“…At this point?” Suzuno asked dubiously. “Why?” Emeralda, after all, had been in all but open rebellion against the Church since well before Suzuno had traveled to Japan. Why was the Church in a panic to prosecute her now, several months after the fact?
Albert’s face darkened. “Me and Emilia were guaranteed some level of public safety mainly because of the power Eme wields. Whether I fight for her or surrender to the Church, I gotta go back to her sometime. And along the way, I could’ve helped Emilia get back home in Eme’s place…”
He pointed his face southwest, toward Heavensky.
“But about half a day’s travel from her village, I picked up on what musta been a zillion Gates opening up all over the area. Damn, was I afraid. So I made my way to the village, and I saw all these weird guys messing around with Emilia’s village and fields and such.”
“Demons? Or angels?”
If Albert thought them “weird,” they must have been quite weird indeed. But Albert shook his head. “No, they were Church knights from the nearby walled city of Cassius.”
“Cassius?” Suzuno jogged her memory. “There’s a cathedral under direct control of the bishops there… What would their knights want with Sloane?”
Albert shook his head again. “That’s what I wanna know. But I’m certainly in no position to act hostile at all toward the Church knights. I asked ’em why they had activated so much holy force to open all those Gates, and they said it was for a land survey. Part of the rebuilding work, or whatnot. It made no sense at all to me. First they send Eme to find out why rebuilding’s been delayed so much, then they trigger all those Gates and start ‘survey work’ immediately after? And of course I caught neither hair nor hide of Emilia herself anywheres. I spent two days searching the area.”
He flung his hands in the air in resignation.
“So if I can’t make contact with Emilia, I figured, I might as well ask Eme for some instructions. So I go back to Saint Aile, and lo and behold, the whole Holy Magic Administrative Institute’s been shut down by General Pippin from the royal guard. To keep Eme from destroying evidence before her trial, is how they put it. The whole building got put on lockdown, so I couldn’t even retrieve the angel-feather pen I needed to open a Gate. That’s why I took so damn long to get here.”
“…And that is why you never contacted me?”
Albert nodded. “Yeah, well, you were in Japan on a secret mission from the Church, no? If someone spotted me communicating with you, I figured you’d have to pay for the fallout as much as I would. I got this from Emilia…”
From a coat pocket, he took out a smartphone, similar to the one Emi owned.
“But, man, I wish I’d bothered asking Eme for the number of your ‘phone’ when I had the chance. Biggest regret o’ my life. And if I launched another sonar bolt toward Japan, there’s no telling who’d find it.”
“All right. Let’s exchange digits now before we forget.”
Oblivious to the situation, Maou and Suzuno both took out their cell phones. They were both, of course, long out of battery juice. So was Albert’s. Not that they needed any to complete an Idea Link, but the lack of a physical number inside the phone’s memory could affect the accuracy of the spell’s connection. It still functioned as an amplifier, but without the number, it was an imperfect one.
But Maou was prepared. He took out the LED lantern he had argued so long with Suzuno about purchasing—the one with the radio, solar battery, and hand-cranked charger that actually worked with his ancient phone—and gave Albert’s mobile phone a few percentage points of charge.
Given Albert’s complete unfamiliarity with electronic devices, Suzuno’s natural suspicion of machines, and Maou’s inability to afford anything on the market newer than five years old, the phone-number exchange took far longer than it should have. But they still managed it.
“Ooh, nice! I want the phone, too!” Acieth said.
“…Maybe a kid’s one. I got a feeling you’d run up the bill with in-app purchases the moment I gave you one.”
“Aww,” she said, ruefully staring at the three phones in their hands. “But okay. You buy it?”
“I didn’t say I would yet, Acieth… So. Albert. What brought you to Efzahan, anyway?”
“Simple: I’m just checkin’ up on the vast amount of holy force I picked up on. It’s centered right on Heavensky, like all hell’s about to break loose at any moment. I have some of my men deployed in the Northern and Southern Islands, but thinkin’ about what I saw in Emilia’s village when she got disappeared, I figured this is the spike I oughta be personally checkin’ on. And with you guys all here, something tells me I’m right, eh?”
“You got it. Emi’s in Heavensky right now…or she’s supposed to be shortly, anyway.”
“And what’s your proof of that?”
“That’s kinda rich, isn’t it? After traveling the length of Ente Isla on a hunch? Luckily, the idiot pulling the strings behind all this was kind enough to tell us directly.”
Maou used the thumb and pinky finger on his right hand to create a pretend telephone handset to demonstrate.
“Look, Albert, there’s a lot I’d like to ask you later, but can you give us a hand for now? You probably guessed by now that this is about a lot more than rescuing Emi and waving see-ya to this world. I hate to bare my family drama to the world, but Ashiya… I mean Alciel… He’s been kidnapped by the same guys who took Emi.”
“Huh? Kidnapped? Alciel?” Albert’s eyebrows rose in disbelief.
“And if you don’t believe that one, try this on for size: Emi’s dad, Nord Justina, was captured with him.”
“Huhh?! Emilia’s father?! Is that—”
“Oh, and you know that kid over there who’s ready to steal my cell phone the moment I let it out of my sight?”
“Agh! Um, Maou, I am sorry! The apology for you!”
Maou grabbed Acieth by the sleeping bag just as she made an attempt at the phone in his hand. She hung her head in shame—feigned or otherwise—as Maou thrust her toward Albert.
“Well, guess what?” Maou proclaimed. “This is another holy sword.”
“Huhhh?”
“Aieeee!”
There was Acieth the colorful insect larva, hanging from Maou’s hand as Albert stared intently at her. Suzuno sighed. “I was hoping this could be a more solemn event.”
“If my hunch is right,” Maou continued, “the bastards behind this show are using Emi and Ashiya to make the world go the way they want it. And lemme tell you, I hate people who aren’t willing to do the dirty work themselves.”
“M-Maou, I want to go down nowww…”
“We have kind of a tough road to hoe by ourselves, but it’ll be a hell of a lot easier with you around, Albert. How about it? Wanna mess around with this little farce before they make our friends do anything else?”
“Sounds fine to me, but…is that the girl Emilia said she ‘fused’ with, or whatnot…?”
“No. She’s separate from Alas Ramus. She’s the core of a completely new holy sword.”
“A human forming the core of a sword? …Yes. Well, let’s just hope you go into a little more detail on that later, all right? If there’s a second Better Half here, that’s all I need to know. But…come on, Devil King, you can’t use that, can you? Are you handling it, Bell?”
“Hmm? No, I…um.”
The question from Albert was sensible enough, but it still threw Suzuno off enough that she looked to Maou for guidance. It was natural to expect that this so-called second Better Half would run off holy energy—which was exactly what the Devil King didn’t have. But Suzuno had seen it herself—Maou wielding this sword with power that was neither holy nor demonic. He was fused with her, and there was no doubting that by now.
“Mm? Wait. This makes no sense.”
“What, Suzuno?”
“No, I…I think I have been missing something important…”
Maou winced as he saw Suzuno bring a quizzical hand
to her forehead.
“Well, how about I just show you? Acieth, let me see the sword.”
“Um, okay! But, uh, I feel not too good. How it works, I don’t know.”
“Not too good? What, you eat too much?”
“No! Not that! So mean! But since I come to this country, I feel hungry a lot. Maybe I will not do so good?” She craned her head, still in the larval cocoon in Maou’s grasp. “But, ooh, nothing ventured, nothing lost! I will go back.”
“That’s not how that saying goes, Acieth…”
Acieth’s contours were already starting to glow before Maou could finish. The next moment, she turned into a swarm of purple light particles that streamed back into his body.
“Oh?” Albert leaned forward, surprised. “Emilia would do that, too, no?”
Maou imagined how much more surprised Albert would be in a moment as he raised his right hand into the air.
“Bring it out, Acieth!!”
He focused on his palm. The particles from before formed around in his hand, and then…
“…Huh?”
Maou, in his dramatic pose and everything, was the first to voice concern.
“Wow, you call that a holy sword?” Albert asked, eyes upturned.
“H-hey! Acieth! What the hell?!”
“Ooh, I don’t know what happens,” Acieth replied in his head. She sounded just as lost as he was. “I was using almost the full power, too…”
“You can’t be! It was this huge…thing back at the school! This huge thing!”
“What is wrong, Devil King?” Suzuno asked, still musing over her thoughts. All Maou could do was give her a simpering look. Which was understandable. Because the “holy sword” in his hand looked to be just large enough to slice up an apple or an orange. None of the sheer power that shone from every atom of the “second Better Half” at Sasahata North High was there any longer. Even worse:
“Urrp.”
Maou’s face twisted. He covered his mouth with his free hand.
“Wh-what, Devil King?”
The blood drained from his face as he staggered back. Suzuno stood up to catch him, but it was too late. He fell to his knees.
“Oh, crap,” he groaned, batting Suzuno’s hands away. Then, out of nowhere, he ran off a distance into the forest.
“Devil King?!”
“What’s gotten into him?” Albert marveled at the jackrabbit-like speed Maou exhibited when he leaped into the nearby undergrowth. After a moment:
“Bleaaaarrrrrggghhh…”
There was a mighty, heaving groan, wholly unbefitting the shaded forest grove they were in, along with the wet, rushing sound of something that should never come out anyway.
After witnessing Maou striking his action-hero pose, the butter knife he produced, and the “reversal of fortune” that struck immediately after, Suzuno and Albert were afraid to ask what came next.
A few moments later, after it was all done and accounted for on the ground, the ashen-faced Maou returned, supported by Acieth in human form once more.
“Are you…all right?”
“Do…I look that way?” the teary-eyed Maou muttered as he released his grip on Acieth’s shoulder and fell to the forest floor.
“Acieth,” Suzuno asked, ignoring the out-of-commission Maou for now, “what happened?”
“Umm, I don’t know! It was like I say, ‘come out, power,’ and someone say ‘no’ instead.”
“No…? You were denied it?” Suzuno looked at Acieth, then Maou. “Who could do that?”
“Ooh,” came the chastised reply, “Maou, of course.”
“Huh? Me?” Maou looked up at Acieth as he attempted to catch his breath. “I told you to come out! Why would I be the one holding you back?”
“I dunno! It is how I feel, in you. It is a shock! Before, we do so well together.”
“You—urrp!”
Maou was about to lunge at the none-too-concerned Acieth, but his stomach wasn’t done with him yet. It sent him back to the ground, hand over mouth.
“So I s’pose,” a pained-looking Albert commented, “we can’t count on this holy sword at all, huh?”
“It would appear so,” Suzuno said. “Which puts me rather in a bind.”
She had been going under the assumption that Maou, paired with Acieth, was all but invincible on Ente Isla—at least as powerful as the angel-dispelling Emi, if not more so if the times called for it. With that out of the picture, they could find themselves underpowered if the archangels of Efzahan decided to push the issue. It didn’t make sense to her. He harnessed the sword’s full power at first blush back at the school. It had no ill effects on him after that.
“Hmm?”
Once again, a mysterious alarm bell began to sound in Suzuno’s mind. She sized up the queasy-eyed Maou, the carefree Acieth, and the silent but clearly perturbed Albert, as she fiercely attempted to piece her thoughts together.
It took the slowly recovering Maou to start griping at her to make it all click.
“Ahh, dammit, why’s this happening now, of all times? I felt great up until now…”
“Ah!”
She finally had it by the tail. She knew it. She should have suspected it was strange from the start, but she never did. Why not? Because she had known this human, this Sadao Maou, for too long.
“Devil King. You have been back in Ente Isla for days. Why are you not in demon form yet?”
“…Um?”
“And beyond that…where is your demonic force? Not even a little of it has returned?”
“…Oh.”
Maou gulped nervously at Suzuno’s increasingly shaky voice.
“Uh…? Yeah, I…should? Wait. What?!”
His face went pale once more. Now he realized it. How important this was.
The demonic force wasn’t returning to his body. Ente Isla was a human realm, yes, but it was a world with enough dark energy that the Devil King Satan never had an issue retaining his demonic form upon it. If it was there, Maou wouldn’t have to think about it—it’d flow back into him, and pop, horn-and-hoof time.
Maou grabbed at his head and legs, double-checking to make sure nothing had changed. It hadn’t. He was dumbfounded.
“Is this because of…Acieth’s power…?”
“I dunno,” came the out-of-hand reply. Maou didn’t appreciate the attitude, but either way, it was apparently nothing she was doing consciously.
Then, watching him fall into full-blown panic, Suzuno realized something else. Something just as important.
“Devil King… You fused with Acieth on Japan, did you not?”
“Y-yeah…”
The question Suzuno posed next had the potential to shake the core of every human and demon involved in the Devil King’s Army invasion of Ente Isla.
“Why was the Devil King, with his demonic force, able to fuse with a holy sword? With…with a Yesod fragment?”
THE AUTHOR, THE AFTERWORD, AND YOU!
Have you ever asked someone (or been asked) what you’d bring with you to a desert island if you were only allowed to pick one thing? I, Wagahara, have always had an issue with this question.
When most people hear the term “desert island,” they probably picture a small, sandy little thing with a single palm tree growing in the middle. Maybe a little jungle, maybe a few animals or whatnot, but that’s it. But wait—what if the island has a volcano? That would limit the plant and animal ecosystem pretty drastically. If the island was on a reef, securing a steady water supply could prove to be challenging. And they have desert islands up (or down, I suppose) in the polar regions, too. They’re just as deserted as what you’d be picturing from the Equator, but the conditions are completely different.
All these question marks, and I’m only allowed to bring one thing with me? That’s kind of an unreasonable thing to ask, isn’t it?
You might say that I shouldn’t be such a nitpicker over what’s really nothing more than a fun way to strike up a conversation. But if you se
riously think about this desert-island issue, it winds up morphing into a question more along the lines of “If I’m tossed into an unknown land, what should my priorities be?”
What I’m getting at is this: If all of you, my readers, were thrown into another world, one different from your own, what would be the most important things to you? It’s a topic I had to give some honest thought to when writing this volume.
If the conditions of this world—the atmospherical makeup, the nonhuman creatures that lived on it, the composition of the ground soil—weren’t suited for the tastes of Earth-dwellers like us, we wouldn’t have much to look forward to apart from death. Let’s assume, then, that there were no major obstacles to people like you and me from surviving in this strange land, and go from there.
The first thing you’d want to do is find out where you’re located. It’s surprisingly difficult for people to travel in a straight line, in any direction, if they have no landmarks to count on. In white-out conditions on snowy mountains, we’ll famously travel in circles without any idea we’re doing so. Gaining a grasp of directions and climate grants us a basic indicator of where we are, and where we should go.
Once we have this grasp of north, south, east, and west, the next item on the agenda is sustenance. Not every body of water is guaranteed to give you something drinkable—you’d prefer to have a spring or clear stream handy, or at least some kind of flowing water. Rivers provide another guidepost for directions, and people tend to live around them, giving you a chance at finding someone to help you. And that’s not even counting the plants and animals that gather toward them, providing potential food sources (and the chances of encountering predators, but let’s not make this too complicated).
So assuming you manage to live long enough in this world to seek help from others, that’s where the adventure really begins. Much like the term “desert island” can be defined in a lot of ways, your starting point in this “other world” can be on the tundra, in the desert, or up in some alpine region. Even if you find a path to take in these areas, that’s gonna make your survival rate plummet bigtime.
The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 9 Page 22
