“All riiight… In thaaat case—well, I suggested this firrrst, so I’ll find a way to discuss this with Ms. Sasaki… Bell, too, of courrrse.”
“Oh? You will?”
“Ahhh… Perhaps we should contact Riiika as well? She would have quite a nummmber of ideas for a birthday party, I’m suuure…”
“Um… Well, I mean, Rika…”
“Mmm? Are things awwwkward with Rika, too?”
“N-no, but…”
“Because I saaaw her today, but she didn’t seem ooout of sorts at all.”
“Oh, you saw Rika?”
“Yesss, in front of her office. I think she was about to go out driiinking with her coworker… Maaaki, was it? She said she just returned from her faraway faaamily home.”
“Maaaki” must have been Maki Shimizu. And that family home must have been her old place in Kobe. Emi had no idea—and while Rika had no obligation to submit a travel report to Emi, if she was off in Kobe the entire time their current radio silence was unfolding, that worried her.
“Ohhh… Alllso, I’m not sure if I should tell you or not, but she had a message for youuu.”
“She did?”
“She told me to tell you, ‘I think I can talk calmly about things when a little bit more time has passed.’ I don’t know what that meeeans, but…”
Emeralda might not have, but to Emi it could only mean one thing.
“…All right.”
“Does that have to do with why you don’t want to bring this up with herrr?”
“I—I hardly know what anything’s got to do with anything any longer.”
“Emiliaaa?”
“By next year… Who am I even going to think is important to my life?”
“Well, why worry about next yeeear already? Don’t fools rush in where deeemons fear to tread?”
“Angels. Where angels fear to tread. Not that they’d be much of an improvement. But if the demons found out how I’m feeling right now…”
Emi put her head down, arms around her knees.
“I don’t know if I could ever recover.”
“……”
If she was this far gone, not even Emeralda had any advice for her.
The day after she listened to Emi’s pure, simple, unadorned confession, Emeralda sent a tersely worded Idea Link to Albert explaining that she couldn’t return yet. Albert was at a total loss for words, of course, but even he understood that Emeralda wouldn’t take such a drastic step without a reason. “Hey,” he said before he shut off the Link, his voice resigned, “it’s your funeral”—and as glad as she was that he understood, that little closing remark meant Albert was now crossed off the list of friends to bring souvenirs home to.
Now she was lying on the guest futon next to Emi’s bed, thinking over matters in her pajamas despite it being well into the afternoon.
“Hmm… But could Ms. Sasaki really ever be jealous of Emiliaaa? …Ahh, I suppose just thiiinking about it won’t solve the problem…”
She then napped for another hour or so before she finally forced herself up.
“Why don’t I just go,” she said, “and see for myselllf?”
Looking at the wadded and torn shift schedule stuck on the refrigerator, Emi, Chiho, and Maou were all on the evening shift. “A picture’s worth a thouuusand words,” she sang to herself as she got dressed, “so time to get a picture of my owwwn!”
There was still time until Chiho’s shift began, however. Heading to MgRonald now would likely lead to awkward stares and perhaps a swift boot out the door from Emi. So…
“Sooo I was wondering if I could iiinterview you for a little bit.”
“I dunno about what but be my guest.”
Half an hour later, she was in Room 101 of Villa Rosa Sasazuka, sharing a kotatsu table with Nord and Erone. Nord seemed pretty nonplussed by this sudden self-invite but allowed her in the room nonetheless.
“Hello, Erone!”
“…Hello.”
Erone was reading a book—in Japanese. “Ah,” explained Nord, “he’s been borrowing them from Ms. Shiba or buying them from used bookstores, but these children seem to be picking up on this nation’s language without any particular instruction. Here you are.”
He offered Emeralda a cup of tea to warm herself a little.
“So what briiings me here today…”
“Hmm?”
“As Emilia’s faaather, what sort of…condiiitions are you looking for in her potential husband?”
“………………………Hmm?”
Nord froze, not following the gist of the question.
“No, ah, I don’t meeean anything deep by it. I remain siiingle myself, but I figured, as her father, you would want her to be as haaappy as possible before anything else.”
“Well, of course…”
“So I was wonnndering what kind of life you’d like Emilia to leeead, going forward.”
It was hard to grasp the intent behind that stony smile of hers, but Nord thought over the question, cup in hand.
“…I can’t say I have any requests, no.”
“Oh? You dooon’t?”
“Nope.” He put his elbow on the table, hand supporting his head. “Laila and I have already failed to provide a happy life for her, after all. I’m not sure we’re too qualified to go up to Emilia’s partner and say you’d better make her happy.”
“You’re worried you aren’t quaaalified? It seems like aaany parent would want that, I think.”
“That’s nice of you to say, Emeralda, but living here, I can’t help but think sometimes. Looking at how Emilia ought to live, it sure seems to me that being here in Japan might actually be the best thing.”
“And why is thaaat? Not to be too forrrward, but all during our journey, Emilia talked about wanting to work your fiiields with you again.”
“Oh, I know. Emilia told me herself. But I’ve been in Japan for a while by now, and I think I know a thing or two about this nation.” He snickered. “Japan… Or this world, really… You won’t find any man on this planet stronger than Emilia, will you?”
“……………Well…………” Nord’s point-blank response caught Emeralda more than a little off guard. “Perhaps not, no. In mooore ways than onnne.”
“And if you think of it that way, I highly doubt Emilia will wind up unhappy, no matter who she marries. Don’t you think so?”
“That sounds like quiiite a leap to meee…”
“Her journey gave her a lot of mental toughness, I’d say, and the time she spent here alone must’ve added to that. I’m sure she would have preferred not to go through that, given the choice, but now that she has, I think she needs to make that a net positive in her life. Besides, Emilia is no fool. She’d never be attracted to some lazy bum without a decent head on his shoulders. So whoever she chooses, I’m not planning to complain about it at all.”
“…I see.”
“Just out of curiosity, do you think there’s someone like that in Emilia’s life?”
“Nooo, not yet at least…but if there waaas, I wouldn’t be having this conversaaation with you in the first place.”
“True enough,” Nord said with a hearty laugh.
“So if I could ask you a somewhat more pooointed question…”
“Go ahead. I’ll answer it if I can.”
“All riiight…” She looked at Nord, expression unchanged. “Do you thiiink Emilia will celebrate Chriiistmas here next year?”
“…” Nord fell silent.
“Christmas?” chimed in Erone. “Acieth mentioned it to me. She made it sound like some kind of food festival?”
Acieth was clearly a bad influence on him. If Amane or Ashiya were here, they’d both be shaking, no doubt.
“Yes,” Emeralda replied, the lilt in her voice gone. “Next year, and the next one, and the next one. What do you think, sir?”
“I—I…”
“I’m sure you’re aware of what your wife expects of Emilia?”
“�
��I am,” came the somewhat distressed-sounding reply.
“As I’ve said to you before, I am on Emilia’s side. I will support her in any endeavor she desires, just as much as I’m sure Chiho Sasaki would. That is why I sincerely hope she doesn’t plunge herself into a battle she doesn’t want for herself…even if the rest of the world wants her to.”
“……”
For a while, the only sounds to be heard were Emeralda’s soft voice, Erone turning the pages in his book, and the light footsteps of someone in Room 201—probably Urushihara—plodding back and forth between the kitchen and the window. It took nearly five minutes for Nord to finally squeeze the words out.
“Lately, you know, sometimes I’ve seen Laila and Emilia come home together.” He turned toward the thin door at the front of Room 101. “I…I don’t really hope for anything, because I’m sure I don’t know. I don’t know what those two women’s future should be like or what they want from it.”
There was no way Nord wasn’t aware of the facts Gabriel presented to Emeralda at that MozzBurger in Nerima. Not someone who loved Laila as much as he did. And that knowledge—the fact that her daughter might be immortal, no matter what she thought about it—put him at a crossroads.
“That day I went to my wife’s apartment… I hate to admit it, but all we really did was clean up her place. That night, we went out to eat at this diner in Nerima, but it wasn’t until I came back here when I realized it was the first time all three of us shared a meal together. I was so exhausted that I can barely remember what I even ordered.”
Nord flashed an odd-looking smile, haunted by both happiness and loneliness.
“But it was such an enjoyable time. I don’t know if they’d describe it as such, but…”
“……”
“And I think that’s what I want for them. That sort of constant, unchanging routine, the kind where they have trouble remembering what they had for dinner yesterday. I hope that’s what they want, too. But before too long, unless something changes, we’re going to lose one of the most important pieces for that happiness.”
Would that be Emi? Or Laila? Or Nord?
“Emilia already knows what Laila wants.”
“?!”
Emeralda gasped at this unimaginable statement. She knew they had grown at least a little closer, but that close?
“Now, that’s a little different from accepting Laila’s request. But like I said, Emilia’s been coming home right alongside Laila as of late, when she’s done with work. It’s not exactly the approach she took with Maou, but in her own way, she’s trying to strike a fair stance with Laila. They’ve been talking to each other a lot the past little while, in this room.”
“To each other,” he’d said. And not while Nord was gone. Just as Maou demanded Chiho accompany him, Emi and Laila were no doubt asking their father and husband to help arbitrate their discussions.
“Of course, she may listen to all this discussion and flatly refuse her in the end, but…”
Despite Emeralda’s initial surprise, this seemed possible to her. And what Nord had heard from those two largely matched up with what Gabriel told Emeralda at MozzBurger.
“I married Laila fully aware she was an angel. I was the one who asked for her hand in marriage.”
“Ahh…”
Emeralda tensed up, worried that this would descend into a bunch of lovey-dovey nonsense again.
“She told me she was immortal. That she already wasn’t a human being. She told me not to expect children or for her to age alongside me. She cried when she did. But I didn’t mind. I loved her from the heart, and she loved me. So if I could be part of her life for at least a little bit, nothing could have made me happier. So I asked her again.”
Yep. Just as lovey-dovey as Emeralda thought. He was even holding his chin out a little.
“But when Emilia was born…I’m sure Laila must’ve been terrified. She had managed to become an Ente Islan, but with her angelic blood, she was worried Emilia would be too different from humans. I didn’t hear about that until after the Devil King’s Army attacked and Emilia was separated from me. I think we talked about that when we all went to Chofu, a while back? It was just before I went to Japan.”
You were all lovey-dovey about her then, too, Emeralda caught herself almost saying. Instead, she just nodded.
“I don’t know if immortality is a good thing or not. If my wife and daughter stay young and beautiful long after I die, that might be a wonderful thing. But I’m sure it means they’ll have to keep saying good-bye to so many people they love. And being immortal, once they grow sick of living, what’s left at the end…?”
Nord deliberately avoided going into detail on that.
“So I just don’t know. As her father, I want her to live as long and happy a life as she can. There are so many wonderful things to see in this world, far too many to get to in one life. But the longer you live, the more pain and suffering you have to deal with. That’s why I want Emilia to round out her life as a human being—but to achieve that, she may need to wage a battle she has no interest in fighting. If she’s sent out there, she might die in combat. If she does, it’ll mean I’ve taken this girl who could’ve been young and beautiful for all eternity and sent her to her doom. I’d regret it my entire life. So what should I do? What will make Emilia and Laila happy? I just don’t know.”
“Nord…”
“If I could fight,” he continued, the cup almost at the breaking point in his iron grip, “I’d never let Emilia do it. I’d gladly step on the battlefield to protect the future of the world in her place. If I stumble across the secret to immortality along the way, then maybe I could support my wife’s and daughter’s decisions the way a real father and husband could. But I don’t have even a crumb of Emilia’s strength. I’m no help to either of them. All I can do is sit here and watch what they decide to do. It’s incredibly irritating.”
“…I don’t know what happiness is, either…”
Erone put his hand over Nord’s.
“But what I do know is, both of them know how you feel about them. So stop beating yourself up. You aren’t just making Laila and Emilia happy. You’re making me happy and Acieth, too.”
“Erone…”
“We get to eat our fill every day besides.”
“Ha… That is a verrry happy feeling, isn’t it? A nice meeeal when you need it.”
Emeralda laughed a little at Erone’s stone-faced joke.
“I can’t choose my way by myself, but I know I’ll never forget the happy times I spent with all of you in this city. No matter what Emilia and Laila decide to do, I know that’ll always be true. You’re not useless to us at all, Nord. You’d never be.”
“………Yeah, I sure hope not.”
Emeralda had no way to guess how Nord took Erone’s words. But using a hand to wipe the tears from his eyes, he turned back toward her.
“If I can’t do anything but look on…I guess this is how I would answer it. The first question.”
There was nothing contrived about his expression—almost like pure desperation, as if he had already gotten over everything.
“If Emilia’s hope is to spend Christmas in Japan next year, I’ll do whatever she wants. Dress up as Santa, anything. And that’s what I really want—to join her along the way, as much as I can.”
“…Thank you. I apologize for the rudeness of my questions.”
She couldn’t help but say sorry for the way she had tested his heart like that.
Room 101 of Villa Rosa Sasazuka. The mother and daughter still looked a bit awkward, facing each other like this, but in Nord’s eyes, their relations had dramatically warmed up since the day they had cleaned out her apartment.
This was where Laila told Emi the story of Ignora discovering the key to immortality as a way to fend off the pandemic affecting her home planet. Emi listened silently, asking not a single question, and in the midst of it, Nord played with Alas Ramus. It was a happy if awkward little space.
Laila’s story was largely the same as what Gabriel told Chiho and the rest of the gang, but Emi and Nord weren’t aware of that at the time.
“The two of them came to that moon-side laboratory as additional staff at first. I was pretty shocked when I saw the photos on their lab IDs. I mean, they looked like children on their way home from school—and when I actually met them, that only cemented the image. It was Sariel who took them there; he was working for the lab’s legal department at the time, and the higher-ups supporting the lab trusted him to be their attendant.”
“Hmmm…”
These two young researchers were sent up there after the lab spent a year looking for a solution and finding nothing. Their names were Caiel and Sikeena.
“The boy was Caiel, and the girl was Sikeena. And you know, Caiel had silver hair with just a lock of purple at the front.”
“Silver and purple?”
“Mm? What is it?”
“What, Mommy?”
Emilia’s surprised eyes were pointed at Alas Ramus, having a ball riding on Nord’s back.
Laila nodded. “That’s right. Caiel was the personification of our planet’s Yesod, and Sikeena was the personification of its Malkuth. We didn’t know about any of that back then. The lab really looked at them through rose-colored glasses, this pair of fresh college grads sent over by the leaders of our planet. We had been spinning our wheels for a year, and we knew the government wanted results. Things were pretty strained.”
But once they were brought on as Ignora’s assistants, things progressed quickly.
“We finally found a gene that could resist the pandemic in our experiments with mice… Well, the equivalent lab animal in our world, but you get the idea. Once we did, Caiel and Sikeena began to be treated much, much differently. It was a breakthrough, and Ignora essentially gave them all the credit. That kind of thing usually sparks a lot of jealousy in the research world, but thanks to a certain someone watching over Ignora’s group and providing them support in this otherworldly enterprise, there wasn’t too much discord.”
“A certain someone…” Emi looked up at the ceiling. He hadn’t appeared since way back at the start of the story, but by the way Laila phrased this…
The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 15 Page 10
