It had been two years.
A lot's changed, Emilia thought dryly as she swiped her ID card before the scanner. The keypad changed from red to green and the reinforced glass doors slid open with a near-silent hiss. The redheaded director then walked into her department's main lobby and nodded at the various underlings that passed her by on her way to her office.
Ugh, he's even warping my wording now...
It had been two years and Sadao Maou—the former Dark Lord of the Underworld of Ente Isle—had yet to return to his former dimension and bring about his promised Ragnarok. The demon lord had instead conquered McRonald.
Maou had gone on to become a full-time manager just a month after the attack by the Archangel Mitsuki Sarue. Kisaki had eventually been forced to let him be claimed by the corporate office and Maou had been installed as a general manager at a McRonalds a couple stations down from his original post.
Emilia swiped her card again and entered her office after the glass security door preventing entry slid open. Walking with her normal powerful stride, the former Hero of Ente Isle took a seat behind her desk and turned her desktop on. Almost immediately, a trio of monitors flickered to life and their individual wallpapers popped to life.
The first one showed her and Rika at a bar laughing together. That had been right after she had been promoted to floor manager. Rika had been pissed for a solid week until she had finally gotten over it after a night of drunken debauchery.
The second one showed the entire Ente Isle group—Rika and Chiho are also included—walking on a beach front. They had taken that group shot while on vacation celebrating Maou's promotion to assistant-regional director. That had seen a rather large pay raise and a promotional bonus in the five figure range. So they had decided to splurge—and that had nearly killed Ashiya—and take a week long cruise around the south east of Japan.
And the final one showed her and Maou. The dark haired demon was smiling from ear to ear as Emilia screamed bloody murder as he pushed her out of an airplane. The pair had decided to spend the day together and had ended up being drawn in by a skydiving van. Six hours later and they were free-falling together thousands of feet above the forests of Honshu.
She smirked, remembering the black eye Maou had sported following their successful reunitement after they had landed on the earth once again. She had nearly killed the immortal that day and was still a little upset that the only picture of the trip was the one currently on her desktop's third screen.
A beep interrupted her thoughts as she turned her attention to her left monitor. The screen was showing a mail icon and after clicking on it a message expanded until it filled the dimensions of the monitor.
Of course the chairman was having a rushed meeting right now.
And of course she wouldn't get any heads up until it was about time to start.
Swearing under her breath, Emilia put her computer into sleep mode and exited her office. She had barely made it to the elevator before her secretary tried to inform her of the executive's meeting.
Just a tad late there.
After she had cleared up that mess and made it into the elevator, Emilia had to wait as the metal contraption brought her up another thirty floors to the conference floor. She really couldn't understand who wanted to build a structure so high—honestly though, one hundred and fifty floors? Really?—but she had long since given up on trying to inject reason or logical thought into this company.
Walking past numerous doors leading into smaller and then larger conference halls, Emilia stopped before a pair of uniformed guards at a large double door. The men checked her badge and nodded in approval before letting her scan her badge and then proceed inside to the conference room.
And the guards. So many damned guards.
"Thank you all for coming with the utmost haste," Ashiya said with a pointed look at Emilia while gesturing at the gathered men and women—be they immortal or not—before turning to bow towards his master.
"We will now leave the floor open to his lordship, Chief Executive Officer Sadao Maou."
Alciel just has to suck Maou's-
"I'd like to thank all my generals of darkness and damnation for attending this war conference," Maou began as he spun around in his massive chair. The demon was attired in a rich three-piece suit and had just closed a chained golden pocket watch and stuck it in his breast pocket.
She still remembered when he had bought the damn thing.
"It makes me look sophisticated," Maou had said as he walked out of the shop with Emilia beside him.
"It makes you look like a silver-spooned prick."
"One day you'll understand what it means to be cultured Emi."
"One day you'll drop dead," she retorted as an old woman stared at the couple in horror as they passed her by. There might have been a day in the past where the hero would have explained the situation to the civilian, but those days were long behind her.
"-and because of this we will begin the strategic deployment of all new hires to all of the local McRonalds to prepare for the inevitable onslaught of customers." Maou explained, drawing his arch-enemy back into the real world—as debatable a statement as that was. "We will then supplement these fresh troops by spreading our more veteran staff throughout the stores, though we may have to cover extensive transportation costs," he admitted sheepishly while Ashiya grew pale in the seat beside him.
"But Maou-kun, won't that stress our finances if we have to pay for every single experienced employee that we ship across town?" Rika asked as she played with several numbers on the laptop sitting before her on the conference table.
"My lord, I'll take personal responsibility to ensure our budgetary matters are both effected in the least erroneous way and also utilized in the most profitable way." Ashiya swore with a dramatic flourish that ended with an uncomfortably close hand grip.
"I trust you my faithful servant!" Maou shouted enthusiastically.
"Thank you for your unwavering trust in me my lord, it shall not be in vain!"
"Ashiya!"
"My lord!"
"Ashiya!"
"Are you sure you're married to him?" Urushihara asked quizzically to Rika from his seat across from her. The purple haired head director of research and development—because only Urushihara would need to be the head director of something in contrast to being a normal director—was promptly bopped on the head by Suzuno as the dark haired girl glared at her boyfriend.
"Behave cretin," she commented offhandedly before putting her hands back behind her back—which were neatly hidden within the folds of her traditional kimono—and resuming her continuous scan of the area. Maou had appointed the former First Inquisitor of the Church of Ente Isle as his head of security as soon as he had been made regional director of Japan's McRonalds.
It had been as obvious a choice as making Rika regional director of personnel.
"Anyways," Emilia said, drawing the demonic duo out of their lover's moment, "if we do go about this as planned, I'll be up to my neck in paperwork...so I want a week of paid vacation after this."
Urushihara snorted and Rika glared—the former already knew where this would end up going and the latter was jealous she had not thought of this beforehand—while Maou whipped his head towards her so fast it nearly snapped.
"A full w-w-week?!" Ashiya howled, beating his master to the punch as he imagined the sheer amount of money it would cost to cover the head of customer service's paid vacation.
"I'm going to get all kinds of calls about how this new meal caused some parent's kid to throw up, dog to die, or heaven forbid it cure someone's cancer again," Emilia explained as she recalled the endless number of reporters and phone calls she had gone through after Urishihara had accidentally contaminated a batch of McRicken's with a combination of demonic energy and her holy vitamin beta water.
Over a dozen people had been cured of their terminal cancer. They had requested a McRicken as their final meal and POOF, their lives were saved. That had caused such a social media firestorm that they had nearly come clean about their otherworldly origins until Maou had managed to maneuver themselves out of the spotlight by explaining that the miraculous events had nothing to do with the McRonald corporation and that it was more likely an act of God.
Of course the religious fanatics ate that up and the resulting war on theology had quickly seen the cancer curing McRicken's vanish from all but the deepest pages of the interweb and news sites.
Emilia had tried to get Lucifer to recreate his accident, but sadly every test had resulted in a negative batch. Maou had called off their trials after a month, musing with a smirk that perhaps it had been godly intention.
"Oh it won't be that bad," Maou said with a casual shrug as he nodded at Urishihara, "he only tweaked the formula for the McSpiceWings ever so slightly."
"Whatever," Emilia said as the fallen angel frowned at her before she flipped him off. "I just want my vacation Maou," she gave him that look for emphasis. The look that said she had better get her way or she'd bring about more suffering for him than if she had impaled him with Better Half.
"We'll discuss it later down the line, customer calls depending," Maou replied with a playful gleam in his eyes before clapping his hands twice. "And on that note, meeting adjourned!"
Maou got up from his chair and made his way towards the private elevator reserved for his office exclusively. Ashiya followed him, close at his heels, while Chiho got up from her seat across from the chairman of the board and followed after the two demons.
How the formerly clumsy part-time cashier had managed to become to the secretary to a former demon overlord turned fast food king would forever astound Emilia.
"Forget him, let's get drinks," Rika said as she led her friend out of the conference room. As they walked out, they heard the beginnings of a an argument between Urushihara and Suzuno fire up. The pair were always arguing—though, unlike her and Maou, they actually never came to blows—and it seemed they would be cross with each other for another few hours before disappearing together as they were often keen to do.
"We just had lunch and now you want drinks?" Emilia asked with a roll of her eyes. "Are we actually going to work today?"
"Emi, we're corporate directors, let's live like it!"
Emilia just sighed and allowed herself to be dragged along to whatever bar Rika had decided was their destination for the day. Along the way, she allowed her mind to wander again to the last two years.
About six months to the day after Maou had been made assistant-regional director he was given the reigns of being the actual regional director after his boss was fired for fraud and other corrupt business practices. The demon overlord had sat comfortably at his position for the next few months before he successfully preformed a non-hostile takeover of the company through a combination of mass company share purchases and political maneuvering within the company until he was made the CEO of McRonald International.
After placing Ashiya as his chairman of the board and filling said board with the Ente Isle group, Maou had everything he needed to install himself as the owner of the very chain he had sworn to control from the first day of his employment with the company.
Emilia still remembered rather vividly the day he had offered her a job and she had turned him down.
Maou, being Maou, had simply bought her company. How he had managed to convince Ashiya to fund the buyout was still lost to her. But it had payed off because McRonald had received over a dozen awards for customer service. Plus, once Rika had come under Maou's payroll and been switched over to personnel, things had started to run a lot smoother.
She still teased her friend about how she had betrayed Emilia by leaving and that to make matters worse she was convinced Ashiya had been chosen over her. Rika defended that Emilia was crazy and that she had not left the customer support center to chase after the dashing blonde demon.
Emilia might have believed her if they hadn't ended up getting married only a few months ago.
Regardless, Rika and Ashiya were getting along happily. Suzuno and Urushihara were always off "inspecting the fortress defenses." Even Kisaki—now the city manager for Tokyo—and Sarue had found some sort of odd love for each other.
That left just Emilia the Hero and Satan the Lord of Demons. They had remained bickering rivals and refused to hear anything about becoming a couple from their friends—at least Emilia did anyways, Maou just changed the discussion.
Nothing had changed.
Of course, now they went by Emi, the Director of Customer Services, and Maou, the Chief Executive Officer of McRonald International.
Yet times had changed.
Emilia remained in her zoned out state of reflection throughout the entire trip to the bar. She barely drank anything and after only a few hours Rika decided to go home and take a nap before the traditional Friday night dinner.
Emilia found herself walking a familiar path through town until she wound up at the stronghold of Sadao Maou. Like everything else in their new world, the apartment complex had both remained the same and changed all at the same time. One of the first things Maou had done after his massive pay raise was purchase the apartment complex from Miki-T.
Nothing had really changed at first, everything honestly went on as normal besides the drama of the demons having to figure out how to effectively maintain an entire house and maintain relations with the housing services that were normally handled by Miki-T. But after that whole episode had ended and Maou's finances had risen, the Ente Isle visitors had taken it upon themselves to all pitch in and renovate the apartment complex.
It was still the same old building, though all of the appliances had been renovated and the rooms had been torn down and redesigned to properly redistribute the space for each individual's needs. Naturally Suzuno and Urushihara needed very little space—though they shared a room now—and Ashiya had also kept his own space relatively small as well.
Maou, being Maou, had kept the original room untouched and lived there by himself now. The leftover space had been relocated into a large communal living room, a gym, and an extensive two floor garage—one entire floor was dedicated to the sports cars the boys had been buying at rapid rates.
Emilia took out her keys and unlocked the front door and stepped inside. Ashiya had moved out and was living with Rika now in an actual house the couple had just bought. Urushihara and Suzuno were most likely still at the fortress. That left a most likely lonely Maou in the house.
Ignoring the flutter in her chest and the tightness in her stomach, Emilia walked through the stronghold's halls until she found the demon king's door. Knocking gently, she waited for him to acknowledge her while fingering a small purple pendant that hung from a chain around her neck.
Maou had given Suzuno, Rika, Chiho, and herself each a pendant upon their "promotion" to demon general. Emilia hadn't even worn hers for the first few months out of indignation until Rika had pointed out that Maou was seeming rather gloomy because of her refusal to wear it.
"Maou-baka," Emilia called after a moment, "are you awake?"
"Come in Emi!"
Rolling her eyes at his lack of an honorific—something he only did towards her—Emilia opened the door and walked into Maou's apartment. She found him sitting down before a shogi board and staring at her with that lopsided cross between a grin and a smirk he reserved for her.
"No."
"Emi please."
"I will literally string your lifeless corpse up on a telephone pole...again."
Maou's expression switched to more of a grin and he held his hands up in surrender. "I promise to play fairly! I even removed the mirror this time!"
Emilia turned around and confirmed with her own eyes that the small kitchen mirror was in fact nowhere to be found behind her. Sighing in defeat, she turned back around to face her rival and sat down before him.
"Fine, but if you cheat I will eradicate you from this earth." She warned as Maou moved a piece on the board.
"Whatever you say, dearest general of mine," Maou said with a wink.
God, forgive me if my will proves weak and I slay this demon here and now in his own home...
"What are the stakes?" Emilia asked as she moved a piece, beginning to form a plan for a blitz against Maou's forces.
"Winner gets to choose where the two of us go on vacation," Maou said simply while moving another piece without even glancing at the board.
Emilia paled and glared at the demon king. "I'm going on vacation, Maou. Just me." She stated with heavy emphasis towards herself.
"Sure you are," Maou retorted before moving another piece seconds after her own move.
Is he even trying?
Emilia decided to ignore the dark haired overlord of McRonalds and instead focused on her strategy. Her forces seemed in a better position to attack, her formations were more concrete, and Maou seemed to be moving about as if he didn't even have a strategy. He had already lost his lances, a general, and now his bishop.
Despite the bad feeling in her gut, Emilia began to make her move. As Maou's pieces rapidly left the board and her own remained mostly intact, the hero couldn't help but worry about the trap awaiting her.
The lord of demons always had a crafty plan in the works.
"What are you after?" Emilia asked after she had reduced Maou's forces to a mere handful while her own remained nearly pristine. It was as if the devil had no intent in winning at all, he had barely even made any aggressive moves.
"Whatever do you mean?" Maou asked as Emilia took out one of his few remaining generals.
"You're normally impossibly difficult at beating at shogi. Yet here I am about to crush your central force and you have barely taken my weakest units." Emilia complained while staring the demon in the eyes.
Bright green met darkened red and an explosion of tension filled the room.
"You really do have an overactive imagination...or poor self esteem..." Maou teased with a smirk as he made another random move with his dragon. Emilia easily took the piece on her next turn and this repeated several more times until Maou had been thoroughly beaten.
"I guess I win?" Emilia said with a heavy sense of unease while staring at Maou in confusion.
"London."
"W-what?" Emilia asked in confusion as she stared at her foe incredulously.
"I want to go to London." Maou stated simply as he stood up and stretched, causing his back muscles to pop.
"Well that's great, you can go by yourself."
"The rule was the winner gets to decide where we both go." Maou pointed out as he grabbed his suit jacket off a coat hanger and slid it on.
"Yes, and I won." Emilia pointed out while her feelings of unease came back with extreme gusto.
"Look at the board hero."
Emilia glanced at the board out of sheer curiosity and then looked back at her arch-enemy. "Very disappointing, but what of it?" She asked while standing up and squaring up to the demon king as he finished buttoning his jacket.
"Look at the general's piece." He said with that damnable smirk.
Emilia glanced back at the board and almost missed it. Then she caught it and her entire body froze in shock.
Nope...hell nope...HELL NOPE! Emilia raged as she stared at the shogi board in absolutely stunned horror.
Smirking, Satan Jacobs leaned in until his lips were just shy of Emilia's ear. "And you will see my good heroic general, that my army is nigh completely intact and my ōshō stands unharmed...whereas your army is completely eradicated and your gyokushō lays dead by thy own hand..."
"H-how in the hell!?" Emilia roared as she turned to grab Maou's collar and pulled him in close to the point where their noses were actually touching.
"I spun the board around when you were glancing at the mirror." Maou replied coolly with that damnable smirk in full force as Emilia's face grew bright red in holy fury.
Click.
"Whoa...are we interrupting something?" Urushihara asked in surprise as he and Suzuno stood halfway in the doorway.
Emilia's face grew even redder and she blasted the demon away with her holy power. Maou flew into the wall with a thud and Suzuno nearly jumped forward to catch him until Urushihara grabbed her around the waist and pulled her from the room.
"We do not want to get in the middle of that!" He exclaimed.
"But-"
"No way in heaven or in hell!"
Maou, for his part, was still smirking. "Well, my general, it would seem your options are either go with me to London or turn down my offered paid vacation."
Emilia swore.