Hataraku Maou-sama! - Volume 20 - Chapter Ep

THE AFTERSTORY

The wet sound of footsteps passing through mud and weeds echoed through the gloomy mist of the forest. There were the sounds of metal scraping against metal, hoofbeats, the occasional whinny or cough. They dissipated into the sky the fog concealed; all anyone could tell was that sunrise would come soon.

They were a force of ten thousand knights, all dressed and armored differently. They consisted of a Church corps bearing the flag of the Crusade; a legion of Inlain Jade and Inlain Crimson Scarves, wearing armbands with their respective colors; a force from the Western Island bearing emblems from the Federated Order; and a few Northern Island Mountain Corps men with their own unique equipment. None of them spoke; their eyes were turned downward, and detectable in their breathing was a tremor unbefitting these large, stout men.

“Behold,” someone whispered. The people around him timidly looked up. There they saw the sharpened edge that seemed to stab into the dimly lit sky—the pinnacle of Devil’s Castle, the headquarters of the Devil King’s Army that had terrorized all of Ente Isla just a few years ago.

Someone gulped nervously, a vivid expression of the fear in everyone’s hearts. Each of these knights had their own motivations, their own senses of honor that brought them here. They wanted to exterminate this new threat, this new terror from the Central Continent, and thus they were here. But those who survived the last assault on Devil’s Castle, led by Emilia, spoke frankly of the intensity, the cruelty of that struggle—tales that were still related to this day. Some who took part in that were no doubt among the ten thousand here right now.

Every one of them imagined a nightmare ahead, unleashed by countless thousands of demons all at once from the top edge of that mist-shrouded edifice. But…there was nothing. Nothing apart from the lofty precipice of Devil’s Castle. The sounds of nature were around them—insects and birds, wild animals sensed among them and heard in the wind. The castle’s miasma wasn’t fatal to them.

There was nothing. Nothing happened. This, once more, was the world of humans.

The sun edged up from the horizon and extended its warm arms out, as if to support the hearts of the knights as they rejoiced at still being in a human world. But just as a sense of relief reigned over the throng of ten thousand, the warm sun and wind cleared the fog a little.

“…Look at that.”

One of them noticed what was amiss, even as the ground seemed to rumble. The knights, relaxing in their relief, were suddenly startled out of their respite.

No one could blame them—what they saw would surprise anyone.

And what they saw was that the enormous Devil’s Castle, all but piercing into the sky, was now shaking from top to bottom.

In an instant, the sun cleared out the mist, revealing the majestic castle on the other side of the veil. The sight scared the ten thousand out of their wits.

Smoke poured out from the base of the castle, shaking the ground—and in another moment, the edifice itself began to rise up. The performance shook the heavens, the earth, and the petrified souls of all who saw it. In the midst of it, a divine light as bright as the sun itself shot out from the top, transfixing everyone in the expedition team.

It’s the Hero, someone said. Emilia. Is it an illusion? It’s her. I’ve seen her before. That’s no illusion.

“The Hero Emilia!!”

“Brave knights of the world, gathered in the Central Continent!!”

Emilia’s voice beat powerfully, convincingly, against the eardrums of all on the ground. The voice of the young Hero who’d once saved the world came equally loudly to all ten thousand of them.

“From this moment forward, the battle moves on to the divine realm. I command you to tell the world! The Devil King has penetrated into the heavens, attempting to make good his escape. But I will never let him flee! Please, all of you, watch as I do battle! May the world be united in peace, and may a new evil never be born bin…ah, be born in this world!”

The fact she tripped over herself a bit in the end was a petty trifle compared to the sight before them. Out of all ten thousand fighters who heard her speech, only one thought to laugh at that stumble. All anyone else could do was watch as Devil’s Castle propelled itself upward, sucked into the sky.

“I am Emilia the Hero! And no matter how the world may change, that alone shall remain ever true!!”

With that clarion call, the girl with red eyes and silvery blue hair, surrounded by holy force, raised her right arm high. The Better Half was in her hand, a name even now whispered among the knights—the sword of the Hero, one whose holy force had smitten armies of demons.

“Devil King! Prepare to die!!”

“…………………………Wow, cool, Mommy………”

The light of the Hero now chased after Devil’s Castle as it ascended upward—and in the face of that roaring, that shocking sight before them, nobody was going to remember the faint voice of a little girl that was mixed in. All they could do was stand and gape at the true-blue miracle that just occurred before them.

“…Brave men guided by God! We have just witnessed a miracle!”

The strong voice brought the crowd back to reality. Just one person out of them—the one who noticed the Hero’s slip of the tongue and almost burst out laughing—sent her mount forward, robes flapping in the air as she made a bold declaration, her voice almost too commanding for her small stature.

“Knights of the world, you have come from different walks of life, uniting your forces together…and now you have witnessed this! Truly, the guh…the guidance of God is upon us!”

The Archbishop leading the expedition team paused for a minute at “guidance of God,” wondering if that phrase was getting repeated too much. But she decided to just let the mood of the crowd take her.

“We will not let the Hero Emilia’s miracle go to waste! Now! Time for a triumphant return! We must bring this miracle to the world!”

The agitated knights roared their approval—a roar that echoed across Ente Isla. Dawn was now breaking for all mankind, all across the planet, as one among the ten thousand described it with his spear thrust over his head, and the stories that spread worldwide would grow to call it the “Day of the Dawn.”

Now, a new morning had come to Ente Isla.

“I’m sooooooooooo tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiired…”

On the day of the resolution, when Chiho all but escaped back to Japan from the summit, she tossed her bag away and fell into bed, not even bothering to change.

“…The zirga…was so much easier…”

Being asked to serve as chairman of a summit in another world was all fine and good, but now she thought this was nothing she could’ve taken on by herself. Everyone was thinking far too much of her, and Dhin Dhem Wurs was probably worst among them all. Wurs’s pressure was one of the main reasons she’d taken the job in the first place.

But even after Ashiya and Farfarello explained things to her, she remained dissatisfied. What would being okay with a bow and arrow have to do with running a high-level conference without any mistakes? Wurs suggested her for different reasons, of course, but Chiho wasn’t made aware of that, and if she was, she wouldn’t have believed it anyway. As Wurs put it, she didn’t pick her because of her position or abilities—it was strictly her pluck.

“……”

Either way, though, now she was completely hands-off with the invasion of heaven. From now forward, nothing would happen that’d require Chiho’s powers to solve.

“Well…I hope this launches Devil’s Castle… That just leaves the invasion… The release of the Sephirah… The transfer of all those demons…? Nah, I’m sure Ashiya will lead that front. Not like most demons besides Farlo’s tribe would accept me as a Great Demon General anyway… Ah, but aren’t they stopping by the demon realms, too? Acieth and Alas Ramus still aren’t stable yet. What were we gonna do about that…?”

Her mind was spinning, like she had a fever. Her role in it was over, but she had no capacity to think about her exams today.

“………Maou………”

She had no leeway at all.

“I……have no regrets.”

She thought it was a cowardly move. But while she might’ve been pushed by her pride as a successful chairman, she did what she did with absolute confidence.

“…It’s all Maou’s fault anyway…”

Lying facedown on the bed, she cursed the image of Maou’s face that danced behind her eyelids.

“You keep postponing the problem, so then this happens.”

Maou looking troubled. Maou looking surprised. In a way, she’d anticipated all of it. That’s why, this time, her heart wasn’t racing at all.

“Hahhh!!”

Running out of breath, Chiho lifted her head up. Swinging her legs off the bed, she rifled through her bag. She took a small box out from it, opened it, and placed it on her desk. Inside was the ring made from the Yesod fragment. It had come through for her again this time, but thinking about the future, she wasn’t sure she could hold on to this forever. This was a Yesod fragment—a part of Alas Ramus and Acieth.

“When I give this back, it really will be over, won’t it?”

The words surprised her as they escaped her lips. What would be over? The war? The fighting between the Devil King and Hero? Or…

“No, it’s not gonna be over. That’s what the summit was for. It’s what the invasion is for.”

Once this war ended, holy energy would slowly dissipate from Ente Isla. That spelled the end for the planet’s Gate magic. It wouldn’t happen instantly, but as time wore on, it’d be harder and harder to travel between planets.

“I don’t want this to end…just for me.”

Out of all the people who sat around the table in Room 201 of Villa Rosa Sasazuka, Chiho was the only one from Earth. Everyone else’s homes were far, far away in space.

“…I’ll never let that happen…after how hard I worked.”

Alas Ramus and Acieth weren’t even from Ente Isla. The angel’s feather pen was made from an archangel’s feather. If the angels lost their power, would it keep on working?

“No matter what…I’m never…gonna let it end.”

In the dimming bedroom, Chiho brought a finger to her lips.

“It’s all right. That’s not going to happen,” someone said.

“Gahh?!” The presence of a third party in the room made her jump into the air. “Huh? Huh, ah, ah, who…?”

“I understand your concern, and it’s not gonna be a free ride like before, I don’t think. But there are ways.”

Chiho was confused. This was her bedroom, but someone knew it belonged to her—someone who should never be in here. It made her feel panicked, even endangered. She reeled back in her bed, back against the wall.

“Wh-wh-what are you doing here, Urushihara?!”

How long had he been there? Hanzou Urushihara was standing right in the middle of Chiho’s room.

“I’ve been here the whole time, duh.”

“D-don’t lie to me! It was empty when I came in…!”

“No it wasn’t. And it’s not just when you came in. Really, I’ve been together with you for months now.”

“Urushihara, you really have to stop playing with me… Urushihara?”

That arrogant voice; that way of speaking. His stature; his appearance—it was all exactly how Chiho remembered him. But something was off here. Not even Urushihara would go barging into Chiho’s room without warning, would he? And why would he even think to visit in the first place? He barely left his own room…

“Oh, I’ve been going out lately, y’know. I’ve been working. But that’s not the issue!”

Chiho’s mind and mouth stalled on her, before she finally asked the most fundamental of questions.

“You’re…Urushihara, right?”

It was definitely his face, his body, his voice. But it didn’t seem right—the atmosphere was off; that was the only way to put it. He didn’t have that sneer on his face, and it seemed like he was being a lot less elusive with his speech. But his clothes were about the same as always. So did Urushihara really illegally sneak into a room that Chiho hadn’t even invited Maou into yet?

But as she thought this far, Urushihara winced.

“Dude, that’s mean…”

“Huh?”

“…You know…that.”

“That… Wait, what?!”

Was he reading her mind? If so, this made even less sense.

“Y-you’re not angry?”

“No… I mean, this is all weird, isn’t it? First off, how’d you know I was reading your mind just now?”

“You kind of are, aren’t you? I could tell.”

“…Oh. Yeah, sorry. Having your mind read ain’t gonna surprise you at this point, huh?”

“No, but…”

“Well…yeah, it’s about what you imagine. I’m not the shiftless, jobless ‘Hanzou Urushihara’ you know.”

“I don’t think that poorly of you.”

Urushihara, or whoever this was, used “jobless” like it was part of his name. Chiho couldn’t help but poke fun at that.

“So what are you…?” she asked.

“Most people are just one complete thing, right? Even if they get split up in the future, this memory from before becomes a record that exists in the world. It lets people become whole again.”

“What…?”

“And that’s what you did.”

“Huh?”

“You made Ente Isla whole. It never would’ve happened without you.”

“Umm…”

“But there’s still something that’s been split up in that world, and I have to make that whole again. But there’s this kind of rule, or something, where I show up to whoever made something whole. Thanks to that, I guess I surprised a lot of people on this planet just now.”

“Um… Um?”

“Take a look out the window.”

Chiho followed his command, opening the curtains.

“Aaaahhh?!”

Seeing the face clinging to the window outside, she fell off the bed.

“…”

“M…Ms. Shiba?!”

The visage of Miki Shiba, landlord at Villa Rosa Sasazuka, was occupying every square inch of the window space. It was a difficult scene to describe, but somehow, Chiho noticed there was someone else floating in the air, in what little else was visible beyond her.

“Huh?”

Squinting, she realized it was a man she didn’t know, floating there with a peeved look on his face. But he wasn’t alone. Once Chiho opened the curtains fully, Shiba promptly took a step back. revealing a good eleven figures behind her. Clearly they weren’t from Japan, but Chiho could immediately tell—they were all Sephirah children. Something about their aura struck a chord in her mind—the same aura as Alas Ramus, Erone, and Acieth, whenever they got excited or emotional.

The children of Earth’s Sephirah were in front of Chiho’s bedroom, and they were clearly gearing for battle.

Then one of the figures slipped in front of the window.

“Amane…”

“Hey, I’m coming in. Sorry to surprise you, but we need to see that guy.”

The usual gregariousness was gone from Amane’s voice. Chiho just stepped back, a bit woozy as she opened the way for her.

“Lemme just say, dude, I’m not trying to hurt anything. It’s a total coincidence that I’m here. You guys have known for a long time now that there’s an Ente Isla Yesod fragment in here.”

The thing taking Urushihara’s form stood strong, taking a step forward. He must have known they’d come here.

“If it is, it’d be beyond an exception,” Amane said. “We’ve been monitoring the Yesod fragments around here, just to be sure we can handle whatever comes up. I thought something had happened to Alas Ramus at first…but it was Chiho, huh?”

The first time Alas Ramus had ventured a decent distance from Emi, it must’ve been Shiba and her cohorts watching over them.

“Yeah. So I get why the gang’s all here like this. But you must’ve been watching Chiho Sasaki this whole time. You know she never does anything stupid, right? She’s incapable of it. Do you really have to threaten her like this?”

“People can change. Nobody knows what the future will hold.”

“There’s no real point in us arguing over that. We don’t know what’s gonna happen in the next second, either. …And Amane Ohguro, isn’t your very existence the result of a future nobody knew about, too?”

“…Mmm, yeah, I suppose.”

“It’s gonna be fine, okay? For now, that world’s gonna be put together. As for whether everything will work out, well…”

The man in Urushihara’s form floated over to the path outside that Amane and Shiba created.

“Um, wait!” Chiho called from behind him.

“Hmm?”

“Are you, maybe…?”

“Ahh, I’m not really any different from the guy you’re thinking of.”

“What?”

After saying that, the man gave her a breezy smile that looked not at all right on Urushihara’s face.

“If I want to, I can hole up in my little space as long as I want to.”

“Huh?”

“Ha-ha-ha! Anyway, all these scary guys are staring at you, so I better get going. When I meet you again, it’ll probably be…”

He pointed straight at Chiho’s heart.

“…when the man inside there gives you an answer, I bet.”

“Hey…”

He could read her mind. That was okay, really. But this was a huge invasion of privacy.

“Sorry, sorry. That was too private,” he said. “But you sure went overboard, didn’t you?”

“Heeyyyyy!!”

“Hang in there. You got my support—as someone who’s touched your soul—right on your finger.”

“I can’t ‘hang in there’ any longer!”

In many ways, those were Chiho’s honest feelings. Amane must’ve seen that, because after putting her hands together in apology, she and the rest of Shiba’s gang surrounded the man and faded into the sky.

“At this point, I can’t hang in there unless I get that half of my reward!”

Her declaration was greeted only by silence.

“Ugh… Why am I even doing this? You guys think I’m your handyman or something?”

With a heavy thump, a pouty Sariel dropped a bag from a nearby grocery store on the tatami-mat floor. A futon had been laid out in the middle of Villa Rosa Sasazuka Room 201, Sadao Maou lying on it and looking at Sariel with a “why now?” face.

“…Sorry. Libicocco’s working all day today, and everyone else is busy. Put it down there for me… I’ll take care of it.”

Seeing Maou try to get up made Sariel raise an eyebrow.

“Forget it. Just keep resting. There’s a bottle in here, and I don’t want you hurting yourself if you fall down with it.”

“No, but…”

“It’s fine.”

He was being rough with him, but behind that, Sariel was demonstrating an unusual concern for Maou’s health.

Lying back down on his futon, Maou took a deep breath. “…Sorry. Just shove it in the fridge wherever.”

“All right.”

Stepping into Room 201, Sariel swiftly began moving the contents of his plastic bag to the refrigerator.

“This stuff all looks pretty bad for a sick man.”

“Ugh, Libicocco, you know… He has a child’s palate, and he eats so much…”

“Well, that ship’s sailed, huh? Want me to make you some porridge or something?”

“…You’re being nice to me. It’s creepy.”

“Oh, sure, say whatever you want. I’m not here ’cause I want to be, you know. Once this is over, you better get on hands and knees in front of Ms. Iwaki and Ms. Kisaki, then start polishing their shoes with the back of your head. If it were anyone besides them asking me for this, I’d laugh in their face.”

That order had, perhaps, a bit of Sariel’s own tastes mixed into it.

“…Yeah, I’d feel terrible if I didn’t do that much, at least.”

Maou seemed oddly eager to accept that. It puzzled Sariel, who decided to just stay in the kitchen instead of listening to him ramble.

“So what’s up?” he asked, chopping up some vegetables. “They only told me you had a health emergency, but what happened? It sounds like your little scheme was going well and you just had the final step left—the last battle, right? And now look what happened. Did you catch a cold from someone?”

“…Ahh…”

The bleary Maou groaned a little.

“…I got kissed.”

“…Huh?”

“…By Chi… She said she loved me, and she kissed me… And then…the demonic force…in my body…”

Maou’s voice was soft, almost lost in the noise of the city, but Sariel heard it loud and clear. It made him take the knife he was using to chop up chives and green onions, out of the benevolence of his heart, and go straight into archangel mode, pointing it at the King of All Demons.

“Devil King…are you trying to start a fight with me? With this bragging? Huh?”

The voice was shrill, but Maou just kept going in his soft warble.

“…Hey, Sariel?”

“What? Because I’m about to ‘accidentally’ put daffodil stems into your porridge instead of chives…”

“What’s it mean to be loved by someone?”

“…Huh?”

The sudden question made the archangel cancel his Devil King poisoning project.

“I mean…logically, I get it. I do… I love Alas Ramus as family, and she loves me as her father, so… But, I…”

The archangel looked on, flummoxed.

“I don’t know what love is when it’s on the same eye level as me.”

“…Huhh?”

Listening to the delirious ravings from the weakened Maou made him arch an eyebrow straight up, knife still in hand…

- To be continued -