“Ooooh! Maou!”
“Laila, Nord… Hey.”
“Oh! The Devil King! Whoo-hoo!”
“…Hello, Alas Ramus. Guys…”
Leaving the others to wait outside, Maou entered the yakiniku restaurant by Sasazuka Station, only to be greeted by a scene straight out of hell. At a six-person table, Acieth, Erone, Nyx, and Eleos were all cooking their own meat—and at the far side, Urushihara was slumped against the table, a mug of oolong tea in his hand. A tower of plates was stacked by the lone empty seat.
“Urushihara… What made you think taking these guys out to yakiniku is a good idea? You knew full well this would happen.”
Clearly, Urushihara’s attempts at resisting them had failed.
“Dude, you know none of them listen to me,” Urushihara said, his face a bit hollow. “And lemme warn you, I’m broke.”
“Huh? I know you get a salary.”
“Yeah, but I don’t make enough to cover Kobe beef courses the way they run through them!”
“A-are you serious?! How much did they eat?”
Kobe beef returning to the conversation this fast staggered Maou.
“I stopped counting midway through…but all those plates are Kobe beef. The good parts.”
Maou shuddered. The dishes suggested they had gone through an entire cow all by themselves.
“Guys… Can you hold back a little? You’re not the ones who have to pay for all this.”
Even he had to complain to them about it. But:
“S-sorry.”
Only Eleos seemed apologetic at all. The other three barely even slowed their chopsticks.
“Boy, I feel the sorry for Iwaki, but me, I’m a little sick of MgRonald, so…”
“If we’re going to another world, it’s just boring if we eat the same thing every time, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, I wanted to eat something besides MgRonald, too, so… Hee-hee!”
Acieth and Nyx were shameless. And Erone smiled, much brighter than he used to be, as he chowed down on some white rice.
“Hey, Urushihara, you think we can split this? Is this the tab?”
Maou snatched up the receipt slipped tableside. Then he felt the blood slowly drain from his upper body.
“How’s it look?”
“I can’t cover all of it…but hey, good news for you. I’ll call for help.”
Leaving the anxious Urushihara, Maou went back outside and dragged the reluctant Laila back in.
“What? What’s going on?!”
“You’re responsible for ’em, too. You help cover this. I’m not gonna let you say no.”
“What happened in here? …What?! Four of you?! Huh?! Where did this check come from?!”
The four members at the table shocked her. The tab shocked her again.
“Divided by three, I think we can manage.”
“…Guys, please, make this the last round.”
Laila’s shoulders dropped in defeat. In the end, a pretty impossible amount of 10,000 yen bills flew out of their wallets—far more than an average Tokyoite’s meal would normally be—but the culprits still complained about wanting more.
✦ ✦ ✦
“But why the hell did you take four people here?”
The three grown-ups, pale and not even getting to eat anything, began marching straight for Villa Rosa Sasazuka after leaving the restaurant.
“It was supposed to be just Acieth, dude. She fired that hunger beam again.”
Those purple beams Acieth shot out when she was peckish had acquired a rather ominous name over time. Even after the assault on heaven, they had never stopped.
“Eleos and Copyhara said that three years aren’t enough for the Yesod to fully adapt to the current Ente Isla, so it’s not gonna go away that easily. But if we’re managing her, having stuff destroyed every time it happens is kind of a bummer.”
“You should’ve eaten something, too.”
“I was worried they’d take a bite of me if I tried taking anything.”
It didn’t sound like a joke. That was the scary part.
“Erone, did you say thank you to Urushihara?”
“Yes, Nord. I’ve always been saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you,’ haven’t I?”
“Yeah. He and Eleos. The other two are animals.” Urushihara shrugged after chiming in. “So anyway, Acieth was in bad shape, so I tried to sneak her out, but then that idiot Nyx found us, and… Agh!”
“Oh, come on, Lucifer! Don’t call me an idiot!”
Suddenly, Nyx jumped on Urushihara’s shoulder from behind.
“Y’know, I always thought something was up! Acieth would just disappear on regular occasions, and so would you at the same time, Lucifer. Erone seemed to know what was up, so I pressed him, and now I know. Stop spoiling the Yesod all the time!”
“He is not the spoiling me! This is valid treat! Based on trusting relationship!”
“She’s talking as crazy as ever…”
Acieth was being so outlandish, even Emi felt obliged to join in.
“Acieth, did you have a lot of meat?” asked the sleepy Alas Ramus in Emi’s arms. Her sister smiled back, her lips still a little glossy from the grease.
“The Kobe beef, it was so good! The Wagyu grease, it is sweet taste! True!”
“Hmm… Mommy, can we have Kobe beef for dinner…?”
“Didn’t I say we were having ramen?!”
Acieth’s review sounded more like a taunt to Emi—and Alas Ramus’s urgent plea floored her. Chiho, meanwhile, was taking an apologetic tone with Urushihara.
“Let me cover some of it, too. It’s partly my fault for introducing Acieth to MgRonald in the first place…”
Urushihara seemed ambivalent about it. After a great deal of thought, he shook his head.
“You’re fine, dude. I get to expense Acieth’s food bill, so it’s all good. And Nyx finding me is my fault as their supervisor.”
“It’s my fault, too. As Nyx’s elder sister, I should have stopped her…but I’ve never tasted anything so good before, so my instincts kind of took hold.”
Only Eleos demonstrated even the slightest hint of remorse. But:
“Let’s come back again soon.”
“Yeah. I wanted some more.”
Already, Erone was readily agreeing with Nyx.
“…Considering your ‘expense account,’” Maou blurted out as he listened to the Sephirah, “you sure racked up a huge bill. We got one more wallet we can hit up, y’know.”
“Oh. Yeah, perfect. Hell, I shoulda called him first.”
Urushihara, realizing who this “wallet” was, smiled grimly.
“Besides, logically speaking, he’s the one who needs to take responsibility for this.”
He took the receipt out from his wallet, playing with it between his fingers. There was a glint of pure evil in his eyes.