Vol 4 Chapter 1: Maou, at his wit’s end because he lost a place to live

The young girl’s soft silver hair shone beautifully like the Milky Way.

Floating in the Milky Way, her bright and majestic eyes which gave off a solemn atmosphere, would not lose to the brightness of the sun and moon in space.

“So beautiful…..”

The mutterings of the man who seemed to have lost his soul disappeared into the air even before it could be heard by others.

Maou turned back, and realised that his junior at work who knew about his identity, and the only young girl in the whole of Japan who he fully trusted, had her hands at her waist, puffing up her cheeks.

In the staff room at the McRonald branch in front of Hatagaya Station, a high school girl is currently admonishing the Maou who plans to take over the world.

“That laughter which even I honestly thought was rather gross can even be heard from the kitchen!”

“Oh, ah? Erhm, I’m sorry, it seems like I was too engrossed in the picture.”

Sasaki Chiho, with an unhappy face, looked at the slightly taller Maou, and when she saw Maou holding the free photo album from the studio, she gave a troubled frown.

“Really… you’re looking at pictures of Alas=Ramus-chan again, aren’t you?”

 “That’s right! Take a look at this!”

Once he heard Chiho mention the photos, Maou immediately forgot about what he was told only three seconds also and passed the album over.

“…I see you have new photos again.”

On the photo which Maou handed over, it showed an energetic silver haired girl with her arms wide open while running around what looked like a grass lawn.

“Heh heh, actually, this isn’t a picture. It was printed out after being extracted from a video, I think?”

“… …”

“Because that Emi doesn’t bring her over much, and since our side can only wait passively, it’s obvious that we will feel anxious. This was taken when Alas=Ramus was brought to the exercise centre at Hatagaya. That time, we ran the whole day, it was so tiring!”

“…That’s great.”

To Chiho, she can only answer in this manner.

“Hey, do you want one? New pictures of Alas=Ramus?”

“… Not at the moment.  I have received a lot of them recently.”

Even if Chiho did have feelings for Maou, and liked Alas=Ramus a lot, she still rejected the photo presented to her because she could not keep up with the excited Maou.

Maou had thought that Alas=Ramus had left, but Emi had brought her back. During the two weeks which had passed since then,

Maou’s attitude towards Alas=Ramus had progressed beyond normal levels of affection, and can be only known as   overprotectiveness.

In order to record everything about Alas=Ramus, Maou, who normally did not buy anything else besides the daily necessities, actually bought old models of a digital camera and a photo printer. And from the way he spoilt the young girl, it can be seen that he was suffering from a serious sickness.

As for the photos and videos taken by the digital camera, the duty of storing them fell to the Neet fallen angel Urushihara, whose only possessions were the computer and his old reputation. Even though Maou could look through the folders to heal his soul when Alas=Ramus was not around, but by buying these items which were not considered necessities, it was obvious that it will cause Ashiya Shiro, the one in charge of the funds of the Demon Fortress, some unhappiness.

The amount of money spent on ink and other consumables was no small amount. In addition, Urushihara would not turn off the main power of the printer when he has finished using the computer, thus wasting the standby power. This increased Ashiya’s stress levels, who aimed to incorporate frugalness as a policy in the demon world.

“Even though it’s fine since is break time now…… Kisaki-san is going to return soon, so can you pull yourself together?”

“Don’t worry, I will switch my attitude properly!”

After being lectured by a high school girl for being too lax, the shift manager cum demon king still replied with a rather poor expression, totally lacking any persuasiveness or majestic feeling.

As the other half of Alas=Ramus ‘parents’—Maou’s enemy—Hero Yusa Emi, who only come over a few times every month, Maou, who doted on the girl, resembled a father who had lost the custody after an agreed divorce.

Knowing about Maou’s original identity and purpose, before feeling fed up, Chiho was worried about many other issues.

“Maou-san, you’re only focused on caring about Alas=Ramus-chan every single day after returning home, is that alright? Since you are able to buy a digital camera and printer, it shows that you have some savings. However, I have never heard about you having other jobs……”

After quickly saying this, Chiho left the staff room and looked towards the calendar hanging on the wall, and mumbled to herself in an anxious tone:

“In addition, the store will be closed from tomorrow……”

※

Demon King Satan, Maou Sadao, who planned on conquering Ente Isla, and the savior of Ente Isla, Hero Emilia, hiding her true identity with the fabricated identity – Yusa Emi.

With the young girl Alas=Ramus, who knows them as “Papa” and “Mama”, in the centre, the Demon King and the Hero reluctantly challenged the unfamiliar experience of toddler life.

After directly opposing the archangel Gabriel who wanted to take Alas=Ramus away, and having many unexpected things happen, the “parents” managed to gain a close victory.

Rather than terming it a victory, it was more like the battle was cut off because Gabriel was unable to accomplish his goal due to the change in circumstances. However, Alas=Ramus was finally able to stay in the place she likes.

The problem though, is that Alas=Ramus actually merged with Emi’s “Better-half”.

The Tree of Life supports the world, and Emi’s holy sword and Alas=Ramus originated from one of the fruits, in other words, they are fragments of the “Yesod” Sephira.

Gabriel’s purpose is to obtain Alas=Ramus and the holy sword, and piece the fragments of “Yesod” together to recover the original form of the “Sephira”.

Even though Gabriel and the rest have ignored the fragments for an unimaginably long period of time, they have suddenly started to frantically take action to recover the “Yesod” Sephira.

Therefore, since Alas=Ramus had merged with the holy sword which could not be separated from Emi’s body, Gabriel is unable to achieve his objective for now.

Because of this, Alas=Ramus was forced to move from the Demon Fortress—the 201 room of the sixty year old apartment Villa

Maou’s place, but after a short three days, that determination had crumbled.

Even though Alas=Ramus had the form of the holy sword, she still had the mentality of a young girl, whether Emi was working or sleeping, she would ignore the circumstances of her “Mama” and throw tantrums, shouting, “I want to see Papa”.

In order to avoid tragic situation of experiencing the night cries which only she could hear, Emi could only head for the Demon Fortress at a higher frequency compared to before.

Not only that, Emi also had to go through the difficult experience of raising a toddler, such as brushing teeth after meals, and changing diapers, the things which had kept the inhabitants of the Demon Fortress busy, causing her to be unable to suppress her weak spirit which made her do things in a sloppy manner.

Even though Alas=Ramus was very obedient, and would not throw big tantrums and cause trouble when she was unhappy, even if she had merged with Emi, the physical and mental functions of a little girl would still follow her own schedule. Discovering that Alas=Ramus’ diapers had swollen up upon materializing her once she returned home was something which happened quite often.

However, even after all that, Emi is still unable to entrust the care of Alas=Ramus to the Demon Fortress. That’s because even though Alas=Ramus is able to move independently in the form of a child, it cannot change the fact that she is fused together with Emi.

Earlier, it was already confirmed that once Alas=Ramus and Emi were too far apart, Alas=Ramus would not be able to maintain her form and will be forced to return inside Emi’s body.

The distance which could be maintained between Emi and the independently moving Alas=Ramus is roughly the distance between two stations on the Keio line.

The only person who could understand Emi’s despair at that time, was the one who lived next to the Demon Fortress, Inquisitor of the Doctrinal Correction Council belong to the Ente Isla Church, Crestia Bell, also known as Kamazuki Suzuno.

Just to mention, when Sasaki Chiho knew about this—

“Hm, then there’s no need to worry about her getting lost, isn’t that good?”

She expressed an opinion which felt like an arrow hitting a neighbouring target.

To Emi, the reality that she could have to frequently go to the Demon Fortress was an embarrassing thing for her. As for Maou, he is in a very good mood because he is able to see Alas=Ramus frequently, so in order to maintain the stability of her emotions, she could only convince herself that this would lessen the chances of the Demon King doing anything evil.

Just like that, two weeks after Alas=Ramus and Emi starting living the life of going to the Demon Fortress, it was already the height of summer, the end of July……

※

The manager of the MgRonald’s branch in front of Hatagaya station, Kisaki Mayumi, would always proudly declare that she would never tell jokes which people are unable to laugh at.

Even though Kisaki was given the scary nickname “Revenue Demon” by her colleagues, she always threats the customers sincerely and is straightforward in her assessments of her subordinates.

Because Kisaki is such a straightforward person, Maou Sadao was unable to understand the meaning of what she just said.

In fact, it was Chiho who was looking back at the confused Maou with a worried look on her face.

“Even though we’ll be separated temporarily, I hope that everyone would not forget what you have learnt in this store at your new workplace and work hard. That’s all I wanted to say.”

“Er, er, er, erhm, Kisaki-san?”

“Hm? Ma-kun, is there a problem?”

“Ra, rather than a problem, how should I say this……”

Maou was unable to properly straighten out his feelings. What should he ask about? No, before that, what did she mean by a new workplace?

Why isn’t anyone shaken by the situation? Maou felt very bewildered by this.

“You said this store will disappear……”

Because of the single sentence Maou said after a lot of effort, Kisaki frowned.

“Didn’t I mention this to you two weeks ago?”

“Eh……”

Even though he was asked directly, Maou did not have any impression of it at all. Speaking of two weeks ago, it was at the time when the dust had settled in the incident involving Alas=Ramus.

“Erhm…… perhaps… …”

Chiho whispered to Maou from behind.

“it was during the time when Maou-san thought that Alas=Ramus-chan was taken away…”

“Eh……”

Maou let out yet another airheaded sound, and kept trying to search for the events which occurred two weeks ago at the bottom of his memories.

It was not long after Maou requested from Kisaki to increase the quantity of his shifts in order to raise Alas=Ramus, Gabriel had suddenly appeared and caused a huge commotion.

Two days after that, Maou, who had thought that Alas=Ramus had been taken away, had definitely felt very depressed. He consistently made mistakes which only new staff could have done, and those two days can be said to be his worst performance since he started working at McRonalds. Even Kisaki had started to worry about his health……

“At…… at that time……”

“Don’t tell me… … you haven’t been listening at all?”

At that moment, Kisaki’s stern voice caused all the employees to tense up.

Because Kisaki is very fair when it comes to work and her feedback, she is very strict against carelessness and arrogance.

“…… The rest of you shouldn’t have any issues regarding this, right?”

Besides Maou, everyone else moved in a coordinated fashion like a well trained army---

““““Yes!””””

And chorused.

“And that’s how things are, Ma-kun. Come with me to the office.”

Maou followed behind Kisaki, his face slightly blue.

With the atmosphere in the store feeling as if it has dropped to below zero degrees even though it’s the middle of summer, Chiho and the other employees watched them go with white faces.

Kisaki let Maou stand next to the work table and started to work on the computer without saying anything.

Maou, who stood there blankly, could only continue staring at Kisaki’s back.

In the end, in the corner of the office, a printer whose model is even older than the one in the Demon Fortress specially used to print Alas=Ramus’ pictures, finally made a sound and spit out printer paper.

After taking a piece of paper, Kisaki finally turned back and passed the paper to Maou.

“If all these cannot work out, then I won’t be able to help you anymore.”

“… … Er, erhm… …? This is?”

“This is the list of MgRonald stores that would be able to take on shifts immediately.”

“The list of MgRonald stores… … so that means, this store is really going to disappear?”

Maou asked, the blood draining from this face, Kisaki, on the other hand, supported her forehead against her fingers and replied with a straight face,

“It seems that you really weren’t listening to anything… … I did notice that you replied with a vacant looking face, but weren’t notices put up on the calendar as well as on the notice board inside the store? A customer notice was even pasted on the main door, you really have been too careless recently. Basically, as long as you read the duty roster, you would have noticed that something was wrong.”

Kisaki thought that Maou was too careless, this comment was right and wrong at the same time.

Ever since Alas=Ramus appeared, Maou started to take on more shifts compared to before. In order to continue being the shift manager and obtain a stable income every day, his work hours have become fixed. Because of that, Maou read the duty roster less and less often recently.

Even though Alas=Ramus is currently living at Emi’s house, but for Maou, who publicly declared that he would be responsible for raising her, he is always on the lookout for opportunities to hand her money for taking care of Alas=Ramus.

Even if he is unable to complete the task because Emi kept rejecting him determinedly, it can still be used as backup funds in the worst situation, therefore Maou continued to work to the best of his ability until now.

While Maou recalled what he had been doing for the past two weeks, he shifted his attention onto the piece of paper Kisaki passed to him.

“Our store is a one of a kind top grade store in West Shibuya, there’s no reason to close down. It’s just that the store is being renovated to change the business model, and business will be suspended in the meantime. It will re-open in mid-August, after the Obon Festival. After all, most of the companies here will disband for summer holidays during this period as well.”

“Change the business model?”

This sentence got rid of half of the anxiousness Maou felt. Knowing that the business will not be closed permanently brought him great relief.

Even though they were all known as McRonalds, the stores can still be divided into several types of operations, including large stores in the suburbs that have playgrounds attached to them, basic stores in the malls known as “MiniRonalds” and “Driveway” types set up on the side of the roads.

This time, for the operations type of the store in front of Hatagaya station, other than the usual meals, a café menu with strictly chosen ingredients will be set up, a side store known as “MdCafe”.

Because the products sold in MdCafe are more diverse and rich in ingredients and quality, their prices are also higher compared to the normal menu.

Even though a lot of effort will be spent to make the interior of the main dining area more classy and comfortable, the storefront also needs to be changed extensively. Before changing the operation type, a lot of time would need to be spent on these areas.

For the interior, the lighting, ceiling, walls, floors and so on would be completely different compared to before. In order to introduce the new menu, the kitchen would also need to be improved significantly.

“Eh, but…… with the size of our shop, would we be able to open a MdCafe?”

The uncertainty which had not dissipated from Maou’s mind was because of this.

Maou tapped Chiho’s shoulder gently.

“About this, I’m alright, so cheer up, okay?”

“Yea, yeah……”

Chiho nodded lightly with a slight blush on her face.

“Yo, I’m back.”

“Ex, excuse me.”

As Maou left the house early in the morning to work, he is home at 7pm. Even though the sky has not turned dark, lights shone from the houses they passed on the way back because of dinner preparations.

“Papa!”

After returning to the rental apartment housing the Demon Fortress—the sixty year old “Villa Rosa Sasazuka”, the one that greeted Maou and Chiho was the angelic like smile of Alas=Ramus, enough to heal Maou’s tired mind and body, a result from the mistake at work.

“It’s Chi-chan onee-chan!”

Alas=Ramus, who ran towards Maou from the other side of the low table, ingeniously turned, changing her direction midway to run into Chiho.

“Alas=Ramus-chan! Hello!”

Chiho gracefully scooped up Alas=Ramus, who had been running at full speed. As for Maou, maintaining the pose as he prepared to catch Alas=Ramus, bowed his head dejectedly. Seeing this situation, Alas=Ramus’ “Mama” and the main enemy of the Demon Fortress, Emi, who looked as if she had just got off work, said with a forced smile,

“Alas=Ramus made a right choice.”

“Noisy, shut up, how depressing. Hey, Alas=Ramus, I’m here too?”

“Chi-chan onee-chan!”

Alas=Ramus did not acknowledge him.

“Welcome back, Maou-sama. Please use this wet towel.”

Ashiya, who treated serving the Demon King as his duty, considerately took out a wet towel which had been warmed in the microwave. Maou wiped off the sweat which resulted from the walk home and pressed his eyes to chase away the fatigue.

“Ah---how comfortable!”

“Sasaki-san, welcome. Please take a seat.”

The considerate Ashiya also passed a wet towel to Chiho, and let Chiho, who was carrying Alas=Ramus sit at a corner of the low table.

“I’m sorry for suddenly disturbing everyone like this.”

Chiho made eye contact with Ashiya and Emi in greeting.

“Even though I shouldn’t be the one saying this, but it’s alright. Alas=Ramus is happy as well.”

“If it’s Chiho-san, I welcome you anytime. However--”

A stern sounding female voice came from the opposite direction from Ashiya.

The person placed Chiho’s chopsticks and bowl on the table, while glaring at the much taller Maou and Ashiya with a displeased look on her face.

“About the action of taking out the wet towel like it was the most natural thing to do, I already have nothing much to say. However, please don’t wipe your face and neck while moaning, think about your dignity as the Demon King.”

Wearing an apron and a triangular bandana, the female who gave Maou the warning was Kamazuki Suzuno. She is the cleric from the Church of Ente Isla who lived next to the Demon Fortress. At the same time, she is also definitely Maou’s enemy.

“Given the current circumstances, it’s not much use even if I act dignified in front of all of you.”

Maou, who replied Suzuno in an unmotivated manner, passed the wet towel back to Ashiya. Suzuno sighed and returned to the kitchen, stirring the pot of miso soup.

“If you say that, Alas=Ramus will copy you, you know?”

Suzuno had barely finished when---

“Ah, you can’t, Alas=Ramus-chan, this is used to wipe your hands.”

Chiho’s frantic voice was heard. Upon closer inspection, Alas=Ramus actually took away the wet towel which Ashiya passed to Chiho and started to wipe herself, copying Maou’s movements.

“Ah~~ how comfortable!”

Alas=Ramus! Don’t copy that old man like behavior! And that belongs to Chiho onee-san, okay.”

Emi took the towel away from the happily imitating Alas=Ramus.

“Come, Alas=Ramus-chan, let me help you clean your hands.”

Chiho took the towel from Emi and gently helped Alas=Ramus, who was sitting on her lap, wipe her hands.

“Hmph.”

Suzuno showed a mocking smile which seemed to say “I told you so.” As for the unhappy looking Maou, he awkwardly turned towards Ashiya to ask him a completely unrelated question, trying to avoid the topic.

“Ah, that, what about Urushihara?”

“He should still be on the computer. Because Bell does not allow him to use the computer in this room, so he should be at the Demon Fortress?”

Ashiya’s face turned stony for a different reason from Maou.

“Of course. If that idiot is left alone, he would probably sit in front of the computer all day. Not caring about the small things like electricity bills, that person is really an eye sore.”

Suzuno complained unhappily as she carried the plates.

That’s right, even though he returned to Villa Rosa Sasazuka, Maou was not that the 201 room, Demon Fortress.

He was at the neighbouring 202 room, which is the room of Kamazuki Suzuno.

During the battle with Gabriel, a hole so big that it was amazing if no one called the police appeared in the Demon Fortress.

Even if the Demon King and the rest bought a few tarpaulin sheets used to cover bicycles from the Hypermarket, and blocked the hole using things they have gathered as an emergency fix, it cannot be left alone forever.

At their wits end, the group went to find the house contractor who was unable to help with the installing of the air-conditioner, but the other party replied simply, saying that he will try to contact the landlady Shiba, up till today, that hole still exists.

Even though the electrical wires, gas and water pipes did not look damaged, but this is still an ancient 60 year old building.

In a stroke of good luck, ever since the hole appeared in the Demon Fortress, it had not rained at all.

However, this could not go on forever. While thinking about confirming with the landlady about the situation, he sat down next to Chiho.

“Papa!”

Alas=Ramus, who was sitting in Chiho’s lap, tried her best to stretch her small hands towards Maou.

Just seeing that smile was enough to chase away the fatigue and troubles which Maou accumulated the whole day.

“Okay, then, you can go to Papa… is that alright?”

Chiho realized that Maou had already reached the limit of his patience, and let Alas=rRamus sit on the lap of her “Papa”. Of course she did not forget to check with Emi first, and Emi had reluctantly agreed.

Basically, Emi is also soft hearted towards Alas=Ramus.

Once Alas=Ramus sat on Maou’s lap, she grabbed the chopsticks in front of her with both hands and started to randomly hit the table with them.

“Hey, Alas=Ramus, don’t do that. You should be more polite.”

“Uu~”

When Alas=Ramus was warned by Maou and Emi, even though she was reluctant, she would still listen obediently.

The young girl unhappily put the chopsticks back to their original position—even so, the positions of the chopsticks were reversed—Maou smiled and patted her head.

“Great, good girl. Before Suzuno onee-san brings the rice over, wait obediently, okay?”

“Yeah!”

“…… I don’t know why, but once I was referred to as ‘Suzuno onee-san by you, I get goosebumps.”

Suzuno, wearing an apron while serving rice to everyone, stopped her movements and said this with a frown in a volume loud enough for Maou to hear.

“Yes yes yes, I’m sorry about that.”

“Chi chi chi!”

Alas=Ramus imitated Maou’s tone of voice because she thought it was interesting. At this, Emi and Suzuno glared at Maou once again.

Maou, who would become very honest when it came to matters concerning Alas=Ramus. quietly rearranged the chopsticks back to their correct positions while thinking of his future plans.

Even though he needs to discuss about the household finances with Ashiya, whether he decides to go to the branches which Kisaki referred him to or think of other solutions, Emi would know about this sooner or later, however Maou thought that there was no need to intentionally reveal his weak point to the other party.

If he did it now, it was possible that Emi would happily tell Alas=Ramus, “Papa lost his job” or something similar. If Alas=Ramus starts to see him as an unemployed person, then Maou would not be able to live on.

“Hey Alsiel. Tell Lucifer to come over, if not it would be very troublesome if he starts complaining later. Tell him that if he doesn’t come immediately, he won’t get any dinner.”

When she was almost done with the dinner preparations, Suzuno said this while taking off her apron.

“… … Alright.”

Even though the demon Alsiel and the human Suzuno basically have a hostile relationship, as the two of them have started cooking together more frequently, when it comes to household chores and matters concerning Urushihara, the two of them seem to be able to understand each other.

Ashiya replied Suzuno with an expressionless tone, and after removing his apron and folding it beautifully, he temporarily left the room.

“You even have to make dinner for that kind of guy, it must be hard on you.”

“The demon king is paying for it anyway. In addition, compared to cooking a one person portion for every meal, I can save a lot on groceries and it is also easier to think of what to cook.”

Suzuno replied while taking off her bandana. To such a reply, Emi said with a straight face,

“If you continue saying things like this, you would be slowly pulled over to their side, you have to be more careful……”

“?”

Even though Suzuno did not understand, but she choose not to continue the topic and sat next to Emi, opposite Maou, with her back straight.

“Papa. Is it ready yet? Is dinner ready yet?”

“Yeah, good girl, can you wait a while more? We’ll start dinner when everyone is here.”

“Lucifer, hurry up!”

It looks like Alas=Ramus knew very well who the culprit is.

Emi tried her best not to pay attention to Maou, and asked Suzuno while keeping an eye on Alas=Ramus,

“Then again, you still have quite a few pieces of large furniture here, how do you plan to deal with them?”

“Ah, because the situation is special this time, the apartment agent helped me by introducing a storage place with no extra charge. I decided to send everything over tomorrow.”

“How about the things inside the fridge?”

“I finished everything in one go today.”

“Oh, that explains why the dinner today is so rich. You bought the fridge not that long ago, and you already decided to get rid of the fridge?”

Following the conversation of the two people, Maou took another look at the dinner table.

On the table, there was a large plate of fried green vegetables with onions, tomatoes, tofu and miso soup with seaweed. Besides that, there’s also karaage, fried meat patties, siew mai, tempura and salad.

For Suzuno, who placed great emphasis on the outer appearance of the dishes, a menu which looks like the entire fridge was cleaned out was a rare occurrence.

Even with the help of an additional person Chiho, it might still be difficult to finish such a quantity.

Emi and Suzuno frowned because of Maou’s question.

“What are you talking about?”

“Actually talking like it doesn’t concern you. In fact, are you guys alright? Have you put all your furniture in order?”

“Eh? What do you mean?”

Maou asked in return, confused.

Emi and Suzuno looked at each other suspiciously. Immediately after, Maou felt something cold on his back.

“Wah! Cold!”

It wasn’t an illusion. Alas=Ramus, who had left Maou’s lap without him noticing, was hugging an ice cold bottle of mineral water and pressing it to Maou’s back.

“Alas=Ramus-chan, it’ll be wet that way, can you pass me the bottle?”

“Nu uh, no!”

Chiho gently started to battle with Alas=Ramus, who was determined not to hand over the PET bottle, Suzuno continued to speak,

“From tomorrow, all of you and I would need to leave the apartment temporarily.”

“Hey, Alas=Ramus, listen to Chi-chan onee-san! Leave the apartment huh………………………………………… what, what did you just say?”

Maou instantly became alert, but immediately lost all colour in his face, and looked towards Suzuno with a pale face.

“Leave, this apartment?”

“……Hey, Demon King, don’t tell me……”

Suzuno slowly took out a familiar looking envelope from the front of her kimono.

It was an envelope with a luxurious gold stitching, which felt like silk to the touch.

“After you went to see the apartment agent, this letter arrived! It’s a notification from the landlady.”

“Ah?”

Maou was so shocked that it felt like his chin will hit the ground. Alas=Ramus almost dropped the PET bottle she was holding because of his voice.

“Papa, don’t scare me! Seriously!”

However, not even Alas=Ramus’ voice can reach Maou now.

Maou took the letter from Suzuno’s hands as if he was using a gun for self-defense, and as he guarded against the photo, he slowly took out the contents.

Knowing the landlady, it was rare to just have a notification on a piece of printed paper. It was densely packed with words and looked like a contract.

“To the tenants at Villa Rosa.”

From the date, it was a notification from two weeks ago, it started with this sentence, and Maou, who continued reading—

“Please, this isn’t real……”

This time, Maou really felt the world was spinning and fainted.

“Ma, Maou-san?”

“Hey, you’ll hit your head this way, it’s dangerous!”

“Papa?”

“What sound was that just now… … Ma, Maou-sama?”

“I’m hungry. Ah, Sasaki Chiho came as well. Wah! The spread today is really sumptuous.”

Ashiya, who had returned, saw that his master had fainted and rushed over frantically. As for Urushihara, he was acting at his own pace the whole time.

“Alsiel, Papa fell asleep after seeing this.”

Alas=Ramus passed the paper she picked up to Ashiya.

“Thank you, Alas=Ramus. Hm? It’s addressed to Bell, it’s a notification from the landlady……”

Emi and Suzuno didn’t even have time to stop it—

“………… Fu.”

Ashiya, who skimmed through the contents, collapsed like he had stopped breathing.

“Hm? What’s wrong with Maou and Ashiya?”

Emi, Chiho and Suzuno looked towards Urushihara with cold gazes, who did not help at all and was late, and stuffed his mouth with karaage without even saying “Itadakimasu.”

Suzuno took the document from Ashiya’s hands and opened it in front of Urushihara.

“Read this carefully, you walking bad debt.”

“Uh…… what, what’s up……Eh? To all tenants?”

Urushihara read through the article while chewing his food.

 “Regarding the compensation for the residents for the temporary relocation in order to facilitate the renovation of the apartment complex……residents temporarily relocating? What is this supposed to mean?”

This time, even Urushihara got a shock, and put down his chopsticks, continuing to read the document.

Simply put, the request which Maou raised to the apartment agent two weeks ago had reached the landlady.

As the hole in the 201 room was too big, if the hole was simply patched up, it would still raise fears about the structural integrity of the building.

It was also partially because of the aging gas and water pipes as well as the electrical system, which causes people to worry if any fault will occur, so it was decided that the entire building will undergo a thorough renovation.

“……Eh, but, I didn’t not hear about this at all……”

“I thought so. If Maou and Ashiya have become like this, it would be strange if you knew.”

“Bell will stay at my house until the renovation is done, do you guys have any plans?”

In response to the question from Suzuno and Emi, Urushihara could only helplessly shake his head, and looked blankly at Emi.

“Even if I stayed in a big house large enough to house three generations, do you think I would readily invite all of you to stay?”

“That’s true……”

It looks like even Urushihara had no plans to push his request.

Alas=Ramus, who did not understand what the adults were talking about, ignored Urushihara, who gave a sigh, and shakily walked towards the two men lying on the floor.

“What’s wrong with Papa and Alsiel?”

“Uh, that, they should be asleep. Ne, ne, Alas=Ramus-chan, go wake them up.”

Chiho, being the only one present who knew about Maou’s situation at work and treated the situation as her own problem, was shaken when she knew that Maou might also lose his place to live.

“Okay, Papa, Alsiel, get up, it’s time to eat.”

After being shaken by Alas=Ramus’ small hand, Maou and Alsiel woke up with vacant looks on their faces, like they had just woken up from a vivid dream.

“…… It’s felt like I was daydreaming.”

“…… Me too. No…… it should be, called a nightmare.”

The Demon King and the Demon General, who did not run from reality even after losing to the Hero in the final battle, actually chose to run away at this moment.

“Ah, that’s right, Ashiya.”

“Yes, what is it?”

Maou, blearly-eyed said in a daze,

“It seems like I will lose my job started from tomorrow, what do you think I should do.”

“““““……………………”””””

“Los ob?”

Alas=Ramus, learning to speak, repeated what Maou said in suffocating silence.

“Fu……!”

Ashiya let out another sigh which sounded like a balloon leaking air and lost consciousness at the same time.

“Wah--! Ashiya-san! The colour of Ashiya-san’s face!”

“Oi, this face colour is serious! Bell! Water! Get water, quickly!”

“Mama, mineral water!”

“Good Alas=Ramus! Lend this to me!”

“Uh, is this the analeptic? No, before that, should a heart massage be conducted first?”

“……What’s wrong with Ashiya?”

Only Maou did not realize how powerful the effect of the bomb that he had thrown was.
※