Hataraku Maou-sama! - Volume 20 - Chapter 1

THE DEVIL AND THE HERO SHAME THEMSELVES AT WORK

Devil’s Castle was under siege by an archangel.

“Ma—ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”

“Daahh?!”

At the front door to Room 201 of Villa Rosa Sasazuka was Mitsuki Sarue, aka the archangel Sariel—lips shaking and voice hoarse as he squared up as best he could with his tiny frame.

“Don’t pretend you don’t know why I dragged myself all the way oooover heeeere!!”

In what world would Maou understand why a man who was in many ways his business rival was visiting him this early on a weekday?

“Umm…did you get caught in some blowback?” Maou asked. It was actually pretty easy for him to picture it.

“What have you…you people…been doing?” Sariel had presented a forceful front, but now he was clinging to Maou like a newborn fawn, various emotions raging like a storm within his eyes. “What did you all say to Ms. Kisaki?!”

“Ahh,” Maou began, playing the fool, “yeah, she stopped by the restaurant for the first time in a while. Nothing really major happened, though…”

Sariel blew spittle out the corners of his mouth. “She called me, and the first thing she said was ‘Is your real name Sariel?’!!”

“………Oh.” Maou resigned himself to his fate. “Sorry. Actually, a bunch of stuff happened.”

“Could you try to sound serious about this?!”

“Well, um, listen, I’m just gonna tell you the truth, okay?”

“What is it?!”

“I completely forgot about you. Things were kind of, y’know, hurried.”

“Seriously?!”

“What do you expect?! I didn’t think I’d have my cover blown in front of everyone like that, either! And things are hard for us right now, too!”

“Well, now it’s pretty goddamn clear you’re not managerial material! Because if someone’s lodging a complaint against you, the one thing you don’t want to say is ‘Oh, wah, wah, it’s hard for me, too!’”

“Why are you even here?! If you’re here to whine, the only thing I have to apologize for is not telling you sooner! As for everything getting revealed…” Maou paused for a second. But he decided to press on without much more thought. This was Sariel, after all. “This isn’t my fault at all!”

“You liar! Even if you didn’t reveal it, it’s still indirectly your fault!”

“How so?!”

“Ms. Kisaki told me! She said Chiho Sasaki gave her the full rundown!”

“Yeah, and?”

“I don’t know exactly why, but Chiho Sasaki’s a Great Demon General on Earth, isn’t she? She answers directly to you! If you’re a Devil King, then control your damn officer corps!”

The term “Great Demon General” made Maou flinch a bit. “Look,” he countered, “all my Demon Generals, Ashiya included, are people who were after my life at one point or another in the past. They’re not gonna fall into line just because I tell them to.”

“They’re all loose cannons! Literally!”

Sariel stamped his foot. But not even Maou could do much about it. He couldn’t change the truth at this point. If he wanted to take what Sariel now called “Chiho’s sinister plot” and erase it from existence, it’d have to involve messing with the memories of many people—a measure the demons always had filed in the backs of their minds, but never did actually go through with.

“What… What am I supposed to do now…?”

Still, witnessing Sariel in the depths of despair, even Maou couldn’t help but feel slightly guilty about it all.

Sadao Maou, doing business as Satan the Devil King elsewhere, was on the staff at the MgRonald in front of Hatagaya Station, a fast-food joint full of people who had changed his outlook on life and humanity. His former boss, Mayumi Kisaki, in particular, was his ideal in human society, a goal for him to strive for—as a non-demon anyway. However, Mayumi Kisaki, despite raising Maou up to a potential managerial candidate at lightning speed and even recommending him for a full-time training stint, had no idea about who he really was.

Until last week, that is. It all started when Acieth Alla fell ill. She was always a remarkably big eater, but one day, it began to get truly out of hand—such that, if she felt even the slightest bit hungry, she started firing beams from her face that wrecked her surroundings.

Nearly everyone Maou knew over at Villa Rosa Sasazuka pitched in to cook for her, but even that wasn’t enough. So, out of desperation, Chiho Sasaki—the first person in Japan to learn about Maou and Ente Isla—took her to the Hatagaya MgRonald, where he worked. Maou still didn’t really understand why she did that or how she was even able to arrange for it. Amane Ohguro—the niece of Miki Shiba, the Earth Sephirah descendant and landlord at Maou’s place—was clearly involved, but Maou had no way of ascertaining how. He wanted to ask Suzuno, who was at Chiho’s side the whole time assisting her…but she had left for Ente Isla the day after, a busy woman.

In normal times, Suzuno definitely would have stepped up to stop Chiho before she went on a rampage like that. But even Suzuno had been acting bizarre lately. The day before Chiho took the out-of-control Acieth to MgRonald, Suzuno told him something completely out of the blue. Suzuno Kamazuki, a woman once feared as the “Scythe of Death,” a woman prudent of mind and experienced in life, had confessed her love for Maou—to Maou, of all people.

Until that point, Maou thought the phrase “I went completely blank” was just a metaphor, but now that he had experienced it for himself, that was the only way he found to define that instant. His vision constricted, his heart and stomach plummeting downward. He could tell Suzuno meant what she said; they had known each other long enough for that. That was why it threw Maou into so much confusion—and, blinded by the fallout, he ran away.

Now he wondered whether that connected to Chiho’s out-of-line behavior at all—but the die had been cast. Taking Acieth and her impossible-to-explain affliction to MgRonald revealed just what Chiho was involved with to ex-boss Mayumi Kisaki, current manager Kotomi Iwaki, and fellow kitchen staff Takefumi Kawata and Akiko Ohki. The whole bit was out—who Maou, Emi, Alas Ramus, Acieth, and even Libicocco were, and where they came from.

At the time Maou and Emi were too dazed to handle this sea change adeptly. Simply keeping everyone calm kept their hands full.

But something didn’t quite dawn on them that day.

Something that was the fact that revealing everything affected more than just Maou and Emi. Now Sariel was involved in the mix—and it was a week later when he beat down Maou’s door for an explanation.

“…Honestly, Emi and I don’t know what to do about it, and I’m pretty sure it’s even worse for Ms. Kisaki, and Ms. Iwaki and Kawacchi and Aki…um, I mean Kawata and Ohki. I think they’re pretty scared, frankly. And thanks to the place getting wrecked, we had to close for three days straight, and in the midst of it all, I forgot to mention that I talked about you, too, so…sorry.”

Maou was trying to be at least a little sincere with his apology. His words must have beat against Sariel’s brain, as he was finally on his knees after a near-eternity of whining and howling. After a bit, Sariel said, “No. It’s fine.”

“Huh?”

“I don’t resent you for this.”

“Didn’t you just say you were complaining to me?”

“Well, yes, I am. But this also means that I no longer need to deceive Ms. Kisaki about who I am.”

“You were hiding more than your name before now?” Maou couldn’t help but ask. In his eyes, Sariel hadn’t kept much of anything from her besides his real name. Everything else was laid out in pretty honest detail in that explosive moment they first met.

“But was there anything else? I mean, if this led to, like, you and Ms. Kisaki calling off your plans to go independent, then I’d feel a little sorrier about it, but…,” Maou said, despite not looking that sorry.

Sariel shook his head at Maou. “That is what I feared the most. Instead, Ms. Kisaki asked me if I’ve ever used magic as a cheat in my business career. That’s all! I suppose she was talking about sorcery or holy energy or the like, right? So I swore to all the gods of heaven and earth that I haven’t.”

“Wouldn’t you kind of be one of those gods? But…yes, I’m sorry I didn’t get around to telling you. Like I said, it’s not just Ms. Kisaki, but Ms. Iwaki, Kawata, and Ohki who all know, so if you could learn to recognize their names and faces, that’ll be really helpful. Anyway, I gotta go in for a shift…”

“Whoa, we’re not done yet.”

“What? So they found out. What’s the big deal?”

“No! I—I just need to check on something!”

“What more do you need…?”

“You didn’t say anything besides my identity, did you?!”

“Hmm?”

“They know I’m from another world, that I’m an angel and not human, and that I have sorcery. They don’t know anything else?!”

Despite the momentum that first brought him here, there was a twinge of terror to Sariel’s voice now. Maou thought over the question for a moment. Then something came to him.

“Well, it’s Acieth’s fault that the cat got out of the bag, you know. So I had to tell them that you angels and your world are me and Emi’s foes right now.”

“I don’t care about anything that big!”

“Look,” Maou said as he dragged Sariel out the door with him, locking it up before leisurely going down the stairs, “don’t worry. I didn’t say anything about you kidnapping Chi and Emi, then trying to rip Emi’s clothes off her. Yet.”

Sariel clutched his head and scream. “Noooooooooooooooooo!!!!”

“And that’s what they call bringing trouble upon yourself,” Maou finished.

To Sariel, who had mastered life in Japan much faster than Maou and Ashiya, and who had made no effort to hide his infatuation with Mayumi Kisaki, the things he’d done during the demon war were a dark blemish never to be revealed. Maou, to his credit, had no interest in engineering Sariel’s downfall. After all, despite the groaning he could still hear from upstairs, Sariel was just as good a fighter in battle as Maou and Emi, if you ignored the extra boost the Yesod fragments gave Emi and company. If something triggered him into opening hostilities again, Maou had no current way of suppressing him without collateral damage. The presence of Kisaki’s feelings was a vital counterweight, and it had to be kept in place to ensure Sariel continued living peacefully in Japan.

This, in other words, was one winning card Maou would never think of actually playing. A card he never really thought of, even, as long as Sariel didn’t poke at the hornet’s nest too much. In fact, frankly, Sariel’s existence or cover story meant very little to Maou compared to the other problems on his mind.

First off, even after that gluttonous trip to MgRonald, Acieth still hadn’t really gotten better. This made sense, of course. What was a devastating development in Maou’s mind was, to Acieth, just letting herself go a little at dinner. They still didn’t know the cause, and they still didn’t have a remedy.

Despite that, however, Acieth—perhaps a bit relieved that she had someplace else to be herself—was (apparently) down to about half her appetite at its peak. It was only “apparently” to Maou because he hadn’t actually seen her since that day.

Now, more than ever, he was feeling tremendously blocked and boxed up in his life. He had no idea what was motivating Chiho and Suzuno, and now his landlord Shiba and her family were lurking around him, acting undercover in ways he couldn’t fathom. He only got updated about Acieth because he happened to catch Nord in front of the apartment building. Being fused with her and all, Maou could forcibly call her over if he wanted to, but he knew she wouldn’t really tell him anything, and it’s not like he alone could ever provide food on the level to satisfy her appetite.

So Maou had spent the past few days bobbing along, helpless against other people’s machinations and left quite in the dark by them all. It put him in a hazy state of depression, one that Emi shared in—her especially, because she had caught wind in Ente Isla of Ashiya, Urushihara, and Gabriel discussing some sort of scheme between them. One week on, and neither of them had heard a single word from Acieth, Suzuno, or Chiho.

Instead, they had other people prowling around:

“Um, good morning.”

“Marko!”

Takefumi Kawata was the first to come up to Maou, who was looking glum, as he walked through the automatic doors.

“Wh-what’s up, Kawa—”

“There’s more weirdoes in here! They gotta be for you, Marko!”

“…Where?”

“Table ten.”

“Ohh…ohhh…oh.”

Table ten, which Kawata pointed out without turning around, was a stool at the countertop that lined one wall. Three men, backs pointed straight up, were seated at this counter now, their clothing making them look very out of place in Hatagaya.

“S-sorry they keep on doing this. I keep telling them to dress right, but…”

“They got in an argument with Libby just now,” the almost tearful Kawata said as Maou’s shoulders drooped. “He said something about that being formal dress where they come from.”

“They don’t need to be formal, though…”

Maou eyed them. All three men were wearing blue strips of cloth on their left arms.

“What did Ms. Iwaki do?”

“They handed her, like, this solid gold ingot. She’s pretty much lost.”

“All right. I’ll give them a talking-to.”

“Please, if you could…”

Leaving Kawata behind, Maou walked up to the three men.

<“Listen, you fools. How many times do I have to tell you before you realize this isn’t Ente Isla?”>

The tallest of the three men, sitting in the center, turned his eyes to Maou, unperturbed.

<“Satan, the Devil King?”>

<“Yes.”>

<“Do you know who we are?”>

<“Hmm. I don’t know anyone who dresses weird and goes around all high-handed like ‘Do you know who we are?’ So, no.”>

<“…!”>

One of the other men betrayed his anger for a moment. The tallest one stopped him.

<“…My pardons. We received a report on this land’s customs from an advance agent, but as members of the Azure Scarves, we are forbidden from shedding any more equipment than this while on a mission. Understand that coming here unarmed is, in itself, a major concession.”>

<“I can’t say I really care about your country’s rules. You’re in Japan right now. The Azure Scarves, the Azure Emperor, the Devil King, the Hero—they’re all equally unknown around here. All you guys are at the moment are strangers, and very weird-looking ones at that. Next time you show up, you better make your country change their rules.”>

<“…We’ll do our best.”>

<“So, if I could ask, what brings you here today…?”>

Kawata watched with bated breath, eyeing Maou. “Hopefully this is going well…” Another involved party walked through the automatic door. “Hmm?”

“Good morning! …Oh.”

“Oh! Morning, Yusa.”

Emi spotted Maou and the trio immediately. “Good morning, Kawata,” she softly said. “Um, those people over there…”

“I don’t speak their language so I only have the general gist, but first Libby yelled at them, then Marko lectured them, and I think they’re explaining what they’re here for now.”

“…I’m really sorry about this. Are we still letting customers in?”

“Well, there’s not many of them yet, but Ms. Iwaki’s freaking out, so maybe you could tend to her for me? Because they gave her this gold bar or something and she doesn’t know what to do with it.”

“O-okay. Again, sorry!”

“No, um, it’s fine by me, but…”

The news that her boss was “freaking out” filled Emi’s face with terrified grief. She quickly jogged over to the staff room.

“If it wasn’t for all the stuff I’d seen, I would’ve just assumed they were three weird dudes, but…oh well. Back to work.”

With those words to himself, Kawata mentally switched gears and returned to his regular duties.

“Oh, Kawacchi? I just saw Saemi running into the staff room like she saw a ghost, but did something else weird happen?”

Akiko Ohki had just exited the walk-in freezer with a couple bags of food ingredients.

“Marko’s handling some out-of-towners right now. Ms. Yusa’s helping the boss calm down.”

“Why’s Ms. Iwaki all worked up? If it’s a gold bar, can’t she just sell it somewhere?”

“Aki,” laughed Kawata, “think a little harder than that, won’t you?”

“Well, that’s what I’d do. Nobody would ever know! It’s not like someone from Ente Isla is gonna complain to corporate about it. We could all party it up with the proceeds.”

“Talk about dreaming small. That’s pretty ethically questionable, Aki—and besides, considering the Devil King of their land took the managerial exam here, you can’t totally discount the idea that they’d complain to HQ. No matter how nonsensical it is, embezzling payments is a really bad idea.”

“Aww. But Saemi had a job at Dokodemo, didn’t she? Maybe Ente Islans have access to phones, too. Like… It’s funny how despite all this, life hasn’t really changed, has it?”

Akiko couldn’t sound more indifferent as he loaded the ingredient bags into the kitchen’s freezer, the same as she always did.

“Ahh… What a pain. Sorry to make you deal with these freaks all the time, Kawacchi.”

Maou was back among them now, exhaustion on his face. Before he responded, Kawata looked toward the dining room. The trio were now gone, and the rest of their customers seemed normal enough.

“…Just to be sure, you didn’t zap them away with a magic wand or something, right?”

“I don’t have one. But if I did and used it that way, Emi would kill me.”

“Okay. You know, just in case…”

“Just in case what?”

“Well, as long as they left peaceably, it’s all good.”

“…Ahh, I haven’t even changed yet. Sorry again.”

Kawata glanced back at Maou as he hurried into the staff room. He didn’t look particularly concerned about anything. By the time Maou clocked in and returned to the floor, a new customer was picking a tray up from Kawata and heading toward the dining hall.

“Kawacchi, where’s Libicocco?”

“I got him running the upstairs by himself. Wanna switch out?”

Maou nodded as headed up to the café space. “Sure.”

Ever since Chiho had gone off the rails and decided to take Acieth to the MgRonald, the relationship between Maou and his coworker trio of Iwaki, Kawata, and Akiko had changed so little that it actually disappointed him and Emi. Iwaki joking about whether she could start calling him “Your Majesty” or “O Exalted Satan” was the main highlight, but nothing substantial had changed at all. Neither side mentioned the other’s origins in conversation or anything—and, as a practical issue, it’d be trouble for all of them if anything did change.

This was thanks to Maou’s unflagging efforts to build trust in his staff. Once, as they chatted, Kawata mentioned, “You know, I’ll just say—it’s not like I’m not scared at all.” I’m sure, Maou thought to that, but then Kawata continued: “But if something was gonna happen because of it, it would’ve happened a long time ago. So if you guys don’t do anything, Marko, it’s not like us acting all tense is gonna help.”

Maou appreciated Kawata’s friendship and analytical skills…but the guilt over having to keep mum about how dangerous it was for everyone when Sariel first came along pained him enough that he bowed his head deeply to him anyway.

The reactions from Akiko, Iwaki, and of course Kisaki were largely the same. Emi and Libicocco had no doubt figured things out with the staff in their own way, too—they hadn’t sat down to talk about it or anything, but the two of them didn’t seem to act any differently around Iwaki and the rest. Maou had to hand it to them—he had been blessed with a really great workplace.

“…My liege, about Mr. Kawata…”

“Yes?”

Maou looked at Libicocco, who was about to head back downstairs. Then Kawata quietly stuck his head in the stairwell.

“Marko, you got a customer.”

“Oh…”

“This one speaks Japanese. He says she’s from some church on the ‘Western Island’?”

“…Ah…sorry about that.”

Behind Kawata was a man wearing flashy robes similar to Suzuno’s, someone who clearly wasn’t there to nosh on junk food. Maou didn’t recognize him, so he probably wasn’t involved with their upcoming battle against heaven.

“Again, why do you people keep showing up looking like that…?”

“I am under strict orders not to cause offense. These robes are to be worn when only the greatest of respect is to be paid—”

“When you get back,” Maou told the robed man, cutting him off, “tell ’em that coming dressed like that is about as dis-respectful to me and my coworkers as you can get.”

“…I will,” the cleric said, not looking very convinced as Maou pointed out the bar seating to him.

“So you’re fine for today, but before you leave, do a little street research on how people dress in Japan for me, please? ’Cause if you don’t, I’m not going to talk to you again.”

“I—I’m afraid I can’t have that…”

“Well, tough. I can’t have this, either, y’know? So which is it?”

“Pardon?”

Maou stared the man down. “Which side are you on? Crestia Bell’s, or Cervantes Reberiz’s?”

“…I work under the authority of Archbishop Cervantes.”

Three members of the Azure Scarves, the most prestigious knighthood of the empire on the Eastern Island, had now been followed by a high-ranking cleric serving one of the Church’s six Archbishops. They weren’t alone, either. Ever since Maou’s and Emi’s identities were revealed to the MgRonald staff, the Hatagaya location had seen a pretty constant stream of Ente Islan visitors in unfamiliar dress.

“I’m glad you’re being honest. Wait over there for me, okay? I’ll talk to you when I get some time… Ah!”

Maou sternly addressed the cleric, pointing out the seat farthest away from the upstairs entrance for him to sit on. He then ran over to Kawata, hands clasped together and head down.

“I’m really sorry! I know this is asking a lot, but the next time someone like this shows up, can you point them in Emi’s direction?”

“…Yeah, that’s fine, but…Marko?”

“Huh?”

“I think that before their clothing, you need to teach them about our currency system. With the clothes, you know, no matter how weird they are, if they sit down and keep quiet, it’s no biggie, right? But if they keep paying us with gold bars and jewels and stuff, it’ll just make Ms. Iwaki more flustered, and I’m not sure Aki’s just joking about taking it all to the pawn shop anymore. It’s really got us all on edge.”

“I’m really sorry about this!”

Maou was in full apology mode now, the cleric looking on wide-eyed like he was viewing cataclysmic events. “Everyone who comes here gets a surprise like that,” Libicocco observed with a smirk.

“Wh-what?”

“You had best be careful, human,” he continued, addressing the Church cleric. “If you anger the staff here, neither His Demonic Highness nor the Hero Emilia will lend their ears to you again.”

“I—I will be sure not to…um, but may I ask who you are…?”

“Me? I am Libicocco, Malebranche chieftain in the Devil King’s Army. Let me inform you that all the humans in this restaurant are aware of that, and I am still serving at the lowest rung on the ladder here. I’d thus advise you to watch your behavior and your mouth.”

The cleric gulped nervously, then quickly made his way to the seat Maou pointed out for him. If a place like this treated a Malebranche chief who once laid waste to vast swaths of Ente Isla’s Southern Island as a proverbial cabin boy, there was no telling how powerful everyone else must be. It must have scared the pants off of him.

“But everyone here seems very obedient, I must say,” Libicocco noted to Maou. “Should I take it to mean that things are going well with Chiho Sasaki?”

“No comment.”

Libicocco chuckled a bit while Maou scowled, before nodding his good-byes and heading downstairs.

“Things are going well…?”

Really, what was going well and what wasn’t? Maou wasn’t sure any longer. After all, a constant stream of powerful Ente Islan figures were rushing into the MgRonald by Hatagaya Station, asking essentially the same question.

But why were they here?

It was all Chiho and Suzuno planning out this so-called “Second Invasion” of Devil’s Castle. The humans, who would only be aware of this plan on the surface at best, probably couldn’t even imagine what was going on…and truth be told, Maou and Emi, too, were having trouble keeping up with it.

The first one to come knocking was no shock to Maou, Emi, or even Libicocco.

This was someone whose presence bumbling around Japan was no great surprise. But this person still startled Emi, because she picked up on something unusual very quickly. After all, this person should’ve been well-versed in modern Japanese culture by now…and yet, she still chose to dress like that at MgRonald.

“Hellooo, good afternoooon!”

“E-Eme?! What the heck are you wearing?!”

It was Emeralda Etuva: companion to the Hero in her Devil King–slaying quest, chief figure in the upcoming battle against heaven, and Emi’s closest friend. She had enjoyed an extended stay at Emi’s apartment in Eifukucho and understood the norms of Japanese society by now—so why was she wearing the ceremonial robes of a palace conjurer from the Holy Empire of Saint Aile?

“Oh, don’t be meeean…”

“…Eme?”

Emi noticed something odd with Emeralda’s face. It seemed calm and composed on the surface, but her eyes, her mouth—the full range of her expression—was only about half the amplitude it usually was. And based on her experience, Emi was reasonably sure what this meant: Emeralda was angry about something.

The surprised exclamation from Emi must’ve made it up the stairs, because when Maou came down from the café space to answer it, he was greeted by the sorcerer’s guileful eyes looking straight up at him.

“Hello there, Devil King Satan.”

The voice sharpened itself toward the end. Emi nervously gulped. There was something on Emeralda’s mind that made her seethe.

“E-Emeralda?! What’re you doing dressed like that…?” he asked.

“You and Emilia seem rather preoccupied with my wardrobe, don’t you? Is it that strange?”

“Well, I mean…”

“I am here to offer my greetings to the manager of this restaurant, on behalf of the Holy Empire of Saint Aile and, by extension, all the peoples of Ente Isla. If I were to visit here dressed in a manner that hid myself amid your own culture, wouldn’t that itself be rude?”

“Wh-what are you…?”

“Ahh, I have no time to spend being bothered by these charlatans. Emilia—where may I find Ms. Iwaki?”

“Hey!” Maou yelled.

“Huh? Um…huh? Eme?” Emi stammered. “I’m sorry, I’m not sure I’m really following, myself…”

“…Um, something up?”

Iwaki, picking up on the strife in the dining space, appeared from the kitchen. Emeralda, quickly spotting her, walked up, took a knee, and lowered her head.

“U-Um, madam? Y-you are a guest, right? In more ways than one?!”

“Eme! Hey! There’s other people here!”

Iwaki, being a grown woman and having experienced Chiho’s huge revelation, must have known something was unusual about all this.

“You are Ms. Kotomi Iwaki? I have come from Ente Isla, the Land of the Holy Cross, as a palace representative from the Holy Empire of—”

“Ex…Ex-cuse me, madam, but if we could perhaps continue this conversation in my office?!”

Iwaki moved quickly. She grabbed the arm of Emeralda, a woman about the same size as she.

“Libby! Meet me in the back!”

“Right!”

“…of Saint Aiiiile…”

Nimbly giving the signal to Libicocco, who was watching from behind the counter, Iwaki pulled Emeralda out of public sight, evacuating them both into the staff room. Left behind in all this was Emi, Maou, Akiko (who had a vague idea what was going on), and the rest of the crew handling the shift (who didn’t).

“Um, let’s, let’s just get back to work, people…”

Maou used his authority as the substitute floor manager on duty to get everyone’s heads out of the clouds. But Akiko wasn’t ready to fold.

“Was she…one of those people?” she whispered.

Emi nodded. “Yes, but…but she’s never done anything like this before… Ah.”

Then she heard the front doors whirring open, forcing her mind back into MgRonald employee mode.

“Good afternoo—npph?!”

She wound up biting her tongue.

This time, a man came through the door, a tall figure in a long, overelaborate robe with sharp, ambitious eyes. Why would he appear in a place like this? Even Maou tensed up at the sight.

“How nice to see you again, Emilia the Hero. I am sure even God above couldn’t have imagined us encountering each other in such a manner. I am glad you seem to remain well.”

“Ar…Archbishop Cervantes… Wh-why…?”

This man, one of the six Archbishops, stood at the peak of power and faith in the Church bureaucracy. He was someone who, no matter how chaotic this timeline had become, would never walk through the doors of a western Tokyo MgRonald in broad daylight.

Cervantes, firmly in control of the situation, gave the dining space a good look. Then his eyes settled upon Maou, currently frozen in the middle of the staircase.

“And…yes. I can hardly believe my eyes.”

“I’m having trouble believing mine, too…”

The Archbishop probably had trouble accepting that Satan, the Devil King, was now a young Japanese man. Emi, meanwhile, couldn’t believe Cervantes was right here, in front of her, and completely unaccompanied.

As the de facto leader of the six Archbishops, Cervantes Reberiz was (in Maou’s and Emi’s minds) a puppet of the heavenly realm and the greatest enemy of humankind on Ente Isla. If the head Archbishop came to learn about Japan, not to mention the truth behind the Devil King’s Army, then one nod of his head could very feasibly trigger a world war pitting every force in Ente Isla against the Devil King’s Army within the space of an hour. He was the last person they wanted to know about their assault on heaven, or even that Emi was alive at all. So why was he planet-hopping to MgRonald without a single Church knight to guard him?

“…I do not have much time. I have been warned not to cause too much commotion in this world. For today, I have come to size up the leader of this…establishment, where the Hero and Devil King work.”

“Huh?!”

“Is Ms. Kotomi Iwaki or Ms. Mayumi Kisaki present?”

What informant even gave him those names, the names of those MgRonald managers Archbishop Cervantes was now gravely intoning? It gave Emi a dizzy spell.

“Ah, um, Iwaki is currently attending to another guest…”

“Another guest? Then my apologies, but I will wait.”

Without awaiting a reply, Cervantes sat himself down at a nearby empty seat. Then he closed his eyes, as if meditating, not moving an inch as Maou, Emi, and Akiko stood there at a loss.

“Wh-what’s with that, Emi?! What’s going on?!”

“I don’t know! I didn’t think Lord Cervantes would come here… W-wait a minute!”

She had heard the name Cervantes somewhere recently. Right. It was…

“Oh, wow, Chiho…”

“Huh?” Maou blinked in confusion.

Akiko faced the confused pair, looking even more confused herself. “Um, Saemi, Maou, it’s looking kind of like…”

Then Emeralda appeared from the staff room. Cervantes’s eyes immediately opened, staring intently at Emeralda’s back as she bowed back at the doorway to the manager’s office. Then, chin up, back straight, she walked right over to Cervantes’s seat, like she’d always known he was there.

“How nice to see you.”

“Yes. Sorry about the other day.”

It was a short greeting, but one as willful and tactical as a physical swordfight.

“Do not worry. I am simply here as her friend.”

“What a coincidence. I am an old acquaintance of hers as well, and that’s what brings me here.”

“Is it, now?”

“Yes.”

“…Then thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to come, Father Reberiz.”

“Ah, yes. Miss Etuva, I know how occupied we both are, but we in the Church have yet to make up for our affront upon you and your nation. Would you like to perhaps share a meal together?”

“My, what a kind invitation. It would be an honor, Father Reberiz. In fact, why don’t we do just that right now?”

“Now? Here?”

Even Cervantes looked visibly astonished. Emeralda just sweetly smiled back.

“Were you not aware? Occupying a seat without ordering anything is considered poor table manners in this nation.”

“I see. In that case…”

After looking around himself once more, Cervantes wearily stood up, turning first to Emi, then to Maou.

“In that case, should I provide an order to them in their servant capacities? I still lack knowledge in the ways of other worlds, Miss Etuva. Would you be able to teach me a little about the culture here?”

“I am glad to be of service. Being able to dine with one of the six Archbishops is almost too great an honor for any adherent to the faith.”

So the two state figures walked up to the order counter. Emi and Maou stood frozen in the dining space, unsure what to do, while Iwaki and Libicocco were still in the staff room. This left only Akiko manning the registers.

“M-may—may—may I help you?”

Maou and Emi had nothing but praise for the way Akiko managed to handle these two extremely atypical customers. In another few moments, the Archbishop and the palace enchanter were facing each other over a small table, working on their respective regular burgers, small fries, and small iced coffees—at 350 yen, one of the simplest combos.

It was a surreal sight, but impressively enough, everyone in the restaurant except for Maou, Emi, and Akiko quickly turned their attention elsewhere. The aura this pair emitted was like nothing any sane, decent couple would show, after all, and their clothing was beyond strange. But Mayumi Kisaki had drilled into everyone on staff that anyone who paid money to eat here was a customer, and Kotomi Iwaki’s crew had taken on that mandate.

Most of the employees no longer focused on the pair, seeing them as a bit uncommon but nothing more. The same was true of the other customers. Live long enough in Tokyo, and it wasn’t rare to see people with pretty eccentric tastes in their clothing. As long as they weren’t acting too far outside the norms of society, they were accepted as part of the diversity the world offered—one advantage of being in such an international city. Along those lines, it was Maou and Emi who were acting weird here, fully aware of what was going on.

Once they wrapped up their meal, Cervantes looked at the paper wrappers left on his tray and smiled a bit.

“You never know what you’ll experience in life, do you? That was quite an attractive meal, Miss Etuva.”

“I agree. This ‘MgRonald’ is one of the most renowned restaurants in this world. I am sure everyone at your headquarters would be equally appreciative.”

“I should hope so, yes. By the way, the currency from this nation I saw earlier…”

Emeralda stopped cold at the observation. The Japanese yen she had on her was borrowed from Emi, back during her stay on Earth before the whole heaven-invasion plan kicked off. With their meal costing seven hundred yen total, she had just three hundred of it left—a fact she kept a secret for now.

“Please, Father Reberiz, allow me the honor of providing an Archbishop with a free meal today.”

In other words, Emeralda was treating him, so stop bothering her about it.

“…I will gladly accept that, then.” Cervantes nodded, understanding what she meant and dropping the subject. “Indeed, I have my own business to settle presently, so please forgive me for taking my leave at this time. I shall repay the favor sometime.”

“Yes, of course.”

With that, Cervantes stood and walked straight for a very disheartened-looking Iwaki, now back on the floor and on duty. When she noticed all the majesty of his approaching figure, a look of desperation came to her face as she realized the fate awaiting her a minute or so from now.

“E-Eme…”

“It’s not going to end like thiiis, you know,” Emeralda told Emi as she watched the Archbishop go.

“…Huh?”

“She certainly has some pretty crazy ideas running through her head, doesn’t sheee? Honestly, I’m not much of a faaan. It’s straying rather farrr from our initial plans.”

“Y-you mean…?”

Emi recalled the other day, when Chiho had brought her MgRonald friends to the Northern Island for a quick trip.

“Does this have to do with the conference Chiho is chairing?”

“Do you think it doooesn’t?” came the slightly disgusted reply.

“Well, you say that,” Maou added, “but remember, we’re completely out of the loop, too! Neither Chi, nor Ashiya, nor Suzuno has told us anything. What the hell is going on?”

“Don’t give me that craaap,” Emeralda said, blowing off Maou’s complaints. “Yes, it was the plan all along to leave you two in Japaaan, but not informing you about something as important as thiiis makes no sense to me. All riiight? So listen.”

The truth, as Emeralda laid it out, was far more serious than either of them anticipated.

“The other day, Chief Dhin Dhem Wurs and Archbishop Crestia Bell released a secret communiqué signed by the both of them. It described their desire to hold a summit to address the rancor in the Central Continent and debate over the general future of the world. The missive included a full list of invitees. They included me, Rumack, Lord Cervantes, the Azure Emperor, and Chief Rajid Rahs Rian. And…”

The next moment, Maou and Emi almost fainted on the MgRonald floor.

“…the summit will be chaired by Great Demon General Chiho Sasaki of the Devil King’s Army. She signed the missive herself, in Japanese and everything. Am I making this clear to you? The fact that you can’t be left in the dark any longer?”

Emeralda’s severe eyes all but overwhelmed Maou and Emi.

“Chiho’s attempting to have us engineer this farce called the ‘Second Invasion’ of Devil’s Castle. A show the entire world will join in. She’s trying to create a stage where the Devil King’s Army and Ente Isla’s human forces settle matters without shedding a drop of blood. Only she would attempt such an insane, needle-threading endeavor.”

After Emeralda and Cervantes’s visit, dignitaries from across Ente Isla continued to stop by the Hatagaya Station MgRonald on practically a daily basis. In most cases, first a leader or someone correspondingly powerful would arrive; then a stream of aides would come along—not doing anything per se, but simply visiting the MgRonald, saying hello to Maou, Emi, and Iwaki, then leaving. As Emeralda put it, they wanted to keep watch over Emilia the Hero, making sure she didn’t get swayed into one faction or the other.

All this was conducted with perfect politeness. Nobody tried anything untoward, like the Eight Scarves of the past—if they did, they’d be denounced at the summit, and the names of the Azure Emperor, Rajid, and Cervantes apparently had enough force to keep them all in check.

With the Church calling for a Crusade, all sides could see the chaos threatening to unfold on the Central Continent. Everyone also knew that, should the Church use this “Crusade” to deploy knights across the continent, the Azure Emperor of Efzahan wouldn’t take that quietly. Both sides, of course, hoped to avoid the futility of an across-the-board clash; they just wanted to occupy the continent and reap the benefits. And now this summit was dropping into the middle of it all.

Dhin Dhem Wurs, heralded as the greatest chief herder to ever lead the Northern Island, oversaw a government whose power was acknowledged on the world stage. Neither East nor West wanted to make an enemy out of such an influential Northern figure. To the Church knight corps, the “Crusade” pretext meant they preferred keeping any casualties to an absolute minimum, and to the Eight Scarves, although they wanted to rule over the Central Continent someday, diving into a hasty invasion in the face of this Crusade would leave them ill-prepared.

As Emeralda explained, Chiho had declared this summit with the goal of avoiding excess bloodshed around the invasion of heaven—and this was being cased around the pretext of the “Second Invasion” of Devil’s Castle. This invasion was what Chiho was sharing with all the related parties; it let her create an environment where all the world’s top commanders could calm down and constructively work together—something that should benefit Maou and his cohorts on Earth. Otherwise, the Shiba family wouldn’t take this sitting down—they’d take it out on everyone involved, Maou included. To Maou, however, it felt like having to walk a tightrope he didn’t want anything to do with, in the middle of a dense fog. It was nothing that’d calm his fears at all.

For today, at least, the line of Ente Islan visitors ended with a bishop apparently under Cervantes’s command. By the time the shift wrapped up, both Maou and Emi were at the end of their mental ropes. They had, after all, put Iwaki, Kawata, and Akiko through the wringer all day. Iwaki brushed it off, saying, “It’s fine, I’m used to this,” but Maou and Emi both swore to themselves not to rely on her good graces. If someone involved with this summit decided to cause harm to MgRonald or anything around it, there’d be no way they could ever make up for that.

“…It hasn’t felt this way in a while, huh?” Emi said as they walked home after closing.

“What do you mean?”

“This…pins-and-needles feeling. Like you don’t even know what’s gonna happen an hour from now.”

“What, has anything that tense happened recently?”

She glared at Maou, who was walking his bicycle next to her. “I’m talking about right after we first met each other. In Sasazuka.”

Of course, ever since he started calling himself Sadao Maou, he hadn’t demonstrated any of the evil tyranny Emi had initially imagined. But—picturing how she must’ve felt at the time—there was no telling what the Devil King Satan might attempt. It must’ve cost her a lot of sleep in the beginning.

“…Well, thanks. Man, I’m hungry. Wonder what’s for dinner. Maybe it’s yakisoba again…”

And if that’s where she wanted to take the subject, Maou had to go hands-off with it fast. So he decided to imagine what Libicocco, who left work at ten PM earlier, might be cooking for him.

“But compared to then, at least I know I can go to bed in peace. So there’s that.”

“How do you know that? Think about what the Eight Scarves did to Ashiya and Rika Suzuki. Who knows what kind of crap they could pull right now…”

“I doubt it. I mean, think about it—ever since Eme and Cervantes showed up, we haven’t had more than one faction come visit at the same time, right? And nobody’s come knocking at our doors.”

“Yeah, true.”

“If I had to guess, someone’s probably regulating their coming and going. You said it yourself—Tiferet on Earth did something to you. I don’t know who’s serving as a go-between for everyone in Ente Isla, but I’m sure Ms. Shiba or Amane are helping regulate traffic, so to speak.”

“Well, I wish they’d stop pointing them at our workplace.”

“…I think this is better, actually. I feel bad for our coworkers, but…”

“What?”

“Like, if they came to your or my place, maybe whatever they’re worried about might actually happen, you know? One of us getting kidnapped, or something.”

“I wouldn’t let them.”

“That’s not the point. I’m not a hundred percent sure of this or anything…but when they get sent to MgRonald, they see us acting subservient to our manager. They see coworkers with the same social status as us.”

“…Oh.”

Come to think of it, Libicocco used similar wording to threaten that guy from the Church.

“So this arrangement limits their options, you know? If they try anything rash, they risk angering us—and for all they know, maybe there’s someone crazy powerful on our side in there. Any bets they make along those lines offer tons of risk and not much return.”

“Ah… Of course, I’m sure that makes Cervantes wonder even more what all this summit crap is about. Every other player in this game’s colluding with each other in one way or another, so I can see if they’re taking it slow.”

“But seeing him come along right after Eme… I have to hand it to her. If she let Cesar or Mauro come visit, it wouldn’t have turned out like that, I don’t think.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t know what any of them are really thinking apart from Suzuno, so…um, you know, it’s all the same to me.”

Maou paused for a moment, then sighed. There was no sound for a while, apart from the creaking of Dullahan II’s chain as it rotated around.

“Hmm… So did you give Bell an answer?”

“……………………Give me a break.”

He hoped Emi would let that pause slide. He was playing with the wrong girl.

“Isn’t that something you keep secret until it gets worked out? I mean, what’s that idiot even thinking?”

With Chiho, there wasn’t much he could do. But if you told someone you loved him and the guy immediately ran away without replying, that wasn’t the sort of thing he wanted to discuss on end afterward.

Emi, picking up on this, scowled. “Well, that’s a mean way to put it.”

“For a cleric, she sure ain’t shy about blabbing about it to everyone, apparently.”

“If something’s bothering a cleric, she’s obligated to confess it to someone.”

“Oh, yeah, go ahead, bring religion into it! Don’t make her the hero of this. What kind of life have you led if you think it’s okay for a cleric to react like that?”

The slightly incoherent ranting was followed by a sharp gaze thrown in Emi’s direction.

“When did she tell you? On the way back from Ente Isla with Ms. Kisaki and everyone?”

“Pretty much.”

“You sure sat on it for a while.”

“Well, I’ve had my hands full. Plus, this is totally different from you and Chiho.”

The pair began walking again as the light in front of them turned green.

“If you don’t mind me saying,” he continued, “that whole thing was an accident anyway. I dunno how much you heard, but I’ve got no interest in hearing you people whine at me about it.”

“Why are you acting so defensive? I’m not whining at you.”

Even so, Emi couldn’t help but smile a bit at Maou as he continued rattling off his grievances.

“But, you know,” she continued, “my first impression when I heard…”

“Quit it.”

“…was, you know, you’re really weak at the pivotal moment, aren’t you?”

“…Jerk.”

Emi couldn’t help but smile from ear to ear at Maou as he gritted his teeth.

“Devil King?”

“Shut up.”

“Someone’s there.”

“I know.”

It was on the other end of the Hatagaya darkness—on the Koshu-Kaido road, a well-trafficked street with ample illumination. Both of them could feel something out there, remorselessly watching them.

“They sure make a show out of taking action, huh? Did someone unrelated smell them out?”

“If so, they sure don’t seem too careful. Because I spotted them right out… Hmm? Huh? Whoa, wait…”

Suddenly, Emi stopped, frantically looking around. Then:

“N-no!”

A small, glowing light appeared in her chest, followed by a small, light pop, like a tiny balloon.

“E-Emi?! Was that Alas Ramus…?”

It was the sound Alas Ramus made whenever she manifested herself. It was getting close to midnight.

“Maybe her stomach hurts or something?”

“She… She sometimes cries a little at night, but hardly at all lately… Huh? Alas Ramus?” Emi’s voice shook in her confusion. “…Where are you?”

“What?”

The arms she usually held out to catch her manifested “daughter” seemed unusually light. It scared her. But it wasn’t until Maou noticed something solid clanking to her feet that he realized what was the matter.

“It… It’s just her clothing?”

All that was in Emi’s hands was the dress she’d put on the girl this morning.

At her feet were Alas Ramus’s favorite Relax-a-Bear water bottle, a bag of cookies, and another bag with a change of clothes for the child.

“H-how did you take her clothes off her? …Also, you can store stuff inside you, too?”

Maou was impressed, although now wasn’t the time for it. Emi, meanwhile, quickly turned pale.

“She’s gone… She’s not here!”

“Huh?”

“Alas Ramus is the only thing not here! She had her clothes and that bottle on her!”

“…What? You sure she didn’t tear her clothes off while she was sleeping or something?”

Emi couldn’t say if that was possible in her fused state, but she shook her head at Maou, who was still concerning himself with irrelevant matters.

“I’d know if she was fused with me! You can, too, right?! Alas Ramus?! Alas Ramus, where are you?!”

Emi searched for the little girl, who was nowhere in sight. Whoever was watching her a moment ago was no longer on her mind.

“Ch-chill a second. Just fuse back with her…”

“I’m trying to! I can’t!”

“Shit, really?”

Now Maou was finally understanding the weight of the situation. He picked up the bottle and clothing bag as he looked around. There was no way Alas Ramus could ever be lost. But Emi wasn’t agitated simply because something unexpected had happened.

“Oh, no… Did she do something…?!”

She recalled how it felt when Alas Ramus was taken from her arms. It happened deep beneath the demon realms, where she attempted to fend off a strange foe in a space suit and failed. Sephirah were capable of undoing fused states if they were touching each other. Emi felt connected to her at the core, something that brought an absolute sort of comfort to her—and now that, along with Emi’s heart, was brutally shaken.

“…Mm?”

Then Maou noticed something.

“Emi! Calm down! It’s still all right!”

“What’s all right?! Devil King! Let’s split up and—”

“You can still try to merge with her, right? That means you’re still connected!”

“…!”

That calmed her, if only a little bit.

“She hasn’t been taken or anything. Alas Ramus’s consciousness is still connected to yours. I know we never imagined this…but she really is just lost, out there somewhere!”

“You…you think so?”

“That’s the only explanation! Just use an Idea Link or whatever else you can think of to grab her attention! I’ll wake up Nord and Amane and have them help look for her! …Damn, if only Ashiya or Suzuno were around!”

Maou whipped out his phone as he griped to himself. Emi, watching him, wiped her teary eyes, took a deep breath, and mentally reset her mind.

“…Alas Ramus, where did you go?!”

No answer. She was nowhere to be seen. But they were still connected.

“Devil King! I’m gonna go scope out the vicinity!”

“Okay! I’ll…” Maou looked around, confirming that Alas Ramus was nowhere within sight. Then he turned toward the presence they felt before. “I’ll go chase after that Peeping Tom!”

“All right.”

Someone was still watching them—a figure that may just be involved in this.

He focused on that presence as he called Nord and gave him the rundown. “Hello? Sorry I’m calling so late! We got an emergency! I can’t say for sure, but she may be trying to walk to the apartment building, so keep an eye out! …Okay. Now for Amane…”

Fresh off the phone with Nord, he brought up his directory again to call up Amane—

“Whoa!”

But then Amane called him instead, making his eyes go wide.

“Hello, Amane? We actually got some trouble right now… Huh?”

Maou couldn’t understand what he was being told at first. But if she called him to say it, it couldn’t have been meaningless.

“Hey, Emi!” he shouted, as she ran off in the opposite direction.

“What?”

“Hang on! She’s over there!”

“…Huh?!”

“Alas Ramus is there!”

“Wh-where?!”

She came thundering back to Maou, who looked incredulous himself as he pointed at the phone glued to his ear.

“…She’s sleeping with Acieth at my landlord’s place.”

And not even Emi had anything to counter that with.

It was one in the morning as a haggard-looking Maou and Emi watched Alas Ramus sleep in Acieth’s bed, the sound of Acieth enjoying a midnight snack in the background. Having her show up without any clothing worried them, but for some reason, she had a yellow dress on now—one Emi thought she had stored in a clothes drawer in her apartment.

None of this made sense, but regardless, Emi sat on the floor, filled with relief that the little girl was safe. Maou, for his part, felt tormented. He hated going to Shiba’s house in the first place, but the idea that unknown Earth Sephirah might be lying in wait for him inside worried him. They never did chase down that weird presence; it had been gone by the time they’d reached the Shiba residence.

“Wow, Maou, you look the very sick!”

“I feel very sick. In more ways than one.”

“Oh yeah?”

“How are you not getting an upset stomach?”

“I dunno.”

Leaving the nonchalant Acieth behind, Maou and Emi turned to Amane, herself looking troubled.

“Well, it sounds like you’ve had a busy night, but we were all scared outta our wits here, lemme tell ya,” Amane said. “This super-bright light poured out of the room, and I thought, y’know, maybe this was it—maybe Acieth was finally gonna explode.”

“That is the very rude, Amane!”

No one could blame Amane. Acieth was away from her peak, but even now, she was still working her way through thirty rice balls overnight, and any hunger pangs immediately brought out death rays from her face. She was able to sleep at night, apparently, because they let her use the room she usually crashed in whenever she stayed at Shiba’s house, but the damage on the walls was in plain sight for all to see.

“So, Amane…,” Maou began.

“Hmm?”

“What’s going on?”

“Well, that’s not really the right question. Shouldn’t it be more like ‘What do you think’s going on?’”

“I have a lot of other things I want to ask about, so…”

Maou’s firmness made Amane size up everyone in the room.

“Well, I am sorry we haven’t been in contact much lately,” she said.

“That’s not what I’m talking about.”

“Now hear me out. The whole thing with Chiho earlier might have something to do with Acieth right now. That, and why Alas Ramus is doing something she’s never done before.”

“Amane, what do you know?” Emi asked, voice stricken with grief.

Amane frowned deeply. “Let me just say, it’s not like we know anything, either. We’re making suppositions based on past experience, but there’s no guarantee we’re right. That’s why we had Uncle George come over, since he happened to be available.”

“Uncle George?”

“You met him, didn’t you, Maou? He’s my uncle. Or maybe you’d know him better as the Tiferet of Earth?”

“Ah!”

Maou recalled the blond-haired man who had used some…method to stop him from storming into Shiba’s house the day before Chiho and Suzuno went all haywire.

“That bastard… Was that him just now, too…?”

He found it all quite distasteful, but was that the presence he’d felt? Not murderous or hostile—just kind of there, dogging Maou around his neighborhood but never trying to make contact? Was that fishy-looking guy behind it?

“I’ll leave that to your imagination,” Amane said, seeming to read Maou’s mind. “But as for this, I don’t know if it’s a good change or a bad one. Aunt Mikitty thinks it’s a good one, but now Chiho’s involved with this, and she’s a human from our world. We can’t say anything careless to her, and to be honest, there’s a lot I just don’t know. Binah’s my dad, after all, not me.”

“Listen,” Emi said, “I’m not asking you about all the great mysteries of the world or anything. I’m just worried about Alas Ramus.”

“I hear you.” Amane nodded. “So just listen to me. What did Chiho try to do? What happened as a result, and what will happen? What’s the deal with Acieth, and with Alas Ramus just now? …Well, at this point, I doubt Alas Ramus will wake up at all tonight, so…”

She beckoned Maou and Emi to follow her out of the room.

“Let’s talk over some tea in the living room, huh? And I think you’ll want to be sitting down for it, so… Acieth, can you take care of your big sister for me?”

“You got it! On job now!”

Proceeding down a dim hallway, the two of them sat down on a sofa in a living room decked out in thick, clashing colors and patterns. Amane broke out some teacups, a thermos full of hot water, and a set of store-brand teabags. “It’s late and all,” she apologized, as she prepared two cups of tea for them both.

“So as for why Chiho tried doing what she did… Well, there a lot of factors, but first, I want to ask you two something.”

“Yes?”

“What is it…?”

“Do you remember back when Urushihara unleashed his attack on Sasazuka?”

“Huh?”

“Well, sure…”

It was an incident they’d never forget—Urushihara, instigated by Olba, launching a full-blown terror attack on Japan in order to kill Maou and Emi. They mulled over it a little.

“And…that’s when she learned about Ente Isla. That I’m the Hero, and he’s the Devil King?”

“Mmm, you’re close.”

“Yeah, and back then, my default plan was to erase the memories of anyone who found out about us.”

“Ah, getting colder now.”

“…So what is it?”

Amane nodded to herself, placed her cup down…

“You know, when you join adulthood, it gets really hard to make friends.”

…then bounded off into another tangent.

“I mean, you can make acquaintances really easily, right? At work, or in your private life. But once you start making your own money and learn a little more about the world, it gets overwhelmingly harder to make friends than back in childhood.”

Was this some kind of metaphor? As they gave her befuddled stares, Amane asked them an even more confusing question.

“For example… Well, how much do you make a year, Maou?”

“Huh?!”

It was an astoundingly sudden thing to ask.

“Wh-where did that come from?!”

“Don’t want me to ask you? You worked an entire year last year, right?”

“It, it’s not that, but… I mean, I can tell you, but…”

“By the way,” Amane added, “I made a little less than three million yen last year, I think.”

“Oh, please, don’t tell me…”

Talking about one’s salary was always a delicate subject for grown-ups.

“But…yeah, sounds like you have trouble saying it. So let me ask you instead, Yusa…”

“Y-yes?”

“Have you ever had a boyfriend before?”

“Huhh?!”

“Like, any of the boys back in your village? Did you ever say you loved someone, or vice versa?”

“N-no! Nothing at all like that! Why are you asking that out of nowhere?!”

“Mmm, yeah, sounds like you’re telling the truth. By the time I was your age, Yusa, I probably had three or so boys say that to me, but…”

It was nothing anyone in the room needed to know…and besides, it was just as delicate a topic to explore. The two of them shuddered to think what Amane may ask next…but as they did, she changed the subject again.

“So can you talk to your adult friends about either of those things?”

““I…It’s not impossible, but…,”” they both said.

Topics like money and romance are double-edged swords, great ways to chisel cracks in any human relationship. But they still had no idea how that connected to Chiho’s behavior.

“But I’m sure Chiho and her friends talk about this stuff, don’t they?”

“What do you mean?”

“Like, how much money they got over the holiday season, or how much their allowance is, or what they made off their part-time jobs. They talk about that all the time, even if they’re not particularly close friends at all. Girls gossip with each other about who’s been seen with which guy—they get all giggly over this stuff grown women would never talk about…although I guess guys do, huh? Even after graduating from college. Like, there’s always one guy who brags about how much he won in pachinko or horse racing, or brings up the average salaries of this or that company…”

Amane winced a bit, as if recalling a bad memory. Then she shook it off, looking back at Maou and Emi.

“But, you know, we usually stop talking about that stuff pretty early on in life, and we stop asking about it. That makes it easier to build relationships, and honestly, it’s nothing we need to know anyway. But that’s exactly the kind of stuff you talked about with Chiho. You built this special kind of relationship, based on secrets you wouldn’t normally tell other people. Turn that around, and you’re all friends who can tell each other anything, no matter what. And…you know, maybe you haven’t lived in Japan long enough to understand this, but it’s kind of miraculous. All the money in the world wouldn’t buy that. Sometimes you can live your whole life without running into anyone like that. And Chiho…”

Amane looked at Maou, Emi, and then Villa Rosa Sasazuka, visible through the living-room window.

“…You know, Chiho’s been having dinner with people like that all the time.”

“…!”

“You guys never erased Chiho’s memory. And I’ve always been thinking about why, and the only reason I can think of is because you wanted Chiho to remember both of you. You saw Chiho as someone special, and you treated her that way. I’m sure she picked up on that, and you know how much she has the hots for you, right, Maou? That’s bound to make you real happy, isn’t it?”

“What exactly do you mean by ‘the hots’?”

Maou couldn’t help but harp on Amane’s choice of words.

“But, again, turn that around, and it also means you’ve been pushing your own agenda on her. You know what I mean? You put all these deep, heavy secrets on the mind of a child.”

“I…I have regretted that, yes,” Emi said. “But Chiho accepted that, and now that we’ve been relying on her for so long… Was that why?”

“Well, sure, I know she’s really important to you. You cared for her, in your own kinda way. And Chiho was just trying to do the same to you. The whole thing.”

“…What do you mean?”

“Chiho really loves you guys. You’re incredibly precious to her. Not just you, Maou, but Yusa and Ashiya and Kamazuki and Urushihara—the idea of never seeing any of you again is something she wants to avoid at all costs. You built this relationship with her where you don’t have to hide your true selves, and she built a relationship with you where she doesn’t have to hide her desire to be around you forever. Although I guess it was Kamazuki who triggered that…”

“Bell?”

“…!”

Emi’s eyes opened wide in surprise. Maou’s body tensed up, watching Emi with just her eyes. Amane, noticing this, grinned.

“And you knoooow, I wondered why someone as impassive as Kamazuki would go so far out of her way to help Chiho again like that. Right? Not that I’d ever know…”

Like hell you don’t, Maou thought. He was sure of it. And Suzuno’s loose lips made him want to scream out loud all over again, no matter who was with him.

“But it sounds like Chiho, you know, thought that you’d all have to leave Japan once you defeat God and help the Sephirah out.”

“That…”

That’s not true, Emi was about to say, but she quickly fell silent. Things in Ente Isla might be even more unstable right now than back when the Devil King’s Army appeared. This was chiefly thanks to the Church’s Crusade, but even ignoring that, the invasion of heaven brought along with it the potential powder keg of demons permanently residing on the planet. The Central Continent was already alive with conflict over who was contributing the most to its rebuilding, and Efzahan was far from the only nation with designs upon expanding their territory.

Would Maou and everyone be able to live in Japan like before once their invasion was over? No. That could never happen. Maou and Ashiya would have to run around handling the demons settling worldwide—and since Urushihara was physically incapable of caring for himself, he couldn’t stay in Japan, either. Suzuno and Emeralda, as some of the precious few arbitrators who could work between humans and demons, would have to go fulfill that role as well. And as for Emi and Alas Ramus…

“Yusa, if someone told you to choose between Chiho or Alas Ramus, which one would you pick?”

The question was beyond malicious. Alas Ramus wasn’t connected to Emi by blood. But still…

“Chiho, you know, is aware of everything you’re dealing with. All of it. And she’s trying so hard to match up your hopes, and your roles, with her own hopes. She’s trying to pull you all into this world where you solve all of Ente Isla’s problems peacefully and she can have dinner with you guys anytime she wants. I get reports in from Ashiya and Kamazuki and Emeralda regularly, but she’s working crazy hard with all these dignitaries over there.”

Amane turned to Maou, looking deadly serious.

“Maou, I’m sorry if I’m being too pushy, but you’re never gonna find another kid as well-put-together as her—no matter how hard you look. So if you just keep bumping along like you are now, she’s gonna see how shallow you are, and she’s gonna dump you like yesterday’s news, okay?”

“Dump me? I…”

“And this is exactly why you can’t even deal with Kamazuki, either!”

Maou winced, despite claiming to know nothing about her three minutes earlier.

Even Emi didn’t seem to see it coming. “You didn’t do something to Bell, did you?” she asked, side-eyeing him.

“I—I didn’t do anything,” Maou replied weakly.

“Oh, right, yeah,” Amane said, tone thick with judgment. “It’s more what was done to him, right? Not that Maou himself can do anything…”

“Amane, you’re pushing my buttons here!”

He had to raise his voice, not wanting Emi to know about any more of this. But it just mired him deeper in the swamp. Emi was still giving him looks; it was easy to imagine that she still doubted him.

“Well…I mean, I know why Chi did what she did. I really do. And I can appreciate how we’re partly to blame for that. It’s not like we told her to never tell anyone, either.”

“Right, yeah. And I don’t think I said that to Rika, either.”

Nobody would believe their stories anyway—if all they did was tell them about it. That piece of insurance was what got them this far…and that made Maou think of something.

“Ah…”

“Huh?”

“…Oh, right… I never apologized to Chi’s mom.”

“…Ah!” Emi gasped.

“This…is bad, isn’t it? Ms. Kisaki’s one thing, but Chi, you know… Oh, no… We really screwed up.”

“R-right, yeah. Chiho and her mother are probably back in Japan, too, besides—we just haven’t seen them, is all. We really need to apologize to her parents…”

Now Maou and Emi were just as pale as the moment they lost Alas Ramus. Amane watched them, feeling a sort of pity.

This problem went beyond just exposing Chiho to danger multiple times. Maou and Emi, acting like sensible, decent people, had made a high school student engage in behavior that went well beyond the scope of regular life. That trip to Choshi where they met Amane was a particular issue, no doubt—Chiho’s mom let her go because she believed Emi and Suzuno were sane members of society. Pretending Maou was just another dude, hiding his Devil King roots and letting Chiho visit his apartment regularly (even if she wanted to)—that was far from commendable behavior, no matter how you sliced it.

“That and she fed me, she introduced me to MgRonald,” Emi continued, “…and look at me…”

Maou owed a debt to Chiho’s father as well; one he couldn’t reveal to anybody. But he couldn’t bring that up here.

“And we told a lot of lies about Alas Ramus, too,” Emi said. “I can’t count the number of times Chiho watched her for me. And I’m sure she told a lot of fibs to cover for that as well…”

“Funny to see the Hero and Devil King fretting over the same thing,” Amane commented.

Neither of them were laughing. Then Amane decided to give the distressed couple even crueler news.

“Well, I’m sorry to spring this on you when you’re worried about how dishonest you were with Chiho’s mom, but we’re not done talking yet. So about Alas Ramus…”

“…Huh?”

“Acieth’s massive appetite, you know, and Alas Ramus mucking up the separation from your body…I think it’s a sign that the Sephirah are about to go out of whack, the way Erone did before.”

“Just a sign? Like it hasn’t really happened yet?”

So eating sixty rice balls in a sitting wasn’t going berserk enough? It was merely a sign of something yet to come?

“But it’s not just because they’ve been separated from the world for so long, the way Erone was. It kind of has to do with what Chiho’s doing right now. This was something Uncle George said, but…”

“Huh?”

Neither of them could fathom what Chiho had to do with the Sephirah breaking down.

“The Yesod, and also Malkuth, are particularly sensitive to the workings of mankind. They’re represented by the astral and physical elements, too, so…”

“Um…”

“And then Ente Isla’s Yesod shattered for whatever reason, and it created two beings—Alas Ramus and Acieth. I think what we have here are two people dividing up the burden that the full Yesod should be bearing. Which, you know, is fine. They both have their own circumstances and all…”

Amane paused. Given how freely she was speaking earlier, she now seemed oddly reluctant to continue.

“Right now, the top mission behind what Chiho’s trying to do in Ente Isla is based on her not wanting to let you guys go. Now, as a side effect, that could lead to peace on that other world, and humans and demons bonding together across species and so on. But now Alas Ramus and Acieth are getting affected by it, and based on the role they play within Ente Isla’s Sephirah, the vital elements involved with the human nature inside them are starting to come strongly to the surface. In the case of Acieth, that manifests itself in eating a lot.”

““It’s more than a lot.””

The two of them were growing adept at lashing back in chorus.

“Well, think about Acieth up to now. She’s just a fragment, you know, and she’s been stuck with Nord here in Japan for a really long time. If you picture this as something she’s been storing up for years coming out all at once, it starts not seeming so strange.”

“It’s still pretty strange…”

“When you live in Japan, you know, you lose sight of just how hard it can be to keep your stomach full.”

Amane flashed a triumphant smile.

“So, you know, Acieth we can handle. The real problem is Alas Ramus—for you guys, and for Chiho, too. Acieth’s taking care of the part of the Yesod that’s fulfilled by keeping her stomach full. But what’s Alas Ramus responsible for? Well, based on her body and apparent age, I think it can make sense, but…”

With a grin that was conflicted if not quite strained, Amane looked at Emi.

“Have you guys not been able to give Alas Ramus much attention lately?”

“Huh? I…”

Emi was about say that wasn’t true before stopping.

“You know…Bell and Eme and Alciel have been gone, so it’s been hard to find much time to play with her. And my father’s been focused on Acieth the whole time, too. So she’s inside me the whole time I’m working…”

“What about the last time you went to Ente Isla?” Maou asked.

“We were all busy dealing with Kinanna, so I couldn’t play with her much at all…”

“Well, Chiho’s trying to bring peace to everyone in Ente Isla, and I think that’s having a huge impact on Alas Ramus, you know? She’s just a fragment, and she was alone for one heck of a long time, wasn’t she? And now you guys are in the middle of all this uncertainty. I think that’s a good way to stress out any young child.”

“…All right,” an impatient Maou said. “Level with me here. If Acieth’s got a huge appetite, we can feed her and that solves it. But what’re we gonna do about whatever’s about to happen to Alas Ramus?”

“Well,” Amane said, “brace yourself for this. A human, you know—especially a child—can’t be kept starving for long. That’s being literally personified with Acieth right now. So why do you think Alas Ramus is doing something to make Mommy and Daddy worry? Or did something, I should say?”

“Did something…? So separating out from me like that… Did she do that on purpose…?”

“She’s seeking Mommy and Daddy’s attention. She wants you to look at her more. She wants to feel all the overflowing love her parents can give her, no matter how much it is. That’s why she’s doing weird things like this.”

“Ah…”

“And you two, Maou and Yusa, are the only people who can solve that problem. I hate to break it to Chiho and Kamazuki, but they’re gonna have to step away.”

Then, at that moment, Maou felt a dull foreboding deep inside his core. A sense that he was surrounded by issues he had no clue how to deal with, and now an even more sinister nightmare was careening toward him. Amane, meanwhile, just stared at them, looking almost sadistic.

“Maou… Yusa…”

The order she was about to give was like a death condemnation echoing from another world, a place that made hell seem like a pleasantly warm bath.

“You two need to live under the same roof.”

““……””

The screaming that erupted from the man and woman in the room did nothing to disrupt the slumber of the Yesod sisters sleeping in the house.

“Chiho! You have a moment?”

“Uh-huh!”

Chiho looked up from her desk and turned around to face the caller at her door.

“Busy with more of that studying of yours?”

Visiting her, inside this chamber a good five times the size of her bedroom back home, was Dhin Dhem Wurs, a piece of parchment in her hand.

“You don’t have to do that, ya know. You’ve stood up for yourself on the job here well enough, haven’t you?”

“That’s about as unrealistic as asking you to leave your job and enjoy retirement over in Japan.”

Wurs, who was rating Chiho’s talents about a hundred times greater than Chiho herself would, had been visiting her frequently during her stays in Ente Isla, trying every trick in the book to recruit her. Her inexhaustible obstinacy reminded Chiho of Sariel in many ways, but she had learned well how to sidestep her advances.

“You’re going home tomorrow morning, ain’t ya? I packed a souvenir along with your papers. Go enjoy them with your mother.”

“Thank you very much.”

The official Northern Island mission in the city of Noza Quartus was currently undergoing preparations for the upcoming international summit, a full legion of the Mountain Corps providing security.

“Were you returning to Phiyenci after this?”

“That’s a lot to ask from these old bones. ’Course, I know I’m pushing a lot on you already…but I’m here for more than a cup o’ tea with you today. I have some rather bizarre news for you.”

“Bizarre…?”

“Bell was beside herself with it. She said there was an emergency over in Japan.”

“You didn’t read the letter?”

Chiho was staying here in the mission, with Wurs’s blessings—but since Wurs was participating in the summit, Chiho had to treat her the same as everyone else involved.

“Nah, well, I had a look.”

A questioning look emerged from Wurs’s wrinkled face as she handed Chiho the letter.

“You know, I didn’t think it was about anything in particular, really. Bell’s part of the summit, too, so it’s not like she could be in close contact with you, sort o’ thing. And when I said Bell was beside herself, I just meant that’s how her messenger seemed to me, y’know.”

“Oh…”

Wurs was in no hurry to get her point across, but Chiho accepted the letter anyway.

“And this was written by Suzuno?”

“Well, the news was sent from someone in Japan, anyway, but…you know, if you ask me, is it really that worth letting you know about? That’s what I say.”

Since she’d begun visiting Ente Isla on the regular, Chiho had learned how to handle parchment paper like this, something she had a lot of exposure to here. She gave it a quick read, and:

“Aaahhhhhhhhhhhh…”

She let out a sigh, long and loud, like she was blowing away all the exhaustion built up over the past day.

“Amane…why did you do that…? And why is Suzuno in a panic about it at this point?”

“Hmm?”

“Ahhh… Now I don’t want to go back tomorrow.”

“But don’t you have a lot to return to? Your school, and your ‘prep center,’ and your ‘club sports’ or whatnot?”

“I do, but… But I don’t want to run into any of them and make them think I hurried back for this reason.”

“Huh?”

“…But all right. At least I know Ente Isla’s holding on to peace well enough that Amane can tell Suzuno about it without any huge problem. If barely.”

“What would Bell be concerned about?”

“Allow me to keep that a secret…for the sake of her dignity. I don’t think it’s that devastating or anything, no. Ahhh…”

With another sigh, Chiho looked out the chamber window. Noza Quartus was a big city, but there were still dozens of times more stars in the sky than she’d ever see in Tokyo. They looked beautiful to her.

“I’m sure this is gonna freak everyone out a little, though… Hmm?”

Then something small, from the back of her mind, caught her attention.

“Under the same roof… Under the same roof… Together, together…”

“What is it, Chiho? You have a stomachache or something?”

Chiho smiled at the very grandmotherly concern, shaking her head. Then she exclaimed, “Stomach… Wait! That’s it!”

“Hmm?”

“Listen, can I ask you a favor?”

As a rule, Dhin Dhem Wurs was extremely indulgent with Chiho. She accepted most of her requests, unless they were totally beyond the pale—and this request, too, was a piece of cake for her.

“…As long as we can get everything arranged—this is under the pretext of Noza Quartus hosting, of course, with me as an assistant—this could become rather interesting, yes!”

The proposal uncharacteristically surprised Wurs at first, but she quickly gave it a satisfied nod.

“All right. I’ll talk matters over with Arvaim and try to get as much as I can for you.”

“Thank you very much! If you’re missing anything, I can buy it for you, so!”

“Of course! Now this is getting fun!”