“Right,” Gabriel continued as he stormed off, “Chiho Sasaki talked about defeating the god of Ente Isla just now, but there isn’t some kind of über-race higher up than us angels. It’s just, y’know, kinda someone you could call our god, if you squinted enough. Someone who brought all us angels together, someone you guys might wanna defeat if you wanna save the people of Ente Isla. There are a lot of other bad hombres, too—Camael and Raguel, you know them—but compared to her, they’re pocket lint, mm-kay?”
“…Her?”
Gabriel nodded at the question. Then he turned to Acieth and Erone, still scarfing down their meal next to Amane.
“Yeah, the boss of all us parasites. Slowly killin’ the people who really need these kids.”
He placed his elbows on the table, seeming to take delight out of Chiho’s reaction.
“Before all that, she was a great leader, a scientist, a soldier, and a noble, merciful person. But then she extended her hand out someplace no person should ever dare reach, and it wound up pretty much wiping out an entire planet.”
Emeralda spoke up at this, her knowledge of the universe still a tad hazy. “A plaaanet? Meaning a world besides Earth and Ente Islaaa?”
“You can put it that way.” Gabriel nodded. “After that little tragedy, she’s started doing this stuff that’s really sinful, I know, but she mistakenly thinks is for the sake of the Ente Islans. Sadly, there aren’t many people up there who think along the lines of me or Laila. I mean, Camael’s her number one devotee, mm-kay? And that really screwed us over on the Eastern Island, actually.”
He turned his eyes toward Maou, currently ordering some kind of dessert at the bar to the side.
“Now. There’s someone me and Laila know, the person who originally proposed this whole plan we want the Devil King and Emilia in on. We’re kinda taking on that person’s mission, you know? And I’m not as serious about it as Laila is, since I’d like to kinda keep on living, but the more we’ve been observing Ente Isla, the clearer the data is that this guy was right the whole time. But she didn’t understand that. So the two of them split off, and then war broke out. She won, and he was defeated.”
Gabriel seemed to be basking in nostalgia.
“That guy—the guy who gave us the truth and ripped the heavens into two pieces—was named Satanael. Back when he was human, it was Satanael Noie.”
“Satana…el?”
The name was repeated, then compared with the man whose back was turned to them near the register. There was someone with the name Satan in the heavens? Chiho had an idea who it could be—and she was quickly proven correct.
“That’s the guy revered in the demon realm as Satan, the ancient Devil Overlord. He’s also the cause, or the main perpetrator, of the Devil Overlord’s subsequent Cataclysm.”
Suzuno opened her eyes wide in surprise. Chiho gasped as well, recalling the old story Ashiya told her.
“He was human?”
“The Devil Overlord… The man who ruled the demon realm before Maou?”
“Yep.” Gabriel smiled at the assorted gasps and eye blinks. “And the name of this god of ours, the one who killed the Devil Overlord, created the current heavens and rules over us…”
“God should never appear before the human race.”
Even the rather strongly worded soliloquy of Amane was drowned out by the end of Gabriel’s sentence—
“The name is this woman is Ignora, the mother of Lucifer.”
– To be continued –
THE AUTHOR, THE AFTERWORD, AND YOU!
This afterword includes some spoilers. Please be warned if you are reading this ahead of the novel.
As I write The Devil is a Part-Timer!, I have taken pains to structure the story so you will have no problem keeping up if you’ve read the previous novels in the series, as published by Dengeki Bunko. However, one of the episodes in this volume includes a few references that may leave readers scratching their heads if they haven’t read a short story published in Dengeki Bunko Magazine and not yet in the novel version.
Don’t worry. There’s a story behind that.
I’ve been reimporting a few characters and episodes from the anime version up to now, but generally I’ve introduced them in a way that’ll make sense even if you’re only familiar with the novels. However, quite a bit of Volume 13 of The Devil Is a Part-Timer! includes aspects that can’t be fully told without knowing the episode in this short story, which involves the official history of the in-story world.
It’s not that skipping this short story makes it impossible to understand the novels, but it will create a sort of information gap with people who didn’t read Dengeki Bunko Magazine, which I feel really apologetic about. In place of that (if you can call it that, I dunno), I promise you that the short stories being published in Dengeki Bunko Magazine will make it to print in novel form sooner or later. For now, I appreciate your patience.
This afterword’s getting a lot more businesslike than I usually go for.
Volume 13 takes a cornucopia of assorted smaller episodes and puts them all together to accelerate things along. Even so, time proceeds as normal, and all these people putting on clothes, working, eating, and sleeping at home every day are moving things along purely out of their own volition. Sadly, I, Wagahara, am not seeing my writing speed accelerate much to match, but here’s hoping I will get to see all of you again as quickly as I can.
Until then!!
Thank you for buying this ebook, published by Yen On.
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The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 13 Page 21