The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 3 (11 page)

“What is it, Chiho? You look ill. Has the heat affected you?” Not even Suzuno’s misguided concern reached her ears. It was understandable, given what she saw behind Maou.

“Helloooooooooooooo, Marrrrrkkoooooo!”

Mayumi Kisaki, MgRonald manager, was standing there, her face resembling a Noh actor’s terrifying mask.

“Eep!!”

“Oo?”

Maou arched his back, going bolt upright so quickly that his spine almost burst through his chest.

“If my eyes aren’t deceiving me, that little girl Chi just brought in called you ‘Daddy,’ didn’t she?
Hmmmmm?
”

Maou, realizing that Kisaki’s near bestial tone of voice immediately precluded any attempt at objecting, lying, or any other defense, gave the only answer he could.

“…She did.”

Chiho stood alongside him, both pale as a sheet of paper, as they waited for the next thunderbolt to rain down.

But, even after several seconds, Kisaki showed no signs of movement. Slowly, Maou turned around, expecting the blow to come at any moment.

There, he saw Kisaki, neither angry nor smiling, sigh as her eyebrows furrowed in distress. Then, her face surprisingly somber, she turned toward not Maou, not Chiho, but Suzuno.

“You’re Maou and Sasaki’s friend, aren’t you? …Kamazuki, right?”

Suzuno meekly nodded.

“Would you mind if I spoke with Sasaki for a few moments?”

“I… You may… I mean, sure. Anytime.”

Suzuno struggled to adopt her speech to Kisaki’s more modern ears. It proved just as difficult as the last awkward time they met.

“Thank you. Hey, Marko, show Ms. Kamazuki a seat for me. I’ll take the baby.”

“Uh? Um, okay, but…”

Without asking further permission, Kisaki lifted Alas Ramus from Maou’s hesitant arms. For a moment, he was relieved to find the child smiling and comfortable in her hands, not at all the ball of fury he expected.

“Could you go to the staff break room for me, Chi? You, too, Marko, once you’re done seating her.”

That made the blood drain from his face yet again.

Chiho was no different, apparently, pensively following behind Kisaki as she strode behind the counter.

Maou was left to watch with Suzuno.

“…My apologies. This was, perhaps, too shallow-minded of me.”

Even she was a little thrown by the chaos they had unwittingly seeded.

“Nothing ‘perhaps’ about it, man…but I guess I got nothing to whine about. You were just trying to help her, so. Feel free to sit down over there wherever. You won’t have the AC blowing on your face that way.”

Maou pointed out one corner of the dining area. Suzuno remained fixated on Maou.

“I assumed you would be angrier.”

“Oh? What do I have to be angry for? I mean, like, it kinda blew up in your face, but if anything, I gotta thank you for lending a hand. Sorry ’bout this.”

Maou looked Suzuno in the eye, trying to sound as sincere as possible.

“…I do not need a Devil King patronizing me.” Unable to accept his honest feelings, Suzuno turned her back to Maou as she launched the barb.

Where did the Lord of All Demons get off, looking her in the eye every single time he dared to express appreciation to her?

“Hey, what kind of Devil King would I be otherwise? Just wait there in one of those seats for me…”

Just as Maou’s eyebrows furrowed at Suzuno’s response, a customer stepped through the door.

“Whew… Three in the afternoon, under the blazing sun! The moment when my goddess of beauty will provide me with the sweet, sweet ice cream that so deftly, so immaculately cools and quenches my heart!! Oh, my beloved goddess! I have come to you today, at this moment, to bring my love to your soul!”

The loudmouthed pervert loudly, pervertedly, strode in, spewing his loud, perverted oratory the entire way.

It was Mitsuki Sarue, manager of the Sentucky near Hatagaya station—formerly Sariel, the angel who fell from heaven at the sight of Kisaki’s beauty. By now, he was a notorious fixture around this MgRonald location.

Chiho mentioned that he showed up for nearly every meal. This apparently included snacktime.

Sariel, blessed with handsome features but little else, ran his large, purple eyes across the dining area before noticing the goddess he swore eternal loyalty to in front of the door that led to the break room.

That, and what she had in her hands.

“Gnrahh!”

With an odd, guttural groan, Sariel froze solid, no longer in need of soft serve to cool him down.

“My. He
has
gained weight.”

It had been several days since Suzuno last met Sariel, but already there was an obvious, unnatural puffiness around the diminutive angel’s cheeks and neck.

Suzuno’s observation gave Sariel notice that she and Maou were right next to him. He brought his head up like a half-broken puppet to face them.

“Have…the heavens forsaken me?”

He was asking the wrong couple. It didn’t stop him.

“Is this the punishment of the gods, exacted upon me for abandoning my post? Has the heart of my eternal goddess already been…
struck
, by the arrow of another man? Has she returned this man’s advances? And, by all that lives in heaven, is that the blessed, crystalline symbol of their love that she bears?!”

Maou was unsure how to explain his way out of the obvious conclusion Sariel jumped to. So he tossed the job over instead.

“Uh, you handle this, Suzuno.”

“Huh? Ah… W-wait!”

Before Suzuno could lodge a protest, Maou made good his escape into the break room.

“Crestia Bell! Am I dreaming?! Tell me this is a dream! If I have lived in sin up to this point, then I swear I will repent! I know I have been something of a womanizer in the past, but this time, I promise you, I am serious! Please, allow me to confess my sins! Allow me to beg for the forgiveness of the gods!”

“Why is an archangel begging a…a lowly human cleric for confession?!”

Suzuno tried her hardest to temper her words. They were enemies in the past, but he was still an archangel—one who belonged to the religion she served, and worshiped, within. But this archangel, descended into the world of humans, was…well, to put it bluntly, as low class as the Devil King himself.

“
This
must have been what the morning’s horoscope meant when it said ‘rocky times for romance lie ahead’! Such a merciless, merciless trial the gods have conceived for me!”

Merely thinking about what kind of confessional a womanizing archangel who took horoscopes seriously would utter caused Suzuno no small measure of distress. As a cleric—and, more presently, as a woman—she was less than interested in hearing it.

“…Lord Sariel, do you know at all where that child came from?”

With Alas Ramus clearly in front of them, Suzuno tried striking while the iron was hot.

“Ahh… Joyful indeed, would I be if it were mine…”

It may have been mere ravings from Sariel’s mouth as he collapsed to the ground and wept plaintively, but it told Suzuno all she needed to know. Alas Ramus and Sariel had no connection to each other.

“…Well, so be it. Come to me, my lord, and tell me of your sins.”

She decided to go through with it, in hopes she could extract some other crucial snippet of information in the process. But the dread over what would no doubt be ejaculated from his mouth was giving her a migraine already.

“…All right.”

The voice made Maou and Chiho twitch a bit as they stood side by side, the dread over the upcoming lecture forming knots in their stomachs.

“How old is she?”

But Kisaki’s first question was quite unexpected. Maou’s manager was cradling Alas Ramus, her experienced arms gently bouncing her up and down.

Maou and Chiho glanced at each other.

“I’m guessing about three… No, she’s smaller than that, actually. A little less than two, maybe. Hmm?”

“Um. Y-yes… I think so.”

“You think so? You didn’t ask her parents how old she is?”

He would have loved to if he could, but there was no way to ask, since her parents were incommunicado.

“…Well, I guess if you asked me how old my niece was, I wouldn’t be too sure about that, either. But it’s a lot easier to remember what grade in school they’re in for some reason, you know?”

But Kisaki dropped the line of questioning, using her own experiences to reach a conclusion instead.

“But anyway, relax. I’m not gonna yell at you guys or anything. Not in front of this girl.”

Anyone able to relax in that situation would be a rare talent indeed.

“Now, just so we’re on the same page here, this is definitely not your kid, right?”

“No! Not at all! …It’d be kinda nice if it was, but…”

Kisaki refused to let Chiho’s descent into reverie slide.

“You’re free to think whatever you want, Chi, but there’s a time and a place for everything, okay?”

The force behind her reproach, delivered as it was from a smiling Kisaki as she cradled the girl, was still enough to make even the Devil King whimper.

“So you two… You aren’t a romantic couple right now, correct?”

“C-correct.”

“I, uh, right.”

Chiho dared a peek at Maou, nodding only after he gave his instant agreement.

Kisaki smiled wryly at her young employees’ responses.

“Did you think I was going to punish you for bringing romance, or your family or whatever, into the workplace? I mean, really, if you guys
were
a couple, we wouldn’t need to have this little talk right now.”

“Um?”

Maou gurgled the barest of responses to this unexpected left turn.

“I don’t care if you asked Chi for help, Marko, or if Chi asked you first. But lemme ask you this. Have you ever thought about what it looks like to people, a girl who’s still in high school regularly visiting a man’s house to help care for an infant?”

Neither lecturee could hide their surprise at the way this talk was going.

“But…but Maou doesn’t have anyone else he can ask. He didn’t even really have any stuff…”

“Maybe you…don’t understand quite yet, Chi. People… They can be shallow, you know? They can jump to conclusions, and they can spread all kinds of things before you even know it. And, sadly, you can’t fight that. Because there’s nothing ‘there’ to fight.”

“……”

“!!”

Chiho was about to say something just as Kisaki’s eyes turned to Alas Ramus. Maou stopped her just in time.

Whether she noticed it out of the corner of her eye or not, Kisaki’s finger was lightly rubbing against Alas Ramus’s cheek. The girl laughed excitedly.

“You smell like Daddy!”

“Oh? I do, huh?”

Both manager and child warmly basked in the experience.

“Young people can be a shallow a lot of the times, too. They hear me talking, and they’d probably say something like ‘The world doesn’t understand us!’ But you guys didn’t, and I have to praise you for that.”

Placing Alas on one knee, Kisaki placed a bracing hand on her stomach, then gently spun around on her chair. The child gleamed once more.

Looking on, Maou took his hand away from Chiho and spoke solemnly.

“I…I don’t think I know enough about the world to be able to say that.”

With a squeak, the chair stopped cold. Kisaki lifted the smiling Alas Ramus into the air.

“Wheeee! Yaaaaa! Ha-ha-ha!”

The girl rollicked to and fro, clearly excited.

“Well, if you can say that, you’re at least half a grown man.”

Kisaki returned the toddler to Maou, looked at the break room clock, and shrugged.

“You can go ahead and take off, Marko. It’s still a little early, but if it’s gonna stay this empty, we’re not gonna miss one crewmember too much.”

“But… I really…”

“You’re this kid’s ‘daddy,’ aren’t you? Then quit worrying about another hour’s wages and start worrying about the time you spend with her. I’ll see what I can do about your request for more hours, too.”

With that, Kisaki readjusted her crew cap and strode out of the break room.

“…More hours, Maou?”

Chiho was in the dark.

“Hey, a man’s gotta work. I’ve got dependents now. If this keeps up, I might have to send her to school sooner or later.”

Maou lifted Alas Ramus as he spoke, his tone making it difficult to discern how serious he was being.

“So…you’re really going to take her in?”

“Well, not take her in, exactly.”

Maou gave Alas Ramus a poke or two on her forehead.

“I just figure I’ll watch her until I get some answers to my questions. If her parents ever show up, I’ll be first in line to hand her over.”

Come to think of it, Maou had seemed oddly fixated on the girl’s forehead while the gang was arguing over what to do with her.

“You know, Chi… You told me your mom and dad were cool with you coming over to my place, right?”

“…Yes.”

Chiho’s body tensed up.

She knew that Maou gave Kisaki a great deal of respect—as a manager, and as a full-fledged member of society. Ignoring the question of whether this was a sound decision for a Devil King to make, there was every chance that their boss’s advice could change the way he felt about Chiho.

“I want to keep what Ms. Kisaki said in mind from now on…and that’s why I need to ask. Would you mind if I…took advantage of that trust in me for a while longer?”

“N… What?”

Chiho, fully prepared to have Maou tell her to stop playing babysitter, stared upward, eyes agleam.

“Things are still relatively peaceful right now, but…you know, Emi and Suzuno are still technically against me, so… Right now, here in Japan, if you asked me who’s the guy I feel safest in fully relying upon for something… Well, you’re about it, Chi.”

“……”

“And I know it’s kinda unfair to say this without ever giving you an answer to that question, Chi, but…and I know it’s gonna be a pain in the ass sometimes…but if you can help me out, I’d really appreciate it.”

“……”

“…Chi?”

Chiho stood agape for several moments. Long moments.

“…Hey! Hey, why’re you crying?! Chi, I… Hey! Did I offend you or something?!”

A single tear streamed down her face.

Maou flailed in panic over how to respond. Chiho, perhaps only noticing the tear after Maou pointed it out, calmly took out a handkerchief and wiped it away.

“Oh…I’m sorry. I, I just… I’m kind of happy, so…”

“No,
I’m
sorry! My bad, okay? I’m older than you; I mean, I’m the
Devil King
, and I’m still relying on you for everything… Wait, what?”

“I’m happy to hear that. I’m happy to know that you’re relying on me, Maou.”

“Huh? Ah? Eh? Happy… What? So why’re you crying, then?”

The question mark on top of Maou’s head ballooned in size as he took in Chiho’s smile.

“Hee-hee… I apologize. This is just how human beings behave.”

“Well, it makes no sense at all to me. I mean…”

“I know that you can’t give me an instant response. I’m prepared to wait as long as you need, and I don’t care what you say to me in the end. So…”

Chiho took Alas Ramus’s hand, pushing back the tears that threatened to fall once more.

“Chi-Sis?”

“So I’ll do whatever I can to help, Maou.”

“R-really? Uh… Well, thanks. And sorry.”

“You got it!”

Now Chiho was flashing a smile, the best one she could muster. At
a loss as to how to respond, Maou turned his crew cap downward to hide his face.

“Hey, Marko, could you open that drawer and get that—”

Kisaki chose that moment to suddenly burst back in the room.

“!!”

Her eyes arched upward as Maou and Chiho instantly froze into statues.

“…Ugh. Guess I better stop hiring women for a while.”

There was no way to hide from her. Equal opportunity employment laws did not apply under the Constitution of the United States of Kisaki. She stalked angrily toward the break room desk, removing an envelope from one of its drawers.

“I got these as a newspaper subscription freebie, but I don’t have any use for them, so I figured I’d give ’em to you instead.”

With a sigh, Kisaki sized up Maou and Chiho.

“You
do
understand what I just told you both, right?”

She perched the envelope on top of Maou’s head. Her work done, she left the room.

The pair sighed deeply once the door was closed. Chiho plucked the envelope off Maou’s head. The two of them watched intently as she opened it, revealing…