The restaurant, inside a building a short way from Tokyo Station, was calm and serene. Suzuno couldn’t help but fall back into her old habits with Maou.
“Are you sure you can afford such a fancy place?”
“Hey, I run a company these days, y’know. I’d be useless if I couldn’t take my clients somewhere this nice, at least. You can order whatever you want to.”
“A-all right…”
Maou brimmed with confidence, but Suzuno was still anxious.
“It’s all right. He can cover this.”
Emi whispered it to her, as if she knew what Maou’s finances were like, so Suzuno nodded and decided to see how things unfolded.
Once they were all in the tatami room and had made their drink orders, Kazuma began to explain to Suzuno why he was with Nord and Laila.
“Ahh… I see. You are raising Nord’s wheat at the Komagane farm?”
“That’s right. I moved to Nagano half a year ago, and the Sasakis have been treating me very well there.”
“Oh, no, you treat us very well. We’re just getting started with wheat, but under Nord’s management, it’s going really great.”
Ever since Maou and his friends had come to help out, Kazuma’s wife, Hinako, had fostered a strong desire to get into wheat planting. They had a successful, high-quality crop the first year, and Nord had been managing production ever since as they maintained the business.
“I see… So you have found a place for yourself in Japan, Nord?”
It made perfect sense to Suzuno, until something occurred to her. She whispered into Maou’s ear.
“Huh? Then what is Laila doing here? Because she’s based in Villa Rosa Sasazuka, no? You know…”
Then she brought up the biggest concern for Maou and Laila at the moment, making sure Kazuma couldn’t hear her as she brought it up.
“Laila,” a slightly weary-looking Maou replied, “is splitting her time between Sasazuka and Komagane. She’s got a part-time job at a hospital here. Plus, with that other going concern, we kind of rotate shifts around anyway. Libicocco and I are on duty right now.”
“Yeah,” Emi added, overhearing them across the table, “it’s kind of a seasonal remote job for Father. There’s an express bus from Shinjuku to Komagane that gets you there pretty fast, actually.”
“Oh… Talk about a sea change… Ah, yes, how is Hitoshi doing? He must be pretty big by now.”
Suzuno brought up the name of Kazuma’s son. Kazuma gleefully took out his phone and brought up some photos.
“Well, old enough to sass back at me anyway! When we visit Nord’s place, the kid plays with Alas Ramus a lot.”
“Oh, how nice……………………… Um. Ah?”
Then a sudden thought made Suzuno’s face pale. To Kazuma and the rest of the Sasakis up in Nagano, Alas Ramus was a “relative” of Maou’s. If she was being treated as part of Emi and Nord’s immediate family, that would have to spark questions in Kazuma’s mind. But Kazuma quickly cleared the air.
“Oh, don’t worry. Everybody knows about the deal between Maou, Yusa, and Alas Ramus nowadays.”
“Huh?!”
“Kazuma and Hinako,” Laila quickly explained, “told the rest of the Sasakis about our situation. If our families are gonna be this close to each other, we have to tell them about Alas Ramus, don’t we?”
“Yes, it was quite the surprise at first. But once I grasped all of it, boy, you guys were really walking a tightrope back then, huh?”
Kazuma admitted that it took him some time to accept everything, but after the approval of Chiho, Riho, Sen’ichi—and most of all Ei Sasaki, Chiho’s grandmother and the spiritual head of the Sasaki family—everyone was willing to accept matters.
“Oh… Well, heavens. I see. I was terrified for a moment!”
“Right? Although the tightrope Maou’s walking right now is a little tricky, too.”
Kazuma’s eyes turned toward Maou, who shrugged awkwardly.
“Yeah, sorry about that. Really, I think it’s turned out great. If there’s any problem, it’ll be whether we’ll tell Hitoshi about everything or not.”
“True. For all we know, by the time Hitoshi’s old enough, things might be totally different.”
“I hardly think anything can change more than it did in the past three years…”
“You said it.”
Suzuno and Maou exchanged an earnest smile.
“But if anything, isn’t it you who’s changed the most, Chiho? Because Aunt Riho was really worried that you would decide to pursue a career in Ente Isla.”
“Huh? My mother said all that to you?! Ugh… I’m sorry.”
Chiho frowned.
“Well,” Nord said, “a parent’s always going to worry for their child, no matter how old they are. Especially if that child’s going into something the parent has no clue about.”
“Put it like that, Nord, and it sounds super heavy.”
Chiho had to cede the point to him. After all, here was a guy who saw his own young daughter be set up as the savior of an entire planet.