversation and keeping a sharp eye on Erone. Now she was sitting up in her seat. 
“In terms of where I stand on this, it’s pretty close to Chiho. We’re the ones having this huge job foisted upon us. If you ask me, the lives of individual people like Chiho and Rika over here are a lot more important than the lives of an entire race on some planet I hardly even know about.” 
“Amane…” 
“I’m involved with the Sephirah, too, after all.” 
She smiled, her shiny teeth juxtaposed against her tanned skin, as she turned toward Gabriel. 
“And don’t think,” she warned, “that Chiho’s putting her fast-food job environment on the scales against the people of an entire world, okay? This girl’s putting everything in her life up there, too, against what you want to rescue. That, plus the lives of Sadao Maou and Emi Yusa—two people that she knows and all the other people who know them. If you don’t get how much that weighs, then even if Maou and Yusa say yes to you, Chiho’s never gonna budge. She’d probably wage her life on trying to stop Maou. She’d want everyone in Ente Isla to die.” 
“Eesh. Well, I hope she doesn’t do that. ’Cause if she pulls that when I have the Devil King and Emilia’s agreement, well, that’s gonna be an obstacle I’ll try to rub outta the picture, mm-kay?” 
“And then you’d be turning me and Aunt Mikitty against you. You realize what you’re saying, don’t you?” 
“Yeah, yeah…” 
As the archangel holding guard over the Sephirah, Gabriel knew or thought he knew the dangers of Miki Shiba and Amane more than anybody alive. 
“All right. Lemme come clean, mm-kay? Maybe Laila ain’t up for it, but there’s somethin’ I wanna have done so much, I’m willing to keep the Devil King and Emilia under lock and key for a hundred years, even more, if I have to. And I know this is gonna hurt Laila’s bargaining position a ton with you guys, but me having Ashiya over for tea on the Eastern Island was related to that, although kinda distantly. But as for the reward for those hundred years spent, along with the potential for more that should’ve been earned along the way… Well, that we sadly don’t have ready for you yet, mm-kay?” 
“Well, rewaaards or not, a century is such a long tiiime… Even if she survived, Emilia would be an old woooman by thennn.” 
It was a matter-of-fact question. Gabriel gave it a matter-of-fact response. 
“What, you think Emilia’s gonna age and die like a regular human being? She’s half angel!” 
“Wait… What…?!” 
Emeralda fell silent, as if someone had just punched her. 
“How many years you think me and Laila and Sariel and Lucifer have lived and looked the exact same as we do now? Once we mature enough and our bodies reach peak condition, we angels stop. We stop getting older; we basically go on forever. If you fall from heaven, that’s a different story, but Sariel proved long ago that Emilia’s physically incapable of that.” 
Sariel had the power to banish angels from heaven, it was true. But when he opened his Evil Eye of the Fallen upon Emi, it stripped her of her holy force but did nothing to seize her ability to control the Better Half or transform into her half-angel form. 
“You know that demons live for years and years, too, right? Not as long as angels, but still. And I don’t know how many centuries this Devil King here’s been living, but by demon realm standards, he’s still in his prime. Probably hasn’t even lived a tenth as long as me or Laila, mm-kay?” 
“What’s age matter once I’m mature enough, you?” 
“Ever the young, ambitious upstart, hmm? Look, no matter how blessed with talent you are, you’re still gonna be no better than anyone else when it comes to experience—those years you’ve built up. Young people get all pretentious, like Ooh, you can’t measure someone on age alone, but what happens when they get older? Now they’re the ones disparaging the younger generation, just for being there. I’ve seen it all the time, mm-kay? But we’re getting off track. If we go any further, it might be seen as me negotiating with the Devil King, so if we’re gonna talk, let’s keep it in the realm of chitchat with this li’l lady here, mm-kay? Or if you don’t wanna hear it, you can always leave?” 
“…Shut up.” 
Maou stood up, thoroughly annoyed, taking his wallet with him to the front bar. Being banished to an empty seat didn’t exactly fill him with excitement. 
“Right,” Gabriel continued as he stormed off, “Chiho Sasaki talked about defeating the god of Ente Isla just now, but there isn’t some kind of über-race higher up than us angels. It’s just, y’know, kinda someone you could call our god, if you squinted enough. Someone who brought all us angels together, someone you guys might wanna defeat if you wanna save the people of Ente Isla. There are a lot of other bad hombres, too—Camael and Raguel, you know them—but compared to her, they’re pocket lint, mm-kay?” 
“…Her?” 
Gabriel nodded at the question. Then he turned to Acieth and Erone, still scarfing down their meal next to Amane. 
“Yeah, the boss of all us parasites. Slowly killin’ the people who really need these kids.” 
He placed his elbows on the table, seeming to take delight out of Chiho’s reaction. 
“Before all that, she was a great leader, a scientist, a soldier, and a noble, merciful person. But then she extended her hand out someplace no person should ever dare reach, and it wound up pretty much wiping out an entire planet.” 
Emeralda spoke up at this, her knowledge of the universe still a tad hazy. “A plaaanet? Meaning a world besides Earth and Ente Islaaa?” 
“You can put it that way.” Gabriel nodded. “After that little tragedy, she’s started doing this stuff that’s really sinful, I know, but she mistakenly thinks is for the sake of the Ente Islans. Sadly, there aren’t many people up there who think along the lines of me or Laila. I mean, Camael’s her number one devotee, mm-kay? And that really screwed us over on the Eastern Island, actually.” 
He turned his eyes toward Maou, currently ordering some kind of dessert at the bar to the side. 
“Now. There’s someone me and Laila know, the person who originally proposed this whole plan we want the Devil King and Emilia in on. We’re kinda taking on that person’s mission, you know? And I’m not as serious about it as Laila is, since I’d like to kinda keep on living, but the more we’ve been observing Ente Isla, the clearer the data is that this guy was right the whole time. But she didn’t understand that. So the two of them split off, and then war broke out. She won, and he was defeated.” 
Gabriel seemed to be basking in nostalgia. 
“That guy—the guy who gave us the truth and ripped the heavens into two pieces—was named Satanael. Back when he was human, it was Satanael Noie.” 
“Satana…el?” 
The name was repeated, then compared with the man whose back was turned to them near the register. There was someone with the name Satan in the heavens? Chiho had an idea who it could be—and she was quickly proven correct. 
“That’s the guy revered in the demon realm as Satan, the ancient Devil Overlord. He’s also the cause, or the main perpetrator, of the Devil Overlord’s subsequent Cataclysm.” 
Suzuno opened her eyes wide in surprise. Chiho gasped as well, recalling the old story Ashiya told her. 
“He was human?” 
“The Devil Overlord… The man who ruled the demon realm before Maou?” 
“Yep.” Gabriel smiled at the assorted gasps and eye blinks. “And the name of this god of ours, the one who killed the Devil Overlord, created the current heavens and rules over us…” 
“God should never appear before the human race.” 
Even the rather strongly worded soliloquy of Amane was drowned out by the end of Gabriel’s sentence— 
“The name is this woman is Ignora, the mother of Lucifer.” 
– To be continued –