"Etna-sannn....Etna-sannn...are you there?" A familiar little figure with blond hair and a white corset suddenly poked her head into the Beauty Queen's room. "Etna-san, have you seen Laharl-san? I accidentally flushed my paycheck down the toilet again so I need him to write a new one for me..." she stopped when she finally realized that the room was totally empty and that she was essentially talking to thin air. Although one would be forgiven for thinking that she would gave gotten used to it, considering how half of the young demons in her class are always snoozing off during her lessons on live, while the other half were usually busy trying to put themselves out of their misery by attempting to fire a pistol into their skull. (But of course, there would always be a few 'model' demons who paid attention to their lessons.)
Guess she's not in. That's odd. Etna-san never leaves her room unless Laharl-san calls for her. The fallen angel wondered to herself as she was about to turn back and leave when she spotted something out of place in the room: there, just neatly under the corner of Etna's bed, was an ever so slight bulge and an ever so tiny bedsheet rumple that most people would have already dismissed it as nothing more than an improperly-made bed. But the fallen angel had enough experience of snooping around in both the Netherworld and Celestia to know what was the difference between an improperly-made bed and a poorly-concealed stash of...something. Hey, she was the great Flonne, spreader of Love and Harmony, Fallen Angel AND wannabe Ninja! Nothing ever escapes her keen razor-sharp eyes! Ok, maybe except for the one time where she was so 'attuned' to her non-existent ninja skills that she had walked right straight into his bedroom to assassinate him under orders from the Seraph while the demon prince was still very much awake and active. Or when she was so deep in slumber that even that hopeless excuse of an angel known as Vulcanus was able to remove her pendent without her knowing. Or when she was not able to tell a red prinny apart from a typical blue prinny. Or...
In other words, to keep thing short and mean, she was nothing more than a useless ditz. Even up till today, what Laharl saw in her remained a complete mystery to everybody. In fact, it was probably a mystery even to the young demon prince as well.
Except that she didn't know when to quit. And now, here she was, ruffling under the bedsheets of what must be the most feared vassal in the entire castle. In any typical situation, an unfortunate victim found in Etna's room without any permission was usually never heard or seen of again, literally and physically. Even the great Overlord Laharl had to yield to her at times. But the fallen angel didn't bother with these kind of trifling details: getting to the stash was more important than anything else.
So intent was she on searching through the Beauty Queen's bed that she did not notice or hear the slight pattering of footsteps that were growing closer every second, or the ominous shadow that was increasing in size behind her. Apparently, it seemed that whenever angels are set upon a task, they lose themselves into their own little world. And this was precisely one of these moments.
"Found it!" she happily exclaimed, drawing out an elaborate wooden box no bigger than the size of a CD case, but a lot more thicker. "I wonder what's in it...," she mused, shaking the box gently just to be sure that there were no glass items or anything fragile stashed away inside that elaborate box. After a few seconds of that, the fallen angel decided that it was safe enough to open the box: its contents sounded like thick wads of paper, and it was easy for the fallen angel to deduce that the box did not contain money: Etna was too strung-up over cash to leave it lying around haphazardly in her room. Especially after the great 'Overlord'' Baal had successfully made off with her 1 billion HL savings: the so-called Beauty Queen literally turned the whole castle upside down in a futile attempt to find her lost cash. Needless to say, the hospital staff were extremely busy on that day, working well past their usual hours to heal the unfortunate victims of Etna's rage. She should know how it felt to be working overtime: the hospital had approached her for help at the last minute since the clerics were too exhausted to perform anymore healings. And even though she had large amounts of magical energy at her disposal, no doubt due to her former angel status, by the time the last victim was properly healed and taken care off, Flonne was so tired that she felt that it would require at least a whole 8-day nap to recover all that lost energy spent on healing magic.
She pushed the negative thoughts off her head and concentrated on her prize: the wooden bx that she now held in her hands, completely oblivious to the fact that the shadow behind her was looming larger and larger than it had ever been. Flonne had half-expected the box to be secured by a lock or by some form of contraption, given Etna's secretive nature, so she was quite surprised when the box simply popped open without the slightest effort, spilling its contents onto the large bed. A whole stack of...
"Photos?" Unable to contain her curiosity any longer, the fallen angel picked up a piece and gasped to herself. "Oh...my...there are all..." She rummaged through Etna's entire stash quickly, feeling her face starting to become much hotter. "These are all pictures of Laharl-san...oh no..." She could feel her face becoming as hot and red as a ripe tomato as she came across a few...rather disturbing shots of the young Overlord. But for the most part, the majority of the pictures were not THAT disturbing as she had feared: some of them were actually downright cute and adorable, showcasing his childlike innocence which the young Overlord constantly tried to insist that he had ditched after the death of his mother. Hah! But she knew better! "I wonder if Etna-san would mind if i keep this one for myself: this is just too cute for words..."
"Oh, she will mind very much, Flonne," came an all-too-familiar voice from right behind her, causing the fallen angle to jump up in the air with a terrified squeak before landing painfully on her butt. "owww...Etna-san! You shouldn't be scaring others like that!" she scolded, conveniently forgetting that she was already the one in trouble for entering the Beauty Queen''s room without her permission. "People with weak hearts can get shocked and die, you know?! I...Etna-san are you alright? You...you're hurt!" Indeed, the flame-haired vassal was looking positively worse for wear: her hair was a mess, there were cuts, scrapes and gashes all over her, and more importantly, her clothes, if you would call them clothes to begin with, were so badly tattered that they practically did nothing to preserve her modesty. (although it should be pointed out that it was common knowledge in the castle that one does not usually use the words 'modesty' and 'Etna' in the same sentence.)
"Thanks for stating the obvious, Flonne," came the sarcastic, albeit tired answer from Etna. "Now perhaps you can tell me what are you doing in my room?"
Flonne just smiled brightly. "Oh, you know, i accidentally flushed my paycheck down the toilet so i decided to ask Laharl-san to help me write another one. But he wasn't in his room and none of the prinnies or the vassals have seen him around so i thought that Etna-san might know where he was. But you were not in so i was about to leave when i say this tiny rumple under your bed." At that, she giggled. "You know, Etna-san, you really should put your things away more properly: someone with ninja skills like me are able to sense what's not right in a room by just looking around. And you know, i found your little box of photographs. Laharl is so cute and innocent, isn't he? Uhh...oops, wait, i wasn't supposed to say that," she suddenly stopped, realizing that she had just about confessed everything that she wasn't supposed to be doing to Etna., who just rolled her eyes.
"You're quite the dense one, you know that?"
At that, Flonne stiffened. "My!" she exclaimed, hands on her hips, looking as though she was ready to blow a fuse. "How rude can you be, Etna-san, calling your own fellow vassal dense! You should apologize! Being a demon is no excuse to neglect basic manners!"
"I think a vassal who enters another vassal's room and searches her stuff without permission is the ruder one, isn't it?"
That did the trick: the fallen angel immediately backed down from her rhetoric of 'love and manners'. "Yeah..." she mumbled, feeling embarrassed. "You're right. I should be the one apologizing." Then, almost immediately, she perked up again as though nothing ever happened at all. "So can i keep this picture of Laharl-san? Please?" she implored, with that large puppy-dog red eyes of hers. "Laharl-san is too cute for words! This picture is proof that Laharl-san has lots of love and care within him!"
Before she could blink, Etna had already reached out and snatched the photograph out from her hands. "Oh NO, you don't. The last time I gave you one of those, you went and showed it to ALL the demons in your class, and guess what? That little brat was immediately on my case, declaring that 'There's only ONE demon in this whole damned castle who would have the guts to take that kind of paparazzi shots', and he made a royal mess of my room trying to find out where i concealed the rest of my stash. And i sure as hell don't want to have a front-row ticket to 'Face the Wrath of the Overlord, Part 2'!"
"But that shot of Laharl-san is so cute..."
"Too bad. Get your own camera or photographer then. "
The fallen angel sniffled. "You're mean...Etna-san." Then, seemingly remembering what she came here for, she looked up again. "So...where's Laharl-san? Is he around? I need that paycheck to buy the latest Prism Rangers DVD boxset and the new Stuffed Mummy Netherworld Limited Edition 666 v2."
The flame-haired demon bit her lip. "This probably isn't a very good time to see him, Flonne."
"Why? Is Laharl-san busy? Don't worry, I won't take long! I promise! I mean, how long does it take to write a paycheck?" At that, the Beauty Queen almost felt that talking to Flonne was akin to talking to a wall or a cow: apparently, the fallen angel's capacity for comprehension was practically a big fat zero.
"Nevermind, I'll take you there."
"Ok! But...Etna-san...shouldn't you get...you know...some clothes on first?" Indeed, considering how tattered and torn her outfit was, she was practically walking around the place naked.
"Who cares...this is the Netherworld...modesty does not mean anything/"
"Urm...Etna-san? Why are we going to the hospital? Ohh, i get it! Laharl-san is doing charity work there. Isn't he? I knew that he has love in him after all! Aww...this is so touching...the Overlord putting aside his duties to assist the sick in healing and getting better...this i MUST tell my students."
Etna just rolled her eyes. "right...i'm sure." She suddenly stopped at one of the beds. "Ok, We're here." Lying on the bed was a young demon with blue hair and two long hair antennae, a long red scarf that seems to be totally matted in blood, wearing just a pair of red shorts. The 'boy' was in an extremely sorry state, having looked as though he had just be trashed around by some big bullies. But what was interesting about this little demon kid was the fact that he looked very similar to a certain Overlord that everyone knew so well.
"Hey, this boy looks like Laharl-san...i didn't know Laharl-san had a brother, does he?" The beauty queen literally had to strangle herself, lest she went ballistic and unleashed her frustration on the hopelessly naive fallen angel. When she finally managed to speak, her eyes were blazing with pure, unbridled fury.
"No, you idiot! That's the Prince right down there, lying on the bed, totally beaten up so badly until almost unrecognizable! And this was all because of the damned corrupted Dark Senate! If not for the Prince, i would have killed every last senator present at that assembly already! How dare they do this to the Prince, even when he was totally unarmed! I swear in the name of Krichevskoy, that I will pay them back double for what they have done!"