The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 1 by Satoshi Wagahara Page B

Hero, and
I’m
going to slay the Devil King and guide Ente Isla into a bold era of peace! Okay?!”
    “I appreciate your enthusiasm, but please, try not to forget we’re in public.”
    Maou looked frantic. Ashiya was rolling around on the floor, crying. And Emi continued jabbing her finger at Maou, ranting on with the stentorian voice of a natural-born ranter.
    Suddenly, Emi noticed the officers and visitors staring at her. In an instant, the entire region between her neck and the ends of her ears glowed bright red.
    “I…I…uh… Look, just be careful, all right?! That’s all I want to say!”
    “Thanks for the warning…”
    Emi, ignoring Maou’s listless response, swung her small tote bag around and quickly strode off, making her escape.
    “Me…
and
her. They’re after us both. And yet they called, huh?”
    Maou took a moment to pick the fatally wounded Ashiya off the floor.
    “Get a grip on yourself, Ashiya.”
    “It…it wasn’t my fault… I kept a perfect accounting ledger…”
    “Snap out of it! Look, let’s go home. I need to meet up with Chi later.”

    “Dammit! Those cops made me waste so much of my off day.”
    “But it worked out well in the end, did it not? They even fixed your flat tires for you.”
    It wasn’t enough to keep Maou from groaning as he wheeled his returned bicycle back home.
    He
was
questioned by the police, yes, but was treated strictly as the victim of a passing thief, not a shooting suspect.
    The reason he gave for the abandoned bike in the intersection was not exactly his most eloquent moment as Devil King.
    “I, uh, I was scared… I didn’t know what was going on, so I ditched it and ran.”
    The officer questioning them accepted it without an ounce of suspicion. He even said he felt
sorry
for them. An utter humiliation.
    Back in their apartment, the Devil King and his aide-de-camp discussed their current pressing issues.
    The texts they received the previous night from Chiho and an unknown number both discussed earthquakes.
    Maou had replied to both, but the mystery texter fell silent after that. Meanwhile, Chiho wrote:
    I’m not playing around and it’s not a joke. I think an earthquake’s coming. —Chiho
    It was a little difficult to decipher the meaning behind such a clipped response. For one, why did she sign her name at the end of every text? In emoji, no less?
    After a few more texts, Chiho clarified that she believed an earthquake had a chance of occurring sometime soon. She went on to explain why, but Maou offered to meet her this evening anyway, since it seemed like direct conversation was the easiest way to get to the bottom of this.
    “What did Sasaki tell you?”
    “Something about hearing a voice.”
    “Huh?”
    “A man’s voice. She said it was giving her some kind of weird warning or something.”
    “That doesn’t make sense. This isn’t a movie or an anime. You don’t see high school girls suddenly get telepathic messages out of nowhere.”
    “Yeah, I thought she was just having weird teenage delusions, too. At first.”
    Maou smiled grimly.
    “The thing is, I figured she’d have a more grandiose story behind it, but apparently Chi started having strange experiences once she got hired at MgRonald.”
    “Once she made contact with you, my liege? That’s when it began?”
    “‘Made contact’ isn’t exactly the term I’d use, but you could say that, yeah. She started to have ringing in her ears, and whenever there was an earthquake, it’d be huge only in the area around Chi. You know, I may not look it, but I’m still king of the demon realm, right?”
    “Absolutely. And you do not, my liege.”
    “…
Meaning
, it wouldn’t be strange at all if even my mere presence was having an effect on the people and things around me. I
am
Devil King, after all.”
    An unaware observer could be excused for thinking Maou was the one with weird teenage delusions at this point.
    “But in that case, why aren’t you affecting anyone else on