12 The Manager Learns the Truth

Talking about what he wanted to in public was a pretty horrible idea for both Rame and Asaga. So once everything was taken care of at the restaurant, they all moved to a much better location. That being the humble home of the devil.

"I see that you're done with your little shopping trip." Mifuru was there to greet them as they arrived. While she thought it was strange that Juuto was there, at least that made sense to her. Asaga on the other hand. "And you are?"

"It's a long story." Rame spoke up. "But he's from Enatis too."

"He is?" That was enough to get a little bit of a reaction from her trusty retainer. "Wait, but I thought you told me to keep our identities a secret from him." She directed that towards her manager. After the only time she ever met him, Rame had drilled it upon her to try and act more natural when they were around guests. It wasn't easy, but she did her best to change her normal ways of talking.

"It's fine, I'll tell you everything when we get inside." She pushed aside her to let the others in. It would be a problem if anyone else found out the truth as well.

***

"I see." Those were the first words out of Mifuru's mouth when they told her what happened today. "A shame to think that I couldn't protect you during such a critical time." She nearly fainted onto their small futon from how upset she was about it. How could someone devoted to protect their most important person fail so badly?

"Everything's fine." Rame wasn't a huge fan of this babysitting act. "We all made it out okay, so I'd say that's a victory."

"But that guy got away." Asaga pointed out. "Who knows when he'll strike again?" It upset him, considering what that person was already willing to do. If they let this continue on for much longer, then more innocent people could get seriously hurt. Or worse.

"He will be a problem." Juuto agreed, but there was something else that he wanted to cover first. "But how about you tell me this first. Who are you people?" This was why he came with her back home. Everything that he saw them do, it felt like a dream. Yet it was all real. He actually saw Asaga moving water. He actually saw a demonic form of Rame. What was all this about?

"…" They were quiet at first, because this was quite a big revelation they were going to show to him. Rame was the first one to tell her story.

It was confirmed to him now, that she was the demon lord of the world known as Enatis. Back then, she was a force to be reckoned with, as she control so much of the land. She was bloodthirsty, wanting to rule the entire world. Because of her insane desires, the people living under where she reigned suffered from endless war and violence from demons.

Everything would come to an end, when a hero would arise and take her out. Through means of battle of course.

"All right. I'm starting to get it now." Juuto took a second to soak all of that information in. If this hadn't been accompanied with what happened before, then there was no way he'd believe it. "Then, you must be the hero that beat her, aren't you?" To him it made complete sense why Asaga would come charging in with intent to kill Rame. It was his job, wasn't it?

"Actually, I'm just a farmer there." Was the response he got from the man. Complete with a happy-go-lucky laugh, while grabbing the back of his head.

"Well I suppose plenty heroes do come from humble beginnings." He continued to miss the point.

"You're misunderstand." It was up to Rame to correct this. "He's just some dumb loaf that jumped through our portal because he wrongfully accused me of destroying his farm."

"Ya were there when it was burning down. How did I wrongfully accuse ya?" Again, the two of them got into another argument. "You're the demon lord, I bet ya just did it for fun."

"I got blasted by the hero and crashed onto it." She defended herself. "If anything, go blame your oh-so-precious hero."

"Oh yeah sure, go blame someone else why doncha?"

"Excuse me." Juuto didn't want to get too sidetracked with fighting. "Who exactly beat you anyway?"

"I can't even bear to say her name." Rame had a look of utter disappointment and disgust. "To think that some little girl beat me." He could only just look at her with a look of absolute judgment. She does realize that her own body has a lot of room to… Grow. Right?

"I'm surprised that you're not more in shock in this moment." Mifuru interluded, asking him about his lack of emotion right now.

"Well, a part of me still thinks that this is all a dream I'm about to wake up from." After all, how could anyone think that their co-worker was some type of demon. Let alone the demon lord that was apparently really evil in her old world. But no, this entire thing was no mere dream. This was his reality. "But, I am freaking out on the inside. I just don't show my feelings very well."

"I guess that should settle everything ya need to know." Asaga said. "But, what are we gonna do now?" Everyone turned their sights towards Rame, who was starting to feel all the pressure thrust onto her.

"What are you all looking at me for?"

"Well, you are the most powerful of all of us." Juuto answered. "You know, as a demon lord." They all had their reasons for wanting to rely on her. But the common one being that no one had a clue of how to move on from here.

"I guess all we can do is wait." They had no information to work with, so there wasn't even a place that they could begin to look at. Without anything, they were sitting ducks. There was little option but to be patient for something else to happen. "Just be careful, all of you."

"That's dandy with me." Asaga was fine with this arrangement, since it minimized the time he would need to spend with the devil. "Shoot, I'm gonna be late!" He checked his watch, which reminded him that he was only just on a break. "The boss is gonna kill me if I don't get back in time." Hastily, he got up and out of the door. There was only one last thing he needed to do before leaving. "Oh yeah. Rame…" She looked at him, and they paused for a couple of seconds as he prepared to say what he needed to say. "Thanks for what ya did back there. And I guess I won't be stalking ya anymore… Um, for now at least."

"Um… Thanks?" She responded uneasily, as he slammed the door before him from his rush towards work. It sounded like a good thing that he wasn't going to be breathing down her neck. Though given the circumstances, perhaps it would've been better if there was someone keeping an eye on her.

"I guess I should get going home too." Juuto said as he stood up. "It's my day off, and I do enjoy lounging around with some manga or games or something." He excused himself from their home, but Rame still had one more thing to say to him. She just didn't want to talk about it in front of Mifuru.

"Oh, he forgot something." She had snuck his costume into her bag, hoping that he would not take it with him. "I'll just get it back to him." That was her excuse to leave the house and go after him. It didn't take long to catch up, as they were now standing on the ground level to the front of her apartment. "Wait!"

"Hmm?" He stopped to see her running up to him. In her arms, it was his costume that they had just bought. The big fountain drink to compliment her hot dog. "You could've just held onto it until the festival." He informed her.

"I have to ask you something." She stopped to get her breath back. For a moment, he waited for her to get the words out of her mouth. "I'm fired, aren't I?"

"Fired? Why would I fire you?"

"Because… I'm the demon lord." That was her answer for him. "The people who know who I am. They get scared of me, because of what I've done. You're scared of me too, aren't you? I bet you think that I'm going to destroy this town or something." To her, that sounded like a normal concern to have. That's how her life had been on Enatis given her position.

"Look." He put a hand on her shoulder. "I can't say that I really understand all this demon lord business. But to me, you're Rame Maou." When he said that out loud, he realized the dumb joke she was going for with a name like that. "Ever since you started working with me, you've been one of the best workers I've ever seen. And you're even a go… Well, I can call you a friend." It wasn't easy for him to admit that to her, but that was the truth.

"Really? You mean that?"

"Yep." He said, turning away from her after taking the costume from her arms. "And tomorrow night, when the shift starts. I expect to see you standing behind that register. Got it?" He turned only his head back to look at her.

"You got it boss." She put up her hand in a salute. "I promise that I'll work hard no matter what." Her work ethic was never a concern for him. But he was glad that she wasn't going to be feeling down about this whole situation. Though even with everything settled. That still left them with one final question.

How will they handle survive that mysterious figure?