The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 15

by Satoshi Wagahara

  Copyright

  THE DEVIL IS A PART-TIMER!, Volume 15

  SATOSHI WAGAHARA, ILLUSTRATION BY 029 (ONIKU)

  Translation by Kevin Gifford

  Cover art by 029 (oniku)

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  HATARAKU MAOUSAMA!, Volume 15

  © SATOSHI WAGAHARA 2016

  Edited by Dengenki Bunko

  First published in Japan in 2016 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo.

  English translation rights arranged with KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo, through Tuttle-Mori Agency, Inc., Tokyo.

  English translation © 2019 by Yen Press, LLC

  Yen Press, LLC supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact the publisher. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Wagahara, Satoshi. | 029 (Light novel illustrator) illustrator. | Gifford, Kevin, translator. | Steinbach, Kevin, translator.

  Title: The devil is a part-timer! / Satoshi Wagahara ; illustration by 029 (oniku) ; translation by Kevin Gifford; translation by Kevin Steinbach.

  Other titles: Hataraku Maousama!. English

  Description: First Yen On edition. | New York, NY : Yen On, 2015–

  Identifiers: LCCN 2015028390 | ISBN 9780316383127 (v. 1 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316385015 (v. 2 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316385022 (v. 3 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316385039 (v. 4 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316385046 (v. 5 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316385060 (v. 6 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316469364 (v. 7 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316473910 (v. 8 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316474184 (v. 9 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316474207 (v. 10 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316474238 (v. 11 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316474252 (v. 12 : pbk.) | ISBN 9781975302658 (v. 13 : pbk.) | ISBN 9781975302672 (v. 14 : pbk.) | ISBN 9781975302696 (v. 15 : pbk.)

  Subjects: CYAC: Fantasy.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.1.W34 Ha 2015 | DDC [Fic]—dc23

  LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015028390

  ISBNs: 978-1-9753-0269-6 (paperback)

  978-1-9753-0270-2 (ebook)

  E3-20191107-JV-NF-ORI

  PROLOGUE: THE TEEN AND THE CALL-CENTER LADY RING IN THE NEW YEAR

  It was a quiet morning, the early sunlight giving form to the assorted things that keep the world going in the dark. These could be people; these could be buildings; these could be roads; these could be towns—and this was the light of life for it all, which drove them forward and all but dared them to shine the night away. This light and sound were the breath of existence for them, and any place without them was an inscrutable, fluid object, like a flatly colored shadow. An oven without any gas, a dried-up well—or a building with no one in it.

  “You have to be kidding me,” said the shaky voice of a woman, making the morning light almost quiver with her heavy breath. “This has to be a joke.”

  “It doesn’t appear to be,” another voice replied, also a little unsure of itself as its owner solemnly surveyed what lay ahead of her—a sight that would even make the morning sunrise freeze in place. “There’s nobody in the whole apartment.”

  “This is kind of a mean prank…”

  The two women, in their own individual ways, were appraising the scene inside the building they stood before—Villa Rosa Sasazuka, a postwar-era wooden apartment building in the Sasazuka neighborhood of Tokyo’s Shibuya district. The time was about to pass eight in the morning, but there was not a single sign of life inside.

  “So did they all…uh, leave?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What about Emi’s father? He’s on the first floor, right?”

  “Gone.”

  “Suzuno?”

  “Gone.”

  “What about Maou? And Urushihara?”

  “…Both gone.”

  “And…Ashiya?”

  “Rika.” Chiho Sasaki sternly put an end to Rika Suzuki’s broken-record act. “Please understand. For the moment the apartment complex is…completely empty.”

  “Why…? But why?!!” Rika shook her head, trying to stave off the unbelievable truth. “That can’t…be? I mean, all this time, nobody…nobody said…anything…?”

  She looked up at the deserted Villa Rosa Sasazuka, her voice trailing off. Then she turned her eyes back toward Chiho.

  “Wh-what about Emi? Emi’s got to be here, right?! In Eifukucho! She wouldn’t be here anyway—”

  “Yusa is gone, too.”

  “No way!”

  Rika’s shriek did nothing to break the look on Chiho’s face.

  “Alas Ramus and Acieth can’t leave Yusa and Maou’s side, either,” she said before driving the final nail into the coffin. “They all went back…to Ente Isla.”

  “Oh, no…”

  Ente Isla. The homeland of Chiho Sasaki and Rika Suzuki’s most cherished of friends, a world far away from Sasazuka or Tokyo or Japan—or Earth, for that matter. And now Chiho was telling her these friends had all ventured off to the other end of the galaxy, a place normal, unassuming human beings like them could never reach.

  “So… That’s it? They’re gone?”

  “Yeah.”

  “But… Like, what about Maou’s and Emi’s jobs…?”

  Rika sounded ready to burst into tears as Chiho shook her head. “Did you think they’d just go without telling anyone? It’s already all been worked out.”

  Leaving the side of her confused companion, Chiho breathed a sigh, breath visible in the air, and stepped onto the apartment’s front lawn. Frost from the morning was still visible in the shaded areas of the lot, leaving clear footprints wherever Chiho’s sneakers landed.

  “And it’s not just them, either,” she said, after closing her eyes for a moment at the stairway landing. “Emeralda, Laila, Gabriel… All of them. You won’t find any of them in Japan.”

  There was a rasp to her voice, as if she had yet to fully accept this truth herself.

  “And Erone, and Amane, and the landlord… They’re all in Ente Isla, too.”

  “But… Amane doesn’t even have anything to do with that planet! Aren’t the angels supposed to be gunning for Maou’s and Emi’s lives?!”

  “Well, if you’re someone from the Ente Isla side, then the lives of the Sephirah—of Alas Ramus, and Acieth, and Erone, and everyone else—they take precedent above all that.”

  Chiho took a leather key holder out from her coat pocket. Three dials were poised on one side of it, each labeled with a little sticker reading “101,” “201,” and “202,” in Chiho’s handwriting.

  “Is that…?”

  “The keys to their rooms,” Chiho agreed as she began to climb the stairs, a flustered Rika following her. She st
opped upon reaching Room 201 and took out the key to the apartment, not even bothering to ring the bell or shout hello to anyone.

  “I— Oh no…”

  The sight on the other side of the door made Rika fall to her knees. Room 201 was barren. It wasn’t just a case of the residents being out on an errand—there was nothing. Not a single pot or ladle sat in the kitchen that used to be Ashiya’s command center, and both Urushihara’s desk and the computer that sat on it were gone. The hastily assembled low table, where Chiho sat together with Maou and all her many other friends so often, was nowhere to be found. Now there was just a hundred or so square feet of empty space, no evidence of life or humanity. It was bleak inside, the stains on the ceiling, marks on the walls, and faded tatami-mat floor making it seem even bleaker.

  “We’re just normal people. We’re not able to fight like they can. And you know all Maou and Yusa want is to keep us from getting hurt. So…”

  So there was no way to join the fight in Ente Isla—a battle that featured an entire world waging war against its own deities.

  “But…but this is what they do with us?”

  A single tear fell from the corner of Rika’s eye. She wasn’t strong enough to take the suddenness and unfairness of it. Knowing the truth about Maou and everyone else and loving them for it anyway made it impossible.

  “You’re…fine with this, Chiho?”

  “…”

  “This is really okay with you?”

  Rika’s voice was chiding, as well it should be. Chiho had known them all for much longer; they had valued her as a person, no matter what world or race she had come from. It was only natural, Chiho supposed, that Rika would expect her to do something about this.

  “How?” she replied in a low voice. “How could this ever be…okay with me…?”

  “…!”

  Then, for the first time, Rika spotted the quivering of Chiho’s lips, the shaking in her balled-up fists. No, it could never be okay. But she accepted these facts anyway. And Rika needed to understand how much resolve and courage and grief it took for her to accept these apartment keys instead.

  “…I’m sorry. I…”

  “It’d never be okay with me…” Chiho repeated, her voice blankly echoing against the snuffed-out shell of Room 201.

  The planet was no longer playing home to visitors from another world. They were back where they belonged—away from Earth, and Japan, and Chiho’s and Rika’s lives. But the typical, familiar rhythm of their lives before they discovered the truth was something neither of them were prepared to slip back into again.

  Why did this have to happen? It was January 3, a time when Japan was still filled with traditional New Year’s decorations and traditions. The curtain was rising on a brand-new year, but for Chiho and Rika, the way ahead seemed cloaked in despair.

  And as Chiho looked down at the slumped-over Rika and reflected on the path Maou and his friends took to this war between gods, angels, and devils, all she could think was Why did this have to happen?

  THE DEVIL KING IS OUT OF THE OFFICE (1)

  “I…I can’t believe it.”

  “Well, I mean…”

  Chiho awkwardly turned her face away, unable to bear the strain of such cold, accusatory eyes upon her. But Kaori Shoji, her classmate, kyudo archery partner, and close friend, simply leaned closer.

  “Hey, can you say that again? ’Cause I sure didn’t believe it the first time.”

  “Well, that is…”

  “What’s up with your work shift?”

  “Ahh…”

  Chiho was now leaning back in her seat. Kaori gave her no quarter.

  “Christmas Eve! What’s up with your work shift that day?!”

  “Umm,” Chiho replied, noticing her friend’s flared nostrils. “So Maou’s working, Yusa’s working, and I’m spending it at home with my family.”

  “Come onnnnnn, Sasachi!”

  “Aggghhh…”

  Still looming over the poor girl, Kaori now had her by the collar of her shirt, shaking her around.

  “So what about the day of?” she asked, all but mounting the desk that separated them. “What about the twenty-fifth?!”

  “L-let me go! I can’t breathe!”

  Chiho tried to shake Kaori off. Kaori just glared back. No mercy would be offered until she had her answer—and that’s what made it so hard to give. She was gonna be so mad.

  “All three of us are working that day…”

  “Until when?!”

  “………………………………Ten PM for me, until closing for them.”

  “Come onnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn, Sasachi!”

  The scream rose in a crescendo, as Chiho desperately tried to push Kaori back before she vaulted the desk entirely and fell on the floor.

  “What am I supposed to do about it? I’m too young to work past ten!”

  “That’s not the problem!” Kaori shouted, spraying a big wad of spittle from the corner of her mouth. “What made you ever agree to that shift in the first place?! What are you even thinking?! I mean, I can’t even explain to you how much of a shock this is! Last time was nothing compared to this!” She hung her head in her hands, groaning. “Well, fine. Fine. Go ahead! Celebrate Christmas with your family! A lot of people do that, and I am, too! But this time… This time, like, this, of all years, that’s totally the wrong thing to do!”

  “You think…? But we’re gonna be short-staffed between Christmas and New Year’s…”

  “Look, I don’t care if people think teens these days are all lazy and stuff; I’m never gonna take a job where I have to work around New Year’s! It’s stupid MgRonald’s fault for bothering to be open!”

  Chiho, no doubt spoiled a bit by the serene comfort of Japan’s modern culture of convenience, felt like arguing against this. She fought back the impulse.

  “Look, Sasachi, listen to me for a moment.”

  “Um, yes?”

  “You told me a while back that you wanted Maou to give you an answer, right?”

  “Huh? Ah, um, yeah.”

  Having this topic broached out of nowhere made Chiho scope out her classroom surroundings. Kaori’s acrobatics were over now, so everyone around them had stopped paying attention. But given how her classmates were just the right age to latch on to topics like this, Chiho didn’t want anyone eavesdropping on them. Kaori knew that full well, of course, but apparently she just had to ask right now.

  “Come on, Sasachi. We’re teenage girls, right? Teenage girls. It’s right about the time we want a little more drama in our lives, like grown-ups have.”

  “I—I guess…”

  In terms of drama, Chiho was confident that, in the past year, she had had more of that and change than most Hollywood celebrities, hands down. She was fine with her current portion, thank you very much, but she gave a meek nod anyway.

  “So what’s with this act of yours, huh? The one day you get a better shot at that drama than any other day of the year, and you’re going to leave your main rival alone with the guy you love so you can entertain at home with your parents? You really think you’re in that good of a position here?”

  “Yusa’s not my ‘main rival’ or anything…”

  “Oh, hush! Anyone but you can see she totally is!” She pointed an accusatory finger like a lecturing sister-in-law. “I’m assuming you haven’t drummed up the guts to ask for a reply yet. Wouldn’t you normally try to settle things with him on Christmas Eve, then? The one day you got for it?”

  Chiho could tell what Kaori meant. The thought hadn’t completely escaped her mind. But…

  “But I mean, December’s schedule was already set up since last month, when we talked about it, so…”

  “Nooooo, this won’t work! It won’t, it won’t! It won’t work at all! You got no chance whatsoever, Sasachi. You could wait five hundred years and not get an answer! Just give up! Give up.”

  “But—but that’s…”

  Kaori’s head was back in her hands.

&nbs
p; Chiho hadn’t been totally oblivious. As the sights and sounds of town began to take on a holiday theme, she had dreamed about going on a nice Christmas date with Maou somewhere. She had dreamed about it, but this was the Lord of All Demons, and as far as she knew, this would be his second Christmas in Japan. She didn’t know how the last one went for him, but chances were he was working—and this year, yes, he had picked up a full MgRonald shift on the twenty-fourth and the twenty-fifth.

  She had actually realized she might be missing the chance of a lifetime back at the end of November. The shifts were long set in stone; asking Maou or Ms. Kisaki for a shift change around the holiday was unthinkable.

  Things had been pretty chaotic between September and November for both Chiho and everyone involved with Ente Isla, with Emi and Ashiya being captured, Maou sallying forth to rescue them, Urushihara having a stint in the hospital, and Emi’s mother appearing out of nowhere. It had been particularly rough for Emi, being reunited with a mom whom she hardly remembered but who had laid such a heavy burden upon both her and the entire world.

  Both Laila—archangel and Emi’s mother—and Sadao Maou, the Demon Lord who Chiho loved, had clearly taken great pains to lighten Emi’s heart during all this, despite the fact that Laila and Maou could hardly be said to get along. It was a gesture Chiho, who cared about both sides of that equation deeply, should have been glad for—but, as she now realized, seeing Maou treat Emi with kindness made her terribly jealous.

  For better or for worse, his attitude toward Chiho hadn’t changed since summer, when she first confessed her love. If he and Emi were to accept the “big job” Laila brought to their attention, they would go very, very far away from Chiho. She had no idea how to grasp the relationship between herself and this guy from another world—so she had asked her friend Kaori Shoji for advice, leaving out the extraneous Ente Isla–related details.

  That had happened at the end of November, and even by then, there was no way she could do anything as bold as ask for a Christmas date. But something else now disturbed her just as much: Rika Suzuki, friend to Emi and another acquaintance who knew the truth behind their little social circle, had confessed her own interests to Shirou Ashiya, the Great Demon General Alciel. She had opened her heart to him—but it hadn’t been enough.