Hataraku maou-sama ! Volume 6 Part 2

Vol 6 Chapter 2:

 Demon King and Hero, feeling suspicious about normality

“Welcome----!”
Chiho’s loud and clear voice echoed within the store.
Not only did this loud voice cause some customers, curious to know what happened, to turn towards Chiho, the customers who just came in also stopped at the entrance in reflex, Maou and the other employees, who were shocked, also nonchalantly turned their heads to pay attention to Chiho.
“Hm, even though I don’t know what happened, but having good spirits is the good thing.”
Only one person was unaffected----standing next to Chiho, Kisaki put her hand on Chiho’s shoulder and said,



“But, you must pay more attention to the distance between the customers. Even if you don’t shout so loudly, the customers can also hear you.”
“Ah, al, alright, I’m sorry……”
Chiho, who looked like she was aware of her own volume, started to serve the customers in front of her counter while blushing.
And during this whole process, Maou kept watching Chiho worriedly.
It has been one week since Chiho accepted Emi and Suzuno’s teachings on the activation of holy magic.
As a student, today is Chiho’s first time returning to the reopened MgRonalds to work, as she frequently used a loud voice to shout like just now from the first day, she stood out a lot as a result.
Logicaly, Chiho should be a person who knows when was the right time and place to do something, but because she had just gone though a shouting match a few days ago, it couldn’t be helped that it had caused her to become numb to the feeling of controlling her volume, even scaring the customers quite a few times.
“Even though it’s good to have motivation, but it looks like I can’t let Chi-chan take care of the café counter upstairs for the time being. Because there’s not enough staff, so I was originally hopeful that Chi-chan could go upstairs.”
Kisaki said with some regret. When Maou heard this, he immediately felt troubled because of his own powerlessness.
As to why Chiho greets so loudly, of course it is to carry out practice for holy magic activation.
However, considering the practicalities, there aren’t many places in Japan where a person can shout continuously without getting suspected by other people.
Not only will the parents lecture her for making a lot of noise at home, it will also cause trouble for the neighbours. And if a girl at Chiho’s age shouts loudly in the park, just this is enough for someone to call the police. Of course, the bath house used on the first day was not an option.
Even so, Chiho should be unable to go to the karaoke compartment everyday to practice.
Therefore, Chiho could only choose times like this when she could shout loudly, but if being too passionate about practicing ends up disrupting every day life, it would be putting the cart before the horse.
After hearing the reason for Emi and Suzuno teaching Chiho spells, Maou and the others have mostly accepted it.
Currently, regardless of whether Chiho possessed memories of Maou and the others, it was their fatal weakness, and it was hard to ensure that Ente Isla and the Demon world, or Olba working in the shadows would not focus their attacks on this point.
If things turn to this, then letting Chiho preserve her memories and possess spells that could ask Maou and the others for help according to the situation could be said to be a very effective countermeasure.
Even so, to Chiho, school and work is an important normal routine which cannot be neglected.
“Chi-chan, can I bother you for a bit?”
Taking the chance of the thinning customers, Maou beckoned to Chiho.
“……I’m sorry, it’s regarding the volume right.”
Chiho seemed to know the reason for Maou calling her and answered with her head bowed.
“Ah……”
Seeing Chiho’s guilty contenance, Maou also felt very conflicted. After all, Chiho was only working hard because she did not want to became a burden for Maou, Emi and the others.
“As long as you know. But you must value your own normal life okay.”
“Alright.”
Chiho replied in a rather tired manner.
“If this goes on, Kisaki-san won’t allow you to go upstairs.”
“That’s true……yeah, I have to adjust my attitude in a clearer manner right.”
“That’s right, that is how it is.”
Maou, who nodded once with force, discovered Kisaki nodding her head in satisfaction in the edge of his vision.
“However……even if I put this matter aside first, I still do not think I will be able to go upstairs.”
Chiho looked down, lacking in confidence, this action did not suit her usual style at all.
“Ah……sigh, it’s not like, I don’t understand it.”
Maou scratched his face and agreed in a troubled manner.
The ‘upstairs’ the two people referred to, of course, is referring to the MdCafe on the second floor.
One week has passed since MgRonalds reopened.
Even if the working class in the business district nearby are not considered, because Obon Festival, the period of wallet tightening, has just passed, the business situation for the store at the beginning is still considered passable.
In addition to the regular customers, the price which was set lower than the competing café franchises greatly expanded the customer base with businessmen bringing their clients as well as housewives.
Because there isn’t a strict division between the seats of the normal MgRonalds and the MdCafe, therefore there are also some customers who ordered a normal meal downstairs and brought it upstairs to eat, as for how to increase the table turnover of the coffee menu items, it was a problem of the future.
Since it is the opening after a long time, and that the shop manager Kisaki has been strictly supervising from the opening to closing, so the past regular customers have also returned immediately.
Some of the people were privately Kisaki fans to start with, and when they discovered the café counter on the second floor has a picture of Kisaki which was framed together with a green in-charge certification, they even took pictures with their handphone camera.
Even with these situations were considered, MdCafe is already thought tp have a barely passable start, but seeing the current situation, not only Maou and Chiho, pretty much all the employees did not have the confidence to work at MdCafe.
And the reason for that is……
“What should be done, to be able to make such good tasting coffee.”
It wasn’t strange for Chiho to be puzzled by this.
The coffee which Kisaki brewed, for unknown reasons, was delicious.
Even though it was the same with the white gold roasted coffee with the normal meals, but once the MdCafe café orders are made, there will be a huge difference between the finished products of Kisaki and the other employees.
MdCafe’s coffee was different from the normal business model, paper cups are not used, but are served to the customers in a mug.
Even though it has taken the form of a café, but the unique points of fast food are still fast speed and products of uniform quality, and MdCafe is just one of the types of business types. The difference from the white gold roasted coffee was that MdCafe had its own specialized coffee machine.
Different from the drink bar model coffee machine which can grind large amount of coffee beans at the same time beforehand and dispose of them at a set time, because coffee beans have to be ground from scratch everytime with the MdCafe coffee machine, so there was a margin for personal technique to a certain extent, but that was still the usage of machines and not a specialized tool like a manual bean grinder machine.
Even though Kisaki had taught the shift workers how to use the MdCafe machine, but for unknown reasons, even if they took it and compared it with the normal cafés, every type of MdCafe coffee which Kisaki brews still surpasses them.
“Because we ground the same coffee beans, poured in water at the same temperature, and even used the same type of milk? Why is the result so different……”
Maou and Chiho don’t drink coffee often, but after trying it personally, they could still taste that between their finished products and Kisaki’s, there is an obvious difference in the ‘quality’.
At least all the employees who tasted Kisaki’s coffee before believe strongly, that just based on the standard operating procedure, they definitely won’t be able to create the same taste as Kisaki’s.
“But if we are still unable to arrange shifts, and we won’t be able to do our job.”
Considering that the reopening just occurred, Kisaki was frequently stationed within the store during operating hours, but since she is a permanent employee, it was difficult to avoid days where she was unable to stay within the store.
At times like this, it’s not like they can close the MdCafe portion because Kisaki is not around.
“But between Kisaki and our coffee, which one is the taste which the company expects?”
“The taste which the company expects?”
Chiho, who could not understand the meaning behind Maou’s words, tilted her head in thought.
“Oh my, MgRonalds is a franchise after all. Since every store needs to provide a uniform taste quality, then for Kisaki-san, it isn’t ‘uniform quality’ no matter how you thought about it right?”
“Is that not allowed? If it doesn’t taste nice, it will of course cause problems, but even though the price is the same, but it is tastier than the normal one.”
Maou glanced at the MdCafe flyer placed next to the cashier because of what Chiho said.
Looking towards the outside from behind the counter, the prices of the food items mainly from MdCafe can be seen on the back of the flyer, the Café au lait and Latte mentioned before were priced at 250 yen.
“Even though it sounds good putting it that way, but from other point of view, it equates to the customers who could not drink Kisaki-san’s coffee using the same price to drink a lower quality item.”
“…………ah!”
After thinking for a while, Chiho finally understood Maou’s meaning.
“Because MgRonalds is a large scale franchise after all. If the ‘quality upper limit’ is not made consistent, then the philosophy of providing uniform quality food will be broken. If the quality can be increased without authorization as long as the price is similar, then employees will be able to use their own money to secretly buy Blue Mountain coffee beans. But if every branch did this, then it can’t be considered a ‘MgRonalds meal’ right.”
On the other hand, even though there were many eat out franchises with flexible areas, stores or employee specialties, but at least MgRonalds did not employ this kind of operation direction.
As for whether Kisaki ignored the company rules and used other ingredients to brew the coffee……
“But for the coffee Kisaki-san brewed, she used the same machine, coffee beans, milk and cup as us right.”
“……that’s right……which is why it’s so baffling.”
After being retorted by Chiho, Maou became very troubled.
With this, it shows that something is lacking with Maou and the others, but for something to be lacking even though they strictly followed the standard operating procedure, they really don’t know what can be done.
“Since it has nothing to do with my training, then why don’t we try saying ‘become delicious~’ with feeling when we brew it……”
“Without talking about the heart, if they want to improve the quality by sound, then they should have done it whe planting the coffee beans right?”
“Or perhaps only when Kisaki-san is brewing the coffee, the background music within the store is Mozart or something.”
“Impossible. And the effects of Mozart currently doesn’t have any scientific basis.”
In the end, with regards to the secret of Kisaki’s coffee, there was no conclusion no matter how they discussed it.
Even though a lot of customers came before the end of the diner period, but it is already 10pm now, and the time which high school student Chiho should get off work.
Maou said to Chiho who changed into casual clothing and walked out of the employee room,
“Then, be careful when you go home okay.”
“Yeah, thank you for the hard work.”
Chiho bowed to Maou and the remaining staff.
“If something happens, then use the voice you trained before to shout loudly.”
“Eh……ah, hm, how, how do you expect me to answer that!”
Chiho, who discovered that the other party was joking after thinking for a while, gripped her handphone while blushing furiously.
“Yeah, just be careful. And……”
“What else is there!”
Faced with an angry Chiho----
“I haven’t said this to you yet, thank you for working hard for me.”
Maou said in a soft volume which the other staff could not hear, and Chiho blushed this time for a reason opposite from being angry.
“It, it’s not as if I only did this for Maou-san!”
Even so, Chiho still walked out quickly because she bore a grudge against the other party taking a jibe at her.
In a rare occasion, Chiho was carrying a large sized shoulder bag. Considering the time now, she shouldn’t have any plans after this, so perhaps she must have practiced some place during the day.
Just as Maou shrugged and gave a sigh, and slowly started to make preparations for closing up----
“Ah……Chi-chan has already gone back?”
Kisaki came down from the second floor.
Maou became a bit doubtful. Because before Chiho changed clothes and prepared to knock off from work, she should have already reported this to Kisaki first.
“After that, did she continue shouting loudly?”
In a rare occurance, Kisaki asked about Chiho’s situation in a tired manner without a domineering air.
“……Is something wrong? Do you feel sick?”
It wasn’t strange that Maou would ask this before answering Kisaki’s question.
Even Maou, as the Demon King, had never seen someone like Kisaki who did not know what being tired was. As the shop manager, there were times when Kisaki was not in the store for the whole day, and times when she was busy from morning to night because of shift arrangements, but it wasn’t know what secret method she has, she had never shown obvious signs of tiredness in front of the employees.
And that kind of Kisaki, not only was she using her left hand to press against her temple, faint black eye circles also appeared below her eyes, even her voice had lost her domineering tone, causing others to be worried for her health condition.
“Ah……I’m sorry.”
Kisaki’s head shot upwards after hearing Maou’s question, and in a rare action, frantically swept her eyes over the customer seating area, and lastly gave a sigh of relief for reasons Maou did not know about and showed a wry smile.
Just to mention, at the first floor seating area which maintained the normal business type, there were only two groups of young people, who look like university students, chatting, the remaining seats were all empty.
“Actually going all out, it’s really not my style. But things are harder to handle than expected, how tiring.”
Maou received another shock.
Without talking about going all out, depressing words like ‘how tiring’, it was difficult to imagine that Kisaki would say those words.
Maou tilted his head to look at the brand new LCD screen at the corner for the first floor cashier counter.
This screen is a newly installed equipment for the staff on the first floor to confirm the empty seats situation on the second floor, but looking over there, there shouldn’t be anyone on the second floor now.
“Wh, what happened……”
Kisaki actually could frown and massage her own shoulders, even since Maou started working at MgRonalds, this is his first time seeing this scene.
Even though Maou’s tone was shaky, but Kisaki only looked at Maou in an astonished manner, and did not answer his question.
“So what happened with Chi-chan later?”
“Y, yeah, even though there was some close shaves, but everything was normal after that.”
“Is that so.”
Kisaki nodded in amazement, and rotated her shoulders backwards with some force.
“It looks like Chi-chan has also found a new goal.”
“Ah?”
Maou widened his eyes in surprise.
Right now, Chiho was advancing towards a certain goal, and shouting loudly is also one of the stages.
Kisaki cooly used the first floor cashier machine to open up the daily revenue table for the day. Even though it looks like she only casually said the sentence, but why would Kisaki think that way?
After the short palpitation subsided, Maou sensed something strange in Kisaki’s choice of words.
“May I know what you mean by Chi-chan ‘has also’?”
“……uh?”
Kisaki sucked in a breath because of Maou’s question, and immediately shook her head as if in regret.
“Ah, I’m just a little tired, don’t think too much about it.”
Kisaki said in a low tone.
Just hearing this sentence, Maou’s curiously took a 180 degree turn and settled down.
It looks like this question was more delicate than he thought. The relationship between Maou and Kisaki was not at the stage where he could continue asking about it.
“Then, can I ask something else which I am bothered about?”
“Hm?”
“Chi-chan and I both feel confused, even though we are using the same machine to brew coffee, why is the taste between Kisaki-san’s and ours……”
“Ah?”
“so different……?”
A wave of fear like being attacked by someone even though his curiousity had turned a 180 degrees assaulted Maou.
Maou actually asked this question in a drive to improve, but after hearing Kisaki’s answer, in a tone lower than before, and giving off a dangerous aura, his volume at the end of the sentence became softer and softer.
Kisaki shot Maou and gaze which was enough to cause the Demon King to tremble in fear.
In the eyes of a bystander, this period of time should not be more than one second. But to Maou, it felt an eternity.
However, in the next instant, Kisaki’s gaze suddenly changed, even her line of sight started to waver.
Maou started to feel that there will not be anything else which would surprise him today.
Just as Kisaki’s dangerous gaze shifted away from Maou for 0.1 seconds, wavering, and moved back to its original position, Maou felt as if he had seen a naked and unguarded expression which he could not imagine on the usual Kisaki.
“……I’m sorry, please wait for me a bit.”
Kisaki closed the images of the daily revenue table, and walked to the employee room after apologizing honestly.
Kisaki should have noticed that Maou had already discovered her internal conflict. From how she had no intention to make excuses for it, it was still the usual Kisaki after all.
Maou felt troubled because of the various unfamilar expressions of Kisaki he had seen in the last five minutes.
Maou looked at the door of the employee room in a daze, and heard the turning of the old printer coming from within, then Kisaki immediately came out holding a piece of paper.
And when Kisaki came out, she showed a strangely embarrassed expression because she met Maou’s gaze, this was surprising as well.
“If you’re interested, do you want to try?”
Kisaki passed the paper in her hand to Maou.
Even though there were many things to be concerned about, but Maou still glanced towards the contents on the paper.
“MgRonalds Barista?”
After seeing the words on the title, Maou felt a little confused.
Talking about barista, the first thing that came to mind is the fixed ballista built on the castle walls or chariots.
(T/N: In Japanese, the characters ‘R’ and ‘L’ can be interchangeable to them, so barista ends up soundinglike ballista.)
Because Maou tried to imagine using arrows to shoot out the hamburgers, he almost laughed out loud.
“Do you know what a barista is?”
“It shouldn’t……refer to arrows right?”
“What did you say?”
“No, nothing……I never heard of it.”
Maou honestly answered Kisaki’s question.
“Sigh, perhaps that term isn’t that common yet. You just have to know that in Japan, it refers to someone with specialized knowledge of coffee.”
“Specialised knowledge of coffee?”
Maou repeated Kisaki’s words and browsed through the document in his hand.
It looks like this was an explanation extracted from the MgRonalds employee notice.
In other for business staff to be able to surely handle MgRonalds products and provide it to the customers, the domestic head company of MgRonalds and the various branches opened up related lectures.
Even though these lectures are basically open for regular employees to train, but it seems like as long as there is a certain standard of work experience and a set amount of learning fees is paid, even part time employees would be able to participate in this ‘MgRonalds Barista’ lecture.
As for the lecture contents, it teaches how to brew the coffee in the MdCafe series. By participating in a one day practice, specialized knowledge on operating the machine and processing the coffee beans can be learned.
“The company has set a rule that any branches with a MdCafe set up needs to be manned by a person with a ‘MgRonalds Barista’ qualification.”
“I, I see……”
What is means, is that there is a fundamental difference between a barista and Maou and the others, who simply operate the coffee machine based on standard operating procedure.
Even though it’s doubtful if such an extreme difference in taste can be created with just going through one day of lecture and practice, but in Maou’s eyes, without considering if he could surpass Kisaki’s coffee, just being able to obtain specialised knowledge on handling the products is already charming enough.
“However the term barista, originally doesn’t refer to a specialist who has expertise in coffee.”
“Eh?”
Kisaki suddenly said, causing Maou, who had just confirmed the date of the lecture, to raise his head.
“The origin of the term barista, comes from Italian. As Italian bars are stores which provide light meals and drinks, so compared to the bartender, a professional in alcoholic drinks, a barista is a professional in all non-alcoholic drinks, including coffee, to serve customers. Even though the awareness in Japan is low, but the occupation of barista, chef, pâtissier and bartender is the same, they are professionals whom the food and breverage sector is proud of.”
“Is, is that so?”
Maou felt intimidated because of Kisaki’s sudden explanation.
“On the other hand, amongst the baristas working in proper bars, there are people who are unwilling to call themselves baristas. Because not only drinks, they even have to be in charge of the food, store facilities, tools and customer service, all the services, so they think of themselves as a professional in all areas. People like that are called barmen. They are a group of people to know the bar inside out----which is all the services within the store, focusing on handling everything based on the situation within the store, people who make it a goal to provide the highest level of service to the customers.”
“O, oh……”
Not only did Kisaki get rid of the tiredness before, liveliness suddenly returned to her eyes, and she started saying this agitatedly.
Faced with Kisaki’s multitude of expressions, Maou could only reply vaguely, but he did not miss the last sentence which Kisaki said with passion.
“My goal, is to become that barman!”
“!”
This could be the first time Maou heard the true personal desires of Kisaki Mayumi and not the shop manager Kisaki of the MgRonalds in front of Hatagaya station.
As expected of Kisaki, even her true desires has something to do with work.
“Then if Kisaki-san becomes very successful in MgRonalds, it will be very amazing.”
The daily revenue of the store in front of Hatagaya station always surpasses the previous year by 100%, Maou could also understand how abnormal this is.
Maou frequently thought that with Kisaki’s ability, it was impossible for her to continue being stationed in this kind of small store and should manage a larger area.
For Maou, who wishes to be a full time employee, Kisaki has always been his goal, but he couldn’t imagine that Kisaki actually haboured such great ambitions.
Even though Maou was awed until he momentarily forgot that he normally declares that he iwa going to conquer the world, Kisaki actually looked at Maou in surprise.
“What are you talking about. How is it possible in MgRonalds……”
“……Eh?”
“Ah……”
Maou felt that he seemed to have heard something which he shouldn’t.
And Kisaki should be discovered it. It looks like Kisaki was really different from normal today.
“……Actually chatting with the employees even as a shop manager, I’m being such a bad example.”
Kisaki quickly ended this topic, and awkwardly looked towards the explanation in Maou’s hand.
“In short, if you want to catch up to my skills, why don’t you try and participate? If it’s Ma-kun, who has been a shift manager before, you shouldn’t need to pay the lecture fees. Let me know if you want to participate.”
“Al, alright……”
“Then I’ll be going upstairs first. I’ll leave the first floor to you.”
Even though Kisaki acted like normal when she turned to go upstairs, but it feels as if her talking speed was a little faster than normal.
Most importantly, Maou did not miss the slight discrepancy in Kisaki’s tone.
However, even so, he still prayed it was only his own imagination.
※
“Eh?”
Maou, who returned to the apartment, momentarily felt confused when he discovered that the lights of Suzuno’s room on the second floor are still on.
Because Suzuno, as an inquisitor, always slept and woke early, so normally when Maou reached home, her room lights would have been turned off already.
“Hey, what’s up with Suzuno.”
Maou asked Ashiya, who had came to the porch to greet him.
“Welcome back, Demon King-sama. Sasaki-san came just now, and the two of them seems to be doing something now, I guess they should be practicing spells again?”
Ashiya replied naturally.
“Chi-chan? Shouldn’t she have gone home after getting off work? It’s already past midnight right now. What is that Suzuno doing, let her go home already.”
Actually letting a high school girl stay out so late, as a Demon King, it looks like he would have to lecture her a bit.
Before Ashiya could stop him, Maou had already put his shoes back on and knocked on the door of room 202.
“Hey, Chi-chan, are you there? It’s already past midnight, you should go home already.”
“You’re noisy, Demon King.”
Suzuno looked out from the door with an unhappy look on her face. Seeing that the kimono she wore was simpler than normal, it should be the casual clothes she wore at home or her sleeping clothes.
As for Chiho, she was looking in their direction from within the room with a troubled look on her face.
“Do you think you’re her guardian. I have already received approval from Chiho-dono’s mother, she has arranged to stay at my place tonight.”
“……O, oh, I see.”
“That’s right……I’m sorry.”
Chiho, who had just parted ways with him at the store, was bowing in his direction and apologizing while in pajamas.
It looks like the luggage Chiho carried when she went back were the things she prepared to stay over in Suzuno’s room.
“Uh, erhm, how should I put this, please don’t push yourself, okay.”
“Alright……”
“Even if you do not say it, I will also take good care of Chiho-dono. The training has already finished, and we were just talking happily about female topics. There’s no need for you to interfere at all.”
After saying this, Suzuno shut the door without waiting for Maou to reply.
“……what is this about female topics.”
Maou mumbled unhappily and returned to the Demon Fortress feeling depressed.
“About that……Sasaki-san did come over here first to greet us and explained that she had gotten permission from her mother……”
He probably heard the conversation between Maou and Suzuno, Ashiya said this with a guilty look on his face, but Maou only waved his hand to dismiss him.
Glancing at Ashiya’s back who was preparing supper with a gloomy contenance, Maou started to read the “MgRonalds Barista” explanation which he received from Kisaki.
“‘Normality’ huh, such a fated word.”
“Why did you say such a thing all of a sudden.”
Urushihara’s sharp hearing picked up on Maou’s mumble, and asked this.
“Hm? I just have a strong feeling that everyone has changed without being aware of it. Something like normality will not change at all, but only flows at a speed which the eye cannot see.”
“Ah? What are you saying these all of a sudden. Even Maou has become strange?”
Urushihara laughed off the sadness Maou showed which was not Demon King like and all and said,
“But that’s what makes it interesting, it would be strange if nothing changed at all.”
“……I don’t want to be told that by you the most.”
Maou felt unhappy because his rare moment of sadness was actually concluded by a freeloading NEET.
“I think no one else would be able to as keenly aware of this feeling more than me.”
“Then in order to be able to properly experience the changes in normality, why don’t you help with the housework? Hm?”
At this moment, Ashiya also carried out rice dumplings filled with plum, dried fish and perilla as well as warmed up miso soup, and joined in the conversation of the two people, and Maou’s sadness disappeared in the corner of his heart amongst his appetite and the quarrel of splitting the housework.
※
“But then again, I never thought that you’ll be able to cause the holy magic to activate in a stable manner within a week. With this, perhaps you’ll be able to start with the basic training for mental transmission.”
“Really?”
Suzuno and Chiho held a glass cup filled with wheat tea with one hand and sat down facing each other next to the window.
Amongst the smell of the burning mosquito incense, the two people held fans in one hand and talked about things which had nothing to do with female topics.
“My club teacher had said before, when doing muscle training and flexibility exercises, if one is aware of the part of the body which moves during the exercise, then the effect will differ by a lot. So when I am shouting, I would always shout while paying attention to the changes within the body.”
“Even so, it’s not something which everyone can do, after all it will be a problem of feeling at that standard. If Chiho-dono was born in Ente Isla, you’ll definitely become an outstanding warlock.”
After saying her praises honestly, she intentionally showed a stern expression.
“Ah, but even then, I won’t teach you spells other than mental transmission okay?”
“I know that. But I’m happy that I am able to get your praise.”
Chiho drank one mouthful of wheat tea and looked at the summer night sky with a sigh.
“I’m not being anxious, but I still hope to be able to learn how to use mental transmission as early as possible----while Suzuno-san and Yusa-san still have free time.”
“Even though saying this is a bit much, but I’m quite free everyday, you know?”
Suzuno gave a wry smile. Even though she was a capable inquisitor in Ente Isla, but she is living a jobless life which is difficult to understand in Japan.
Especially since the reopening of the MgRonalds in front of Hatagaya sation, during the day, Maou would be near the archangel Sariel, who had the effect of suppressing the influence of the Demon World.
Because the chances of demons approaching Maou will be decreased as long as Maou stays within Sariel’s range of influence, so Suzuno, who did not need to watch Maou, started to spend more and more time at home recently.
Even though behind the action of staying at home also includes watching and protecting Ashiya and Urushihara, but this job was not so demanding that she was unable to respond to Chiho’s request.
“I don’t mean it that way. But I feel……”
Chiho’s gaze flickered as she looked at the sky, looking for a more appropriate explanation.
“Ever since that huge incident as Tokyo Tower, some things have become a little different from before.”
“Some things……refer to?”
Suzuno raised an eyebrow, and drank a mouthful of wheat tea.
“Even though various commotions such as Sariel-san, Gabriel-san and the demons at Choshi have happened, but even so, Maou-san and Yusa-san have never quarreled directly right?”
Even though it feels that the two people should be arguing once they meet, but what Chiho wants to express should refer to battles where they really hurt each other.
“But ever since that incident at Tokyo Tower, didn’t Yusa-san become a little strange?”
“……”
Chiho told Suzuno, that she had told Maou and Emi who had visited her about the memories which did not belong to her.
“Ever since then, Yusa-san and Maou-san seemed to be troubled over something……Suzuno-san, can you hear me out without getting angry?”
“This would have to depend on the contents.”
Suzuno maintained a stable expression, and prompted Chiho to continue speaking in a bantering manner.
“Earlier, didn’t everyone gather in Suzuno-san’s room to eat, because a hole was caused in Maou-san’s home?”
“Even though it’s something which did not occur that long ago, but because a lot of things happened recently, so it feels like memories from a long time ago.”
Suzuno and Chiho surveyed the whole room.
“Even though it’s just my personal stubbornness, but I really feel that it would be good if everyone could forget the complicated matters of Ente Isla, and continue with that kind of normal life----Urushihara-san just caring about playing, causing Ashiya-san to get angry, and Suzuno-san having no choice but to clean up the scene, but because Maou-san spoilt Alas=Ramus too much, he would immediately get into an argument with a complaining Yusa-san……I feel that these things will not happen unless the relationship is very good……perhaps you may feel that I am too naïve……”
Chiho shrank back because she remembered the conflict she had with Suzuno in the past.
Even though Suzuno still remembered that incident, but today, she had no intentions to lecture Chiho. Rather than that, Suzuno started to feel a strong resonance towards this kind of thinking.
“It looks like I have fallen as well.”
“Eh?”
“It’s nothing, and then?”
The bladeness fan placed near the kitchen circulated the air within the room, causing the incense smoke to slowly drift outside.
“Okay……but Maou-san, Ashiya-san and Urushihara-san, are still demons who caused great suffering to the people of Ente Isla, Yusa-san and Suzuno-san also have to defeat Maou-san and the others……I always feel very uneasy, I’m worried that this happy normal life will be destroyed by a certain moment, have a tragic moment occur, and perhaps everyone will disappear in front of me.”
“……”
“After that incident on Tokyo Tower, Yusa-san has been troubled over a certain issue. That probably, has something to do with the information I told her……in the past, as long as Yusa-san sees Maou-san, she would rebuke him on reflex, but recently, she always acts like she is thinking about something when she talks to him……”
When Suzuno was listening, she started to admire Chiho’s observation ability.
From the way Chiho spoke, Maou and Emi shouldn’t have thold Chiho the true meaning behind ‘the memories which did not belong to her’.
However, Chiho, who thought of the two people as important, still easily sensed that that incident was the reason behind both their odd behaviours.
“In the end, whether it is the war in Ente Isla, or the splitting of demonic forces in the Demon World, aren’t they incidents which occurred in a place with no direct relation to Yusa-san and Maou-san? But for example, the person who lent me powers, the memories hosted in my brain, Gabriel-san and the other angel attacked by me……it feels that everyone is forcefully dragging Yusa-san and Maou-san back to the original painful location bit by bit.”
Without being aware of it, Chiho started to lower her hand, talking to the tatami.
It was certain that within Chiho’s heart, she probably still hasn’t sorted out her feelings and thoughts. Her tone sounded like she was fumbling for something by asking and answering her own questions.
“Chiho-san, I, ever since I came to Japan, I felt that the belief within my heart has become fainter.”
“Eh?”
Suzuno’s confession out of the blue caused Chiho to not follow the conversation.
“If God is really omnipotent, and everything on Earth is God’s creation, then why isn’t this world filled with people with kind hearts like Chiho-dono.”
“Eh, th, there’s nothing like that!”
Suddenly being praised so greatly like that, Chiho nearly spilled her wheat tea panicking from embarassement.
“Within the legends spead by the Church, there is a story called “Helorisas Scroll’. God commanded Herlorisas to take care of a scroll, and instructed him strictly never to open it. But in the end, Helorisas lost to his curiousity in the end and opened the scroll. Then he discovered that the various negative feelings gathered from all over the world was collected within it, and at the moment the scroll was opened, these negative feeelings materialized into languages and invaded human hearts. However, within the scroll remained the only thing which could suppress these feelings, ‘Hope’.”
“We also have a story called ‘Pandora’s Box’ on our end, but the content of both series are similar.”
“Thinking back carefully, the first time I doubted if God was really an absolute presence, was after I heard this story. If God is really omnipotent, then why would humans form negative feelings. And even though Helorisas lived in a world which not not filled with negative feelings, why would he develop a negative heart to disobey the command of God, this felt contradictory to me. Moreover, this feels like God pushed the responsibility of his bad management to humans, isn’t this vexing?”
Suzuno said rude comments which were not inquisitor-like, and looked towards Chiho with a kind gaze.
“About that. Even so, I still cannot deny that there are people who do need religion in this world……or more like they need the existence of God.”
“Being understanding of other opinions while maintaining one’s own opinion, this is commendable. Maybe Chiho-dono should be worshipped as a god in future.”
“Wh, what are you talking about!”
“What I mean is, when weak people lost the something they believe in, they need a more developed guidepost.”
Suzuno finished the wheat tea in her cup and looked out of the window.
“Now, Emilia has lost her guidepost.”
“Eh?”
“Let me give you an example. Hypotechnically, if Chiho-dono worked hard with all her might, forgoing food and sleep in order to qualify for your first choice of university, and kept at it without slacking, but when you headed to the exam venue with vigourous spirits on the day of the exam, you discover that only the exams held on that day have been changed into a flower arranging competition, what would you think?”
“What kind of example is that?”
Chiho, who was too worked up when she rebuked, was close to dropping her glass cup once again.
“So I said it’s just an example, just an example. If the exam you expected suddenly changed into a difficult topic of a totally different nature, causing what you learnt after sacrificing everything to be useless, what will you feel?”
“Eh……?”
Even though her brain was unable to keep up with Suzuno’s extremely off topic example, Chiho still thought about it seriously.
“B, but I don’t understand flower arrangement at all, and using that kind of content to decide whether a person passes is really not common sense at all, but I might not want to participate at all……”
“But you should at least know how to use flowers to express something right. If the other party prepared various kind of flowers in advance, would you still be unable to do it?”
“That’s true, but……”
“University itself is still able to let Chiho-dono learn what you want to learn, this doesn’t change at all. It’s just that the exam subject at that time is changed from humanities and sciences to flower arrangement.”
“That, should just be an example right? The important point is, even though I am chasing after a target, but because of a totally uexpected reason, I started to feel lost and confused about that target right?”
“Chiho-dono is really acute. So if I do not raise this joke like example, you might treat this matter too seriously.”
Suzuno smiled and looked towards the wall closer to the Demon Fortress.
“The Demon King is not the enemy which Emilia always wanted to take revenge against.”
“……Eh?”
Chiho was unable to understand the meaning behind this simple explanation, so she once again expressed her uncertainty.
“Not only that, Emilia’s father, who she thought was killed by the Demon Armym seems to be still alive. Even though Emilia seems to be chasing and fighting the Demon King like this because she wanted to take revenge for her father.”
Emilia was the savior of Ente Isla, and has always been fighting in order to defeat the Demon King, and Chiho also knew about this.
“Logically, as long as she kills the Demon King, Emilia would be able to achieve her goal, and truly end her journey. However, her father is still alive, and Emilia has lost her guidepost because of this.”
“W, why? Since Yusa-san’s father is still alive, then there should be no need to force herself to kill Maou-san who is living in Japan, and she just has to find her father right?”
“Then why does Chiho-dono dislike flower arrangement?”
“……………………………Ah.”
Eve though Chiho still needed some time to understand the meaning behind Suzuno’s words, but she still tried to reply,
“Because the things which I have done and believed, are all wasted……? Because all of this has become meaningless?”
“This is what should be felt normally. Even though other people are able to say flowery words like ‘There is nothing is life which is wasted’ or ‘that experience will be useful in life one day’, but the person himself is unable to be so open minded. Even if they are imprisoned by helplessness in the moment when they have to do flower arrangement is announced, and start to suspect what the worth of they have done so far is, who would be able to lecture that person.”
“……”
Suzuno frowned sadly.
“What’s worse is that, Emilia had already been betrayed by Ente Isla once.”
Chiho remembered Emi’s companions unexpectedly choosing to explain these things in the Demon Fortress.
“About that, is it referring to the Church lying by saying that Yusa-san is already dead?”
Suzuno nodded to affirm Chiho’s statement.
“You are correct. If Ente Isla could give positive comments about Emilia’s actions as the Hero, and allow her to receive the rewards she deserves, then Emilia could have used this support as backing to maintain her willpower in fighting the Demon King, letting him pay the price for the evil deeds he had done. However……”
Suzuno continued speaking with a dark expression,
“The reality is the opposite. The Church, with their strategic considerations, announced that Emilia is dead, and the people believed it. Including the Church, Ente Isla, who was saved by the Hero, judged that there was no need for the existence of a Hero after the end of the fighting with the Demon Army, and betrayed her.”
Next, Olba, who knew that Emi was still alive, together with Heaven, set their eyes on the Holy Sword, and because they feared that she still had power after fighting the Demon King, sent assassins to bury her in the darkness.
“B, but aren’t Emeralda-san and Alberto-san working hard to regain Yusa-san’s reputation? Aren’t they really amazing people in Ente Isla?”
Chiho tried to say this energetically, but Suzuno’s expression did not change at all.
“But the results are not ideal. The authority and trustworthiness of the Church is that strong, and even Emeralda-san finds it hard to oppose the Church directly because she needs to worry about the reactions within the country. In reality, before I came here, there are already opinions appearing within the Church to brand Emeralda-san, who has repeatedly protested against the Church’s opinions, as a traitor.”
“How can this be……because, even though the one who is lying is……”
“It is the Chruch. But the Church cannot repeal the opinion which they have already stated. If the Church has stated that white is black, then white is black. That is our world, at least in the Western Continent.”
Suzuno said in self-mockery, and poured more wheat tea into the glass cup.
Suzuno herself has already been disgusted with that kind of attitude with the Church.
After putting the wheat tea into the fridge, Suzuno, who returned to the window, sighed like she was readjusting her feelings.
“The reason for Emilia being able to fight as a Hero all this time, was because she had the goal of taking revenge on the Demon King who killed her father sooner or later. But in reality, that Demon King is not the killer of her father, and being unable to forgive the brutal actions of the Demon Army, the moral indignation she felt as a Hero was trampled upon by us who have been saved. But even so……”
“Even if she was told that the hatred and anger she held all this time has no meaning, she is unable to give up so easily right.”
“But if she doesn’t abandon these negative feelings, this time it will be Emilia who creates new sadness and hatred. So just use the memories of the victims, restore the fighting spirit of the Hero and fight the Demon King immediately!”
At this moment, it wasn’t known what kind of expressions Emi and Maou would show. Even though it is just a hypothetical question, but Chiho still felt a strange bitter sense of pain.
“If the Demon King is challenged by someone, then Alsiel and Lucifer will not simply stand by and do nothing. However, the way they are now, there aren’t a match for Emilia at all. Those three demons will disappear in this world. Can Chiho-dono forgive this?”
“I……”
Unable to forgive, but forgiveness must be given. But in the end, forgiveness still cannot be given. Forgive who?
“To me……Yusa-san is also an important person……”
“Emilia also understands that, which is why she is in a dilemma right now. Logically, to Emilia, the fact that her father still lives is very good news. But she must be disappointed at herself who is unable to feel happy honestly.”
“Yusa-san……she didn’t tell Emeralda-san and Alberto-san about this…?”
“How can she tell them. Even if the two people are able to understand Emilia’s true intentions, do you think they will say ‘Since your father is still alive, then give up fighting the Demon King’?”
With Emilia’s personality, she definitely won’t be able to accept it at all.
“Right now, Emilia doesn’t even know what colour of flower to choose, and can only stand at one spot without moving.”
Simply put, this is the reason why Emi was showing such a difficult to understand attitude to Maou.
The wavering in her heart made her unable to maintain the hostile distance and let it down, and in reaction to that, she ended up being more severe with Maou.
Emi, who was uable to find a place for her heart, lost her goal just like that.
“Perhaps because of that……she decided to teach Chiho-dono spells.”
Suzuno suddenly looked back towards Chiho’s forehead and said this.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
Faced with the steady questioning, Suzuno used her finger holding the fan to point towards Chiho’s head.
“The memories which Chiho-dono told Emilia……which is the man standing at the wheat fields; thinking about it normally, it should be Emilia’s father. In addition, with regards to the term Acies=Ara……”
Suzuno said so reluctantly.
“Acies=Ara. In the Central Trading language of Ente Isla, it means ‘Winged Blade’.”
“Winged Blade?”
“Even though it cannot be understood by just looking at the words. But with us, there is someone whose name has something to do with ‘Wings’.”
Chiho, who immediately thought of the answer, sucked in a breath.
“……Alas=Ramus-chan……her name seems to be ‘Winged Branch’ right?”
Suzuno nodded, her face filled with admiration.
“That’s right, there is an 80 to 90 percent chance that Acies=Ara is a term related to Alas=Ramus or the ‘Yesod’ fragment. Camio seemed to have mentioned that there are two Holy Swords.”
Suzuno said for confirmation, and Chiho also nodded after hearing this.
“Perhaps this term Acies=Ara, is the name of the other Holy Sword……no, perhaps it refers to an existence within the sword. If so, to Emilia, her father still being alive, Alas=Ramus appearing at the Demon Fortress, herself having the ‘Evolving Holy Sword, One Wing’, as well as Chiho-dono’s ring, no matter how you think about it, these things happening around her are planned by someone beforehand, and the initiator might just be……”
Even if the last part of the sentence is not said, Chiho, who had witnessed every battle occurring in Japan, also knew the answer.
“Yusa-san’s……mother?”
When Emi was in the hospital, she had subconsciously said one sentence----
“……why……even though she is watching from the sidelines, why hasn’t she come to find me yet……”
Within those words which she squeezed out with effort, what kind of thoughts were embodied within them.
“Whether is it Sariel-sama, Gabriel, Raguel, Camio, or Ciriatto, perhaps even Barbariccia and Olba-sama, can be said to have been manipulated by Emilia’s mother in some way. No, perhaps the whole of Ente Isla is like that. After all, a war revolving around Emilia’s holy sword is occurring now in Ente Isla. Chiho-dono, if it was you, how would you feel?”
“About what?”
“If Chiho-dono’s mother left the house since you were wrong, never returned at all, and spread seeds of commotion everywhere which will implicate your family, friends, other people, or even the whole world, then pushed all the responsibility to Chiho-dono.”
Chiho, who was asked this, tried to imagine.
If her own mother is actually a spy of a certain country, and after entering a loveless marriage with her father, her mother left her in Japan and left home, then constantly manipulated various conflicts in the background causing many people to die, and someday suddenly sent a letter to her with ‘the fate of the world lies with you’ written on it, throwing her into a war between terrorists with their sights on nuclear weapons, undergoing training strict and harsh enough to numb the spirit, becoming a member of the American Special Operations Team well known all over
the world, then after finding out that her father is actually the mastermind behind all the incidents, and her mother, after a process filled with fresh blood and tragedy, was hit by a bullet in a battle to stop her father, and died in her arms after entrusting everything to her.
“The only one who can stop father is me……I will not hesitate even if I have to perish together with him!”
“Why has it turned out like that, and where does your honourable father fit into all this.”
Chiho blinked because of Suzuno’s rebuttal, and then franctically pulled herself back to reality from her imagined Hollywood movie.
“Well, in short.”
Even though the atmosphere was overwhelmed by Chiho’s active imagination, Suzuno still coughed once and said,
“Because she is facing this situation, so Emilia is unable to act like her usual self. Considering the method of teaching Chiho-dono self defense, not only will it guarantee the safety of Chiho-dono, it can also be a change of pace for Emilia, of course, I had no reasons to strongly protest against this. Even though these words might cause Emilia to get angry.”
Suzuno said with a wry smile.
“However Emilia, until now, has only being driven on by the thoughts of revenge and duty, and did not have the time to think or be troubled over her way of life. However, just from the result, it can be said because Emilia came to Japan, she received the chance to be able to re-think her way of life.”
Suzuno stood up and took Chiho’s and her empty glass to the vanity for soaking in water.
“In conclusion, it’s best not to have Emilia and the Demon King interact for the time being. Luckily, MgRonalds has reopened, with this, I, Emilia and the Demon King would not need to be as wary again.”
“Eh, what is that supposed to mean?”
“Do you remember those demons who attacked Choshi? It seems that a group of demons led by Barbariccia went separate ways from Camio, and attacked Ente Isla once again under command of Olba-sama.”
“Eh? Is, is it alright like that?”
The demons of the Demon World breaking away from the command of Demon King Maou and creating a new army, and actually being commanded by Olba from the shadows, isn’t that a very serious situation?
“This is something to be worried about. But compared to the invasion now, Emilia and I are more worried about Maou and Alsiel being kidnapped by those demons and brought to Ente Isla to become the leader of the new Demon Army. Even if the Demon King seems to be unhappy with the actions of Barbariccia, but we still can’t let our guard down.”
“O, oh……”
Chiho was unable to understand why this situation, which made others feel like it was bad just hearing about it, had anything to do with the reopening of MgRonalds.
“Isn’t Sariel-sama at the Kentucky opposite? Even though there is also unstable conduct from the angels, but their actions had nothing to do with Barbariccia’s group. If they wish to attack the Demon King while he is at work, then it would definitely involve Manager Kisaki, if so, Sariel-sama will definitely not ignore this. Even though I am rather apologetic towards Manager Kisaki for one sidedly giving her the responsibility of being something like a defense mechanism.”
“Ah……”
“Of course, I do not feel that Sariel-sama and the Demon King will be standing on the same line, but as long as the Demons discover the holy magic presence at the level of Sariel-sama, they might be too afraid to approach. No matter how Olba-sama and those demons evaluate, they should not want to take the risk of provoking an archangel. If they’re not careful, Heaven might end up making Barbariccia their target.”
Chihio tried to imagine what kind of standing Sariel had in Suzuno’s plans.
The important thing is the hope that Sariel, who had no direct relation to Olba and Barbariccia, would be able to have a deterring influence.
And one the keys is Sariel’s deep affection for Kisaki.
Chiho, who instantly understood the situation, subconsciously commented because she remembered a certain incident,
“Ah……th, then the situation right now, might be a bit bad.”
“What?”
Suzuno, in the kitchen, turned around and asked in confusion.
“Sa, Sariel-san…… right now, might be unable to fight no matter what happens.”
To Suzuno, Chiho’s words were like a bolt out of the blue.
“Wh, what is that supposed to mean?”
“Ac, actually, the day before we went to Choshi……”
Chiho told Suzuno, that Kisaki, after seeing the scene of Sariel harassing Chiho, forbidden him from entering MgRonalds, and Sariel had entered a good-for-nothing state because of the overly huge shock.
“After that, even though I have seen Sariel-san a few times, but everytime he always showed a depressed expression which can make others think ‘so people can also be depressed to this point’, even if he wore the striking Kentucky uniform and goes out, his presence was so weak a dog took him for a telephone pole and peed on him.”
As this situation really sounded so pathetic, Suzuno was momentarily stunned in disbelief.
At the same time, a worrying memory surfaced in Suzuno’s mind.
Suzuno remembered the strangely weak reaction she found when she transmitted a sonar at Yoyogi Docodemo Tower during the commotion caused by Gabriel and Raguel.
“Hahaha, st, stop with the jokes. No matter how he fell, he’s still an archangel yeah? How can it be……”
Even so, Suzuno still confirmed it again because she found it hard to believe, Chiho shook her head with a pained expression and replied,
“And that was a Chihuahua.”
Not only can this not be considered an answer, it was also the most unimportant information to date.
※
“Welcome, there’s a clearer menu here.”
The next day. Even though the time not being dinnertime yet is a factor, but Sentucky at Hatagaya station was only half filled with customers.
Even so, the atmosphere within the store was still very bright, the female employees at the counter also greeted Chiho and the rest with cheerful voices.
To make it easier for the customers to see, the newly fried chicken were clearly placed behind the counter to whet the appetite, however it was a pity that these three new female customers did not come for the chicken.
After Chiho, Emi and Suzuno ordered three cups of iced coffee, they took up seats near the counter and entrance, looking within the store for signs of Sariel.
“He’s not here. Is he at the back? Or in the kitchen or second floor.”
“I hope it’s not like he’s not in the store……”
It was until today did Emi hear the shocking news from Chiho, and so she rushed here once she got off work.
As Emi also placed her expectations on Sariel, and hoped that he is able to cause a strong deterrant effect for the Demon King or the forces of Ente Isla, so she naturally was unable to ignore him entering a good-for-nothing state because he was dumped by Kisaki.
“No, even though it’s weak, but there are traces of him somewhere within the store. Perhaps he is hidden in the cervices or shadow of the furniture.”
Even though it’s not as if they are looking for pests at home, but after hearing Suzuno’s words, Emi naturally surveyed her surroundings.
“It’s true……but to only sense this standard of power even though we’re nearby, it looks like his situation is really bad.”
Chiho did not know how the two people sensed Sariel’s existence.
“Is this also a spell effect?”
After Chiho asked this, she discovered both of them looking at each other with trobled expressions.
“It’s……a bit different from spells.”
“This can only be described as using one’s feeling……that’s right, Chiho-dono, do you remember when the Demon King transformed above the Metropolian building and caused you to find it a bit difficult to breathe?”
“Ye, yeah.”
Chiho remembered that during the battle with Sariel, she had breathing difficulties because she could not resist Maou’s demonic magic after his transformation, and was protected by Suzuno’s barrier.
“Even if you’re not particularly skilled in spells, your body condition will still change because you sensed demonic magic right? We have simply trained that feeling, and sharpened it through experience.”
“Don’t you feel that there is a strange feeling here?”
Emi suddenly pointed directly between Chiho’s eyebrows.
Chiho shifted her line of sight to Emi’s fingertip on reflex, then she felt a slight pressure like the cumulation of blood in a place which she couldn’t name, whether it was the muscle between her brows, skull or nerves.
“Ye,yeah there is, I keep feeling there is an unclear feeling. Augh.”
Chiho couldn’t help but rub her forehead.
“Even though though holy magic is harmless to the human body, but it will still transmit traces resembling presence. So it works as long as you look in the general direction……”
“Shh, he appeared!”
Chiho nodded in response to Emi’s explanation with an uncomfortable expression on her face, then tilted her head upwards because of Suzuno’s reminder.
The small sized Sariel, wearing a suit, was really standing in the direction which Suzuno had looked towards.
However----
“So gloomy……”
“He really looks like a totally different person from before.”
The change in Sariel’s appearance was really huge enough for Chiho and Emi to subsconciously show a blank expression.
From those ghost like steps to the gaunt face, the playboy aura where he wants to flirt with every girl he sees from before could not be sensed at all.
As he had gotten fatter because of his biased preference of eating MgRonalds 3 times a day, his slimmed down appearance looks even unhealthier.
“Thank you for the hard work.”
And without even knowing if he heard his employee’s greeting, Sariel walked out of the store door without any reaction at all.
“What should we do?”
“It’s obvious, of course we chase after him.”
“Wh, why do we chase after him?”
The three of them got up frantically, and left Kentucky chasing after Sariel.
Sariel, who walked without energy, wasn’t that fast, it looks like losing him is not a worry.
“It looks like before anything troublesome happens, we have to find a way to lift his spirits.”
“For me, I already think the situation is troublesome enough now……it’s hard to handle him.”
“If possible, it’s best we talk to him when no one else is around. Let’s follow behind him first, if he plans to go home, then we can just intrude into his house.”
“That’s true. Even if a battle unfortunately occurs, Alas=Ramus should be able to handle his sickle.”
The Hero and the Inquisitor discussed what sounds like the dangerous topic of burglary, causing Chiho to break out in cold sweat because of this, then as if she suddenly remembered something, she flipped open her mobile phone to confirm the time.
“Ah……it’s already 6 o’ clock……”
Because of this sentence, Emi looked towards the MgRonalds opposite.
“Is that so, Chiho has to work later?”
“Yeah, I’m sorry……I don’t think I’ll be able to make it if I went there first and came back……”
“Sorry, it’s because I am unable to get off work earlier.”
“Don’t be, Yusa-san has a job as well, so don’t worry about it. However……”
“I know. We’ll follow first to see the situation. Chiho-dono should do her best at work today.”
“Alright, I’m sorry, being unable to help.”
“It’s nothing like that. Because of Chiho, we know that that idiot angel has become so pathetic, what comes next is our job.”
Emi spoke to assure Chiho, who was feeling down.
After saying farewell to Chiho in front of Sentucky, Emi and Suzuno started to follow Sariel, who walked listlessly.
Both of them used their mobile phone GPS function to confirm the route while passing through the shopping street, after walking past the pedestrian path, they reached an old residential district. And walking further up, they could see an apartment.
“Is it that block?”
Even looking from afar, they could see that the exterior of Sariel’s target apartment is very new.
Even though it’s a low story apartment with land use restriction problems, but from the window design, it can be seen that the partitions within are more spacious then Emi’s room.
From the fact that the front had a single straight two way road which looks like it has a lot of traffic volume, and that the first floor is leased to shops, this place does have a city apartment feel.
One of the two leased shops, was a small convenience store which sells fresh foods.
“It seems to be really convenient for rainy days.”
Suzuno voiced her thoughts filled with daily living.
As for the other side, it was an empty store with a lease notice attached to it, from the atmosphere given off by the exterior fixtures left behind, Emi could deduce that this originally was a café.
Sariel, who looked like he didn’t notice Emi and Suzuno, crossed the pedestrian crossing and walked straight to the entrance of the apartment.
“It looks like this is the place. What is this Heaven’s Chateau……”
Heaven’s Chateau, Hatagaya.
Just as Emi felt dissatisfied about the ironic name of the apartment, she suddenly gasped,
“Eh?”
“What is it?”
Even though the two people intentionally missed a green light to avoid being noticed by Sariel, but Emi widened her eyes because she saw a familiar person who actually walked out from the convenience store below Sariel’s apartment.
That person did not walk in the direction of Emi and Suzuno, and only walked along the path. Emi instantly thought that if they brushed past each other, she should give a greeting, so she temporarily set her line of sight on the other party.
“What is it?”
“You didn’t notice because she’s wearing casual clothing? That person is the shop manager of MgRonalds. Kisaki-san, is it?”
Suzuno heard this and looked over following Emi’s line of sight, but that person had already crossed the next pedestrian crossing, and left their range of sight.
“Kisaki-san……why would she come to this apartment?”
“……Who knows? I do think it should have nothing to do with Sariel.”
“But, are there any other possible reasons?”
“B, but if it is like that, then Sariel shouldn’t be in this gray-man state right?”
“Th, that’s true.”
Just as Emi and Suzuno were discussing feverntly----
““Ah!””
The traffic signal had already changed into a green light without them noticing, and when they did, it was already flashing.
““……Ugh!””
The two people, who decided to frantically cross, had only taken one step when the signal changed completely to red, and they could only stop in their steps.
“……It should be impossible. I don’t think Kisaki-san will take notice of a person like Sariel-sama. And according to Chiho-dono’s information, Sariel-sama became like this because of Kisaki-san’s cold treatment right?”
“That’s true……even though I never really spoke to Kisaki-san directly, but from the impressions I get from what I hear from the Demon King and Chiho, she shouldn’t be interested in weak men who are troubled to this extent once they are dumped.”
Emi and Suzuno, just like this, temporarily became engrossed in their complex emotions.
“Sigh, let’s think about this at a later time. It is still more important to make sure of Sariel-sama’s condition.”
“I wonder if we can get his room number from the mailbox. Ah, but what if an automatic lock is being used?”
Since it’s a new apartment, then it’s possible that they can only enter after getting the resident’s permission. If the target was just Sariel alone, then the two of them will not feel any guilt if even they barge in directly, but they cannot cause trouble to other residents because of this.
Just as the both of them were thinking of other methods to be able to enter Sariel’s home in a reliable and convenient manner----
“”Ah!””
Emi and Suzuno cried out at the same time.
They didn’t think that the key person Sariel, actually walked out from the apartment once again.
Even though the suit he was originally wearing is able to barely keep his normal appearance, but once he changed into sports wear and a wrinked T-shirt, it was really difficult to compliment.
“Messy clothes are the proof of a dilapidated heart.”
Suzuno voiced an unnecessary opinion, it looks like Sariel had something to do and walked towards the convenience store which Kisaki had just walked out of.
“From his state, Kisaki-san shouldn’t have come to look for Sariel.”
“That’s right. Emilia, it’s a green light now, it’s rare for him to come out by himself, we better catch him quickly……”
Suzuno had not finished her sentence when the traffic signal changed to green, just as the both of them decided to walk across the pedestrian crossing quickly----
“!”
Sariel stopped in his steps in front of the convenience store.
“?”
Don’t tell me he discovered that he was being followed? Even though to Emi and Suzuno, who intended to look for Sariel, it didn’t matter even if they were discovered, but he showed no signs of noticing this side.
“……Sariel……sama?”
Suzuno gingerly initiated a conversation with Sariel, standing stunned in front of the convenience store.
“……My……goddess……”
“Eh?”
“Was my goddess just here?”
“Uwahhhh!”
Sariel, with bloodshot eyes, suddenly turned agitatedly and grabbed both of Suzuno’s arms with force.
Suzuno panicked because of Sariel’s sudden violent action.
“What are you doing! Let go of Bell quickly!”
“Answer me, Crestia Bell! She’s here right! My most beloved goddess was here just now right?”
“Pl, please calm down, Sariel-sama! T, the goddess you’re referring to, is it MgRonald’s Manager Kisaki?”
“Is, is she here?”
Once Suzuno said this in confirmation, Sariel’s attitude suddenly softened and looked at Suzuno and Emi with a pleading gaze.
“So what if she’s here! Anyway, let go of Bell quickly! If not, I’ll call the police!”
Even if it’s the police, they should be able to handle the Hero and an Archangel, however Sariel, in an action more honestly than imagined, just let go of Suzuno.
“No……she’s here……I can feel it.”
Sariel’s words were filled with sadness, such that even the harassed Suzuno could not help but feel pity for him.
“This is the smell of my goddess……the smell of coffee made by my goddess’s hands.”
“Disgusting!”
Emi, who couldn’t take it, mercilessly criticized, Sariel slowly sat on the ground.
“Ahh……she was actually in a place I could reach just now……if only time can be turned back……ahh……”
“Hey, Bell, what’s wrong with this guy?”
“I don’t know. Even though I don’t know, someone might call the police if this goes on. Sariel-sama, for now, please stand up first.”
“……Yeah, I’m sorry, I lost control of myself. I’m not buying things anymore, once I think about my goddess, I don’t have the mood anymore.”
Emi and Suzuno silently watched Sariel unsteadily walk back to the apartment.
The two of them decided that it would be best to just affirm Sariel’s current state and residential address for today. Even though there are other things which they wish to ask about, but right now, it looks like Sariel cannot be communicated with at all.
“Room 302 huh.”
From outside, Emi and Suzuno confirmed the mailbox which Sariel checked, and decided to return home.
But it looks like Sariel’s state was worse than imagined.
Even though they know the reason for this is being dumped by Kisaki, so logically, they just have to think of ways to repair their relationship, but Emi and Suzuno only met Kisaki a few times, so they won’t have any way to ask her to forgive Sariel.
[Image of shouting Sariel]
But if this goes on, Sariel would not carry out his function of being a defense mechanism, which would give the demons a chance.
“……Why do we have to go through such headache inducing things for the sake of protecting the Demon King.”
Emi mumbed with complex feeling in a volume which Suzuno couldn’t hear.
※
“Eh? Kisaki-san didn’t come today?”
When Chiho changed and got ready for work, she discovered that Kisaki was nowhere to be seen in the shop.
After asking her work senior at the counter----
“She said she wanted to go out during break time, now Maou is taking care of the second floor.”
Chiho received this answer.
“Is that so? That’s nice, I also wish to go to the second floor soon.”
Even though she said to Maou that she had no confidence a few days ago, Chiho still wanted to man the counter of the new operation model.
But that work senior gave a wry smile and said,
“Is that so? After drinking the coffee made by Kisaki-san, I don’t wish to go up to the second floor anymore. If someone complains that the taste is dfferent from Kisaki-san, I wouldn’t know what to do.”
“Such a thing may happen.”
Chiho gave a wry smile because everyone was thinking of the same thing. Following that----
“Hey, what do you mean by complain, it should be customer’s opinion.”
It wasn’t known when she came back, they only saw her, with her employee vest and hat taken off, with a sunlight resistant shawl draped over her shirt, standing there holding a plastic bag from the convenience store.
“Ah, welcome back. You returned quickly.”
“Hello, Kisaki-san. Did you go out just now?”
“I had some private matters to handle. I’m sorry, I wish to stay in the employee room for the time being. Everything should be alright on the second floor right?”
“Yeah, Maou is barely able to handle it.”
Kisaki glanced at the monitor showing the situation on the second floor.
“Yeah, but we have to let everyone be able to go to the second floor sooner or later, or else I wouldn’t be able to arrange shifts.”
“Then again, Maou seemed to have mentioned a kind of specialized MdCafe license?”
“License?”
The work senpai said something unexpected, after Kisaki glanced at him, she nodded nonchalantly.
“It’s not as if you can’t enter MdCafe without it. But at least, those people who participated in the lecture, would be able to obtain a rather cool looking accreditation certificate.”
“Accrediation certificate……is it the thing placed on the second floor with Kisaki-san’s photo on it?”
“That’s right. That is only for placing within the store, with just that, customers would know that there is a professional employee within the store.”
Because she did not pay attention to the contents, Chiho had always thought that the certificate with Kisaki’s photo, is a certificate of the branch store in charge.
Kisaki printed out the explanation given to Maou and passed it to the two people.
“MgRonalds Barista……Maou-san plans to take this?”
“Yeah. He registered for this lecture very quickly. If all of you are interested, do you want to take part?”
“Would I be able to brew coffee like Kisaki-san’s if I participate in this?”
Chiho casually asked as she read the explanation, and Kisaki hesitated a bit when she replied.
“……At least, it should become a bit more similar.”
“Looks like it still won’t even be close.”
Her work senior did not look that interested, probably because she sensed something in Kisaki’s words for her to feel a self-conceited confidence.
Chiho thought about it for a while, nodded, looked up and said,
“Can I participate as well? Even though it says a certain standard of work experience is necessary on it.”
“It’ll be fine as long as there is a recommendation from the branch store in charge. For Chi-chan’s case, because you’re not a permanent employee like Maa-kun with shift manager experience, so the lecture fee cannot be subsidized, if you don’t mind even then……”
“It seems interesting, I wish to take part and see.”
“Is that so. Then please stamp on this application form, and submit it tomorrow. If the registration is done now, you should still be able to attend the same class as Maa-kun.”
“I understand, thank you.”
After folding up the registration form carefully, she walked to the employee room and put it into her bag.
Wanting to train her techniques and knowledge as a MgRonalds employee, this wish was not fake.
However, Chiho still has another motive.
“……I wonder what Maou-san is actually thinking.”
Chiho wanted to find a place where Emi, Ashiya, or even where all the Japanese without any relations to Ente Isla were not around to confirm Maou’s views about the current situation.
Even though the answer to Chiho’s confession is still not hold, but not because she was self-conceited, Chiho believed that Maou must like the normal daily life where she is present.
When Chiho found out that Emi was troubled about the future when she lodged in Suzuno’s rooms, Chiho was suddenly curious about what Maou thought.
Thinking about it carefully, from the beginning, Maou wasn’t that hostile to Emi.
Even though he tried to destoy human society and conquer the world, but right now, Maou living in Japan did not seem to hate humans.
Even though it’s not as if she could not go to the Demon Fortress and ask Maou out, but Suzuno would definitely grow suspicious because of this.
Including the fact that Emi is unable to feel hostile towards Maou, about the Demon Army starting a war in Ente Isla in the place Maou didn’t know, the situation of Chiho planning to learn spells which did not exist in Japan, and the normal daily life which was starting to change, what did Maou think about these.
Chiho wanted to choose a time when there are only two of them, and hear the answer from Maou’s mouth.
Only two of them……only two of them……?
“Is, isn’t that a da……”
“Are you troubled by anything?”
“Yeh?”
Chiho, whose thoughts moved further and further away from their original direction, jumped because someone suddenly initiated a conversation with her.
Looking back, Chiho’s gaze met with Kisaki, who came in from behind, currently leaning against the table and eating something like a convenience store sandwich.
“Mumbling to yourself after keeping the registration form, you deserved it. If you forget that it’s working hours right now, I would be troubled you know?”
“Ah, did, did I zone out for that long?”
Chiho, blushing, patted her own cheeks because she was overly embarrassed.
“To the point which one who feel that it’s not like the normal Chi-chan at all.”
Kisaki gave a wry smile and drank a mouthful of the PET bottle red tea.
“Do you have to take academic tests after the end of the summer holidays?”
“Eh, why do you ask that?”
Chiho was confused because of the sudden question.
“Oh my, because you look like you are troubled recently. Even though it’s the same now, but even since the reopening, Chi-chan has been showing an expression reserved for people who have reached a bottleneck. And when you laugh, your eyebrows don’t move at all.
Even though she intentionally hid her own worries, but she was still easily seen through by Kisaki, who logically should not know anything, it looks like she was really a simple person.
“It’s really easy to see. Even though this isn’t like me, but I feel rather anxious lately as well. At times like this, strangely, the sense for the same feelings will be particularly sensitive.”
“Kisaki-san can also feel anxious as well? It’s difficult to imagine.”
“Hey hey hey, I’m a person too you know? Of course I have times when I feel anxious. Sigh, even though I frequently bear in mind that when I take action, I have to show as if I am not lost about the way I live.”
Kisaki took a big bite of the sandwich, and matching it with the red tea, swallowed it in one gulp.
“Let me give one piece of advice to a young person of 10 plus years from a life senior around 30 years old. Everything will work out in the end. As long as it doesn’t concern lives, it’s not so easy to meet things which are irreversible.”
“Is that so?”
“Even though you will not fail as long as you do not take action, but if so, nothing will change. On the contrary, as long as you’re willing to take action, change will happen regardless of whether you succeed or fail. If you’re afraid of change, then it would be painful to live in this era.”
“But……I’m not……afraid of change……”
After Kisaki saw the troubled Chiho, she nodded lightly.
“If you’re unable to immediately find an answer after troubling over it, then focus your attention to the work in front of you. What Chi-chan should do right now is the MgRonalds job in front of you.”
“Ah, th, that’s right. I, I’m sorry, actually lazing around here.”
After looking at the clock, Chiho discovered that she was feeling vexed in the employee room for almost 10 minutes.
Watching Chiho’s back as she frantically ran out of the employee room, Kisaki swiftly took out the employees’ interview resumes from the drawer.
“Hm……”
As she read Chiho’s resume, Kisaki thought about Maou, who was currently working on the second floor.
“Chi-chan also wishes to participate in that lecture?”
Maou heard from Kisaki, who had ended her break and returned to work, the news that Chiho also wished to participate in the MgRonalds Barista lecture.
“Yeah, and she’ll be taking it on the same day as Maa-kun, it’s a rare chance, the both of you should just attend it together.”
“That’s true, let’s arrange it that way then.”
Kisaki lowered her head to look towards Maou, who answered in a relaxed manner and suddenly asked,
“Oh yes, Maa-kun, do you know when Chi-chan’s birthday is?”
“Eh, no, I don’t know.”
Even if he felt a little confused, Maou still immediately answered Kisaki’s sudden question.
Seeing Kisaki’s rather reproachful expression, Maou immediately knew he said something wrong.
“I wonder if you’re too dense, or if Chi-chan is a late bloomer, it’s so difficult to tell.”
“Ah?”
Maou’s airheaded answer caused Kisaki to shake her head like she had given up.
“I can only tell you that it’s coming. After all, in this age, we can’t carelessly leak the personal data of employees.”
“Is that so?”
Of course, Maou knew that in the common knowledge of Japan, there is a habit for celebrating birthdays. However, even so, he never paid much attention to the birthdays of other people.
“I’m not sure why, but recently, every time I see both of you, I feel that Chi-chan has helped Maa-kun more than any of the others. Just treat is as a reciprocation of her usual caringness, and show me your manliness.”
“Y, yeah……”
“Anyway, the reason why Chi-chan has been acting so strange lately, it must have something to do with you right?”
“!”
Maou couldn’t help but look up towards Kisaki’s side profile.
Even though Maou didn’t think that Chiho would tell Kisaki the truth, but it looks like even the Demon King, could not hide anything from Kisaki.
“I know even if both of you do not say anything. It feels as if the atmosphere betwee the two of you have changed a lot before the reopening.”
“……Is, is that so?”
“It’s not a bad thing. Humans will be lost and troubled no matter how old they are. But whether there is anyone next of them during these times would cause a huge difference in the results.”
Kisaki, who showed a sly smile, nudged Maou with her elbow.
“Occasionally, you should take the initiative and help Chi-chan solve her troubles. There will be a lot of points like this too.”
“……Kisaki-san, sometimes gives the impression of an old uncle.”
Maou retaliated with all his might, but Kisaki nonchalantly answered,
“This is also a way of handling matters. As long as a woman’s personality changes to that of an old uncle, a lot of trouble will be saved. Even though it’s difficult to find a partner that way.”
It was difficult to react to this question.
“Anyway, as long as you can get the MgRonalds Barista license, then the people who can man the second floor will increase. Eve though it shouldn’t be that difficult, but go there and learn well.”
“I understand.”
Perhaps she felt Maou’s hesitation, Kisaki continued on with the topic.
“But a gift……what kind of gift should be given?”
Even in Maou’s eyes, compared to the girls similar in age, Chiho’s character was obviously cultivated in a more wholesome manner, so giving her something too feminine may be too impractical.
“Thinking about practicality, it should be 10kg of rice and salad dressing gift box.”
“It’s not as if it’s the Ghost Festival!”
Kisaki rebuked in a dumbfounded manner.
“But for accessories, the taste differs from person to person, even if I want to give her recently popular books, Chi-chan might already have it, but even so, wouldn’t giving flowers make it easy for people to misunderstand?”
“True, based on the subtle distance between the two of you, perhaps there is some difficulty.”
Kisaki also thought about it a bit, but of course, she had no intentions of telling Maou the answer.
“To put it in a more extreme manner, for things like gifts, it is best for the other party to be able to use it, if you put too much thought into it, it might cause a burden to the other party in the end, the important thing is the intentions. Just pour your feelings into it and choose one appropriately.”
At this moment, a new customer approached while directing the airconditioning to his face. From how the customer did not order anything downstairs, he should be a customer of MdCafe.
Even though Maou had never spoken directly with that customer, from his face, Maou could confirm that he is one of the regulars before the renovation.
Even though it is the height of summer now, and that customer looked covered in sweat, but everytime he orders white gold roasted coffee, he would insist on ‘a hot one’ and would never drink iced coffee.
In Maou’s heart, he secretly gave him a nickname of ‘Hot Coffee-san’.
“Welcome.”
Kisaki and Maou bowed respectfully in unison.
“Medium sized Cappucino, hot one.”
Following his habits, the customer ordered hot coffee and Maou couldn’t help but smile.
“I understand. Do you need anything else?”
After Maou helped the customer take his order, he ran towards Kisaki.
“300 yen in total……I received 5000 yen. Please check.”
By MgRonalds’ rules, when high value bills are received during payment, they have to ask other employees to confirm the number of bills when giving change.
Kisaki turned around at Maou’s request, for unknown reasons, she was rubbing the bottom of the specialized MdCafe mugs placed on the rack in order with her fingertips.
“No problem.”
Kisaki touched the coffee mugs as she confirmed Maou’s change.
Just as Maou handed the bills and small change to the customer, Kisaki suddenly said,
“If you don’t mind, please wait at your seat, we will send it over to you later.”
After the working class guy took the number plate, he looked for a new coffee seat which looks comfortable and bouncy and sat down.
After confirming the customer’s location, he used the corner of his eye to watch Kisaki’s actions when brewing coffee.
Kisaki, who took a cup out from the middle of the rack, for unknown reasons, started washing the cup with the hot water used to brew the red tea.
After the whole cup was doused in hot water, Kisaki used her thumb to touch the spot above the handle.
She nodded like she understood something, and then walked towards the coffee machine, and following the orders, placed the coffee beans used for Cappucino into the coffee machine to extract concentrated coffee. After adding the milk bubbles beaten out by the steam powered milk bubble machine, the Cappucino which Maou had followed the standard operating procedure to brew everytime was done.
“Yeah.”
Kisaki nodded in satisfaction, she personally walked to the customer seating area, picked up the number plate and placed the mug on the table.
Maou stared at the customer without tearing his gaze away.
Hot Coffee-san, who looks like he just wants to rest, took his mobile phone from out of his pocket, looking at the screen on his mobile phone, not even giving the mug a glance.
“……?”
However, after one mouthful, his action of returning the mug to the table stopped.
His gaze left his mobile phone, and moved the mug which he wanted to put on his table to his mouth.
Seeing Hot Coffee-san willing to put down the mug only after drinking a mouthful larger than the first one, Maou slowly understood that the taste of that Cappucino is very different from his.
“I wonder what is the difference……”
After he participated in the MgRonalds Barista lecture, he wondered if he would be able to unravel the mystery a little.
Seeing Kisaki walk back with a look of satisfaction on her face, Maou couldn’t dispel the uneasiness in his heart.
※
10pm at night, Maou, who had worked from morning till now, started to make preparations to go home together with Chiho.
The two people left the store under the gaze of Kisaki, who looked rather happy.
“Then let’s go back.”
“Alright!”
The route home for Chiho and Maou was the same until the halfway point.
Chiho, who did not know beforehand that Maou’s shift ended earlier, thought that she might not have to wait until the day of the Barista lecture, perhaps she might find time to talk properly with Maou today.
“……”
However, when Maou took Dullahan II out from the parking lot, he suddenly showed an expression like he had expected to drink wheat tea, but made a mistake and drank soba sauce instead.
“Oh my, the two of you have got off work already?”
“……Don’t misunderstand, we’re not waiting for you.”
Suzuno and Emi said boldly in a thick skinned manner.
No matter what they thought, the both of them were waiting for Maou and the rest to come out.
From the fact that the two of them are still nearby at this time, Chiho could deduce that Sariel did not revive that quickly after all.
Suzuno and Emi probably stayed here to keep watch to prevent Maou from falling into the hands of the demons of Ente Isla.
But from Maou’s viewpoint, he did not remember doing anything which would cause Emi and Suzuno to suddenly bother him, so he sighed like he had give up and said,
“What business do you have?”
“Didn’t I say before that it’s not to wait for you.”
“……Yusa-san?”
Chiho suddenly sensed that something seemed to be different from normal.
Even though Emi’s normal tone of voice towards Maou isn’t that good to begin with, but there was something a bit different today.
“Emilia is correct, the person we are looking for is actually at Sentucky. Even though the issue was settled earlier, but we have been chatting about female topics afterwards.”
“Do you like the term, female topics, that much?”
Maou threw Emi a gaze of confirmation in a fed up manner.
“Have you done anything before which will cause us to have to find you?”
Having seen said that by Emi, the Hero, Maou, the Demon King----
“Sigh, too many to count.”
He could only answer in this manner.
“……That so.”
“Ah?”
Logically, if it was Emi in the past, it wouldn’t be strange even if she shouted ‘Then go and die’ to Maou on the spot, however she looked away slightly in a bored manner and said,
“Then what business do you think we have with you?”
“Ah?”
Maou’s eyes widened because her direction of rebuttal was too unexpected.
Looking over following Maou’s eyes and line of sight, Chiho finally realized it.
Today, Emi had not looked at Maou’s eyes at all.
Normally, Emi would have aimed directly at Maou, whether it was her gaze, hostility or finger, but this time she avoided Maou completely.
“Uh……about that, how should I put it.”
No knowing if he discovered the strangeness in Emi’s attitude, Maou scratched his head and said,
“Because I am going home together with Chi-chan, so you’re worried I would do something inappropriate on the way.”
“You, who cannot look up in front of Chiho’s mother, would you be able to do such a thing?”
“……or you’re worried that I’ll do something bad on the second floor which cannot be seen from Sentucky or the bookstore opposite.”
“You obviously hold so much respect for that shop manager, and you can still dare to say such a thing.”
“Then you’re looking for trouble like usual?”
“What do you mean looking for trouble.”
Emi did not hide her frustrated attitude and said hatefully in a small voice with her head lowered.
“Why does the Hero have to think of a reason to look for the Demon King?”
“For a person to come over without any business is also a bit strange too right.”
“Didn’t I say before that I have business with Sariel?”
“What’s up. You’ve been a bit strange recently you know?”
Maou, who became more and more impatient, started to speak in a fierce tone.
“……Ugh!”
Emi, who looked up because of Maou’s stern tone----
“Yu, Yusa-san?”
“W, what is it……”
“……”
There were tears in her eyes.
When was the last time he saw Emi’s tears.
Maou actually gradually sensed the reason why Emi became strange recently.
Emi’s father seems to be still alive, perhaps after finding this fact out from Gabriel, the heart of the young Hero was shaken greatly.
Maou could understand the vengeful feelings arising from a parent’s death becoming the motive for action.
As the Hero, Emi naturally has a heart of justice, it looks like taking revenge for her father getting involved in Maou’s conquest occupied a large part of her heart.
Thinking to this, Maou finally remembered.
The tears which the Hero had let the Demon King see.
When did this happen.
Then again, Emi at that time was also----
“Why are you so kind to me, to humans! Why are you able to be so kind!”
She cried as well.
“Why did you have to kill my father!”
The Hero’s pained cries and voice with unsuppressed hopelness echoed in Maou’s mind.
“Hey, Emi.”
“……What is it.”
Emi suppressed the certain feeling which were going to overflow from her with all her might, but Maou’s tone was unexpectedly kind.
“Conquering the world fits my personality better after all.”
“……Eh?”
“Maou-san?”
“Demon King……?”
The scene was instantly filled with a dangerous atmosphere that even Chiho and Suzuno, observing the situation, could not help but feel shaken.
“Perhaps the human world really doesn’t suit my personality, and there are still many people waiting for me. After all, as long as I want to, it’s not that difficult to contact Camio to get me.”
“Ma, Maou-san? Y, you aren’t serious about it, aren’t you?”
Maou said calmly, on the contrary, because Chiho was too shaken, even her tone has started to shake.
“Chi-chan, basically, this is strange in the first place. I, who rule hundreds of Demon clans, and am at the top of a 50,000 strong Demon Army, actually wanting to learn about the human world.”
“……”
Maou’s tone did not change at all, causing Suzuno’s gaze to show some signs of wariness. Chiho was the same as well, unable to read Maou’s true intentions.
“The Hero and Demon King are existances who canot get along after all. I will do evil things to conquer the world, so just come again at me and kill me. Doing that should be more normal right.”
“Maou-san……”
“I’m sorry, Chi-chan.”
After patting Chiho’s shoulder, Maou walked past the three ladies, and started to push Dullahan II to leave.
“Ashiya should feel happy. Taking the chance that the restoration isn’t complete, perhaps the invasion will be carried out easily.”
“……You clearly……”
“I might as well ask Camio to send more people to get me. As an appetizer, it seems good to cause chaos in Japan.”
“……You clearly won’t……”
Emi spoke in a soft voice to Maou’s back, who was talking to himself.
“……Yusa-san?”
“Emilia?”
Ignoring Chiho and Suzuno’s call, Emi looked up, directing a sharp gaze towards Maou, and shouted to his back, clothed in a UNIXLO T shirt.
“You clearly won’t be able to do things like that!”
“……”
Maou stopped walking, and directed his gaze back at Emi.
“And……you don’t intend to do it at all……!”
“If you shout too loudly, Kisaki-san will run out here you know.”
“Would someone who doesn’t dare to anger a mere shop manager be able to conquer the world?”
“Everyone has someone whom they do not want to offend.”
“What do you plan to do?”
“Didn’t I say so, it’s to conquer the world.”
“I don’t mean that. I’m asking what you plan to do after conquering the world!”
“……”
Suzuno and Chiho were shocked by Emi’s question.
“The demons in the Demon World do not need food as long as they have demonic magic. Even though this doesn’t mean all of you woud be able to fit into human society, but to all of you, what is the importance of the lands and the treasures of the human world? Controlling that world which has no other charms other than killing humans, what are you planning to do?”
Just like Suzuno’s investigation, there is a huge difference in the values of the Demon World and Ente Isla.
“How about hunting down and killing humans, letting despair spread across the entire world?”
“The instant you said this sentence, it’s already clear that it’s not your honest words.”
Emi continued speaking with an expression that she couldn’t accept it,
“Maracoda’s invasion of the Southern continent, can only be described as blood rain, the onslaught of Lucifer’s army at the Western Continent was also very fierce. But compared to Maracoda……Adramelech’s army at the Northern Continent did not attack anyone other than the Knight Order, and logically, the Eastern Continent, which should have been under control for the longest time, is still being ruled by the Unifying Azure Emperor and his clan members.”
“……As expected of the Hero who has travelled the world, you do know a lot.”
Emi did not hide her tears at all, and glared at the Demon King, who showed a mocking smile.
“If……if you’re really a cruel Demon King who really thirsts for blood, then I……then I don’t have to be so troubled!”
“Yusa-san……”
“Ever since you said in front of me, that you want to become a permanent employee in this world. From then, I should have thought it was strange! You don’t want to conquer the world at all! You only……”
At this moment, for unknown reasons, Emi first looked back to glance at Chiho, before continuing,
“Only want to do something amazing, then let other people acknowledge you right?”
The effect of this sentence was immediate.
The expression on Maou’s face disappeared completely, Emi, Chiho and Suzuno could see it, this was a tell tale sign before the explosion of strong feelings other than anger and embarrassment.
However, in the next instant----
“……Eh?”
“Ma, Maou-san?”
Maou, holding his bicycle, disappeared in front of the three of them without any warning.
“W, what……?”
The one who was the most shaken, was Emi, who had been quarreling with Maou.
The Maou just now, was definitely planning to protest against Emi about a certain matter.
From how he took a deep breath beforehand, he must be preparing to rebuke Emi’s theory.
There were no traces of Maou activating demonic magic at the scene. However, even if they looked upwards or surveyed their surroundings, they could only suspect that Maou had escaped with some kind of abnormal methods, but Emi immediately realized that it was not like that in reality.
“Ma, Maou-san?”
Chiho shakily walked towards where Maou originally stood.
However, on the bricks of the pedestrian path which Maou was just standing on, there were no signs left at all. Even if Chiho stood at where Maou just stood, nothing happened at all.
“W, what exactly happened?”
The town at night, operated normally like usual.
Unending sounds from the cars can be heard from Koshu-Kaido, and new customers, ignoring the three bewildered people, walked into MgRonalds.
Only the presences of Maou and Dullahan II disappeared from the scene like an illusion.
“Maou-san……”
Chiho subconsciously placed her hand on her shoulder which Maou had touched before he disappeared.
“E, Emilia, can this be……”
“Even though I also thought so for an instant……but is this kind of thing possible?”
Suzuno and Emi originally deduced that it should be Barbariccia’s forces kidnapping Maou.
However, whether it was just now or the present, the two of them did not even sense any holy magic, let alone demonic again.
“……The Demon Fortress should be fine right?”
Suzuno’s words caused Emi to suck in a breath.
That’s right, perhaps something strange also happened to Ashiya and Urushihara.
Even though it’s something strange, but if what Emi and Suzuno thought really happened, then to Maou and the others, it should be considered normal instead, anyway, the situation right now was really complex.
“I know Lucifer’s Skyphone number, as long as that Neet is playing on the computer like normal……”
Emi took out her own Slimphone, and dialed Lucifer’s Skyphone number.
However, for unknown reasons, her mobile phone did not produce any dialtone at all, Emi, who sensed something wasn’t right, looked at her screen once again, and found out with surprise that the screen was displaying ‘No signal available currently’.
“Eh? N, no signal available?”
“Let me see the number! I’ll use my mobile phone to……”
Suzuno snatched the phone from Emi’s hands and flipped open her own mobile phone.
“No signal available……”
Seeing this, Chiho also flipped open her own mobile phone, and was surprised at the display of no signal.
“H, how can this be. Normally when I leave the store and am about to go home, I would always call my family to let them know!”
Even if Chiho stared at the screen for some time, the signal showed no signs of recovering.
Not only that----
“Eh? H, hey……ah!”
A young lady walking past Emi and the others frowned and looked towards her mobile phone.
“Oh my, the signal cut off.”
The lady waved the mobile phone in the air while she walked, and after walking some distance away from Emi and the others, she repositioned the mobile phone next to her ear.
“There’s signal over there?”
The distance between them was 50 metres.
Emi and Suzuno ran over behind the lady, and at the spot where the lady moved the mobile phone to her ear, they discovered that the mobile phones have regained their signal.
“E, even though I don’t really understand, but we would be able to make calls now.”
Emi, breathing a sigh of relief, called Urushihara again, as for Suzuno----
“……?”
For unknown reasons, directed her attention to the area around her feet.
With an action like she had stepped on something, Suzuno took one step back from where she had stood.
“How strange.”
“Eh?”
Even though there was a dialtone, Emi still felt very anxious because Usushihara still hasn’t picked up the phone after a long time, after that, when she looked down, she noticed that Suzuno was squatting and looking at the ground in concentration.
“Bell, what are you doing?”
Suzuno did not answer Emi’s question and took a small stone on the side of the road without consulting anyone else and placed it on her own palm.
“Ei!”
Suzuno shouted lightly to raise her aura, and the small size started to glow faintly. Looks like she had injected holy magic into the stone.
Then seeing Suzuno flick her fingertip, the small stone flew outwards at low altitude.
“Eh?”
Emi widened her eyes in shock.
Not only did the small stone with Suzuno’s holy magic get bounced back in mid air, a blue flame like thing wavered in front of Suzuno at the same time.
“……It’s a barrier.”
“Ba, barrier?”
Compared to the shocked Emi, Suzuno, sucked in a breath with a sterner expression and said,
“And it’s not demonic magic. This……is a spell barrier! The Demon King has been trapped in a spell barrier!”
“But, by what you said, the boundary line should be here right? Why are we able to freely enter and leave the barrier?”
Emi hung phone the phone when no one picked up, asking Suzuno, but before that----
“……………Ahhh!”
“Bell, did you say something?”
“No, that isn’t Emilia’s voice?”
“……Wait……ugwah!”
“”Eh?””
That sound came from the sky behind them.
“My goddesssss!”
An unlovable voice passed over Emi and Suzuno’s heads.
“Ekk!”
Without even confirming, they could tell the person fallig from the sky is Sariel. Not only were his eyes bloodshot, he even tightened up the gaunt face resembling a spirit, his expression looking much exaggerated.
“I’m coming to save, pwah!”
Suzuno subconsciously swung her holy hammer towards Sariel’s face.
“Pu……ugh….awah!”
Sariel was thrown backwards mercilessly by the giant hammer and then bounced backwards.
“Pugh!”
And like that he hit the concerete boundary at the side of the pedestrian path.
“………………he, he’s still alive right?”
Like she was demonstrating the spell on using amplifiers, Suzuno beautifully used her holy hammer, then panting, she confirmed the situation with Emi.
“Yargh!”
“He’s up!”
But Sariel himself looked like he wasn’t seriously hurt, and even jumped up from the ground with vigour.
“W, what is going on!”
Sariel waved an arm, asking this to Emi and Suzuno.
Just that action, the holy magic wave spread out from Sariel’s arm engulfed the area.
That wave of holy magic seems to have the similar effect as the spell Suzuno casted earlier, causing the boundaries of the barrier to appear. It was a dome shaped holy magic area extending down the road.
“Ugh, we’re the ones who want to ask you what’s going on……”
“My goddess, my goddess is alright right?”
“That, that store is unharmed, let alone shop manager Kisaki……”
While talking, Emi and Suzuno looked towards the place where Maou had just disappeared, and discovered that not only did not look totally normal like earlier, there weren’t traces of any people……
“Eh, Eh?
“Chiho……dono?”
Chiho had disappeared.
Logically, when they mentioned that the mobile phone could not receive any signal, Chiho should have been next to Emi and the others.
“Ugh!”
Emi frantically ran back to where Chiho originally stood, and even if her shoulder bag had hit Sariel, who had wanted to get up from the ground, she didn’t care at all.
For unknown reasons, Emi and Suzuno were not restricted like Sariel, they are able to freely enter and leave the boundaries of the barrier.
As expected, there were no traces left at Chiho’s previous location. Eve if they flipped open their mobile phones, similarly, only this place could not receive any signal, but when they looked towards MgRonalds, they noticed that the employees within are still working normally, and the customers are still eating normally.
“What’s going on? Even though it’s just a barrier, why will people disappear?”
“I, I don’t know either! If it’s purely a barrier, then the Demon King and Chiho-dono shouldn’t have disappeared, but stayed where they were……no, wrong, basically, if this is a barrier, we shouldn’t be able to enter and leave freely!”
“This is not an ordinary barrier!”
Sariel shouted while maintaining his position on the ground, causing the working class who are heading towards Hatagaya station to go home to show suspicious gazes, intentionally walking around to avoid him.
“This is a dimensional phase shifting barrier! Didn’t I use it before at the Tokyo Metropolian Government Building?”
“Dimensional phase shifting?”
Whe Sariel kidnapped Emi and Chiho, Suzuno had seen him set a barrier which emcompassed the whole Tokyo Metropolian Government Building.
But compared to Maou’s barrier, Sariel’s barrier did not have a clear boundary, and it looked like it only caused the people around the Metropolian Building to suddenly disappear.
“I, I thought Heaven set up this scheme to cause harm to the goddess who might become an obstacle in order for me to return, causing me to frantically run over to save the goddess……”
Emi and Suzuno ignored Sariel’s half finished dreamtalk and warily surveyed the surrounding situation, their backs to each other.
Even though they can’t see it, but the other party is definitely here.
“Our……enemy.”
※ Whether it was MgRonalds, the street scenery of Hatagaya, or the positon of Dullahan II, which leaned against him, it all stayed the same.
But the sounds and the presence of people disappeared.
As for Emi, who was crying and stepping bare footed into his heart, she had disappeared as well.
Even though Maou’s heart was still beating vigorously, but the reason behind his huge shock, wasn’t the surprise he felt at the strange scene in front of him, but because he never expected that his own heart was so useless that it felt shaken by one sentence from Emi.
Maou used his hand to wipe off the sweat because of the hot weather, and had the illusion that the blood rushing to his head might just turn into horns----the scene was filled with a huge amount of negative energy.
“I’m rather troubled on how to judge this.”
“……”
“I was talking about important topics with other people just now, but because I momentarily became a little worked up, so I could have carelessly said some unnecessary things.”
Maou put down the foot rest of Dullahan II and let go of the handles.
“Even though I might have avoided letting something slip because of this, but I also lost the chance for rebuke, so from the results, I am unable to digest my feelings right now.”
Maou used the sleeve of this T-shirt to wipe off the cold sweat on his forehead, and turned around to face the people standing in the middle of the road.
“Who are you people? First a simple introduction and an explanation of your purpose, then go away after you’re satisified. If not, I might just vent the undigested portion on you.”
There were two silouettes there.
And the two of them were ‘humans’ whom Maou had never seen before.
One of the youths was wearing a suit which looked really hot, and his well oiled hair was parted in 30-70, it looks like he had applied hairgel which young people now would not even want to use. In addition, even though he also wore large silver framed spectacles which doesn’t look like something which will be worn by young people, but even if Maou looked over from where he stood, he could tell that they were decorative spectacles without any degree.
Not only did the strangely bright dark blue suit not look polished at all, after matching it with a simply designed black briefcase, it gave an impression that the era was mistaken, looking like the classic look of the working class 40 years ago.
But that is still considered quite okay, because the other person’s mistake wasn’t just a 40 year gap.
It was a warrior who had mistaken the era so much that he was over 200 years off, covered in armour----and he was a small child.
It’s not a person of small build like Urushihara or Suzuno.
From the bone structure of his shoulders and the proportion of his head to his body, this was entirely a small child.
Even so, that child’s body was covered entirely in red armour, and even took the care to don on a mask imitating the model of an evil demon.
Not only does it feel hot and heavy, it seems like the front cannot be seen at all.
“The two of you actually dressed in something that looks really hot. Are you angels, or demons, which part of the North, South, East, West Continent did you come from?”
“You don’t look that shocked.”
The Showa Era male in the suit opened his mouth and said.
(T/N: Showa Era refers to the years between 1926 and 1989.)
“I’m surprised that the two of you actually transformed into this state. Did both of you pass at the beginning? Even though people who participating in the transformation channel, are able to obtain better comments than both of you.”
In a summer special project of the television station, there was a variety programme which allows people from outside the industry to undergo transformations for entertainment, Maou used that programme to mock the two people.
“I’m proud that I have never been suspected by others.”
“That’s you. But, that brat over there shouldn’t be able to pull that off right?”
“We don’t always work together.”
From the beginning, the man in the suit had been using polite language to talk to Maou in a hospitable manner.
Using such an exaggerated way of speaking even though they are meeting for the first time, this caused Maou to glare at the man in the suit, saying,
“You’re a demon right.”
“This is my first time paying respects to you, Demon King-sama. My name is Farfarello, currently taking the position as a chieftian of the Malebrache.”
“As expected.”
The other party is a strong demon who is a chieftain like Ciriatto who had attacked the beaches of Choshi. Logically, if they are the chieftains of the Malebranche under Maracoda, Maou should know all of them, however, he had no impression of that name at all.
“Farfarello……I’m sorry, I have never heard of that name.”
Wearing a suit, the demon who called himself Farfarello and did not look at offended, replied,
“That is expected. Because I was promoted to chieftain after Demon King-sama personally led the army to Ente Isla.”
“I see, then the May Doll standing over there, who are you?”
(T/N: When Japan celebrates Boy’s Day in May, they would decorate an armour wearing doll for the boys in the family. This held on 5 May. Girl’s Day is celebrated on 3rd March. Currently, Boy’s Day was adapted to Children’s Day, which now celebrates with boys and girls. )
“Please don’t mind that person. He is only a guide from Ente Isla, not a person worthy of the Demon King’s attention……”
“I’m asking who he is. And I’m not asking you, I’m asking that brat!”
After making Farfarello shut up, Maou glared at the armour wearing child.
“……Iron.”
Unexpectedly, the youth honestly answered Maou’s question through the crevices of the red armour.
“Iron. Are you human, demon, or angel?”
“……Human.”
“Why are you acting together with a demon?”
“……Orders.”
“That so.”
Finally Maou temporarily gave up interrogating the armoured youth who called himself Iron.
Even if he worried for the future of the youth who he met for the first time, it would not be of much use, after all, regardless of what the youth called Iron thought about the orders, or what effects were hidden behind those orders, it was not something Maou had the means right now to know.
“Then the dressed up demon and brat, what business do you have with me? You’re called Farfarello right. I don’t sense any demonic magic coming from you, don’t tell me you degenerated into humans like us?”
“It is as what you said. Because from my analysis, one of the reasons why Ciriatto’s action to invade this country failed, is because he maintained the form of a demon which could not adapt to this place. In addition----
Farfarello surveyed the street scenery of Hatagaya.
“I heard you gave Ciriatto orders, forbidding him for doing unnecessary harm to this country.”
“Yeah, and I thought the Malebranche clan is filled with bloodthirsty fellas.”
“You are correct. Even though other chieftains were doubtful if there is a need for such a thing, but after someone gave advice to Barbariccia, everyone decided to follow this order. Demon King-sama seems to hold a certain conviction to this country, so you wouldn’t forgive people who randomly destroys this place.”
Maou mumbled unhappily,
“Is it Olba?”
“That’s right.”
Talking about the people who understood Maou’s thoughts through their actions and have returned to Ente Isla, there was only Emeralda, Alberto and Olba. And of course, for Emeralda and Alberto, they definitely will not join the side which will betray Emi.
“You’re really honest.”
“I was given orders to answer honestly for the matters enquired by the Demon King.”
“Honesty is a good thing. Then let’s get to the main topic.”
Maou narrowed his eyes, glaring at Farfarello.
“What business do you have with me?”
Maou did not feel surprised about Farfarello’s appearance, ever since Camio appeared in Choshi and reported that Barbariccia broke away from the Demon World, he had expected that this kind of thing would happen sooner or later.
The stuffy suit produced various sounds of cloth rubbing against one another, Farfarello kneeled down on the spot and answered,
“When we were feeling happy about Demon King-sama being safe and sound, the Malebrache have risked our lives, have successfully set the foundation for reinvading Ente Isla. Therefore, we wish to ask Demon King-sama……”
“I don’t want to.”
“to lead us again, and go to the Demon World with me, eh?”
Even though he heard Maou’s interruption, but Farfarello’s mouth did not stop and continued speaking smoothly, only when his brain finally understood Maou’s answer, he let out an airheaded sound and looked up.
“What are you eh-ing about. I said no. Rejected, dismissed, go back.”
“Is, is my Japanese vocabulary still insufficient……Demon King-sama, don’t tell me, your meaning just now was reject……”
“That’s what I mean. Go back quickly with that strange brat.”
“………………”
It seems like as long as he is not given orders, that strange brat will not take the initative to speak. The youth was silent, even if his expression was studied, his thoughts cannnot be read at all.
“W, why? The Unifying Azure Emperor of the Easter Continent has already sworn allegiance to us. In addition, we have also heard that Demon King-sama has not given up the aspirations of conquering the world. Not only that, don’t you plan to rule this country one day?”
“That is true.”
“Then, please come back with us, and command us to your heart’s content! The Malebranche will assist Demon King’s aspirations with all our might!”
“That so.”
“……Ah, don’t tell me, you’re worried that the Hero of the Holy Sword is nearby……”
“Rather than saying that she is nearby, it’s more like she’s currently in the area currently. Even though……it’s not as if it has nothing to do with her……but it’s not anything to be concerned about.”
“B, but……”
“But what. There is a saying in this country, even Buddha will get angry after getting its face touched three times. I don’t have a third time, I refuse, go back already.”
(T/N: Japanese idiom which means no matter how kind the person is, there is a tolerance to their patience.)
“W, why? Demon King-sama, please tell me the reason!”
Farfarello looked at Maou with a pale face.
Maou, stone faced, showed an expression of ‘you don’t even know about this’ and said,
“You……I am Demon King Satan, do I look like a person with such small capacity that I will feel happy at becoming a sumo wrestler by wearing someone else’s loincloth?”
“…………”
Even though his appearance looked like a young man in his twenties, but Farfarello still swallowed his saliva at the piercing presence Maou emitted, and then----
“I, I’m sorry, Maou-sama.”
“Ah?”
“May I know……what ‘someone else’s loincloth’ means……?”
He asked a very off topic question.
“Hey!”
This unexpected reaction, caused Maou to feel a wave of tiredness
“Y, you should have learnt Japanese before right!”
“I’m ashamed to say this, but I did not have the chance to learn metaphors and proverbs……”
“Then why are you able to use polite language! Forget it, anyway loincloth is a type of underwear, and in a traditional Japanese fighting style competition known as Sumo, it is a rule that competitors can only wear a loincloth.”
“Would they win as long as they destroy that thing called a loincloth?”
“No destroying! If you do that kind of thing, there will be no more live streaming of Sumo matches in future! Anyway, they have to wear that……using the term wear sounds strange, anyway they have to use that to participate in competitions! It means that I am unable to wear someone else’s armour to fight!”
“I see. Since they use the method of wearing the protective clothing known as ‘loincloth’ to face battle to express this, that means that they need to snatch each other’s item, known as ‘Sumo’ in the competition?”
“Even though it sounds like it’s not too far off, but if feels that your brain has seriously misinterpreted it……then again why do I have to do something like having no choice but to explain the punchline to other people in a failed gag like a comedian!”
“Maou-san! What Sumo wrestlers wear are not loincloths, but ‘MAWASI’!”
(T/N: The MAWASI worn by Sumo wrestlers are a specialized loincloth with harder material and are harder to secure.)
“Eh? Oh, I see, it’s ‘MAWASI’! Eh? Then why would they say that it’s someone else’s ‘loincloth’?”
“W, who are you?”
“It seems like they also wear normal loincloths too? I am Maou-san’s……uh……how should I put it, I, I am his junior!”
“That’s right, this girl is the junior at my workpl……ehhhhhh?”
Just as Maou explained the loincloth, causing his rare cool sounding lines and stern atmosphere to all go to waste----
“Chi, Chi-chan? W, why are you here?”
Chiho had, without Maou noticing, appeared in this place as if it was natural to do so.
Even though Farfarello and Iron grew wary because of this newcomer, Maou himself felt very flustered.
In order to cut off the connection between Maou and Japan, Farfarello definitely used a type of barrier, and in the beginning Maou had already made sure that Emi and the others----including Chiho of course----were outside the range of the barrier.
However Chiho had appeared without any warning.
If Emi or Suzuno broke the barrier, then everyone should have appeared at the same time, but unbelievably, only Chiho alone used some method to pierce through the barrier.
Chiho, who gave everyone a shock, naturally appeared on the battlefield, and even though her voice was quivering, she still said to the pair with unknown origins in front of her,
‘Yo, you can’t take Maou-san back to Ente Isla! Because Maou-san still has things he has to do in Japan, wah!”
“Chi, Chi-chan, that’s enough! Get back first!”
Seeing that Chiho was going to run forward to reason with them, Maou couldn’t help but push her behind him.
Even if Farfarello was in human form right now, but since he’s a Malebranche, it’s hard to say if he’s hiding something behind his back.
As for Iron, other than his abnormal attire, since he was introduced as a ‘guide’ by a Malebranche chief, he would also have an ability which cannot be ignored, and is not a normal child.
“Why do you want to protect that human?”
Dark flames burned in Farfarello’s eyes, causing Maou to feel danger.
“Is there anything strange about that. Aren’t you also acting together with that brat called Iron.”
“I didn’t expect that you would think that way. I am only commading Iron, how can I have a equal relationship with him.”
Faced with Farfarello’s statement, Iron did not react at all.
“Demon King-sama, is what that person said true?”
“What do you mean.”
“That girl said you ‘still have things you have to do in Japan’. May I know what exactly Demon King-sama plans to do in this country known as Japan? When we had heard that you had obtained strong demonic magic once, we had high hopes that Demon King-sama would include this country into your plans.”
Farfarello surveyed Maou from head to toe.
“Demon King-sama, may I know what exactly is this important thing you wish to do, that you rather dress in this non-glorious attire and even protect a young girl?”
“……”
Even though Maou really wanted to shout ‘Apologise to UNIXLO’ with all his might, the current atmosphere did not allow him to do such a thing.
“Pardon my honest words, privately, amongst the Malebranche, there are already people who suspect that Demon King-sama has already lost the will to conquer the world. Especially since Demon King-sama disallowed Ciriatto from returning to the Eastern Continent, and from how you also disallowed him from lending you his powers in this country, you must be carrying out some plan which exceeds our imagination……or is it……”
Farfarello shifted his gaze away from Maou, and turned towards Chiho, who was being protected by Maou.
“That Demon King-sama plans to abandon us demons……abandon the whole Demon World…….”
In this instant, a dramatic change occurred in the aura Maou gave off.
“Are you kidding!”
Maou shouted from the bottom of his heart, causing Chiho, who was hiding behind him, to shiver once in fright.
“I…I have never forgotten my subjects in the Demon World who look up to me as King, not even for a moment!”
“If so!”
“There’s nothing else to say! Since all of you are still loyal to me, then why aren’t you staying under Camio’s command and waiting for my return!”
“……Ugh!”
Now it was Farfarello’s turn to be speechless.
“Barbariccia left the Demon World because he was influenced by Olba’s instigations right? When I invaded Ente Isla, I should have left the left the management authority to Camio. In other words, he is the Deputy Demon King! How do you expect me to trust the people who do not even listen to the orders of the Deputy Demon King!”
“Be as it may! Even if large groups of officials and soldiers from the Demon Army head towards Ente Isla, it doesn’t represent the solving of the predictment ailing the Demon World! If Demon King-sama really perished at the battlefield, then the top priority should be dispatching second or third waves of armies! Camio-sama doesn’t have the mettle to do such a thing!”
You said mettle? In the face of meeting an exception like the Hero, even the elite soldiers led by the Four Great Demon Generals only lasted for less than 3 years! Don’t tell me you have a plan to subvert this situation?”
“Even if we do not, we have to fight!”
Farfarello rebuked in a heated manner.
“Because of their sacrifices……the Demon World is able to continue on.”
“…….Eh?”
Maou did not miss the cry of surprise from Chiho behind him.
However the priority was to handle Farfarello, the one in front of him.
“That’s why I said that all of you are too superficial! So what if battle forces are sent to Ente Isla a little at a time? If they continue to perish like this, the result is only the slow progress of the Demon World to its end!”
“Because we worry that it will turn out like this, that why the Demon Army must execute a second invasion! Even if the Malebranche have betrayed the Demon World, the feelings of caring for the Demon World have not changed! Even though the person known as Olba is the comrade of the Hero who caused the first expedition of the Demon Army to fail, but he is not an unreasonable person. Even if something does go wrong, once we obtain all the necessary knowledge and information he has, it would be easy to kill him! No matter what, please go back and reclaim your title as King!”
“Your way of thinking is basically wrong!”
Maou rebuked Farfarello’s opinion with a tone which surpassed his.
“By depending on that method, there would be no way to save that world ruled by blood and violence! All this is for the sake of us demons to be able to live on as demons! Because they do not understand this, so whether it was Lucifer, Maracoda, Adramelech or Alsiel, they were unable to maintain their control, and in the end, even I was defeated!”
“It’s different this time. We just have to gain control of the Eastern Continent and make the humans fight amongst themselves, and we would be able to bring blood and chaos to the whole of Ente Isla, creating a paradise for us!”
“Imbecile!”
Maou’s voice was filled with power.
“Ugh!”
“Kya!”
“………….!”
Farfarello closed his mouth like he had been cowed by Maou’s aura, behind Maou, Chiho screamed, and when Iron, who hasn’t moved until now, adopted a fighting stance.
With just the power of his voice, Maou caused the chieftain of the Malebranche to shut up.
This is the demeanour of a king which cannot be erased even if they are wearing UNIXLO.
“This is the result after doing so!”
Maou gestered to his own body.
“This is the end met by the king who doesn’t even know the meaning of ‘conquering the world’, spread blood and tragedy and only planned on expanding the Demon World! The path you are preparing now is only the path of destruction like before, if I return to you just like this, I will only become a poor Demon King who harms his own citizens once again, if I am fought by a new Hero once again, the Demon World will only be faced with destruction!
This will only cause the Demon World to return to its previous state where the citizens fight each other, and the sky lands and seas are dyed with one’s own blood!”
“…….Why……why won’t you understand, we definitely will not repeat the past!”
“I will say it as many times as needed, all of you are only evading the experience of past failures, and think you are stepping on a different path! No matter how many times the map is changed, the real path will never change! Without the resolve to change the path itself, there will be no way to change the world!”
“Maou-san……”
“……Change, the path itself……?”
Chiho and Iron reacted to Maou’s words.
However, even if he is still kneeling on the ground, Farfarello’s eyes still showed the light of disappointment, it looks like Maou’s words did not reach the depths of his heart.
“Let me say this again. No matter what Olba says, don’t listen to him. Retreat from the Eastern Continent and return to the Demon World. Ciriatto can help in mediation, Camio will not condemn all of you as well.”
“……Looks like this is the limit.”
Farfarello stood up slowly.
“Olba said that Demon King-sama has become weaker due to this country’s restraints, I was reluctant to believe it when I first heard this……but I never expected that I will confirm this fact with you in front of me, are you able to understand the pain felt by your subjects?”
“What did you say……”
Kiling intent emitted slowly from Farfarello, causing Maou to reflexively push Chiho further back.
“This can’t be true, if I do not let Demon King-sama restore his will to conquer the world……”
“……then what? Don’t tell me you plan to kill me, and raise BarbariccIa up to be the new Demon King?”
“No, I figured that Demon King-sama’s thoughts have changed only because you have turned into a human. So as long as I use the power of the Demon World to restore your body, it will allow your heart to recover its former power.”
While speaking, Farfarello grabbed the helmet of Iron, standing next to him.
“?”
After that the helmet and the mask seemed to be congulated by darkness, becoming a black orb.
“Please take this. I hope you’ll be able to obtain Demon King Satan’s valour and heart from before.”
Farfarello threw the black orb towards Maou, but Maou let it drop to the ground.
The orb, the size of a rubber ball, rolled to the tree next to the path and stopped.
“……”
After the disappearance of the helmet and mask, Iron showed his face for the first time.
Iron was a youth after all, and he looked younger than 10 years old. Even though he had an appearance which could be described as innocent, but no emotions could be seen on his face.
Even though he looked towards Maou with red eyes, their gazes never met.
“……?”
Seeing Iron’s face, Maou suddenly had a feeling that they have met before.
“It feels like……he is similar to a certain person……”
Chiho seemed to feel the same as well. She poked her head out from behind Maou and stared and Iron’s face.
Amongst his shiny black hair, only one portion is red like his eyes.
“Hey, what is this?”
Maou used his gaze to point towards the thing which was originally Iron’s helmet which had fallen to the ground.
“This is condensed demonic magic. It’s said that this county has a habit of molding the main staple ,rice, into ball shapes to eat. I thought that if I let the demonic magic imitate the shapes of helmet and armour, I would be able to bypass the system.”
“Tr, treating this thing as onigiri……then again, the main food of demons, is demonic magic?”
Even if Maou heard Chiho’s mumbles, but his gaze did not leave Farfarello at all.
“You intend to ask the King to eat something which has fallen to the ground?”
“This is an emergency after all. And with the point of demonic magic, Demon King-sama shouldn’t object right?”
“……”
It looks like the armour worn by Iron, is condensed demonic magic.
The reason why Farfarello became human, should be because he extracted his demonic magic to his limit, and condensed the demonic magic to become Iron’s clothes.
That means if he is faced with an emergency situation, Farfarello should be able to release the demonic magic left with Iron and become a demon again.
Even though it was like that with Ciriatto, Farfarello also had a means of maintaining demonic magic in Japan.
That youth known as Iron, should be a key to this incident.
“……Alright, that thing will be left in my care for the time being. But my thoughts have not changed.”
“Left in your care? Please don’t say that. Please enjoy it on the spot. It should have been a long time since you’ve been in contact with pure demonic magic from the Demon World right?”
“……I wish to go home to wash it first before I eat it.”
“You can’t eat it here? If the taste is unsatisfactory, I am willing to accept any punishment, whether to be killed or cut, it’s up to you.”
“Why, is that a need for such urgency?”
“……”
“The situation where no one knows whether I am alive or dead have already gone on for more than one year. By now, waitng one or two days is not that much trouble right.”
“That is because……”
Farfarello frowned, letting his guard down, just as he slowly opened his mouth and tried to say something----
“?”
Iron suddenly looked up at the sky.
“It’s going to break.”
“Hm?”
Farfarello grew wary because of Iron’s words, Maou and Chiho couldn’t help but look at the sky as well.
“W, what’s wrong?”
The crack, appeared in the sky.
The sky, which was devoid of anything, suddenly had a crack appear in it, and as the four people looked up to stare, it continued to grow.
“Heavenly Light Fangs!”
Golden lightning accompanied by a clear voice and aura descended between Maou and Farfarello.
“E, Emi?”
“Yusa-san?”
The person who came opened her red eys, silver hair swaying in the wind, that person is Emi, holding the shining Holy Sword, Hero Emilia.
Evolving Holy Sword, One Wing emitted a sharp holy magic, even Chiho had just thought of the sword as an ‘amazing sword which can glow’ until now, but she still had learnt the methods of controlling holy magic, so for the first time, she sensed that the power emcompassed by the holy sword and Emi had really surpassed what she had imagined before.
This should be ‘feeling the pressure of the presence’ which Emi and Suzuno had mentioned in the evening.
Immediately after, Suzuno also rushed in from the huge hole in the barrier from the sky holding the giant hammer, and as if they intended to protect Maou and Chiho, they faced Farfarello and Iron directly.
“E, Emi, Suzuno!”
“……Are the both of you alright?”
Even though Emilia still didn’t look at Maou’s face, but from the voice heard from that back, the fact that she was slightly relieved could be felt.
“Emilia! Bell! This barrier is made by that brat!”
Hearing that voice coming from above, Maou looked up in disbelief.
Unexpectedly, even Sariel came.
Sariel spread his wings, causing his eyes to glow purple, and just like that, a hole appeared in the barrier.
“All, all of you actually acted in the middle of the streets……”
Maou spoke bluntly to Emilia and Sariel who emitted glows which did not look normal at all, and Suzuno who wielded around an abnormal looking weapon.
“The moonlight tonight, is the day where Sariel-sama can wield the full extent of its power. He cast another layer of dimensional phase shifting barrier over the existing barrier. Even if they destroyed this barrier, the most it will do is restore the signal of the humans’ mobile phones.
Suzuno turned and glanced at the huge hole in the sky.
“……Acutally disappearing suddenly in the middle of our argument,talk about indigestion.”
Emilia’s tone still contained displeasure.
Then again, because Maou had such a heated argument with Farfarello, he totally forgotten that he was arguing with Emi about this before he was caught inside the barrier.
“Forget it, don’t think about it so much. I caused a big ruckus in order to break this barrier, so I feel much better.”
“What the heck is that.”
Even if Emilia stubbornly talked to herself, Maou still laughed because this suited her better than her behaviour till now.
“Then……if our predictions are correct, then you are the envoy sent by the Malebranche to bring the Demon King back to the Eastern Continent.”
“Who are all of you? Why do you know about this?”
Farfarello, wearing a suit and spectacles, placed his hand on Iron’s armour and adopting a fighting stance, he asked for Emilia’s identity.
“Oh my, you haven’t seen me before? You should be a demon right?”
Emilia’s self introduction, filled with provocation, caused Farfarello to say with a stone faced expression,
“Don, don’t tell me you are!”
“I am not so magnanimous as to allow demons to freely walk around in the human world. You should remember the name of Hero Emilia Justina, then die obediently!”
“Ugh! How, how can this be!”
Farfarello wanted to convert Iron’s armour into demonic magic, but Emilia’s god like speed would not miss this action at all.
Only a soft step sounded and in the next instant, Emilia had already planted a punch into Farfarello’s temple.
Farfarello, who lost his demonic magic and became a human, had just hit the ground when Emilia’s shoe pressed itself against his back.
“Ugohh!”
“If you’re willing to forget everything you’ve seen in Japan, return to the Demon World and live out the rest of your life there, then it’s not as if I cannot let you off. However, if you dare to do anything extra, then I’ll chop off your head right now.”
“When she talks, she still doesn’t sound like a Hero at all……”
Maou mumbled nervously, but after he was glared at by Emilia’s red eyes, he closed his mouth.
On the other hand, Farfarello only replied with one sentence,
“Iron!”
“?”
Iron immediately reacted to Farfarello’s call.
The youth looked as if he was preparing to carelessly crash into Emilia.
“St, stop!”
However, Suzuno, who was standing on the side and tried to stop it----
“?”
She was thrown backwards.
“Suzuno-san!”
Suzuno, running between the youth, who looked younger than 10 years old, and Emilia, could not stop Iron’s advance at all, and was knocked back like she had been hit by a car.
“Ugh……ugoh!”
Suzuno was barely able to recover her stance in mid-air, but kneeled on the ground because she couldn’t withstand the shock of landing.
“Wh, what?”
In a straight line, Iron rushed towards Emilia like this.
Even though she let her guard down a bit, but Suzuno was still a first rate warrior who could defeat Heavenly Troops, seeing her being knocked away so easily, even Emilia started to feel a little shaken.
Even so, Emilia couldn’t just release her foot pressed on Farfarello’s back, so she activated the shield of the Evil Repelling Armour and prepared to receive the shock strong enough to send Suzuno flying.
Iron’s face did not change at all, and ran towards Emilia’s shield in a straight line.
“Gah!”
However even Emilia was knocked back from Farfarello’s body, and her feet found air.
As a Hero, not only had Emilia transformed, she even used her full power, wielding the ‘Holy Evolving Sword, One Wing’ and Evil Repelling Armour. And because she had seen Suzuno getting knocked away, she didn’t let her guard down at all.
The power of the shock spread throughout her whole body, causing Emilia to react defensively and swing her sword towards Iron.
However, what happened later exceeded everyone’s expectations.
“What!”
Iron actually used his arm to stop the holy sword.
And the thing which withstanded the attack wasn’t the armour formed by Farfarello, the blade of the holy sword easily sliced through the arm guard and the cloth sleeve below it.
But even if direct contact was made with the blade, Iron’s skin was unharmed.
“Iron?”
At this point, a voice which did not belong to Emilia was heard in her mind.
“Mama! Iron! No! Don’t fight with him! Don’t bully Iron!”
“Eh? Eh?”
Alas=Ramus protested in an unexpected manner.
“Wa, wait a moment? What are you doing?”
The holy sword ignored Emilia’s intentions and disappeared on its own.
“Please! Don’t bully Iron!”
“W, what is going on?”
Other than the fight with Sariel, this is the first time the holy sword ignored Emilia’s will and disappeared on its own.
“Ugh! Alas=Ramus?”
As if Iron could hear the voice in Emilia’s mind, he intentionally put a huge distance between him and Emilia.
Not only that, he even shouted the name of the girl possessing Emilia’s holy sword.
“Who exactly……?”
“Hey, why are you dawdling!”
At this moment, Sariel’s voice was heard from above.
“Evil Eye of the Fallen!”
Perhaps he got impatient, Sariel aimed at Iron and shot the Evil Eye of the Fallen which could dissipate holy magic.
“Ugh!”
Iron, hit by the Evil Eye, kneeled down on the spot.
But perhaps because he is wearing demonic magic armour, so the effect did not seem as obvious as the time with Emilia.
Even so, Iron glared at Sariel with an anger which he did not show when looking at Maou, Suzuno and Emilia.
“I, Iron……we’re, retreating……”
“!”
But this sentence from Farfarello, fallen on the ground, immediately caused the anger on Iron’s face to disappear.
Iron jumped backwards to further distance himself from Emi, and waved a hand at the same time.
The presence of the barrier broken earlier by Emilia disappeared, and the feeling of the surroundings was replaced by the larger barrier put in by Sariel.
“De, Demom King-sama……I will come and fetch you again sooner or later.”
“Saying this on the back of a brat, it really doesn’t have much persuasive power.”
Farfarello, who was being carried on Iron’s shoulder, could not be considered to have any guts no matter what compliments are used.
Seeing Iron and Farfarello slowly retreat, Sariel said proudly,
“Do you think both of you would be able to escape my barrier, ehhhhhh?”
Even though it is not known what scale of barrer Sariel had put down, it looks as if Iron easily left the boundaries of the barrier.
Iron instantly disappeared in front of Maou and the others, by the way the youth jumped, it was difficult to imagine that he was also carrying an adult on his shoulders.
“……You’re really a useless person.”
“Wh, what did you say?”
Maou couldn’t help but complain, from Sariel’s slow reaction, he probably didn’t expect the barrier to be bypassed so easily.
“Even so, I was still saved once by you, so let me thank you first. Suzuno, are you alright?”
“Yeah……even though there’s nothing wrong with the bones……but it still hurts quite a bit.”
“I’m amazed that you managed to be unharmed after clashing directly with that child.”
Emilia lightly rubbed the arm which held her shield.
From just this action, it could be deduced that the impact with Iron must be massive.
“But then again, Alas=Ramus, how can you keep the sword on your……eh?”
“Wh, what’s wrong?”
After Emilia spoke to Alas=Ramus in her mind, she suddenly stopped talking and sucked in a breath, Chiho, sensing that something was up, asked this in concern.
“That child known as Iron……is ‘Geburah’?”
“What is it?”
Even when she was answering Maou’s question, Emilia found it difficult to hide her shocked expression.
Iron……might be of the same existence as Alas=Ramus.”
“Eh?”
It wasn’t only Maou.
Suzuno, Chiho, and even Sariel, were shocked after hearing this.
“Even though because Alas=Ramus’s way of expressing it isn’t that clear, so it’s not that confirmed yet……”
No one would be able to walk past them when within Sariel’s barrier, even if it’s summer now, everyone present still felt a strange chill.
“That child, Iron……seems to be one of the Sephira, born from ‘Geburah’.”