Chapter 117
"Oh, I never thought you'd come to see me off."
The Demon King was standing there—the very person who hadn't shown his face once in the past six months.
"I heard from Alice through her letters. ...How have Alice and Menou been?"
Even now that he'd begun interacting with humans, he still seemed unable to express his feelings through his face. The Demon King scanned the area restlessly, searching for the two of them without changing his expression.
"Neither of them is here right now?"
"They should be back from their break soon, I think... Oh, speak of the devil."
Almost as soon as Kagami said this, the break room door clattered open, and Alice and Menou peeked inside. They came in as if nothing were amiss, but the moment they spotted the Demon King, their faces lit up and they hurried over to him.
"Demon King-sama! It has been so long! We never expected you to come all this way!"
"Dad?! A-are you feeling better now?"
After the Nonaggression Pact was signed, the Demon King returned to his castle to bring together the other demonkin, whom he'd previously kept hidden away without looking after them. He spent the past six months handling the various duties that came with it.
The fact that humans and demonkin had managed to interact without conflict, if only by the narrowest of margins, was thanks in large part to the Demon King.
During that time, Menou had wanted to work by the Demon King's side. But Kagami had said, "Oh, I need Menou as a dealer, so I'm keeping her," and her wish hadn't been granted. She continued working as a dealer at the casino.
As for Alice, the Demon King knew he wouldn't be able to look after her with the demanding work he would soon face as Demon King, so he entrusted her to Kagami, Takako, Menou, and David.
That was why it had been six months since either of them had seen the Demon King in person.
"Oh? That's an unusual sight."
Parna followed Alice and Menou into the break room, wearing a revealing bunny suit. Those were the first words out of her mouth.
"From where I stand, you're the unusual one... You look downright out of place."
"That's fine. Like that villager over there said, I've reconsidered and decided we should start by reaching out to each other. Are you really going to lecture someone who's changed her mind?"
Ever since the battle in the royal capital, Parna had been trying to reach out to the demonkin. In fact, after having hated them for so long, she was now going out of her way to interact with them.
To make the world her former teacher had once hoped for a reality, she'd admitted her mistakes and tried to do the best she could. For six months, she'd worked at the casino run by Kagami, where she could interact with the demonkin more than anywhere else.
'...I have a favor to ask you. I... I'm sure there's something I can do, too. I need to make up for all the time I've lost. So... please, let me work for you. I don't expect you to forgive me so easily... but if I do nothing, nothing will change. I'll make it up to you... and to Alice, too. So... please!'
'Then you can be a bunny girl.'
In contrast to Parna's desperate plea, the decision was made with disarming ease. She worked as a bunny girl at the casino, serving guests on the floor.
The guests included both humans and demonkin. And now, six months later, the fact that demonkin came and went as customers at the casino was due in no small part to Parna's contribution.
Whenever discrimination led to trouble between human and demonkin customers, Parna would step in to mediate, never treating anyone unfairly just because they were demonkin. Her many friendly interactions with them, as though they were friends, had helped bring about the scene now commonplace in the casino.
"Parna-san, you've really settled into casino life. You're starting to become quite the bunny girl, too."
Tina murmured, holding her magazine in both hands as she eyed Parna's chest with narrowed eyes.
"It's more fun than you'd think. I get to meet all kinds of customers every day."
Parna replied, making a point of showing off her chest. Tina's face twisted with frustration. "Grr...!"
Parna's bunny-girl outfit had become a huge hit with tourists visiting Valman. Her naturally attractive figure and effortless, coy charm led many male customers to spend their money just to see her.
She was so popular that rivalry had even sprung up between her fans and Alice's, since Alice also had a devoted following among both men and women.
"Ah, see? I told you! Kagami-chan was back, right?"
"Indeed. Kagami seems to have returned early today... Things must have gone smoothly."
A little while later, David and Takako appeared one after the other in the increasingly lively break room.
"Well, if it isn't Demon King-chan. It's been ages, hasn't it?"
"Demon King...-chan."
As if she'd forgotten that he had once been the most terrifying enemy she'd hoped to defeat, Takako smiled and busily began preparing tea with the cups and thermos in the break room.
David followed suit, immediately carrying over a chair from the back of the break room and ushering the Demon King into it with a gentlemanly, "Please, right this way."
David and Takako's relationship hadn't progressed at all in the past six months, but their mysterious teamwork had only grown stronger. Takako kept making advances, while David skillfully kept evading them.
Every day, Takako came up with plans to keep David from dodging her advances, while David tried to predict her next move and figure out how to avoid it. Their teamwork had grown from the fact that they'd come to understand each other's thoughts to some extent.
"Huh? Takako-chan, what's that?"
"This? I got letters from some of our regulars. They're mainly addressed to Alice-chan and Parna-chan, though."
"They're fan letters, in other words. Goodness, it's heartening to see Alice-sama so warmly accepted."
Since the incident at the tavern six months ago, the townspeople had learned that Alice was a demonkin, and rumors had spread. Even so, they'd continued to accept her just as before.
That was thanks to the treaty, and to the customers understanding that nothing changed just because Alice was a demonkin. Their quick acceptance was also due to having known her before they found out.
"Looks like she's popular again. You must be proud as her father, huh? Your daughter is a big hit."
"Heh... Of course. It's only natural."
"You sure are expressive when it comes to Alice."
Kagami couldn't help teasing the Demon King, who was smiling with satisfaction.
In fact, the letters often included messages saying that the writers supported Alice despite her being a demonkin.
"See! I told you he'd be back... Ah! Demon King-san, you're here too! Honestly... This is because Rex-san wouldn't hurry up!"
"Don't ask the impossible. No matter how rushed we are, being rude to a guest—especially a young lady connected to the royal family—would hurt the casino's reputation, wouldn't it? I can't disgrace my master."
Only a few minutes after Takako and David arrived, Rex and Kururu showed up in the break room in a flurry, as if they'd run all the way there.
They must have just finished work, since they weren't wearing their usual adventurers' outfits. Instead, they were dressed in their formal bartender uniforms.