Mario works at the Scarlet Devil Mansion

Chapter 9 - The Librarian Menace

"U-Um.. Miss Patchouli? Can you please stop... squeezing me?!" I hissed at her as I was about to get my entire spine be broken by her.

"Mumble.. Mumble.... Comfy pillow.."
She said as she continues to hug me.

Man, I really need to get out of here! If I don't.. I'll become history..!

Before I could even yelled, my mouth was covered shut by Patchouli's hands.

"Shh! Quiet! You'll alert the others if you started yelling." She whispered at me as I was forced into hiding into the quilt she's using.

"Miss Patchouli? Are you awake?" The voice sounded like Koakuma's.

"Uhuh, what brings you here, Koakuma? She says as she got up, while still trying to cover my mouth.

"Have you seen Mario? It has been 5 minutes since he carried you to your room earlier, so I asked you where he is."

"O-oh, um, he went to the bathroom after he carried me here."

"Really? I didn't know that. Well, tell him to go back to the library since we still have a good amount of books needed to be sorted out."

Koakuma then went outside her room and closed the door.

"Phew, I can't believe that she didn't noticed anything unusual here." She sighed in relief, as she took off the quilt I was forcibly hiding on.

" *pant* *pant* Why did you do that?!" I yelled as I got her hand out of my mouth.

"Because if I leave you like that, you'd talk. Also, I don't want Koakuma to get any wrong impression." She said as she gives me the death stare.

"If you put it that way, I guess you're right..."

"Anyway, why are you here? Did she ask you to do something here?"

"I carried you here, you know. I was about to leave and a certain someone grabbed me like a vice!"

"Oh yeah.. I forgot about that.."

Everything went silent for a second.

*sigh* "I'm going to leave." I left the bed in a huff and was about to leave the room.

"W-Wait!"

"Hm?"

"I-I'm sorry about that.. I should've acted more proper since you just started working here.." She said as she was about to burst into tears.

"W-Wait, don't cry.. I'm not angry at you."

"Really?"

I nodded.

"Oh thank goodness.."

"Well, I'd better get going now. Koakuma will definitely scold me if she saw us like this."

"Yeah, you're right. I still need to rest after sorting all those books earlier.. *yawn*"

"I'll see you later, Patchouli. Have a good rest."

"Yeah, thanks." She then went to sleep after I left her room.

After leaving the door, I had some conflicting thoughts about Patchouli. Did she intentionally do that? Or did she do it when she was sleeping? I've so many thoughts on my mind that I wasn't paying attention on where I'm going and I hit myself in the head on the front of the bookshelves.

"D'oh!" I yelled in pain.

As I was trying to process what just happened, some of the books are about to fall on me, and a few of the books were very thick that it could potentially kill a man.

"Oh.. Mama Mi-"

Before I could finish that, I saw the books have stopped moving, as if someone used magic.

"Geez, Mario, what were you thinking?!" Koakuma yelled at me.

"O-Oh, Koakuma! Sorry about that. I got lost in thought that I didn't see where I was going."

"Pay attention to where you're going next time! There may be times no one can help you with that!"

"I-I understand.."

She then used her magic to put the almost fallen books back to their proper place.

"Anyway, what took you so long? Did
Patchouli do something to you?"

"Uhhh...."

"Hmm, judging by your expression and your reddish face, I'd guess something happened between you two."

"H-Hey! Don't get the wrong idea! We didn't do anything!"

"Are you sure?" She looked at me with a smug look at her face.

"Yes!" I shouted confidently.

"Alright, if you say so~"

Man, she's toying with me! I don't think telling her the truth would makes things better..

After that embarrasment, Koakuma went back to her somewhat serious self.

"*ahem* Back on topic, we still have some books to take care of, so mind helping me a hand? You did slack off for a bit to hang out with her~

"You know the most frustrating part of this? I can't even argue with that. Alright, I'll help you out."

And so, work we did. Not much happened during the time we sorted out the books, but hey, getting work done is our top priority, we don't want any interruptions happening at this point.

After hours of sorting out books, we've done it. Almost all of the books that were in the library are now placed on alphabetical order. Yes, I did say almost, because there were few that are now too broken to be fixed or have been stolen from the witch.

"Good work! We managed to sort all these books together! That took me a good amount of energy to finish, but we did it! Miss Patchouli will definitely be pleased by this!" Koakuma said, still full of energy despite the amount of work she did.

"Y-Yeah, good work. But man you still have the energy to keep going! I felt like I'm about to die of exhaustion!" I said, as I'm catching my breath and sweating.

"Well, that's what I'm best at! I'm not Miss Patchouli's assistant for nothing! But I think with enough practice, you might be able to be on my level."

"Really?"

"Yeah! But, I doubt you'll be able to surpass me!"

"Hmph, we'll see about that!"

As we were resting a bit, I checked the time, and the time was around 3 pm. I think this may be the time to rest up.

"Hey, Miss Koakuma?"

"Hm? What is it" She said as she was stuffing her mouth with some snacks.

"I'm going to rest for a bit. Is that fine with you?"

"Yeah, sure. Just wake up at around 4:30 or 5 pm, since the mistress will order you something at that time, I'm sure of it."

"Alright, thanks. I'll take my leave, then."

"You better hope I don't see you snooping around her room, heh~" She said as she makes a smug face, reminiscing of someone.

"S-Shut up!" I bolted out of the library as she laughs.

As I left the room, I took my time and walked slowly to get a bit of a breather.

While walking back to my room, I saw someone running by.

"Huh? Who was that?"

It looked like the mistress, but was blonde, and had a red dress rather than the mistress' light pink dress.
I tried to look for her, but to no one's surprise, I didn't see her. Was it my imagination?

Anyway, I didn't bother about it too much and went to my room.

I immediately went straight to bed without thinking. Felt very sleepy.. *yawn*..?

I hear the door being opened. I saw a figure that has a night cap, and it's holding a tray of something. I couldn't figure out who was that, due to my tiredness, so I ignored it and went to sleep.