“Sure thing. Hey! Emi!”
“…Oh. Yeah.”
Maou had to pull Emi’s collar to bring her back to reality.
The shelves they were taken to were lined with large, square plastic bags, each one packed with futon sets whose fabric patterns clearly indicated that children were the intended audience.
“Wow,” Maou marveled, “some of these come with teddy bears and stuff?”
“Ah, yes,” the saleswoman said, nodding, “we find that the transition’s easier for a lot of little ones if they have something firm, something reassuring they can clutch to while they’re lying down.” She pointed at one particular shrink-wrapped bag. “Now, this is one set from our 29,800-yen series…”
“Twenty-nine…!”
Now it was Maou’s turn to freeze in place.
“It includes the futon mattress, a comforter that you can adjust for the different seasons, a pillow, some fitted sheets for everything, a hypoallergenic blanket, and this stuffed animal over here. Everything’s included in the set. Over in this other shelf, we have sets with summer and winter comforters, along with different covers for each one, and those go for 35,800 yen.”
“Thir-r-r-r…”
“Are the covers machine washable?” asked Emi, regaining consciousness just in the nick of time. Or perhaps Emi’s subconscious instinctively kicked her brain back into high gear once it spotted Maou’s mouth puckering rhythmically, like a goldfish gasping for air.
“Oh, of course!” the saleswoman eagerly nodded as she looked at Alas Ramus in Maou’s arms. “Now, based on what the lucky father said…”
Emi tried her best to hang on to her rapidly fading marbles.
“…your daughter doesn’t fidget too much when she sleeps, is that correct?”
“Um, I think she’s on the more well-behaved side, yes.”
“Indeed, indeed. You’ll want to watch to make sure she isn’t too well-behaved, though. With growing bodies like hers, staying in the same position for too long could increase the burden on her bones and muscles. Sleeping in the same position all night can make even grown-ups feel a little sore in the morning, but with young children, it can affect their growth if it’s kept unchecked for too long. That’s why, if she’s pretty well behaved in bed, I’d recommend materials that are as nonresilient as possible.”
“Her growth, huh…?”
Something about the saleswoman’s pitch resonated in Emi’s mind. She turned to the still-asleep Alas Ramus, then shook Maou’s shoulder as she looked at the bedding sets on the top shelf.
“Try not to drop her, would you?”
That was enough to bring him back to Earth. He hurriedly adjusted his two-handed grip on her. “Uh, sure, sure!” he protested. “But, like, all of that makes sense to me, but…thirty-five thousand…?”
“Oh, you were listening, huh? …Can I ask you something real quick?”
“Certainly,” the saleswoman replied.
Emi took a shallow breath. “Maybe this is a stupid question, but around what age can she use a children’s futon until?”
“Well, to be honest…” The saleswoman gave a friendly chuckle. “A lot of it comes down to how your daughter herself grows, in the end, so it can be a bit hard to predict. If a child moves around a lot in their sleep, some people like to go with a larger futon mattress, even if the comforter’s the same size. If you decide to go with this package set, I think you would be good to go until about a hundred centimeters, or around three foot three.”
“So it depends, huh…?”
“…Emi?”
Maou nodded at the saleswoman’s speech, even though Emi’s oddly troubled staring into Alas Ramus’s eyes gave him some pause. “…All right,” he said, “thanks very much. We’re gonna browse around for a bit, but do you have a catalog or something like that we can have?”
“Oh, certainly! Take all the time you’d like. I’ll bring a few pamphlets over for you.”
The saleswoman smiled as she minced into the back area.
“D-Devil King,” Emi blurted out.
“Huh?” Maou turned around—and he knew he wasn’t imagining it. Emi looked despondent.
“Do you think Alas Ramus will even grow at all? Like a normal child?”
“…!”
He could tell Emi was talking about more than just Alas Ramus’s body maturing into an adult. Her concerns didn’t involve the responsibility she now had for her, either. It was just that Alas Ramus had the Hero as her mom, the Devil King as her dad, and neither of them were her real parents.
“How are we supposed to even raise her…?”
To Maou, watching Emi as the smiling saleswoman scurried back with a shopping bag full of pamphlets, the scene was downright surreal.
“Y’know,” Maou said as they walked down an aisle in their fourth shopping center of the day, “these prices are kinda extreme. I figured thirty thousand was way too much at the first place, but going from that to just three thousand at the second store was kind of fishy, I thought. You think maybe we could thread the needle and find something at around fifteen thousand or so?”
“That one at three thousand was meant for naptime at the day care center,” Emi replied. “It’s totally different from a futon set that’d get her through the night. And where’s that coming from, anyway? I thought you were all about saving money.”
Maou snorted in response. “Well, I mean, that first one was so expensive, I dunno what the going rate even is any longer. I don’t wanna shell out too much, but if it’s too cheap, I start to get suspicious.”
He looked down at his feet.
“Hi, Daddy!”
“…Plus, me ’n’ Ashiya ’n’ Urushihara are all grown-ups and that’s one thing, but I’d like something at least a little nice for Alas Ramus, y’know?”
Emi’s eyes were on the ground as well. Alas Ramus was awake from her quick afternoon nap, toddling with all her might as she held hands with both of them.
“There’s stairs coming up, Alas Ramus. Hang on to Mommy’s hand, okay?”
“Okeh!”
“Huh? Wait…”
Alas Ramus gripped Emi’s hand tightly. Emi returned the favor.
“Aaaaaaand up we goooo!”
“Aaaiiiiiieee!”
The couple lifted their “child” up in the air over the stairway, the gleeful Alas Ramus hanging from their clenched hands as she made it safely to the top.
“……!!!”
“Geez, Emi, get used to it already! You’ve been acting like that all day!”
“Mommy, you okeh? Too hot?”
Maou tried to sound as cheerful as possible, while Emi looked about ready to have a seat again. Even Alas Ramus was starting to get concerned. Emi had nobody left to turn to.
“Okay, Mommy looks like she needs a break, so how ’bout we grab some lunch, Alas Ramus?”
“Lunch!” the girl exclaimed, still holding hands with both of them. “Magrobad!”
“Hmm? Ooh, I dunno, I think you’ll need to be a bigger girl before we go to MgRonald…”
“No! Magrobad!”
Maou didn’t know why she called it “bad,” but either way, her obsession with MgRonald today was almost disturbing. “You ever take her there?” he asked Emi.
“No, but it’s like she immediately picks up on the scent of fast food whenever we run into it. Not just MgRonald, either.”
“The scent…?”
This rang a bell with Maou. When she’d first met Kisaki, the first words out of Alas Ramus’s mouth were “You smell like Daddy!”
“Hey, Alas Ramus?”
“Yehh?”
“Why do you wanna eat at MgRonald so bad, anyway?” he asked, out of curiosity.
The answer from Alas Ramus’s lips couldn’t have been clearer.
“It smells like Daddy!”
“…”
Maou and Emi looked at each other in silence.
“Hey, Mommy? Can we all sleep in Daddy’s house?” their child innocen
tly asked.
“…Uh, let’s eat first, okay?” Emi listlessly countered.
“Hey, Emi?”
“What?”
“Did that answer disappoint you?”
“…Huh?”
Maou’s completely absurd question made Emi turn her head back in disbelief. Maou, for his part, looked just as flustered, as if not expecting that reaction.
“Oh, no, I just… Alas Ramus has been pretty much all about me today, so I thought you might be getting jealous, or…”
“…Look, I’m not that self-centered, all right? Oh, hey, there’s a map here. Let’s go look for someplace to eat, okay?”
“Uh, sure.”
The shopping center directory was surrounded by several other families happily discussing the potential lunch suggestions among themselves.
“…I mean, of course she’d like you a lot. You gave her the first home she ever knew in this world.”
“Y-yeah…”
“I’m just freaking out right now,” came the matter-of-fact reply, “because I’m not sure whether being the Hero should come first, or being her ‘mommy’ should. That’s all… Which of these do you think Alas Ramus could eat at?”
Each of the restaurant listings had a few sample photos and dish descriptions. Emi stared at them like nothing was amiss.
“Hmm. Well, sorry. Guess it doesn’t really matter which one I put first, compared to you… How ’bout some soba noodles?”
“I don’t need you feeling sorry for me, thanks. Besides, we’ve already been over this …Ooh, that soba joint’s pretty expensive. All the meals come with tempura, too.”
“Already been over what? …Tempura, huh? Hmm…”
“What do you think I mean? …Can you even afford to eat out anyway? What’s your budget?”
“Yeah, I got some money to work with. I get kind of a spending allowance every month outta my salary, and Ashiya gives me three hundred yen to buy something with whenever I go to work. Usually I save that up if I don’t use it, so I got enough to feed me and Alas Ramus some tempura, anyway… Wait, was that what you meant?”
“What, about lunch?”
“No, I mean, I think we were talking about something more serious just now.”
“Oh, that. I just figured it was better left unsaid. No point reminding you about it anyway… Yeah, I’m kinda sick of pasta for lunch anyway, so…”
“What? Just say it, man.”
“Magrobad!” Alas Ramus erupted in joy, her eagle eyes spotting the MgRonald logo among the restaurant listings. The gesture made Emi smile a little as she glanced at Maou to her side.
“Like, if you’re going to put being Daddy over being Devil King… If you’re willing to give up on world conquest and live here in Japan for the rest of your life, then I wouldn’t have any reason to be as stubborn as I am right now.”
That was enough to sufficiently jog Maou’s memory. The evening encounter at that one Sasazuka intersection after work. How did Emi see that incident? Why did she doggedly pursue the Devil King all the way to another world to take his life, only to say “If you’re willing to live out life as a bright, happy young man in this world, I’m perfectly willing to not kill you”?
And that was even before Alas Ramus. It was just the Devil King and the Hero. Two sworn enemies. What did Emi really think about this new thing connecting them together? Clearly, the idea of them being seen as husband and wife physically sickened her. But what about the idea of her being the mother of a young girl?
“…Hey.”
“What?”
“Y’know, if you ask the cashier at MgRonald, they’ll cook up a batch of fries with no salt for you. How ’bout we give Alas Ramus some of those?”
“Huh? Where’d that come from?”
“It’s probably gonna be packed in there, so how ’bout we get something to go and head over here?”
Ignoring Emi’s question entirely, Maou placed his finger on a point in the Seiseki-Sakuragaoka area map next to the restaurant list.
“Hey, Alas Ramus?”
“Yehh?” came the reply. Maou gradually picked up the child until she was at eye level with him.
“Wanna go on a picnic?”
“Geez, this is strong!”
Emi put a hand to her head to keep her hair from being blown around in the wind.
“Riverrrr!”
“Whoa, pretty big, huh?”
The three of them were at the banks of the Tama River, about a ten-minute walk from Seiseki station. It was framed by a bridge to the right for the Keio rail line and featured a park, soccer field, tennis courts, and other equipment. From this vantage point, it was a sight to see.
“Why don’t you think any of the trees here are being taken care of?” Emi idly asked.
“Maybe to keep a natural balance or something? I see a bunch of guys barbecuing on the other side, but I guess that’s not allowed over here.”
There was a large footbridge to the left, a large number of people cooking up a storm near the edge of the river.
“Daddy! Playground!”
Alas Ramus’s eyes immediately turned to the playground equipment spread out down by the riverside.
“Sure,” Maou replied to the girl on his back, “but let’s get lunch taken care of first. I think there’s a free bench over there.”
He ran down from the path to the bank, straight for an old wooden bench just big enough for three people. It was strategically located under a bushy shade tree.
“…You know what a playground is, Alas Ramus?” asked an astonished Emi. “I don’t think I’ve ever taken you to one before.”
“Yeah, I think Ashiya and Suzuno took her to one near my apartment a few times when she was there.”
“Mommy! Swings! I wanna go on the swings!”
Alas Ramus was about ready to leap right over Maou’s shoulders for a chance at the swings.
“Huh,” Emi observed as Alas Ramus swiveled around, squealing at everything around her. “I like to think I take her out a lot, but I’m at work all the time, so she’s usually inside my body. Maybe I’m getting too stressed out. I should probably take a few shifts off…”
“Ah, don’t bother. If things are going good now, then it’s fine.”
Maou sat Alas Ramus down on the bench and handed her the bag containing their MgRonald lunch. She grasped it eagerly, clutching it to her body.
“Magrobad!”
“I mean,” he continued, “it’d be great if we could be with her twenty-four hours a day. But we both gotta work to make money, so that’s not gonna happen. Hell, I had hardly any time to play with her even when she was staying in Devil’s Castle. She was pretty much in Ashiya’s and Suzuno’s hands the whole time… Hold your hands out, okay, Alas Ramus? We need to wipe them down before you can eat.”
He crouched down and wiped the child’s pudgy hands with a towel he bought at the convenience store before looking up at Emi.
“Siddown,” he said. “You’re eating, right?”
“…Yeah.”
Emi placed herself down next to Alas Ramus, an astonished look on her face.
“Oof,” Maou grunted as he sat on the other side and looked down at the girl. “Okay, Alas Ramus, what do we say before we eat?”
“Okeh! Tink youuuuuu!”
Before anyone else could respond, her hands were into the small MgRonald bag handed to her. One of them extracted a handful of fries from the container within.
“Magrobad!”
There was nothing but an order of small fries inside. Beyond that, they chose a few tempting-looking to-go onigiri rice balls from an adjacent restaurant. It was Emi’s suggestion.
“Here, Emi. Some tea.”
Maou thrust a hundred-yen bottle of tea at her. Emi took it after a moment of hesitation, opened it up, and brought it to her lips.
“…Oh, this is good.”
She checked the bottle. It was an unfamiliar brand from an even less familiar bottler.
“Yeah?” Ma
ou laughed to himself as he opened up a bottle of his own. “I really liked that stuff. They sold it in convenience stores starting in the early spring, but I guess it didn’t sell at all ’cause it disappeared pretty quick. Lately I’ve been seeing two-fer sales at the hundred-yen shop for fifty yen each. Better enjoy it before it disappears in the fall, huh? …Hey, you drink some tea, too, Alas Ramus. All those fries are gonna make you thirsty.”
“Mnngh…okehhh,” Alas Ramus mumbled, mouth full of salt-free French fries. There was just enough space left inside for her to enjoy a swig or two from the bottle.
“…Man,” Emi said. “You really do look like father and daughter.” There was no other way for her to describe the scene before her—a summer day spent under the shade, a young father giving some tea to his daughter to help wash down their lazy lunch.
“It’d be nice if we could be, yeah.”
“…What?”
Was that in response to Emi’s observation? She couldn’t tell for a moment.
“Besides, you’re every part a mother to her, aren’t you?”
“Uh… Well, I mean, I…”
And was that meant as a compliment?
“It’s not like I’m avoiding thinking about all of this stuff, Emi. Like, how much longer can we be with Alas Ramus? Or is she gonna…”
The sounds of families playing in the playground below seemed tantalizingly far away.
“…is she gonna go away on her own volition sometime?”
“…Devil King…”
“Pfft!” Alas Ramus said, finally washing down the last of the fries. “Mommy! Oniiri!”
“Oh, sure,” came the distracted reply as Emi took out a rice ball with pickled radish inside and presented the package to her.
“Wow, starting with radish, huh? Pretty hard-core choice.”
“I like rar-ish!” she cried out as she started making the rice ball a thing of the past.
“…I guess she likes pretty much anything the color of Malchut,” Emi explained.
“…Oh?” Maou laughed.
Alas Ramus had a preference—a yen, if you will—for anything bright yellow in color. It was the color controlled by Malchut, one of the other Yesod seeds from the tree of Sephirot and apparently a good friend of the Yesod seed she was a part of.
The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 7 Page 11
