MaruMA:Gaiden01:Chapter 5

All’s Well That Ends Well

I, Günter von Christ, am the royal advisor to His Majesty The 27th Demon King and I also serve as His Majesty Yuuri’s tutor.  Therefore, I am aware that Conrart brought His Majesty’s soul to another world.

However!  I had no idea that something like this had happened!

This is shocking this is shocking this is shocking!  Ah what do I do what do I do should I do that!?  What is ‘that’?

Ah, saying I know nothing is inexcusable…

Could I have endowed

With the pine tree's thousand years

One I used to see,

Parted from her nevermore

All my sorrows would be o'er.

I might run away.  I might betray your expectations and hopes and just disappear.

Knowing that, are you still going to give me this duty?  There are others more skilled and those far more loyal than I.

Why do I have to go?  You know it will hurt me.

The right side of my body is oddly hot.

His ear and cheek pressed against the ground especially feel as if they are burning.  His veins are pounding so hard they feel like they are going to rupture and he notices a pain in the back of his head.  He is spread out on top of a hot rock like a corpse.  When he experimentally tries to move his stiffened fingers, he realizes he is not holding anything.

Ah, I dropped my sword along the way.

Like I care.

With a throaty laugh on his lips, he slowly forces his eyes open.  There are dried tears on his eyelashes as if he was sleeping for a long time. I don’t have a weapon.  Like I care about that.  Hopefully the first person to come across me is a thief after my wallet.  If he cuts me down and I lose my life, I won’t be troubled in the slightest.  It was lucky I dropped my sword.

I look just like an idiotic tourist.

Wondering if he had any money on him anyway, he reaches up with his right hand to feel his breast pocket. There were no coins or bills there, but a cool and icy bottle.

This painful, troublesome and important object was undamaged.  When he touched it gingerly with his fingertips, there were no chips or breaks anywhere.  He gives a sigh laced with mixed feelings and pushes himself up with both elbows.

What came into his blurry vision was dry air and a cloud of dust colored in the evening sun.  A gray road cut across the yellow expanse.  In the middle of the cracked road there was a line drawn that seems to have been white at some point and he was lying right on top of that completely unarmed.  The air rises in swaying waves from the ground around his feet.

… Svelera?  When he tried saying the name of a place he knows, he was assaulted with thirst.  His voice won’t come out normally.

A vibration like a tremor and a sound from loud marching trumpet come from far away.  When he looked behind him startled, he saw a giant yellow box running.

Because he saw a human figure through the window at the front, he realizes that that man is controlling it.  However, there are no horses or cows pulling it and it is charging ahead at an incredible pace.  Rolling across the surface of the road in a panic, he just barely escapes to the sandy soil on the sides.

It’s armor I’ve never seen before.  It’s probably the latest type of military tank.  So that means this is wartime?  The yellow box passes by where he was and comes to a sudden stop in the distance.

What is that!?  Is it moving by magic or exorcism?  Then that means that this is a land with an abundance of people skilled in either magic or exorcism.

He had thought he would be surrounded by a crowd of soldiers, but after leaving one petite figure behind, the box runs away once again.  If the brown smudges he caught a fleeting glance of were rust, that would mean the entire body was made out of iron.  The wheels were gray and covered in dust and he didn’t know what they were made of.

The petite figure walked in his direction and looked down upon him as he sat on the ground.  The figure had a strange hat on that was only long in the front.  They had brown skin close to the color of aged wood and the limbs sticking out of the short sleeves of their plain clothes were thin.  Judging from their physique and innocent expression, they are likely somewhere in between forty and sixty years old.  There is a large discrepancy in the growth of demons so he does not know their actual age.

What surprised him the most was that the eyes peering at him were both a magnificent black.

No, not just their eyes, their eyelashes and eyebrows and even the hair sticking out from under the hat were all a perfect black.

Unbelievable!  He had lived amongst demons his entire life, but he had never met a Twin Black before.  He had heard that those who carry the black are very seldom born even amongst pure demons.  In The Great Demon Kingdom’s long history, there are only one or two recorded.

Furthermore, if the words of the priestesses are to be trusted, this is not demon territory.  He had received an important mission and been sent from his homeland to another world, after all.

“Who’re you?”

They speak to him in a short phrase, but he doesn’t understand it at all.  The black-haired young boy crouches down and looks him in the eye before speaking again.

“You weren’t hit by the school bus so why is half of your face covered in blood?  Why are you sleeping in the middle of the road in El Salvallo in July?  And why are you wearing clothes like in the Shakespeare movies we see in school?  Are you a stage actor?”

Because he had the sense that the intonation at the end of the boy’s sentence rose, the boy was undoubtedly asking him a question.  But, he couldn’t understand the details and he didn’t think his response would get across.  Seeing as he couldn’t understand the language, it was unlikely he was in Svelera.  The countries with sand dunes adjacent to The Great Demon Kingdom have the same language as the demons.

“Who are you?  Where did you come from?  Are you an illegal alien?”

“I’m Conrart,” he said hoarsely, thinking that they might be asking his name.  “You weren’t asking my name?  My name is Conrart.  And just what is this place?  What world did I end up in?”

“… You’re from Scotland?  How come you don’t speak English?”

“Ah, Conrad or Conrart, whichever you want to call me is fine.”

After asking another question that sounded different than the others, the boy suddenly stood up.  Conrad thought that he might have insulted the boy by not using polite speech.  So the boy really was a demon of high status.

If you’re angered by me then arrest me or cut me down.

However, the expression on the boy’s tanned face was bewilderment, not anger.

“So you don’t understand Spanish either.  You really are a foreigner.  Follow me, your face is covered in blood and if you sleep in a place like this you’ll die.”

The boy forcibly takes hold of his arm.  The two of them pass a round sign and walk towards the sun.  The injured party, staggering from thirst, fell forward several times.

A sound and vibration like before soon comes near.  Before the metal vehicle stopped by them, the boy took off his blue hat and stood on tiptoe to cover his companion’s head.

“Hey Carlos.”

“Hiya.”

The box this time was very small.  Two adults sat next to each other and the seating area was completely filled.  The rear section was a roofless storage compartment and there were misshapen tools heaped there that did not seem to be weapons, farming equipment or construction equipment.

The whiskered man gripping the vehicle’s round helm stuck his head out of the window.

“You on your way home?  Who’s this white man with you?  Don’t see people like him around here.”

He could feel the boy’s unease as he gripped his arm tighter.  He couldn’t understand the conversation, but Conrad guessed that they were talking about him.

“He’s a customer at our place.  I was bringing him there.”

“A man with a half bloody face?”

“… He’s our customer.”

The man drew his lips up and his chin wrinkled.  Then, he pointed behind him with his thumb and pulled his head back in the window.

“… Alright, I won’t ask.  You can ride in the back if you want.  It’ll take you twenty minutes to get there on foot.”

“Thanks.”

While he climbed into the bed of the truck, the boy whispered to Conrad despite knowing that he wouldn’t understand.  He might have looked dejected from being so confused.

“The Owen brothers are alright.  Their parents are waiting for their turn in New York so they won’t be mean and report you to immigration or anything.”

However, the reason that Conrad was confused wasn’t because he was suspicious of them.

He was completely astonished.

The hair and eyes of both the boy he had first met and the crude men that had called out to them were jet black.  As a resident of The Great Demon Kingdom where Twin Blacks were prized, he couldn’t not be in shock.

Considering this heavy, metal vehicle was being run with magic, the men in the driver’s seat were lightheartedly singing a song in a loud voice.  After singing the same song twice, they arrive in a small town with several crowded together buildings.

After a brief inspection, he saw that there weren’t any buildings above three stories and there weren’t any buildings that could be a castle, a lord’s mansion or even a fortress.  Only the building at the center of town with the triangular roof had solid doors good for protection.  Perhaps the wooden cross on top pointing towards the sky was this town’s crest.

In a small hut with a white roof near the entrance of town, an old person was sleeping in a rocking chair on a wooden floor up a set of stairs.  His hair, beard and eyebrows were all pure white.  Guessing from his appearance, he is easily over four hundred years old.

The boy jogged down a narrow side road as if to hide from view.  After going down the back road for a bit, he steps into the back entrance of a small and gloomy hut.  It may have been because the air was dry, but this shaded place was much cooler than outside.

At first Conrad thought it was a stable or something, but since there was a metal vehicle there he finally realized it was a storage bunker.  To think that even civilians were given battle tanks.  So was the overall fragile look of the town a plan to deceive the enemy?

“Mom.”

When the boy slightly opened the door leading farther inside, light came flowing through the crack.  On the other side of the wall there were several chairs lined up and there was food and drink set out on tables.  There weren’t many customers, but this place was probably a restaurant.

A military tank behind a restaurant.  That’s insecure of them, or perhaps I should say wary?

“Carlos, why are you coming in from the garage..?”

“This guy was collapsed.  His head is bleeding and he doesn’t understand what I say.  And it looks like he’s never seen a school bus or a pickup truck before.  He might be from a really far away country… or really banged his head.  Maybe it’s amnesia like on TV.  Dad always used to say that right? ‘Don’t ever forget the kindness we received in this country.  The weak have to help the weak…’”

“That’s right.”

The woman who seemed to be the mother patted the boy’s shoulder as he rambled on and then she turned in Conrad’s direction.  The hair tied loosely at the nape of her neck, the thin lines of her eyebrows, and – although he couldn’t be certain with the light behind her – both of her eyes were probably black.  It’s only been a short while, but he feels as if his values are about to change.

“Keep an eye on things.”

Leaving her son to watch the store, the woman makes the injured man sit and brought an old tin from her house.  When her fingers were just about to touch his cheek, Conrad reflexively moved away and brought his sword arm up to his chest.

He tried to protect the object he was entrusted with.

“You have a gun!?”

Realizing that he had startled the woman, he slowly puts his right hand back down.  There’s no way that this woman would know about his mission and she likely did not understand how important the object he was carrying was.  If they were going to steal it, the son would have tried a long time ago.

“It’s okay.  Until you’re healed up I won’t say anything to the sheriff or immigration so let me see your injury.  The right side of your chin is completely red.  It’s amazing your eyes are open.”

When she wipes away the blood on the surface, she sees that there is a diagonal slash on his right eyebrow.  The wound is still wide open and new blood instantly comes oozing out.

The blood in the wound hadn’t begun to clot.

“So it hasn’t been that long…?”

He remembers when he got cut.  Of course, the owner of the sword as well.  Immediately after, he was sent flying out of The Great Demon Kingdom by the priestesses’ incantations.

“This will leave a scar if you don’t get stitches.  If only you had a social security number I’d at least be able to take you to the doctor.”

After seeing off the customers, the boy returns with a bottle of water.

“He doesn’t understand a thing we say.  I can’t even ask him his name.  Hey you, I’m Carlos.  My mother is Keisha.”

He taps his chest and the woman’s shoulder and repeats ‘Carlos, Keisha.’  It seems like those are their names.  Conrad was about to give a light nod, but a small shadow moving about caught his attention.  It didn’t stop until it collided with his knee.

The girl who had a clearer expression than her mother and older brother clung to his leg and spoke coquettishly to him.  She was probably only around thirteen or so.  He laughed so much he started coughing.

“That’s my little sister, Nikki.  She’s three.”

Carlos, Keisha, Nikki.  That’s all he understands.

The restaurant seemed to be doing well for itself and in the evening the inside of the shop, which would be packed with just fifteen people, was filled with noise.

Keisha wrapped a red plaid cloth around her waist and scurried about the shop like a mouse.  When you thought she was working in the small kitchen, she was passing between the customers with plates and alcohol.  Her son Carlos went around taking orders and kept an eye on his sister in between to make sure she wasn’t doing anything dangerous.

Conrad just absentmindedly watched them as he sat in between the kitchen and the garage.

In his homeland, they would have been promised a higher status than the ten noble families just by being a Twin Black.

Certainly they would be in danger as soon as they stepped out of demon lands.  However, those who lived inside the kingdom would be able to lead a life without anything resembling manual labor.  Then what about how this parent and child are working?  It’s no different than a hostess at the town bar.  Even when she’s shouted at by irate customers, she deals with them without getting angry.

He’s given up on counting, but there are quite a few customers with black hair as well.  In the kingdom the most common hair color was blonde and then there were many men with brown hair like his own, but one out of every three people here had black hair down to their long eyelashes and moustaches and their skin was the color of well-toasted bread.

“… Where is this?” he asked no one in particular and turns his gaze back to the small bottle he placed on the shelf.  Figuring he was safe so close to a military tank, he took it out of his breast pocket when he changed clothes.

The clear bottle as tall as a finger was sealed with a green augite cap and carrying a bluish-white light inside.  The white ball that seemed as if it would draw you in was the color of a cloud you would only be able to see in a dream.

Is this the edge of the world called Earth where the person I am supposed to hand this over to lives?

If so, where should I go from here?  Who should I meet?  What should I do?

There was a sound of porcelain breaking and a young child started crying.  Standing before the broken pieces on the floor, Carlos was scolding his sister.  He had probably been victim to a surprise attack by his sister while washing the dishes.

The mother knit her eyebrows.

“Carlos?”

“Nikki’s okay.  She just ran right into me so I was surprised…”

“You were distracted by the television weren’t you?”

“… No.”

Conrad slowly stood up and opened the medical supply tin that Keisha had a short while ago.  He gently placed the bottle on top of the white, sterile cloth.

They are too busy.

He might not be thinking straight in his fatigue, but it doesn’t seem like he will be able to sleep any time soon.  If that’s the case, he should work a bit without weakness and earn a meal.

Edging past the siblings, he stands before the slightly too-shallow wash basin.  Twisting this cork makes water come out and the soap that lathers the sponge is in this bottle.

“… Are you okay, I mean, that injury?”

He just shrugs.  The boy doesn’t ask anything else and lifts his sister up to carry her into the house.

“I’m putting her to bed.”

The kitchen was nicely secluded and only half of his back was visible to the customers.  But then again, his life wasn’t so important to have any regrets about someone finding fault with his appearance.

When he turns his neck to look behind him, there was a box around the size of a crib tilted at an angle.  Around half of the men had their faces turned towards it and the rest were playing cards and amusing themselves with silly conversations.

He didn’t know who was performing exactly what sort of magic, but there is a picture moving inside of the box.  A man with a red hat was swinging around a club even though there wasn’t any prey around and then suddenly a huge cheer rung out.  A young man in a different uniform runs out across the greenery.  He seems to be picking up a rolling ball with a misshapen and large glove.

What sort of story is this play about?  There really were some magic users blessed with leisure.

When Keisha came back to the kitchen she made a brief comment, but knowing that he wouldn’t understand she silently did her own work.  Food preparation was easy once she got an order so it seems like she prepared a lot of it before she opened the store.  Much of it included beans, potatoes and onions and it looks like there are fewer types of meat than in his homeland.

Conrad continued scrubbing the dishes even after the boy returned and once there was nothing left to wash, he even fried some eggs in an excellent display of learning by imitation.  He remembers when it was his turn to cook while camping out on the march and he tries mixing some of the crushed tomatoes with the short noodles.  He had thought that either he or the child would eat it, but he regrets that he splashed some of it on his borrowed clothes.

Next to the bright green phone there is a picture of a chef.

“That’s dad,” Carlos said in a somewhat sad voice as he peeled an onion. “He died three years ago.”

A young man yelled and kicked over a seat near the window facing the road.  With a thick arm covered in golden hair, he grabs the collar of the hostess.  Keisha grimaces in pain, but she does not pick up a weapon and attempt to defend herself.

“It’s those guys again…”

Pushing aside the boy as he leaned forward, Conrad crossed the aisle with a long stride.

If he was laying a hand on a Twin Black that meant that he was a fool from a foreign country who was tricked by the absurd rumor that one could gain the power of immortality by making that person their own property.

“Let go.”

He tried to give a warning just in case, but since his words wouldn’t be understood anyway he grabbed the young man’s arm and pulled him off. Keisha held her throat and gave a rough cough and then laid a hand on the chest of her foreign guest.  “It’s okay, I’m okay.  You go back.”

“I’m not finished here!  Hey, who’s this guy with the bandages!?  You weren’t satisfied with just getting your husband killed so now you’re whoring around with this kid!?”

He wasn’t sure if he or the hostess was being insulted, but allowing someone to yell at a woman was distasteful.  He twisted the man’s arm behind his back and threw him out of the door.

With a face that said she didn’t care at all for the man, Keisha pulls on Conrad’s clothes and repeated in a hushed voice, “It’s okay!  Hurry, go back inside.  Hurry and hide in the kid’s room.  The sheriff’s deputy is right there.  If he sees you, you’re going to get arrested.”

The sky had long gone dark and the road was illuminated by the lights in all of the houses.  There were only a few other stores open besides this one and a young man coming out of what looked to be a general store and holding a paper bag was walking this way.  He had an unbecoming, stubbly beard on his chin and he was wearing a broad-brimmed hat even though it was nighttime and there was even a star on his chest.

“Something happen, ma’am?”

“Good evening, Deputy.  No, nothing really.  A drunk customer just had a complaint.”

“Was it those guys again?  Did they have any drugs on them?”

“No, I don’t know anything about that.  They just didn’t like my cooking.”

Keisha was trying to keep up appearances while shoving Conrad back inside.  The young men who caused all the ruckus might have been a bit shady because they disappeared in the blink of an eye.  The young man with the stubble glanced at the newcomer and posed a question directly to him instead of the woman.

“Haven’t seen you before.  Where are you from?”

“Um, he arrived just recently and is staying at our place.  He’s not a kid from a town around here so you wouldn’t recog-”

“I’m asking him, ma’am.  Besides, there weren’t any names I didn’t recognize on the intercity bus roster today.  If he’s not a problem then that’s fine.  So, what’s your name and where are you from?”

“Hector, he’s deaf…”

A light blue vehicle passing at an incredible speed suddenly backed up with an odd sound and stopped in front of the store.  After slapping the open door roughly, the skinny driver came tumbling out.  ‘Giving a military tank to an unskilled soldier like that was a mistake,’ Conrad unconsciously murmurs to himself.

“Hey, sorry I’m late!”

After seeing this late arrival with a know-it-all look, both Keisha and Stubble are taken aback.  The only one who didn’t understand what he was saying was the concerned party of Conrad.

White robes, glasses, laugh lines.

His black hair that he let grow out a few inches too long was loosely tied behind him, but it didn’t seem to be working that well and there were bundles of hair hanging down over his cheeks and forehead.  They seem to really be a nuisance and it’s irritating.

The abnormally skinny man in the white robes skillfully deceived Keisha and Stubble and got Conrad into his car.  The reason that he silently obeyed the man in the white robes even though he couldn’t understand what he was saying either was that the man showed him a familiar bottle in the wooden box he had tucked under his arm.

The augite serving as the cap was different, but the strength and calm of the shining light inside was without a doubt a ‘soul.’

That’s right, a soul.

For various reasons it had come to the end of its life and was a pure soul waiting for its next life.

It was a soul that did not yet belong to anyone that had all of its sin and impurity completely erased before setting out on a new life as another existence.

As a soldier of The Great Demon Kingdom, Lord Conrart Weller obeyed the words of The True King and brought this valuable soul that was to become the next Demon King to this far away other world.

Although, he does not yet know if this is its proper destination.

While it was moving straight ahead, it was an unexpectedly enjoyable vehicle to ride in.  In exchange for the swaying and creaking peculiar to carriages, his body was tossed back and forth when it made a turn, but if it can move this fast then he just had to put up with a bit of discomfort.

“Ah I’m sorry, I’m always going too fast.  Anyway, it’s small but come on in and make yourself at home.”

The white robed man unlocked the door to a building that looked like an office and pushed up a protuberance sticking out of the wall.  As soon as he did so, white light came down from the ceiling.

Thinking that this man can use magic as well, Conrad surreptitiously lets his shoulders slump.  So this wasn’t a country I could just casually visit without a sword or magic power.

The repainted walls were a light blue and there were two couches lined up together.  There was one of those moving picture boxes here, but its surface was gray and there wasn’t any light or sound coming out of it.  When he pushed open the inside door, the small room on the other side was pure white all over and there were shelves, a desk, and an unusually high-up day bed.  The entire room was steeped in the smell of medicine.

“This is the examination room.  It might not look like it, but I’m kind of a doctor.  But, even if I say that you won’t understand.  We need to do something about your language skills, huh?”

It’s a bit smaller than the one before, but there is a whitish box sitting on the desk.  There are several pipes sticking out of the back.  At the top there are three figurines standing at each interval.  The short and stout one with the red helmet and armor seemed especially evil.  It’s probably for magic ceremonies.

“Ah!  Don’t touch my Gelgoog, okay?”

The too-skinny man retreated into the adjoining room in a big hurry and came back holding a dark brown box.  What came out were grandiose earmuffs.  If you put something so heavy over both of your ears, you would have a hard time marching in winter.  Even if it isn’t gear for cold weather, wouldn’t the cord and rod hanging out of the left side get in the way?

The laugh lines on the white robed man’s face deepened even more as he brought the rod to his lips and said clearly, “Don’t touch my Gundam models.” Then, he handed the earmuffs over and indicated that he should put them on.  When he carefully lowered them onto his head and they touched both of his ears, a few dozen languages came flowing out in succession.

“Whoa.”

“Huh, no good?”

The man seemed disappointed as he watched him reflexively take off the apparatus.  He seems to have thought that the problem would have been solved just like that.

To think that there were bizarre items resembling Anissina’s inventions in this strange land as well.

“Well I guess I have no choice.  Sit up here on this examination table.  Now put the headphones back on.  Ah, I’ll leave your important object by your pillow.”

Because he’s pantomiming everything with his hands, it looks like he’s putting on a dance production.  Thinking that it would be useless to resist at this point, Conrad sits down on the day bed as instructed and puts on the awkward earmuffs once again.

“Lesson 1!”

When the white robed man connects the cord to a box, an energetic woman suddenly started talking.

“Haroo hau aa yuu?  Hello, how are you?  Aimu fain sankyuu.  I’m fine, thank you.”

“I’m gonna have you diligently learn English in one night.”

It gradually gets louder.  His head feels like it’s going to split apart.  And yet, there is no mercy in the woman’s voice.

“Ai amu piitaa.  I am Peter.  Aa yuu piitaa?  Are you Peter?”

Please stop, noo aimu notto piitaa!

You’re telling me that this is The True King’s will!?

Having me bring the soul of the next Demon King to another world?

With silver hair drooping onto the polished floor, The True King’s priestess replied with a blank look.  Her mouth is definitely smiling, but she isn’t showing the tiniest bit of kindness.

“Deciding whether this soul will be the next Demon King and whether it will live in a world beyond even His Majesty’s control is His Majesty The True King’s will.  Lord Conrart Weller, granting you this duty is also the word of His Majesty himself.”

Even though he’s someone who died thousands of years ago.

Conrad willfully pushes down that fleeting doubt that floated up in his mind.  Everyone has that doubt at some point – how exactly the late His Majesty The True King can still speak to the kingdom.

“No, there is no fault in doubting.  For someone who was injured as you were, it is something even more difficult to believe with your emotions awry.  It would be nice if we could tell you how His Majesty’s spirit speaks to us even though he has already passed on.” The priestess’s tone was calm and quiet and there was no sympathy to be found within it.  “Even if you doubt the existence of His Majesty, we will still entrust you with this soul. Because, that is The True King’s will and it is the only correct path.”

His image was reflected on the unblemished surface of the marble floor.  It was a pitiful image of himself from which he could only feel sorrow and regret as he hung his head without the courage to live or the will to die.

Now that he thinks about it, he hasn’t felt anger in a while.

“… I might run away.  I might betray your expectations and hopes and just disappear with this.  Or maybe I might smash this bottle against a rock, pluck out the flickering light and give it to someone I want to.  And it wouldn’t be unthinkable for me to then raise that child as I saw fit and manipulate the power befitting a Demon King to overthrow this kingdom!” “You could also embrace that soul and then end your life with your own hands.” Without moving even a strand of her silver hair, the priestess smiled apathetically.  “If that is what you wish, do so.  We will only tell you the words of His Majesty The True King.  You doubt the existence of His Majesty, but in the past there have been several people who have heard His Majesty’s voice.”

I hadn’t heard of that.

“Yes, His Majesty The True King met with Lady von Wincott as well.”

Conrad was not brave enough to raise his head so he kept staring at his reflection.

“Before Suzanna Julia died, I heard that she spoke briefly with His Majesty and gladly accepted that her soul would become the next Demon King.  However, she had just one wish…”

The figure reflected on the marble floor violently lurched forward.  Conrad fell to his knees on the cold stone and covered his face with his scarred hands.

“… that her soul would be entrusted to you.”

“Je t’aime mon amour Peter!”

Conrad screamed and jumped to his feet at the loud confession of love.

“Oh, sorry sorry.  It skipped from the Gettysburg Address to France’s Declaration of the Rights of Man straight to French.”

“French?  The French Republic: size, approximately 544,000 square kilometers; population, approximately 56 million; capital, Paris; west coast climate, oceanic… what is this!?”

“Awesome!  That’s a NASA brand product for you!  You’re a native speaker in one night.  This is actually for aliens, but I guess it’s effective on humans as well.”

It was bright outside the window and it had gotten warmer in the examination room.  The difference in temperatures between night and day in the desert was intense.

It was almost noon and the rising temperature was sure to be a nuisance eventually.

Conrad opened the lid of the tin by his pillow and checked that the object he was entrusted with was still inside.  He then carefully surveyed the room and then looked down at his arms and legs.  After that, he finally focused on the man in the white robes in front of him and admired his laugh lines.

“… You’re always in a good mood, aren’t you?”

“You really can speak English now!  That’s amazing!  Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“… Are you Peter?”

“No no no, I’m not Peter.  I’m Jose Rodriguez.  Not Noboribetsu, Rodriguez.”

“Hello, Mr. Rodriguez.  How are you?  I am Weller Conrart… How long should I keep listening to this?”

Rodriguez pushes up his glasses and checks a few documents lying on the desk.  “Oh, Conrart is your last name?  Sorry, I messed up and wrote Conrad Weller.  But anyway, you’ll have a hard time without a social security number so I went ahead and prepared an ID.  Ah, and this is an American Express Gold Card for your travel expenses.”

“Who are you? Why do you have the same thing that I do?  How do you know about me and why can you use that sort of magic?”

“Hm, well you’ve livened up.”  The abnormally skinny doctor came to his own conclusions and turned on an antique computer.  “Well I actually want to have breakfast before anything.  I stitched up that cut on the side of your eye while you were sleeping, but it was bleeding a lot and if it was just a centimeter to the left, you would have definitely been blinded.  If that had happened, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything.  I’m the only doctor in this town and even though I’m in charge of this clinic, we only have the bare minimum of equipment and I don’t specialize in surgery.  Now then, let’s clear up your doubts, shall we?  First, you probably want to know where this is.  Look here.”

Conrad collapsed into a nearby chair from lightheadedness from his sudden movements.  They are now in just the right positions for a doctor-patient relationship.  Rodriguez points at the middle of the computer display.

“This is a map of the Earth and this is the American continent.  Take a good look, okay?  Right, this is a town called El Salvallo right on the border of Mexico in the state of New Mexico in The United States.  You get all that?”

“Do you perhaps specialize in pediatrics?”

Rodriguez clapped his hands together in exaggerated surprise and his laugh lines deepened.

“You just read my mind, didn’t you!?  That’s awesome!  Demons from the other world really can use magic!”

“You’re the one who can use magic.”

“What?  Making things move and having words read into your ears are things that people with ESP do, not demons.  Demons like us all across the world are all leading honest lives and going strong.”

Eh!?  Then what was that new type of military tank?  How did that box with the moving pictures and the dazzling lights…

Like a dam breaking, ideas and theories came flooding into his brain.  Oh, a car.  Oh, television.  Oh, electricity.  Ford, Japanese, Edison, Einstein, Graham Bell, Honda, Souichirou… What is what?

“Conrad, get a hold of yourself!”

“… I have to at least verify that you’re a demon of Earth.  Seeing that your hair and eyes are both black, you must be a rather high-ranked noble.”

“Well now you’re just saying something racist.  It’s not good to judge people by their looks.  I’m a complete commoner and more importantly, demons don’t have ranks.  There are a vast amount of humans with black hair and eyes on Earth.”

“Humans!?  This isn’t a demon country?”

“Like I said, this is The United States of America.  It’s a land that has every race of people.”

It might have been obvious, but there wasn’t any information in the NASA data about demon life.  Since it might take yet another night to get the whole story, he figured he would ask about the essentials.

There is no country with only demons.  They are spread about the world and are living as normal humans.  The reason they live like that is because demons on Earth do not possess any remarkable special abilities.  Some do have better reflexes and excel in their own individual ways, but the vast majority only tend to live a bit longer than usual and have no real differences in their appearance and abilities compared to humans.

“There are even those that go their entire lives without realizing that they are demons.  As for me, my mother came out to me so I’ve known since I was a child.  Demons who have lived a while and gained experience can tell at first glance who’s a demon or not.  Even in your case, Justin – who lives by the gate – called me up and told me that ‘A demon with different hair came.’”

“Ah, that old man who seemed to be over 400.  So he was a demon, not a human…”

Tapping his pen on the desk, Rodriguez said amusedly, “Justin is 82.”

“… Wait, there’s no way he’s younger than I am…”

“You’re that old?  You look like a handsome high school kid from any angle.”

As Conrad sat there in indescribable shock, the doctor kept on talking and said something that was like kicking a man while he was down.

“The Ortegas at the house you stayed at last night, Keisha and Carlos, are fully-fledged, human immigrants from Mexico.  So, even if you told them your mission, I don’t think that they would understand.  Oh wait, nonononono, not just that!  You absolutely cannot tell them that you’re a demon.  The people around here are all devout catholics so if they hear that you’re a demon they’ll think you’re a devil with horns.  Devils have a bad rep, after all.  Seems like they did a lot of bad things.”

“… The True King is sending Julia’s soul to a land like this..?”

Stretching out his hunched back, Rodriguez opens a locked drawer and takes out the wooden box he had seen last night.  A perfect sphere continuously giving off a peculiar, bluish-white glow was resting within the small bottle sealed with red augite.

“So yours used to be Julia.  This person used to be Christine, but for various reasons I’m taking care of her.  Actually, who they were in their previous life and complicated stuff like that is supposed to completely disappear, but… it seems they’re both special… At any rate, my job ends after I introduce you to Bob and hand you over with ex-Christine.  That being said, Bob went to Costa Rica for an emergency and can’t be back for about a week.  Business is difficult even if you’re the Demon King.  He’s always going on about how it would be nice if he could use clone technique magic.”

Well you know, that’s a ninja technique, not magic.

When he finally got away from Dr. Rodriguez, who wanted to give him an IV drip, the sun was already high in the sky.

It seems like I’ll have to pass the time in this town until this Demon King of Earth named Bob comes back to the country.  But referring to His Majesty The Demon King as just ‘Bob’?  It was a rather frank underground organization.

“The word ‘frank’ just naturally pops into my mind.”

According to the doctor, I guess that means I’m in the process of becoming a native speaker?

He couldn’t just sit in the examination room so he absently wanders towards town.  For the time being, he would get something to eat and think about where he would stay.  El Salvallo is a small town so it’s unlikely that there would be a hotel or motel.  The doctor had said that he could stay at the clinic.

He also very politely said, ‘I’m not gay so don’t worry!’ but it was obvious that he wasn’t interested in the same sex just by looking at the posters of beautiful women on his wall.  There were five of them.

It took five minutes to get to the main street and was a distance that a man in his eighties with an injury on his forehead would be able to manage, but the burning sunlight and clouds of dust mercilessly sapped at his strength.

Turning off the main street to escape, he walked down the slightly shaded side roads.  Drawn towards a familiar garage, he steps into the cool building.  Conrad ran his hand over the smooth car frame and laughed to himself.  He’d thought it was a heavily armored vehicle, but it was for ordinary travelling.

“Is someone there?”

Keisha’s voice, which was just sound to him yesterday, has now become proper words.  When she recognized Conrad, the hostess rushed over as if she were stumbling.  On the other side of the open door was a calm and peaceful restaurant at lunchtime.

“Were you alright?  Did anyone do anything to you?”

She has grabbed him by the shoulders and won’t let go.  Even though he knows it is rude, he unintentionally gives a strained laugh at her frantic actions.

“I’m sorry for troubling you last night.”

“That’s fine you don’t… Oh, you can understand.”

“My memory came back.” It was an excuse he thought up right on the spot. “I came to see Doctor Rodriguez, but I got my wallet and credit card stolen along the way.  I ended up having to hitchhike, but of all people the driver of the car that stopped was gay.  He made a move on me and I panicked so I jumped out of the car while it was still moving and ended up hitting my head and that gave me temporary amnesia.”

Inside his head he was exclaiming ‘How’s that!’ in a victory pose.  From the data input, he gathered together the information on the current state of America and tried lying.

“A good person is a good person, though,” he added.

“Well… I suppose.”

“But thanks to Dr. Rodriguez and NASA, I got my credit card and memories back.”

“Well… the power of space is amazing…”

Why does she have such a troubled look on her face?

“That’s right, have you remembered your name too?”

Judging from the calculation method he just learned, this woman is probably around thirty.  He had believed that she was older than him yesterday, but this means that she’s actually a lot younger.  When Conrad was about to answer her question, a child crashed into his side with all her strength.

“Conraaad!”

“Nikki, how do you know!?”

“Mr. Justin told meee!”

The old man was waving at them half asleep from a table in the middle of the shop.

Carrying a tray with bread and eggs in his right hand and a beer bottle for the old man in his left, Conrad approached him.

“I hear you were the one who found me.”

Justin slightly opens one eye and spies the green bottle. Slowly wiping off the frost with his thumb, he takes a gulp like an old man.

“Well, after you live a while you learn how to tell the difference in hair.”

“I’m older than you, but I thought that everyone in this town was a demon.”

“Now that’s something.”  The old man laughed so hard it looked like his dentures might slip out of place.  “So there are people who have pointless long lives as well.”

“That’s harsh.”

“Well, whether you’re long-lived or short-lived it all comes down to what you can do before you die.  If you die incapable then you’ll have regrets and you won’t be able to go back to being a nice soul.”

“Regrets?”

“Yeah.” Taking a large second swig, Justin rolled his closed eyes. “Everyone has a regret or two.  If you have them and you die, your soul won’t become perfectly round.  So, there’s hardly ever perfectly round, unbroken souls.  If by some lucky chance you get your hands on one, you have to treat it carefully.”

He moves to grab at his chest.  However, if he did that at this place, it would tell everyone that he had something in his pocket.  How much does this old man know?  As much as Rodriguez?

“What are you talking about?”

Underneath his pure white eyebrows, the wrinkles in the dry skin change.

The stitches from his injury suddenly start to ache and Conrad grimaces a bit.

“About after death.”

Be careful.  If you carelessly have regrets, you won’t be able to go back to being a perfect soul.  But, if you get a hold of a perfectly round one, you have to treat it with great care.

“But you know, after sniffing out all of these bizarre things happening recently, this old man’s nose is tired.  This town is getting more and more noisy and dangerous.”

He passed the time helping out with the busy store in the afternoon and then when it filled up at night, he even took customer’s orders with his now fluent English.  Even if it’s the first job he’s had in his entire life, he made out okay after a bit of effort.  Although, if it were Conrad’s brothers in this situation, their pride would have gotten in the way and this might have been impossible.

He didn’t think that the fact that he was raised as more of a commoner than a noble because one of his parents was human would come in handy in a place like this.

The customers who came in for food and drinks seemed to think that Conrad, walking around in a red and white, plaid apron taking orders, was a new part-time employee.  There were even female customers who would place their small tips right into his apron instead of leaving it on the table.

“If things keep going like this, you’re going to get rich.”

Putting the small change into Carlos’s pocket, Conrad says with a laugh, “Maybe I should buy this place and become the new owner.”

“Do it.”

Receiving an extremely serious answer, Conrad tucks the stainless steel tray under his arm.  The boy takes two bottles of cola out of the refrigerator and gives one to the new waiter.  Reflecting to himself that even the soft drinks in this country are black, Conrad takes a sip of the sweet liquid.  Before he could taste the sweetness, a sort of tingling sensation ran over his tongue.

“… In three months, this place is going to be sold.  Mom is paying rent, but when the owner changes we don’t know if we’re going to be able to keep on doing this.  They said they’re going to tear down this place and the neighbors’ on both sides and build a hotel and casino.”

“Keisha has no intention of buying this place?”

Carlos shakes his head in resignation.

“We can’t get a contract unless we can pay it in full when we sign it.  They said things like since we’re immigrants and my dad’s not around anymore we won’t be able to pay it all.  We don’t have a savings account or any collateral so even the banks won’t lend us money.”

“These banks are unkind.”

“To us they are.”

Surprised by the roundness of the moon in the sky while he was taking the full trash bags from the garage out to the street, Conrad pulled the small bottle out of his breast pocket and looked at it.  He overlaps the bluish-white sphere with the moon to check it.  The moonlight was yellower.

“… A perfect sphere.”

A soul without regret.

If what the priestess said was true, Julia spoke with His Majesty The True King before her life ended.

She gladly accepted that her soul would become the next Demon King and died.  Gladly.

Her one wish was…

“That I would carry this.”

Julia, why did you wish for something like that?

Did you think I wouldn’t mourn your death?

Did you wish for me to go on a journey to realize the truth?

If I were able to forget you and live on, my heart would be so much more at ease.  If only we hadn’t met in the first place.  That day, if only I hadn’t gone to give my opinion on your dress like mother asked of me.

I wouldn’t have had to go through this pain.

“What’s that?”

He didn’t move at all at the question directed at his back.

He had been told not to carelessly reveal that he was a demon, but he wasn’t told to hide what the light was.  Conrad’s personal opinion was that it wouldn’t matter if it was a child that he told.

“It’s something that is going to be born.”

“… An egg?”

“No.  If this isn’t inside an egg, the egg will never be born.”

“A yolk?”

He smiles at the twelve year old’s straight answer.

“It’s an important person’s soul.  Ah, you don’t have to believe it.  It’s probably something unreal for Americans.”

“You don’t have to bury it, right?  You can just keep holding onto it forever?  Then I want one too.”

“I can’t keep it forever.  She’s going to be reborn soon… No, it’s not her or anyone anymore.  The sins and memories have all been erased and now it’s just a pure white soul.”

Perhaps because he remembered his father, Carlos’s gaze fell on his younger sister staying up late.

“Dad died in an unlucky accident and then Nikki was born right after.  So, me and mom and even the priest thought that he had been reborn at first.”

There was a low sound of a cowbell and the door to the shop opened wide.  Keisha will have a hard time by herself if they don’t go back inside.  Carlos turned his body away, but kept his gaze on his sister as he kept talking.

“… But we were wrong.  I mean, dad was a man and Nikki was a girl.  She looks more like Dad than she does Mom, but their faces aren’t the same.  Getting reborn and stuff like that, they don’t go the way you want.”

“Most of the time, yeah.”

“… Sometimes, I’m jealous of my sister.”

The mother calls her son’s name.

“Nikki never met Dad when he was alive.  She doesn’t even know what kind of person he was.  She’s never had to say goodbye to anyone so when she thinks about him she doesn’t want to cry.”

Because she had never met him in the first place.

“But Mom, she-, yeah I’m coming!”

Kicking over the garbage can, Carlos ran back into the garage.  Conrad followed him through the partition and returned to washing the dirty dishes that had piled up.  He squeezed plenty of soap on the sponge and scrubbed the stuck on oil in a frying pan.  The boy sneaks glances at the television to check the score in the game.

“But mom says the opposite.  She says that it’s sad that Nikki doesn’t know Dad’s face and that I’m lucky for being able to remember him.”

“Is that true?”

“I dunno.  Mom says that when she feels sad, there are three people that support her.  Me, Nikki, and Dad.  She says I have three people, too.  Mom, Nikki, and Dad.  Dad’s not around anymore so I don’t think I have to do my best for him, but she says that since I remember when he encouraged me when he was alive that he’s supporting me.”  He shrugs his shoulders in a grown-up way with his arms covered in soap suds up to his elbows.  “I don’t really know about that, though.”

“… You humans are really smart.”

You don’t even live half as long as we do and you know so much more about the world than demons.  You even understand the mutual relationship between yourselves and someone who has died and left you.

“I feel like I’m slowly starting to understand why the Earth is becoming mainly human.”

The young doctor taking care of him comes into the store and looks around over the top of his glasses.  It seems like he’s looking for someone.  He’s invited over to several tables, but he declines with his eyes so scrunched up they almost disappear from view.  When he sees Conrad in the kitchen, he comes near with a smile across his entire face.

“I heard from Bob.”

“When will he be back?”

“Neeext month.   He said there was a dispute in Costa Rica.  Angering the Demon King.  There are some brave businessmen out there, huh?”

“Shh!”

He inconspicuously points towards the boy with his thumb.  Aren’t you the longtime resident of El Salvallo who told me not to talk about demons?

“Hm?  I’m talking about the Demon King of the financial world.”

“You know someone important in finance?” Carlos asked with a serious look.  “Then ask if he’ll lend money to Mom.  We’ll work hard and pay back every bit of the loan.”

“Well, if I get to know a banker then I’ll ask as soon as possible.”

This time, Rodriguez lowered his voice and brought his face close before whispering, “So I managed to get him to tell me the destination for that.  China, Hong Kong and Japan.  Ex-Christine lived in Hong Kong so it might be easier to choose over there.  I’m 100% for Japan though.”

“Not this country?”

“Well countries that aren’t overly religious are a lot easier to live in.  Also, Japan is really awesome.  I studied abroad in Hokkaido in college.  It’s a hundred times colder than here, though.”

Because it’s where Julia will… no, where the next Demon King will be born, it should have the best environment possible.  Safety, medical services, education, philosophy.  There’s no point in doing all of this if it’s not a country where everything is in order.

Conrad dries the frying pan with a rag and extends a hand out to the knife and fork that Carlos is using in a pretend swordfight.

So I didn’t carefully hold that which belonged to no one and disappear?  Or smash the bottle against a rock and end my life before that floating ball of light even though I threatened to do so.

If that is what you wish, do so.

So you saw through it all.

“At any rate, Japan is… ah!”

With an explosive sound that could rupture an eardrum, the glass in the door was blown away.  The cowbell was shaking wildly, but the lively sound was drowned out.

A huge pillar of fire rose in the street and quickly changed to black smoke.

The customers and workers in the shop were all overcome with shock and some were frozen in place halfway to their feet.

“… My… Honda…”

Rodriguez recovered first and ran across the glass covered floor.  Apparently that black smoke was coming from his beloved car.  There isn’t anything left from when it was a pretty, sky blue.

“Get down!” Keisha screamed and before anyone could react, there was a short explosive sound.

Conrad grabbed Carlos around the neck and pushed him to the floor and then moved him to the garage while crouching low to the ground.  Forgetting to even cry out, Nikki was standing with her eyes wide open.

“Come here.  We’ll go to your big brother.”

So this is a gunshot I’m hearing for the first time?  I thought each shot would be much slower, but for someone who’s only experienced battlefields with swords and magic, a machine gun is as threatening as heavy artillery.

He carefully handed over the young girl to Carlos who sat on the ground with his arms outstretched.  Once she came into contact with her older brother’s arms, Nikki started crying like a flame had been lit.

“Keisha.”

Obeying orders, the customers in the shop were all admirably pressed against the floor with their heads covered and under the tables.  As she was trying to run over to her children, Conrad said to her while still in a crouch, “Carlos and Nikki are under the sink so they’re okay.  More importantly, who are those guys?”

They keep driving by in a moss green jeep and shooting while shouting strangely.  Every once in a while there is a large explosion so they might be throwing grenades.

“They were here last night too, remember?  The young men.  They do a lot of drugs.  They snort so they don’t leave tracks on their arms.  They get drunk and high and then do things like that.”

“Only the glass on the door is broken and the bullets aren’t coming into the store.  It looks like they’re shooting into the air.  Stay down like this, I’ll go check on the doctor.”

“It’s dangerous, call the sheriff.”

“Even though I look young, I have a lot of military experience.”

Although it was on battlefields with only swords, axes, and bows.

As soon as they passed by, he quickly slips out through the doorframe.  Rodriguez was crouched down right under the window and gazing at his beloved car with his mouth hanging wide open.

“Doctor.  Doctor!  Rodriguez!”

He finally comes to his senses.

“They… my Honda… aw that’s not the worst of it!”

The deputy who had tried to corner Conrad went running by while putting on a bulletproof vest.  All of the cars were destroyed and even shops that were already closed were burning.  Black smoke was rising up into the night sky.

“They’re shooting into the sky.  They’re not targeting people, but those molotovs are made with gasoline.  They’re throwing those everywhere… They’re coming back.”

“How many were there?”

“Three.”

“Okay.  Can you take care of this?”

“Hey, isn’t this ex-Julia?”

“That’s right.  She’s not used to combat.”

Rodriguez eyebrows shot up unlike with his normal smile and grabbed Conrad’s sleeve.

“Stop.  The sheriff and his deputies are here.”

“But Nikki won’t stop crying.”

The deputies run alongside the jeep and try to pull the young men out of it, but obviously they couldn’t keep up with its speed and they ended up taking aim with their guns.

“… They don’t seem to have much combat experience.”

“El Salvallo was a peaceful place!”

Which means that they are different than me who was being attacked right up until I departed.

He now regrets that he dropped his sword.  A smile unconsciously works its way onto his face.

This is strange.  Just a half a day ago, I was masochistically thinking that I wouldn’t mind being cut down by the first person I ran across.  I was in such despair that I wouldn’t have been troubled in the least if I had died.  It’s clearly strange.

How funny.

Conrad reached into the wreckage of the doctor’s beloved car and tore off a handy rod.  After timing when the jeep would pass by, his second step was to jump from the roof of the Honda.

He holds down the driver’s neck with his heel and immobilizes him.  He then hits the blonde youth holding his gun in the air with his fists and elbows to his heart’s content.  The man who now had a concussion fell out of the jeep.

The man in charge of the molotovs sitting in the back seat got his face smashed into the wreckage of a car.  When Conrad turns his attention to the driver, he stops struggling and lifts up both of his hands.

“Stop!  Don’t let go of the wheel!”

Sadly, the doctor’s misfortune didn’t stop with only his beloved car being burned.

When he went back to his clinic in a panic, he found that his workplace was ablaze.

A fire truck valiantly stopped the fire from spreading, but his house was completely engulfed in flames and was beyond help.

“My Gelgoog!  My Z’Gok! My Zeoooong!”

While he yelled out these proper nouns for which there was no NASA data on, Rodriguez was going crazy trying to run into the burning building to save his Gundam models.  His limbs were incredibly strong for being so thin and Conrad somehow managed to stop him by pinning his arms behind his back.  This is his first experience with sudden surges of strength at the scene of a fire.

Nevertheless, with the clinic being the only other thing completely burned down besides his car, should this really be brushed off as coincidence?  The two demons returned to the shop with little comment, gripping their respective bottles they needed to protect.

As the only doctor in this town, Rodriguez had to give medical treatment to the injured even if that person was a hostile junkie that burned his home and business to ashes.

As they watched the good doctor, whose greatest feature was his laugh lines, check the pulse on a young man’s jawbone, everyone's emotions flared at the outrageousness.  Those unable to control their anger left, first one, then another.

When the deputy came over to Conrad who was still wrapped in bandages, he asked him as he rubbed his stubbly beard, “What’s that?”

“Ah, this is from yesterday.”

“Oh, that’s right.  I met you last night.”

It’s no use.  Even though I did a good deed, this guy is going ask about my personal history anyway.  Instead of interrogating an upstanding demon like myself, go investigate those minors who were doing drugs and burned down a car and a house.

“Where did you learn how to do that?  What about school?  You not going?  What’s your address?  What about your parents?”

“My mother is a healthy and beautiful woman.”

I wonder if this is a believable response coming from a teenager.

“My house if far away.  I’m not going to high school, but I was in the boy scouts so I’m good at riding in jeeps.”

There is something green hanging out of the mouth of the young man with the machine gun and the concussion.  Rodriguez snatched it up and clicked his tongue in a move unlike him.

“It’s another new one.  But to chew the leaves the old-fashioned way?  I don’t think he’s just a normal, bored teenager.”

The sheriff took the object away in a plastic bag.  They had the same plants in the pockets of their cargo pants.  Conrad took just a single leaf so no one would notice and then smelled it and examined its veins.

I know this from somewhere…

There was a hunched over old man standing a short distance away from the crowd.  It was the old demon that was near the town’s entrance.  His eyes that were hard to tell if they were open or not were wavy bumps under his pure white eyebrows.

“Mr. Justin.”

“I thought I smelled something I never smelled before.”

“… This is similar to a plant we use for spells in The Great D-… in the land we live in.  Not just similar, it might be just that.”

The wrinkles increased on the old man’s dry skin.

“It might be.”

“Do you have any idea how they might have gotten a hold of this?  For example, does it grow nearby… I don’t think it would be in the desert, though.”

“To my old nose and eyes, that doesn’t look like a leaf from around here.  You can believe what you want, but I’ve never smelled that before on this world.”

Conrad fell silent for a moment and toyed with the dangerous plant in his hands.  If this came from his homeland, then was it by accident or on purpose?  If it’s the latter, who did it and why?

Do they want to keep Julia’s soul from being used for the new Demon King?  Or are they planning something even more cunning and intend to steal this, give it to someone they choose, and raise an easily manipulated king?

If so, burning down the clinic would have had too great of a risk of destroying their target as well.

Destruction.

The short word floats up in Conrad’s mind and his mood turns melancholy.  Was their goal destruction and chaos?

If they lost the contents of the bottle, The Great Demon Kingdom would fall into chaos after losing their next Demon King.  If this was all for that goal, then there was the concern that he would be targeted right up until the moment that his mission was fulfilled.

The chances were low, but he also couldn’t disregard the possibility that their target might have been Rodriguez’s bottle and not Conrad’s.

At any rate, it wouldn’t hurt to be vigilant.  A skilled practitioner of magic or a small platoon was not necessary for someone to carry out their objective.  This incident clearly demonstrated that all that was needed was a plant used for spells that could cause someone to lose their mind and a violent human.

His mouth naturally twists into a smile.  He would have to get a weapon from somewhere.

“… A perfectly round sphere.”

“Eh?”

The old man opened just his right eye and looked into Conrad’s silver-flecked irises.

“If you have regrets left over when you die, you can’t go back to being a perfect soul.  In order to not have any regrets, the previous owner of a perfect soul would need to have the ability to clearly see beyond even beyond their own death.”

“Julia would have?”

Did she clearly see beyond even beyond her own death?

“Looks like you’ve gotten a lot better, Conrad.”

With his shoulders drooped feebly, the doctor came back to him after finishing his treatments.  His white robe and stethoscope were both burned so now he only had the clothes on his back as well.

“Did my NASA come in handy?”

“Doctor, I think I have to leave this place.”

“Huh, but my job is to escort you to Bob’s place unharmed.  I’ll get in trouble if I carelessly let you go out into an unknown land and you end up missing.”

His Gelgoog getting burned must have been quite a shock because his laugh lines have no depth to them.

“Conrad!” Carlos yelled his name over and over again as he came running at full speed.  “Thank goodness!  You don’t look like you have any new injuries.”

“New injuries?”

Conrad Weller gave a bitter laugh and pressed on the bandages on his forehead.

“You did something so scary!  Mom is really worried.”

“Keisha is a caring person who worries a lot.  Your mother is a wonderful woman.”

The boy made a face as if to say ‘of course!’ and tugged on the new waiter’s apron.

“Let’s go back.  Nikki’s waiting too.”

The early morning of a desert land looks like it’s about to start any moment.  On the horizon without much vegetation and between the rocky mountains, rays of orange light were peeking out.  The first breeze starts blowing away the designs drawn during the night.

Conrad unties the strings to his plaid apron, folds it quickly and hands it to Carlos.

“I have to go.”

“Where?”

“I don’t know.  I have to go meet someone, talk to them, and then hand over the object I was entrusted with.”

As a general rule, children were more sensitive than adults.  Without saying anything else, the boy understood everything.

“That soul.”

“Yes.  I made a promise.”

“I get it.”

Carlos gave a big nod and with a serious expression, told him to be safe.

“Be careful not to get run over in the middle of the road by a school bus.”

“I will. Tell Keisha and Nikki goodbye for me.  Ah, and if I happen to meet a banker, I’ll strongly recommend that they give a loan to your mother.”

“Thank you… Conrad.”

After clinging to Conrad’s waist for a few seconds, Carlos stretches as high as he can and forcefully shoves his cap onto Conrad’s head.

“You’ll be in trouble if you collapse from heat stroke.”

“Yeah…”

The child ran back to the house at full speed without turning around or making any solemn gestures of thanks or farewell because he knew it would just be more painful.

“Okay, but why don’t you wait until the bus leaves?”

He didn’t have a car or luggage or a horse or anything besides the small bottle in his pocket.  The two of them are walking along the cracked asphalt while gasping for air.  Actually, the only one out of breath was Rodriguez and Conrad, who was leading the way, has been energetic ever since two days before.

Because of that, his gait naturally widens and the distance between him and the man in back widens as well.

“You didn’t need to come along as well.”

“But like I said, my job is to introduce you to Bob and then hand you over along with Christine.  What am I going to do if I abandon you and you end up in an accident?”

“But,” Conrad stops and turns around, placing his hands on the visor of the midnight blue cap, “There was only one doctor in El Salvallo so is it alright if you come?”

“Yeah, after all, the catholic church is sending someone over tomorrow.  Since the clinic burned down, they figured they’d have medical examinations after mass for the time being.”

“Be that as it may… who and for what reason-”

“Stop, stop.  If you try to think about difficult things in the heat you won’t come up with the right answer.  Hey, why don’t we wait for an intercity bus here and catch a nap inside in the cool air?”

“If we just absently stand around here, we’ll collapse from thirst.  And anyway, wouldn’t it be a bit embarrassing if a school bus passed us?”

Even though it had just passed six o’clock, the sunlight in the empty desert was merciless.  There are few intercity buses passing through here.  There are only two: one in the morning and one in the evening.

“For now we just need to head in this direction, right?”

“Yeah, um, I have demon contacts in Santa Fe so we should go there first and explain our situation.  Before that, we need to head to the nearest town, Las Cruces.  We’re going to dry up and die if we keep going like this… We’ll get in contact with Bob from there… Even so, I don’t have a single penny on me.”

“I have the American Express card.”

He holds up the gold card he just got the day before up to his face.  The sunlight reflects off of it directly onto Rodriguez and he crumples like a vampire in the morning sun.

“It’s hot.”

“Pull yourself together. You were born and raised in the United States weren’t you?”

The sound of a perfectly running engine in the distance comes closer and stops by the squatting doctor and the traveler standing there with his arms crossed over his chest.

It’s a red Toyota pickup truck.

“Hey Doctor.”

“Hey Conrad.”

Hiding his pleasant surprise, Conrad waves a hand at the Owen brothers.

“Good afternoon.”

The one with the thick eyebrows and long beard sitting in the driver’s seat sticks his head out of the window.

“Where are you going at this time of day?  Did you get in trouble with a lady friend and now you have to escape at dawn?”

“I don’t have a lady friend.”

“Hm, you seemed to be friendly with Keisha.”

To them it looked like an older woman together with a teenager, but for all intents and purposes it was a man over eighty with a much younger woman.  It is unlikely that they would fall in love.

“… Hm, well whatever, I won’t ask.  We’re going all the way to Albuquerque, but if you want to ride in back we’ll give you a ride.”  Clicking his tongue at the now smiling Rodriguez, he points to the truck bed with his thumb. “… Well, I mean it doesn’t look like the doctor will make it all the way to Las Cruces looking like that.”

“Thank you.”

His listless attitude from before completely gone, Rodriguez climbed up into the Toyota in mere moments with deft movements.  Pushing aside the solid tools whose use he didn’t know, he cheekily leans back against the back of the driver’s seat.

The truck took off smoothly along with the Owen brothers’ out of tune singing.  The dry wind caresses his cheeks, arms, and legs and flows in the opposite direction they are moving.

“I really am going to suggest Japan, 100%.”

“What’s this, all of sudden?”

“Because,” the doctor grasps his breast pocket and watches the asphalt pass at a comfortable pace, “in Japan, demons are heroes of justice.  They have green wings and long ears.”

“Long ears?”

“Well, no one knows that I’m partial to Japan and I can’t let anyone know, though.  That reminds me, have I told you that Bob looks just like a Hollywood actor..?”

He chatted to the man next to him and sometimes he laughed and sometimes he got angry and sulked.

The brothers in the driver’s seat changed their song and a men’s duet of horrible singing voices reverberated out.  The Japanese-made engine in the pickup truck didn’t vibrate much and when it sped up, a strong wind almost blew away his cap.

The desert goes on forever.

The waves of sand change their design moment by moment.

Julia

Welcome to Earth.

Everyone is singing that for you.

Back to Chapter 4

Return to MA Series

Forward to Epilogue