Hataraku Maou-sama! - Volume 4 - Chapter Ep

EPILOGUE 
The great city of Noza Quartus, located on the north side of Isla Centurum in the middle of Ente Isla, was both the seat of the local government as it rebuilt the island and home of the Federated Order of the Five Continents, the international brotherhood of soldiers charged with protecting it. 
The news that reached the Noza Quartus administration in the early morning threw the government representatives and Order commanders—so used to the current peace that reigned across the land that they were already focused on their old political infighting and border squabbles—into a paroxysm of chaos and despair. 
Efzahan, the mighty empire that spread out across the whole of the Eastern Island, had sent a declaration of war to the knightly orders of the Northern, Western, and Southern Islands, each stamped with the seal of the unifying Azure Emperor who led the nation. 
The communiqué declared the empire’s intention to stage a military takeover of the Central Continent. 
Controlling all of the Eastern Island as it did, Efzahan enjoyed the largest territory and population of any country in the world. But this size was thanks to the swallowing up of multiple neighboring countries over the years, creating a near-constant cycle of internal strife and political instability. 
Since the empire was already well-known for starting, then retreating from, small naval skirmishes at its borders with the Northern and Southern Islands, the idea of Efzahan declaring war on the rest of the world seemed less than credible in terms of international diplomacy. 
But that wasn’t all. News was spreading like wildfire among the Federated Order that among the armies stationed along Efzahan’s borders with its neighboring islands and the Central Continent, there were some demons sighted in their ranks. 

It spelled the end of the Order itself. All the Eastern Island knights stationed in Noza Quartus were recalled back to their homeland, and soon, almost every local army was calling upon its native soldiers to return and defend their homelands for what was anticipated to come. 
To the Central Continent, laid bare on the ground and with little to no warpower of its own, it was an extremely precarious state of affairs. 
The text of the Azure Emperor’s declaration was unsparing in its cruelty. 
It offered no chance at peace or reconciliation. Only by swearing deference to the Great Efzahanian Empire or providing suitable tribute to its ruler would the Central Continent be allowed to retain any form of autonomy. 
The “suitable tribute,” in this case, made it difficult for the Continent and its three allies to work as a cohesive team. 
War-weary representatives from the North and South, memories of the Devil King’s invasion fresh in their minds, strongly criticized the Western Island for retaining exclusive control over this “tribute.” The Western Island, in turn, could not present a unified front, tensions between the influential Church and the Holy Empire of Saint Aile finally brimming to the surface. 
Thus, the peace that reigned over Ente Isla was, for the first time in over two years, gravely imperiled. 
The “tribute” that Efzahan demanded: 
The Better Half.