She let it pour out of her like a bursting dam, hoping to keep Suzuno from stealing all the momentum.
“You will
not
berate him like that, Yusa!”
She was stopped by an interloper.
Suzuno looked up as Rika spun around in her chair.
They were met by a man standing tall as he stared down at them, still holding a tray full of the remnants of a recently eaten meal.
It was Shirou Ashiya, denizen of Devil’s Castle, a man who, until this morning, was put into a state of half delirium by the summer heat.
“What are
you
doing in here?! Where
were
you until now, anyway?” Emi pointed a panicked finger at him.
Ashiya pointed out a barstool on the far end of the dining area with his eyes.
“I noticed you when you first came in here! I had deliberately avoided you because I didn’t want any more trouble today. I was hoping to slip out of here unnoticed, but I am
not
the sort of monster to stand by idly while you spread all these horrid lies and falsehoods about that great man!”
Given his admission that he was ready to slink out without a word, Ashiya’s lofty morals rang hollow in Emi’s mind. Still, internally, she had to praise him for not letting any
His Demonic Highness
es slip.
Suddenly, Emi thought of a way to both avoid a verbal conflict with Ashiya and use him to her best advantage.
“Wait a sec, Ashiya! I could actually use your help here. This has a lot to do with you and Maou, too.”
“What? Why would I
ever
even raise a
finger
to…”
“Well, what, you’re here to conduct research on this place for your friend, right? I’ll be happy to buy whatever you want.”
“Hmm. Well, if you insist.”
“Whoa!”
It was Rika who let out the amazed squeal. Up to this moment, she had had Ashiya and Emi yelling at each other over her head. Now, even though she never let her eyes off of him, he was suddenly seated next to her.
The laser-quick change of attitude was enough to exasperate Emi. Her plan seemed a tad less airtight now.
“I…I had no idea you were such a greedy pig.”
“Hmph. You misunderstand me. Right now, the only thing that takes precedence in my mind is our house’s finances. If it will provide us with valuable money savings, I will climb any mountain, wade through any mud bog, withstand any humiliation!”
“Quit acting stupid. You don’t have to get all high and mighty over free fast food.”
“Quiet, you. Now, I was unable to research SFC’s dessert and salad selection on my current budget. Perhaps I will make a secondary order later.”
He was shameless.
“Um… Is this a friend of yours or something?” Rika asked.
“Absolutely not!!”
Ashiya and Emi spouted off in an impromptu chorus, loudly enough that the diners nearby flashed them another look.
“I am not exactly sure who you are, but among your companions, I am perhaps best known as Ms. Kamazuki’s neighbor. My name is Shirou Ashiya.”
“Oh! Well, hello there. I’m Emi’s friend Rika Suzuki. So if you’re her neighbor…does that mean you live with this Maou guy?”
“Indeed I do. You know of the master of the house?”
Ashiya glanced at Emi, checking with her to see if Rika was aware of their true identity the way Chiho was. Emi shook her head listlessly.
“Yeahhh, kind of. And I’d like to know some more about him, if you don’t mind me asking.”
Ashiya’s sense of danger tingled.
To him, Rika was a complete stranger. What business would she have, inquiring about someone like Maou, who wasn’t even part of her culture’s demonic royal hierarchy?
“Uh, Ashiya? There’s really nothing to be afraid of. I’m pretty sure about
that
, anyway.”
Emi’s words weren’t enough to ease his wariness.
“So basically, the way I understand it, there’s this guy that Emi doesn’t want other women to hang out with,” Rika said.
“Eh?”
Ashiya’s eyebrows wrinkled as he gave Emi an honestly concerned look. “Yusa, what is all of this about?”
“…That’s what I’d like to know.”
Ashiya sized up Rika, Suzuno, and Emi, in that order, before continuing.
“A man who Emi doesn’t want other women near, is it…?”
He ruminated over Rika’s words.
“And it may involve me, as well? I see. Trying to catch me off guard, are you, Yusa?”
For just a moment, Ashiya flashed a slight grin at Emi, confident in his victory over her mind games.
“Well, indeed, where should I begin, then?”
He pretended to think it over for a moment.
“I…don’t think Ms. Kamazuki is aware of this yet, but Maou and I used to manage a company together.”
This
went beyond Emi’s imagination.
“Whaaa? A company?!”
Rika was predictably stunned.
“A-Ashiya?! What’re you talking about?!”
Emi’s eyes were similarly round and wide.
“What on earth does he mean?” Suzuno, meanwhile, remained subdued as she asked Emi this question, which Emi had no way of answering.
Maou’s next-door neighbor had yet to reveal her true self to Ashiya, of course, hence why Ashiya was so intent on giving her this bald-faced lie.
“Like, Maou isn’t
that
old, is he?! Is he one of those start-up whiz kids or something?” Rika continued.
“Something of the sort, yes.”
“Wowww… Well, this certainly paints things in a new light! So what kind of company was it?”
“Well, our primary business was in real estate management and temporary staffing. There was some construction work, as well. We were called…the Maou Group.”
“…Oh, yeah, a lot of architectural firms call themselves ‘The Something-Something Group,’ don’t they?”
Rika was spellbound by the remarkable and no doubt true story of Maou’s past.
Emi and Suzuno were not.
“…Temporary staffing? Really?”
“Quite a ‘group,’ indeed…”
They both whispered it to themselves, Emi having a difficult time figuring out where Ashiya was daring to take the story.
“But, sadly, the venture ended in failure, and now we live in—and I apologize to Ms. Kamazuki; I know you just moved in and such—a dilapidated apartment and scrounge together what part-time work we can. Maou and myself, along with another business partner living with us, are doing our best to struggle against the difficulties we face in rebuilding our good name and fortune. The question for me, then, is how Yusa is involved with this.”
Here it comes.
Emi gasped slightly. He was all but asking her to screw this up.
Making a mistake here could mean having to rearrange the memories of Rika, her friend—something she preferred to avoid.
It was a thought Ashiya couldn’t have understood, but he continued his life story regardless.
“Yusa, you see, worked for a rival firm at the time.”
“Huh? Emi? You worked in the construction business?!”
Rika’s attention immediately zoomed back toward Emi, but Ashiya kept going before she could defend herself.
“No, you were still a temp employee back then, weren’t you?”
“A temp… Um. Well.”
The Church was supported by donations from the people of Ente Isla, its knights paid via the taxes collected by the barons they served. Compared to that, Emi—who was rewarded strictly for her actual “work performance” on the demon-slaying battlefields of her homeland—was, if you looked at it a certain way, a temp. Being a Hero wasn’t a career most people stayed in, or survived, very long.
“My goodness. You, the Hero of her domain, a temporary worker?”
“Don’t
fall
for it, Suzuno!”
Emi elbowed Suzuno under the table lightly.
“We were active in a variety of industries, but we were still a small-scale business, the sort where the top managers were out on the field, every day, directing work sites and so forth. But thanks to her own talents and the backup her company provided her, we often found ourselves scrambling for contracts against Yusa.”
“Scrambling for contracts… But why would a big company give that kind of work to a temp?”
“Ah, well…you know, I kind of had some connections. Like, I knew one of the guys on the executive board, so…”
Emi attempted to explain her past in a way that would be acceptable to a modern Japanese person’s ears, adding some painfully concocted details to dovetail it with Ashiya’s story.
“Ohh. Well, I guess it makes sense you’ve been around, huh? You’re so good with languages, besides. So what happened next?”
“Yusa had a number of powerful coworkers and managers watching over her, but…well, really, we were a bunch of ragtag kids, none of whom were particularly more experienced in the field than any of the rest of us. And when the economic downturn came, smaller firms like ours were the first to crumble.”
“Hohh… I guess so, yeah. I’ve heard about how stingy the banks are with making loans and stuff these days. And with all the cheap imports coming into Japan, a lot of companies are losing out, even if they make better products.”
Rika first reacted to this news with surprised curiosity, but now, as she listened to Ashiya go on, her expression was gradually starting to change.
She was born in Kobe, the daughter of a family that ran a small factory workshop. Her parents and relatives were all involved with the firm in one way or another. Rika witnessed that much for herself as a child. Something about Ashiya’s ridiculous yarn must have struck a chord with her.
“So, in the end, Yusa was the only one competing with us for contracts…and that wasn’t a winnable battle for us. Thus, we closed up shop, and after spending a year-ish in our apartment in Sasazuka, we happened to run into Yusa again. She remembered us from our business dealings, of course, and I’m sure she has our own opinions and such about us. In fact, she occasionally stops by to see how we are faring.”
“Oh, that sort of thing…?”
Rika nodded several times to herself, apparently reaching a logical conclusion in her mind.
Emi, meanwhile, could feel the blood draining from her brain. Ashiya had spent the past several minutes painting this broadly positive image of Emi, and Rika was lapping it right up.
She was gonna owe big-time for this. It wasn’t the kind of thing she could repay with a couple of dessert items and a salad.
“So, recently, the very kind Ms. Kamazuki here moved in next door. If Yusa would prefer that she stay away from us, I’m sure it’s because she doesn’t want her caught up in our indigent, hand-to-mouth sort of lifestyle…not in
this
economy.”
“…Hand-to-mouth?”
Suzuno repeated the words loud enough for Ashiya to hear. He calmly nodded in response.
To Emi, meanwhile, nothing could be further from the truth. All she wanted was for Suzuno, just a regular girl in Emi’s eyes at the time, to keep her distance from the Devil King and his lackeys. But she couldn’t find a way to counter Ashiya, whose tale was proving remarkably credible to Rika at this point.
“Maou is still a young man, but he unfortunately doesn’t have a college degree or any other higher education. For someone like that, starting a new firm takes a great deal of knowledge, money, and connections…all three of which we regrettably lack, in spades, at the moment. The only work we had a shot at were the kind of contracts that even Emi, at the far fringes of her firm, would be fighting for.”
“…You don’t have to call it the fringes,” Emi whispered back in frustration.
“Instead of taking the sort of vast risks we prefer, I am sure Yusa wants to help Ms. Kamazuki. Guide her into an honest, stable living situation. …And it looks like you’ve been enjoying the fresh air of the city today, have you not?”
He chuckled as he took in Suzuno’s fancy hairpin and kimono, both different from what she’d worn this morning, as well as all the purchases at her side.
“Oh, er, this was simply a matter of studying social customs, and…”
She looked down shyly, face turning red despite herself. The whirlwind of modern Japanese urban living must have been a roller coaster for her.
“Well, there’s hardly anything to be ashamed about. A woman like yourself, enjoying the big city… What could be a better way to take in the social scene?”
After this little show of concern for the women in his life—far more than his boss ever demonstrated—Ashiya’s face tightened.
“Regardless, Maou still hasn’t given up on his goal of building a new and successful firm. Today, he’s devoting himself heart and soul to MgRonald as he tries to learn the art of management from the ground up. In a single year, he has already risen to the post of shift supervisor. One day, when the time comes, I look forward to working under him in a new, and healthier, outfit…and, until then, I will do everything I can to support him.”
Emi could see Suzuno’s face stiffen up from the side. Just now, in front of the Hero and a Church cleric, Ashiya all but declared that the demons had not given up on taking over the world. It would be strange if that
didn’t
unnerve Suzuno.
“But, as they say, all of life is a gamble. And I can certainly understand if Yusa has concerns about Ms. Kamazuki becoming deeply involved with us, lest she becomes affected by something unraveling in the future.”
“Oh, I am very much involved already.”
Suzuno blurted out the words without thinking. Emi began to sweat. No one had heard her, luckily. Ashiya continued after a short pause.
“Maou can be a rather stubborn person at times…or, should I say, he tends to bear a grudge against people. He rather dislikes Yusa’s visits, even though she is simply acting out of concern for us. Thus, I think the situation is quite a bit different from what you may be picturing, Ms. Suzuki.”
If it wasn’t for the others around her, Emi likely would have stamped her feet hard enough to shake the floor.
Ashiya was wording this expertly, well enough to change the
views of the person he aimed them toward. He was in full control of the entire narrative.
Emi
was
concerned about Maou, yes, and she didn’t want to have Suzuno involved in their battle. But she was hearing it from the mouth of a demon. A demon who was coming to Emi’s aid.