Hataraku Maou-sama! - Volume 21 - Chapter Ep

EPILOGUE: THE DEVIL, NOT A PART-TIMER

The night before his momentous business discussion:

“Hey, Ignora?”

Maou leaned against the door to Room 202. There was no answer.

“Everyone’s starting to move. You’re gonna have to get going, too, someday.”

“…”

“I think the world, and everyone in it, has forgiven you. So come on out already. You could go back to Ente Isla, you could live here in Japan… Someone can help you now.”

“………This…” The voice was muffled, and not because it was coming through a door. “How could I ever recover at this point?”

“Recover, huh…?”

“You have it good. You’re loved by everyone, forgiven by everyone. But I…”

“Don’t be stupid. This happened to me because I’m not forgiven.”

Maou cruelly declared it to the brooding woman on the other side of the door, who had tried to become God in another world and failed.

“The people you’ve encountered experienced all kinds of things before they appeared before you. That’s how you are to us, too.”

“…”

“There’s something in your life you wanted to accomplish from the heart, and that’s what made you stand up, isn’t it? So…I know you can walk. All those strong memories are still left in your mind, and your body. So…”

Maou stood back up and repeated the words for the nth time.

“No matter how ugly you get, come out while there’s still an environment where someone will help you. Then you’ll find the path to create a new world.”

There was no answer.

“Anyway, I gotta visit this super-scary sponsor. It’s gonna get a little loud again, but deal with it, okay?”

He walked off toward…not Room 201, but Room 203 of Villa Rosa Sasazuka. On the door was a small nameplate reading:

THE MAOU COMPANY, LTD.

“All right, let me see your monthly report, for starters.”

Room 203 had four small computer desks shoved inside it. Emi sat down at one of them, leaning back. Maou sat at a desk on the other side, and as he did:

“Here’s your coffee, president.”

With a studied hand, Chiho poured some instant coffee from a pot in the kitchen and brought it out to him.

“Ah, thank you… Um, what was it? The report?”

Maou booted up his old laptop and launched his spreadsheet software. Synchronizing his files with Emi’s PC (via the tower machine that was a little too weak to be called a company server), he waited as Emi loaded up the images.

“Looks like you’re attracting fewer customers to the upstairs parenting space.”

“Yeah, we’re getting a lot of single customers lately. There’s been feedback that Yesodd’s is getting too popular. It’s always crowded, and there’s no space to work your way in.”

“Ah. Guess you really don’t have days when it’s not full, then.”

“So I think our new location focused on bread should adopt the Yesodd’s format as well, and I think it should be within walking distance from the main location. That way, we can point customers to the second location and keep from losing them.”

“…But that way, they’ll gradually start to clamor for reservations. That system makes it easy to gauge customer sizes, but it reduces the flow. Yesodd’s isn’t a day care center. The concept works only when parents are casually stopping in with their kids. If I’m going to build a new Yesodd’s, it needs to be at least one rail stop away, I think. If we’re going to start a new place within walking distance, we gotta mix it up a bit, not just offer the same format. Maybe low-allergen bread, or no-sugar bread, or someplace where Yesodd’s customers can stop by to eat or pick up bread on the way home with their kid. That’ll build more synergy.”

“Well, I don’t think we can do that with the bread we’d make from Nord’s wheat.”

“…Yeah. The taste isn’t exactly geared toward young children.”

“Adding honey makes it more versatile, but it also ups the price fast. We could make it a premium offering from the get-go, but then staffing will be a problem.”

Chiho lent half an ear to the discussion as she poured out some of the black tea Emi had brought to the office, offering her a cup. Then she sat down on a folding chair in the corner. Just when she was about enjoy a cup of her own:

“Well, look, I keep on telling you, we only get this rent on the main location because my landlord owns it! If we try to rent another space this big in Eifukucho, I don’t see how we’re gonna budget it!”

“I told you we’ll pay out whatever you need!”

“It’s my job to give you a return on that, dumbass! The whole point of a traded company is that it can’t go blowing all the money it has! Your approach is insanely irresponsible! We’ll be drowning in red ink before we can expand our size at all! I’m gonna build The Maou Company into a major firm in one generation! That’s what makes the beginning so important!”

“Do you think I’m not considering any of this?! I looked at all the rental spaces near the main café with fixtures, and I finished the preliminary inspections on them last month! I have lease estimates right here! Look at this place! We can finish the buildup for twenty percent cheaper than our first place!”

“I told you, I don’t want any fixtures! It just proves the previous tenants ditched it for a reason! Stop deluding yourself into pretending we’re gonna find some hidden gem of a storefront that way! We gotta build up our staff and make the second location of Yesodd’s our second step to success! And if we bring in wheat from Kazuma and Nord, that’ll make it cheaper and easier to read the initial response! Come on!”

“What point is there to reading the initial response?! It’s directly proportional to the location’s size, so if you’re making comparisons, then opening the exact same location is just gonna get you a clone of our first one. And if we open up this close to it, what if one location starts declining? They’ll knock each other out!”

“Well, the bank supports my concept!”

“Oh, don’t tell me you’re gonna take out a loan?!”

“Look, the interest rates are gonna plummet from here on in. If we’re a publicly traded corporation, I got a duty to make profits for my stockholders. All you have to worry about is making money from the stock you hold, all right?! I’m running this company!”

“Oooh, ‘I’m running this company!’ You know what a death knell that is?! That’s it! I’m bringing Akiko to tomorrow’s employment conference and then we can all duke it out! You and she are the only real full-timers in The Maou Company anyway.”

“Bring it on, girl!”

And so it wound up turning into that.

Chiho snickered. This, really, was how Maou and Emi should be. It was what she wanted and what Emi wanted. The ideal.

“Um, president and main stockholder? Your helper needs to step out for a bit. If you need dinner, let me know, all right?”

Leaving the bellowing Maou and Emi to themselves, Chiho made a motion for the door of Room 203.

“…Hang on. I’ll join you.”

“Huh? A-are you sure?”

Maou left his seat, heading for Chiho.

“Hey, where are you going?”

“The new FriendMart toward the station!”

“Then buy me a chicken curry plate!”

“Curry? You always ask me for curry!”

“It’s important to stay fed at times like these. We gotta go in hard on this, so would you mind, please?!”

“Tssh… All right. But I’m keeping the receipt. Meeting costs.”

“Fine! Just go! And make sure he doesn’t buy anything stupid, Chiho.”

“Yes, yes. See you later.”

Chiho snickered again as Maou pushed her out of Room 203. Once the door was shut behind them, he sighed.

“I swear, she comes in for the first time in a while and this happens.”

“I kinda want to say the same thing, in a way…”

“Ahh, I’m sorry. But it’s still gonna be hairy for a bit, so you mind staying just a little longer?”

“Hmm… But when you get too heated up, you stop listening to me… Well, how about I type in the receipts for you, and you can pay me with FriendMart’s new dessert?”

“For that much, I’d be glad to. And I’ll pay your work rate, too.”

Walking down the stairs and away from the apartment, they were greeted with a sky not quite blazing with stars but still remarkably clear for a Tokyo night.

“No progress with Ignora today, either?”

“Nah. No reason to corner her that much. But I’ll be patient. If we keep screaming at each other like that, maybe she’ll get sick enough of it that she’ll leave.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Chiho nodded as she walked by Maou’s side. “Emeralda got angry at me.”

“Huh? What’d you do?”

“She said that I needed to capture you, or else Yusa’s going to start feeling affection for you.”

“She does not give up, does she?”

“Right? Even though we’re all on the same page.”

“Well, like I told Kazuma, from a Japanese or Saint Aile perspective, I can’t help it if people raise their eyebrows at us. But still…”

Chiho held Maou’s hand, a look of from-the-heart joy on her face.

“You and I…and Yusa, and Suzuno, and Urushihara, and Ashiya… We all risked our lives working for that child, after all.”

“Emeralda would call that being spoiled, wouldn’t she?”

“I’m truly, honestly okay with this, so that’s tough to hear.”

Chiho joyfully attempted to put more concern into her face and failed.

Maou, run through by the holy sword of light, stood right back up as if nothing were amiss. But it was more than nothing that had happened. Chiho instantly realized that the dark fog from his body was demonic force.

“Yusa… That holy sword… You used it on Camael…?”

“That’s right. Did Bell tell you about that?”

“Yeah… I—I was really surprised. I didn’t think you’d actually do it at this point…”

“It would be way too late. I can’t kill him with a sword that has Alas Ramus in it.”

She tried to make it sound like a joke.

“This is just settling matters. And Alciel’s on board with it, too. This was the final concern from the summit meeting.”

To them, the Hero Emilia was a human being. Despite her supernatural skills as a tactical weapon, they recognized her as a human who could be reasoned with—and that’s why they allowed her to live beyond worlds, in Japan.

That wasn’t the case for the Devil King Satan. Unlike Alciel, with a proven track record of running things in Efzahan, the summit member Satan was still a symbol of fear, someone who could bare his fangs to the world at any moment. Many were those who looked at this fear with pure hatred and malice.

“And those feelings become demonic force. If we want to have the demons work things out with humans in Ente Isla as soon as possible, that’s not a necessary force for them to have. So…I had to avenge your crimes.”

Emi shook her head.

“The Devil King is no longer a demon.”

“…Huh?”

This cascade of revelations made Chiho gasp.

“Based on what Ms. Shiba and Amane have found, the immortality that Caiel and Sikeena created no longer exists in Camael’s body. And everybody knows that if the ‘Devil King Satan’ loses all of his demonic force…”

Chiho couldn’t have felt more shocked.

“He…becomes human?”

“That is the punishment given to the Devil King who attempted to conquer the world. Normally, he could’ve lived for centuries and seen how the demons turned out, far into the future…but now he’s human, and he’s not even gonna live a hundred years. He’s got no power to fight with. This man…”

Emi embraced Chiho.

“He’s the man you love so much that you saved a faraway world for him.”

“…!”

Chiho’s eyes were filled with tears of joy and shock. They darted between Maou and Emi several times. Emi, watching her, gave Maou’s back an irritated slap, inspiring a coughing fit.

“Hrrgff! Hey! I lost my power? What did you…”

“Shut up. It doesn’t matter. Just wrap up your stuff already, too. And Chiho!”

“Y-yes!”

“Stop using me and Alas Ramus as an excuse. It’s not like you at all, letting that stop you.”

“…Yusa…”

“But outside of that, I’m hell-bent on making him step up for Alas Ramus, right up to the end…so forget the excuses and work that into your decision. Good night.”

Before anyone could react, Emi turned around, her pumps tapping against the sidewalk as she disappeared into the Sasazuka night. She almost seemed to disappear into the mist beyond, perhaps because she had left the barrier.

““…””

Maou and Chiho spent a few moments watching Emi’s back.

“…Hey, Chi…ah, no.”

Maou made the first attempt before correcting himself.

“…Chiho.”

It made her heart leap. It had never beaten harder in her life.

“We’ve been through a lot, but I can finally give you an answer… I’m not a demon any longer… I can only protect you with the kinda power any human man would have…but if you’re okay with that…”

“…”

Chiho silently nodded.

“…You know, though, I’m really not that courageous. With me, I’ve always been a coward bluffing his way to the top. So…”

Chiho stood there, waiting for the words. He placed his hands on her shoulders, eliciting tears in her eyes.

“The man I love isn’t a demon, or a human. It’s a man with two names—Satan and Sadao Maou. And he’s the most wonderful man in the world.”

“…If that’s what you have to say, then I better fulfill the other promise I left unattended. It’s you, Chiho, who gives the final reply…and…”

Maou’s face cast a shadow over Chiho’s. The wind had blown the clouds away, the moonlight illuminating the two of them, locked in the barrier.

“…Let me give you the ‘reward.’ The one I’ve been keeping all this time as Devil King.”

And the power from their lips touching was neither demonic force, nor holy energy, but simply the warmth between two people.

“I’m all right. Back then, you were only looking at me. You selected me as your partner. I became your number one.”

“Chiho…”

“And I have no intention of giving up the number one spot. But I’d never want to take Alas Ramus’s daddy away from her. To her, Yusa is Mommy, and you’re Daddy. She’ll never give that up. We risked our lives, trying to do so much. You went through a lot of pain to make it here. You had to work so hard. So…why can’t we be a little selfish for a change?”

After saying that, Chiho turned around.

There stood the old Villa Rosa Sasazuka apartment building. Now, at this point, it was truly packed with dreams—dreams she wanted to keep going as long as she could.

The Maou Company was in Room 203. That fake firm that Ashiya had made up alongside Suzuno, trying desperately not to blow Emi’s cover with Rika, was now a full-blown corporation. Its president was Sadao Maou, and its chief shareholder was Emi Yusa. The only full-time employee for now was Akiko Ohki, manager at the inaugural Eifukucho location of Yesodd’s Family Café; Takefumi Kawata was an outside observer, Kaori Shoji and Yoshiya Kohmura were part-timers who signed up out of curiosity more than anything, and Mayumi Kisaki and Sariel were their first regulars. Chiho would come in to help with meetings, mediate between Maou and Emi, assist with basic data entry, and occasionally swing by Room 201 to cook a healthy meal for the nutritionally unsound Maou.

“I’m happy enough now, but no matter how much time passes, or who goes in and out of our lives, I want you and Yusa and everyone else to be happy together. I wanna be able to be selfish around them. And someday, I’ll convince Emeralda about that, too.”

“Well, if she didn’t give her that stupid ‘Hero Pension,’ maybe I wouldn’t have to worry about that so much, huh?”

“Ah-ha-ha! That’s true. But I don’t think Emeralda would’ve accepted the idea of Ente Islans giving her no reward whatsoever.”

Not long after Devil’s Castle had blasted off from the Central Continent, Emeralda went all the way up to the demon realms merely to have Emi review some business documents. That, it turned out, was a letter of intent for Emi to accept a “Hero Pension” drawn regularly from Saint Aile’s national budget, the result of Emeralda pulling a lot of strings. Even by then, Emeralda predicted that Emi would settle in Japan for good after the assault on heaven. The pension was paid out in metals exchangeable in Japan, and as Emeralda put it, she planned to pay out enough to let her enjoy life and play around, even if she was reincarnated three more times.

Emi, of course, wasn’t about to choose the “play around” option.

“Yusa is a Hero. Even in this other world, that truth is never gonna change, huh?”

When Emi realized the Yesod holy sword of light sucked the supernatural powers out of people, she used it to “slay the Devil King”—and what’s more, to prevent any more antics from him, she proposed the founding of The Maou Company. That was way too much for Maou to swallow; his past dreams of conquering the world were crushed, and he even failed at his shot at a full-time position. Starting up a firm would be insanely reckless—but Emi put the hammer down.

“Look, when you marry Chiho someday, how are you gonna save any money with your current career? Because no offense to Ms. Iwaki and Ms. Kisaki, but if you stick with MgRonald, you have no future.”

She was completely right. Maou felt no anxieties about his future prospects at MgRonald because he had powerful demonic force, supernatural strength, and a safe spot to retreat back to. All the human Maou had was his body and a rented one-room apartment. Could he really make Chiho happy as a part-timer? Maybe, according to Sariel’s tenets of love, but he’d likely hit the ceiling pretty fast.

“Maybe the public’s accepted you, but the summit members aren’t gonna believe me if I just say I defeated you. But if you work at a firm where I have managerial decision-making rights, and the summit chairman Chiho is there, too, I won’t let any of them bitch at me about it. I already had Ms. Shiba help create a draft business plan, and we’ve already found a space, too. So come on…”

Emi Yusa, still calling herself a Hero despite residing in a wholly different world now, smiled a devil’s smile.

“Like I told you at the start, if you’re willing to stay here till you’re dead and buried, I’ll let you live.”

That was the temptation the Hero offered to him—a sweet, devilish, merciless taste of the happiness of regular life. One that featured the Devil King fully defeated, peace spreading worldwide, and a very happy friend of theirs.

“Emi and Emeralda make me suffer so much…”

“That’s the last thing I wanna hear you whine about.”

“You’ve been acting pretty confident lately, too, I think.”

“Well, thank you. And…I’ve never tried to confirm it, and I think she’s just keeping quiet about it out of respect for me…but Yusa loves you.”

“Huhh?!”

This bomb, dropped out of nowhere, turned Maou’s eyes into little dots. But after being with Chiho for three years, he had a sharpened sense for little subtleties like that between men and women. Now he was reminded of that one night just before the assault, when he fell ill.

“No, that…”

“That just reminded you of something, didn’t it?”

Chiho didn’t overlook Maou’s hesitation. She gleefully prodded at it, draining the strength from him.

“…There’s just no beating you.”

“Of course not. I mean, can you imagine Yusa happy with some guy she doesn’t know at all? At this point? It’s only when you and she and Alas Ramus are together as a family that she’ll find happiness, I think.”

“And you’re fine with that, Chiho?”

“Totally fine…even if it’s hard to make anyone besides Copyhara believe that. But it’s better for me if I fully understand everyone, like Suzuno. There’s nothing particularly strange about all this. After all…”

Chiho brought both hands up to her temples, sticking out her pointer fingers to simulate devil’s horns.

“You’re the most reliable, hardest-working Devil King we know.”

“You sure you wanna be caught saying that?”

“But in exchange for that, I’m not giving up the number one spot. I won’t, and so I’m fine if you have lots of wives! Like the Devil King of another world should!”

“Being an ex–Devil King isn’t a get-out-of-jail-free card. When I picked my number one, I knew what I was getting into.”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

“Besides, now isn’t even the time for that. Why’re you painting me like some polygamist? There’re times when I can’t even devote time or money to you already. I can’t think about anyone else.”

“Well, give that some serious thought. Because realistically speaking, you’re Alas Ramus’s guardian. You’re thinking about putting her in a Japanese preschool or elementary school, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, I did mention that we gotta talk about that soon, didn’t I? …Man, the work just never stops. There’s no way this company’s gonna go smoothly if Emi and I are running it… Hmm?”

Maou’s whining was stopped by his phone vibrating. He took it out. It was a notice from his main bank’s smartphone app, notifying him about a withdrawal from his account.

“Oh crap… The account for my petty cash is gonna be empty by the end of the month.”

The bank account had been wrung completely dry. The reason couldn’t be simpler: He had used up all the money. What on earth? Well, first, there was the “entrepreneurial spending” on that meeting in the soba restaurant. That, and transferring Alas Ramus’s child support payment to Emi. And the payment on the card they used for little day-to-day purchases. He had a lot of expenses this month in particular, business and private, and so the account was looking pretty lonely.

Then, like it was aiming for that moment, a voice rang from the top of the stairs.

“Can’t you plan your spending a little more carefully?”

Maou scowled in the voice’s direction. Chiho gave it a joyful smile.

“Oh, you want my work to get tripped up? You want me to fall behind on Alas Ramus’s child support?!”

“That’s not what I am talking about,” the calm voice said as it traveled down the stairs. “Even if you’re short on that account, you got a company off the ground, and you’re making good earnings from it. You’re guaranteed an income from next month forward. Couldn’t you have paid that off in installments?”

The overbearing voice belonged to Shirou Ashiya, former Great Demon General and current Devil King, who had just come back to Japan.

“Look, you know I hate taking out loans…”

“No, listen to me…”

“And I already got enough monthly payments. Emi’s been pretty merciless about making those deposits on time lately. She’s already my chief stockholder—I don’t want her griping any more than she is about money.”

“But…”

“I hate having debt, all right? If I can pay something off, I do. And this is the result.”

Here, in this old apartment building like any other, Maou and Ashiya began the same argument about money they had conducted a million times before.

“Well, Your Demonic Highness…”

Even after assuming leadership over the many demons residing in Ente Isla right now, Ashiya still addressed the powerless Maou like royalty.

“If that is your financial approach, how you will ever save enough money for the wedding?”

“Wha-what, you…!”

“Ms. Sasaki has taken that tone with you precisely because she sees you as reliable, my liege. For us demons, if Emilia is keeping quiet because she thinks you are tied down by your company, I couldn’t feel more relieved…but I predict a long journey ahead for you otherwise.”

“Hey! When did you eavesdrop on that?! And don’t say stuff like that around Chiho!”

“You must have a different sense of time from before. A human being’s lifespan is far below that of a demon. Earning enough wealth to enrich your life is a difficult task! And there is not that much time before Chiho graduates from college. Have you made any plans at all along those lines?!”

Ashiya was bearing down on him more than ever before. In his current position, taking the Azure Emperor’s place in managing affairs across Efzahan, he couldn’t find much good to say about Maou’s financial situation. But that’s just how it was for now. In Maou’s current plan for his life, he would achieve a bare minimum of stability within five years of Chiho’s graduation.

“Look, I had bad timing with my bank account this month! It’s just one of those things!”

“Such a wretched state of affairs!”

“Why are you two screaming at each other after dark? Sadao, where’s my curry?!”

“Ah! It’s Al-cell!”

“Why are you people arguing about money outside? I can hear you up in my apartment.”

“Yeah, dude, y’see? When you use a credit card, it doesn’t feel like you’re spendin’ money, right? Everybody’s like that.”

They must have been loud indeed, because Emi from Room 203, Alas Ramus from Room 101, and Urushihara and Suzuno from Room 201 all came outside.

“…Hee-hee-hee!”

Chiho, seeing this unfold, smiled from the heart once more. Here was the man she loved the most in the world, alongside the friends and companions she cherished the most. This view—featuring everything that was number one in her life—made her happier than anything else.

“Hey, Sadao?”

Chiho took up the flustered Maou’s hand.

“It’s all right. I’ll be earning money, too.”

That only added fuel to the fire.

“Ms. Sasaki! That is not the issue here!”

“You better not spoil Sadao too much, Chiho!”

“Oh, man, Maou’s gonna go on a downward spiral…”

“That lucky dog…”

“Stop, stop! What are you doing?! …Whoa!”

Maou, unable to withstand any more of this, rather deliberately took out his phone and put it to his ear.

“Oh! What’s up, Ohki? Shoji and Yoshiya? Wow, that’s bad. Okay, I’ll be right there!”

Ending the maybe-fake, maybe-not call, he shoved the phone into his pocket.

“I got a work call!”

Then he all but fled to the bike parking lot.

“D-Devil King, wait! We need to talk…!”

“Shut up, shut up! You can lecture me when I’m back!”

He got on the locked bicycle parked next to his bright yellow scooter. Although the MgScooto (so named by Alas Ramus, because the yellow body reminded her of MgRonald) was his first pick, the bicycle was still his go-to for little neighborhood errands.

“Onward, my intrepid Dullahan II!!”

With a war whoop, he flew off into the city. And as Chiho Sasaki saw him round the corner and go out of sight:

“Good luck. We’re all waiting for you back here.”

The bell on Dullahan II pierced the night sky, echoing away as if answering her.

“See you later, my Devil King…working for all of us.”

— End —