Part 3 of Chapter 1
The day after Maou agreed to accept the accommodation and work for Landlady Miki’s niece, Daiko Amane.
Maou and the others are busy preparing for the next two weeks.
After the Maou and Demon General begged the inquisitor next door with all their might, the other party finally agreed to let them store their fridge, washing machine and other appliances in the same storage unit.
“I really want to take a photo for this and treat it as the church has beaten the Maou.”
The way the both of them knelt down was so perfect that Suzuno said this in surprise.
After ensuring the furniture and the electrical appliances have been taken care of, the next thing would be to prepare for the lodging which starts from tomorrow.
“No matter how much luck has worked well for us so far, if we neglect our preparations, we might miss out on the luck.”
The one who took this seriously would of course be the Demon Fortress’ househusband Ashiya.
Even though the other party said that the only necessity is beach sandals, but in reality, it is not possible to go there with just a pair of beach sandals. Since they have to stay there for two weeks, then they would naturally have to prepare enough change of clothes.
“Shirt, underwear and socks, it should be enough to bring four days worth. If we adjust the frequency of the laundry, we should be able to get by.”
“The shop doesn’t seem to have a uniform, so we have consider wearing T-shirts during work?”
“If so, do we have to bring T-shirts specially for work......as for pants, it should be better to bring short pants.”
“Sigh, even though I think wearing jeans and folding them up is fine as well……but how should I say this, normally I am wearing the same uniform as the rest while working, so I have no idea how it feels like to work with this kind of relaxed work attire.”
“You’re right. Even the east, west, south and north troops of the Demon Army wear the same badge.”
“How about this, why don’t we go to UNIxLO and buy a few of the same T-shirt?”
“Buy the uniform with our own money? This reminds me of the short time contract work which we did when we first arrived in Japan.”
“Ah, you’re talking about those shirts where we had to buy with our own money which had the company logo printed on it. But weren’t those long sleeved?”
“The weather is so hot, I really don’t want to have others wear those kind of clothes.”
Maou and Ashiya flipped the clothes they prepared over as they discussed about their luggage while Urushihara watched this scene, unable to butt in at all.
As if some strange wind had blew, Urushihara seemed suddenly motivated and decided to help Maou and Ashiya out.
However, when washing the dishes, there would still be some oil stains remaining; when folding clothes, they will be shaped like a parallelogram; when hanging the towels, they will accidentally be dropped into the backyard; not only is Urushihara not of any use, he ended up causing more trouble, so he was banished to the corner of the room to reflect as punishment.
“What, isn’t everyone like this at the beginning?”
Urushihara, who rarely got motivated, complained immediately.
Maou and Ashiya are the leaders in the army, which also meant that they are in the position to command others.
Even though in their hearts, they always have the spirit of “If I don’t show others, tell others, and let others try and praise others, then I won’t be able to have others act”, this time, not only is the other party a fallen angel, but also the commander for the invasion into the Western Continent, Demon General Lucifer.
The two of them are even beginning to suspect that because Urushihara did not do a good job command the western invasion army, which allowed Hero Emilia to rise in the Western Continent.
Whether there is any relation between unable to wash to dishes clean and stopping the Hero’s advancement, when Maou imagines the case in which he had flown to Japan with Lucifer, who is good at nothing except for watching the house, instead of Ashiya, who is good at all the housework, he would feel a chill go down his spine.
“……Ashiya……I’m really lucky to have a follower like you.”
Maou said with feeling, putting his hand on Ashiya’s shoulder.
Even though Ashiya stared blankly at the hand on him because of this sentence, after his brain processed the meaning, he suddenly wavered and kneeled in front of Maou.
“That, that is, thank you for your praise, but why did you suddenly say this? Uh, that, it’s definitely not because I don’t like to be praised……”
In order to hide his embarrassment, Ashiya looked around the room and finally focused on one spot.
“Urushi, Urushihara, use that stack of magazines over there to wrap the dishes and put them in the box. You should be able to do something this simple, right.”
“Don’t look down on me!”
Ashiya lectured Urushihara loudly to hide his embarrassment, and Urushihara, who was dragged into this, got angry, but was unable to rebut him further. With a displeased look on his face, Urushihara approached the magazine paper and cardboard boxes, using the old flyers and newspapers to wrap the fragile dinnerware.
“Uh, that, I don’t want to pamper Urushihara, but is it really alright?”
“Are you talking about the fact that I may have a warrant on me? Hm……at that time, I didn’t really pay attention to the surveillance camera.”
For Urushihara to say that he had been a robber in Japan without an ounce of regret, he is definitely a demon.
“Your demon form and appearance isn’t that different. You should think before you act.”
“That’s because I never thought that things will turn out like this.”
Just as Urushihara turned away unhappily and Maou, in charge of folding the clothes, was battling with the extravagant decorations on the mantle which he ware when he was the Maou----
“Ah, Maou-sama. Because Maou-sama’s mantle is thick and absorbs moisture easily, it can be eaten by bugs, please remember to put some insect repellant inside.”
Ashiya sudden added a perplexing sentence.
“……Two years ago, I never expected that I would be putting insect repellent in my own mantle.”
Maou gave displeased look to Urushihara, who was laughing to himself, and following Ashiya’s instructions, he placed insect repellant into the gaps of the cardboard box.”
“Then again, did that guy Orba really get arrested by the police?”
From what Maou and the others knew, when Maou solved the commotion caused by Orba and Urushihara’s schemes after recovering this magic, Orba was taken away by the police.
“He did break the Law Controlling the Possession of Firearms and Swords, so it seems like he was arrested later.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah. Even though some time has passed, but it was reported on the online news before. It looks like it wasn’t serious enough to make it to television or newspapers.”
“Hey hey hey, isn’t that bad?”
“No, I think there wouldn’t be much problem.”
Ashiya interrupted.
“I’ve seen that piece of news before as well. It seems like he was seen as a foreigner who entered illegally and used the gun he had to destroy property. Because of that, he is being suspected of being supported by an underground immigration special service or a violent organization. Of course, he was also suspected of being related to the robbery incidents which happened earlier……”
“However, the damages weren’t large, and no one died, so there’s no news value.”
“As the initiator, you shouldn’t be the one to say this. Then again, Ashiya, where did you see that piece of news?”
“The computer at home. Even though it’s counted as Urushihara’s now.”
Ashiya glanced at the laptop computer which had completely became Urushihara’s internet surfing tool.
By the way, as Urushihara insisted on bringing the laptop, everything, including the wireless equipment, would be brought to Chiba.
“Even though he’s just a good-for-nothing now, he is still a criminal before. So I was thinking that if anything happened, I’m going to hand him over to the police.”
“Wah, you don’t trust me that much? Aren’t you being too much saying that?”
“From that day till now, which part about you is worth trusting?”
In response to the cold words from Ashiya, Urushihara had nothing to say.
“Anyway, there were no reports related to the incidents Orba caused after that.”
“Totally no reports?”
Maou suddenly paused in his movements, deep in thought.
“Hey, Urushihara, Orba shouldn’t have used up his holy power, right?”
“I think so. But during the battle with you and Emilia, he did use his full power, so I’m not sure if he still has the means to open the “gate”. Why? You’re worried that he would cause trouble in Japan with the holy power he has left?”
“Sigh, that’s right.”
“Hmm……I don’t think so.”
Urushihara shrugged, and continued,
“After all, Orba doesn’t know my current situation, and basically Emilia is his enemy now, right? Wanting to break out of jail and take revenge without recovering his holy powers first is impossible in terms of battle strength. The most he can do is report me, or use spells to run off. Isn’t Bell revealing the unjust acts of the church right now? In this way, even if he returns to Ente Isla, he shouldn’t be able to wield the church’s power as he pleases.”
“Honestly, the most troublesome thing he can do is report you. If a member of my household is a criminal, I might really be fired.”
“Urushihara, if the Demon Fortress really gets investigated, in order to protect Maou-sama’s job, we will act like we don’t know you and hand you over to the police.”
“As you wish! Didn’t the police come over before? Nothing much happened that time.”
“Ah……the time when Suzuno broke the bicycle.”
Even though Maou was severely scolded by the police for leaving the remains of Dullahan in front of Tochomae station, at the beginning he had thought that they had come because of Urushihara.
“Relax, we’re only going to Chiba during the summer. I’m not even publicly wanted, aren’t you thinking too much about it?”
“Aren’t you caring too little about this…… however, it’s better to investigate a little about this when we have time.”
To the inhabitants of the Demon Fortress who want to live a peaceful life in Japan, Orba Meyers’ existence is like a fish bone stuck in one’s throat, a leek stuck on the molars, or black sesame stuck between the front teeth, a factor which occasionally makes one feel uncomfortable.
“Then again, Urushihara, have you wrapped the dinnerware?”
“I’m done. Basically all these are plastic. Even if I don’t specially do it, they won’t break right?”
Even if he shows the willingness to help others, Urushihara would still say some unnecessary things, so Ashiya lectured him, saying,
“Even if they are plastic dinnerware, if the surface gets scratched, they will still be a breeding ground for bacteria!”
“Ah~~alright alright, I’m sorry, I get it, I get it!”
Urushihara covered his ears, showing that he is not listening.
“Seriously……oh yes, Maou-sama. Have you contacted Manager Kisaki?”
“No, I’m going down later, I want to tell her personally. Even though a lot of construction workers would be going down today, she said that she would be in the store until evening.”
“Then it would be better if you left earlier. Since the packing is almost done, then all that’s left is buying the necessities.”
“How about this, I can buy them after I visit the store?”
“Because we need to buy luggage cases, it would be better for me to go since I know the total amount of the luggage we have. If there are no special requests, I’m going to buy the beach sandals as well. In addition, I need to let some people know as well……”
“Ah, is that so?”
Till today, Maou did not hear Ashiya talk about which people he knew or where he had worked. Even though he had some questions, but when he thought carefully about it, there was no need for him to know everything about Ashiya.
Even if he didn’t hear it from the person himself, but maou knew that Ashiya would occasionally accept some short term work using the salary received to supplement the household income and finance the magic civilization research which Maou kept forgetting about recently.
Faced with the suggestion from such a loyal subject, Maou would definitely agree easily. Right now, even if Ashiya knew the shoe size of every single person, Maou wouldn’t be surprised.
“Is that so, alright, I’ll leave it to you.”
“Understood. I wish the talk between you and Manager Kisaki will go smoothly. For our future……”
“And the meals from tomorrow onwards.”
While talking, Maou and Ashiya left the house and headed towards Sasazuka to accomplish their respective objectives. Urushihara watched the two of them leave as a question which did not suit his personality came to him.
“Those guys, do they really plan to conquer the world? Haven’t they been mixing up their objectives and methods recently?”
This is a question which Suzuno, Chiho and Emi have thought of before. But even if Urushihara thought about this now, he is unable to grasp Maou’s true intention.
Scaffolding and tarp to block out the dust had been set up on the outside of the building stationed in front of Hatagaya station. Once Maou reached the store front, he heard someone calling out to him.
“Maou-san! Is your body alright?”
Even though Chiho had come to submit the shift timetable for after the renovation, which is the second half of August, she was still worried about Maou’s health condition, who had fainted last night.
“Ah, thank you very much for yesterday, hmm, even though it’s a little, but it’s alright……yeah.”
Maou thought back to the scene of the landlady’s belly dancing from last night and at that moment, became a little dizzy.
Chiho, who looked wistful, looked at Maou worriedly and fell silent. After all, no matter how worried she is, from tomorrow onwards, Maou would be heading to an unknown workplace where she cannot follow.
“Chi, Chi-chan, is something wrong?”
Even though Maou’s keen senses picked up on the strange atmosphere, Chiho only shook her head weakly.
In this delicate atmosphere, the two of them decided to enter the store to greet Kisaki in order to get rid of the awkwardness between them.
“I see, you found a good place to work.”
Maou explained that with the landlady’s recommendation, he would be going to work at a beach house in Chiba during the renovation period, Kisaki nodded understandingly.
“So, you’ll still be coming back right?”
“Eh?”
Faced with Kisaki’s sudden question, Maou gave an expression which showed that he didn’t understand.
“You shouldn’t have any plans to travel between Sasazuka and Choshi everyday right? So if the other party didn’t provide accommodation, then you would be moving there, correct?”
Kisaki shifted her line of sight to the handwritten shift timetable Chiho had submitted and asked this while intentionally not looking at Maou’s expression.
“I have no plans to tie you down. But for me to develop someone to the point of being able to be my right hand man is a rare thing. Having to let you go would be a pity.”
Kisaki said in a neutral tone. But Kisaki won’t say jokes which are not amusing and does not tell lies. So when talking about her opinions on Maou, it should be Kisaki’s real and sincere thoughts.
“I’m only staying there temporarily. I will definitely come back!”
Because of the boost he received from Kisaki’s opinions, Maou’s voice was filled with manliness.
This sentence, full of assurance, allowed Chiho to relax a little.
Kisaki, who finally smiled, looked at Maou in satisfaction.
“Very good, I always remember that you had mentioned in your interview that you wanted to be an outstanding full time staff. And from your work attitude, I know that you were serious when you said it.”
“Even though I performed really badly in various aspects this time……”
“This doesn’t count as much, rather than that, you were too capable from the start. You’re cuter if you fail occasionally like an ordinary person. If you can recover from your failures, and you should take the time when you can recover to experience this a few more times. You can use these experiences in the future.”
Even though Maou had mixed feelings when he heard “like an ordinary person”, Kisaki, who did know anything, laughed lightly and said,
“In order to punish you for forgetting to confirm important matters, and causing a situation which can impede your career, after the reopening, I want you to work twice as hard as before, okay.”
After saying this, Kisaki patted Maou’s shoulder, which almost caused him to be unable to hold back his tears.
“For Chi-chan, even though you don’t have shifts lined up for now, don’t push yourself too hard after this. I know you want to work together with Ma-kun, but you’re still young, take this summer to learn things other than work related ones.”
“Ki, Kisaki-san!”
In a rare chance, Kisaki said something cheeky. For Chiho, who had yet to give up on going together with Maou, it was as if she was seen through.
Maou, who felt uncomfortable because of this, turned his line of sight to another direction.
Kisaki looked at the two young people with a smile and changed the topic.
“Then again, since Chi-chan didn’t raise any request to be transferred to other branches, don’t tell me you’re planning to go to Choshi? You should know that Ma-kun is going to Choshi, correct?”
Chiho got a shock because of this sudden question.
“Eh, ah, th, that is, I……”
After giving an extremely naïve reaction, Chiho replied after glancing subtly at Maou,
“Without any relation to Maou-san, I’ve been wanting to go there since some time ago……”
“Oh?”
“Kisaki-san, Maou-san, have you heard of the Choshi Electric Railway?”
For Maou, he definitely remembered the term which he had heard over the phone only last night. As for Kisaki, she thought for a while and found the answer in her memory.
“Choshi Electric Railway……is it the regional railway which went into financial difficulty and the staff started to sell local desserts in order to allow it to continue operating?”
“That’s the one. The news mentioned that the high school students there also participated in making the local specialty goods, those people who are my age actually helped the railway company and the area they are living in, this surprised me, so I wanted to see what kind of place it is.”
These words which Chiho spoke with emotion caused Kisaki and Maou and turn towards each other.
“How should I say this, Chi-chan is really a serious child.”
Kisaki sighed with a wry smile.
“Eh?”
“It’s nothing. Having a curiosity to know more is a good thing. Sigh, if you want to go, you have to obtain your parents’ consent first. It is quite far away after all.”
For Kisaki, it was just a reminder of something which is common sense, but the phrase “obtain parents’ consent”, caused Chiho’s originally relaxed expression to grow heavy.
“Yeah, I would confirm with them first.”
Chiho replied with a cheerful tone after much difficulty, but she didn’t know if Kisaki would interpret it this way.
After they talked about some unimportant topics, and Maou and Chiho were about to leave the shop----
“……………………………………………………………………………………………………”
The two of them encountered by chance, in a perfect “stunned” pose-- to the point where the rose looked like it was going to wither, Sariel.
“Ah, it’s Sariel-san……”
The moment Chiho, who only recently got rid of any feelings of disgust she felt towards Sariel, spoke, Sariel, who snapped back to reality suddenly used this special ability “Wicked Light of the Fallen” at full power, and shouted at Maou agitatedly,
“Ma-------ou-------you-------!”
“Wahhh!”
Maou’s shirt was forced grabbed by the shorter Sariel which caused him to lean forward unwillingly.
“What is going on, what kind of underhanded methods did you use, why has the shop belonging to my eternal goddess closed, you low life demon, spit it out, tell me everything about the dwelling of my goddess, else I will burn you to ashes with the fire drawn from my heartbroken feelings of love!”
It looks like Sariels range of sight is as narrow as Maou’s on a different meaning. As Kisaki had always stuck a notice telling customers that it would reopen, Sariel had simply overlooked it.
“It hurts, it hurts, the rose thorns really hurt!”
The rose bouquet hit Maou’s face with Sariel’s movements, causing him to be continuously pricked by the roses.
“The generous me even rejected Gabriel’s offer to work together, but you are so ungrateful. Then again, why didn’t you tell me if the shop is going to close, in that way I can bet all my assets and courage to confess to my goddess how I am going to offer up the rest of my life----!”
Judging by common sense, a rebuttal regarding what does assets refer to or how effective the confession would be will cross one’s mind at this time, but compared to Maou, who was already in a lot of pain because of being pricked by the roses, it was Chiho who reacted first.
“Wait, Sariel-san! You mentioned about working with Gabriel-san, what is that supposed to mean?”
“Oh?”
Once Chiho touched the hand which Sariel used to grab the front of Maou’s shirt, shaking him back and forth----
“Heh, I never reject the invitation from a beautiful girl. How’s this, after this, why don’t we eat Sentucky’s new menu item, Indian chicken wrap while drinking tea?”
Sariel immediately let go of Maou, and grabbed Chiho’s hand with the pose that he was preparing to kiss it.
“I’m going to tell Kisaki-san, you know.”
However, Chiho did go through multiple instances of dangerous situations, life threatening as well as various strange situations. Right now, she was not so weak that she would panic at this kind of low standard harassment.
Partly because she was feeling depressed due to being unable to go along with Maou, Chiho’s tone of voice became very cold.
Once Sariel heard this, he gave an expression which bordered between hope and despair.
“Ugh……please, please spare me…….so, is my goddess still in this store?”
Swords weren’t needed to deal with Sariel. It was enough to depend on the word “Kisaki”.
“If you want to know the answer, then answer my question. You said you refused to work together with Gabriel. what is that supposed to mean?”
“Ugh, uh, that, that is……”
For the moment, Sariel was at a loss for words. It was obvious he was regretting the fact that he let such a thing slip.
Compared to that, Maou was in awe towards Chiho, who had Sariel wrapped around a little finger.
“Chi-chan, you’ve grown stronger……”
He had changed a person’s life in many aspects. Habouring various feelings, Maou imprinted this incident into his memory.
“As long as you’re willing to explain this honestly, I will tell you what happened to the store. If not, I’m going to call Kisaki-san and tell her “Sariel-san seems to want to sexually harass me.”
“Earlier, Gabriel came to my store. He wanted me to help in retrieving Emilia’s holy sword and the “Yesod” fragment, and told me about many things as well.”
Hearing what Chiho said, Sariel immediately explained everything honestly, answering Chiho’s question smoothly.
Sariel’s attitude can only be described as capricious.
“Is it really alright for you to be like this?”
As for changing the life of an angel, Maou felt that it really did not matter after just two seconds.
As the two of them were talking, Sariel kept holding Chiho’s hand. From the way Sariel did not care about the suspicious gazes of the people passing by, perhaps he was fated to go down this path in life.
“The reason I wanted to retrieve Emilia’s holy sword was originally to cover of Gabriel’s mistake. It’s just that at the beginning, no one had told me that “Yesod” had split into many pieces, and that one of them had assumed the form of a child. Honestly my mind is currently filled with matters related to the goddess, so I didn’t think about the holy sword at all. Talking about that, that guy hasn’t come to the store after that.”
Even though the term goddess can easily confuse people, but simply put, Sariel’s meaning is that he is fully focused, mind and soul, on Kisaki, and did not care about the mission from Heaven. Archangel-san, is that really alright?
Really though, it really matches Sariel’s style of working, but Maou still sensed that something was strange from what was said.
“Wait, you just said “had split into many parts”. That means you already know that “Yesod” was split by someone?”
“……Woah!”
Sariel groaned. It looks like he let something slip again. He subtly lifted his head and looked at Chiho.
“You know about it, don’t you?”
“……Yes, I know.”
Chiho did not give the other party any leeway. Sariel weakly drooped his head.
“Because amongst the shattered fragments, one of the fragments must be with Emilia, so I was given the mission to retrieve the holy sword.”
At the beginning, when even Sariel met Alas=Ramus directly, he didn’t realize that she was one of the fragments of “Yesod”.
Even if it can be deduced that the “Evil Repelling Armour” which evolved after merging with Alas=Ramus is also related to the “Yesod” fragment, it can be said that even the forces of Heaven is currently unable to accurately grasp what had changed within the fragments of “Yesod”.
“With regards to retrieving Emilia’s holy sword, Gabriel seemed to have failed as well. Which is why he would come looking for me, the one who arrived earlier, hoping that we can work together to retrieve the fragments of “Yesod”. But I rejected him because I was busy. Just based on the fact that the battle strength of those opposing you did not increase, you should be thanking me already.”
Being asked to be thankful or something which happened without one knowing was really troubling.
However, to put it in another way, since Gabriel did not retreat, this also means he had not given up on Alas=Ramus.
Maou and the rest had consecutively chased away two Archangels, so Heaven should be lacking in personnel who could stage an attack.
As for not knowing when or how the other party will take action, for Maou and the others who could only go on the defensive, this kind of situation is still rather unsettling.
“……?”
“Sa, Sasaki Chiho, what kind of look is that. I was totally honest about everything.”
“Ah, yeah, even though this is about enough……”
Just like Maou earlier, Chiho was looking at Sariel like she couldn’t quite accept some things.
“Sariel-san, why do you have the means to confirm where one of fragments is located…..”
Just as Chiho intended to ask about this----
“What is it, the both of you haven’t…….returned yet…..?”
Sariel expression, because of the voice he heard from behind Maou and Chiho, lit up by a kilowatt.
However, for Maou and Chiho, frozen because they detected a dangerous atmosphere at the ending tone in the voice, turned back with blue faces.
Kisaki, who had changed out of her usual working uniform, was wearing a light gray suit and had let her hair down. With a large briefcase slung over her shoulder, that was how she appeared in front of everyone.
The one Kisaki noticed was not Maou, and not Chiho. With an angry gaze that could even freeze the king of the demon world, she was glaring at Sariel, kneeling on the ground while holding Chiho’s hand.
“……Mitsuki Sarue, what are you doing to my employees?”
Even though he was being glared at, for unexplainable reasons, Sariel was still full of smiles.
It was said that in North Europe, there was a young man who was stabbed in the heart and eyes by a demon mirror, which caused him to be tricked by the sweet words of an ice queen.
The biggest difference between this young man from North Europe and Sariel should be whether they were loved by the ice queen.
“No, wrong, this is, to describe it, this is a negotiation, I could only use this strategy because I wanted to know where you were ……”
“Seeing that you were contributing to the earnings of the business, I originally wanted to close one eye when it comes to you, but for you to be lacking so much honour such that you would take action against an underage employee, you can’t be seen as a customer. As long as you’re within my line of sight, you’re temporarily banned from entering this place!”
“Ngoh?”
Archangel Sariel, who cannot be harmed by Emilia’s holy word, simply because of a sentence from a human female, was instantly frozen to the spot and shattered into pieces, the pieces scattering across the ground.
“The both of you should hurry home. Ma-kun, even though you were together with Chi-chan, how can you not protect her properly!”
“Ah, yes, that, I’m sorry.”
Maou decided to apologise first, while Chiho, with a frantic expression, looked at Sariel, who at this time seemed like he was being melted by the summer sun and was going to flow into the roadside gutter.
“Chi-chan, we should be heading back.”
“Eh? Ah, yeah, that, alright, thanks, thanks for the hard work, Kisaki-san.”
Maou and Chiho quickly left MgRonalds and walked along the pedestrian walkway on Koshu Kaido with complicated feelings.
“We, we seemed to have done some disservice to Sariel-san……”
“Sigh, just treat it as a payback for what he did to Chi-chan earlier during Suzuno’s incident, alright? The rest of it was the result of his actions. Rather than that, Kisaki-san is amazing, being able to tolerate such an excitable guy.”
Maou shot down Sariel mercilessly.
“Talking about earlier, Maou-san……”
“Yeah, I know.”
Right now, they should be unable to obtain more information from Sariel. Without Chiho’s prompting, Maou is rather concerned about one issue.
Sariel was very sure that “one of the fragments of “Yesod” was with Emilia”.
Logically, after Emilia and the holy sword came to Japan, Heaven had ignored her for over a year. In that case, how were they able to find the holy sword, which is Emilia’s location?
“……Sigh, it doesn’t matter anyway. They’re not chasing after me, so whatever happens after is Emi’s own problem…..”
Thinking about it calmly, this is originally a problem between Heaven and Emi, besides being attacked by Urushihara at the beginning, Maou is practically an outsider. Just as he decided that he did not need to think too much about this----
“Then it is fine regardless of what happens of Alas=Ramus-chan?”
Chiho, who had predicted Maou’s reaction, asked this with half lidded eyes.
“Yusa-san’s holy sword is currently almost equivalent to Alas=Ramus-chan, isn’t that so.”
“This, about that……but, but Emi is a lot stronger than me, who can’t fight properly in Japan, even if I don’t specially do anything…..”
“That isn’t the issue. Since you’re her father, how can you not protect her properly? Alas=Ramus will cry like this.”
“Chi,Chi-chan, which side are you on?”
For Maou, this question implies many things.
“I just hope that the people I like can get along well, and remain together forever.”
Chiho replied with a rather sad expression.
“……What, what’s wrong? Did anything happen?”
Chiho, who had once thrown a jealous fit because she mistook Emi for Maou’s ex-girlfriend, had become strangely mature recently, and also seemed to be very concerned about the development between Maou, Emi, and Alas=Ramus.
“Yes. I didn’t hide it on purpose though……are you willing to listen? It might become a heavy topic.”
“Ah, yeah, sure.”
“Maou-san said before that you trusted me, and hoped that you could rely on me, right? However……with the way I am now, it’s not enough.”
“W, why not?”
“Unlike Yusa-san or Suzuno-san, I do not have any fighting ability, and unlike Ashiya-san, I cannot always be with Maou-san. By chance, I happened to stay by Maou-san’s side and coincidentally, I knew the truth. Even if I worry whether Urushihara-san would be able to work properly, I cannot go to Choshi with you.”
Even with the calls of the cicadas coming from the trees on the pedestrian walkway, Chiho’s voice could still be heard very clearly by Maou.
“So I feel that I should be working harder, learning more things, and became an adult who can help Maou-san. For someone to rely on me is a rare thing, of course I will hope that I can live up to the other person’s expectations.”
“……Ohh.”
“In addition, I haven’t received your reply. In that case, I hope to be able to receive a positive answer at the end, so I must work hard for this goal. And after that, one day……”
Chiho suddenly crossed her arms, puffed out her chest, and with an intentionally fearless smile, said in a low tone,
“I want to become the top Demon General in the new demon army, and fight with Yusa-san with Maou-san on the line!”
“Geh!”
Chiho’s declaration gave Maou a huge shock.
“That, that topic just now, what exactly happened for Chi-chan to be involved with the Generals?”
“Some time ago, Ashiya nominated me before. Of course, I rejected it at that time, but after thinking about it carefully, it would be better to nominate myself first after all.”
Chiho said this in a relaxed tone, like she was only running for the position of class president.
“Even though it may sound like a joke, if I want to surpass Yusa-san, I would need to become more mature and obtain a weapon which can be used to fight with Yusa-san, and it should be a different type of weapon as well. I want to enter university and learn various kinds of knowledge, widen my horizons, and become a girl which Maou-san can rely on, whether it is in Japan or Ente Isla.”
As if Chiho had become more become more passionate because of the summer heat, in reaction to her words, which were much more filed with vigor compared to everything she had said before, Maou was very surprised.
“University huh……but I feel that until now, Chiho has already helped us a lot, you know?”
Maou had just finished his sentence when Chiho looked at him, an unsatisfied look on her face.
“Even though ‘Maou-san’ does rely on me a lot, I am always being protected by ‘Maou Satan’.”
This time, Maou was really staring in shock.
“I wish to become a human who ‘Maou’ can completely rely on at any time.”
Even though Maou himself was not aware of it, it seemed like after the both of them were lectured by Kisaki some time ago, the sentence which Maou said to Chiho, acting like a spell, had granted her inner strength.
“……I……”
Just as Maou did not know how to reply such a person who is willing to selflessly contribute to him, and was obviously shuttering----
“Ah, it’s Ashiya-san.”
Chiho’s attention had already turned towards a totally unrelated direction.
Taking a closer look, Ashiya had walked out of Sasazuka station at this moment. Even though he had a unfamiliar looking wheeled luggage case with him, and it will be used later, it was still difficult for others to understand why he would be walking out of the station with this object.
Because of Chiho’s voice, Ashiya’s attention focused in their direction, and after lightly raising a hand, he walked towards the both of them.
“Welcome back, Maou-sama. Sasaki-san is with you as well?”
“……Yeah.”
“We met at the store. That case, it would be brought to Choshi? You bought quite a good luggage case.”
Chiho said as she turned towards the luggage case which Ashiya was pulling along.
“Because the living necessities during our accommodation need to be prepared by us, so I was quite troubled by this……”
Ashiya placed this hand on the brand new large luggage case with a troubled look on his face----it was a large capacity luggage case with wheels which has enough space for the clothes, underwear, towels and daily necessities for three demons.
“Since we can’t leave anything in the apartment, then we have to bring along the important items such as passbooks and seals. And since the security facilities of the place are unknown, it would be better to buy a sturdy case with a lock.”
“I see. That makes sense.”
“Did you take a train to buy it?”
“That’s right. The products in the city center are more complete, and since we are travelling a long distance tomorrow, I wish to preserve some energy today. And later on, I still need to use the public phone at the bus stop.”
As it took about 30 minutes to walk from their apartment to Shibuya, therefore Ashiya would always choose to walk there to save on the 120 yen transport fee. However, pulling a luggage around under the hot summer sun unexpectedly uses up a lot of energy.
In addition, Ashiya still needed to buy beach sandals, spare clothes and a number of other things, so Maou would not reprimand him because of the transport fees of one stop.
Even though Maou was rather curious about the person Ashiya wanted to contact, he had no right to pry into the private matters of his subordinates, even if he is the Maou.
With Ashiya’s personality, he would not specially hide anything from Maou, so even though he thought that this telephone conversation is needed, it should not affect the whole situation that much.
After Maou concluded thus, he turned towards the new luggage cases. Even though the tag is still there, it seemed to have a design where it will automatically open when luggage checks are conducted at the airport.
“You really bought a good one.”
“It is possible that we might go overseas to recover our magic in the future. I treated it as an investment for that time.”
“Ah, this is all for the sake of conquering the world.”
Even though the other party is a great demon who ruled over one continent, it should be difficult to find a human who can say the words “conquering the word” so easily.
“That’s right. Oh yes, Sasaki-san is always taking care of us, please look forward to the local specialties which we will buy. I heard that Choshi is one of the few fish habours in Japan.”
Ashiya, who replied a high school girl cheerfully, made the weight of the words “conquering the world” seem lighter than helium.
“Yes…thanks.”
Compared to the weight of the words conquering the world, it was Chiho’s feelings which became heavy as a result. Even though it was expected, Ashiya did not count Chiho as one of the people who were heading for Choshi.
But at this time, Chiho suddenly remembered the people who would definitely follow Maou to Choshi, and asked Ashiya,
“……Talking about conquering the world, I suddenly remembered. Did Yusa-san or Suzuno-san say anything about the Choshi trip this time?”
As if to confirm that the weight of “conquering the world” had flown off, Maou and Ashiya glanced at each other.
“Talking about that, it’s rare of them to not raise any complaints this time. I thought that they would misunderstand our intentions and think we are planning to run off, saying that they would chase us to the ends of the Earth and other ridiculous things like that.
“Emi did meet the landlady before, so she might think that the other party is someone related to the landlady and we would act more honestly as a result? But those two people seemed to have scolded Urushihara on his bad neet traits and caused him to cry. How should I say it, including helping us to ensure we have a job, they’re especially nice this time.”
“Tr, true…… I, I also think that Yusa-san is especially kind to Maou-san this time……”
Especially in Emi’s case, it was not possible for her to sit by and watch Maou go someone far away. But this time, she gave the impression that she was very composed about it.
In addition to the dangerous information from Sariel earlier, all these factors made Chiho feel uneasy. If Maou and Emi were unable to grasp each other’s situation, even Alas=Ramus might be in danger.
The even bigger pity is that, even if she told Emi about the information, Chiho was unable to imagine Emi and Maou working together.
----Sigh, if you want to go, you have to obtain your parents’ consent first. It is quite far away after all----
----as long as your reason is sensible and logical, I won’t say too much about it----
The voices of the two adults resonated in Chiho’s mind.
Chiho, making her decision, took out her mobile phone.
This might be her first selfish act in her whole life. Even if she wasn’t lying, to her parents, it might be a dishonest act with warped logic.
Even so----
Chiho wanted to reduce the chances of the people important to her going away.
After making eye contact with Maou and Ashiya, she walked to the side and called home.
“Hello, is this Chiho? Is something wrong?”
As the phone at home displayed the telephone number, her mother knew almost immediately that it was a call from Chiho.
Chiho suppressed her accelerating heartbeat and breathed in hard.
“Mum……”
“What is it?”
“I want to see the Choshi Electric Railway. Can I find a day and go with Yusa-san and Suzuno-san?”