Prologue
Nozomi Sasahara was the 21st of her line. Her line of what, you ask? Her line of owners of an ancient inn.
In this era, human beings lived a long time, so the inn she ran, the eponymous “Sasahara,” was almost 2000 years old. 2000 years is a long time, but the inn had spent most of those two millennia on the verge of going out of business, so it was hard to say how much that counted for. It had gotten off to a great start, but the case of food poisoning that occurred shortly after the inn opened was when things started to go downhill.
After that, something went wrong approximately every decade. Once, terrorists took the owner of the inn hostage in what came to be known as the “Sasahara Inn Incident.” Another time, a boiler exploded, taking half of the building with it. Then there was when the hot springs themselves dried up, and the owner tried to fool everyone by putting bath salts into tap water. That one ended up on the national news.
At this point, suicides choosing the inn as a place to kill themselves were so commonplace that nobody even paid attention anymore. There was even a legend that one generation, suspecting a curse, had summoned an exorcist. The legend said he’d run away before even making it through the front door. How, after all that, was it still in business?
“Because it is the pride of our clan,” Nozomi’s mother had said. She’d said that many, many times, when Nozomi kept asking the same question over and over again when she was a child. “Our family carries the bloodline of the emperor. We cannot stray from our task.”
Nozomi didn’t know what royal blood had to do with managing an inn. Her mother probably didn’t either, come to think of it. But, well, if her mom said it, it was probably true.
In this era, magic and Liradans were common enough to ensure that every imperial citizen had the bare minimum of income they needed to survive. In a society like that, there were only two reasons to work. One was to give your life meaning. Another was for the sake of extra spending money.
In the case of Sasahara, it wasn’t giving them extra cash, it was taking money out of their pockets. They were running it out of simple stubbornness. This stubborn streak, however, was lost on Nozomi. If quitting was the more profitable option, there was no reason to continue. And if they really did have imperial blood, shouldn’t the government be supporting them?
Since they were so poor, no one they knew even believed they had royal blood. Which meant nobody respected them. Nozomi was getting sick of it. “Helping manage a Japanese inn” sounded fancy, but it was boring waiting every day for guests that never came. She was 16, and her youth was being entirely squandered.
But Nozomi herself was neither tall, nor smart, nor brave. She knew that she didn’t have the guts to run away from home and carve her own path. So all she was left with was the notion that she had royal blood in her veins, a notion even she sometimes didn’t believe. Her tiny body swelled with pride at the thought of being a princess, until one day she saw news that sent her pride erupting off in the completely wrong direction.
“A new Empress has been born. The new empress is a commoner, but one with the power to control the Demon King himself...” Nozomi had been eating a simple meal at her table. When she heard the news reporter, her sardines fell off her chopsticks. She pressed her face up against the mana screen to get a better look at the new Empress.
The new empress’s name was Keena Soga, supposedly. She had a round face, round eyes, and even a round nose. There wasn’t a trace of nobility about her, so it was easy to believe that she was a commoner.
“Wait, you can have a NEW Empress?” Nozomi screamed. Keena was a girl with an ordinary face, not much older than Nozomi was. She didn’t know how it had happened, but somehow, when Empress Kazuko died she’d become the new Empress.
Nozomi started to tear at her hair.
—So it doesn’t matter if you’re a commoner, as long as you have royal blood?
—Does that mean I can be an Empress too?
—Empress, like, THE Empress?
“Our new empress will continue attending Constant Magical Academy. Like the rest of the Emperors and Empresses in the past, she prizes learning even if it means continuing to be surrounded by commoners...” The newscaster was continuing to introduce Keena.
Nozomi’s head was starting to spin. She had a bad habit of getting confused over even the smallest things, and to make things worse, when she got confused, she also had a habit of turning reckless.
“I’ll do it! I’m gonna do it, mom and dad! I’m going to go to school and talk to the Empress myself! I’m gonna do it!” She said to her parents. Her parents were so stunned that they couldn’t offer more than the most feeble of denials.
“W-Wait. That’s crazy!”
“That school’s really hard to get into, you know. You’re way too stupid!”
But her confusion had taken root throughout her brain, and now there was nothing in Nozomi’s mind except the desire to meet Keena Soga. “Don’t worry! I’ve got this!” She showed them a mana screen with a help wanted ad on it.
“Now hiring... janitors?”
“I can put the hospitality skills I learned at our inn to use anywhere, be it a school or a train station platform! Being a janitor is a piece of cake!” Nozomi beamed confidently. But her parents had a more objective view of Nozomi’s talents.
“Wait, hospitality? Have you ever even done any work around here?”
“That’s right. You can’t even clean your own room.”
“That’s because we don’t have any customers!” Nozomi yelled. She knew that was always enough to shut them up.
When, as she expected, they shut up, she grinned victoriously. “Just wait, mom and dad. I’ll bring this inn back to life! I’ll get us out of this situation where it’s just us and the Liradans! If I can just talk to the Empress, it’ll all work out!” And with those parting words, she ran out of the house.
Now, the janitorial exam for Constant Magical Academy had many applicants. At a top school like Constant, even a menial job like being a janitor brought you in direct contact with the people running the school, and was a great way to make connections with future priests. When she reached the back of the line, Nozomi started to get a little worried.
—I’m not so sure I can pull this off. Even if I’m a pro, they might have some minor advantages of their own.
It was a mystery where this strange sense of pride was coming from, but Nozomi was certainly full of herself.
The exam consisted of an interview with the artificial spirit Yatagarasu, to determine your suitability for the job. Yatagarasu would check a database consisting of every action you’d ever taken in your life, and find the job that was best for you. It might seem no different from fortune-telling, but since he could look at your physical abilities, your actions, and even your thoughts, he’d never been wrong before. The one exception was Keena Soga, who’d been told she’d be a “nurse” only to end up an “Empress.” But Empress wasn’t really a job, so it didn’t count.
Of course, some people rejected the results they’d been given, for example, to take up the family business, but that always ended poorly for them. For a job exam, it was a fair way to do it. All the school had to do was pick anyone who was judged to be a “servant” or an “educator.”
The interviewees knew this too, so a lot of them had already undergone the examination. Even if you didn’t get the exact job Yatagarasu suggested for you, it was common to get a job in a related field. Nozomi, by the way, had never undergone an examination.
She stood excitedly before the three-legged crow. After conducting the exam, Yatagarasu gave a loud caw.
“Janitor!”
“What?! Only one person in 10 t
housand ever gets that!”
“Janitor” was just a term for someone who cleaned a school. It wasn’t a profession. No one ever got that for an answer from Yatagarasu. Which, well, was why they’d put out a hiring notice...
“Wow...”
“I didn’t know that there were people like that...”
The other applicants were murmuring amongst themselves. There was a strange mixture of envy and disappointment in their voices. All of them had hoped to be priests or professors, and had their dreams dashed when there were no open seats. They’d used what networking and connections they had to get them here, only to be met with a natural born janitor. None of them knew what to say.
But Nozomi took it as a compliment.
—I can do this! I can do this! Ancestors, are you watching me? I’m shining brighter than I ever have before!
Nozomi’s eyes gleamed radiantly.
And thus, a new janitor was born.
Her name was Nozomi Sasahara.
And she was born to be a janitor.
1 - Beginning of the Final Battle
Of course, there was no way that Keena was going to settle down and take her job as empress seriously. Sometimes, no, all the time, she would run away and make life miserable for her servants.
“All the Empress ever gets to do is pray and sign things. It’s really boring, you know!” Keena said, sitting on the bed where Akuto had been sleeping. She was talking. He wasn’t. She’d wrapped his blankets around her body and put her beloved rice cooker in front of her, and was carrying large spoonfuls of rice up to her mouth.
Akuto sat up in bed, and after listening to Keena for a while, checked his watch. It was 5:30 AM. There were 30 minutes left until it was time to wake up. In other words, this young Empress with a round face and bustles of red hair, and a stomach that you could call a white rice black hole, had snuck into his room before dawn and was eating said rice.
“Don’t you ever get heartburn?” Akuto pointed to the rice cooker.
“Did you know that at the palace, you can only get two second servings?” Keena’s response may have felt like an answer. Or maybe it hadn’t.
“Still, there aren’t any other rooms in the boys dorm where you get woken up at 5 in the morning by the sound of a rice cooker chime,” Akuto sighed.
“The Royal Guard’s gotten used to my tricks lately. They stop me when I try to take off my clothes. If I don’t leave first thing in the morning, I can’t get out.” Keena had the special ability to turn invisible, and she used it to help her escape.
“I’m glad the guards are normal, at least,” Akuto said as he yawned and got out of bed. Keena frowned. “You’re one to talk, aren’t you?”
She had a point. Akuto Sai had been prophesied to become the demon king, and it had already happened. He wasn’t normal, by any means. But he was a very serious and hard-working boy, and even as Keena sat on his bed eating rice, he began cleaning up his room in his PJs.
“I’m sick of getting caught up in your messes. I know I can’t live a normal life, so I want to just retire and live in peace. My dream of becoming a priest is a lot harder now. No, it’s not just harder. It’s impossible. But I still want to live a normal life, you know? So I need you to be a normal empress. If you do, you might be able to cause a revolution from inside the political system,” Akuto said as he put the clothes scattered on the floor into the dresser.
The Demon King was a living war machine. The only reason he’d been able to go back to having a normal life was that they’d learned the Empress could control his power. As a result, his life was now under Keena’s control. Akuto’s life now depended on her. Of course he’d want to give her a lecture.
His message seemed to reach Keena, on some level. “You’re right. I need to be a great Empress!” she said firmly. Then she licked off the last grain of rice from the paddle and put it back in the rice cooker, and stood up straight.
“First, I need to start by causing a revolution at the school! Yes, I need to make everyone understand how wonderful rice is!” Her expression was full of resolve. Her fists were gripped tightly like a goddess who’d risen to start a revolution. However, she was completely naked. The blanket she was wearing fell off, revealing a stomach that was pudgier than it should be.
“Keena!” Akuto yelled and looked away.
“Huh? What...? Wait, aah!” She looked down at herself, finally realized what had happened, and quickly grabbed the blanket.
“Aww, Ackie, you pervert. I hadn’t put on any clothes yet.”
“...That’s your fault, not mine. I’ll go get you some.” He went to leave the room, but a voice stopped him.
“There’s no need for that.”
The door to the shelf near the ceiling opened, and a beautiful doll-like girl came out. She squirmed out from the tiny door, and fell more than the height of an adult human, head-first, only to spin around like a cat and land gracefully in the center of the room.
No human could do something like that, and of course, She wasn’t human. She was Akuto and Keena’s observer: Korone the Liradan.
“I’m one of the Empress’s servants now. Here, have some clothes.” She opened the bag on her shoulder and pulled out a complete school uniform. The tiny bag was connected to a virtual phase space that allowed it to hold objects of most any size.
“Wow, thank you!” Keena said, happily taking the clothes.
Then, Korone got around behind Akuto’s back and put her hands over his eyes.
“...I’m not planning on watching her change.”
“But the desire a teenage boy has for a naked girl is a strong one. Enough to make him pedal a bike to the vending machine in the next town.”
“No, I don’t have the energy to do something like that.” Akuto replied, but Korone continued to silently hold her hands over his eyes.
Once she’d put her clothes on, Keena made a declaration. “As Empress, I will begin my revolution here at this school. A revolution in the name of rice! I will start a movement to bring back the lost joys of rice among the students. A rice renaissance! I will bring back the spirits of the ancient, rice-loving empire, and use it to raise healthy young adults! And eventually, I’ll turn the whole Empire into a rice field!”
“That’s crazy...” Akuto said, but Korone began to applaud loudly enough to cut him off.
“A wonderful idea! All hail the empress! All hail the empress!”
“Listen...” Akuto looked at Korone, but her lack of expression made it impossible to tell what she was thinking.
“I shall do everything I can to aid you, Empress,” Korone said, spurring her on. “Glory to the Empress!”
“No, that’s not right. Glory to rice!” Keena said, like she was some kind of saint.
“Come on now...” All Akuto could do was sigh. It was a stupid idea, he thought, but there was no way she’d ever actually go through with it. But the next day, the rice renaissance was put into effect.
○
The cafeteria was crowded, like it always was at lunchtime. But today, it was far more crowded than usual. The line of students stretched out of the cafeteria, and showed no signs of moving. There was a problem at the front of it.
“Spaghetti with meat sauce,” Fujiko Eto, the girl at the front, said, elegantly placing her ticket down on the counter. She was a beautiful girl with long, flowing black hair. The other girls all loved her, and looked up to her as a big sister.
Of course, that was only her public side. In private she was an evil woman. She was obsessed with Akuto, the one part of her private side she didn’t try to hide, and the girls all thought that the Demon King had brainwashed her.
“We have no spaghetti,” she was told. She looked up in surprise. She recognized the voice. The woman behind the counter was Korone.
“Korone, what are you doing here? And what do you mean, there’s no spaghetti?”
“Just for today, I am in charge of the cafeteria by the Empress’s orders. As for the spaghetti, I’m sorry, b
ut we don’t have any. We’ll still accept your ticket, so please change your order,” Korone said flatly.
“I see. Fine. I’ll take some udon then. Kitsune udon.” Fujiko smiled gently.
“We don’t have any,” Korone said.
“What? You don’t have any of that either?” Fujiko said, surprised.
“Correct. Now, what will you have?”
Now she knew why the line was so long, but she still had a lot of questions. Frowning, Fujiko changed her order. “Alright, soba with tempura.”
“We don’t have any.” Another almost instant answer.
“Ramen.”
“Nope.”
“Yakisoba?”
“I’m afraid not.”
“Kishimen?”
“Obviously no.”
“Fine! Chilled chinese noodles!”
“Of course we don’t have any.”
“I feel like noodles today! Gaah! Don’t tell me you don’t have any!” Fujiko began to raise her voice.
But Korone’s reaction was calm. “Noodles? We have vermicelli.”
“Huh? Vermicelli?”
“Correct. I had to ask to get it, too. It was allowed, because it’s made from rice.”
When Korone said this, Fujiko finally knew what was going on. “...I see. That’s right. Keena Soga is empress now, isn’t she?”
“Correct. She told me to spread the wonders of rice, so I decided to make an all-rice menu. I recommend the K Combo.”
“The K Combo...” Fujiko whispered, a little scared.
The K Combo. It was a terrifying combo, made especially for Keena. Even the soup and the main course were made from rice. It was something no normal person could eat. The side dish was a rice croquette.
“And that’s where this mess came from...” Fujiko looked around her. The line was long because all the other students had argued with Korone like she was doing. Some of the students had taken their meals and sat down, but all of them were sitting there with chopsticks unmoving, and faces frozen in despair. When she looked closer, she saw that all of them were sitting in front of half-eaten K Combos.
“Why are you doing this?” Fujiko asked in a low voice. It was the scariest expression she could muster in front of the other students. But Korone’s expression was unchanged.
Demon King Daimaou: Volume 10 Page 1
