Hataraku Maou-sama!

Chapter 1 was too long to be put in one post, here's part 2


“…………”

“…………”

“…………”

There was only a slight wind coming in from a crack in the entire Demon Fortress, the three demons sat in a circle around a small package and looked at each other with serious looks on their faces.

A package about the size of a letter envelope, sealed using layers of tape and raffia string for unknown reasons, with a messy scrawl of “Unsealing Banned” written on it.

“What are you guys doing, just open it quickly.”

Emi, who couldn’t take it anymore, chided the males who did not move at all.

“Given, given the situation now, even if we look at it, it would also……right.”

“Yeah.”

“That’s true……”

Emi, who did not have a lot of patience, pushed away the hesitating demons. After roughly grabbing the package, she started tearing at it.

“Wahhhhhh! What are you doing!”

“You’re noisy! Stop delaying the troublesome things, open it already!”

“Yo, you! You’ll regret it later!”

“Noooo!”

Emi ignored the exaggerated reactions of the inhabitants of the Demon Fortress and opened the package—

“……Wha, what is this? A tape?”

After that she found a home video tape with any labels on it.

“You, you, it must be a cursed tape!”

Maou grabbed his head and shouted.

“The, there must be  fear, fearsome footage inside!”

Ashiya plastered himself against the wall, his face blue.

“Just the photo has such destructive power, it’ll be unimaginable with a video!”

“…… What are you guys talking about…… then again, this is sent by the landlady, right? Why do you have to seal it so tightly?”

 “Thi, think about it, this is a tape sent by the landlady, isn’t it? You have seen her before, right?”

“So what? Stop saying these strange things and check the contents.”

Not long after Maou consulted the apartment agent, the Demon Fortress also received a package sent by the landlady.
Compared to the luxurious envelopes normally sent by the landlady, Maou and the rest estimated that nothing important would be contained in the package. As they were worried that it might contain mysterious local products or something on par with “that photo”, they were already on their guard.

As Suzuno lectured Maou and the others, “What if there is an important notice inside’, they finally decided to open the package.

However, there was no letter, instructions or label, just a fully black tape. The inhabitants of the Demon Fortress, faced with “the incident of photos of the landlady in a swimsuit”, which caused heavy casualties, who could blame them for not wanting to play the tape because of a bad feeling they had?

Basically, even if the landlady did send the tape over, there was no equipment within the Demon Fortress which can play it.
In the end, they decided that it was more sensible to not watch it and seal it immediately and stuffed the tape into the deepest part of the storage closet in the corner of the room, securely sealing it. However, to the inhabitants of the Demon Fortress, this tape could be the last hope for changing their current situation.

But the mental trauma caused by ‘that photo’ still cast a terrifying shadow in the demons’ hearts.

“It can’t be helped, if so, we can only release ‘that photo’ and let the Hero see it for herself!”

“Ple, please don’t do that, Maou-sama! ‘That photo’ is a taboo which the Maou cannot awaken! Even the gods cannot touch that absolute seal!”

“Shut up! If I can’t use it now, then when can I use it?!”

“Ahh! My, my memories, the memories of ‘that photo’ is eroding me! The world is doomed!”

“The Demon Fortress is going to collapse! Maou-sama! Please stop!”

As an outsider, Emi totally ignored Maou and the others who became very worked up because of ‘that photo’ and rested her gaze on Urushihara’s laptop.

“We should be able to watch the contents of the tape if we buy a cheap tape player.”

Even though it is now the golden time for DVD and BD, it is still possible to buy equipment which digitize information from old media from home electronics hypermarts.

Of course, Maou, Ashiya and Urushihara knew about this. However, they thought that if it’s just to unseal that ominous seal, there is really no need to intentionally do something equivalent to throwing money into a drain.

“Hey, Emi, it looks like there is no way to watch the tape right now, erhm, we can solve our problems on our own, so forget about this tape!”

Just as Emi kicked away the continually pestering Maou with a stiff smile on her face—

“Emilia, it’s quite noisy over at your end, is the matter solved?”

Suzuno, who was carrying Alas=Ramus, walked over from next door to investigate the situation, Emi replied her with a shake of her head.

Emi pointed to the panicked three demons with her thumb, shrugging, and after showing Suzuno the tape, she briefly explained the situation.

After that—

“Erhm…… in this case……”

Chiho, who was standing beside Suzuno, said cautiously,

“I have a tape player at my place……why don’t we go to my house to watch?”

“I, I’m back, Mu……wah!”

“Oh my, oh my, welcome! Ah, you must be Maou-san!”

Chiho had only just opened the door at the entrance, before she was almost blown away by a sharp and clear voice.

Maou talked to this voice on the phone before. Chiho mama, which looked around 40 plus years old -- -- Sasaki Riho, already put on her makeup and was dressed neatly to wait for Maou and the others.

“Ex, excuse me. I’m sorry for disturbing you at such a late hour.”

Even though Maou was sweating heavily due to nervousness, and he still bowed cautiously.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Yusa Emi.”

Emi, standing behind Maou, did not say much, and only briefly introduced herself.

“Uh……here is a small gift for you……Chiho-san has always been looking out for us……”

Maou, who stuttered out socially polite sentences which he was not used to, handed over the cake meant as a meeting gift, which Ashiya wanted him to bring along, to Riho.

“Oh my, thank you so much, taking the trouble. Alright, please come in, it must be hard on you this time. Ah, let me go make tea, please go to the living room first—Chiho, please guide the guests!”

Under the prompts of the mother, who was so excited that it felt like a theatre performance was going to start, Chiho nodded with a stiff expression.

“Er, erhm, Maou-san, Yusa-san, please come this way.”

“Ex, excuse me.”

“Sorry for the trouble.”

Between Sasazuka station and Kōshū Kaidō, in a residential area in the opposite direction from the Demon Fortress, was a normal looking standalone building. That is the Sasaki home.

In order to check the contents of the tape as soon as possible, there was no other choice in the current situation. But no matter what, the inhabitants of the Demon Fortress have been looked after by the Sasaki family when it comes to food.
Ashiya frantically went out on Durandal II and finally managed to buy a high class cake. However, if they did something impolite to Chiho’s family members, it might betray the trust which Chiho harbored, so Maou really spared no effort.

In addition, Emi even followed them in order to watch him.

Logically, Ashiya should be the one to visit, but Emi was worried that if these two people left together, they might secretly get rid of the tape.

As a group of people coming over at the same time would cause some inconvenience to the Sasaki family, so except for Maou and Emi, the rest of them are staying at Villa Rosa to take care of Alas=Ramus and wait for good news from Maou and the others.

Even though Emi always cursed the demon forces in a nonchalant manner, and did not care about their life or death, for an unknown reason, she is actually sincerely helping Maou and the rest solve their problem.

“Mum…… is too excited.”

Once Chiho entered the living room, she lowered her head, sapped of energy.

The living room, cleaned until it was free of dust not only had a brand new table cloth on the table, there was even a vase containing various types of flowers.

Perhaps it was because scented candles were burnt or air fresheners were used, there was a slight flower smell in the living room.

Even the seat cushions were obviously changed into thick cushions which were not used on a normal basis, making Chiho, the original resident, feel awkward. As for Maou and Emi, they only understood that they were very welcome.

“Er, erhm, I’m sorry, uh, please take a seat. Ah, Maou-san, the tape……”

After Chiho, who sounded like she ran out of energy, took the tape from Maou, she knelt down in front of the LCD television on top of a television stand in the corner of the living room.

Maou and Emi looked at each other while sitting down nervously. Underneath them, the new seat cushion crackled.
“Come come come, I prepared some chilled red tea.”

Once again, Riho entered the room in high spirits. Maou and Emi cowered a little in shock, but Riho did not mind at all, gracefully placing the chilled red tea, which gave off a slight frangrance, in front of Maou and the rest.

“Thank you…… this smells nice, isn’t this flower tea, is this rose hip tea?”

Emi asked this after taking a sip, Riho’s eyes shined at that moment.

“Expected of a member of society, so know a bit about this! Thank you so much for taking care of Chiho, I hear about you from her a lot. Seriously, Chiho and my husband are the same, they don’t care about red tea at all.”

“Yea, yeah……”

“Mu, mum! It’s fine if you stop at that!”

After setting the tape and the television, Chiho, blushing, wanted to chase her mother out of the living room, but Riho ignored this.

“Before chasing me away, you should quickly play that tape! Perhaps the contents will have something to do with Maou-san’s family!”

After saying this, Riho sat down on the opposite side of Maou and Emi. Even though Chiho had explained the bare minimum of the situation to Riho with regards to borrowing the tape player belonging to the Sasaki family, Maou was worried that the landlady would say strange things, or that Chiho and Riho would be unable to maintain a normal mindset after seeing the landlady.

“Seriously……! I’m sorry, Maou-san, can I play it now?”

“Ah, yeah, please do.”

At this point, Maou cannot just ask Riho to leave, so he could only watch Chiho press the Play button, full of worries.
Chiho awkwardly sat down next to her mother and turned her line of sight to the television monitor. A black screen was displayed for a moment before a video was shown----

Blue skies, gold coloured land, and the pyramid on top of it. After one hundred people sees this, those hundred people will definitely reply that this background is at Egypt.

“Ah~~ ah~~ cough.”

The landlady’s voice sounded like she was testing the microphone. Maou subconsciously clenched his fists because of the terror he felt.

“Erhm, Maou-san and Ashiya-san, it’s been a while. I, Shiba, am going to explain things in front of the Giza Pyramids in Egypt.”
The landlady was standing in the middle of a sunny desert.

She was wearing a figure fitting dress which looked like it was about to burst at the seams, while showing her legs, with a dress hat which was useless at blocking out the sun. Just seeing the revealed limbs of Shiba Miki was enough to make Maou blue in the face, and cause his heart to beat faster.

Even so, the destructive power this time is a lot less compared to the swimsuit photo, and he could still keep his eyes on the screen, though barely. It seems like Maou did improve with regards to this.

What is even more surprising is that compared to Maou, who was sweating in nervousness, the other three people did not have any special reaction, and nonchalantly watched the life threatening video of the landlady.

“I was contacted during my holiday, I never expected that Maou-san and the others will encounter such tragedy, I feel very sorry as the landlady.”

Even though the landlady did not have to take responsibility for the hole appearing in the room, but because of the full cleavage that she showed when she bowed deeply, Maou strongly felt that she should apologise for the curse burnt into his soul.

“Luckily, Maou-san and Ashiya-san were not injured. With regards to the apartment renovation, I will take responsibility as the landlady, please do not worry. The rent will not be affected as the same time as well. Due to the renovation dates and the amount of work, the thorough renovation may need to be done, so I’m afraid that everyone would need to move out for a while……”

The landlady explained this professionally, and the contents were the same as the notification letter which Suzuno had received.
Rather than that, it was harder to explain why the landlady would use such a troublesome method to notify the Demon Fortress. If she used a letter notification like the one she sent to Suzuno, Maou and the rest would find out about this a lot earlier.

Just as Maou was finally getting used to this shocking footage, and felt unsatisfied inside his heart-----

“In addition, there is another matter which I would like to trouble Maou-san and Ashiya-san.”

After talking about the renovation period of the apartment, the landlady continued to speak.

“Actually, I have a niece.”

Maou and Emi looked at each other in reflex.

The landlady’s…niece? The two of them never thought that this landlady will have parents, siblings, nephews or nieces, or other normal family members, so they were quite shocked when they heard this.

“This niece is currently operating a beach house at a beach in Chiba.”

Talking about the landlady and beaches, Maou remembered that “Swimsuit photo incident”. Just as Maou though that this tape will finally show its fangs and wanted to press the stop button on the tape player------

“If it’s convenient for you, can all of you go to my niece’s store to help out?”

He stopped in his tracks because of this sentence.

“That store is situated at a beach in southeast Chiba. Taking to account the location and the renovation of the apartment, accommodation will most likely be provided, so there’s no need to commute. As my niece’s family have other things to handle, so this will probably last from the beginning of August until after the Obon holiday, what do you think about it?”

From the beginning of August until after the Obon holiday, and the job even provides accommodation?

For a job like this to suddenly appear at this time, could it be a joke? It is something which would push them to the depths after making them happy, or a kind of prank segment?

“Southeast of Chiba…… is it Choshi?”

Chiho mumbled to herself softly, like she wanted to confirm her memory.

“If there are guys around, it would be more assuring in case something sudden occurs. Of coruse, you have your own job to handle, so I will not force you on this. However if it is convenient, please think about it. If you’re willing to take this job, please call this number……”
The landlady pointed at the bottom of the video, and took the effort to type subtitles which that looks like a phone number. Maou stared blankly at the numbers on the video for a long time----

“Ma…… Maou, isn’t that great? Make the call quickly!”

T/N: Emi was about to say Maou as in Demon King, but switched to Maou, his Japanese last name.

After that he was slapped very hard on the back by someone, causing him to cough very hard.

“Cou, cough! E, Emi, what are you doing?”

“This tape was sent over quite some time ago, right? Make the call quickly. If this job is taken by someone else, you’ll end up losing out!”

“Eh, bu, but Yusa-san, since it’s a beach house in Chiba, that means it’s really far away from here……”

Chiho, who was shocked by Emi’s reaction, did not even finish her sentence before she was interrupted by her mother beside her,

“That’s right, Maou-san! Isn’t that great? In this way, you can solve the issues with your accommodation and job! It’s fine if you make the call here, make the call quickly!”

As an older person, it was expected for Riho to react that way. On the other hand, for Emi to feel happy about Maou’s situation getting better, it was really strange.

Even though Maou felt apprehensive about the development of the situation and Emi’s attitude, but he still entered the numbers on the screen into his mobile phone and raised a hand to ask the surrounding people to be quiet.

As he was still making a call in someone else’s home, Maou first acknowledged Riho with his eyes, and pressed the Call button after taking a deep breath.

Maou did not feel optimistic about the situation like Emi and Riho. After all, this timing is too coincidental.

Basically, this is a beach house run by a relative of “that landlady”. Maou did not know what kind of demon lair that place would be, and did not know what kind of destiny awaits him. If he had worked in a MgRonalds further away, it might not be as stressful on his mental state.

Chiho, who watched Maou with worry, seemed to think that Emi’s reaction is strange and took occasional glances to check on her.

Maou waited for the other party to pick up, his face full of nervousness, after a few rings------

“Hello?”

A simple answer was heard from the other end of the line, it was a female voice.

As it is a niece, this result is to be expected, but for Maou, who was fully prepared as he was worried that a Youkai would appear, he was a little shocked by the normal human voice.

“He, hello. I’m sorry, calling at such a late time.”

“Yeah.”

“Erhm, Shiba-san introduced me to a job with regards to a beach house, and wanted me to call……”

Maou had just said tis when the other party said with such a loud volume that Maou wanted to pull the phone away from his ear,

“Shiba-san……. ah! Are you the tenant from the Tokyo apartment of Aunt Mi-chan?”

“Mi-chan…… ah, that’s right. My name is Maou.”

Thinking back, the landlady did ask other people to address her as Mi-chan before. Emi remembered that she was asked to do so before.

“That’s right, that’s right, I heard about it! Because I didn’t receive any contact and July is going to end soon, so I thought it was inconvenient for you, and was about to give up!”

The female voice on the other end of the line gave others a cheerful impression.

From the tone of her voice, the other party should be older than Emi or Suzuno, but did not have the unreadable mysterious aura like the landlady.

“Erhm, that’s because something went wrong with the commuications……”

Even if his mouth is cracked open, Maou could not say that the tape was sealed until today because he was afraid of watching it.

“Ah! I can understand! Aunt frequently travels overseas after all. Even the new year card will only arrive in February.”

“I, I see.”

For it to be this way even for relatives, by comparison, the fact that the notification can reach Maou and Suzuno so quickly is a miracle.

Just as Maou was thinking about this, the other party suddenly threw out a topic.

“So, you’re Maou-san right? Can you come over?”

The other party seems like a hasty type. Maou, who almost answered out of reflex, quickly stopped himself.

A beach house run by one person, this type of workplace is an unknown world to Maou.

If he did not confirm the scope and conditions of the job, he cannot decide if he can take up this task. Even though the other party is the landlady’s niece, Maou did not even know her name.

“Know one’s strength and the enemy to secure victory”, this was the philosophy Maou believed in when he first aimed to unify the demon world.

“I’m sorry, currently I only heard that it is a ‘beach house in Chiba’……”

Maou chose his words carefully, leading the other party to mention the conditions, the other end of the line nodded and answered,

“Ah! Aunt is rather lax in this area after all.”

The landlady’s niece continued to speak with a voice which did not sound that delicate,

“The location is at the corner of Choshi, Chiba…… do you know where Kimigahama is?”

“No……”

At this time, Riho passed a notepad and a pen to Maou. Maou thanked her with his eyes, and accepted the pen.

Maou quickly wrote the words “Choshi” on the paper. Seeing this, Chiho sucked in a breath.

“That’s true. As a location, Inubo or Toyama would be more well-known. Excluding the outlying islands and the mountains, Waterfront is the coast in Kanto which you can see the earliest sunrise.”

“Uh…..”

No matter what, these are names which Maou were not familiar with. The other party seemed to sense this from Maou’s tone of voice.

“Sigh, you can just treat it as the east of Chiba. Even though it’s quite some distance from the city center.”

The topic of the workplace location ended without any detailed explainations.

However, it was no use even if he felt dissatisfied, so Maou could only note down the name of the place he didn’t know about and continued to listen.

“In addition, this is hard to say, but the salary here isn’t high. A hourly pay for one person is only about 1000 yen.”

“1000 yen per person?”

Maou was a little shocked because of the unexpected amount. However, since it’s an hourly pay per person, this means that more than one person is allowed to go.

As long as Maou and Ashiya worked together, they would be able to earn two hours of income for the whole Demon Fortress in one hour.

“Oh my, because this store is opened partly because of my father’s interest, so it wasn’t meant to make a profit. In addition, it’s really busy during this period, so I’m really troubled about it. Also, there is also free accommodation and food, and from the end of work till the day turns dark, you can swim until you’re satisfied!”

A job with an hourly pay of 1000 yen, and comes with accommodation and food. Even though swimming is good, but for Maou right now, these are ideal conditions.

“May I know how many people can go over?”

In some sense, this question is considered a gamble. Right now, there are not two, but three inhabitants in the Demon Fortress.

And the third person is Urushihara, a Neet to the core.

From the way the landlady put it, it seems like it was decided beforehand that Ashiya, who is living together with Maou, will go along as well. However, if it is now three people, the staff costs might cause a burden to the shop which ‘wasn’t meant to make a profit’.

Moreover, even if he proposed his choice of people, it was hard to guarantee that the third person will work seriously.

But the answer of the other party was something Maou did not expect.

“What is it, can you find more people to come?”

“Eh? Erhm, that, that is, including me and my roommates, there are three guys.”

“Eh? Three people?”

“Eh? Three people?”

Chiho and Emi exclaimed in surprise at the same time, but Maou ignored them.

“Not much will be earned regardless of the number of people, you can all come over! Because it’s seems to be very tiring in various aspects, it’s alright to work in shifts.”

From this sentence, it seems like the other party had seen through the situation on this end.

Even though he didn’t know what kind of job it is, but it should be alright to let Urushihara take charge of the short and easy portion. After that, everything will be fine as long as Maou and Ashiya worked their best till the end. If Urushihara can develop a slight motivation in working because of this, it can be seen as an unexpected benefit.

“…… Can I trouble you by having three people come over together?”

After Maou said this, laughter was hard from the other end of the line. Chiho, on the other side of the table, showed signs of nervousness at this.

“Yeah. So, when can all of you come over?”

“As there are some things we have to settle tomorrow, so I am planning to come over on the day after tomorrow, August 1st.”

“Wah, then I have to quickly prepare the rooms. However, it is better if you can come earlier. According to my father, the number of people will officially increase from August, really, thank you so much!”

From the beginning, Maou felt concerned, with things such as “seems to be” very tiring, or “according to my father”, the number of people will increase from August. For some reason, these explanations felt as if it was heard from someone else.

After asking about this-----

“Oh my, I think I mentioned this earlier, this store was originally managed by my father, even though I helped out before, this summer holiday he suddenly said he wanted to travel, and pushed everything to me.  Formally, I’m supposed to take over, but I also have my own work, as a girl, it’s hard for me to handle this alone. As my father never intended to make a profit, he did not teach me how to run a business. In the end, I’m still a young and energetic girl, so there are risks in that aspect.”

To be specific, until what age would it be appropriate to be known as young and energetic, what kind of risks are there, would it be fine to conduct business like this etc, Maou forcefully swallowed these questions.

About this, since it is someone Aunt Mi-chan introduced, then I can rest easy. I’ll leave it to you guys then.”

“It’s, it’s fine…… then again, how should we go over?”

“Ah, I need to tell you the location. Are you driving? Or taking the train? Or taking the plane?”

“Pla, plane? Uh, we will take the train.”

No matter where they are going, the mode of transport for Maou and the others is limited to mass transport.

“The journey is rather long, you know? If you depart from the city center, you can first take the Sobu line to the terminal station to Chiba, then take the JR’s Sobu Main line to the terminal station, that would be Choshi. After that, take the Choshi Electric Railway, and get off at the station before the terminal station, Inubo station. Even though you will pass through the station called Kimigahama, our shop is closer to Inuba. It takes about three hours to get here from the city centre, but all of you can treat it as an holiday trip.”

Not only does Maou have to take three lines which he is not familiar with, he still has to get off at two terminal stations. Looks like it is further than he had thought.

Partly because of economic reasons, ever since Maou and Ashiya drifted to Japan, the two of them had never left the 23rd District of Tokyo. Even though this is the first time they will head to other provinces, like what the other party said, this long journey feels like it will become a holiday trip.

Even the Maou, who had travelled the whole world to conquer it, will feel that a three hour long journey is a little far.

“After you reach Inubo, I will drive there to pick you guys up. Call me when you arrive……”

“I understand. Uh, so, it’s a bit late asking this now, may I know your name as well as the name of your store……”

Even though this isn’t something which is asked after everything is settled, it needs to be known.

Maou, who asked this gingerly, almost pulled the phone away from his ear because of the loud laugh from the other party.

“Ahahaha, I’m sorry, that’s right. Why haven’t I told you my name?”

Should this be something that we should ask instead?

“I’m sorry, giving my name at such a late time. I am Aunt Mi-chan’s niece, Daiko Amane.”

“Daiko-san huh….. I got it. So for the day after tomorrow, when would it be convenient for us to come over…...”

For working, this question is to be expected, but Daiko Amane’s reply exceeded all of Maou’s experiences.

“Hm, you can come over anytime.”

“Eh?”

“Just choose a time which is convenient for you, I’ll pick all of you up at any time.”

“I, I see…… then is there anything related to the job which we would need to have?”

“Stamina?”

The answer of the other party is very simple. But what Maou wanted to ask wasn’t about this.

“Uh, you should just need to bring your clothes, towels and toothbrushes? For the other things which you lack, you can just replenish them here.”

It’s not as if they were going to a relative’s house to play. Isn’t there anything that needs to be used during work?

“That’s right, you need to bring beach sandals. You can bring flip flops, it needs to be those where they are straps around the ankle. If not, it will be easy to trip on the sand, or get washed away by the waves. If you work barefoot, you may cut your feet on the rubbish, pebbles or shells under the sand, so that’s not allowed.

“Beach sandals. I understand. I will buy shoes that fit.”

That’s right, that’s what I wanted to ask. But this serious topic of things to take note with regards to work ended quickly.

“Not only beach sandals, since it’s a rare chance to be here, you might as well bring your swimsuit and goggles. If you want to play with fireworks, we have many different and good varieties! Even though you can’t play with the ones which fly upwards, but playing with the sparklers (Note: A type of gunpowder wrapped in paper, which would give off sparkling fireworks after lighting) amongst the sea wind is like a fight to the death, very exciting!”

“…… Is that so.”

It’s looks like it would be better to treat it with a totally different thinking from working in the city. Halfway through the conversation, the topic has completely changed to leisure and play.

Or is it only Daikoya who acts like this? (Note: As only Samurai were given last names in the Edo era, most people would have the habit of using the founder’s given name or location name as the business or dealer name).

“Ah, but there is something I need to mention first.”

“Yes, what is it?”

Daiko Amane’s tone of voice suddenly became more serious. Following suit, Maou also reigned in his expressions, and waited for the other party to continue.

“Because this is not a fashionable place, so even though there are tourists, they are mostly adults. It’s a rather dull place which does not bring much motivation.”

“Alright.”

“In addition, there is many things to handle in this job, I did say that you can swim all you want, but in reality, you can only play at the beach in the mornings and later in the evenings. Therefore……”

After pausing for a while, Daiko spoke with a tone of voice like she was going to announce something important,

“Don’t expect to have a beautiful encounter with a swimsuit wearing young lady! Basically, dating is something which will cause trouble to others, so dating is not allowed!”

“What have you been saying since just now!”

“Eh? Aren’t these things important to guys?”

“There’s nothing like that! Then again, aren’t we supposed to go there to work?”


From this series of conversations, it’s expected for Maou to have this question.

“Ah, I get it, Maou-san already has a partner?”

“Not at all!!!!”

Maou said this at a louder volume than what he was using so far, and from the corner of his eye, saw Chiho, Emi and Riho widened their eyes in surprise as they did not know what was going on.

Normally, calls which talk about work issues should be more tension filled and filled with work related elements. Of course, if it was a workplace which is laborious, impersonal and only earns money, it will be very troubling, but not feeling any tension is also an issue.

Because of Kisaki’s personal values, the work at the MgRonalds in front of Hatagaya station is not especially strenuous, but there will be still unique standards of operations, work etiquette and unwritten rules present at many large scale chain stores.

For Maou, who had worked under such an environment, the feeling which Daikoya gave off totally exceeded his predictions.

Just as Maou was gasping for air, the other party seemed to be thinking about something.

“If you’re a hardcore Herbivore male (Note: Refers to the group of guys who have little or no interest in the opposite gender and only focueses on one’s own hobbies), then I can rest easy. But it feels a little off. From what I heard from Aunt Mi-chan, I thought it would be a more bold and generous group of people.”

Exactly how did the landlady describe Maou and Ashiya, and what kind of impressions did Daiko imagine from that?

Maou was confident that it was not possible to be able to find someone else like him, a hardworking, honest, upright Demon who is living seriously while conquering the world and working, in the past as well as the future.

He has work perform well as work in other to clear the various misunderstandings which arose from this phone call.

“In short, on the day after tomorrow, I will come here as early as possible!”

“Understood, I’ll wait for you guys.”

He didn’t do anything special, but after this conversation which lacked any feelings of tension, Maou still felt strangely tired.

“What were you guys talking about?”

Emi was the first one to raise a difficult question. For those people who were listening from the side, it wasn’t a normal interview discussing about work.

“I’m not too sure myself.”

Right now, even for Maou himself, he could only answer that it was a unfamiliar job, working under a unfamiliar person, in an unfamiliar place.

“So, how did things go? Is everything alright work wise?”

Riho asked with a shake of the ice filled glass. Maou kept his mobile phone and bowed deeply.

“Thank you for lending us the tape player. Thanks to you, we finally do not have to drift into the streets. From the day after tomorrow, we will work at the beach house in Chiba.”

“Oh, that’s really great.”

Riho nodded with a smile.

Chiho looked like she breathed a sigh of relief, but still, she suddenly remembered something and asked,

“Three people, does that include Urushihara-san? Would that be alright? Is he able to go out, or talk to people normally?”

Expectedly, Chiho had thought of the same questions as Maou, and from the look of unease on her face, she seemed to have decided that Urushihara would give the other party a bad impression.

“What is it? Is Urushihara-san the type of person who would stay at home?”

Riho, who was not in the loop, deciphered the uneasy atmosphere around Chiho and asked this at the same time.

“I’m sorry, letting you see such an embarrassing thing…... but the other person and I would do our best to cover for him.”

And Maou just admitted it without any reservations.

“Hm……”

Riho, who looked like she didn’t mind that much, nodded while glancing at her daughter’s face from the side. And Chiho was currently looking at Maou with wistful expression on her face.

“Ah, thank you for your notepad and pen.”

Maou returned the stationery for taking notes back to Riho. As for Emi, she spoke to Maou while looking at the notes he wrote,

“I hoped you learnt your lesson. Next time when the landlady sends other things over, you have to open it properly.”

“Uh……yeah, that is, I will deal with it appropriately.”

Maou thought that because Emi could only say those things because she had never seen ‘that photo’. However, the fact that the landlady had saved him is also the truth. Just on this point, he must thank her properly.

Just as the group of people realized that the tape was still playing and turned towards the screen with the intention to switch it off, at this point of time------

“Oh yes, I had the chance to learn belly dancing in Egypt.”

The landlady who seemed to be talking about random topics until now, said this on the video.

When the group was not noticing, the background behind the landlady had changed from the pyramids in the desert to a place which looks like a luxurious palace ballroom.

“A member of a tribe who made music and dance their profession decided that I am a first rate dancer. After this, I will take part in a major dance event being held here. Everyone, please watch my dance.”

“Oh my, such beautiful clothes.”

From Maou’s point of view, Riho’s opinion is too abnormal.

The landlady, being shown on the screen, had already changed into a blouse which revealed her shoulders. On top of her abdomen where her waist cannot be identified, it was decorated with countless numbers of dazzling gems and coins and with her fluttering bright red skirt made of chiffon and satin, she had instantly turned into a giant flower monster.

Maou’s movements can only be described as lightning speed.

I can’t allow this tape to continue playing. If it continues, it will only cause misfortune to others!

However, as Maou’s fingers touched the stop button on the tape player, accompanied by oriental style music , the video started to mercilessly show the landlady’s shaking arms, abdomen, neck and various places on her whole body. Starting to shake her waist and bottom, she performed the eastern secret dance which once sucked the whole of Europe into a whirlpool of senses ------ the scene of “Belly Dancing”.

After that, Maou lost all his memories from now until the morning of the next day.

“Seriously…… mum, you’re too excited.”

After seeing off Maou and Emi, as well as Ashiya, who came to pick up the unconscious Maou, Chiho started to complain to her mother after closing the main door on the porch.

Even though she could understand her mother’s feelings, but if she welcomed the guests with such passion, it would be awkward for the child when they meet their friends later on.

“Oh my, does it matter. Even though I know that Maou-san is very serious when he works, if I don’t know what kind of person he is, it will difficult for me to make a judgment.”

This sentence which her mother said while clearing the tableware in the living room caused Chiho to widen her eyes in surprise.

“You said you know…… Mum. Did you go to the store?”

“Why are you so surprised? Isn’t that to be expected?”

“I told you before that I will be troubling for me and you should not go……”

“So I exercised self-control and didn’t greet anyone. However……”

Riho glanced at the notepad which Maou used.

“He’s a good person. Maou-san.”

“Eh?”

“Yeah, if he’s that kind of person, it’s fine if Chiho likes him.”

“Mum!”

In a rare occurrence, Chiho said this in an agitated manner, but Riho turned a deaf ear to this.

“He’s diligent and polite, for a guy, his handwriting can be considered to be rather beautiful. He does not give off a flippant feeling, and does not have any cigarette smell on him. And from the fact that he uses such an old mobile phone, he should be very thrifty on his daily life, right? Is the person who came to get him Ashiya-san? In this day and age, it’s rare to see a simple and unadorned guy like him.”

For Ashiya’s situation, rather than saying that he’s simple and unadorned, it would be more accurate to say that he is poor.

“Your father used to be a poor student who lived a hard life, I guess this is hereditary?”

Ignoring the fact if the liking of certain types of guys can be inherited, but for the daughter who is being counselled by her own parents, it was really an uncomfortable feeling.

“Currently, it’s difficult to find such an honest person like him. You shouldn’t have anything to worry about, right?”

“Wo, worry?”

Chiho looked at her mother’s eyes in surprise.

“Do you think you can deceive your mother’s eyes? For example, knowing that Maou-san working place is in Chiba, or when talking about Urushihara-san, you were frowning so badly.”

Chiho blushed subconsciously, and belatedly used her hand to cover her forehead.

“That’s, that’s because……”

With her right hand covering her forehead, and left hand grabbing the hem of her skirt, Chiho said bashfully,

“How should I put it, even though Maou-san and Ashiya-san are down to earth and capable people, but Urushihara-san is a lazy bum who is sloppy in various areas and does not take things seriously. Every day, he only surfs the internet. I’m worried that Maou-san would end up causing harm to his body because he is covering for Urushihara-san in an unfamiliar place, or that Urushihara-san’s attitude would cause them to get fired and so on. If so, not being able to stay in Sasazuka…… is very possible……”

After fluently saying various criticisms about Urushihara, Chiho suddenly fell silient.

In the past, Chiho had thought that even if Maou and the others did not have a job, in the most serious case, their food and living conditions will become worse, but she finally realised that the situation is not that simple.

The rent in Sasazuka is very high because of the land price. If Maou and the others lost just half a month of income, it is possible that they would have to leave.

In this case, Emi and Suzuno, who chased after them, would definitely do the same.

It wouldn’t be that bad if it was just like that. In the worst case, if Maou and the rest returned to Ente Isla because they have nowhere else to go, perhaps the Hero and the Maou would have to “settle things with each other”.

“…… I do not wish, for things to turn out like that.”

“Chiho?”

Chiho leaned against the wall at her home, sighing.

“If something went wrong at work, Maou-san and the others may end up going to someplace far away…… Yusa-san, and Suzuno-san at well……”

Even though she cannot fight like Emi, Suzuno or Alas=Ramus, but she could at least help Maou when it comes to work. However, the pre-requisite would have to be that their workplace needs to be near to Sasazuka.

Right now, she is still a normal high school girl being protected by her parents and cannot imagine how she could be like them, surviving on their own.

Chiho lowered her head with a darkened expression.

Currently, only the sounds of Riho washing the cutlery could be heard.

“Let me say this first, even if you want to go together with Maou-san and the others, I won’t agree to it.

“……Yeah, I know.”

It was expected for her mother to say that. No matter how much they trusted the other party, there wouldn’t be any parents who would allow a high school girl to work in a place where she had to live with other guys.

She couldn’t lend Maou-san her power.

Just as Chiho dejected decided to raise her head.

“Then again……”

“Eh?”

“No just Maou-san, Yusa-san seems like a dependable person. She may be young, she responds to others in such an awe-aspiring manner. I feel that the aura she gives off is rather different from the young people today.”

Her mother suddenly started talking about Emi.

Even Chiho, who was not a native of Ente Isla, can also guess that Emi must have experienced a cruel past for her to become the person she is now.

But Chiho did not feel that her mother and Emi spoke that much during the period of time when Maou fainted. Or did they talk about some deep topics when Emi was about to leave?

Chiho paused in shock because she could not guess her mother’s intentions.

“Since you are earning your own money, as long as your reason is sensible and logical, I won’t say too much about it.”

“Mum……?”

After washing the cutlery and wiping her hands, Riho mischievously winked and patted her daughter’s head.

※

“Hey! What happened? Why does his complexion look worse compared to when he first left the house?”

“Papa, what’s wrong?”

“You’re back. But what exactly must happen for something like fainting in Chiho-san house to occur?”

Urushihara, Alas=Ramus and Suzuno welcome Emi, Ashiya and Maou with different questions of their own.

When Emi saw that Urushihara is placating Alas=Ramus, who was on his back, and that Alas=Ramus looked like she was enjoying herself, she got a huge shock.

Could it be that Alas=Ramus had sensed some kind of resonance from Urushihara?

“…… I’m not too sure, it could be that too many things were too much of a shock for the Maou.”

“So it was a cursed tape after all?”

Compared to the pale looking Maou, Emi replied, as cool as a cucumber, however Urushihara’s face immediately became a shade of pale which did not lose to Maou.

As Emi did not want to bring Maou, who had collapsed at the Sasaki home, back by herself, she called Suzuno, and asked her to get Ashiya to come over to fetch him instead.

After Maou, who was holding on to Ashiya’s shoulders, paid his respects, he left the Sasaki home and returned to the Demon Fortress.

Maou walked shakily into the porch and was immersed into the darkness of the Demon Fortress.

“What cursed tape. It’s wasn’t anything much at all.”

Emi nonchalantly looked at the pale faced Maou.

“Actually fainting after seeing a female dance, how rude.”

“Dance……”

Urushihara seemed to remember something because of this sentence and his face started to stiffen up.

“Seriously, you guys are too exaggerated. Chiho and Chiho’s mum finished watching it normally.”

“Ehhh? You’re lying?”

“Lucifer, Mama won’t lie!”

As Urushihara did not believe Emi’s words, Alas=Ramus, who was on his back kept hitting the back of Urushihara’s head with a “Papapa” in protest.

But Emi’s testimonial is the truth.

Riho honestly praised the landlady’s clothes, and apart from being surprised that the landlady is a large sized woman, Chiho did not have any other special reactions.

“Anyway, from the day after tomorrow, you will be going to Chiba with the Maou. You will stay at a beach house run by the landlady’s relative until the end of the Obon festival in August.”

“Oh? In other words, it’s a job which provides accommodation. Doesn’t that fit your wishes nicely?”

Suzuno clapped in admiration.

“Is Mama going to Chiba too?”

Alas=Ramus asked as she poked her head out from her perch on Urushihara’s back, Emi smiled wryly and lifted Alas=Ramus from Urushihara’s back.

“Mama will be together with Alas=Ramus, okay?”

“Yeah!”

In order to avoid the situation in which Alas=Ramus will keep asking to go to Chiba together with “Papa”, Emi carried the young girl and changed the topic with an adult’s slyness while looking towards Urushihara.

“She’s not that light now. Ah~ how heavy. So, Chiba? Hm, it doesn’t sound so bad.”

Emi did not miss what Urushihara said to himself as he shook the arm which supported Alas=Ramus.

This fallen angel did not include himself as part of the working staff at all.

“Even though I’m thankful that you helped to take care of Alas=Ramus, you shouldn’t start complaining because of such a small thing. Work at a beach house sounds difficult, you know? I think this is a good chance for you to change those Neet habits of yours.”

“Eh, what, I have to work too?”

Emi thanking him and the content that followed caused Urushihara to be surprised twice in different ways.

“At least that’s how those guys planned it. Then again, accommodation is already provided, do you still think you’re the only one who doesn’t have to work?”

“Uh, that, because, eh?”

Urushihara fiddled with his bangs and stuttered when he answered.

“What is this, isn’t a beach house too much. It’s so hot already, why do we have to specially go to a place with such a high temperature…… then again, why didn’t anyone discuss this with me first……”

“You are really clueless about your own standing.”

Suzuno, who stood at the side, lectured Urushihara sternly as he talked to himself.

“Even if it was discussed with you, there won’t be any constructive opinion. Emilia is right, this is a good chance. Just treat it as going to a counselling centre!”

“I don’t want to! What kind of analogy is that! A, and, I never worked before, and I might cause trouble to others instead, in addition, even if Orba is in detention, it wouldn’t be good if I appeared in front of other people now, isn’t that right?”

Towards Urushihara, who shamelessly kept making excuses, both females looked at him coldly.

“Since you’re making so many excuses, how long do you plan on not working?”

“You say that it’s inconvenient for you to appear in front of other people, then why do you always meet with the driver from Amazon’s Sasuke Delivery Company so nonchalantly? Hm?”

“It’s been almost three months after the incident with Orba, has anything happened? Don’t you go to the bath house as well? Or has the police looked for you before and put you in some dangerous situation?”

“Bu, but, it’s easy to get careless when the sense of danger is lacking! Even if nothing happened today, it doesn’t mean nothing will happen tomorrow, if anything, it’s because I admit that I have committed a crime, so I’m staying at home to reflect……”

“If you are really staying at home to repent and reflect, then I have nothing to say, but you, who is idly wasting time and leeching on your superior and colleague, you have no right to say such nonsense. Rather than that, you would be a little cuter if you had helped the Maou make plans to conquer the world instead.”

“Uh…ughh!”

Having the two females lecture him in such an organized and logical manner, tears started to appear in the corner of Urushihara’s eyes.

“If you don’t work, then what do you plan to do? You don’t have a place to live, so how are you going to shut yourself at home? If you plan to do evil things like when you teamed up with Orba, I won’t let you off this time.”

“Even though it is still possible for you to be the only one who doesn’t work and impose on the other party, but it should be rather embarrassing. However, if you have the courage to ask a stranger for food even through you don’t work, that would be another matter.”

“Mama, Suzuno onee-san, don’t bully Lucifer, okay?”

Even though Alas=Ramus only knew the two people were lecturing Urushihara, she still protected Urushihara with a troubled look on her face. However, this only hurt Urushihara’s pride even further.

“Sigh, this is a matter of the Demon Fortress anyway, I have no reason to be worried about all of you.”

“True. He’s just a low grade demon who fell from the sky. His sense of shame and hardworking attitude must be fallen with his status as an angel.”

“Y, you people! I’m going to cry! If you continue, I’m really going to cry! Basically, isn’t Bell not working as well? Don’t act so high and mighty!”

Urushihara shouted loudly with a voice which sounded like he is already crying.

“Even though Bell isn’t working in Japan now, but she is a proper inquisitor in Ente Isla, and is taking action with a clear goal in mind. In addition, whether it’s cleaning, laundry or cooking, she does it all herself. Even though she doesn’t have a job like you, the disparity between you and Bell is like sky and earth.”

“Damn……! Damn! Actually looking down on me!”

“Lucifer, boys can’t cry, okay. pain pain go away, Away!”

“I’m happy, yet not happy at all!”

Even though it seems like only Alas=Ramus is on Lucifer’s side, Urushihara still rejected the frantically outstretched hand with teary eyes, causing Emi and Suzuno to roll their eyes.

“Forget it, I understand! As long as I get serious, Maou won’t be able to match me when it comes to work! I will definitely make you take back your words!”

Urushihara shouted agitatedly and closed the main door to room 201 without waiting for their reply. Emi and Suzuno saw this and looked at each other, relieved.

“Looks like it went well?”

“It should be alright… mostly.”

“Mama, Suzuno onee-san, don’t keep scolding Lucifer, okay?”

With a tried look on her face, Emi pacified the protesting Alas=Ramus while looking at the tightly closed door of the Demon Fortress.

“If they became homeless because they are unemployed and gave up entirely, it would be troublesome. Excluding the Maou and Alsiel, as Lucifer might really harm the Japanese, so it’s especially worrying.”

The reason for Emi’s strange behaviour in helping Maou solve his unemployment problem was because of this.

Emi was worried if Urushihara, who lacked self-control, lost the current stability in his life, there was no telling what he might do. Now that the three demons finally found a stable job and a place to stay, she could finally relax.

“However, that city called Choshi should be really far away from Sasazuka.”

Simply put, it is in Chiba, but this range is still very large, and Emi wasn’t sure where exactly is Kimigahama situated. However, just this time, Emi wasn’t that worried about the movements of Maou and the rest.

“Bell, have you met with the landlady before?”

“Hm, we have only communicated via letters……”

Emi remembered the first time she met the landlady---Shiba Miki of Sasazuka Villa Rosa.

“I can’t really express this well…… but as long as it is related to that landlady, I think that even if those guys want to do bad things, they won’t be able to achieve their goal. Of course, I don’t plan to just watch from the side, but even if I don’t follow them closely, there shouldn’t be any problem.”

“What does that mean?”

That day when Urushihara and Orba took Chiho as a hostage and challenged them.

Even though only a few months passed since then, it felt like something which happened a long time ago.

“As a human from Ente Isla, we own a lot of this world, or we have a power and unexplainable things that the people of Earth do not. However……”

----Shouldn’t you be the most knowledgeable about how powerful belief and faith can be?

“The Earth must have a lot of power which we do not know about and unexplainable things.”

Suzuno, who did not understand what was said, tilted her head.

“In addition, there is still the matter of Chiho.”

“Chiho-san?”

“Whether that child is willing or not, but she is already too deeply involved with us. Even if we want to go after the Maou and the rest, we need to ensure her safety before leaving Sasazuka.”

The inhabitants of Ente Isla and Heaven have already decided that Chiho is one of the people involved in the battle between the Hero and the Maou. Currently, even if they manipulate Chiho’s memory, it will not change the fact that she is important to Emi and Maou.

If Chiho was captured by Sariel or Gabriel as a hostage, it would be too late.

Emi crossed her arms in front of her chest, deep in thought.

“The best way would be to obtain consent from Chiho’s mother, and bring her along……but it should be difficult to do that……it would be a lot easier if her parents happened to go overseas.”

“You should face reality.”

A high school girl would still have to act according to the situation of the adults, this is the troubling thing.
 

Chapter 1 was too long to be put in one post, here's part 2

“…………”

“…………”

“…………”

There was only a slight wind coming in from a crack in the entire Demon Fortress, the three demons sat in a circle around a small package and looked at each other with serious looks on their faces.

A package about the size of a letter envelope, sealed using layers of tape and raffia string for unknown reasons, with a messy scrawl of “Unsealing Banned” written on it.

“What are you guys doing, just open it quickly.”

Emi, who couldn’t take it anymore, chided the males who did not move at all.

“Given, given the situation now, even if we look at it, it would also……right.”

“Yeah.”

“That’s true……”

Emi, who did not have a lot of patience, pushed away the hesitating demons. After roughly grabbing the package, she started tearing at it.

“Wahhhhhh! What are you doing!”

“You’re noisy! Stop delaying the troublesome things, open it already!”

“Yo, you! You’ll regret it later!”

“Noooo!”

Emi ignored the exaggerated reactions of the inhabitants of the Demon Fortress and opened the package—

“……Wha, what is this? A tape?”

After that she found a home video tape with any labels on it.

“You, you, it must be a cursed tape!”

Maou grabbed his head and shouted.

“The, there must be  fear, fearsome footage inside!”

Ashiya plastered himself against the wall, his face blue.

“Just the photo has such destructive power, it’ll be unimaginable with a video!”

“…… What are you guys talking about…… then again, this is sent by the landlady, right? Why do you have to seal it so tightly?”

 “Thi, think about it, this is a tape sent by the landlady, isn’t it? You have seen her before, right?”

“So what? Stop saying these strange things and check the contents.”

Not long after Maou consulted the apartment agent, the Demon Fortress also received a package sent by the landlady.

Compared to the luxurious envelopes normally sent by the landlady, Maou and the rest estimated that nothing important would be contained in the package. As they were worried that it might contain mysterious local products or something on par with “that photo”, they were already on their guard.

As Suzuno lectured Maou and the others, “What if there is an important notice inside’, they finally decided to open the package.

However, there was no letter, instructions or label, just a fully black tape. The inhabitants of the Demon Fortress, faced with “the incident of photos of the landlady in a swimsuit”, which caused heavy casualties, who could blame them for not wanting to play the tape because of a bad feeling they had?

Basically, even if the landlady did send the tape over, there was no equipment within the Demon Fortress which can play it.

In the end, they decided that it was more sensible to not watch it and seal it immediately and stuffed the tape into the deepest part of the storage closet in the corner of the room, securely sealing it. However, to the inhabitants of the Demon Fortress, this tape could be the last hope for changing their current situation.

But the mental trauma caused by ‘that photo’ still cast a terrifying shadow in the demons’ hearts.

“It can’t be helped, if so, we can only release ‘that photo’ and let the Hero see it for herself!”

“Ple, please don’t do that, Maou-sama! ‘That photo’ is a taboo which the Maou cannot awaken! Even the gods cannot touch that absolute seal!”

“Shut up! If I can’t use it now, then when can I use it?!”

“Ahh! My, my memories, the memories of ‘that photo’ is eroding me! The world is doomed!”

“The Demon Fortress is going to collapse! Maou-sama! Please stop!”

As an outsider, Emi totally ignored Maou and the others who became very worked up because of ‘that photo’ and rested her gaze on Urushihara’s laptop.

“We should be able to watch the contents of the tape if we buy a cheap tape player.”

Even though it is now the golden time for DVD and BD, it is still possible to buy equipment which digitize information from old media from home electronics hypermarts.

Of course, Maou, Ashiya and Urushihara knew about this. However, they thought that if it’s just to unseal that ominous seal, there is really no need to intentionally do something equivalent to throwing money into a drain.

“Hey, Emi, it looks like there is no way to watch the tape right now, erhm, we can solve our problems on our own, so forget about this tape!”

Just as Emi kicked away the continually pestering Maou with a stiff smile on her face—

“Emilia, it’s quite noisy over at your end, is the matter solved?”

Suzuno, who was carrying Alas=Ramus, walked over from next door to investigate the situation, Emi replied her with a shake of her head.

Emi pointed to the panicked three demons with her thumb, shrugging, and after showing Suzuno the tape, she briefly explained the situation.

After that—

“Erhm…… in this case……”

Chiho, who was standing beside Suzuno, said cautiously,

“I have a tape player at my place……why don’t we go to my house to watch?”

“I, I’m back, Mu……wah!”

“Oh my, oh my, welcome! Ah, you must be Maou-san!”

Chiho had only just opened the door at the entrance, before she was almost blown away by a sharp and clear voice.

Maou talked to this voice on the phone before. Chiho mama, which looked around 40 plus years old -- -- Sasaki Riho, already put on her makeup and was dressed neatly to wait for Maou and the others.

“Ex, excuse me. I’m sorry for disturbing you at such a late hour.”

Even though Maou was sweating heavily due to nervousness, and he still bowed cautiously.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Yusa Emi.”

Emi, standing behind Maou, did not say much, and only briefly introduced herself.

“Uh……here is a small gift for you……Chiho-san has always been looking out for us……”

Maou, who stuttered out socially polite sentences which he was not used to, handed over the cake meant as a meeting gift, which Ashiya wanted him to bring along, to Riho.

“Oh my, thank you so much, taking the trouble. Alright, please come in, it must be hard on you this time. Ah, let me go make tea, please go to the living room first—Chiho, please guide the guests!”

Under the prompts of the mother, who was so excited that it felt like a theatre performance was going to start, Chiho nodded with a stiff expression.

“Er, erhm, Maou-san, Yusa-san, please come this way.”

“Ex, excuse me.”

“Sorry for the trouble.”

Between Sasazuka station and Kōshū Kaidō, in a residential area in the opposite direction from the Demon Fortress, was a normal looking standalone building. That is the Sasaki home.

In order to check the contents of the tape as soon as possible, there was no other choice in the current situation. But no matter what, the inhabitants of the Demon Fortress have been looked after by the Sasaki family when it comes to food.

Ashiya frantically went out on Durandal II and finally managed to buy a high class cake. However, if they did something impolite to Chiho’s family members, it might betray the trust which Chiho harbored, so Maou really spared no effort.

In addition, Emi even followed them in order to watch him.

Logically, Ashiya should be the one to visit, but Emi was worried that if these two people left together, they might secretly get rid of the tape.

As a group of people coming over at the same time would cause some inconvenience to the Sasaki family, so except for Maou and Emi, the rest of them are staying at Villa Rosa to take care of Alas=Ramus and wait for good news from Maou and the others.

Even though Emi always cursed the demon forces in a nonchalant manner, and did not care about their life or death, for an unknown reason, she is actually sincerely helping Maou and the rest solve their problem.

“Mum…… is too excited.”

Once Chiho entered the living room, she lowered her head, sapped of energy.

The living room, cleaned until it was free of dust not only had a brand new table cloth on the table, there was even a vase containing various types of flowers.

Perhaps it was because scented candles were burnt or air fresheners were used, there was a slight flower smell in the living room.

Even the seat cushions were obviously changed into thick cushions which were not used on a normal basis, making Chiho, the original resident, feel awkward. As for Maou and Emi, they only understood that they were very welcome.

“Er, erhm, I’m sorry, uh, please take a seat. Ah, Maou-san, the tape……”

After Chiho, who sounded like she ran out of energy, took the tape from Maou, she knelt down in front of the LCD television on top of a television stand in the corner of the living room.

Maou and Emi looked at each other while sitting down nervously. Underneath them, the new seat cushion crackled.

“Come come come, I prepared some chilled red tea.”

Once again, Riho entered the room in high spirits. Maou and Emi cowered a little in shock, but Riho did not mind at all, gracefully placing the chilled red tea, which gave off a slight frangrance, in front of Maou and the rest.

“Thank you…… this smells nice, isn’t this flower tea, is this rose hip tea?”

Emi asked this after taking a sip, Riho’s eyes shined at that moment.

“Expected of a member of society, so know a bit about this! Thank you so much for taking care of Chiho, I hear about you from her a lot. Seriously, Chiho and my husband are the same, they don’t care about red tea at all.”

“Yea, yeah……”

“Mu, mum! It’s fine if you stop at that!”

After setting the tape and the television, Chiho, blushing, wanted to chase her mother out of the living room, but Riho ignored this.

“Before chasing me away, you should quickly play that tape! Perhaps the contents will have something to do with Maou-san’s family!”

After saying this, Riho sat down on the opposite side of Maou and Emi. Even though Chiho had explained the bare minimum of the situation to Riho with regards to borrowing the tape player belonging to the Sasaki family, Maou was worried that the landlady would say strange things, or that Chiho and Riho would be unable to maintain a normal mindset after seeing the landlady.

“Seriously……! I’m sorry, Maou-san, can I play it now?”

“Ah, yeah, please do.”

At this point, Maou cannot just ask Riho to leave, so he could only watch Chiho press the Play button, full of worries.

Chiho awkwardly sat down next to her mother and turned her line of sight to the television monitor. A black screen was displayed for a moment before a video was shown----

Blue skies, gold coloured land, and the pyramid on top of it. After one hundred people sees this, those hundred people will definitely reply that this background is at Egypt.

“Ah~~ ah~~ cough.”

The landlady’s voice sounded like she was testing the microphone. Maou subconsciously clenched his fists because of the terror he felt.

“Erhm, Maou-san and Ashiya-san, it’s been a while. I, Shiba, am going to explain things in front of the Giza Pyramids in Egypt.”

The landlady was standing in the middle of a sunny desert.

She was wearing a figure fitting dress which looked like it was about to burst at the seams, while showing her legs, with a dress hat which was useless at blocking out the sun. Just seeing the revealed limbs of Shiba Miki was enough to make Maou blue in the face, and cause his heart to beat faster.

Even so, the destructive power this time is a lot less compared to the swimsuit photo, and he could still keep his eyes on the screen, though barely. It seems like Maou did improve with regards to this.

What is even more surprising is that compared to Maou, who was sweating in nervousness, the other three people did not have any special reaction, and nonchalantly watched the life threatening video of the landlady.

“I was contacted during my holiday, I never expected that Maou-san and the others will encounter such tragedy, I feel very sorry as the landlady.”

Even though the landlady did not have to take responsibility for the hole appearing in the room, but because of the full cleavage that she showed when she bowed deeply, Maou strongly felt that she should apologise for the curse burnt into his soul.

“Luckily, Maou-san and Ashiya-san were not injured. With regards to the apartment renovation, I will take responsibility as the landlady, please do not worry. The rent will not be affected as the same time as well. Due to the renovation dates and the amount of work, the thorough renovation may need to be done, so I’m afraid that everyone would need to move out for a while……”

The landlady explained this professionally, and the contents were the same as the notification letter which Suzuno had received.

Rather than that, it was harder to explain why the landlady would use such a troublesome method to notify the Demon Fortress. If she used a letter notification like the one she sent to Suzuno, Maou and the rest would find out about this a lot earlier.

Just as Maou was finally getting used to this shocking footage, and felt unsatisfied inside his heart-----

“In addition, there is another matter which I would like to trouble Maou-san and Ashiya-san.”

After talking about the renovation period of the apartment, the landlady continued to speak.

“Actually, I have a niece.”

Maou and Emi looked at each other in reflex.

The landlady’s…niece? The two of them never thought that this landlady will have parents, siblings, nephews or nieces, or other normal family members, so they were quite shocked when they heard this.

“This niece is currently operating a beach house at a beach in Chiba.”

Talking about the landlady and beaches, Maou remembered that “Swimsuit photo incident”. Just as Maou though that this tape will finally show its fangs and wanted to press the stop button on the tape player------

“If it’s convenient for you, can all of you go to my niece’s store to help out?”

He stopped in his tracks because of this sentence.

“That store is situated at a beach in southeast Chiba. Taking to account the location and the renovation of the apartment, accommodation will most likely be provided, so there’s no need to commute. As my niece’s family have other things to handle, so this will probably last from the beginning of August until after the Obon holiday, what do you think about it?”

From the beginning of August until after the Obon holiday, and the job even provides accommodation?

For a job like this to suddenly appear at this time, could it be a joke? It is something which would push them to the depths after making them happy, or a kind of prank segment?

“Southeast of Chiba…… is it Choshi?”

Chiho mumbled to herself softly, like she wanted to confirm her memory.

“If there are guys around, it would be more assuring in case something sudden occurs. Of coruse, you have your own job to handle, so I will not force you on this. However if it is convenient, please think about it. If you’re willing to take this job, please call this number……”

The landlady pointed at the bottom of the video, and took the effort to type subtitles which that looks like a phone number. Maou stared blankly at the numbers on the video for a long time----

“Ma…… Maou, isn’t that great? Make the call quickly!”

T/N: Emi was about to say Maou as in Demon King, but switched to Maou, his Japanese last name.

After that he was slapped very hard on the back by someone, causing him to cough very hard.

“Cou, cough! E, Emi, what are you doing?”

“This tape was sent over quite some time ago, right? Make the call quickly. If this job is taken by someone else, you’ll end up losing out!”

“Eh, bu, but Yusa-san, since it’s a beach house in Chiba, that means it’s really far away from here……”

Chiho, who was shocked by Emi’s reaction, did not even finish her sentence before she was interrupted by her mother beside her,

“That’s right, Maou-san! Isn’t that great? In this way, you can solve the issues with your accommodation and job! It’s fine if you make the call here, make the call quickly!”

As an older person, it was expected for Riho to react that way. On the other hand, for Emi to feel happy about Maou’s situation getting better, it was really strange.

Even though Maou felt apprehensive about the development of the situation and Emi’s attitude, but he still entered the numbers on the screen into his mobile phone and raised a hand to ask the surrounding people to be quiet.

As he was still making a call in someone else’s home, Maou first acknowledged Riho with his eyes, and pressed the Call button after taking a deep breath.

Maou did not feel optimistic about the situation like Emi and Riho. After all, this timing is too coincidental.

Basically, this is a beach house run by a relative of “that landlady”. Maou did not know what kind of demon lair that place would be, and did not know what kind of destiny awaits him. If he had worked in a MgRonalds further away, it might not be as stressful on his mental state.

Chiho, who watched Maou with worry, seemed to think that Emi’s reaction is strange and took occasional glances to check on her.

Maou waited for the other party to pick up, his face full of nervousness, after a few rings------

“Hello?”

A simple answer was heard from the other end of the line, it was a female voice.

As it is a niece, this result is to be expected, but for Maou, who was fully prepared as he was worried that a Youkai would appear, he was a little shocked by the normal human voice.

“He, hello. I’m sorry, calling at such a late time.”

“Yeah.”

“Erhm, Shiba-san introduced me to a job with regards to a beach house, and wanted me to call……”

Maou had just said tis when the other party said with such a loud volume that Maou wanted to pull the phone away from his ear,

“Shiba-san……. ah! Are you the tenant from the Tokyo apartment of Aunt Mi-chan?”

“Mi-chan…… ah, that’s right. My name is Maou.”

Thinking back, the landlady did ask other people to address her as Mi-chan before. Emi remembered that she was asked to do so before.

“That’s right, that’s right, I heard about it! Because I didn’t receive any contact and July is going to end soon, so I thought it was inconvenient for you, and was about to give up!”

The female voice on the other end of the line gave others a cheerful impression.

From the tone of her voice, the other party should be older than Emi or Suzuno, but did not have the unreadable mysterious aura like the landlady.

“Erhm, that’s because something went wrong with the commuications……”

Even if his mouth is cracked open, Maou could not say that the tape was sealed until today because he was afraid of watching it.

“Ah! I can understand! Aunt frequently travels overseas after all. Even the new year card will only arrive in February.”

“I, I see.”

For it to be this way even for relatives, by comparison, the fact that the notification can reach Maou and Suzuno so quickly is a miracle.

Just as Maou was thinking about this, the other party suddenly threw out a topic.

“So, you’re Maou-san right? Can you come over?”

The other party seems like a hasty type. Maou, who almost answered out of reflex, quickly stopped himself.

A beach house run by one person, this type of workplace is an unknown world to Maou.

If he did not confirm the scope and conditions of the job, he cannot decide if he can take up this task. Even though the other party is the landlady’s niece, Maou did not even know her name.

“Know one’s strength and the enemy to secure victory”, this was the philosophy Maou believed in when he first aimed to unify the demon world.

“I’m sorry, currently I only heard that it is a ‘beach house in Chiba’……”

Maou chose his words carefully, leading the other party to mention the conditions, the other end of the line nodded and answered,

“Ah! Aunt is rather lax in this area after all.”

The landlady’s niece continued to speak with a voice which did not sound that delicate,

“The location is at the corner of Choshi, Chiba…… do you know where Kimigahama is?”

“No……”

At this time, Riho passed a notepad and a pen to Maou. Maou thanked her with his eyes, and accepted the pen.

Maou quickly wrote the words “Choshi” on the paper. Seeing this, Chiho sucked in a breath.

“That’s true. As a location, Inubo or Toyama would be more well-known. Excluding the outlying islands and the mountains, Waterfront is the coast in Kanto which you can see the earliest sunrise.”

“Uh…..”

No matter what, these are names which Maou were not familiar with. The other party seemed to sense this from Maou’s tone of voice.

“Sigh, you can just treat it as the east of Chiba. Even though it’s quite some distance from the city center.”

The topic of the workplace location ended without any detailed explainations.

However, it was no use even if he felt dissatisfied, so Maou could only note down the name of the place he didn’t know about and continued to listen.

“In addition, this is hard to say, but the salary here isn’t high. A hourly pay for one person is only about 1000 yen.”

“1000 yen per person?”

Maou was a little shocked because of the unexpected amount. However, since it’s an hourly pay per person, this means that more than one person is allowed to go.

As long as Maou and Ashiya worked together, they would be able to earn two hours of income for the whole Demon Fortress in one hour.

“Oh my, because this store is opened partly because of my father’s interest, so it wasn’t meant to make a profit. In addition, it’s really busy during this period, so I’m really troubled about it. Also, there is also free accommodation and food, and from the end of work till the day turns dark, you can swim until you’re satisfied!”

A job with an hourly pay of 1000 yen, and comes with accommodation and food. Even though swimming is good, but for Maou right now, these are ideal conditions.

“May I know how many people can go over?”

In some sense, this question is considered a gamble. Right now, there are not two, but three inhabitants in the Demon Fortress.

And the third person is Urushihara, a Neet to the core.

From the way the landlady put it, it seems like it was decided beforehand that Ashiya, who is living together with Maou, will go along as well. However, if it is now three people, the staff costs might cause a burden to the shop which ‘wasn’t meant to make a profit’.

Moreover, even if he proposed his choice of people, it was hard to guarantee that the third person will work seriously.

But the answer of the other party was something Maou did not expect.

“What is it, can you find more people to come?”

“Eh? Erhm, that, that is, including me and my roommates, there are three guys.”

“Eh? Three people?”

“Eh? Three people?”

Chiho and Emi exclaimed in surprise at the same time, but Maou ignored them.

“Not much will be earned regardless of the number of people, you can all come over! Because it’s seems to be very tiring in various aspects, it’s alright to work in shifts.”

From this sentence, it seems like the other party had seen through the situation on this end.

Even though he didn’t know what kind of job it is, but it should be alright to let Urushihara take charge of the short and easy portion. After that, everything will be fine as long as Maou and Ashiya worked their best till the end. If Urushihara can develop a slight motivation in working because of this, it can be seen as an unexpected benefit.

“…… Can I trouble you by having three people come over together?”

After Maou said this, laughter was hard from the other end of the line. Chiho, on the other side of the table, showed signs of nervousness at this.

“Yeah. So, when can all of you come over?”

“As there are some things we have to settle tomorrow, so I am planning to come over on the day after tomorrow, August 1st.”

“Wah, then I have to quickly prepare the rooms. However, it is better if you can come earlier. According to my father, the number of people will officially increase from August, really, thank you so much!”

From the beginning, Maou felt concerned, with things such as “seems to be” very tiring, or “according to my father”, the number of people will increase from August. For some reason, these explanations felt as if it was heard from someone else.

After asking about this-----

“Oh my, I think I mentioned this earlier, this store was originally managed by my father, even though I helped out before, this summer holiday he suddenly said he wanted to travel, and pushed everything to me.  Formally, I’m supposed to take over, but I also have my own work, as a girl, it’s hard for me to handle this alone. As my father never intended to make a profit, he did not teach me how to run a business. In the end, I’m still a young and energetic girl, so there are risks in that aspect.”

To be specific, until what age would it be appropriate to be known as young and energetic, what kind of risks are there, would it be fine to conduct business like this etc, Maou forcefully swallowed these questions.

About this, since it is someone Aunt Mi-chan introduced, then I can rest easy. I’ll leave it to you guys then.”

“It’s, it’s fine…… then again, how should we go over?”

“Ah, I need to tell you the location. Are you driving? Or taking the train? Or taking the plane?”

“Pla, plane? Uh, we will take the train.”

No matter where they are going, the mode of transport for Maou and the others is limited to mass transport.

“The journey is rather long, you know? If you depart from the city center, you can first take the Sobu line to the terminal station to Chiba, then take the JR’s Sobu Main line to the terminal station, that would be Choshi. After that, take the Choshi Electric Railway, and get off at the station before the terminal station, Inubo station. Even though you will pass through the station called Kimigahama, our shop is closer to Inuba. It takes about three hours to get here from the city centre, but all of you can treat it as an holiday trip.”

Not only does Maou have to take three lines which he is not familiar with, he still has to get off at two terminal stations. Looks like it is further than he had thought.

Partly because of economic reasons, ever since Maou and Ashiya drifted to Japan, the two of them had never left the 23rd District of Tokyo. Even though this is the first time they will head to other provinces, like what the other party said, this long journey feels like it will become a holiday trip.

Even the Maou, who had travelled the whole world to conquer it, will feel that a three hour long journey is a little far.

“After you reach Inubo, I will drive there to pick you guys up. Call me when you arrive……”

“I understand. Uh, so, it’s a bit late asking this now, may I know your name as well as the name of your store……”

Even though this isn’t something which is asked after everything is settled, it needs to be known.

Maou, who asked this gingerly, almost pulled the phone away from his ear because of the loud laugh from the other party.

“Ahahaha, I’m sorry, that’s right. Why haven’t I told you my name?”

Should this be something that we should ask instead?

“I’m sorry, giving my name at such a late time. I am Aunt Mi-chan’s niece, Daiko Amane.”

“Daiko-san huh….. I got it. So for the day after tomorrow, when would it be convenient for us to come over…...”

For working, this question is to be expected, but Daiko Amane’s reply exceeded all of Maou’s experiences.

“Hm, you can come over anytime.”

“Eh?”

“Just choose a time which is convenient for you, I’ll pick all of you up at any time.”

“I, I see…… then is there anything related to the job which we would need to have?”

“Stamina?”

The answer of the other party is very simple. But what Maou wanted to ask wasn’t about this.

“Uh, you should just need to bring your clothes, towels and toothbrushes? For the other things which you lack, you can just replenish them here.”

It’s not as if they were going to a relative’s house to play. Isn’t there anything that needs to be used during work?

“That’s right, you need to bring beach sandals. You can bring flip flops, it needs to be those where they are straps around the ankle. If not, it will be easy to trip on the sand, or get washed away by the waves. If you work barefoot, you may cut your feet on the rubbish, pebbles or shells under the sand, so that’s not allowed.

“Beach sandals. I understand. I will buy shoes that fit.”

That’s right, that’s what I wanted to ask. But this serious topic of things to take note with regards to work ended quickly.

“Not only beach sandals, since it’s a rare chance to be here, you might as well bring your swimsuit and goggles. If you want to play with fireworks, we have many different and good varieties! Even though you can’t play with the ones which fly upwards, but playing with the sparklers (Note: A type of gunpowder wrapped in paper, which would give off sparkling fireworks after lighting) amongst the sea wind is like a fight to the death, very exciting!”

“…… Is that so.”

It’s looks like it would be better to treat it with a totally different thinking from working in the city. Halfway through the conversation, the topic has completely changed to leisure and play.

Or is it only Daikoya who acts like this? (Note: As only Samurai were given last names in the Edo era, most people would have the habit of using the founder’s given name or location name as the business or dealer name).

“Ah, but there is something I need to mention first.”

“Yes, what is it?”

Daiko Amane’s tone of voice suddenly became more serious. Following suit, Maou also reigned in his expressions, and waited for the other party to continue.

“Because this is not a fashionable place, so even though there are tourists, they are mostly adults. It’s a rather dull place which does not bring much motivation.”

“Alright.”

“In addition, there is many things to handle in this job, I did say that you can swim all you want, but in reality, you can only play at the beach in the mornings and later in the evenings. Therefore……”

After pausing for a while, Daiko spoke with a tone of voice like she was going to announce something important,

“Don’t expect to have a beautiful encounter with a swimsuit wearing young lady! Basically, dating is something which will cause trouble to others, so dating is not allowed!”

“What have you been saying since just now!”

“Eh? Aren’t these things important to guys?”

“There’s nothing like that! Then again, aren’t we supposed to go there to work?”

From this series of conversations, it’s expected for Maou to have this question.

“Ah, I get it, Maou-san already has a partner?”

“Not at all!!!!”

Maou said this at a louder volume than what he was using so far, and from the corner of his eye, saw Chiho, Emi and Riho widened their eyes in surprise as they did not know what was going on.

Normally, calls which talk about work issues should be more tension filled and filled with work related elements. Of course, if it was a workplace which is laborious, impersonal and only earns money, it will be very troubling, but not feeling any tension is also an issue.

Because of Kisaki’s personal values, the work at the MgRonalds in front of Hatagaya station is not especially strenuous, but there will be still unique standards of operations, work etiquette and unwritten rules present at many large scale chain stores.

For Maou, who had worked under such an environment, the feeling which Daikoya gave off totally exceeded his predictions.

Just as Maou was gasping for air, the other party seemed to be thinking about something.

“If you’re a hardcore Herbivore male (Note: Refers to the group of guys who have little or no interest in the opposite gender and only focueses on one’s own hobbies), then I can rest easy. But it feels a little off. From what I heard from Aunt Mi-chan, I thought it would be a more bold and generous group of people.”

Exactly how did the landlady describe Maou and Ashiya, and what kind of impressions did Daiko imagine from that?

Maou was confident that it was not possible to be able to find someone else like him, a hardworking, honest, upright Demon who is living seriously while conquering the world and working, in the past as well as the future.

He has work perform well as work in other to clear the various misunderstandings which arose from this phone call.

“In short, on the day after tomorrow, I will come here as early as possible!”

“Understood, I’ll wait for you guys.”

He didn’t do anything special, but after this conversation which lacked any feelings of tension, Maou still felt strangely tired.

“What were you guys talking about?”

Emi was the first one to raise a difficult question. For those people who were listening from the side, it wasn’t a normal interview discussing about work.

“I’m not too sure myself.”

Right now, even for Maou himself, he could only answer that it was a unfamiliar job, working under a unfamiliar person, in an unfamiliar place.

“So, how did things go? Is everything alright work wise?”

Riho asked with a shake of the ice filled glass. Maou kept his mobile phone and bowed deeply.

“Thank you for lending us the tape player. Thanks to you, we finally do not have to drift into the streets. From the day after tomorrow, we will work at the beach house in Chiba.”

“Oh, that’s really great.”

Riho nodded with a smile.

Chiho looked like she breathed a sigh of relief, but still, she suddenly remembered something and asked,

“Three people, does that include Urushihara-san? Would that be alright? Is he able to go out, or talk to people normally?”

Expectedly, Chiho had thought of the same questions as Maou, and from the look of unease on her face, she seemed to have decided that Urushihara would give the other party a bad impression.

“What is it? Is Urushihara-san the type of person who would stay at home?”

Riho, who was not in the loop, deciphered the uneasy atmosphere around Chiho and asked this at the same time.

“I’m sorry, letting you see such an embarrassing thing…... but the other person and I would do our best to cover for him.”

And Maou just admitted it without any reservations.

“Hm……”

Riho, who looked like she didn’t mind that much, nodded while glancing at her daughter’s face from the side. And Chiho was currently looking at Maou with wistful expression on her face.

“Ah, thank you for your notepad and pen.”

Maou returned the stationery for taking notes back to Riho. As for Emi, she spoke to Maou while looking at the notes he wrote,

“I hoped you learnt your lesson. Next time when the landlady sends other things over, you have to open it properly.”

“Uh……yeah, that is, I will deal with it appropriately.”

Maou thought that because Emi could only say those things because she had never seen ‘that photo’. However, the fact that the landlady had saved him is also the truth. Just on this point, he must thank her properly.

Just as the group of people realized that the tape was still playing and turned towards the screen with the intention to switch it off, at this point of time------

“Oh yes, I had the chance to learn belly dancing in Egypt.”

The landlady who seemed to be talking about random topics until now, said this on the video.

When the group was not noticing, the background behind the landlady had changed from the pyramids in the desert to a place which looks like a luxurious palace ballroom.

“A member of a tribe who made music and dance their profession decided that I am a first rate dancer. After this, I will take part in a major dance event being held here. Everyone, please watch my dance.”

“Oh my, such beautiful clothes.”

From Maou’s point of view, Riho’s opinion is too abnormal.

The landlady, being shown on the screen, had already changed into a blouse which revealed her shoulders. On top of her abdomen where her waist cannot be identified, it was decorated with countless numbers of dazzling gems and coins and with her fluttering bright red skirt made of chiffon and satin, she had instantly turned into a giant flower monster.

Maou’s movements can only be described as lightning speed.

I can’t allow this tape to continue playing. If it continues, it will only cause misfortune to others!

However, as Maou’s fingers touched the stop button on the tape player, accompanied by oriental style music , the video started to mercilessly show the landlady’s shaking arms, abdomen, neck and various places on her whole body. Starting to shake her waist and bottom, she performed the eastern secret dance which once sucked the whole of Europe into a whirlpool of senses ------ the scene of “Belly Dancing”.

After that, Maou lost all his memories from now until the morning of the next day.

“Seriously…… mum, you’re too excited.”

After seeing off Maou and Emi, as well as Ashiya, who came to pick up the unconscious Maou, Chiho started to complain to her mother after closing the main door on the porch.

Even though she could understand her mother’s feelings, but if she welcomed the guests with such passion, it would be awkward for the child when they meet their friends later on.

“Oh my, does it matter. Even though I know that Maou-san is very serious when he works, if I don’t know what kind of person he is, it will difficult for me to make a judgment.”

This sentence which her mother said while clearing the tableware in the living room caused Chiho to widen her eyes in surprise.

“You said you know…… Mum. Did you go to the store?”

“Why are you so surprised? Isn’t that to be expected?”

“I told you before that I will be troubling for me and you should not go……”

“So I exercised self-control and didn’t greet anyone. However……”

Riho glanced at the notepad which Maou used.

“He’s a good person. Maou-san.”

“Eh?”

“Yeah, if he’s that kind of person, it’s fine if Chiho likes him.”

“Mum!”

In a rare occurrence, Chiho said this in an agitated manner, but Riho turned a deaf ear to this.

“He’s diligent and polite, for a guy, his handwriting can be considered to be rather beautiful. He does not give off a flippant feeling, and does not have any cigarette smell on him. And from the fact that he uses such an old mobile phone, he should be very thrifty on his daily life, right? Is the person who came to get him Ashiya-san? In this day and age, it’s rare to see a simple and unadorned guy like him.”

For Ashiya’s situation, rather than saying that he’s simple and unadorned, it would be more accurate to say that he is poor.

“Your father used to be a poor student who lived a hard life, I guess this is hereditary?”

Ignoring the fact if the liking of certain types of guys can be inherited, but for the daughter who is being counselled by her own parents, it was really an uncomfortable feeling.

“Currently, it’s difficult to find such an honest person like him. You shouldn’t have anything to worry about, right?”

“Wo, worry?”

Chiho looked at her mother’s eyes in surprise.

“Do you think you can deceive your mother’s eyes? For example, knowing that Maou-san working place is in Chiba, or when talking about Urushihara-san, you were frowning so badly.”

Chiho blushed subconsciously, and belatedly used her hand to cover her forehead.

“That’s, that’s because……”

With her right hand covering her forehead, and left hand grabbing the hem of her skirt, Chiho said bashfully,

“How should I put it, even though Maou-san and Ashiya-san are down to earth and capable people, but Urushihara-san is a lazy bum who is sloppy in various areas and does not take things seriously. Every day, he only surfs the internet. I’m worried that Maou-san would end up causing harm to his body because he is covering for Urushihara-san in an unfamiliar place, or that Urushihara-san’s attitude would cause them to get fired and so on. If so, not being able to stay in Sasazuka…… is very possible……”

After fluently saying various criticisms about Urushihara, Chiho suddenly fell silient.

In the past, Chiho had thought that even if Maou and the others did not have a job, in the most serious case, their food and living conditions will become worse, but she finally realised that the situation is not that simple.

The rent in Sasazuka is very high because of the land price. If Maou and the others lost just half a month of income, it is possible that they would have to leave.

In this case, Emi and Suzuno, who chased after them, would definitely do the same.

It wouldn’t be that bad if it was just like that. In the worst case, if Maou and the rest returned to Ente Isla because they have nowhere else to go, perhaps the Hero and the Maou would have to “settle things with each other”.

“…… I do not wish, for things to turn out like that.”

“Chiho?”

Chiho leaned against the wall at her home, sighing.

“If something went wrong at work, Maou-san and the others may end up going to someplace far away…… Yusa-san, and Suzuno-san at well……”

Even though she cannot fight like Emi, Suzuno or Alas=Ramus, but she could at least help Maou when it comes to work. However, the pre-requisite would have to be that their workplace needs to be near to Sasazuka.

Right now, she is still a normal high school girl being protected by her parents and cannot imagine how she could be like them, surviving on their own.

Chiho lowered her head with a darkened expression.

Currently, only the sounds of Riho washing the cutlery could be heard.

“Let me say this first, even if you want to go together with Maou-san and the others, I won’t agree to it.

“……Yeah, I know.”

It was expected for her mother to say that. No matter how much they trusted the other party, there wouldn’t be any parents who would allow a high school girl to work in a place where she had to live with other guys.

She couldn’t lend Maou-san her power.

Just as Chiho dejected decided to raise her head.

“Then again……”

“Eh?”

“No just Maou-san, Yusa-san seems like a dependable person. She may be young, she responds to others in such an awe-aspiring manner. I feel that the aura she gives off is rather different from the young people today.”

Her mother suddenly started talking about Emi.

Even Chiho, who was not a native of Ente Isla, can also guess that Emi must have experienced a cruel past for her to become the person she is now.

But Chiho did not feel that her mother and Emi spoke that much during the period of time when Maou fainted. Or did they talk about some deep topics when Emi was about to leave?

Chiho paused in shock because she could not guess her mother’s intentions.

“Since you are earning your own money, as long as your reason is sensible and logical, I won’t say too much about it.”

“Mum……?”

After washing the cutlery and wiping her hands, Riho mischievously winked and patted her daughter’s head.

※

“Hey! What happened? Why does his complexion look worse compared to when he first left the house?”

“Papa, what’s wrong?”

“You’re back. But what exactly must happen for something like fainting in Chiho-san house to occur?”

Urushihara, Alas=Ramus and Suzuno welcome Emi, Ashiya and Maou with different questions of their own.

When Emi saw that Urushihara is placating Alas=Ramus, who was on his back, and that Alas=Ramus looked like she was enjoying herself, she got a huge shock.

Could it be that Alas=Ramus had sensed some kind of resonance from Urushihara?

“…… I’m not too sure, it could be that too many things were too much of a shock for the Maou.”

“So it was a cursed tape after all?”

Compared to the pale looking Maou, Emi replied, as cool as a cucumber, however Urushihara’s face immediately became a shade of pale which did not lose to Maou.

As Emi did not want to bring Maou, who had collapsed at the Sasaki home, back by herself, she called Suzuno, and asked her to get Ashiya to come over to fetch him instead.

After Maou, who was holding on to Ashiya’s shoulders, paid his respects, he left the Sasaki home and returned to the Demon Fortress.

Maou walked shakily into the porch and was immersed into the darkness of the Demon Fortress.

“What cursed tape. It’s wasn’t anything much at all.”

Emi nonchalantly looked at the pale faced Maou.

“Actually fainting after seeing a female dance, how rude.”

“Dance……”

Urushihara seemed to remember something because of this sentence and his face started to stiffen up.

“Seriously, you guys are too exaggerated. Chiho and Chiho’s mum finished watching it normally.”

“Ehhh? You’re lying?”

“Lucifer, Mama won’t lie!”

As Urushihara did not believe Emi’s words, Alas=Ramus, who was on his back kept hitting the back of Urushihara’s head with a “Papapa” in protest.

But Emi’s testimonial is the truth.

Riho honestly praised the landlady’s clothes, and apart from being surprised that the landlady is a large sized woman, Chiho did not have any other special reactions.

“Anyway, from the day after tomorrow, you will be going to Chiba with the Maou. You will stay at a beach house run by the landlady’s relative until the end of the Obon festival in August.”

“Oh? In other words, it’s a job which provides accommodation. Doesn’t that fit your wishes nicely?”

Suzuno clapped in admiration.

“Is Mama going to Chiba too?”

Alas=Ramus asked as she poked her head out from her perch on Urushihara’s back, Emi smiled wryly and lifted Alas=Ramus from Urushihara’s back.

“Mama will be together with Alas=Ramus, okay?”

“Yeah!”

In order to avoid the situation in which Alas=Ramus will keep asking to go to Chiba together with “Papa”, Emi carried the young girl and changed the topic with an adult’s slyness while looking towards Urushihara.

“She’s not that light now. Ah~ how heavy. So, Chiba? Hm, it doesn’t sound so bad.”

Emi did not miss what Urushihara said to himself as he shook the arm which supported Alas=Ramus.

This fallen angel did not include himself as part of the working staff at all.

“Even though I’m thankful that you helped to take care of Alas=Ramus, you shouldn’t start complaining because of such a small thing. Work at a beach house sounds difficult, you know? I think this is a good chance for you to change those Neet habits of yours.”

“Eh, what, I have to work too?”

Emi thanking him and the content that followed caused Urushihara to be surprised twice in different ways.

“At least that’s how those guys planned it. Then again, accommodation is already provided, do you still think you’re the only one who doesn’t have to work?”

“Uh, that, because, eh?”

Urushihara fiddled with his bangs and stuttered when he answered.

“What is this, isn’t a beach house too much. It’s so hot already, why do we have to specially go to a place with such a high temperature…… then again, why didn’t anyone discuss this with me first……”

“You are really clueless about your own standing.”

Suzuno, who stood at the side, lectured Urushihara sternly as he talked to himself.

“Even if it was discussed with you, there won’t be any constructive opinion. Emilia is right, this is a good chance. Just treat it as going to a counselling centre!”

“I don’t want to! What kind of analogy is that! A, and, I never worked before, and I might cause trouble to others instead, in addition, even if Orba is in detention, it wouldn’t be good if I appeared in front of other people now, isn’t that right?”

Towards Urushihara, who shamelessly kept making excuses, both females looked at him coldly.

“Since you’re making so many excuses, how long do you plan on not working?”

“You say that it’s inconvenient for you to appear in front of other people, then why do you always meet with the driver from Amazon’s Sasuke Delivery Company so nonchalantly? Hm?”

“It’s been almost three months after the incident with Orba, has anything happened? Don’t you go to the bath house as well? Or has the police looked for you before and put you in some dangerous situation?”

“Bu, but, it’s easy to get careless when the sense of danger is lacking! Even if nothing happened today, it doesn’t mean nothing will happen tomorrow, if anything, it’s because I admit that I have committed a crime, so I’m staying at home to reflect……”

“If you are really staying at home to repent and reflect, then I have nothing to say, but you, who is idly wasting time and leeching on your superior and colleague, you have no right to say such nonsense. Rather than that, you would be a little cuter if you had helped the Maou make plans to conquer the world instead.”

“Uh…ughh!”

Having the two females lecture him in such an organized and logical manner, tears started to appear in the corner of Urushihara’s eyes.

“If you don’t work, then what do you plan to do? You don’t have a place to live, so how are you going to shut yourself at home? If you plan to do evil things like when you teamed up with Orba, I won’t let you off this time.”

“Even though it is still possible for you to be the only one who doesn’t work and impose on the other party, but it should be rather embarrassing. However, if you have the courage to ask a stranger for food even through you don’t work, that would be another matter.”

“Mama, Suzuno onee-san, don’t bully Lucifer, okay?”

Even though Alas=Ramus only knew the two people were lecturing Urushihara, she still protected Urushihara with a troubled look on her face. However, this only hurt Urushihara’s pride even further.

“Sigh, this is a matter of the Demon Fortress anyway, I have no reason to be worried about all of you.”

“True. He’s just a low grade demon who fell from the sky. His sense of shame and hardworking attitude must be fallen with his status as an angel.”

“Y, you people! I’m going to cry! If you continue, I’m really going to cry! Basically, isn’t Bell not working as well? Don’t act so high and mighty!”

Urushihara shouted loudly with a voice which sounded like he is already crying.

“Even though Bell isn’t working in Japan now, but she is a proper inquisitor in Ente Isla, and is taking action with a clear goal in mind. In addition, whether it’s cleaning, laundry or cooking, she does it all herself. Even though she doesn’t have a job like you, the disparity between you and Bell is like sky and earth.”

“Damn……! Damn! Actually looking down on me!”

“Lucifer, boys can’t cry, okay. pain pain go away, Away!”

“I’m happy, yet not happy at all!”

Even though it seems like only Alas=Ramus is on Lucifer’s side, Urushihara still rejected the frantically outstretched hand with teary eyes, causing Emi and Suzuno to roll their eyes.

“Forget it, I understand! As long as I get serious, Maou won’t be able to match me when it comes to work! I will definitely make you take back your words!”

Urushihara shouted agitatedly and closed the main door to room 201 without waiting for their reply. Emi and Suzuno saw this and looked at each other, relieved.

“Looks like it went well?”

“It should be alright… mostly.”

“Mama, Suzuno onee-san, don’t keep scolding Lucifer, okay?”

With a tried look on her face, Emi pacified the protesting Alas=Ramus while looking at the tightly closed door of the Demon Fortress.

“If they became homeless because they are unemployed and gave up entirely, it would be troublesome. Excluding the Maou and Alsiel, as Lucifer might really harm the Japanese, so it’s especially worrying.”

The reason for Emi’s strange behaviour in helping Maou solve his unemployment problem was because of this.

Emi was worried if Urushihara, who lacked self-control, lost the current stability in his life, there was no telling what he might do. Now that the three demons finally found a stable job and a place to stay, she could finally relax.

“However, that city called Choshi should be really far away from Sasazuka.”

Simply put, it is in Chiba, but this range is still very large, and Emi wasn’t sure where exactly is Kimigahama situated. However, just this time, Emi wasn’t that worried about the movements of Maou and the rest.

“Bell, have you met with the landlady before?”

“Hm, we have only communicated via letters……”

Emi remembered the first time she met the landlady---Shiba Miki of Sasazuka Villa Rosa.

“I can’t really express this well…… but as long as it is related to that landlady, I think that even if those guys want to do bad things, they won’t be able to achieve their goal. Of course, I don’t plan to just watch from the side, but even if I don’t follow them closely, there shouldn’t be any problem.”

“What does that mean?”

That day when Urushihara and Orba took Chiho as a hostage and challenged them.

Even though only a few months passed since then, it felt like something which happened a long time ago.

“As a human from Ente Isla, we own a lot of this world, or we have a power and unexplainable things that the people of Earth do not. However……”

----Shouldn’t you be the most knowledgeable about how powerful belief and faith can be?

“The Earth must have a lot of power which we do not know about and unexplainable things.”

Suzuno, who did not understand what was said, tilted her head.

“In addition, there is still the matter of Chiho.”

“Chiho-san?”

“Whether that child is willing or not, but she is already too deeply involved with us. Even if we want to go after the Maou and the rest, we need to ensure her safety before leaving Sasazuka.”

The inhabitants of Ente Isla and Heaven have already decided that Chiho is one of the people involved in the battle between the Hero and the Maou. Currently, even if they manipulate Chiho’s memory, it will not change the fact that she is important to Emi and Maou.

If Chiho was captured by Sariel or Gabriel as a hostage, it would be too late.

Emi crossed her arms in front of her chest, deep in thought.

“The best way would be to obtain consent from Chiho’s mother, and bring her along……but it should be difficult to do that……it would be a lot easier if her parents happened to go overseas.”

“You should face reality.”

A high school girl would still have to act according to the situation of the adults, this is the troubling thing.