“It matters little here whether you are Devil King or not! But all of us…even Lucifer, in his own way, finds the idea of Alas Ramus going someplace she dislikes as abhorrent! If Alas Ramus were to be taken away to a place like that…I would rather keep her in your hovel instead!”
“…I’m not exactly sure that’s how a Church cleric is supposed to talk…”
“I may be a Church cleric, but I am also a politician! I know how to compromise for the greater good! Besides, look at the sheer arrogance of that man, acting like he’s the sole steward of an object he let free for hundreds of years! The whole Tree of Sephirot is itself a pile of rubbish!!”
“So…is that what you’re all saying?”
“What?!”
“Saying how?”
“…What do you mean?”
“Yes, my liege?”
“What…”
Maou let out a wry smile, baring his teeth to the crowd.
“You guys all really like Alas Ramus, don’t you?”
“…!”
Suzuno gasped softly.
“…Well, thanks.”
It was the one word no Devil King would ever say, but one he had been throwing around over and over as of late.
“But when it comes to picking a fight against somebody holy, the Devil King’s kinda got a monopoly on that. This is too much for you guys. I’ve got something that belongs to the gods here, and I’m gonna keep it from them because I wanna. So if push comes to shove with Gabriel tomorrow, you don’t have to step in, okay?”
Suzuno, bewildered, removed her hands from Maou’s collar.
“And if it works out in the end, then great, right? Go hard or go home.”
“Hey!”
“Wait!”
“Maou!”
“My liege!”
“…Dude.”
“Guys, shut up!”
Maou waved his hands against the surround-sound wall of complaints.
“This isn’t some kind of movie. All the ’tude in the world isn’t gonna help me get past this guy. I’m a grown man, all right? Expect the best, but plan for the worst! Hey, Emi!”
“What?!”
“You’re sleeping over here tonight!”
This was not the kind of risk management anyone had pictured.
“Whaaaaaaaaaaa?!”
“How is this possibly risk management?!”
Emi glared at Maou, who still had Alas Ramus on his outstretched legs. She picked up the young girl, the toddler gleefully swinging her legs in the air in response.
“Hey, if I do wind up going at it with Gabriel, I figured that’d force you to get involved in the fight for me. You see? Always thinking two steps ahead! My mind’s a steel trap!” Maou announced proudly.
“…Do you seriously mean that?”
“Well, more than I don’t. I think I said this before, but it’s about time you step up to handle something for a change, right?”
“Oh, me handling the Devil King’s problems? Yeah, they’d be cheering my name back home if they heard that one.”
“Yaaaayy!”
Alas Ramus’s sudden cheer from within Emi’s arms was likely a coincidence. It was still enough to make Maou and Emi feel ridiculous for a moment.
“Anyway. More than I don’t, like I said, but I am trying to think about this logically a little. I’m not asking you to take up my side or anything, but if we do wind up throwing down, you could at least make sure Alas Ramus doesn’t get hurt.”
“Oh…well, if that’s all you’re asking for…but what do you mean, you’re ‘trying to think’ about this?” Emi replied. “Do you have a plan, or are you just gonna enjoy your final night with this kid? ’Cause if you do, I’d like to hear it, or else I don’t know what I can do here.”
Maou wasn’t speaking as if he intended to lose without a fight, but he betrayed no evidence of anything resembling a fighting chance. Apparently his stance was to make the most of what time they had so she’d have something pleasant to recall on the other side.
So here they were, all sleeping in the same room.
By and large, Alas Ramus had been a good little girl up to this point, except for the occasional fit she pitched about Mommy not being around. As a parent, it was only natural to want to sleep with Mommy for a change, even if just for a single night.
Chiho was wholeheartedly supportive, and Suzuno approved as well, although she did so with the most acerbic facial expression possible. Ashiya was dead set against it, but ultimately she agreed on the condition that he be stationed in Suzuno’s room in case anything bad happened. Urushihara, meanwhile, could sleep anywhere as long as his laptop was nearby.
There was no guaranteeing anyone’s safety tonight, so Emi, seeing no other option, agreed to spend the night in Devil’s Castle so long as Chiho left early in the evening.
Ashiya accompanied Chiho back home, then invited himself into Suzuno’s room alongside Urushihara. It was a very unlikely room share, given everyone’s past history of being close confidants/mortal enemies.
Maou shot a glance at Emi, largely indifferent to her question.
“I’m just risking my life for a kid. Like any parent would. But, you know, I wouldn’t worry much. If anything happens, it’s probably not gonna be any big deal for you.”
“…I wish I knew where that confidence of yours comes from.”
“If you’re expecting some basis for it, keep lookin’. But it’s weird, you know? It’s like, if it’s for Alas Ramus’s sake, I feel like I can do anything.”
“Oh, so now the Devil King’s playing the spunky against-all-odds movie hero again? Didn’t you just say that a positive attitude isn’t gonna help anyone here?”
“Yeah, and I’ll probably be paying for that pretty soon. But, you know, all the guys who died against me and my demon forces…they probably kept going ’til the very end for their own kids, too. And if they can do that, why can’t the Devil King, huh?”
Emi was fully prepared to crack back at Maou. But the serenity in his voice gave her pause.
“What… What’s that… Stop acting like you’re starting some glorious new chapter in your life.”
In the end, that was all that came out. Even that was at a barely audible mutter as she averted her eyes, for Maou’s sentiment reminded her of the face her father made as she was taken away from her village.
And just as he said, this was payback. Just desserts for the king of all demons, the monster who took countless lives, and separated her from her father.
And yet, oddly enough, Emi found herself dejected.
The Devil King is facing the same torment, the same sadness I faced. So why is my chest in so much pain over it?
“Mommy?”
Alas Ramus worriedly looked up at Emi.
Maou, watching the both of them, grinned a little. He turned toward the wall clock in an attempt to brighten the mood.
“Right! Better get some shut-eye, then!”
“Wh-what?! It’s not even ten yet! That’s way too early!”
“Too early for us grown-ups, but Alas Ramus needs to get to bed. Whether we stay up all night or not, Gabriel’s still coming tomorrow.”
“B-but…but…”
“Sleep together, Mommy! All sleep together!”
“Oooooh…”
The Devil’s Castle lacked any fluffy beds or futons to sleep on. There were just a few medium-weight blankets to share. The effect wasn’t nestling together as a big, happy family so much as three guys crashing on the floor with whatever was handy.
But to Emi, the idea of lying down in close proximity with Maou, whether Alas Ramus was between them or not, had to be tough to swallow. This, after all, was voluntary, far different from the last time she spent the night over.
And it was the same for Maou. He had trouble turning over to his side, the vision of Emi’s hands upon Alas Ramus’s throat the moment he fell asleep vivid in his mind.
But Alas Ramus was too eager to sleep together with Mommy and D
addy. Even now she was excitedly pulling the blankets out from the closet, spreading them out in any number of chaotic configurations.
“Whoa, whoa, don’t trip again.”
“Come here, Alas Ramus. That dumb ol’ daddy of yours will take care of it.”
Emi watched as Maou sluggishly helped set up their bed.
“…You better put on a light somewhere.”
She said it out of something between caution and confirmation.
“Well, yeah. She gets scared when it’s too dark.”
That wasn’t why she asked for it, but—oh, right, kids did use night-lights sometimes, right? Well, fine. That worked, too.
“Oh, does Alas Ramus have any nightclothes or anything?”
“You mean like pajamas? …You know, that’s actually all the clothes she has, I guess.”
Maou glanced down at Alas Ramus’s yellow dress as she set up three blankets on the floor.
“Uhh… You’ve been doing her laundry and stuff, right? Did you ever give her a bath?”
Emi was unable to hide her surprise at this new nugget of information. Apparently Alas Ramus had sported a single outfit since she showed up several days ago. In the dead of summer, no less.
“I did her laundry, okay? And I took her to the public bath. You don’t have to treat me like an idiot. Her stuff dried really quick in the heat, and she just trotted around the room in her diaper otherwise.”
“…I don’t believe you.”
Ignoring his sleeping partner’s disaffected stare, Maou looked at Alas Ramus’s straw hat hanging on the wall.
“Yeah, well, we haven’t bought her anything besides that hat, so… I forget if the UniClo in Sasazuka sells children’s clothes or not.”
“Oonislow?”
“I really wish you’d stop treating UniClo as the solution to every single problem in your life. She’s a girl, remember? Didn’t you ever think about finding something cute for her to wear?”
“What do you want from me? I don’t know where they sell that crap.”
“Ugh… I should’ve expected that men like you wouldn’t care about that.”
“Well, look…”
Maou casually stood up, bringing his hand to the string hanging underneath the ceiling light.
“How ’bout we just worry about seeing this through, okay? So that I would have to care.”
“Um…yeah. Sure.”
Thrown off guard, Emi found herself nodding in agreement. Alas Ramus, having trouble following the conversation, groped upward.
“Mommy! Mommy, here!”
She patted her arm against the tatami-mat floor next to her.
“Okay, okay.”
Keeping a wary eye on Maou, Emi uncomfortably laid herself flat on the floor.
Waiting for the moment she was down, Maou prodded Alas Ramus.
“Hey, better hug Mommy tight, okay? That way, she won’t go away on you.”
“Okay!”
“Agh…!”
Confused, Emi found herself slowly embracing the joyfully grinning toddler.
“Huh? Hey…what’s that you’ve got there, Alas Ramus?”
Something thin and unbending made its presence felt between Emi and the girl.
“Picture!”
It was the mounted photo they purchased at the Ferris wheel.
“Wow, you must really like that… But it’ll get all folded up and icky if you bring it to bed. Put it next to your pillow, okay?”
“Okey.”
Emi gently took the photo and placed it bedside as Alas Ramus ruefully watched. Maou smiled a bit.
“Okay, I’m turning it off.”
After a quick advance warning, Maou shut off the light, leaving a smaller night-light on to the side.
“Oof.”
Emi, her eyes not used to the darkened room, felt goose bumps erupt across her body as she heard Maou grunt from far closer than she was expecting.
“G-get away!”
“I’m not gonna go hugging you, too, all right? I just can’t get any farther away as long as Alas Ramus is like this, so…”
Looking aside in the darkness, Emi realized that the sleepyheaded child had somehow grabbed hold of both Emi’s and Maou’s shirts.
“…Pull anything weird and I’ll kill you.”
“You’re still being a bad influence on her, you know.”
“You’re one to talk. You’re like a walking, talking bad influence on society.”
“And yet there’s still someone out there who loves her daddy. Right, Alas Ramus?”
“Mm…Hee-hee!”
“I think she’s denying it.”
“Ah, she’s just shy. She says it around other people.”
“Daddyyy, tell me a story!”
Alas Ramus’s voice was already heavy with fatigue.
“Hmm? A story? Don’t want to hear a story from Mommy?”
“Mm…Mommy, tell a story tomorrow…”
“!…”
A dagger stabbed into Emi’s chest as Alas Ramus revealed her future plans.
A pained smile crossed Maou’s face as well, before he gave Alas Ramus a gentle pat on the stomach and looked upward in thought.
“Hmm, let’s see… How ’bout we pick up the story from yesterday?”
“Okey.”
“Great! Uhh, where did we get up to last time…”
“The traveler, and the angel.”
“Oh, right, right. Boy, you have a good memory.”
“Ee-hee!”
Emi, looking on curiously as Alas Ramus spoke to Maou, gasped a bit when Maou turned toward her.
“I started telling her stories ’cause it kept her from putting on a big scene or whining about being lonely at night. I had no idea her diaper was the cause that first night, though…”
“I wasn’t asking.”
Maou paid no mind to the gruff reply, slowly easing into his tale.
“Right…so the poor traveler, who was injured in the middle of his journey, was rescued by the angel.”
The poor traveler, injured after an unfortunate run-in with a mean, nasty demon, was rescued by a kind, gentle angel.
The angel told the traveler all kinds of tales he had never heard before.
Tales of high, high mountains. Tales of wide, wide oceans. Tales of deep, deep forests. Tales of kings, and princesses, and stores, and gold. Tales about plants and fish. Tales about soldiers. Tales about gods, and the world of the stars…
The traveler was very excited at all this, and listened on as the angel kept speaking.
One day, the angel gave the traveler a special charm as a present. The traveler was overjoyed to receive it, and with the charm and everything the angel told him, he set off once more.
Thanks to everything he learned, the traveler eventually became a wise and just king, one who ruled for years and lived in great happiness.
“…snrrrf…”
“…And there you have it. Night.”
It was hard to say when she fell asleep. But once Maou wrapped up his tale, he immediately turned over and away from Emi.
The only sound was the cry of the kingdom of summer insects outside.
“…Hey.”
“…Yeah?”
Emi caressed the hair of the sleeping Alas Ramus.
“What happened to him after he became king?”
Maou turned his head back. Even in the dimness of the night-light, she could tell he was looking at her like a father escorting her drunken daughter away from her wedding reception.
“I just made that up to get her to sleep, man. How do I know? He lived happily ever after, the end, all right?”
“He didn’t go back to his homeland or go searching for the angel or anything?”
“…Look.”
“Oh, just tell me. I’m gonna need some material for my turn tomorrow.”
“……”
Maou failed to understand what made Emi say “tomorrow.” He flashed her a very deliberate look of scorn before turning aw
ay from her again.
“She’s not gonna be able to follow some kind of epic backstory, you know. Just make up whatever you want. That’ll be perfect.”
As far as he was concerned, the subject was over. Emi bunched her eyebrows in dissatisfaction.
“Hey, can I ask—”
“Just go to sleep. If you start talking to me, we’re gonna fight and Alas Ramus’ll wake up.”
“If the traveler became king and everything, why did he want to go to some other country? I thought he lived happily ever after.”
“……”
“…No?”
It was now the softest of whispers.
“Well, getting to be king probably made him greedy.”
“Eh?”
“…If Alas Ramus asks about it, I’ll make something up for her.”
Maou flew through the sentence in a hurry before breaking into a loud, contrived snore.
He wasn’t Alas Ramus. There was no way he could fall asleep that quickly. It was just his way of expressing his lack of interest in answering any more questions.
As if called to action by the sound, Alas Ramus removed her hand from Emi’s shirt and sidled up to Maou’s side.
“……”
Watching on, Emi gave Alas Ramus another caress before bringing the blanket up to her shoulders and turning her back to the two of them.
She now faced the wall separating them from Room 202.
“…He’s got such a twisted mind… I’m so worried, I don’t know if I’d even dare leave this to him.”
The thought whispered itself out of her mouth.
In Room 202 of the Villa Rosa Sasazuka apartments, Suzuno and Urushihara sat silently.
There was an old-fashioned mirror stand emblazoned with a cherry blossom design accompanied by a traditional round tea table. The paulownia-wood dresser to the side was brand-new.
While the room’s furniture was strictly “old Japan,” the refrigerator was full-sized and boasted all the latest energy-saving features, and the combination drum washer / dryer outside offered built-in disinfecting and a stand for ironing. The microwave, however, was as compact and simple as the one in Devil’s Castle, likely due to amperage issues with Villa Rosa’s ancient wiring.
The electric fan was the latest model from Tyson, one of those bladeless types where air seemed to magically flow from an empty oval frame. Urushihara stuck his hand in and out several times to entertain himself.
The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 3 Page 19