Evil Academy's library once appeared to be vacant and abandoned, and it remained that way ever since the first opening of the demon school. It had been carefully messed up, with crooked bookcases and most of the books themselves, scattered on the ground. It stayed that way for a very long time, until one day, that is, a certain delinquent freshman and her two lackeys scrubbed, tidied, picked, sorted, and neatened up the room.
Now, a red-scarfed hero with an excessively long full name and his robust princess searched the shelves for something to read, as their recent days in the Netherworld had been unusually bland. The now-valedictorian delinquent freshman and the rest of the school alumni (total count: 3) were present as well, doing their strongly-objected-to volunteer work for the day—the usual—picking up trash. Although the school library was usually left untouched by honor students (mostly everyone) and staff members, litter just ended up here, as if they popped out of nowhere.
Hero Almaz peered at the spines of the books lined in front of his face. "'Exotic Cooking' by Reah... 'How to Kill a Cockatrice...' by Reprah Eel..." he read, "Woah, these are all in alphabetic order, by the author's name! Miss Beryl's really outdone herself."
His partner, Princess Sapphire, glanced at Miss Beryl with an approving smile before returning to her search. "Huh, I agree."
A "heh, thanks" and a "that was no problem at all" came from the short, pink-haired demon that carried a trash bag that was half-full.
"Hmm... 'Men are Idiots'... '666 Ways to Swing an Axe'..." Sapphire murmured. "Wow, there's a lot of interesting books to read here!" she exclaimed.
In turn, her husband gave her an unsure laugh. "Haha... sometimes I don't know if you're being sarcastic or not, Princess," he replied, putting a book entitled '666 Experiments to Perform on a Human' back in its space in the shelf.
Miss Beryl picked up an empty soda can. "Hey, if you guys wanna read a good book, I suggest 'Understanding a Teenage Heart'." She added lightheartedly, "You should check it out."
"It's written and published by our Lady, did you know?" Kyoko, one of her followers informed.
"Yes, it's a very informative book about the feelings and emotions of one another," Asuka, the second of her Lady's followers added.
Almaz put a hand behind his head. "Oh, I... I see. But that's okay. Although, I didn't know you wrote a book, Miss Beryl."
"Hmm," Sapphire's curious expression morphed into a more serious one. "Thanks, but no thanks. Even if you are super cute," Miss Beryl's shoulders hitched at the word "cute", "I don't think that's the kind of book I want to read."
Seeing that the Princess gave no hint that she would run over and hug her to choking point, Miss Beryl calmed down. "Huh, oh well," she sighed as she dropped a wad of discarded paper into her bag. "Just throwing it out there." She looked around the area to find it spotless. "Well, we're moving on to the next room." Miss Beryl gestured to her fellow alumni members. "Kyoko, Asuka, let's go."
"Yes, my Lady," they obeyed simultaneously. They then followed their Lady out the door, which was slid shut after.
Sapphire let out a squeal of delight. "Oh, Miss Beryl's still sooo cute!"
"P, Princess... we still need to get our books."
"But I already have the ones I want to borrow." In her arms was a stack of five or six books with medium thickness. Almaz bet they were all about makeup or fairytale fantasies or other girly stuff, mistakenly without taking her robust personality into consideration.
"I don't even have one yet!"
"Well, hurry up! The clock's ticking," Sapphire said in a stern voice.
Almaz sighed and almost scrambled for the nearest bookshelf. He didn't want to get on her bad side, even if she was his wife. This certain bookshelf was rather horizontally long. Sitting down, he skimmed the bottom shelf. He happened to pass a red book, reading only half of the title—'Sacred'— embedded in large print on its spine, and it was the only thing he read. He was just nearing the end of the 'S' section—before going straight up to the second-top shelf. Now he was looking at the middle of the 'E' section.
"Let's see, 'To Respect Your Father'... 'To Respect the Moon'..." He took what seemed to be a very thin book with what seemed to hold only two pages at max. "...'3 Easy Steps to Take Over the World'? Wait, what?" He just realized he'd skipped ahead to the 'G' section when Almaz noticed a book back at what seemed like the end of the 'E' section. It seemed to stick out, out of all of the others, with its eye-baiting gold lini—
"Almaz, what's taking so long?" Sapphire interjected his admiration. "I'm almost done with my first book."
Has it really been that long? He asked himself. That book she's holding looks kind of thick.
"Come on, let's go already!" She grabbed a hold of one of Almaz's arms and half-guided, half-dragged him towards the exit. It didn't surprise him that his wife was able to carry her stack of literary and pull him at the same time with ease.
"But, Princeeessss..." Almaz whined, eyes still directed in the general direction of the book spine that had caught his eye. What was it? The title started with the letter 'E', of course, or else it wouldn't be in the 'E' section and Miss Beryl would be shamed. Ex... something.
Realizing that she might have been a bit harsh, her tone became more soothing. "It's getting dark." In Sapphire's perspective, it seemed to do the trick, as Almaz reluctantly followed. "We can come back here tomorrow."
She didn't notice her husband's eyes widen. Tomorrow...? But we almost got killed getting here!
Author's Note: Bonus points to anyone who figures out who supposedly wrote 'To Respect Your Father', 'To Respect the Moon', and '3 Easy Steps to Take Over the World'. Hint hint, they're all NIS (Nippon Ichi Software) characters.
Also, all reviews and criticism would be very appreciated!