It was the afternoon after their visit to the Sasaki residence, about four PM—two hours into the shift.
“Maou, if you could?”
Thanks to it not being very busy, Maou was somehow able to overcome his illness enough to carry on—until Iwaki came along, Libicocco in tow. The MgRonald upstairs café space had only a few customers dotted around.
“I’ll let Libby handle upstairs.”
“All right. But…did my headset batteries run out? Did a delivery order come in or something?”
He had heard nothing on his headset, so he thought at first that he’d missed an order or the like.
“No, nothing like that. Can you just come with me for a moment?”
“S-sure. Thanks, Libicocco.”
“…Yep.”
The taciturn Libicocco, taking Maou’s place, gave him a worried look as he toddled down the stairs. Once he was pulled into the staff room:
“This is a managerial order, all right? Maou, I want you to take off early today.”
“Right… Wait, wait?”
“Kawata agreed to come in just for the dinner rush, so we’ll be fine here. So go home and get yourself better, okay?”
“Oh, um, manager, no…”
“That’s a managerial order.”
Iwaki was being unusually strict.
“Maou, I know this is a very important time for you. That’s why you were at Ms. Sasaki’s house, right?”
Ah, yes. Iwaki did see him on all fours at Chiho’s place.
“You said you’d be better in a little bit, so I kept an eye on you, but… Maybe you don’t realize it, but you’ve been going paler and paler. People are gonna think you caught a cold, and I can’t have you handling food like that.”
“…All right. I’m sorry.”
Being told that, Maou had nothing to counter with.
“Can you get home by yourself?”
“Yeah, I can do that… It’s real close on a bike.”
He staggered his way toward the changing room, but:
“Agh?!”
Iwaki, waiting outside, flew in after hearing some kind of loud crashing sound.
“Are you all right?”
“Y-yes, I’m fine,” a panicked-sounding Maou said from a rather low position on the ground.
After a little while, he successfully changed out of his uniform. His face looked even worse, though—being freed of the tension of work must’ve done that to him.
“Why don’t you take a little break before heading home?”
“No… Um, I really don’t think it’s a cold, but if it is, I don’t want to spread it… I’m sorry. Say thanks to Kawacchi for me.”
“…All right. Be careful.”
Iwaki said nothing else as Maou left, making sure every step was a sure one before he took it. Watching him stagger his way through the town in twilight, Iwaki returned to Libicocco.
“So can demons even catch colds?”
“No, I sure haven’t heard of that. But my liege has been living here for a while now… If it’s anything like before, he’ll get real bad quick, then he’ll recover just as quick. He doesn’t have a fever or anything; he just gets drained of energy, kind of.”
“No fever?”
“No. Well, I can’t say, really, but last time, he was all better once he returned to the demon realms, so I think he’ll recover pretty fast this time, too.”
“I hope so,” Iwaki said, slightly anxious. “If it’s just him not feeling well…maybe demons can catch colds. Try not to catch it, Libby.”
“Aw, quit making it sound like I’ll catch the stupid from him or something.”
“You’re getting pretty used to life in Japan, aren’t you?”
For someone who’d only recently learned about Maou and Libicocco, she already seemed to have a lot of insight into what made them tick.
“But I don’t think my liege or Alciel has ever gone to the doctor… Can this body get sick after all?”
It made Libicocco worry, just a bit—enough that he resolved to at least buy a mask at the convenience store on the way home.
✦ ✦ ✦
But the King of all Demons hadn’t moved one bit from the MgRonald bicycle parking area. He was crouched by his Dullahan II, unable to get up, because he couldn’t work his knees at all. His left hand groped at thin air, failing to grasp the handlebar.
“Boy… I’m done for.”
The nausea was acting up again, but no matter what he did, he had to avoid throwing up behind the MgRonald. At this point, though, it was only a matter of time.
“This is so pathetic… Come on… Do it, King…of all Demons…”
Having a near-death experience just because you were trying to answer the feelings of a human girl was beyond pathetic.
“…You really are pathetic. You call yourself Devil King?”
But someone picked up on his self-utterances.
“Here, grab hold of me. Come on. Can you stand up? You can leave the bike here tonight.”
“Ah… Yeah…”
Someone took Maou’s hand and lent him a shoulder to lean on. His hazy vision turned upward, and he was laid down on something soft.
“Hey. Sorry, I know it’s real close, but if you could drive us toward Sasazuka Station…”
His nose told him he had been placed inside a car. Taking a relieved breath, he fell into a deep sleep, all but losing consciousness.