Chapter 1: Budget Cuts
Despite all of his research on heroes and their ways, Overlord Mao was increasingly certain that he had no idea what “love” was. No self-respecting proud honor student demon would admit to knowing what it was in any case, but with his 1.8 million EQ the gap in his knowledge pestered him, like rubbing your tongue on a loose fang.
Not even the delinquent Raspberyl knew what love was. He’d gotten so excited when those absurd lackeys of hers had claimed she was lovesick. He’d followed her around for days trying to find the target of her affection so that he could dissect them down to the atoms and find what made Beryl find them worthy of her ‘love’.
But it had all been a misunderstanding. Raspberyl didn’t know what ‘love’ was any more than he did; and he couldn’t even accuse her of lying.
No, recently Mao had seen inside Beryl’s own heart. If there was any ‘love’ there to be found, he didn’t see it. All he’d found were old memories of the two of them as children, Beryl demanding his attention as her ‘rival’; a state of affairs that had only gotten started because of their parents. But Beryl took it seriously.
For a long time, Mao hadn’t.
Not until recently, when Beryl had gotten so invested in teaching that she’d stopped paying attention to him. That was when he’d gone into her heart. That was when he’d gone to drastic measures to get her attention back on him by any means necessary- even pretending to be a delinquent until she shook out of her focus and put her gaze on him again.
Rivals. Friends who are enemies. That’s what Beryl had said that she wanted from him again and again. That was what he had seen in her heart.
If that was what she wanted, if that was what would keep her attention from wandering, Mao had vowed to put his everything into being her honor student rival. She made a good one, honestly. Her sweet behavior always pushing him to be nastier, and worse.
It really was a perfect state of affairs.
So why did Mao wiggle the loose tooth of ‘love’ with the tongue of his curiosity. What kept his mind returning to it? Why had he felt jealous at the idea that Raspberyl might be ‘lovesick;’ for someone else?
Mao pushed the thought away and hunched forward closer to the screen of his video game. IT didn’t matter what love was. He didn’t have it. Beryl didn’t have it. That was that.
“Geoffrey!” Mao bellowed. “I’m out of snacks!”
A good delinquent always followed a properly badass routine in the morning. A badass shower, making sure to get her tail squeaky clean. A hearty breakfast of delicious meats. Brushing her fangs and using an imported mouthwash—it was all part of getting herself ready for a day of giving her all to teaching in Mao’s school.
Even if she wasn’t an official delinquent anymore, she was still a delinquent at heart! She’d teach classes to the badasses who deigned to come, she’d strive to do her best every day, and she’d be a good example of a truly wicked demon at work to all the students who looked up to her and her perfect attendance record as a student.
She stood reflected in her dormitory mirror, adjusting her glasses on the bridge of her nose and smiling at her reflection. “Eheheh…it’s time for another day of doing my best, like a badass!”
The skull shaped alarm she wore on her chest—an old gift from Mao that she was pretty sure would explode if she was ever really late— reminded her to hurry up and make sure she finished getting ready.
She didn’t have as long to travel anymore. When she was a student she mostly lived with her parents at their home outside the Academy Campus, but ever since graduating and taking a job as an official teacher, she’d been given a dorm on campus all her own.
It was decorated with little touches, from the posters to the materials she used to make Kyoko and Asuka’s dolls—just waiting for her next altruistic project! It was much more convenient than commuting every day—and it meant she was closer to her friends and coworkers.
It also meant that now Asuka and Kyoko, who also lived on campus as teachers, often showed up outside her door to walk with her to her classroom, or the cafeteria– whichever one she ended up going to first.
When she opened her door, today was revealed to be one of those days. They never knocked, they only waited politely outside in the hall for her.
“Hey girls!” Beryl chirped as she shut the door and locked it behind her. “Ready for another day of inspiring delinquency?”
“No doubt, my lady!” Kyoko’s always enthusiastic reply came as she pumped her fist. Asuka merely smiled.
The two of them had been her friends, and self-styled ladies in waiting, for a hundred years. A tight bond of shared delinquency joined them all at the hip. Both of them claimed that Beryl had saved their lives; though she might or might not have gone that far herself.
Whether she had or not, as far as Raspberyl was concerned—they were her best friends in the world. Almaz and Sapphire had certainly started rising the ranks of friendship with her too—but nobody would ever topple Asuka and Kyoko’s places by her side.
“Are you two hungry? Are we stopping at the cafeteria? Or should we get started on prepping our lesson plans?” She adjusted her glasses with a wide smile “I have it on good authority that we’ll at least get one student today!”
“You know me, my lady,” Kyoko chuckled. It was true, Kyoko ate like a menace to food. That was only once she started eating though.”If you’re excited to get started, so are we, right, Asuka?”
“One student we didn’t have to kidnap to class is a lot,” Asuka chuckled softly.
“It sure is! Which is why we need to make sure they can make it—no doubt Mao and his cronies are going to attempt to keep his school attended by perfectly terrible honor students…we’re probably gonna have to disarm some traps in the halls!”
She pointed to each of them in turn. “But we’re not gonna let him stop us from giving these students a proper education, will we??”
“Something like that will never stop us, my lady!”
“This might stop us,” Asuka drawled.
The door to Raspberyl’s classroom was…. gone. It was just gone. As if it had disappeared.
There was a note taped to the wall where the door should be.
This was…ooooooHHHH it was IRRITATING, it was INFURIATING, and it was going to throw a wrench in everything!
Taking the DOOR? It was demonically evil!!! FIENDISHLY evil!
Raspberyl felt her eye twitching under the lens of her glasses, her lips curled back over her fangs in annoyance as she ripped the paper from the wall to read it over.
It was a simple message. It read: “Classroom removed due to budget cuts.”
“Budget cuts,” Raspberyl repeated slowly under her breath “Classroom removed due to…budget cuts. In favor of….what, exactly?”
The familiar demonic sensation of simmering rage and the desire to get a little payback flickered within her before she pushed it down with the reminder that she had to be a badass about this. She had to take this with polite grace.
“This is terrible, my lady!” Kyoko wailed, flopping dramatically against the wall.
Asuka touched her fingers to her chin. “What shall we do about the matter?”
‘Bust the wall down and make Mao have to pay for the damages when they rebuilt the classroom from scratch’ came to mind before she pushed it down again. “This is frustrating. There’s only two things we can do here…one—we’ll announce an independent study for our student! And two—we march right up there and demand our classroom back!”
Asuka pulled a notepad out of her bag with a nod and scrawled an independent study message for them to put in place of the budget cuts.
Once that was done, the three began the long trek to the office of the Dean—determination burned in her heart, a determination to teach, to be the greatest Delinquent to ever live, and to be a proper rival to Overlord Mao.
They didn’t stop for the cafeteria, they didn’t stop for the message board or the other teachers who were content to lounge on their butts and mess around in the lobby—she made her way right for the hellevator to take them RIGHT to the Dean’s office.
There was such a thing as too far—and stealing her classroom was damn close to it!
When they arrived, far, far up at the top of the school, there was a long hallway leading up to the dean’s office. Even from the far end of it, Raspberyl knew who the tall, slim figure waiting for them in front of the door was.
It still gave her a shudder every time she saw him. Sure—Mao had done his mad science to the guy and gotten him …locked into that butler persona of his…but it still gave her the heebie jeebies every time she saw his face. It made her tail prickle uncomfortably every time she heard his voice—sending her back to that moment on top of the school when he’d revealed that he was a greater monster than any demon she’d ever known.
“Eugh…”
“Miss Raspberyl and co,” he greeted with a bow, in that old, familiar, and now incredibly unsettling way of his. “I gather that you’ve come looking for the young master?”
Way too late to be properly polite, she sputtered out a “Good morning Geoffrey, I hope you’re having a wonderful day!”
There wasn’t much heart in it, even as she plastered the smile on her face. “You’re right about that. I have something to talk to the dean about regarding…the budget.”
“Oh dear,” Geoffrey sighed, hanging his head. “He did seem rather eager to know what your reaction to that little redaction would be.”
Kyoko snorted. “Oh of course.”
“I’m sure he was tittering away in his office,” Raspberyl said dryly. “About how evil and brilliant he is. Mind letting us in so he can see the fruits of his labors?”
“Ah of course I’d be more than happy to, Miss Raspberyl. However, unfortunately the young master is not in his office at the moment. I in fact, have been standing here waiting for you, as I anticipated thai would be where you would first look for him.”
“Oooof course you did.”
That was the guy’s whole schtick now. Just like he’d pretended it was back before everyone found out he was just trying to turn Mao into his last glory kill. ‘I thought that X, so Y’. Creepy. Super, super creepy.
She put her hand on her hip with a shake of her head. “So where is he, Geoffrey? Playing video games per usual? Bothering Almaz? Besieging another school?”
“Last I checked he was indeed in his room, ‘video gaming’, Miss Raspberyl. Be cautioned, it seems to have been several days since he last slept.”
She knew all about how weird you could get after several days without sleep—it wasn’t all that long ago that she’d caused a whole kerfuffle with Kyoko and Asuka when she’d gone without sleeping to finish their gifts.
They’d thought she was lovesick! Which was just the silliest thing ever—no matter how hard she tried, she knew her demonic heart couldn’t understand something like love. Even if it’d make her the greatest delinquent ever.
“Oh dear—someone’s gonna have to make him pick up a few good habits, huh girls?” She looked back at them with a grin “let’s tear him away from that TV.”
Raspberyl knew the way to Mao’s room like the back of her hand. It was impossible to count how many times she’d been there, especially in recent memory.
She smiled a little as she thought of it; messy, an absolute disaster of a living space that suited its owner. It was a perfectly Mao room; perfect for the Overlord of their netherworld. It was an encapsulation of all his wicked, sinful traits, and also of his unique quirks and the things that made him so fun.
Beryl had been his rival for ages now, ever since they were kids and their parents encouraged the growing…it wasn’t quite animosity? They were friends—close friends—but also enemies at the same time.
Mao was the Honor Student to her Delinquent—the antithesis of every badass thing she’d taken to stand for….and she’d done everything she could to help save him from the ways people tried to use his wicked heart against him.
It was confusing how often he came to her mind—how often she thought about him. But that was just what made it a grand rivalry, right?
When she, Asuka, and Kyoko made their way to the room this time, the door was standing partially ajar. Unsurprising. He almost always forgot to lock or even close it. His towering self confidence as an overlord winning out against his paranoia about attacks in his sleep.
Why worry about attacks in your sleep when you barely slept, right? She pursed her lips before looking at the girls over her shoulder. “…ready? He’s gonna put up a fight. But we’re gonna get him to take responsibility here!”
Asuka nodded quietly, a serious look on his face.
Kyoko meanwhile, glanced at the door. “Should we knock first, or…”
Raspberyl did the most cursory, quiet knock she could. Juuuust enough to be polite.
But he probably wouldn’t notice, wrapped up in his game like that.
Despite them all listening carefully, as expected, there was no reply.
No, that wasn’t quite true.
Raspberyl heard a loud snore come from inside the room.
She blinked in surprise, Mao, actually SLEEPING? She pushed the door open just enough to peek inside with a little pout on her face.
That was going to make things harder, wasn’t it? It wasn’t very good behavior to go waking someone up from a necessary sleep—-but her classroom!
Mao’s room was an absolute and complete disaster as usual, with clothes and items and trash everywhere. And there was Mao, flopped face down on the bed, snoring with all the gusto of an enormous old cat, despite being a very small, comparatively young demon.
“………………” Raspberyl warred with herself. The budget!!! Mao’s SLEEP SCHEDULE!! The CLASSROOM!!!! Mao actually sleeping! It was WORK HOURS!!! HE WAS SLEEPING!!!
This internal debate went on for a long moment as she stood there stunned in the doorway.
“Well….fuck. Pardon my language, girls.”
“I think ‘fuck’ is appropriate at this stage, my lady,” Asuka murmured.
Kyoko scratched her head. “So…. what do we do now?”
“I…don’t know,” Raspberyl’s brow furrowed “oh!! OH! Maybe we go find someone who can get it rebuilt without his direct approval! Like ah…making an appeal to our friends! Like Miss Sapphire and Almaz! Or Master Big Star and Salvatore! It’s not going behind his back if we’re just delegating tasks, right?”
There was a snort from inside the room as Raspberyl rambled.
“Eh? Who’s making all that noise out there?”
Raspberyl startled, and almost fell against Kyoko with a sputtering. “Shoot!! We’ve been caught, girls! He’s awake!”
She put her hands on her hips with a deep breath, and knocked firmly on the door this time. It was time to commit to the politeness of a true delinquent demon. “Maoooo, It’s Beryl! Good morning, I hope you slept wonderfully!”
“Don’t say something so disgusting,” Mao sneered. As Raspberyl peeked in, she could see he’d sat up– and there were impressions of video game buttons pressed deep into his face. “Obviously I slept like crap. What are you here for?”
Asuka peeked her head in over Raspberyl’s shoulder. “Lord Mao, if you like, I have a lecture on the importance of sleep hygiene…”
“Can it!”
“Oh Mao—ever the honor student even as the dean,” Beryl shook her head with a quiet huff of a sigh and a closing of her eyes.
“I see your video game left a nice impression.” She opened one eye with a grin. “on your face, I mean.”
“Eh?” He patted his face down and grimaced. “Ugh! It’s just because I fell asleep on top of my SlayStation Morte. Why are you here, anyway? Just thoughtfully come down to make my morning worse?”
“That’s our dean for you, huh girls? Always sleeping on the job and playing games till he passes out!” Beryl smiled wider, and walked into the room with her hand on her hip and a little sashay “We’re actually here about work! What kind of educators would we be if we were slacking off!?”
“Demonic ones,” Mao drawled, raking his claws through his messy, pale hair and shaking it out. A smirk crossed his face like the edge of a knife. “So you were trying to teach, hmm?”
“Well it is my job, Mao,” She leaned towards him with a sunny smile that bared her teeth. “You hired me to teach, didn’t you? Or did you hire me to laze around and play the Slaystation Morte and sleep all day?”
“You know I’d be impressed with you if you did. But you insist on work, work, working. Well maybe I helped you out to make yourself worse.” His smirk grew.
He thought he was really getting one over on her, she could tell. More of his attempt to break her delinquent streak—make her worse, and more like a proper demon. She pursed her lips slightly with a flutter of her wings and a little wiggle of her tail.
“You’re so nice, Mao!” She leaned in with a bright smile. “You know, if it’s the budget that’s the issue…maybe me and the girls can do a little fundraising and community work to fund it so it can be rebuilt!”
Two could play at this game. He wanted to be a great overlord, right? And didn’t she already affirm that she was going to be his great rival? The delinquent to his overlord…even if it took everything she had to war against her demonic instincts.
Mao sputtered, the smirk wiped off his face. “Seriously? I cut the funding for your classroom and your solution is a fucking bake sale?”
Her smile hitched a little wider as she took a step towards him with her hands on her hips.
“What…did you think I was gonna fight you about it? I’m a badass, remember?”
“Our lady is way too much of a badass to sink to your level, Mao!” Kyoko cheered.
“Tch.” Mao looked away, his tangled hair bouncing around his chin as his eyes narrowed. “You’ve got me there, Beryl. Not even Almaz is enough of as you say a “”badass”” to refuse to support his ideals with violence. Enjoy your bake sale because I am NOT changing the funding situation.”
Beryl leaned towards him with a hesitant smile.
“Are you sure?”
Sure, she COULD do the bake sale, pour hours of her time and energy into planning the thing and applying herself towards raising money from notoriously tight pursed demons in the hope that maybe—maybe she could get enough Hell to get her classroom back—she would do that if it was necessary! But it’d be a lot of her time and energy.
Between finding ways to still hold her classes, and the bake sale, and everything else…she’d hardly have the time to do anything except that and maybe sleep, if she was lucky. She certainly wouldn’t have any time for Mao and her rivalry–or any of her other social connections.
“We could skip the whole bake sale thing if you just give a little funding back to our classroom. That way we don’t clutter up your foyer! See…I’ll do the bake sale if I have to, that’s a threat…but—”
She let the ‘but’ dangle there to lure him in.
Mao leaned forward toward her, orienting on her once again.
“But what, Raspberyl? Have you got something actually demonic in mind or is this another of your delinquent behaviors?”
Raspberyl put her finger to her lip.
“I’d be so busy, you know? Baking, setting up, selling the things—” she looked into his eyes with a sharp toothed smile “I wouldn’t have time for anything else! I’d be busier than I already am as a teacher! I’d have to get someone to bother you for me by proxy ’cause I’d be too busy working my tail off at the home ec room.”
Mao snorted. “Of course your feeble delinquent mind assumes that I would simply allow you to have this bake sale in peace. You don’t have a single demonic thought in your head, do you? It makes you so easy to predict.”
Beryl pouted, folding her arms over her chest with a huff—he was wrong of course. She had lots of demonic thoughts, all the time. Every time she chose the delinquent choice? That was her winning out over her natural urge to slack off, cheat, lie, fight or eat the day away. Her commitment to kindness, to responsibility, was a conscious choice! Every time!
Even now there was a part of her that wanted to say ‘screw it’ because it was such a pain in the ass—steal the money! Or just don’t bother with teaching for a little bit and play video games with Mao, or by herself and the girls for hours and hours and hours!
But she made a promise to be a delinquent worthy of being the Overlord’s rival, dammit! And she wasn’t about to let herself stop being a badass now. Especially since he was walking right into her trap.
By caring about her bake sale—he’d pay attention to her actions. He’d rise up as an honor student and an Overlord to try and stop her, and it’d do more for his self-proclaimed massive EQ than sitting around and rotting it with video games ever did.
Checkmate, Mao.
“That’s what you think, sure.” she waved her hand. “You think you’re the smartest demon in the whole Netherworld, Mao… but I just know whatever you throw at me’s not gonna stop my bake sale from happening. It’s either you give me the funds, or you’re stuck with my tent in the lobby and fresh baked and delicious Celestian Angel Food Cake, and Dark Churros and Poisonberry Pie’s making every stomach in Evil Academy growl until they give us the funds to bring it back anyway!”
“Hah! Well, every minute you’re baking your sickly sweet treats is another minute you’re not passing on your poisonous delinquent ideology to our preciously foul students! Checkmate, Beryl! Just you wait to see what I’ve got in store for you.”
He leaned in even closer. Their noses were almost touching. His glasses were fogged.
She couldn’t see his eyes through the fog and the refraction—but she could imagine what they looked like. His wide-eyed and manic stare when he got worked up—matching the sloppy and almost perverse grin he often wore.
She leaned up a little closer, nearly bumping her nose on his as her tail wriggled behind her.
“I’ve got a plan for that too, sorry to say Mao. And when I put it in action, even MORE students are gonna learn from me.”
It was simple—can’t teach in the classroom? Multitask. Teach while selling with the girls, and teach to her students AND the general student body.
“But humor me. What have you got in store for me oh great and powerful Mao.”
“Hah! As if I’d tell you! Need I remind you that unlike you, Beryl, I am a master of the shadows!”
Which meant he had a whole ridiculous scheme that wouldn’t work hidden up his sleeve, and he’d probably rope poor Almaz or someone into it too.
“Oh of course, well…My tail’s just shaking in terror, Mao, see?” It was stock still. “do you even have a plan? Or did you expect stealing my classroom was just gonna take me out instantly and I’d go from delinquent to honor student overnight?”
“Hardly! You OUGHT to be trembling over exactly what my 1.8 million EQ brain has cooked up in store for you! It’ll put your little ‘bake sale’ to shame.” He stood straight up– as straight as he ever stood– and started in on that maniacal cackle of his.
Yeah his breath told her he definitely hadn’t slept in a while.
“If you don’t fall into a three week sleep-coma first and wake up to me dropping the funds for my classroom on your face.” Beryl retorted with a leer, and a flutter of her wings.
“Bring it on!”