The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 2 (19 page)

The embarrassment was enough to make her want to disappear, but Rika, lost in the saga of a young entrepreneur’s rise and fall, was too enrapt to notice.

“But…well, wow, huh? You guys must be about my age, and you’re doing all these crazy things! That’s amazing! Boy, now I’m feeling pretty silly for getting all these wacky ideas in my head! You should’ve just said so earlier, Emi.”

“……”

Emi could do nothing but sit in silence, her mind occupied with the rueful observation that Rika wouldn’t have listened to her if she had and the painful realization that she’d never come up with an excuse nearly as eloquent as Ashiya’s.

“Indeed…but, in the end, we failed. Our president now works part-time at MgRonald, and I serve as his faithful homemaker. And one of us barely even lacks the desire to search for honest work at all. Some ‘whiz kids’ we are.”

“Yeah, but…”

Rika’s face transformed from admiration to earnestness as she turned toward Ashiya.

“If you’re keeping yourselves going with odd jobs and still staying pretty comfortable, I’d say you guys got out pretty clean.”

“Pretty…clean?”

Ashiya failed to grasp the meaning of the term.

“I mean, it sounds like you didn’t leave much debt at all when the company shut down. You didn’t bounce any checks, you didn’t go bankrupt, and you aren’t being chased around by creditors or anything, right? If you have the talent to wind things down that neatly, I’m sure you’ll get a chance to try again pretty soon.”

She had the completely wrong idea. The unexpected encouragement left Ashiya stunned for a moment.

“My family back home runs a small factory, too, and…like, it’s just a regular company on paper, but whenever things looked like they were about to go south, it united the whole family. Like, everyone would work together to get over the hump, even if it was just little stuff. Even if didn’t have anything to do with the factory’s business. So maybe it didn’t work out the first time, but Maou and that other guy you mentioned… They’re eating your food, sleeping in the bedsheets you washed, wearing the pants you put out to dry, right? You’re providing all the bare necessities they need, and you should be proud of that, I think. You’re all really looking out for each other. I think you’ve got a bright future ahead of you.”

Rika spoke slowly, chewing over every word as she continued. Ashiya, though surprised at first, nodded lightly. The words hit home somewhere inside.

“Yes…yes, I suppose so.”

He took another close look at Rika.

“Thank you very much. You are the first person to ever say anything like that to me.”

He smiled softly, guilelessly. In the dying rays of the sun, his somewhat gaunt face evoked an odd sense of longing.

It was just a matter of his having been laid up for the past few days, in fact, but the sight made Rika freeze for just a moment. She could feel her pulse rise.

“Ms. Suzuki?”

Rika came to at the sound of her name. She waved her hands, flustered.

“Oh! Um…yeah. Well, sure. Sorry I was such a buttinsky.”

“Not at all. To be honest, I’ve had a great deal on my mind as of late. I was starting to lose confidence in myself. But hearing you say that…I feel a touch better now.”

Everything about Ashiya’s voice indicated that he was probably serious. Being a househusband meant that one could never expect a great deal of praise for his performance.

The idea of the Devil King framing his conquest of Earth around the corporate ladder of a worldwide fast-food conglomerate had
begun to vaguely disquiet Ashiya. Was this really what they should be doing?

And in that frame of mind, Rika’s encouragement soaked deeply into his heart, in a way nobody could have predicted.

“Do you? Well, that’s…that’s great. Yeah. Really great.”

Rika took a sip from her iced coffee, clearly trying to drown her confused emotions.

“Rika?”

The sudden metamorphosis was easily enough to arouse Emi’s suspicions.

“Ahhhh! Huh? Emi? What’s up?”

She was shocked enough that she almost dropped her cup.

“What do you mean, what’s up? I mean…what’s going on, all of a sudden?”

“Oh, nothing! Nothing, nothing, nothing!”

“…You said it four times.”

Suzuno was kind enough to provide a running count.

“Still, though… I guess everybody has their own story, huh…?”

It sounded like a bold, effusive declaration as it came from Rika’s mouth. She sipped up the remainder of her coffee in one go.

“Y’know, I’m starting to think I want to see this Maou guy for myself.”

“Huh?”

Emi’s response almost seemed too exaggerated.

“Well, I mean, it takes some serious work to make it to shift manager that quickly in a place as big as MgRonald. Maybe he messed up once, but it sounds like he’s a pretty hardworking guy, you know?”

“Perhaps… He did receive a hundred-yen raise after two months working there, he said…”

The memory of Maou’s broad smile on that day still flushed Ashiya’s heart with sadness, but Rika demonstrated amazement yet again.

“Really?! A hundred yen? That’s crazy! In two months? ’Cause that’s a lot more than you’d normally get for making it through your probationary period. And MgRonald doesn’t exactly go easy on
its employees, either. You know, in the right environment, I bet he could really get some things moving!”

“Yes…in the right environment…”

To Ashiya, Japan was the wrong environment from the very start for their brimstone-scarred activities.

“Maybe I better get in on the ground floor with him, huh?”

“Whoa! Rika?!”

Emi could no longer remain silent. Rika stopped her.

“I don’t mean in a weird way. I just mean, this is a guy who’s definitely gonna be going places in business. I
am
the daughter of a company president, after all, so I’ve got a sharp eye out for this stuff.”

“What do you mean…? I don’t quite…”

“When you’re running a small workshop, the connections you establish on the front lines become really important. If Maou does another start-up and hits it big, having that connection in place now instead of later definitely wouldn’t hurt. ’Cause you’d be surprised, all the links these little companies share with one another across Japan. I don’t know if Maou’s line of business matches with ours at all, but if it does, I certainly want to know.”

“You know, I never asked, Rika, but what does your family make?”

“We make footwear accessories. Mostly shoe soles and stuff.”

That was never going to be a match for Maou’s despotic aspirations, no matter which world he wound up on, but there was no point popping her balloon now.

“…Well, I will say that Maou certainly does have his sights on upward mobility within the MgRonald empire. And who knows? He might place a shoe order with your family one day, Ms. Suzuki.”

And Ashiya was all too ready to keep that balloon inflated.

“Ooh! If he gets involved with staffing, we’d be happy to provide cheap, long-lasting shoes for his company’s uniforms. No order too small!”

The balloon now occupied the entire dining area, almost smothering Emi.

“You know, I’m sorry to keep ordering people around, but do you
think I could go see him? I know you have to report back to him, Ashiya. Plus, I could help him with his sales a little, too!”

“That was exactly what I was hoping. In that case…”

Ashiya flashed an evil grin, a devilish one dripping with intent, at Emi.

“You’ll be joining us, right? I’ll expect that you will. I think I’d like to get some cookies and a thousand-island salad to go, if you don’t mind. We can head to MgRonald after that.”

“You greedy little…” Emi bitterly snapped back at him. But if she didn’t follow his orders, there was no telling how this story would unfold.

“I need to repay Ms. Kamazuki for all the favors she’s provided for us lately, too. I would be glad to cover for it, so please let me know if you’d like anything.”

“Oh, no, I…I plan to make dinner at home, so…”

Ashiya’s attitude toward Suzuno was markedly different from how he acted around Emi.

Emi, noticing Rika ever-so-slightly pouting behind Ashiya’s back, felt her headache grow ever more painful.

The group headed downstairs, finding the place just as busy as before. A fairly long line snaked out from the cash registers.

“…You three wait outside, okay? I’ll be right out once I buy that stuff.”

Emi saw them off, then dejectedly joined the line.

The misunderstanding with Rika was solved, but now she had a wholly different type of problem to tackle.

With an adversary as calculating as Ashiya, failing to repay a favor would no doubt lead to endless bickering afterward…not to mention some form of payback.

Unsure how to offer repayment that would fully satisfy Ashiya, Emi ultimately decided that the only thing to do for it would be violently dismembering him in combat. As she settled on this conclusion, she realized she was next in line to order. She scanned the menu, searching for Ashiya’s requests.

“Well, hello there, my lady. Making a face like that would spoil anyone’s dinner, you know.”

Emi looked up, only to find the undersized employee that took Rika’s order earlier.

His face was compact and thin, and he was clad in a T-shirt and black apron, setting him apart from the rest of the staff.

Judging by the name
SARUE
written in Chinese characters on his name tag, he must have been the manager or something. He had a pair of sunglasses on, a rarity in face-to-face retail operations like this one, and they couldn’t have befitted him less.

“Yeah, sorry about that. One Gourmet Cookie order and one salad with thousand-island dressing to go.” Emi didn’t appreciate the comment much, but paid it little further mind as she tossed a thousand-yen note on the tray in front of her.

“Absolutely. Ah, there is something distinctively attractive about a young, beautiful woman looking tormented over something…”

Emi flashed the employee a highly dubious look. The complaints were liable to roll in soon if this was his take on customer service.

“But, no matter what it is that concerns you, time has a way of changing everything, whether one wants it to or not. If you find yourself no longer able to change events by your own free will, you may live to regret it.”

“…I’ve never had an SFC employee meddle in my personal life
that
much before.”

Emi bunched her eyebrows together. It didn’t seem to faze the employee, who nimbly placed her order in a paper bag.

“Indeed. I apologize for my intrusiveness. But allow me to say just one thing.”

He likely just wanted to hand Emi her order, but the man with the
SARUE
name tag seemed to stretch his body halfway across the counter as he presented the bag.

“Men tend to seize upon women when they are at their weakest. I would advise watching your step carefully.”

“…What’s
that
mean?”

“Oh, nothing profound, certainly. Thank you very much. I hope you’ll come back again soon. I’m ready to take the next customer here, please!”

The suspicions raised in Emi’s mind at the obviously meaningful advice the employee had for her were blocked by the family waiting behind her.

“Oops!”

A small boy from the group ran forward excitedly, bumping into Emi as he did.

“S-sorry about that! …You know you shouldn’t run off like that! Are you all right?”

The mother, holding a baby in one hand, used the other to grab the child’s presumed brother as she bowed her head at Emi.

“Oh, no, I’m fine…”

There was no way she could press the employee any further. Not with all these people in line, and not with Rika and the rest waiting outside. Emi went away from the register.

“…is allergic to…like shrimp, and crab, and certain types of fruit…”

“Give me one moment to check on that, madam.”

Emi overhead the fading conversation as she thought to herself.

“More trouble’s the last thing I need…” she whispered softly to herself as she left.

She didn’t turn around, too weirded out and not wanting to get further involved, but something about Sarue’s eyes made it seem like she was still being pursued.

“So they’ve got a grand-opening sale running and they’re giving out coupons. Is that it? Anything else?”

Ashiya was in the midst of giving Maou his reconnaissance report inside MgRonald.

“As far as I could observe, even considering that SFC offers a different main menu from MgRonald, it was hard to tell why there
should be such an extreme difference in the crowds. The customer service was perfectly normal as well.”

Ashiya went over a piece of paper he had used to jot down his thoughts as he spoke.

“One thing I did notice was that the fried chicken they’re famous for certainly does live up to expectations. It depends on the type of piece, of course, but it tasted wonderful, right down to the bone. Quite a surprise!”

“To the bone? Eesh…”

Maou glared accusingly at Ashiya for a moment. Ashiya shook his head in response.

“According to what I had Urushihara dredge up for me, Sentucky uses some kind of unique trick when cooking their fried chicken. Much like the meat we enjoyed at that
yakiniku
restaurant, the flame reaches right into the core of the chicken’s cartilage and so forth. The fact that there isn’t much residue left on your plate after you’re done eating seems like a small detail, but I think that tells the entire story.”

Maou crossed his arms and nodded at Ashiya’s very homemaker-like opinions.

“Huh. Not exactly the best way to maintain a turnover ratio, but if you’re willing to sit and linger for a while, it feels a lot nicer having a clean tray in front of you. If someone took the tray away, it’d feel like they were kicking you out, besides.”

“Also, if the signs are to be believed, they grind their coffee fresh for every cup. The beans are supposedly organic, too.”

“Organic? What, they make it out of organs?”

Ashiya corrected the very demonlike mistake on Maou’s part.

“No.
Organic
means they use beans grown naturally, without any artificial fertilizers and such.”

“Right, but if you grind up organs, wouldn’t that give you this red gunk? Why do they call it ‘Blue Mountain,’ then?”

It was hard for Ashiya to tell how serious Maou was being. He decided to brush it off.

“Well, regardless, it certainly does its job from an advertising perspective. Strictly speaking in terms of taste, I imagine it is refreshing enough for coffee at that price range.”

“Hmm. Now isn’t exactly hot-coffee season, but that could be a problem in a few months.”

Maou placed a finger on his forehead, a perplexed look on his face, before motioning at Ashiya to take a look around the dining area.

“But…yeah, you’re right. There isn’t any real decisive advantage they have over us, I don’t think.”

With sales targets placed high for Saturday traffic, observers from the home office had been phoning in on an hourly basis to report Sentucky’s visitor numbers. Between their numbers and the estimated amount of purchases they made, SFC was ahead of MgRonald by nearly fifty customers and almost thirty thousand yen for the day.

Even worse, MgRonald’s numbers had been steadily dwindling ever since morning. Apart from Ashiya, only a single new party had paid a visit during the dinner period.

“You are correct, my liege. But, after having sat inside for two hours or so, there really is little more I can offer. Beyond that, all I can guess is that passersby are having their attention diverted by the novelty.”

“Yeah. There’s a chance of that…but then, there’s a chance of everything.”

Maou shrugged.

“Well, we’re not just gonna sit here and watch. I’ll see what kind of measures we can take to hit back at ’em. Thanks again.”

The simple verbal reward for his two hours of sentry work made it difficult for Ashiya to keep from turning around and leaving.

“Not at all. I am happy to be of service to you. Now, if I could be of service to your sales figures, I’d like to order two Big Tuna Burger combos, please. Large fries and drinks on both. I have no doubt Urushihara will whine about it, but that should suffice for dinner tonight.”

“If that dead weight in my Devil’s Castle whines about the food he’s freeloading off us, go ahead and punch him out for me. You’ve got my permission.”

“Yes, my liege.”

It was an oddly homespun exchange between the two arch-demons.

“Also…”

Ashiya turned around a nearby table, flashing an ironic smile.

“I do hope you’ll treat the ladies well.”

“Huh? Uh, yeah. Whatever.”

Maou gave a vague nod.

“Once I return home, I intend to take a different approach. I will try to have Urushihara explore more of the company’s underside. Perhaps there is some hidden trick to their business that is not so obvious from the outside.”

“If there is, I doubt he’s gonna find it on the Net. We’re kind of in different categories anyway, so it’s not like knowing their suppliers or cooking methods is gonna help much. Don’t try to overdo it, okay? You’re still recovering and stuff.”

“Oh, there is no need to worry about me, Your Demonic Highness.”

As the two demons muttered to each other in low voices, Chiho briskly assembled the required items together, completed the value meals in a mere minute or so, and handed them to Ashiya.

“Thanks for waiting, Ashiya. And good luck to both of you guys in this fight, okay?”

“Certainly. Thank you very much. I will do my best.”

Chiho returned the thanks with a smile.

As Ashiya lugged the heavy bag out of the dining area, Chiho watched him leave before her eyes turned toward the other group in the dining area.

“Wow, they sure are connected to each other, huh? In business, and in private, too, I guess. Always thinking about how to improve their business… Real pros, huh? You sure know a lot of people with talent, Emi. Oh, uh, counting me, too, I hope!”

“Yeah. Sure. You’re in.”

“These seats are harder than Sentucky’s…”

The trio of women were free-flowing with their opinions, despite not having ordered anything. Turning toward them, Maou flashed a taut, uncomfortable smile.

“Um…if…I…may…ladies?”

“…What?”

One of the women grumpily acknowledged Maou’s presence.

“Would you mind placing an order before sitting down, if you could?”

“Oh? Huh. Small iced coffee. Bring it over for me.”