The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 5 by Satoshi Wagahara Page B

put everything Camio said together, then I suppose, sure.”
    “Now think about Efzahan’s rampage. Efzahan has never truly believed in diplomacy as a solution to anything. The situation at its borders has never been anything less than volatile. The Azure Emperor is rumored to be a tyrannical despot, one who uses brutal oppression to keep any insurgencies from boiling over. But we should not let this cloud our judgment. It may sound like a ready-made excuse if they are ever defeated, but perhaps the Azure Emperor truly
has
fallen to the demon forces led by Olba and Barbariccia. Perhaps they are manipulating his mind after all.”
    “M-maybe…”
    The idea seemed plausible to Emi. But given how she all but assumed the Azure Emperor was engaged in a simple, brazen power grab for the Central Continent, she was still loath to agree.
    That was the difference between Emi, the consummate frontline soldier, and Suzuno, the politician in the smoke-filled room.
    Regardless of his methods, I will gladly praise the Azure Emperor for his political acumen. No regular man could govern a land as wide, and wild, as the Eastern Island without at least a modicum of talent. He has ruled for over twenty years, and I understand he is busy grooming his successor at the moment.”
    “…You do
that
much research for your missionary work?”
    “Of course I do. When one sets off for a foreign land to proselytize, one needs to know what local policymakers will think of your religious efforts. I can say with full confidence that there is not a single inch of Ente Isla whose political situation the Church is not intimately familiar with.”
    Suzuno’s face indicated she felt this was as much common sense as knowing how to cross the street.
    “But that is the reason I feel the Azure Emperor might actually be under the demons’ spell. That lengthy reign of his.”
    “Oh?”
    “Back when the Devil King’s army was in full force, which general was it who conquered the Eastern Island?”
    “Oh.”
    Even Emi could pick up on it by now.
    “Yes! He may be a shadow of his former himself, little more than a bickering househusband, but he was the only Great Demon General that there is no record of the Hero Emilia having ever defeated in combat. Alciel took over the Eastern Island not long after the Devil King’s army made its first appearance. If the Azure Emperor still has dark memories of those dreadful days, there is every chance he would kneel before them once more to protect his nation, his life. And that’s not all. If Barbariccia can successfully bring back not just the Devil King, but Alciel as well—a demon well versed in governing the entirety of the Eastern Continent—that could easily gain him a beachhead from which he could invade Ente Isla once more.”
    “……”
    The more she thought about it, the more ominous things seemed to her.
    “But…I don’t…I mean, I don’t want to sound like I’m complimenting the Devil King or anything…but if Barbariccia did that, don’t you think it’d piss him off?”
    Suzuno briskly nodded.
    “He would be angry, yes. The fact that we are fighting together with him in this world—on the surface, at least—is in no small part thanks to his astonishingly generous, easygoing ways. I do not wish to admit it, but I must.”
    “……True.”
    Emi didn’t want to admit it, either. But the events of the past few months flew in the face of her gut feelings.
    “If Barbariccia were to make any such bold moves, it would enrage the Devil King. He would want to punish him, no doubt. He is still King, a fact he proved well enough in Choshi,” Suzuno added.
    “King?”
    “If he was pressed hard enough to make a decision, he would never abandon his people, his former close officials. And then…he would never return to Japan again.”
    “…!”
    Emi gasped. The idea was starting to seem entirely likely now.
    Maou acted like he was whiling away his youth, going through the motions as he tried