“Yes! I refuse to accept this if you don’t tell me anything!”
“Mmm?”
Wurs gave another annoyed look to the bitterly protesting pair.
“Laila, why are your daughter and son-in-law a couple of sticks in the mud, huh? Or did they get more of a conservative upbringing because you’re such a piece of work?”
“I’m not her son-in-law!”
“He’s not her son-in-law! And Laila, what’s going on here? You know Chief Dhin Dhem Wurs?!”
“Um, she’s a friend from the past.”
“Some friend you are, you ditz. Y’see, I’m like this with her. Just like you two are.”
As she spoke, one of the stones on her monocle began to glow.
“Oh?”
As it did, the mark on Acieth’s forehead emitted the same glow, several seats away, and then:
“Pheww! Mommy, where are we?”
“A-Alas Ramus?!”
The other Yesod fragment separated herself from Emi.
Discovering another fragment bearer gave her and Maou the umpteen-millionth surprise of the day. Laila mentioned she had passed out several fragments around the world, but how did one of them wind up in Dhin Dhem Wurs’s hands? It was left to Emi and Maou to fantasize over what could have happened between them sixty years ago.
“Ooh, and here’s the fabled daughter of the Hero and the Devil King, eh? Laila, you better not get involved with raising her, y’hear? Anyone influenced by you is bound to be rotten to the core when they grow up!”
“Lidem! You’re seriously starting to make me angry!”
Despite the unfamiliar surroundings, Alas Ramus didn’t seem too disturbed. Instead, she looked up at Wurs from her perch on Emi’s knee.
“Who’s dat lady?”
“Mmm? Well, little girl, I used to be friends with your granny.”
“Um, Lidem? I’m not really her grandmother…”
“Huhh?! Wait, are you the type of gal who resents being called ‘granny’ in public? See here, you can look and act as young as you want, but to your grandkids, you’re always gonna be good ol’ Granny! So if you don’t want her to get bullied in school, then just let her call you that! What was your name? Alas Ramus? Come here, girl. You should watch this with old Dhin Dhem. It’s fun!”
“H-hey!”
Alas Ramus obediently crawled over to Wurs’s lap, leaving Maou and Emi to blankly stare at her. Ignoring the pair, the chief pointed at one of the figures on the stage.
“See? Here she comes! Give her a big cheer! That’s my precious granddaughter down there!”
“Oh, come on.”
At that moment, the once chaotic crowd fell into a glassy silence. CHIHO SASAKI WURS, read the name on the board. On stage, with all the competitors dressed in their best archery gear, she had chosen a bright-white martial-arts uniform, a black chest guard, and a black pair of hakama pants, her hair tied back to avoid getting in her face. It was the classic uniform for kyudo, archery as practiced in Japan, and now she was in the toriyumi pose, standing boldly and quietly as she sized up her target.
From her left side, she held her namiyumi, a medium-sized bow by kyudo standards but still over seven feet tall. The uchihazu, the upper tip of the bow, dipped down to a spot just a few inches above the floor in front of her, and in her right hand were a haya and an otoya, the two types of arrows used in the sport. It was the classical toriyumi stance, and once it was taken, Chiho took a deep breath and gave the audience a steep, polite forward bow, the top uchihazu edge not moving an inch in height.
Upon rising again, she took a large step forward with her left foot, then a smaller one with her right, both pairs of toes lining up.
“What a lovely stance!”
The chief herder’s words summed up the feelings of everyone in the arena. Even to someone like Maou, who knew nothing about kyudo, the sight turned the churning waters in his mind into a perfectly still pond. That was the power of Chiho’s presence.
Four days beforehand, Suzuno’s suggestion to have Chiho participate in the zirga received a chilly reception from nearly everyone involved—Laila, of course, but also Albert and Rumack, as well as Ashiya and Urushihara. The last two, in particular, emphasized that not only was the plan crazy, there was no way in hell Maou and Emi would sign off on it. Suzuno, for her part, agreed—but no one could think of anyone else who could join the zirga festivities, or any other way to bring the Spear off the island without a big ruckus.
“Of course,” reasoned Suzuno, “I do not suggest we force Chiho into this. We need to explain to her why she is being nominated, how it has come to this, and what we expect to happen, and if she says she cannot do it, we will think of another way. But I believe that Chiho best matches the type of person Chief Wurs has described to us.”
“But you seriously think we should say nothing to my liege and Emilia?” Ashiya asked. “The mere thought of their anger after all is revealed frightens me beyond imagination.”
Anyone who knew the pair’s relationship with Chiho could picture the same thing.
“I imagine so, yes. The Devil King and Emilia will be dead set against it. The former, in particular, was less than enthusiastic about Chiho visiting Ente Isla in the first place.”
“Precisely. Thus…”
“So let us keep it a secret from them.”
“How did we reach that conclusion?!”
Suzuno gauged the protesting Ashiya with a pair of cold eyes. “Telling them will not improve matters for us.”
“Perhaps not, but…”
“Alciel, you have not forgotten why the Devil King and Emilia are spending an outsized amount of their time in Sasazuka right now, have you?”
She eyed the people around her.
“Let us be honest. In these preparatory stages, neither of them are capable of contributing very much. We will need their strength for the battle looming before us, but for the moment, there is nothing we can assign to them, even if we wished to keep them busy. So what will telling them accomplish, when we already know they will be against it? I am not asking Chiho to join us on the battlefield, amid intense combat. I would merely ask her to join in an Ente Islan festival. What need is there to be nervous? What basis does anyone have to be against Chiho taking this vital role?”
“Th-that…”
“After all the danger we have already exposed her to; after all the aid she has provided to our daily lives—after basking in all that, you wish to expel her from the group?”
“No way, dude,” Urushihara said. “Look, whether it’s Chiho Sasaki out there or not, assuming we can put on a good show or whatever at the zirga, how’s that gonna convince everyone to let us take the Spear? The chief doesn’t have the power to order anyone to fork it over. Whether one of our allies becomes chief or not, it doesn’t change things too much.”
He had a point. Wurs’s indirect support was what made this plan possible, but exactly what this support involved was unclear. Zero details were nailed down.
“That,” countered Suzuno, “we can tackle in the future, with the way we move things forward. Regardless of our approach, however, I guarantee to you all that Chiho is our best choice.”
“Huhh?”
“…We cannot deliberate any further unless we know whether Chiho will accept. If she does, I would like to discuss the details at that point.”
“Wh-whoa…”
“There is nothing to worry about. If she refuses, you may feel free to report my behavior to the Devil King or Emilia. That, and regardless of her response, feel free to debate over any other possible solutions we may think of. Now… Laila?”
“Huh? Um, yes?”
Laila, the first person to pick up on (and vehemently oppose) Suzuno’s intentions, sat up in her seat.
“Come with me. If Chiho agrees, then whether we can actually take the Spear or not will be up to you.”
Laila blinked at her, confused.
“…What?”
“Suzuno? Laila? Wh
y are you here all of a sudden?”
It was a rare combination to see at the front door of her house. Chiho let them in and offered some tea and crackers in her room—Laila acting oddly antsy, Suzuno looking like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders.
“Yes, well, there have been some movements on the other side. We wanted to tell you about them, and we also had a favor to ask. Thus, the two of us came here, since our schedules were relatively free.”
“Oh, I see! Ashiya texted me that you guys found a few of the Devil Overlord relics. That’s good news, huh?”
It would be easy to imagine that the Devil Overlord Satan, were he alive today, might be flummoxed to hear that news of his relics was being texted to a human teenager’s phone, as if those relics were a dropped wallet recovered at the local lost-and-found.
“Ah, yes, the Nothung and the Sorcery of the False Gold. They are in the custody of Camio in the demon realm at the moment, but Alciel will come fetch them before long. Out of the remaining two, we are still searching for the Astral Gem, but as for the Spear of Adramelechinus, well, we already know its location.”
“Right, up in the Northern Island… Are you all right, Laila?”
Beads of sweat had formed on Laila’s forehead as Suzuno spoke. Her eyes darted between Suzuno and Chiho, unable to stay in one place for long.
“Ah, um, yes. It, uhh, it’s just a little warm.”
“Oh, is it? Let me turn down the heat a bit.”
Chiho meekly nodded and pushed the Down button on the wall unit a couple of times. It didn’t change Laila’s behavior much.
“So this spear was left behind by Mister Adramelech, the Great Demon General, right?”
The mister appellation had never before in history been applied to Adramelech’s name by a human, as far as Suzuno knew. But come to think of it, Chiho had quite a few friends among the Great Demon General ranks by now. Suzuno herself had never seen Adramelech, but he was a member of the Bluehorn clan, gigantically large—more so than the rest of his species—and proud of it. She wondered what he would’ve looked like as a human, had he ever come to Earth. But that wasn’t the issue right now.
“Right. That Spear.”
Suzuno was leaning forward in her seat. Even her palms were a little sweaty.
Despite what she had told Ashiya, she now realized that this was the first time she had ever encouraged Chiho to become actively involved in Ente Isla events. She pondered whether this was a line she shouldn’t cross. Could she really ask this of Chiho? Would discussing it with Emi or Maou first be better? Hesitation and regret welled in her mind…but just for a moment, a side of her she hadn’t realized was there violently pushed away all the indecision.
“To retrieve the Spear, I am in need of your assistance.”
“Pardon?”
Chiho didn’t seem to understand what she meant.
“The other day, Laila, Albert, General Rumack, and I went to the Northern Island on an observation mission. There, we met a woman named Dhin Dhem Wurs, the leader of the island, and as a result of our talks, we’ve determined that you are our best choice for retrieving the Spear.”
“Uhhmm…”
Chiho, not quite able to parse this, reflexively looked at Laila.
“That is apparently the case, yes,” Laila replied in a barely audible voice, face turned to the side as she waved her hand at Suzuno to keep going.
“What would I be doing?” Chiho vaguely asked.
“We will debate over the exact nature of it from here forward. I can tell you, though, that your skills with the bow and arrow will come into play.”
“Bow and arrow?” Chiho paused for a moment. Her bow and arrows were still in storage at her high school’s kyudo club.
“And not to pry too much, but do you happen to have any equestrian experience?”
“E-quest-rian?”
The word didn’t pop up in Chiho’s vocabulary very often. It took a few seconds to figure out what Suzuno wanted.
“Um, I’ve never been on a horse in my life. I’m not sure what that has to do with anything, but…”
Of course not, Laila thought. Here they were, asking for her help out of nowhere, quizzing her on her archery and horse skills. She assumed Suzuno was about to go into detail on the Spear of Adramelechinus and their discussions with Wurs, but based on that reaction alone, she assumed Chiho wasn’t aching to join in. It just didn’t seem that way to her.
Until the next moment, that is.
“But are you… I mean, are you sure I’m who you want?”
“Chiho?!”
“You are. In fact, you are who we need. There is no other.”
Chiho’s cheeks reddened, her lips stretching out into a smile. This was what people did when they were brimming with happiness.
“But Ente Isla is so huge, and there’s lots of superstrong people on it, and I’m sure there are tons of people better at archery than I am. So why me?”
“What we want from you,” Suzuno pressed, “is not your skill in battle, of course. In fact, it is nothing that involves fighting and defeating an opponent. I am asking for your archery skills, but it involves more than that, and as you surmised, you will be accompanied by people far more talented than you. But despite all that, I feel your strengths are an absolute must if we want the Spear.”
“Suzuno…”
“And let me add that while there is no threat upon your life and we will provide all the support we can, this is a task that involves a heavy physical and mental burden. If you hear me out until the end and feel it is impossible for you to accept, then please, say so to us. You turning us down does not immediately result in a crisis, and we have other measures we can take. It should also be said that this is an offer that everyone except for me has dismissed as too reckless.”
“But,” Chiho said, interrupting the impassioned plea, “but you nominated me, huh, Suzuno?”
“I did.”
“Can you tell me why?”
“I will, after I explain to you everything that has happened and everything that could happen in the future.”
“…A-all right.”
Chiho felt a little steamrolled at the moment, but she still sat up in her seat and listened on as Suzuno described their visit to Dhin Dhem Wurs and her favorite restaurant.
Carefully omitting the dishonorable nickname Wurs gave her, Suzuno went over their entire visit to Phiyenci, emphasizing how Chiho was the only candidate to fulfill the chief’s conditions.
“All right. I understand.”
Chiho made a heavy sigh, letting the tension flow out of her body. Taking a sip from a cup of tea that had long since gone cold, she let out another sigh.
“It sounds like this might take a little while. Do you mind if I make a phone call?”
“Of course not.”
“Ah, wait, um… Chiho?”
Before Laila could stop her, Chiho already had her phone out.
“Hello? Hi! Sorry I’m calling out of nowhere, but do you have a moment to chat? Yeah, I needed to ask you a favor; do you think you can cover a few shifts at work? …Sure, I’ll run it by Kisaki later, so… Yeah, it’s really crucial that I get this time off. It involves my future, kind of, and there’s this place I’ve got to go to. To figure it out, you know… Oh, good! Thank you so much! I’ll pay back the favor later, okay? Again, sorry this is so sudden. Thanks again! Bye! …Whew.”
The call was over virtually before it began. Chiho turned back toward Suzuno and Laila.
“All right. I’m free for the next week after school now. What would you like me to do?”
Even before Suzuno explained what was to be done, Chiho had changed her work shifts for them. And what’s more:
“Oh, right. I didn’t call Maou or Yusa just now, so don’t worry about that. That was this college student named Ohki who works there.”
“Chiho?”
“Maou and Yusa aren’t aware of this, right?”
“!”
Laila
was taken aback.
“I mean,” Chiho continued before Laila could ask how she knew, “if they knew, at least one of them would be in this room right now. They’re still spending most of their time in Japan, after all. And Maou, you know, I’m sure he’d slam his foot down the moment I said yes.”
“I wholly agree with you. I was about to tell you earlier, but I want to keep the Devil King and Emilia out of the loop until there is no turning back on it.”
“I hear you loud and clear!”
“Whoa, Ch-Chiho, why are you so…revved up by this? Are you sure?!”
“Sure I’m sure!” Chiho said sharply, smiling the whole way. “Thank you so much, Suzuno. You aren’t still hung up about earlier, are you?”
“Oh, it wasn’t the first time, if I may say so. That was something I felt needed addressing sooner or later. To be honest, regardless of what happened in Nerima, I can’t help but feel like it hardly affected him very much.”
“Kao always yells at me about how I’m too lenient, too loose with him… But thanks. And apart from that, I’ll do my best on whatever you want from me.”
“Wonderful. Thank you. And we will provide our full support.”
“Great!”
“N-no! Oh, once they find out about this…”
“You think Maou will be mad? I’m not doing anything to get angry about here, I don’t think. Ashiya and Urushihara are repairing Devil’s Castle and working with people on Ente Isla without consulting Maou very much. I’m the same way. I want to help out ‘my liege,’ so I’m doing what I feel we need to do.”
This wasn’t what Laila was concerned about, something Chiho knew full well, but she continued on anyway.
“The title of Great Demon General is given only to those who stand at the very peak of demondom in strength and skill. It’s up to me to carry out my duty as a General, and as a MgRonald Barista, to answer the expectations of His Demonic Highness.”
Laila, unaware that Chiho had been named to the post, lost all ability to speak.
“But after being protected by everyone else for so long, now that Ente Isla needs me for the first time ever… That means I can help out Maou, too. So please, Laila, let me go to the Northern Island.”
The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 16 Page 13
