The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 1 (23 page)

“It’s
real
, Maou! …Uh, but I like Relax-a-Bear, too! He’s cute!”

The harried addendum to Chiho’s frantic response failed to make Emi feel any better.

“Just shut
up
, you guys! I like that design! So what?” Emi blushed slightly as she looked through the wallet’s contents. “…Ahh!”

“Wh-what?! I didn’t take anything from it!”

“Then where’s my stamp card from Subwave?! That was a full card, too! I
hate
you!”

Now Emi’s face shone a bright red.

“I…I had never eaten a sandwich with ‘buffalo chicken’ inside of it before! I was merely curious!”

The conversation had descended into unorganized chaos, one that went off on wilder and wilder tangents as it continued. But no one demonstrated any willingness to rein it in.

“Erf, I feel sick… What the hell’s all this about? Why’s it all stopped?”

“Don’t ask me about thaaaat! It must be some kind of magical barrier!”

“Who’s that standin’ over there?”

“It looks like Emilia to me…”

“And who’s buried in that pile?”

“…That would be Olba.”

“And who’re those other guys?”

“Couldn’t saaaaay…”

Upon discovering the Church’s plot, Albert Ende, martial artist and friend of Emilia, and Emeralda Etuva, court alchemist for the Western Continent empire of Saint Aile, immediately sprang into action. They had pursued Lucifer and Olba’s trail across the Gate, and they chose this exact moment to descend into Sasazuka.

“So, what, you’re Satan?
That
Satan?”

The dark-skinned man, somewhere around thirty, easily towered over Ashiya. He boasted well-kept white hair and a white beard, but what stood out the most was his golden-colored eyes. And now Albert, arms still crossed, was looking straight down upon the Devil King. His lightweight leather suit was designed to accentuate the musculature of his body, making him look like a pro wrestler staring down a sixth grader.

“And you are his general, Alciel? Reeeeeeally?”

Emeralda was far smaller in build, her short, rounded blue-green hair rustling in the wind as her similarly light-green eyes stared up at Ashiya. Her clerical robe resembled Olba’s, but instead of the archibishop’s simple design, she preferred a more striking arrangement of red and orange, the national seal of Saint Aile stitched in gold on the back. Neither of them seemed to be armed.

“Indeed. Cower in fear!”

Maou tried his best to act the part, confident that these interlopers had no intention of fighting.

“Oh, stop being so siiiilly!”

But the way Emeralda instantly brushed it off disheartened him.

“Well, doesn’t this just beat everything, Emer? I ain’t got much strength left… Wasn’t planning on sizing up the Devil King so quickly and all.”

“You knoooow, I would advise against saying that in front of the enemy…”

“Yeah? Yeah. Well, whoops on me!”

Albert bared his white teeth and laughed heartily, hand behind his head.

Chiho had remained silent since their arrival, but the loud laughter made her immediately notice something. She launched an accusatory finger at the giant man.

“M-Maou! That’s the voice! The voice that talked to me in my brain!”

“Oh? Hey, little lady, did you pick up on my idea link?”

The conversation had already been derailed; now it was in danger of all but falling off the cliff. Emi swooped in.

“Listen! Listen, everyone. I know we’re all a little confused here, so let’s just calm down and talk things over so we’re on the same page. Let’s go back to your apartment, Alciel. We can’t just talk here amid all this rubble.”

“Ridiculous! I would never invite the Hero’s cohorts to Devil’s Castle!”

Maou intervened before Ashiya could chide Emi any further for attempting to take command.

“Nah, she’s right. We’re in an emergency, Ashiya; we need to be flexible. I’m getting kinda sick of keeping this barrier going. Plus, it wouldn’t be a good idea to waste all my new power on fighting these guys.”

Ashiya nodded ruefully. To him, Maou was suddenly making sense again.

“…But what about Olba, buried under that rubble?”

“Leave him. He carried out all those robberies with Lucifer, right? The police’ll ID him and lock him up soon enough.”

It was true. Within the rules of Japanese society, Olba and Lucifer were criminals. Neither Emi, whom Olba had betrayed, nor the demons, his original enemies, had any reason to show him mercy.

“You remember where it is, right, Emi? You go on ahead. Take Chi and these guys with you.”

Maou tossed the apartment’s door key toward Emi.

“Huh?”

“I’ll come over once I clean things up.”

“…You aren’t gonna jump back to Ente Isla, are you?”

“
No
, Emi! Your pals would chase right after me if I did. Just go, all right?”

Emi’s eyes were filled with suspicion, but she nonetheless motioned toward Chiho, Emeralda, and the others as she began to walk off.

“So what’s up with that? You folks gettin’ along now, or what?”

“Emilia the Hero, making friends with the Devil King! Myyyy, wonders never cease!”

“I firmly deny that, and
only
that, all right? Let’s get going.”

For a moment, Emi turned back toward Maou before proceeding down a Sasazuka back alley with her heroic band.

Ashiya watched them go before speaking. “And what do you intend, Your Demonic Highness?”

Maou pointed toward the Shuto Expressway. “We can’t just leave it like that. Ashiya, Lucifer, help me out.”

Ashiya hesitated for a moment, but sighed, a resigned smile on his face. Lucifer, however, was shocked.

“You, you don’t mean…”

“Mm-hmm. I know I just got my powers back, but…”

“But…but if you do that…!”

“…So be it. My liege has made his choice. I am bound to follow him.”

“…Can you at least tell me what has possessed you? You, and our lord, as well?”

“I cannot say. I find it difficult to understand myself.”

“You two mind knocking off the chitchat for me?”

“My apologies, Your Demonic Highness. Here you are.”

Taking Ashiya’s hand, Maou began to speak, the excitement plain in his voice.

“As the lord of demons, I must take responsibility for the actions of my minions. Whether it be Ente Isla or the MgRonald Corporation, that must always apply. I rule all that I see, and a ruler’s burden is a heavy one.”

Maou smiled as he watched over the ruined Sasazuka.

The sight of Villa Rosa Sasazuka was enough to make Emeralda and Albert blanch. Even for someone who had just arrived on Earth half an hour ago, this structure was nowhere near what one’s imagination conjured upon hearing the words “the Devil’s Castle.”

“Ermm… Emilia?”

“I know what you’re thinking, Emeralda. But that room over there, upstairs… That’s the Devil’s Castle, the lair of Satan himself. In Japan, anyway.”

“‘That room’? Just the one?”

“Yep. All the others are empty.”

The two newcomers fell silent for a moment. Suddenly, Emeralda clapped her hands in realization.

“Ah! Of coooourse! They’ve disguised the exterior as a shoddy, cramped hovel, but once you step inside, you’re transported to another dimension, one that extends boundlessly across—”

“Nope. One hundred square feet. If I had to guess, it’s about half the size of the mountain shack you lived in, Albert. No bath, either.”

“Eesh. Well,
that’s
a disappointment.”

“And he still calls himself Devil Kiiiing?”

Both had to struggle for the words.

“Oh, I don’t know. If you ask me, this apartment really jives with the image I had of Maou, so…”

Chiho’s observation was, in its own way, even crueler.

“You’ll see what we mean once we’re inside. Let’s go.”

Carefully, Emi ascended the stairway she had so blithely tossed her body down that morning.

Turning the cylinder lock, the group was greeted by the familiar smells of life inside a well-worn building. This time, Emeralda and Albert were at a total loss for words.

Chiho, noticing the paper bag with the can of
senbei
rice crackers she dropped earlier, walked over to pick it up. She turned toward Emeralda and Albert, brushing the dust off the bag.

“Um, so in Japan, the custom’s to take off your shoes before you enter someone’s home. So you can do that here…”

As she spoke, she removed her loafers as she stood in the front foyer, one about the size of a hamster cage. Emi followed, and then Emeralda and Albert copied the motion, removing their boots. Four pairs of footwear were enough to completely occupy the cramped space in front of the door.

“I’d take my old mountain shack over this heap any day. There ain’t even enough space to put up any traps!”

“Forget about traps. There isn’t even enough space for the bare minimum of furniture. Feel free to sit down wherever, I guess.”

The group settled to the tatami floor, none looking very comfortable with themselves.

“…Oh, um, I’ll go make some tea or something!”

Chiho suddenly thought to travel over to the kitchen counter. Emi stopped her.

“Don’t bother, Chiho. They don’t have any teapots or cups or anything. The fridge and the shelves are completely empty, too. I have no idea what they live off of.”

“Oh…?” Chiho, standing by the sink, turned toward Emi. The look on her face was less of surprise and more of disbelief.

“How do you know all of that, Yusa?”

“Oh, uh, the other day I st—”

Emi stopped herself midsentence, all too aware of the blunder she had just made. Chiho wasn’t stupid. She knew what it meant when a woman knew a man’s kitchen inside and out. Her seemingly comprehensive knowledge of the Devil Castle’s interior likely struck Emeralda and Albert as suspicious, too.

“The other day you…what, Yusa?”

“Um…well, this was a
total
accident, but…”

The Hero was just about to plow forward with her highly unheroic excuse when she was interrupted.

“Hmm?”

“Oooh!”

Albert and Emeralda both reacted simultaneously. It wasn’t
to pick on Emi. Emi herself immediately knew what caught their eye.

“Um…is there something…?”

Albert and Emeralda glanced at each other instead of answering Chiho.

“What was
thaaaat
, just now?”

“One damned powerful wave of magic power, if I know it. Hey, Emilia, you sure we should really be trusting the Devil King and the rest?”

“I…think so.”

The strain was obvious in Emi’s voice.

The magical force the three of them had picked up on was absolutely enormous in scope. It felt like the blast wave of a gigantic bomb centered on Sasazuka rail station, lapping across the apartment roof as it spread wider and wider. It was a mammoth explosion of magic, one Emi hadn’t even felt in the previous battle.

“…Are you guys hiding something from me?”

Chiho, unaware of all this, was more than a bit put off at her question being ignored. But the sheer, impalpable quantity of magic was all but impossible to wrap one’s head around.

Maou said he wouldn’t do anything. Was believing him the right move? Was that weird affinity he seemed to have for Japan and its people up to this point all just a farce? A wave of anxiety flashed through Emi’s mind, before being very suddenly interrupted.

“Yo! Emi, open up! We’re back!”

Emi tensed herself up tightly at the sudden bang—or kick, to be exact—on the door. All of them except Chiho looked at each other, then at the door.

“…Shall I open it?”

Emeralda squinted at the door.

“It’s kind of his place, innit?”

“Yes, but the
Devvvvil King’s
place. To say nothing of that unusual bolt of maaaagic…”

“Pfft. Whadda we got to be scared of? A Devil King that lives in this
piddlin’ little pigsty? ’Sides, if that magic was his, no way he’s got any of that stuff left. I could beat ‘im down inna blink of an eye.”

“Oh, thanks a
lot
, Albert! Let’s see if you keep on saying that once you open the damn door!”

From the other side, Maou railed at them. Only a few thin pieces of plywood separated them, and yet they couldn’t detect a single spark of magic.

“‘Open the door,’ hmm? You and what arrrrmy?”

“… …”

Emi could feel the exhaustion pour over her as this exchange continued. Maybe she was overthinking things after all.

“Just open up! I’m gonna call the landlord if you don’t!”

“Open the door for him, Albert.”

Reluctantly, Albert stood up.

“Why? What’s a ‘landlord’? That strong of a monster, or…?”

Maou answered the question from the other side as Albert unlocked the door.

“Ohhh yeah. She’s
real
strong. You try to cross her, and one look’s all it’ll take to crush your soul.”

Emi knew Maou wasn’t entirely joking. Come to think of it, what had Shiba the landlord been doing since they detected Lucifer’s rampage and flew out the door?

That lady had acted like she knew everything about their true colors.

As Emi thought this over, Albert opened the door. Maou clumsily lurched inside, supporting the limp, unresponsive Ashiya and Lucifer with both arms.