Emi laughed at the half-playing child. Then, the next question froze her.
“Mommy, you okeh? Your face’s all red.”
“…!”
She brought a hand to her face. It was a winter night. It’d be too cold to tell if it was “all red” just from touching it. Besides, she was under a streetlight. From Alas Ramus’s position, the glare shouldn’t have made it possible to see Emi’s face. Maybe she was mistaken.
“Um, Alas Ramus?” she finally said, repeating those excuses in her mind.
“Yeh?”
“Alas Ramus, do you love Daddy?”
The young girl grinned, looking a little bashful.
“Hee-hee-hee-hee! I wuv ’im!”
“…Oh.”
Emi nodded, lips pursed together…
“Ah! Mommy?”
…then she lowered Alas Ramus’s hat over her face, before crouching down and embracing her.
“…Hey, Alas Ramus?”
“Waph!”
In a hug at such close range, the hat didn’t keep the child from wrapping her arms around the smiling Emi’s neck. Emi’s face was blacked out by the glare from the lights.
“Daddy…”
Nobody would ever know what expression was on it.
“I wonder what kind of chocolate he’d like…?”
It was half past ten, and Maou’s shift ended a bit before closing tonight. The sight of a light on in Room 202 made him raise an eyebrow.
“Whoa, Suzuno’s still here tonight?”
It wasn’t like Suzuno was up late so she could bother Maou, but knowing he wasn’t the only person in this whole building was still a bit reassuring. So he climbed the outdoor stairs, going over the routine he had ahead of him before bedtime.
“You’re back?” she asked.
“Agh!”
Suzuno popped out of the Room 202 door right as he got there. It startled him majorly.
“Wh-what?! What is it?!” he screeched.
“…”
But despite the sudden ambush, all she seemed interested in doing was silently staring at him.
“Suzuno?”
“I have a few things I wish to ask you…”
“Huh?”
“But could you please show a little more resolve? Like a Devil King?”
“What the heck?”
This wasn’t exactly the greatest way to be welcomed by your neighbor after a long evening shift.
“Silence. You are the one letting a little gift of chocolate rattle you to the core. The more you act like that, you realize, the more pain you put on others.”
“Wait a sec! Why do you know about that? …Was it Emi, or Acieth?”
If Suzuno found out today—right after coming back from Ente Isla—it was either Emi, whom he told, or Acieth, who was there.
“Both. Acieth, in particular, ran us through the wringer.”
This was a double surprise to Maou.
“B-Both? Through the wringer? What did Acieth do…?”
“I no longer wish to talk about it. If you want to know, ask her yourself. Or Chiho.”
“Ngah!”
That was more of a noise than a coherent response. Why was Chiho’s name coming up?
“You…” Suzuno continued, uncorking everything she had bottled up upon a bewildered Maou. “What are you even doing? Because lately, I am having trouble surmising your motives. What are you thinking about, as you go on in life?”
“What am I thinking about? Why’re you lecturing me like Urushihara?”
“You may want to conquer the world as the Devil King. You may want a full-time job as a human being. I care not. But what is your name? Devil King or Full-Time Employee? Because if the demon Satan, or the human Sadao Maou, is neither Devil King nor salaried worker, what will you live for, then?”
Suzuno was being much harsher than usual.
“…Did something happen?”
“Nothing!” she all but cried out. This was clearly a lie, but Maou didn’t have it in him to pursue it. The buzzing of the nearly burned-out fluorescent light above them seemed like a roar to him.
“Look, Devil King.”
“…Mm?”
“I have no idea what the demon realm is like. I have no idea how you came to be the Devil King. But you have Alciel, you have Lucifer, you have Camio and the Malebranche; you have these massive hordes of demons following you, and you unified them all under your rule.”
“Yeah… Pretty much.”
“You became a king because you were stronger, more charming, and more magnanimous than any other candidate. Am I right? So would you mind showing me some of that magnanimity? Because as a Great Demon General, I find it difficult to respect my leader at the moment.”
“…You always bring that up only when it serves you, huh?”
“That is how you put it, but I only use a title when it needs using.” Suzuno gave him a vexed look as she clutched at her kimono sleeves with her cold, trembling fingers. “When my leader, the Devil King, is lost in life, I may wish to help him. But would you even listen to a human? A member of the Reconciliation Panel? You would not, would you?”
“Well, no, I wouldn’t…”
“So I have to be a Great Demon General, do I not? Because that is the only way I can serve you.”
“Suzuno?”
Maou blinked. This was a lot of strange stuff she was saying. Suzuno, perhaps realizing this, brought her clenched hands up to her mouth.
“Re… Regardless.”
“Yes?”
“I just wanted to tell you to get it together. That is all.”
“Right. Um, thanks. I’ll keep it in mind.”
“…Good-bye, then.”
Suzuno turned toward her room, in the dry air of the hallway.
“Uh, Suzuno?”
“What?” she said, stopping but not turning around.
“I know I’m in the doghouse already, but can I ask you something? Did Chi…”
“No.”
“……Huh?”
“No, you cannot ask me something. I do not want to hear it. I do not wish to say anything irresponsible, and there is nothing I could say to you anyway. I lack the……to do so. I do not wish to say anything careless.”
“Wh-what? You lack the what?”
“If Chiho is an important person to you, then go find out for yourself. Farewell.”
With that, she went back into Room 202 without awaiting a reply. Maou heard the latch locking, followed by empty silence, but he stayed in the hallway a while longer. She had mouthed off at him and left without letting him get a word in edgewise—but something must have happened today. Something that drove her to wait around for him and say all that.
“…Ahhh.”
He scratched the side of his head, then slammed the Room 201 door behind him—attempting to calm his dispirited heart, but knowing full well that things had changed. That they couldn’t go back to how vague everything was before.
“…………Ahh.”
Suzuno crouched down on her side of the front door, unable to venture farther inside. Her light, hurried breaths, exhaled through her fingers, were turning white inside a room that had grown cold in the night.
“What a liar…”
Removing her hands from her face, she looked at her palms. Palms that were once stained in blood, in the name of her duties—but were now refined, pretty, bearing the smell of peaches from her hand soap. The kind of feminine hands you would see anywhere in Japan, or Earth, or Ente Isla.
“What a liar,” she whispered to herself again. “Do I need a reason to take a detour like this?”
No matter how cheap and thin the walls were in Villa Rosa Sasazuka, the sound of her voice would never leave the room. Then, as if to shake off all the weakness, she rocketed back up to a standing position.
“…What is so wrong about it?”
Tossing her sandals off, she stepped onto her tatami-mat floor, eyeing the pot on top of her oven burner. It was full of nik
ujaga, a hearty stew with meat and potatoes, and there was clearly too much of it for a single woman’s dinner.
“Who cares about beliefs? To hell with all of them.”
She reached out to turn the dial for the burner, then quickly removed her hand.
“All these lies, this dishonesty, this total lack of drive to surpass anyone…”
Suzuno put the lid back on the pot, then laid out a futon before unraveling her belt, changing into her nemaki pajamas, and snuggling in.
“And the worst thing of all,” she dryly whispered as she closed her eyes, “I have no right to criticize him. The Reconciliation Panel would have a field day with me.”
Then:
“Hmm?”
The phone next to her pillow chirped out a message notification. She picked it up. The name on the screen read “Shirou Ashiya.”
“Alciel?”
He was in Devil’s Castle at the moment. This was an Idea Link-based text. Suzuno opened it, suspecting a potential emergency, only to find something even more surprising.
“We have located the Nothung and the Sorcery of the False Gold. Please contact me. I wish to discuss our search for the Astral Gem and recovery of the Spear of Adramelechinus.”
In relatively short order, they now had two of the four parts needed to turn Ente Isla’s Devil’s Castle into an interstellar ark to drive them to heaven. If two of the three relics they assumed were in the demon realm were already discovered, the third would no doubt come along soon after. The problem, then, became the Spear of Adramelechinus, the sole relic in human hands, and how to procure it in a peaceful manner.
“Hard to say if this is perfect or awful timing,” Suzuno said with a smile. “But this should amp things up a bit. For me, and for all of us.”
She texted out a quick acknowledgment before setting her phone on mute and gently shutting her eyes.
THE DEVIL KING AND THE HERO DON’T HAVE VERY MUCH TO DO
“It was common knowledge in the demon realm that the Spear of Adramelechinus is a weapon passed down from generation to generation in the Bluehorn clan, one of the realm’s most powerful families. As anyone who knows or has fought Adramelech knows, it was, like, huge. Incredibly long, even by demon standards.”
“Yeah, the handle alone was as thick as a support pillar in a castle.”
To any of the regulars at Room 201 in Villa Rosa Sasazuka, the conference of these two speakers would have been quite an unusual sight.
“The Bluehorns wield a lot of magic that works best with water and ice, and it’s said that spear has something to do with it. I guess that was the reason Adramelech was the demon-horde commander in the Northern Island, as water-rich and close to arctic climes as it is.”
“Makes sense to me. When Adramelech first took over the continent, we started seein’ these trees of ice dotted here and there. We called ’em ice-tree towers, but when I learned they were magical plants born from the demonic force Adramelech ran through underground springs to watch over us, I was pretty shocked.”
The scene was the general headquarters of the group known among its members as the United East-West Anti-Divinity Alliance, situated on Isla Centurum, the Central Continent—and when Suzuno returned there, upon hearing Ashiya’s news that two of their targets had been secured, the sight of Urushihara and Albert leading a strategy conference was so novel, it made regular novelty seem trite by comparison.
The sight of Urushihara—the model jobless slacker—assuming a leadership position in the force was like the extra-special secret sauce liberally sprinkled over such a crazily novel sight. Neither Maou, nor Emi, nor Chiho were there. Ashiya was off on business in the Eastern Island, and Emeralda had returned to Saint Aile for keeping matters on the Central Continent safe. Suzuno rued the fact that she had nobody to commiserate with about how bizarre this setup looked.
“But…yeah. When our little questing group defeated Adramelech, we kinda left the Spear to our friends in the Northern Island as a memorial present.”
“Right. Now, I’d like to make sure no one outside our group knows about our operation to invade heaven. We have Hazel Rumack conducting business for us in Saint Aile, but neither the emperor nor his administration are aware of this. If we have all those Northern Island dudes coming in to crash the party, it’s gonna be such a pain in the ass that I’ll want to throw in the towel right there.”
“Yes. So the first order of business is to discuss how we can swipe Adramelech’s relic from the Northern Island with as small a party as we can manage.”
The meeting, led by Urushihara and Albert, was attended by Suzuno, Rumack, Farfarello, Laila, and Nord.
“You described it as a ‘memorial present’ for the Northern forces,” Nord hesitantly said, being the most normal human being in the group. “So where is it right now?”
“I think this’ll be the easiest way to explain it,” Urushihara replied, taking out his familiar laptop. The screen showed a photograph of a town located in what looked like a range of high mountains. “I had Ciriatto from the Malebranche take these pics with Maou’s digital camera, and y’know, considering how he’s all claws and no, like, anything else, he’s pretty handy with that thing. Anyway, this is a shot of Phiyenci, which is the capital shared by the clans in the Northern Island. It’s nicknamed the ‘Goat Pasture.’”
The shot depicted a wide plain that was filled to the horizon with uniquely low-roofed brick buildings. In one corner was a wide-open space that took up about a fifth of the landscape, like a sports ground too big for its own good. In its middle stood a high, towering structure, apparently some kind of monument. With a tap of the keys, he switched to a close-up photo of this edifice, revealing it to be some kind of giant metallic pillar.
“Look at that,” Rumack sighed as she looked at the high-resolution image. “Such an incredibly detailed depiction… I want this.”
“Don’t abuse it,” warned Albert, taking Rumack out of her reverie. She sat back up, straightening her posture.
“Dude, I’d be happy to show you a few models way faster than this pile of crap.”
Urushihara never missed a moment to slam Maou’s Luddite approach to electronic purchases.
“But anyway,” he continued, “I think these pics give us everything we need. It’s pretty clear, right? They put up the Spear of Adramelechinus in the middle of the Goat Pasture as a monument to symbolize the defeat of the Great Demon General of the North.”
It seemed like a natural, preplanned part of the Pasture, staring down with all its glory at the largest city in the Northern Island. The butt end of the Spear was buried in the ground, secured with something resembling cement around the base, and visitors could go right up to it if they wanted. It almost looked like a gravestone memorializing Adramelech, and judging by the people lazily picnicking and meeting up around the site, it was clearly a bit of a tourist attraction.
“So I guess you can tell,” concluded Urushihara, “that we can’t just take the Spear or ask for it or whatever, right?”
Suzuno, Rumack, and Nord nodded back.
The fact that the Northern Island, a geographically punishing land filled with innumerable races, ethnic groups, and clans, was heralded as the most peaceful of Ente Isla’s five continents was mainly thanks to Phiyenci, the Goat Pasture.
Every five years, the Island held a “zirga,” a large, united gathering of representatives from all the major players native to the land. On this occasion, they’d hold the election for the chief herder, the head of state for the entire Northern Island. This election took a good two weeks to carry out, and it turned the Goat Pasture into a huge festival, filled with the produce, culture, and customs of people across the region.
The zirga was also an occasion for all the Mountain Corps, the elite fighters picked to defend the Northern Island, to assemble and (if necessary) hold combat games in order to solve deeper problems that no measure of discussion between clans could solve. This meant that the history of this land involved very few ma
ssive, blood-soaked wars; it also meant that the clans almost never dared to invade one another’s territories. If the times called for it, all these clans could unite to form an astonishingly well-oiled machine of warfare, but in times of peace, it was much more of a “what’s yours is yours, what’s mine is mine” climate.
Thanks to this national character, the people’s image of Adramelech fundamentally differed from the way other lands thought of their local Great Demon General.
“I mentioned this in passing to you a while ago, Bell, but seriously, Adramelech was this close to having the Northern Island welcome him with open arms,” Urushihara volunteered.
“What? Why?” a surprised Rumack asked. When the Devil King’s Army invaded the Western Island, she was vice-captain of the palace forces, only to have her land subjugated by the very slacker leading this meeting right now. Under Urushihara’s, or Lucifer’s, rule, the Western Island—while not as much of a mess as Malacoda’s Southern Island—was not at all the well-oiled bureaucracy Alciel ran in the East, and the human casualties and chaos were at least as bad as anywhere else in the world. It was hard for Rumack to imagine that a Great Demon General nearly took over the North without a fight.
“Yeah, I guess you could say Adramelech’s personality was a good fit for the Northern Island’s people, hmm? In an understated way, he had a real human side to him.”
“Hee-hee!”
Suzuno snickered a bit at this. She had heard it from him before.
“Once he disarmed the Mountain Corps and booted ’em from the island, he made the chief herder hold a zirga, where he talked about the policy behind his invasion and let the opposing clans have their say. Anyone who didn’t go along with the guy got slaughtered, of course, but he actually accepted some of their feedback, too. I dunno. Just the fact that he was open to talking at all, you know; that was enough for the folks up there.”
It wasn’t that anyone actively wanted the Devil King’s Army to be there, but compared with elsewhere, the people were more willing to accept a negotiated defeat.
“Kinda weird to think, though,” Urushihara went on. “Like, when I think of Adramelech, I picture this dude who couldn’t think his way out of a paper bag. I can’t believe he’d be crafty enough to try currying favor with humans.”
The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 16 Page 7
