"To think that I failed to protect my lady." Mifuru was groveling, bowing on the floor to Rame. Once Juuto and her had gotten to the safety of the devil's home. They phoned to their other allies who returned as quickly as they could. The moment they did, her retainer had immediately gone to ask for forgiveness. "I truly am a worthless servant."
"Get up." Rame was not really a huge fan of this. It wasn't anything new, and it happened fairly often back on Enatis too. She just found this ridiculous because she never got mad at the girl. "It's over now, he can't hurt us anymore." She told them, which was mostly true now that the wizard's magic was sealed.
"I guess he technically still can." Asaga commented. "But that little boy doesn't look like he could even take ya for a fist fight." Juuto agreed. Perhaps that kid could be crafty, but it was unlikely he'd be pulling any funny stunts in the future.
"Oh... My head." Finally, the person they were waiting on finally awoken. He groggily wiped his eyes, trying to gather vision on where he was. Slowly the figures of the group entered his sights, and the boy realized what had happened moments before blacking out. "Ah!" He yelled out in fear, putting up a hand to try and shoot out flames.
Yet nothing came of it.
"You... You monster! you took my magic!" He was upset and afraid for what was coming to him. "What are you planning on doing to me?"
"Let you go." Rame answered without a second thought, which shocked everyone there.
"I'm surprised the demon lord herself would choose to have mercy on someone who tried to kill ya." For someone in legend as this great warlord. Asaga never thought in his life that he'd see her just let someone go.
"I guess it's because you sealed his magic." Juuto was certain as to the real reason for this. "So we're not going to consider him a threat anymore?"
"Exactly." She responded. "I don't care what you decide to do from now on. But you're free to leave."
"Leave..." He repeated with disgust in his voice. "As if I could leave without my magic. It's the only way I could've entered this world to begin with. Not to mention the only way for any of us to return to Enatis."
"Well too bad, I ain't giving you back your magic." She knew that would be a pretty bad idea. He was stronger than all of them based on his usage of spells. If he got those powers back, then they'd probably all get killed.
"Darn you..." He looked down in defeat. "All I wanted to be was a hero of justice."
"Well, you kind of deserve this." Juuto scolded him. "A hero doesn't just disregard the lives of the innocent. Not a good one at least." He realized that they probably had different standards on Enatis, but that didn't matter as long as they were here on Earth.
"Either way, I'm not leaving my eyes off of you." Merlin proclaimed. "I mean, not much else to do since I already live under you. But you can bet I'll still be around."
"Oh bother." Rame was starting to regret her decision to keep him alive. Not that she could kill him anyway, since that would look back. And since she used all her magic to seal his, the girl was practically fully human in her current state. "Whatever, just stop being annoying."
"I swear, you'll never forget the great wizard Merlin!" He got up and marched to the door. Before he left, he realized to make mention of one other thing. "By the way, here I'm known as Akitomo Zama. So only refer to me by that name when we're out in public." That was when he made his leave, slamming the door.
"I guess that's all taken care if..."
***
And indeed, once their problem with the former wizard was over. Everyone was able to return back to their normal, benign lives.
"Got everything stocked." For Rame and Juuto, their normal life consisted of working those quiet night shifts.
"You really got to those early tonight." He commented on her usual eagerness of working here. Now that he had a taste of what her life was before coming here, it was a little surprising to see how happy she was with a life like this. "Guess that means we can take it easy for the rest of the night."
"Yep." She smiled. "That means I can talk with you a lot more too." Of all the thing he thought she'd enjoy here. Conversing with him was what he assumed to be on the bottom of the list. "Plus, we got something special about to happen."
"Special? What are you talking about?" His question would be answered with the arrival of a familiar customer.
"Ahh, finally got off work." Asaga entered, streching out his back after a long day of moving boxes. "Got a little worried I'd be late coming here."
"Hmm? Why would you be worried about being late? We don't close." The response he got was a bit of a laugh. "I don't get it, what's going on here?" While being bewildered by his circumstance, more people began to enter the store. Morin, Mikuto, Kunitoki, Sunae along with her son, all came in at the same time. That was odd to him, since it would be pretty rare for their schedules to line up like this.
"You really don't remember?" Rame asked. "I thought it was normal for people like you to remember."
"I guess I must be an idiot, because I don't got a clue what's going on here."
"It's your birthday, silly." Sunae told him, to which he realized what the date was. November 3rd.
"You might be a year older, but you're not one of us yet." Morin made fun of him, comparing his memory to that of an elderly.
"I can't believe you guys really remembered that." He was moved by their actions, even if he never consider this day to be anything special.
"I can't believe you don't." Kunitoki retorted.
"Why else do you think I was so eager to finish all our work." Under the table, Rame revealed to him a birthday cake. All decked out with designs made by Mifuru.
"Wow, that's so kind of her." Juuto had never gotten anything like this before. "But, where is she?" Right on cue, the servant lady ran right through the automated doors. She stopped for a moment, as she was out-of-breath.
"I'm so sorry." She said, gasping for air. "I was so busy with taking care of the house, that I completely forgot it was that day." She pleaded for forgiveness, which was a display that Rame was embarrassed to be dealing with in front of everyone. While this was all going on, another familiar face entered the store.
"I'm here too." He said, after being told by Mifuru what she was in a rush for. Merlin, known at the moment as Akitomo. She wasn't fond of the idea of him coming along, but let him tag with her. At least, that was the plan, but when she saw how late she was going to be. Well, he just had to run to keep up.
"You are?" Juuto wasn't expecting someone like him at all. He seemed a little sad about his new life as without magic on this planet. But after spending a day moping about it, the boy had accepted things as they were. "I mean, I didn't think you cared."
"Consider it a..." He turned his head, feeling bashful about saying this in front of everyone. "Consider it an apology."
"I'm fine with that." Juuto replied with a smile.
"I'm so glad that's resolved." Sunae pushed the shy boy up to join everyone else, much to his chagrin. "I don't know what you did to make Juuto mad at you, but I'm glad that there's no hard feelings." The two guys in respect to that just played it off like nothing important happened. Even though one of them was trying to kill the other just a few days ago.
"Anyway, you should blow out these candles." Rame said, which she had heard that people make wishes on these things. Did they really hold such power, she wondered. Not that she could just do it herself to find out. Apparently they only work when it's one's birthday. So she was going to have to keep an eye on if his came true or not.
Right before he did, Juuto took a long look at the people surrounding him. All his adult life, he had enjoyed this simple lifestyle. Yet for the last month, he had to deal with the girl standing right besides him and her crazy life. Though in all this excitement, he realized what he enjoyed most with her.
It wasn't that she was some powerful person from another world. Nor was he scared of said power being in the hands of someone supposedly evil. It was a time like this, when they were doing a perfectly normal human thing to do. When he came to this realization, he knew exactly what his wish was going to be.
He closed his eyes, and started to blow out the two candles on the cake. While wishes weren't something he believed in. Just this once, he put a little faith in it. Once he was finished, he opened up his eyes once more. Everyone around him was clapping in joy with this celebration.
"Great, what did you wish for?" The demon lord asked with eagerness.
"I'm not supposed to tell you, or else it won't come to true." She hung her head down in disappointment. That girl was never going to find out the truth.
"I guess we should eat this cake then." He said, to which she had an even better idea.
"Or..." She sprung her head straight back up. "Let's all get hot dogs. Come on everyone, it's on the house." She made a beeline for the stand, and everybody else followed in excitement behind her.
"Actually, if you don't work here, you still gotta pay for it." His plea fell on deaf ears, as everyone got to making their own personal hot dogs. Even Akitomo was getting in on this merriment.
"Come on." Asaga called him on. "You gotta get in on this too. It's ya birthday after all."
"But with customers I'm supposed to..." He shook his head and sighed. It was clear that he was never going to get to them. "All right, fine." He smiled with glee as he walked over to grab his own food to enjoy with everyone.
And thus comes the ending to the story of how the devil came to a quiet town in Japan, on a planet known as Earth. While her story is far from over, she has now finally become one with the neighborhood. It wasn't easy, with death chasing after her. But thanks to a friend she never expected to make, she was able to deal with her challenges.
"Hey, you can't just take some of mine!" Juuto yelled at Rame as she took a bite of his hot dog from the other side. "Ahh... Never mind..." As reserved as he might act, the man that became her manager was growing much more soft for her. As the two smiled at each other, her mouth full of food. It was the proof of one special thing.
That the devil had made her first true friend.