The Devil Is a Part-Timer! Vol. 12 Read online

  Copyright

  THE DEVIL IS A PART-TIMER!, Volume 12

  SATOSHI WAGAHARA, ILLUSTRATION BY 029 (ONIKU)

  Translation by Kevin Gifford

  Cover art by 029 (oniku)

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  HATARAKU MAOUSAMA!, Volume 12

  © SATOSHI WAGAHARA 2015

  First published in Japan in 2015 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo.

  English translation rights arranged with KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo, through Tuttle-Mori Agency, Inc., Tokyo.

  English translation © 2018 by Yen Press, LLC

  Yen Press, LLC supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact the publisher. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Wagahara, Satoshi. | 029 (Light novel illustrator) illustrator. | Gifford, Kevin, translator.

  Title: The devil is a part-timer! / Satoshi Wagahara ; illustration by 029 (oniku) ; translation by Kevin Gifford.

  Other titles: Hataraku Maousama!. English

  Description: First Yen On edition. | New York, NY : Yen On, 2015–

  Identifiers: LCCN 2015028390 | ISBN 9780316383127 (v. 1 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316385015 (v. 2 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316385022 (v. 3 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316385039 (v. 4 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316385046 (v. 5 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316385060 (v. 6 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316469364 (v. 7 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316473910 (v. 8 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316474184 (v. 9 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316474207 (v. 10 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316474238 (v. 11 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316474252 (v. 12 : pbk.)

  Subjects: CYAC: Fantasy.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.1.W34 Ha 2015 | DDC [Fic]—dc23

  LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015028390

  ISBNs: 978-0-316-47425-2 (paperback)

  978-0-316-47426-9 (ebook)

  E3-20181106-JV-NF-ORI

  THE DEVIL HANGS ON TO HIS DAILY ROUTINE

  There’s always something about returning to an old, familiar home that fills a person with a warm sense of relief. No matter how luxuriant the inns one stayed at in the midst of traveling, going back to the cluttered, weather-beaten house always provides an odd peace of mind, intermixed with the loneliness of journey’s end.

  It did not work that way with Hanzou Urushihara.

  “Dude, what the hell is that?!”

  “It is the demonic force collected by His Demonic Highness and myself. There was no place else to store it.”

  “Huhh?! Your demonic force?! Are you crazy? You guys have got to be crazy!”

  “And this is how you’re going to greet me the moment you return home from a long absence?”

  “Well, yeah?! I can’t be the only one around here who’s got a problem with this!”

  He had walked through the door to find that the cubbyhole he called home was now taken over by…something else.

  Finally released from a long stint in the hospital, Urushihara opened the door to his closet in Room 201 of Villa Rosa Sasazuka only to find that the entire upper shelf—which usually housed his bed and computer—was occupied by a large, mysterious, semi-gelatinous mass wrapped in newspaper and vinyl tape. It almost made his eyes explode.

  From his perspective, he had been forced into a hospital room with no real clue what had happened to him, guarded so he couldn’t leave on his own terms—and when he finally got out, he was effectively blockaded from his own room. Not only that, but the space was now filled with demonic force, the energy he and his roommates relied on for their very lives.

  For Urushihara; for Ashiya, who was not only letting Urushihara’s griping go in one ear and out the other but was actually deflecting it back with his willpower; and of course, for Sadao Maou, their master and the main rent payer in the group, the lack of this evil power was the whole reason why life in Japan had been so much trouble for them. Right now, though, the closet was packed with so much demonic force, they guessed it was in line with the Devil King Satan’s during his boom years.

  Urushihara understood that Maou and Ashiya had no intention, at this point, of using this to conquer Japan by force. The idea, however, that they’d just keep this resource idle in the closet and keep living their current lives made little sense to him.

  “Dude, Ashiya, don’t you think we could use this for something?! Like, there’s no value to having money or power if you just let it sit! You gotta leverage it!”

  “I see no reason why you are qualified to lecture me on the value of money. Consider it saving for the future.”

  “Oh, so you’re just gonna wait ’til you’re old and live off that ’til you die?! That’s all the ambition you’ve got, Ashiya?! Don’t you think we could at least improve our living situation a little bit?!”

  Ashiya gave a wholly unironic, puzzled look at Urushihara’s pleading. “Improve our living situation? How do you mean?”

  “How do I mean…?” He paused for a moment, so thrown by this meek response that he lost his train of thought. “Well, no, I mean…” He looked around the room, still standing next to the giant block of energy in the closet. “Well, like, our food bill, dude! We can live off demonic energy, can’t we?! And if we got this much, we don’t need to eat at all any longer!”

  He leaped toward the refrigerator and opened the door. It contained all the usual suspects: meat, vegetables, fish, milk, tofu, natto, spices, and everything else Urushihara knew his roommate stocked it with.

  “Food lies at the very core of our lives,” Ashiya replied. “Thanks to His Demonic Highness’s hard work, we are able to put three square meals on the table per day. There is no need to wastefully consume our demonic force instead.”

  “Ugh, I… I wish I had a word in my vocabulary to describe how crazy you’re acting!” Urushihara slammed the door. “What about, like, electricity and water and gas and stuff? We don’t need any of that, now!”

  “Can you run a microwave oven on magic?”

  “You can! You’re a frickin’ Great Demon General!”

  “All right, so you want us to continually produce bolts of electricity in a way that they can run AC-ready appliances in Japan? On a far smaller scale than your typical lightning attack, I should add? It would be a very delicate spell, and rather difficult to sustain, I would imagine.”

  “Ngh… But…” Urushihara fell silent again, before raising his eyebrows and spreading his arms out. “But look at this room, dude! Now that we got our force back, who says we gotta abide by human laws any longer?! I’m not saying we start wrecking stuff, but we can make humans do whatever we want now! So let’s get out of this crappy apartment and move someplace where we a
ll have our own rooms, at least! And a bigger kitchen! And, like, bathrooms!”

  “Indeed, my liege and I may have thought along similar lines a year ago.”

  “…Uh, yeah, and that’s why I can’t believe how sad you’re acting now, General. I know how our thought processes match!”

  One year ago, Shirou Ashiya had zero experience with human interaction of any sort. The idea of the Great Demon General Alciel, back when he had no empathy at all for Japan or the human race, considering a move to someplace with fancier appliances and a heated toilet did nothing to cheer Urushihara’s flagging outlook on life.

  “But we have no pressing reason to leave this building, do we?”

  “What?! You’re the one who’s always bitching about the equipment around here!”

  Before he realized it, Urushihara’s case had shifted from using demonic force to mind control people around them, to using it to make the plumbing work better.

  “Yes, certainly, I would like a large kitchen counter to work with. It is too low to the ground for my height, as well. Having a balcony would make drying clothes quite a bit easier. I feel it is not a noble thing to have undergarments hanging off indoor clotheslines in plain sight of Ms. Sasaki when she visits. But the kitchen issue is not a fatal one, and there are ways we can work around laundry embarrassments.”

  “But, duuude…”

  “And besides, exactly where do you plan to move to? Think about it. We have built a large number of local connections here in Sasazuka, and we have everything we need for our daily lives. And look at who surrounds us—Bell next door, Nord Justina below us. How many shared dwellings can you name where all the residents are so intimately familiar with one another? Plus, given that we are enemies as a rule, there is no reason to be particularly concerned about keeping up appearances, as it were. Meanwhile, the mere idea of trying to hide your presence from our new neighbors, wherever we move to, throws me into a great despair.”

  “Hey! You owe unemployed bums like me an apology for that!”

  “I see no need for that whatsoever,” Ashiya sniffed. “Plus, we would need to adjust our electricity, gas, and water plans, not to mention work out a TV license, and we would need to hire movers. Our residential certificates would need to change, as well as our bank and credit card contacts—”

  “Daaaaahhh!” Urushihara began gesticulating at Ashiya’s long list. “That’s what I mean! One shot of demonic force, and it’s done, dude!”

  “And why do you fail to understand,” the unwavering Ashiya insisted, “that there is no hindrance to our lives at this very moment that requires demonic force to handle?”

  “Why are you working on this notion that we have to keep our current lives, man?!”

  “What are you saying?” Ashiya languidly responded as he stuck a thumb toward the “spare room” that used to be the apartment’s closet. “Do you think that he would allow us to work outside the standard structures of Japan, or should I say this world, in the first place?”

  As if on cue, Room 201’s front door opened, despite being locked.

  “Well said, Mr. Ashiya! So glad to see you aware of your situation.”

  “Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaghhhhhhhhhhhhh?!”

  At the doorway was a woman whose broad-rimmed, crimson-red hat was festooned with feathers from assorted birds of paradise, bright enough to make even the dim light illuminating the outside corridor seem to shine brilliantly. Her enamel stiletto heels were just as bright a shade of crimson, matching her flared skirt and a cardigan that was probably a lot cozier and fluffier a few years ago. For Miki Shiba, landlord of Villa Rosa Sasazuka, it was a bit more informal of an outfit than usual.

  “I would not exactly call myself ‘aware’ of my place in human society, ma’am, but I do try to act as rationally I can.”

  “A fine thing to pursue! And I’d advise you, Mr. Urushihara, to avoid such flights of fancy in the future.”

  “Is, um, is wanting to move apartments that, uh, fanciful, ma’am?”

  Urushihara edged toward the window, trying to keep as far away from Shiba as possible. It wasn’t enough to weaken the thrall she had upon him. The purple tint to his hair visibly lightened before the other two, segueing into a shade of light blue within seconds before settling into a striking silver.

  “Dude, dude, dude, my hair’s doing that thing again! Stop it!”

  “Oh, don’t be such a stick in the mud about it, mm-kay? It’s totally you. Like, a really bold makeover!”

  “Shut up! Why are you goin’ around with the landlord like you two are friends?!”

  It was, of course, neither Ashiya nor Shiba halfheartedly poking fun at Urushihara’s new hair color. It was the large, looming man, almost as tall as Ashiya, standing next to the landlord—his hair the same shade of bluish-tinted silver as Urushihara’s. He shrugged at the fallen angel, still preferring to wear his I Love LA T-shirt underneath his toga despite the late-fall weather.

  “Hey, Mikitty’s been a big help. If she’s goin’ out for a while, I can at least carry her bags for her, hmm?”

  “Uh, do you care about how the optics of all this looks, dude?!”

  The old role of guarding the Sephirot now seemed well in the past for the archangel Gabriel. Now, he was just Shiba’s luggage boy, and he seemed to have no qualms with it.

  “Oh, and we chatted with Crestia Bell just now, and she said that hunk of demonic force is just fine in the closet. It’ll help keep your noise from leakin’ into her place, she said.”

  “All of you are just… Arrrrgghhhhh!”

  Urushihara cupped his head in his hands, unable to figure out whom to lash out at first. Ashiya, ignoring him, turned to Gabriel.

  “I knew our landlord was coming to see Bell, but I heard nothing about you. What would you need from her?”

  “Mmmm, well, like I just toldja, I’m really just carrying Mikitty’s stuff for her.” In one of his large, bearlike hands was an alligator-skin handbag, once again a bright shade of crimson. “Though I did want to kinda hear more of the story from at least one of you guys. I figured having Mikitty with me would help grease the wheels a little, so I asked her to come along…”

  He scratched his head and took a step away from the Room 201 doorway—which, between his height and Shiba’s ample girth, was completely blocked. Behind him, in the sliver of space visible next to the landlord, was a smaller woman.

  “Not that it worked or anything,” Gabriel muttered, the smirk clear in his voice.

  “Well, I can see why,” Ashiya remarked as he sized up the woman. “And Crestia Bell has no particular duty to listen to you, either.”

  “Yeah, well, she’s a Church cleric so she kinda danced around that, but…mmm, that was pretty much what she said, yeah.”

  “Look,” the woman accompanying Shiba and Gabriel pleaded to Ashiya, “I know I don’t exactly deserve a prize for the way I acted…but I mean, there was just nothing else I could do… So please, let me see Satan again. I want him to listen to me.”

  “You may not. I have orders to chase you out if you come here.”

  Ashiya’s frozen voice sliced neatly through the begging of the archangel Laila.

  “My liege is a busy man. Emilia, in particular, has been an additional stress upon his mind, and he has just been through what I would certainly call a scarring experience. Given the new business he is about to tackle, I cannot allow any more burden upon his shoulders.”

  Ashiya had been polite enough with the woman before. Now, he would give her no quarter.

  “And I suppose this may go without saying, but if you decide to embark on anything as foolish as intruding in his workplace, I guarantee you will never be granted an audience with him for as long as you both live. If that is clear, I would appreciate if you made good your departure. No matter what you say, my master’s feelings are quite firm on the matter.”

  “Oh, no…” Grief crossed the woman’s face.

  “Perhaps,” Shiba offered, “it would be best to try again la
ter. Attempting to force the issue may not produce much of a response at this point. I am willing to work as an intermediary, but I can’t demand they change their mind, after all.”

  “Yeah,” Gabriel said with a sigh, “guess not. Sorry to waste your time, Mikitty.”

  “Oh, not at all! It’s the duty of any landlord to see how their tenants are faring.”

  “Hmm? Well, I’m glad to hear that. Hey, can I stay here a bit? I wanted to talk with these two.”

  “Go right ahead. Come back in time for dinner, all right?”

  “Yes, ma’am!”

  It was hard for Ashiya to believe how friendly Gabriel acted around Shiba, as he offered the handbag back to her and waved vigorously as she and Laila left. Then he turned back toward Ashiya, grinning.

  “You’re being a bit unkind, aren’tcha?”

  “We are demons. I would imagine that is the normal reaction to an angel.”

  “I suppose that’s so.”

  The sheer sharpness of Ashiya’s voice suggested to Gabriel that it wasn’t worth wheedling him about it.

  “Welp, I’ve been reeeeeeal patient with all this so far. On the order of crazy patient, you feel me? And I’m sure Laila knows there’s no point panicking right now. Not that she’s not, though, given…the, y’know, all this.”

  Upon rescuing the captured Emi from Ente Isla, Maou and his expedition team came back to find Urushihara in the hospital and Miki Shiba, landlord of Villa Rosa Sasazuka, unveiling all kinds of truths about their universe.

  As she had described it by Urushihara’s hospital bed, the worlds of Earth and Ente Isla, while two separate planets, were linked together in the same space. That fact didn’t seem to change very much at first, but it was more than enough to give everyone new insights on the people, and the events, transpiring between the two worlds. Traveling across them didn’t entail some unknown transdimensional contact—they both existed under the same laws of physics, and even if it wasn’t possible at the moment, the right kind of spaceship or whatever might be able to complete the journey without a Gate, sometime in the far future.

  The same also applied to the “demon realm” that Maou ruled over. The land where demons roamed didn’t exist under the ground or in some ancient myth, but in a real-life planet in real-life space.