EXTRA CHAPTER: THE FALLEN ANGEL RECALLS

“A lot of hubbub around town, isn’t there?”

“To me, anyplace with a lot of people is just a big blur of noise.”

“There’s a steady stream of goods flowing in from the West. A great deal of powerful tribes and regional leaders, not only Lady Wurs, have turned their attention to Noza Quartus—and to this town, Welland Isa.”

“Mmmngh…zzz…”

After having inadvertently crossed paths with Libicocco in Ente Isla, Urushihara, Laila, and Kinanna were in the port city of Welland Isa, on the southern tip of the Northern Island.

The scope of this city was twice that of the Goat Pasture, and as the name indicated, it was within the territory of the Welland tribe. It was the largest port on the Northern Island, and since the Welland territory was one of the few broad, flat tracts of land on the island, many people and things moved through it.

They were in a private room on the second floor of a restaurant in a relatively posh part of town, the sea breeze from the port providing a pleasant atmosphere. Farfarello, in human form and dressed in oddly elegant clothing, had guided them here for a meal, and their table offered a splendid view of the port.

“I thought we’d be going straight to the Goat Pasture, but from here, maybe it won’t take much time to reach Devil’s Castle after all.”

“Sadly, that will not be the case.”

Urushihara’s observation would be true in regular times, but Farfarello—in traditional Northern gear he’d borrowed from one tribe or another, but still managing to look stuffily formal in it—furrowed his brows.

“An advance force of Church knights has already arrived here in Welland Isa.”

“Huh? Are we all right, then?”

Laila seemed surprised, but Farfarello waved a hand to calm her. “This is the hundred-man force I mentioned to you earlier. They are surveying the land, working out a path for their larger armies to traverse.”

“Ohh? What would they be doin’ in Noza Quartus? I figured they’d be hitting the Central Continent via Wezu.”

“Wezu Quartus is reportedly unable to house a large-scale force of Church knights. It has not recovered, it seems, from the blow you landed upon it, Lord Lucifer.”

“Farfarello, can you tell the Devil King and Alciel that next time you see them? Tell ’em it was all me, dude—like, my hard work back then is still workin’ for them. Okay? It’s important.”

“Um, yes…”

The sudden push from Urushihara surprised Farfarello as he broke into a summary of Emeralda and Rumack’s activity, as related to him from Wurs.

“So the Church knights are forced to rely on the Northern Island for their supply lines, even if they know it’ll hold up their goods?”

“That traffic will clear up, however, the more time we give them. Emeralda Etuva and Lady Wurs are taking measures to ensure it won’t be that simple, she told me, but…”

“Hmm. I can’t say what she’s doing,” Laila absentmindedly stated, “but Lidem sure is something else.”

“Laila, what you just said sounds incredibly stupid.”

The stupefied Urushihara sat up, turning toward the port.

“Is it that ship? I’m seeing the flags of the Church and Kierence hoisted up. That’s the nation that owns Lamoise. If a Lamoise ship is all the way up here, the shipping lines must be pretty damn clogged, yeah.”

His attention was focused on a single battleship on one end of the port, currently under guard.

“But it doesn’t look like anybody’s at work on it. It’s there to menace people. Like, they’re just pretending to work, huh, Farfarello?”

“Yes.”

“And negotiations between Dhin Dhem Wurs and the Church knights can’t be going well, right?”

“Indeed not, my lord,” Farfarello said with a grin. “I believe I know a thing or two about the human world, but politics do remain a difficult topic for me.”

“Wow, Lucifer. You can tell all of that from here?”

Laila was impressed. One view of a battleship seemed to tell Urushihara everything he needed.

“When it comes to ‘not working,’ dude, I’m an expert in every way.”

She wondered whether she should be impressed or revolted by that.

“It’s got no escorts,” he reluctantly continued, sensing her expression. “Nothing out at sea, nothing in the port, nothing among the other ships out there. If they’re operating such a fancy ship alone when time’s of the essence and all, that shows how involved the Church is with the Northern Island. They realized they can’t just muscle their way through by force. But if the ship itself is lightly guarded, there can’t be anyone that important on board. They brought someone decently high up along, but I’m guessing it was such a mismatch that he got chased right back in there.”

“Indeed. Lady Wurs has no interest in negotiating with the advance force. A more important individual will be replacing their leader shortly.”

Laila’s eyes opened wide at the demons’ exchange. Urushihara responded with a light chuckle.

“Y’know, dude, we all think this, but it’s amazing you actually managed to avoid getting caught by heaven all this time.”

“I—I didn’t have much choice.”

Laila had been the target of so much shade from so many sources as of late that her lack of knowledge and planning was starting to shame her.

“I was only a doctor to start with, you know. And I was on the low end of our research, just following Ignora’s orders. I had nothing to do with politics at all.”

“And that’s why I’m shocked you’re alive today. Even though there’s a whole time period that’s a total blank for me.”

“What?”

“Nothing. Farfarello, there’s really no need to stick with us. You oughta stay on the Northern Island. We can reach the Central Continent by ourselves.”

“What? Lucifer?”

“Huh? But Dhin Dhem told him to accompany us on the round trip to and from Noza Quartus…”

“If they knew about this, Maou and Ashiya would probably make the same choice. I headed up the Western invasion force, y’know. I tangled with Olba for quite a while, and I’d like to think I know how the Church thinks.”

Urushihara raised his hand and made a cutting motion with it against his neck.

“The Church has tons of heads to replace the ones they chop off. Dhin Dhem Wurs doesn’t. Right now, she’s the top line of defense for our plan. If anything happens to her, with the zirga all messed up, they won’t have anyone to unite the Northern Island under. The island’ll split apart, and that’ll make things real bad for us.”

“Are you saying the Church is going to assassinate Lidem?!”

Laila almost shrieked it out. Urushihara shook his head.

“I don’t think they’ll try anything that extreme, or that obvious. But depending on who this ‘important individual’ is, I dunno how optimistic we can be. I can think of a lot of ways to keep Wurs from interfering with the Central Continent and the Church knights. Like, if the old lady doesn’t get anything out of supporting us any longer, there’s no telling when she might flip on us. I dunno what kinda deal Ashiya worked out with Wurs, but we need a situation where she can’t betray us, and we need it to last as long as possible… What, dude?”

Laila and Farfarello stared at him in astonishment. The validity of his expert analysis and observations was a shock.

“…Look, if nobody else is around to do it for me, even I can think this much if I have to, okay?!”

Having made that clear, he pouted and turned his back to them.

“Hey, you all right?”

Laila began to panic at the sight of Urushihara lying spread-eagle on the floor of their cabin, completely inert.

Dhin Dhem Wurs had organized a berth for them on a cargo ship going from Welland Isa to Noza Quartus, but Urushihara had looked unwell even before he’d boarded the ship. Boats in Ente Isla were powered by wind, the old-fashioned way. This made schedules a tricky thing to keep, and since ships were more directly battered by the waves, the below-deck caverns reeled up and down fiercely.

There were some so-called magic ships, owned by militaries or the superrich, which could plow their way through storms or calm seas. But a nation was lucky to claim even one of these, and sadly, all Wurz could find was this regular old boat. Out of consideration for Kinanna, she had managed to find a private room for them, along the Welland-Noza route, when the current unprecedented boom in shipping made every voyage packed to the gills. They needed to thank her for that, but…

“I want to fly…somewhere far…far away…”

He was seasick, of course. Normal people could wage air battles that’d normally rip them apart and survive without issue, but Urushihara was simply a mess inside a moving vehicle. Neither Maou, nor Ashiya, Emi, or Suzuno was similarly afflicted, so it must’ve been a Urushihara-specific problem.

“I had no idea you’d be seasick… Whoever heard of a demon who got seasick?”

“……”

He lacked the energy to respond.

“Are you okay on other vehicles?”

“…………Long car trips, I couldn’t deal with. Trains, I can ride all day.”

“That’s pretty typical. You must just be prone to that. Why don’t you at least try sleeping in a hammock? Doesn’t it hurt to be on the floor?”

They had a private room, but this was still a cargo ship. There was nothing as luxurious as a bed in here; just two hammocks hung from rings that looked like they’d be torn off the wall by all the undulating.

“I climb in one of those, dude, I’m seriously gonna die. On the floor, at least, I can keep in place.”

“Is that how it works?”

In tranquil seas, a hammock used the laws of physics to keep you as level as possible. But the swaying feeling wasn’t the only cause of seasickness. There was the difference between what was seen and what was felt, or strong light, or odors, or the unconscious pressure felt in an enclosed space. Many things. So if the afflicted patient here said he was best on the floor, it was a good idea not to move him.

“Lidem and Farlo gave us these box lunches. They’ll go bad if we don’t eat them today.”

“Don’t talk about food, dude…”

“So can I give yours to Kinanna?”

“…Fine. Uuungh…”

On the edge of his vision, he could see Laila open Kinanna’s cage and offer him something resembling a sandwich. Kinanna sniffed at it, then crept up and began eating it like any other lizard out there.

“……”

The tornado that had ripped apart Room 201 seemed like an illusion now. Kinanna, the monster from deep under the demon realms, now looked bereft of life. They were starting to worry the sea journey would sap his energy even further. He hardly talked any longer, and even back in a land of magic like Ente Isla, there was no sign of his body growing at all.

If he should die, what would happen to the Astral Gem?

“Erff…”

Nausea clouded Urushihara’s mind. He hadn’t felt this sick to his stomach in ages. Even the trip in the Sasaki family car up to Nagano wasn’t nearly as bad as this. His head and chest were killing him, but he couldn’t throw anything up.

“Errrgh…dammit…”

Lying on the floor like this, he could feel the shuddering of every wave the ship cut through. The hull creaked, a terrible din from nowhere in particular that surrounded him. It was a tiny, lightless room, with no way of seeing outside. He hated everything about it. Why couldn’t he go outside? There was no reason for him to be cooped up in this deep, dark, cramped pit of a room.

“Lucifer?”

“……”

“Hey! Lucifer? Hanging in there?”

“………Don’t shake me. I’m gonna hurl.”

“Whoa!”

The moment he felt his consciousness begin to go on him, Laila’s violent shaking of his body suddenly made the nausea storm back to life.

“Ahh…”

Heeding his warning, Laila leaped all the way to the opposite wall. But as Urushihara slowly got to his feet, she thought she could see the light back in his eyes.

“……I’m gonna go on deck and hurl.”

“Um, best of luck.”

“Oh, right. Laila, why was I tied to that bed even before the moon broke up?” he casually asked.

When the question reached Laila’s ears, she looked like she was witnessing the god of death himself.

“Underground in Satanas Arc. That medical bed. That was for me, right?” he continued.

“L-Lucifer, that…”

“Huh? Or, wait…”

Urushihara, blue in the face from seasickness, had heavy rings around his eyes as he weakly smiled.

“Did you forget, too?”

“……”

Laila couldn’t answer.

Why couldn’t she?

“I guess everyone did, to some extent. I doubt we can count on Gabriel for much, either.”

Leaving the blank-faced, frozen Laila behind, Urushihara left the cabin. The bobbing corridor was long, narrow, and dark. With an unsteady gait, he kept his hand on the wall as he slowly pressed forward. His knees were aching. The heartburn was awful. A sour taste was at the bottom of his throat. His mouth was dry.

“Ah… Right. It was like this. Crap. And being seasick set it off… Wish I coulda remembered it in some cooler way.”

Fighting back the contents of his stomach, Urushihara slowly climbed the stairs of the ship. He ran into nobody along the way. This being a cargo vessel, the few other guests were relaxing on deck or in their rooms, it not being a long voyage.

After he’d dragged himself to the top and opened the door to the upper deck, his eyes—used to the dark interior—burned in the light.

“Wehh…”

Strong light was another catalyst for seasickness. Urushihara lumbered to the side of the boat, stuck his head over, and threw up in dazzling fashion.

“Hurrrhhhk…”

The assorted things falling into the sparkling waters below quickly flowed behind the ship. The breeze didn’t feel that strong to him, but the tidal current and wind direction must’ve been favorable. They were running faster than he thought.

“Ahh… So bright…”

He was a bit calmer now, finally, but Urushihara’s instincts told him that the real seasickness only began after his stomach was empty. Fighting back the depression, he looked up. The winds must’ve been different in the upper sky, because some faint clouds floated in the blue, almost like the sun was pushing them along with the craft.

“I can’t stand how blue the sky is. And the white of the clouds. If Villa Rosa Sasazuka just had an air conditioner, it’d be great in the summer…”

Within his eyes, the blue sky transformed into the red hue of stormier times.

“But… Well, I remember how much better I felt then, too. Oh, man, I hate it when I recall bad old memories. Now I get it when people say they bury their face in their pillow and flail around in bed. You gotta be kidding me.”

A single tear fell from his eye. And in the endlessly long life he had led, words that he never once recalled saying fell out of the corner of his mouth.

“I called them ‘papa’ and ‘mama’? Hurrrgh… Ptoo!”

Once he’d ejected the embarrassing memory with the rest of what was left inside him, Urushihara stared down at the sea surface and spat at it.