The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 12, page 16
part #12 of Devil is a Part-Timer Series
“Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee…”
“Wh-what’s so funny, Aki-chan?”
The evil cackling from Akiko as she watched Emi scurry down to the basement surprised Kawata a little.
“Oh, it’s just… You know, Saemi’s gotten used to things pretty well now, huh? And meanwhile, Maou’s acting so awkward around her. I thought it was kinda funny.”
“Ahh… Yeah, I don’t get those two sometimes. It does feel like Yusa’s been loosening up lately, but…”
In Kawata’s mind, Emi had been shouldering some heavy burden until a few days ago. That atmosphere was now a thing of the past.
“But they were all friends, right? Maou and Chi and Saemi? Oh, and have you looked at Chi lately, Kawatchi? She’s hilarious.”
“You’re thinking something highly nefarious, aren’t you, Aki-chan?”
“No pulling the wool over your eyes, huh? Well, whenever Maou and Saemi are talking lately, Chi makes this incredibly goofy face.”
“Goofy? Goofy how?”
“I mean, it starts with this really warm smile, like a mom looking at her kids. Then her eyebrows go down, like she’s a scientist working through a tough question or something. And then all the color drains from her face, like she’s seen a ghost.”
“Ahh…” Kawata gave a broad nod to this as he stared off into the distance. “One day, on a moonless night, someone needs to stab Maou in the back.”
“Oh, yeah, totally! You know what I’m talking about?”
“Aki-chan, Kawatchi, what’s going on? You aren’t working.”
Kisaki’s headset interruption quickly spurred them back into action, although Kawata’s analysis filled Akiko with utter glee.
Even before the official start at ten AM, the MgRonald received four early calls, making the atmosphere tense around the kitchen. Emi’s first job as call handler was thus to apologize to them, since their computer system wouldn’t accept any orders before that time.
The first time she said “We have a web order in” over the headset, everyone on staff whose hands were free gave a round of applause to celebrate. In a few moments, Kawata was off with his heat-insulated delivery bag, specially developed for MgRonald’s new program. Putting on his elbow and knee protectors, keeping his scooter key (with plastic tag and anti-loss code) on his belt, he flew out the door for his first delivery.
Five minutes later, another online order showed up. Immediately after that:
“Thanks for calling MgRonald at Hatagaya station. This is Yusa speaking. How can I help you?”
The first phone order was in.
“If I could have your address and phone number, please… All right. So to confirm your order, I have a Double Full-Moon Burger Set with… Okay. At the current time, we’re looking at…”
Typing in the information with practiced hands, Emi checked the order’s delivery address and switched to in-house headset mode.
“Same direction, toward Sasahata District five. Less than five minutes apart.”
“Can you take ’em both, Marko?” Kisaki broke in.
“Roger that,” said Maou as he inserted the two complete orders into his own bag.
“Do you know the way?”
“Yeah, I think I know the roads over there. This is the phone number?”
He gave another look at the receipt Emi handed him, then checked the map of their delivery area hanging on the nearby wall.
“Here, huh? If it’s district five, then order number eleven should be near the bottom of that steep hill. Number twenty-one… Okay, I got it. I’ll let you know if something comes up.”
“All right. See you later.”
“………Yeah.”
The sight of Emi giving him a perfectly normal smile as she waved him off was almost surreal. But he had a job to do, so Maou filed the thought away, put on his helmet, and set off. He could feel Akiko’s dubious gaze out the corner of his eye; this, too, he ignored as he hopped aboard the brand-new Honta Gyro-Roof out front. Turning the key, he was rewarded with an engine roar that immediately conjured memories of his most recent time in Ente Isla.
“We are off! Onward, Red Dullahan I!!”
Having already prenamed the restaurant bikes Red Dullahan I, II, and III in his mind, Maou gave this new steed a heroic bit of encouragement as he set off into the mean streets of Sasazuka and Hatagaya.
“Not as many as anticipated, huh?”
“No. Considering the number of early birds, I was hoping for a few more, but… Ah, well.”
Emi and Kisaki were manning the front counter, devoting themselves to their usual duties. The lunch rush was over, but they were still hovering at a total of just ten delivery orders so far. They were prepared for the worst, the entire staff ready and willing to tackle whatever came their way, but the numbers were something of an anticlimax.
“Well,” Kisaki said, “we wouldn’t want the system blowing up on the first day anyway. Let’s call today a break-in day. Plus, it’s nice out. It’s good to have easy weather on the first day, but we’ll tend to get more orders when it’s bad outside. If we get rain during a short-staffed period, that’s when we’ll really prove our worth.”
It was a tad ironic, the way they were too prepared to kick this thing off, but there wasn’t much to be done about it. Maou had just returned from dropping off order number ten, ahead of Kawata, who was still busy ferrying the ninth one over.
“Welcome back, Marko.”
“Anything to note out there?” Emi asked.
“It was some kind of student gathering,” commented Maou. “I couldn’t tell who owned the place, so I can’t say too much about the customers. It’s a pretty narrow road leading up to the apartment building, but there was a ton of traffic on it, so maybe make a note of that. Instead of parking right at the building, it’d be safer to park a bit early and walk the rest of the way.”
“All right. I’ll type that in.”
The computer system let users type in notes about customers and deliveries to help teams keep track of and share information. Emi had almost finished typing “Heavy traffic in area, be careful when parking” when the phone rang. The three of them exchanged glances before Emi turned back to her computer.
“Thanks for calling MgRonald at Hatagaya station. This is Yusa speaking. How can I help you?”
“Hey, Kawatchi isn’t back yet?”
“He got sent to the far end of our delivery radius,” Kisaki said as she watched Emi. “That’ll be a lot of narrow roads and one-way streets to navigate…”
Then she stopped…
“…!”
…because Emi herself had frozen solid at her station, letting out a light gasp. She made a habit of smiling when dealing with customers over the phone, but now her face was taut with concern.
“…Maybe a prank?” Maou asked Kisaki.
“I dunno…”
They hadn’t received any prank calls or deliveries to nonexistent locations yet. This might be the first one, Maou thought.
“…All right. So that’ll be two Big Mag meals…”
Maou raised an eyebrow as Emi fell back into the usual phone procedure. That was weird. With all her call-center experience, a regular old prank call shouldn’t faze her as much as this one obviously did. He had no idea why she reacted like that, out of the blue. But she completed the order anyway, printing out a receipt for a fairly hefty order totaling nearly five thousand yen.
“You okay, Saemi? Something startle you?”
Kisaki, for her part, was more concerned than chiding about Emi’s transformation. But she just shook her head. “No, it’s nothing. This one’s headed for Sasazuka, Maou.”
“Oh, okay.”
If it was nothing, that didn’t explain the stiffness in her voice. Did the guy on the other end of the line say something creepy to her?
Emi took a deep breath. “It’s really nothing,” she whispered, so only Maou could hear. “I’m fine.”
“Emi…”
“Ms. Kisaki’s recognized me as part of the team. I gotta at least handle something like this with a smile. I’m sorry, I guess I need some more experience.”
“Oh, no, it’s fine, but… Hmm?”
Emi handed Maou the receipt. He reflexively checked the address and phone number on it. It almost made his eyes pop out. Now he knew what was up.
“Uh, this…”
Emi shook her head at the slightly agitated Maou. “It’s just our job.”
“All set, Marko,” came Kisaki’s voice. “Head on out.”
“Oh, uh, sure thing.”
“Be careful.”
Maou wasn’t too sure what, exactly, Emi wanted him to be careful about. But he still scowled at himself as he adjusted his helmet strap before starting up Red Dullahan I. Order number eleven for the day, it turned out, was headed for Villa Rosa Sasazuka, Room 101, and not even Maou could drum up a polite smile for that destination.
“Who the hell even called that in?”
He couldn’t guess from Emi’s gasp, but unless this was some trick, it had to be Nord Justina, Room 101’s only official resident. But that shouldn’t elicit such a negative reaction from her.
“It’s gotta be Laila, huh? She is such a goddamn prick.”
No, this wasn’t Laila beating a path down to his front door, or to their workplace. Instead, it’d be her forcing them to her doorstep. Maou and Emi were employees of the MgRonald Corporation, and if a customer called in an order, they had to deliver it. Villa Rosa Sasazuka was firmly within delivery range. No way to avoid it.
“Oops. This is a one-way street?”
The path he navigated countless times on foot or bicycle now looked very different to him on a scooter. The route to his “delivery destination” was just a bit more circuitous than what he’d usually take. When he arrived, it almost felt like someone else’s building.
“My liege? Why are you here?” Ashiya was just coming down the stairs when he marveled at the sight of Maou on his scooter. “Did you forget something?”
“This is for work, man,” he said as he removed his helmet and pointed at the container on his back. “I’m delivering to ‘Mr. Sato’ in Room 101.”
“You…?”
Ashiya immediately picked up on the intention behind the order.
“That accursed angel! The sheer arrogance of summoning the Devil King himself with a single telephone call!”
“Well, when you put it that way… But if I’ve got this uniform on, I’ve got a job to do—and I can’t bad-mouth my customers behind their backs. So let it slide, okay?”
“But perhaps, if I could join you…?”
“I don’t need backup to deliver some burgers, man. I’ve already done this a bunch of times today. I’ll hand the food over, they’ll give me the money, and I’ll leave. That’s all. Just do whatever you were planning to do. I left the MgRonald almost ten minutes ago; I gotta get this food to ’em hot.”
“Your Demonic Highness…ngh… I feel it is a mistake, letting angels and humans comingle so closely with us… But please, do be careful! I cannot say what nefarious scheme they may hatch upon you!”
“Dude, for the twentieth time, it’s just burgers! Go worry somewhere else. I’ll be fine. Ah-hem!”
Clearing his throat as he left the agitated Ashiya, Maou marched over to Room 101 and pressed the doorbell button, demonstrating not a hint of hesitation. “Hello!” he shouted out, all business. “MgRonald delivery with your order!”
“Ah, thank you.”
What he didn’t expect was Nord Justina answering the door. He was sure it’d be Laila, or Gabriel, at least. It was almost a disappointment.
“Right, thank you for waiting. Let me give you your drinks first…and here is your Big Mag and medium fry sets. Be careful; it’s hot.”
“…I thought you would refuse the order. Or send someone else, at least.”
“I would never refuse a valid order, sir.”
Exchanging a few pleasantries with customers at the delivery site was another part of the job. When Maou first saw Nord, his Japanese language ability was at about on par with Acieth’s, but now he was showing quite a bit more fluency. Perhaps being reunited with Emi gave him more contact with the language; maybe Laila sprinkled some pixie dust or whatever to bring him up to native level. Maou pondered this as he peered over Nord’s shoulder, hoping to see if anyone else was inside—but Room 101 was too dimly lit to discern very much.
“…All right. Does everything in the order look correct?”
“Yes, thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Your total today comes to 4,530 yen.”
The five-thousand-yen note Nord handed him seemed normal enough. Maou took some change from his waist pouch, counted it out, and gave it to him with his receipt.
“Thank you very much for your order! We look forward to serving you again.”
“Mm-hmm.”
Everything was just like all the other orders so far. He began to zip his insulated bag back up.
“Oh, one more thing… Maou?”
“…………Yes?” he replied, turning his head back around. It was still the same old Nord there, face serene.
“I wanted to ask you something about this flier.”
“…What’s that?”
Maou noticed Ashiya looking from afar, almost dying from the suspense of what might happen to his master. He ignored him, devoting his attention to his customer.
“It says here that you’re hiring, but are you still looking for people?”
“…?”
Maou’s eyebrows drilled downward. What? He can’t possibly want to apply for a part-time job at MgRonald?
“I’ve been delivering newspapers for a long time. I think I have a good knowledge of the city streets, and I’ll be earning my own scooter license soon. What do you think?”
That was the whole reason they found each other in the first place, wasn’t it? On that bus headed for the license test center.
“I think,” Maou said, choosing his words carefully, “we are still looking for employees, but it might be better to ask directly at the location. I’m sure Ms. Kisaki, the manager, would be glad to talk to you.”
“I see. All right. Sorry to delay you.”
“Not at all. Thank you very much.”
With a light nod, Nord ended the conversation and shut the door.
Even in the middle of his work, Maou had set all five of his senses (plus magic) to work. They told him that Laila wasn’t around. Neither was Gabriel, nor Shiba or Amane.
“M-my liege?” Ashiya asked, immediately sprinting over.
“Talk about having the rug pulled out from under you. Nothing happened.”
“It did not? But he appeared keen on applying for a job, there in the end.”
“If he decides to, then yeah, that’s gonna suck…but that’s up to Ms. Kisaki to decide, and it’s not really anything I can comment on. I mean, maybe he was targeting me during work so I wouldn’t lie to him, but what’s the point of summoning me here to ask such a basic question?”
If Nord applied for work at the Hatagaya station MgRonald, Maou’s first concern would be how he’d interact with Emi. But regardless of how badly Laila was screwing things up, Emi undoubtedly loved Nord as a father. It might even be a good way to get them talking to each other again.
Either way, though, it had nothing to do with Maou, and if Nord didn’t have his license yet, he might not even score the job in the first place.
“…Ah, well. Back to work.”
“My liege, perhaps I could corner him and attempt to extract the truth from—”
“No. If the tenants here start fighting each other, you know our landlord’s gonna swoop right in.”
“Dehh…!”
Ashiya gnashed his teeth, mortified. Maou, despite his rebuke, didn’t like it, either. It felt weird, like a sesame seed stuck between his teeth. “I feel,” he reflected, “like a puzzle piece getting jammed into a puzzle I don’t fit.”
“But my liege, would it not be best to simply continue with our current approach, to ignore whatever tricks they throw upon us? There is no need for us to so much as lift a finger to help them.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Maou nodded at him before returning to Red Dullahan I and putting his helmet back on. “Hey, do you wanna make an order? I could use my phone to get it sent out here.”
“I apologize, Your Demonic Highness, but I have already prepared our meals up to tomorrow’s lunch.”
“Okay. Just don’t let Emi sneak into our kitchen again, like that one night. I almost had a heart attack.”
His eyes grew hazy as he recalled the events.
“I apologize, my liege. I never expected she would commit such a brazen act while we slept. Having Emilia lay her hands upon our store of rice is the greatest embarrassment of my life…”
“Brazen…? Well, yeah, they were shaped a little weird, but they tasted fine. They weren’t laced with poison or anything.”
“Indeed, my liege, and that makes it even more terrifying. Why would Emilia Justina go out of her way to prepare rice balls for the Devil King? I cannot imagine what her motivation could possibly be.”
“Her brain probably fried or something.”
He hadn’t told anyone what had happened that night. He doubted Emi had.
“But hey, no trouble since then, right? And hell, maybe Nord just got a hankering for some fast food. You never know. But I better get going.”
“Ah, yes, my liege. My apologies. Please drive safely.”
With the respectfully bowing Ashiya behind him, Maou took his leave of Villa Rosa Sasazuka. He spent the trip back to MgRonald thinking about the past week. He was right—since the subway attack on Emi and Chiho, nothing particularly bad had happened to anyone. Emi’s “brain crash” was a deadly serious accident in Maou’s eyes, but fortunately, it didn’t seem like Alas Ramus or Acieth got wind of those events at all. Emeralda was still with Emi in Eifukucho, and Amane and Shiba didn’t seem up to much of anything. The subway attack must’ve knocked the wind out of Laila’s sails, too; the last time Maou saw her was when she paid a single visit to the apartment, two days after Emi’s brain crash. Her hair was still purple, but Maou didn’t care to find out why, or even where she was living.
