Mishaps of an Overlord, Lesson 2-- At This Point, You Should Probably Know What a Tilde Is

Lin’s room is small, but not yet cramped. The walls are painted obnoxiously pink, but she couldn't repaint it. To make up for that, Lin covered the walls generously with posters, pictures, drawings, and post-it notes. There is a small window on the side of the room facing the street. There is another window on the adjacent wall, revealing a hint of the family garden. A petite, high-hanging chandelier and a matching table lamp are the only lighting in the room. There is a desk and a chair by the door. A bed nestled next to the desk--underneath the garden-window.

Perhaps some strange loathing of her dwelling drove Lin up to the attic often, where the windows were bigger and more plentiful in number. Despite being a storage space, the attic was the most empty and dust-free place in the entire house. But now, it has morphed into a makeshift living space for the Overlord of Tildes. Despite Jen’s obvious dislike of messiness, her belongings were strewn across the attic in the most ridiculous positions-- there were stacks of tomes at one window, topped by an archaic, gilded clock; pens and pencils were laid out in strange patterns upon the hardwood floor, as if expecting some sort of make-believe ritual; an occasional stuffed bird hung by a foot from the ceiling; hard, leather boxes and half-unraveled rolls of fabric sat everywhere in precarious formations.

The rest of the house was ---///?@>>^//&

Lin poked her head through the trapdoor. Two raps on the floor brought Jen’s prompt attention. “Ah, the young Lin! How d’ye do?”

Lin shook her head in an attempt to conceal her smile. Aside from her habit of ripping off of other people’s works, Jen also liked to switch accents every other day. Instead of answering her, Lin simply hoisted herself through the tiny trapdoor, lugging a bag of sugary treats behind her. “Finished already?” She asked rhetorically, casting a quick glance at an empty sack on the makeshift desk. “You sure can consume a lot of sugar.”

The other girl huffed, “Of course, I’ve explained before that I require the constant intake of sweet-tasting carbohydrates, yes?” Lin shook her head again.

A smartish snap from the delicately pale, long fingers of the Overlord brought the meandering books to attention. Another commanding snap, and they flew back to their supposed roosts in a forthwith. Lin deposited her offering and drew the rickety rocking chair up to the bed.

“I have a math test tomorrow,” Lin explained hesitantly, “Can you help me study for it?” A familiar green-covered book slid out from its hiding spot in a corner of the attic-- Jen had requested a copy of all of Lin’s textbooks. The heavy material landed lightly upon the crate-desk--imaginary stardust flew. “Of course~~~” The book flipped open obediently under Jen’s stern gaze, and proceeded to spew out its innards in the form of formulas, numbers, and equations. Lin watched raptly as the symbols wriggled free of their dormant selves and lept into the air. Jen poked at the floating numbers, rearranging them until they fell in line. “You’ve been struggling with quadratics in particular. However, they’re not so bad, if you can learn to see them like this…”

An hour of unintentionally humorous lectures later (some of the formulas are quite playful, and had to be yelled at by Jen in order to stay still), Lin felt quite hyped for good results and thanked the Overlord with promises of more cookies. A quick look outside the window told of afternoon tea and light naps, and Lin was compelled to fulfill her chores for the day. Just as she turned to leave, however, a sudden squeak from Jen stopped her in her tracks (A/N: I DON’T squeak. The Overlord does, but I don’t squeak, okay? >:C Okay…).

“‘Eeeeeey! I’ve been summoned!” Jen squealed happily (A/N: I DON’T SQUEAL EITHER, JUST SAIYAN.), the single strand of raven-black hair sticking outrageous out of her head writhed as if dancing. “Ohhhhh! And it seems that the person in distress is quite close to here. Right next door, if I may say.”

“Next door?” Lin’s eyes widened. “W-well… we only have one neighbor…”

“That is perfect, yes?” Jen piped up happily. “Why don’t you come with me, Lin? You can learn how the process works, yes?”

“What process?” Lin inquired, completely bewildered.

“Helping people is the job of an Overlord!” The impatient reply squashed all senses of mutiny, and Lin found herself being dragged down the attic quite forcefully by an over-excited Jen. “And as my not-so-official apprentice, this is an important hands-on lesson, yes?”

Why does it feel like you’re ripping off of Gintama more and more as the story progresses???!! Lin complained to the black hole she entertained at the back of her mind. And this is only the second chapter!!!

The door of Lin’s centuries-old house burst open in a frenzy of exhilaration as Jen dashed out, only to be stopped immediately as she skidded to a rapid halt on the dirt road. A middle-aged lady was ambling towards them in a crazed fashion as she struggled with an ink-like blob of something that clung to her graying brown hair. “Lin!” She cried out, upon seeing the girl, “Help! Do SOMETHING!”

A/N: Does this chapter hurt to read? It should. I forgot about the deadline due to Review Day, so I forgot to finish this chapter until literally 20 minutes before RD started… ehehehe…. ._________________. Well, I will rewrite this someday, but please only pay attention to the part up until Jen has finished helping Lin with her mathzzzz. Ignore the rest, as it is nothing but the author’s mad ramblings in a desperate attempt to catch up to deadline… ehehehe…. sorry………. yeah……….