I am SUPER sorry for how much later this came out than I'd planned. I broke my foot literally the next morning, and already had a family vacation scheduled to leave on Friday so that completely screwed up my whole timeline to write and everything. Now with the excuses out of the way, thank you everyone who reviewed. I really appreciate it. It seems like you all like the one chapter so far so hopefully this doesn't disappoint after making you wait longer than I'd promised.

Emi has just walked into the cafe behind a gaggle of girls younger than her, when she heard the familiar voice of Alas-Ramus call out.

"Mama!"

Sera and Maiya's eyes immediately snapped to the little girl on the counter, but she wasn't focused on either of them. Maiya followed where the little girl was waving and saw a woman entering the store look up as she heard the child's cry.

Emi's face was hidden by a large sun hat as she made quick strides towards the counter, making sure to keep her face down. Both Mooncoins employees observed the woman, while Sera sized her up, quickly comparing her to Maiya, who had managed to recover and was handing out biscuits to customers. Strands of red hair were peeking out from under the woman's hat, likely coming from some sort of bun Sera deduced. But there was one braid coming down over her right shoulder. She was wearing a simple emerald green sundress with her straps over both her shoulders, and comfortable sandals. She had a glow of womanly charm that would for sure be hard for Maiya to match up against. However, even though Maiya wasn't the most buxom person in all of Ente Isla, she easily had this woman beat at least.

Emi reached the counter and squatted down to eye level with Alas-Ramus, who was absolutely delighted, reaching out to her. She looked up at the girl at the counter who was watching her curiously. "Um, hello. I'm Alas-Ramus's mama," she introduced herself to the young cashier, slightly embarrassed.

Even though it was back to being mostly hidden, Maiya could tell this woman definitely had a pretty face, and her eyes perfectly matched her dress. She nodded stiffly, still working on processing what was going on in front of her. "H-Hi. I'm Maiya. I work with M-Maou" she weakly stammered.

Emi nodded to her. "It's nice to meet you."

Maiya snapped out of her semi-trance when Sera came by and handed a customer the change Maiya had forgotten about, giving her a poke with her elbow in the process. The line had dwindled down to only a few people now.

"Mama! Play with mama" Alas-Ramus cheered. Then, less elated questioned "why mama no work?"

Emi turned and smiled at Alas-Ramus. "Mama got an early break and wanted to see her little darling daughter. Are you making sure not to cause any trouble?"

Alas-Ramus eagerly nodded her head, putting her hand in the tip jar to her left. "I helped make all these moneys," she beamed at her mother.

Emi whistled, impressed with the amount of coins in the jar. "Wow. Leaving you in charge of tips was certainly a smart idea wasn't it?"

Alas-Ramus nodded again, smiling eagerly at Emi. With no phones in Ente Isla to distract people like on Earth, the line of people to her left and a few near the counter were beginning to pay more attention to Emi and her daughter. Some groups of regulars who were more familiar with Alas-Ramus and Maou were even whispering to each other.

She pulled the hat a little lower over her face, making sure to hide it as best she could. People finding out that not only was the Hero at a coffee shop, but with a daughter and a man there who was recognized as the father of said daughter, would definitely not end well. She thanked her lucky stars that the public was used to seeing her with silver hair instead of her natural red, otherwise she most likely would've been recognized almost instantly.

The 'Employees Only' door in the back opened as Maou came through, putting his silver visor back on now that his break was over. "Hey what's with all the noise?" he asked.

It was then he noticed the large hat in front of his daughter, unsuccessfully trying to hide the identity of the wearer from him. He smirked as he walked over to the counter, looking down directly at the reddening face of the Hero.

"Hey Emi. What'cha doin?" he couldn't help but laugh a little.

The flushed face of the Hero looked up at him, and immediately turned to the floor after making eye contact. "Nothing. I just got a break a little earlier is all and wanted to see Alas-Ramus."

Maou nodded absent-mindedly, turning to make an order that Sera had handed him. "Uh huh. You sure you're not here to check up on me too?" he asked cheekily over his shoulder.

Emi snorted, relaxing some. "If by check up on you mean make sure you're not spiking people's drinks with salt instead of sugar, then yes, I'm checking up on you."

Maou walked back over to Emi and Alas-Ramus, replying cheekily. "You're still not over that? It was an accident. Besides, it woke you up didn't it?"

Emi stood up and glanced at the people around them who were watching, practically feeling the daggers being stared at her by the various teenage girls in the shop.

Maou seemed to notice them too, and put Alas-Ramus in Emi's arms. He nodded over to an empty table in the corner. "Here, why don't you two hang out over there for your break. I'll bring you a drink, on me. And I promise it'll be salt free, unless you get the salted caramel shake." The bell to the store rang, and Maou's volume increased. "Which we're currently running a special on. It's only available for a limited time, so get it while you can!"

Emi rolled her eyes, taking Alas-Ramus over to the table the in the corner of the cafe. Another small group of people began filing in now, and people had taken to sitting outside in the mild weather as the store filled up.

Maou handed the people their drinks, and nodded over at Sera and Maiya. "Mikael is in the back right now finishing up inventory. It's your breaks right now, so if one of you could get him up here that'd be great to help me."

Sera pursed her lips and nodded. Maiya hadn't been paying attention, taking a few orders and not-so-subtly staring at the redhead in the corner of the store.

After taking the last order in line, Sera grabbed Maiya's arm, declaring "break time! Let's go Maiya." Leaning into her friend's ear she also whispered, "we've got to game plan for this 'new development.'"

Maiya numbly nodded as Sera dragged her into the break room. Sera called for Mikael, and the brunette teenager left the two alone to go help Maou up front. Sera turned on her best friend.

"So," she started.

"So," Maiya weakly replied.

Sera rolled her eyes, putting her hands on her hips. "Oh come on. You can't be that all down in the dumps so quickly. We have 15 minutes. We just have to regroup is all."

Maiya squirmed in her chair and looked up at her friend. "I don't know. I mean, what am I supposed to do?"

Sera put her left hand on her chin and put her right hand on her jutted out hip. Her thinking pose, for when the situation needed serious thought. Maiya was right, their chances were low, but not impossible.

"Ok what do we know?" Sera asked mainly to herself. "No ring, and not living together for sure. So there's separation, even though they have a kid. They bantered some, and she didn't seem all that intent with talking with him, so that's something. But they did seem to get along fine overall, which is at least good for Alas-Ramus's sake, but not for us."

Sera glanced at Maiya, who was watching Sera intently, and keeping track of something on her fingers.

"You've definitely got her beat in 'assets' at least. So that's a plus."

Maiya blushed and crossed her arms over her chest.

Sera continued. "And you've got that more innocent feel to you. However, she does have the mature aura around her. Although," Sera tilted her head questioningly. "She was wearing that big hat, and was clearly trying to avoid attention, which she was really bad at. What do you think that was about?"

Maiya furrowed her brows worriedly. "I-I don't know. That is weird. I've only read about people doing that in my drama books." Maiya's head snapped up, her eyes wide in terror. "Y-You don't think she's a criminal do you? W-What if she's some sort of terrorist, or demon, and she's holding Maou and Alas-Ramus hostage, o-or brainwashed them so that she could stay undercover," Maiya rambled out.

Maiya could see it now. The kind-hearted Maou roped in by a conniving seductress, using him as a cover for her evil deeds. What those evil deeds were Maiya had absolutely no idea, but clearly they could never be associated with someone like Maou.

Sera shook her head chuckled, unable to keep the slight grin off her face watching her friend get herself worked up in circles. "No honey," she said kindly, "I think she's only the villain in your story, not Maou's."

Maiya paused, and nodded her head slowly, still not entirely convinced. She looked back at her co-conspirator (really the lead conspirator) and asked, "Well then why is she hiding herself? I saw her face a little and she was definitely pretty, but I don't think I recognized her as someone famous."

"Hmmm," Sera pulled over one of the other chairs and sat down, maintaining her thinking pose. Minutes passed by, Sera calculating, Maiya fidgeting. After a few minutes, Maiya began to worry they were going to run out of time on their break, when Sera snapped her fingers.

"I've got it!" she declared.

Her attention drawn, Maiya turned back to the golden haired girl, anticipation and anxiety clear on her face.

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Hey, so obviously this is coming out super late. I actually had this fully written up before I stopped writing. If you want to get the background on why I was gone for so long feel free to check my Explanation. I hope to get all my stories back up and running ASAP.