The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 3

by Satoshi Wagahara

  “Hey, what kind of Devil King would I be otherwise? Just wait there in one of those seats for me…”

  Just as Maou’s eyebrows furrowed at Suzuno’s response, a customer stepped through the door.

  “Whew… Three in the afternoon, under the blazing sun! The moment when my goddess of beauty will provide me with the sweet, sweet ice cream that so deftly, so immaculately cools and quenches my heart!! Oh, my beloved goddess! I have come to you today, at this moment, to bring my love to your soul!”

  The loudmouthed pervert loudly, pervertedly, strode in, spewing his loud, perverted oratory the entire way.

  It was Mitsuki Sarue, manager of the Sentucky near Hatagaya station—formerly Sariel, the angel who fell from heaven at the sight of Kisaki’s beauty. By now, he was a notorious fixture around this MgRonald location.

  Chiho mentioned that he showed up for nearly every meal. This apparently included snacktime.

  Sariel, blessed with handsome features but little else, ran his large, purple eyes across the dining area before noticing the goddess he swore eternal loyalty to in front of the door that led to the break room.

  That, and what she had in her hands.

  “Gnrahh!”

  With an odd, guttural groan, Sariel froze solid, no longer in need of soft serve to cool him down.

  “My. He has gained weight.”

  It had been several days since Suzuno last met Sariel, but already there was an obvious, unnatural puffiness around the diminutive angel’s cheeks and neck.

  Suzuno’s observation gave Sariel notice that she and Maou were right next to him. He brought his head up like a half-broken puppet to face them.

  “Have…the heavens forsaken me?”

  He was asking the wrong couple. It didn’t stop him.

  “Is this the punishment of the gods, exacted upon me for abandoning my post? Has the heart of my eternal goddess already been…struck, by the arrow of another man? Has she returned this man’s advances? And, by all that lives in heaven, is that the blessed, crystalline symbol of their love that she bears?!”

  Maou was unsure how to explain his way out of the obvious conclusion Sariel jumped to. So he tossed the job over instead.

  “Uh, you handle this, Suzuno.”

  “Huh? Ah… W-wait!”

  Before Suzuno could lodge a protest, Maou made good his escape into the break room.

  “Crestia Bell! Am I dreaming?! Tell me this is a dream! If I have lived in sin up to this point, then I swear I will repent! I know I have been something of a womanizer in the past, but this time, I promise you, I am serious! Please, allow me to confess my sins! Allow me to beg for the forgiveness of the gods!”

  “Why is an archangel begging a…a lowly human cleric for confession?!”

  Suzuno tried her hardest to temper her words. They were enemies in the past, but he was still an archangel—one who belonged to the religion she served, and worshiped, within. But this archangel, descended into the world of humans, was…well, to put it bluntly, as low class as the Devil King himself.

  “This must have been what the morning’s horoscope meant when it said ‘rocky times for romance lie ahead’! Such a merciless, merciless trial the gods have conceived for me!”

  Merely thinking about what kind of confessional a womanizing archangel who took horoscopes seriously would utter caused Suzuno no small measure of distress. As a cleric—and, more presently, as a woman—she was less than interested in hearing it.

  “…Lord Sariel, do you know at all where that child came from?”

  With Alas Ramus clearly in front of them, Suzuno tried striking while the iron was hot.

  “Ahh… Joyful indeed, would I be if it were mine…”

  It may have been mere ravings from Sariel’s mouth as he collapsed to the ground and wept plaintively, but it told Suzuno all she needed to know. Alas Ramus and Sariel had no connection to each other.

  “…Well, so be it. Come to me, my lord, and tell me of your sins.”

  She decided to go through with it, in hopes she could extract some other crucial snippet of information in the process. But the dread over what would no doubt be ejaculated from his mouth was giving her a migraine already.

  “…All right.”

  The voice made Maou and Chiho twitch a bit as they stood side by side, the dread over the upcoming lecture forming knots in their stomachs.

  “How old is she?”

  But Kisaki’s first question was quite unexpected. Maou’s manager was cradling Alas Ramus, her experienced arms gently bouncing her up and down.

  Maou and Chiho glanced at each other.

  “I’m guessing about three… No, she’s smaller than that, actually. A little less than two, maybe. Hmm?”

  “Um. Y-yes… I think so.”

  “You think so? You didn’t ask her parents how old she is?”

  He would have loved to if he could, but there was no way to ask, since her parents were incommunicado.

  “…Well, I guess if you asked me how old my niece was, I wouldn’t be too sure about that, either. But it’s a lot easier to remember what grade in school they’re in for some reason, you know?”

  But Kisaki dropped the line of questioning, using her own experiences to reach a conclusion instead.

  “But anyway, relax. I’m not gonna yell at you guys or anything. Not in front of this girl.”

  Anyone able to relax in that situation would be a rare talent indeed.

  “Now, just so we’re on the same page here, this is definitely not your kid, right?”

  “No! Not at all! …It’d be kinda nice if it was, but…”

  Kisaki refused to let Chiho’s descent into reverie slide.

  “You’re free to think whatever you want, Chi, but there’s a time and a place for everything, okay?”

  The force behind her reproach, delivered as it was from a smiling Kisaki as she cradled the girl, was still enough to make even the Devil King whimper.

  “So you two… You aren’t a romantic couple right now, correct?”

  “C-correct.”

  “I, uh, right.”

  Chiho dared a peek at Maou, nodding only after he gave his instant agreement.

  Kisaki smiled wryly at her young employees’ responses.

  “Did you think I was going to punish you for bringing romance, or your family or whatever, into the workplace? I mean, really, if you guys were a couple, we wouldn’t need to have this little talk right now.”

  “Um?”

  Maou gurgled the barest of responses to this unexpected left turn.

  “I don’t care if you asked Chi for help, Marko, or if Chi asked you first. But lemme ask you this. Have you ever thought about what it looks like to people, a girl who’s still in high school regularly visiting a man’s house to help care for an infant?”

  Neither lecturee could hide their surprise at the way this talk was going.

  “But…but Maou doesn’t have anyone else he can ask. He didn’t even really have any stuff…”

  “Maybe you…don’t understand quite yet, Chi. People… They can be shallow, you know? They can jump to conclusions, and they can spread all kinds of things before you even know it. And, sadly, you can’t fight that. Because there’s nothing ‘there’ to fight.”

  “……”

  “!!”

  Chiho was about to say something just as Kisaki’s eyes turned to Alas Ramus. Maou stopped her just in time.

  Whether she noticed it out of the corner of her eye or not, Kisaki’s finger was lightly rubbing against Alas Ramus’s cheek. The girl laughed excitedly.

  “You smell like Daddy!”

  “Oh? I do, huh?”

  Both manager and child warmly basked in the experience.

  “Young people can be a shallow a lot of the times, too. They hear me talking, and they’d probably say something like ‘The world doesn’t understand us!’ But you guys didn’t, and I have to praise you for that.”

  Placing Alas on one knee, Kisaki placed a
bracing hand on her stomach, then gently spun around on her chair. The child gleamed once more.

  Looking on, Maou took his hand away from Chiho and spoke solemnly.

  “I…I don’t think I know enough about the world to be able to say that.”

  With a squeak, the chair stopped cold. Kisaki lifted the smiling Alas Ramus into the air.

  “Wheeee! Yaaaaa! Ha-ha-ha!”

  The girl rollicked to and fro, clearly excited.

  “Well, if you can say that, you’re at least half a grown man.”

  Kisaki returned the toddler to Maou, looked at the break room clock, and shrugged.

  “You can go ahead and take off, Marko. It’s still a little early, but if it’s gonna stay this empty, we’re not gonna miss one crewmember too much.”

  “But… I really…”

  “You’re this kid’s ‘daddy,’ aren’t you? Then quit worrying about another hour’s wages and start worrying about the time you spend with her. I’ll see what I can do about your request for more hours, too.”

  With that, Kisaki readjusted her crew cap and strode out of the break room.

  “…More hours, Maou?”

  Chiho was in the dark.

  “Hey, a man’s gotta work. I’ve got dependents now. If this keeps up, I might have to send her to school sooner or later.”

  Maou lifted Alas Ramus as he spoke, his tone making it difficult to discern how serious he was being.

  “So…you’re really going to take her in?”

  “Well, not take her in, exactly.”

  Maou gave Alas Ramus a poke or two on her forehead.

  “I just figure I’ll watch her until I get some answers to my questions. If her parents ever show up, I’ll be first in line to hand her over.”

  Come to think of it, Maou had seemed oddly fixated on the girl’s forehead while the gang was arguing over what to do with her.

  “You know, Chi… You told me your mom and dad were cool with you coming over to my place, right?”

  “…Yes.”

  Chiho’s body tensed up.

  She knew that Maou gave Kisaki a great deal of respect—as a manager, and as a full-fledged member of society. Ignoring the question of whether this was a sound decision for a Devil King to make, there was every chance that their boss’s advice could change the way he felt about Chiho.

  “I want to keep what Ms. Kisaki said in mind from now on…and that’s why I need to ask. Would you mind if I…took advantage of that trust in me for a while longer?”

  “N… What?”

  Chiho, fully prepared to have Maou tell her to stop playing babysitter, stared upward, eyes agleam.

  “Things are still relatively peaceful right now, but…you know, Emi and Suzuno are still technically against me, so… Right now, here in Japan, if you asked me who’s the guy I feel safest in fully relying upon for something… Well, you’re about it, Chi.”

  “……”

  “And I know it’s kinda unfair to say this without ever giving you an answer to that question, Chi, but…and I know it’s gonna be a pain in the ass sometimes…but if you can help me out, I’d really appreciate it.”

  “……”

  “…Chi?”

  Chiho stood agape for several moments. Long moments.

  “…Hey! Hey, why’re you crying?! Chi, I… Hey! Did I offend you or something?!”

  A single tear streamed down her face.

  Maou flailed in panic over how to respond. Chiho, perhaps only noticing the tear after Maou pointed it out, calmly took out a handkerchief and wiped it away.

  “Oh…I’m sorry. I, I just… I’m kind of happy, so…”

  “No, I’m sorry! My bad, okay? I’m older than you; I mean, I’m the Devil King, and I’m still relying on you for everything… Wait, what?”

  “I’m happy to hear that. I’m happy to know that you’re relying on me, Maou.”

  “Huh? Ah? Eh? Happy… What? So why’re you crying, then?”

  The question mark on top of Maou’s head ballooned in size as he took in Chiho’s smile.

  “Hee-hee… I apologize. This is just how human beings behave.”

  “Well, it makes no sense at all to me. I mean…”

  “I know that you can’t give me an instant response. I’m prepared to wait as long as you need, and I don’t care what you say to me in the end. So…”

  Chiho took Alas Ramus’s hand, pushing back the tears that threatened to fall once more.

  “Chi-Sis?”

  “So I’ll do whatever I can to help, Maou.”

  “R-really? Uh… Well, thanks. And sorry.”

  “You got it!”

  Now Chiho was flashing a smile, the best one she could muster. At a loss as to how to respond, Maou turned his crew cap downward to hide his face.

  “Hey, Marko, could you open that drawer and get that—”

  Kisaki chose that moment to suddenly burst back in the room.

  “!!”

  Her eyes arched upward as Maou and Chiho instantly froze into statues.

  “…Ugh. Guess I better stop hiring women for a while.”

  There was no way to hide from her. Equal opportunity employment laws did not apply under the Constitution of the United States of Kisaki. She stalked angrily toward the break room desk, removing an envelope from one of its drawers.

  “I got these as a newspaper subscription freebie, but I don’t have any use for them, so I figured I’d give ’em to you instead.”

  With a sigh, Kisaki sized up Maou and Chiho.

  “You do understand what I just told you both, right?”

  She perched the envelope on top of Maou’s head. Her work done, she left the room.

  The pair sighed deeply once the door was closed. Chiho plucked the envelope off Maou’s head. The two of them watched intently as she opened it, revealing…

  THE DEVIL AND THE HERO TAKE A HINT AND HIT THE THEME PARK

  “Hey, Emi, somethin’ bad happen to you?”

  “Huh?”

  “I dunno, you’ve just had this really peeved look on your face all morning.”

  Emi brought a hand to her forehead as her workmate, Rika Suzuki, made the observation.

  “Not some kind of trouble with that Maou guy again, I hope.”

  Emi flinched back at this, a direct assault upon the very core of her heart.

  “Wh-what made you think that?!”

  “Well, Emi… I mean, whenever you’ve been troubled about something lately, it’s never been about anything but him.”

  “What? No! No, it hasn’t!”

  “Oh, reeeeeeally? I don’t seem to remember you ever acting like this at work before I started hearing about Maou.”

  That was a surprise.

  As the Hero, whose ultimate mission would only be complete once the head of the Devil King was on a pike for all to observe, Emi had always tried to maintain a certain sense of urgency within herself, a willingness to fight at all times. In no way was she merrily wasting her time with the trivialities of modern-day human life! Never!

  “I mean, like, whenever we went out to eat, you always looked so happy that it made all my own troubles seem like nothing. Whenever we went out together, too. It’s really been just a little bit ago that you’ve been all serious like this.”

  “Oooooh…”

  The false bravado in Emi’s heart crumbled instantly.

  There was a certain period in Emi’s life when everything about Japan, its food and cultural customs, provided a never-ending parade of new and fresh surprises to her. They instilled new values within her on a daily basis. Everything seemed to sparkle in her mind. She felt confident in saying that even with the entirety of Ente Islan cuisine before you, it would still pale in comparison to the variation and quality of food in Japan.

  “Oh, wait! I think your AC broke down this time last year, right? I remember you said you had a lot of trouble sleeping in the heat.”

  “……”

  Emi softly placed her head on her des
k.

  It had been just over a year since she came to Japan. The idea that her concerns had grown so mindlessly trivial almost immediately after her arrival made her descend into self-loathing.

  “Oh, and that one time you complained about how DokoDemo was giving you too many hours and you couldn’t arrange an appointment with the electric company guy…”

  “Rika, you got me, all right? You win. You don’t have to keep beating a dead horse.”

  “Oh? Oh. Oop, I got one.”

  The call Rika’s workstation received covered up Emi’s groan, offering her welcome solace for a few minutes.

  “So what is it, girl? What’re you arguing about this time?!” The moment her call ended, Rika pulled her headset up and leaned over the cube wall to confront Emi again.

  “You are so enjoying this, aren’t you?”

  She flashed a resentful look in response. It was nowhere near enough to faze Rika.

  “Hey, it keeps the boredom from setting in.”

  The way Rika never hid her true feelings was both one of her greatest traits and one of her most annoying habits.

  “Plus, you know, I hate to leave a friend hanging when she’s in need!”

  “Something tells me the ‘boredom’ excuse is a lot closer to the truth.”

  Emi grinned to herself.

  “Things are…well. You know. Kind of a pain. But I can’t sever myself from them or anything.”

  “Ohh?”

  “There’s a small child involved.”

  Rika nodded to herself, elbow planted on top of the cube wall.

  “Yours and Maou’s?”

  “Well, that’s what she says, but… Agh!!”

  Emi realized, far too late, that her overly cute attempt to deny all charges only served to dig her own grave.

  Even Rika wasn’t expecting such a masterful performance. She put her elbow down, eyes open wide as she gauged Emi.

  “Wait, what, really?”

  “N-no! Not that way. I meant… Well, not exactly no, but no, okay?!”

  “Whoa, whoa, chill! You’re not making sense.”

  Emi attempted to catch her breath as her tormenter attempted to calm her down.

  “…Okay, so listen. Seriously this time.”

  “Oh, I’ve always been serious!”