The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 3 (27 page)

“True. And it’s not like
I
have to worry about it. I’ll need to have Alas Ramus over at my place for a while anyway.”

“Mommy! Chi-Sis! C’mon! Let’s eat!”

“Whoa, Alas Ramus! Watch out! You’re gonna take a tumble like Mommy did!”

Alas Ramus was near the top of the stairs, calling for Emi and Chiho. Maou was just in time to grab her from the rear.

“Come on, join us. Suzuno made it all, so it’s not gonna mess you up or anything.”

“…What do you think?”

“Well, despite every intention I had, I’m her mother now, I guess. Better keep an eye on her diet.”

Emi gingerly began to climb the stairs.

She thought she could feel Chiho snickering to herself as she followed behind. Apparently the act Emi put on was about as convincing as Maou’s.

There was no telling what Gabriel meant by his parting words. But as a bona-fide Hero, there was no way she could proceed down the road to ruin. Not if she wanted to preserve the peace over dinner tonight.

For now, at least, she was able to think that to herself.

“That child fused herself with Emilia’s holy sword?!”

“Yes! Completely! And
boy
, I just couldn’t believe it!”

“Goodness. It must have been terrible. But enough about that. I was thinking about finally asking out my goddess, but what do you think!”

“Dahh! Just
once
, I was hoping you’d think about someone besides yourself. Nice to see I’m wrong yet again!”

“Now, now. What do you expect from me anyway? My Evil Eye of the Fallen is useless against her. What could I do to help?”

“A lot less than I was
hoping
, apparently.”

“That’s, um, really bad news, though, isn’t it? The Yesod they call Alas Ramus fusing with the Better Half?”

“That’s why I
came
to you! That’s why I’m practically having kittens right now, if you hadn’t noticed! That’s why I’m asking for some advice! Don’t you see how much danger this is gonna put us all in?! This is no time to work on your game with the ladies, mm-kay? Ugh! Why did I give that girl even a
moment
of kindness back there?”

“Looks like the opposite sex is giving both of us a few problems, hmm? I’m starting to empathize with you a little.”

“Oooooh, I could just
punch
you right now!”

“Ahh, don’t get in such a tizzy. What do you think, though? Isn’t she beautiful? They used her in one of the paper placemat ads, you know. Those things’re going for fifteen hundred yen on ReLay right now!”

“You asked for it!”

“Gah!”

“I
said
, try to act a little concerned, mm-kay?!”

“You don’t see any value to this? Pft. Philistine. But Emilia didn’t know what she was doing, right? She didn’t mean to fuse Alas Ramus with the Better Half?”

“No! Probably not! Why?!”

Late at night, upstairs at the Sentucky Fried Chicken in front of Hatagaya rail station, the archangel Sariel gnawed at a chicken wing and some cold potato wedges as he addressed Gabriel.

“Then perhaps we could avoid the worst-case scenario if we corralled the other ‘half.’ The second wing, apart from the Better Half.”

“…We could. But who can say where that even is—”

“Pfft! I shouldn’t have expected you to understand at all.
Someone
has a lot to learn about love between a man and a woman.”

“……”

“Hey! Don’t just sit there shaking your fist at me! Just think about it for a second!”

“Who?! Sorry I’m so stupid, but I don’t know, man! Also, I don’t exactly remember hearing about
you
ever successfully finding a girl in your life!”

“Hee-hee-hee! Ah, but all of my experiences come down to right now, this very moment, when I finally bag my goddess… Oww!!”

Without warning, Gabriel slapped Sariel in the face.

“
You
try being the archangel who had to handle all the sexual-harassment complaints filed against you, mm-kay?”

“A-all right! I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Just stop hitting me! I need to put my best face forward for work tomorrow!”

“If
that’s
your best face, hon, you got problems. Think about where I’m coming from! I’m the one who couldn’t get that sword back, so I’m the one who’s gonna have to answer for it. But what if
they
knew that it’s all because you’re playing demigod Casanova with some human girl, huh? You wanna wind up like
he
did?”

Sariel rubbed his swollen cheek as he ejected a whiff of laughter at the exasperated Gabriel.

“I will do anything—even make the gods, make the whole world, my enemy—to consummate my love!”

“I wish you had a sign or something you could put up to show when you’re not being sarcastic with me… So, what? Who is it? Who’s this guy with the other half, whom I’d surely know the identity of if only I was such a hot stud like you?”

“Well, who made off with the Yesod Sephirah in the first place? Think about
that
stumper, and the answer should be obvious.”

Sariel grinned salaciously as he kept his face guarded.

“One of the wings was granted to his daughter. Who got the other one? Well, who else could?”

Sariel waved a chicken bone in the air to drive his point home.

“Nordo Justina. Emilia’s father.”

It’s surprisingly roomy up there, when you ride a Ferris wheel by yourself.

They took my photograph solo, too, but gave me this picture of some strange man at the end. Who’s this guy? Oh, it’s the author? Am I obliged to accept that?

If you ever go on a certain Ferris wheel in the city of Tokyo and you catch sight of a school of tuna fish jumping around wearing red glasses, that’s just the afterimage of my presence. Enjoy the ride.

The Devil King and Hero hijinks in this volume mainly rotate around the theme of child rearing.

Along those lines, I have a notice and a request for everyone who’s been nice enough to read this.

As I wrote this novel, I read through a number of books about Your New Baby, interviewed a few people involved with research into child raising, and even browsed around a few of the “mommy Q&A”–type Web forums.

One thing I learned along the way was that between generations, and even between individual parents, there are huge differences between what people see as right and wrong in child care.

Whether it’s what kind of diet to give, what type of baby equipment to use, or what sort of medications are safe for them, there are all kinds of stances people take depending on age, region, or just who they are. Maybe some weird man with no child-rearing experience
who enjoys riding Ferris wheels by himself is in no position to say this. But my take-home from my research was that when it comes to child care, there might be such a thing as
better
, but there’s no such thing as
best
.

So I’d like to note that the scenes in this book involving young children are just one of the likely infinite number of approaches to child care taken all around the world.

I sincerely doubt that anyone would dare use this novel as their personal alternative to Dr. Spock. But to anyone currently raising young children, I strongly encourage you to take whatever steps
you
see as appropriate, especially when it comes to food and drink.

Also, there’s a scene in the book that portrays purchasing sunscreen for children at a drug store in a negative light. Again, though, that’s just one take. People are free to take a pharmacist’s recommendations along those lines as well. Do it
your
way.

That, and heat exhaustion. Sometimes, that’s not something an amateur can take care of with the basic kind of first aid you saw here.

When it comes to keeping your own child healthy in heart and mind, I encourage you to use suitable medical treatment and engage in whatever action is most recommended for your own child’s situation.

Also, this volume depicts a group of people with zero experience or even interest in child raising doing their absolute best, occasionally burning out, then doing their best all over again.

Thanks to the earnest support of my readers, as well as the combined efforts of everyone involved with this publication, volume three of
The Devil Is a Part-Timer!
is finally in your hands.

For once, the characters haven’t said anything too extremely inappropriate this time. I have no one to apologize to, which is a stroke of luck.

In fact, I’ve even received an offer to make a comic version of the story, even though I’ve only been at this for three volumes and just
about a year’s worth of authorship. It goes without saying that I’m elated by this.

I hope you’ll all provide your warmest support to the Devil King, the Hero, and everyone else as their lives grow ever more frugal in the world of manga.

With that, I bid you farewell until the next volume.