The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 135: Interlude - Kordia - Part 3

Chapter 135: Interlude - Kordia - Part 3

"What do you mean four?" Kordia’s mother snapped at her.

Before Kordia could speak, Fruhe had deployed a fan to cover what was obviously a smile. "Isn’t it obvious, cousin? She’s standing aside from your clan."

Professor Lumin cleared her throat. "Guests," she put an emphasis on the word that, to Kordia’s ears, might as well have been her calling them ’bitches.’ "Let me do what I have been trying to do and bring Kordia up to date."

Both of her guests remained quiet, their sparring rising into their eyes now that they’d chosen not to use their mouths.

Lumin looked at Kordia squarely. "Kordia, with the perditions opening over the Lakelands, many nations are consolidating alliances they didn’t think they’d need for years. Heaven has put its sanction behind Gra’Rhuel to unite the clans of the west and north. I have been tasked, by their representative, as a mediator to determine your optimal placement for the good of the continent."

Kordia’s ear twitched nervously. Her engagement shouldn’t have been a big deal. She thought she’d have years before... but then again so did everyone else. Her letter home had set in motion something she hadn’t anticipated...

Based on how little she’d been interfered with despite knowing about Kir, it seemed that Heaven had bided their time to use this meeting instead... Which meant they’d been watching her and her family or had intercepted her letter.

She was being maneuvered... and no one here was going to give up on controlling her future.

"What does everyone want?" Kordia asked.

Lumin spoke again, "I would prefer you conclude your training at the Academy, and then spend some time under an Archmage or High Witch, before proceeding with your role in this alliance," she gestured. "With a time limit of the present Heavenswar, assuming it lasts after your graduation."

Kordia looked to Fruhe, "And you, Matron?" she asked.

Fruhe closed her fan with a snap. "I would like to have this meeting over with so that your mother and I can conclude our arrangement. Earlier is better, now that the Heavenswar is upon us."

Kordia’s mother didn’t wait, "And you could have it today if you agree to my terms, cousin."

"What terms?" Kordia asked snippily.

"The right to self-govern for the Laikal region and all clans that join Gra’Rhuel, from there, under Clan van Mora. The right to withdraw our forces to protect our homes should we be attacked. The right to leave the alliance at will."

Fruhe laughed, a high and flutey sound. "You want all the advantages of an alliance but none of the risks and responsibilities. Would you like to sit on the throne, too?"

"Yours is not a Queendom yet-"

"And yours is nothing but a backwater with more pride than sense. Be reasonable, cousin, holding the Laikals from Gra’Rhuel is not a winning proposition. Not in the long term." She smiled with the look of someone singing ’I know something you don’t know.’

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Kordia’s mother challenged.

Chancellor Lumin interjected, "It means that Gra’Rhuel will be a Queendom soon, and with a mandate from Heaven, it will be much harder for you to oppose her when that time comes, Matron Mora," Lumin said. "Heaven has decreed that this is to be the final Heavenswar... though how they intend to enforce that is beyond me."

"So you had best take what you can get," Fruhe end-capped.

"Does no one care what I want?" Kordia raised her voice. "You talk about alliances, but it is I who is the subject of all this. It is I who will suffer-"

Kordia’s mother bristled. "Do not speak of suffering, daughter!" she raised her voice. "I did everything I could to keep you from such, but how did you repay me? By running away to the Academy. Tricking your father into indulging your-"

"Do you think I’ve had it easy here, mother?" Kordia raised her voice back, something she’d never thought she’d do. "I worked for every moment I was here." Her fist clenched. "You could have sent someone to get me, or at least bothered to send a letter asking why. But you didn’t, and now you want to sit here and barter me like a disobedient slave!"

"ENOUGH!" Lumin’s voice overwhelmed what Kordia’s mother was about to say next. She stood from her seat, seeming to loom despite her diminutive stature. "We are not here to settle petty scores or address the problems you have as parent and child," she looked from Fruhe to Jubiliam.

Then she looked at Kordia. "And we are not here to address the suffering of one young woman. We are here to ensure the victory of the western clans over whatever forces come through perdition... and if we cannot do that, then the entire continent may be put at risk. Victory or defeat. That is what matters. So no, Kordia, you will not be allowed to represent yourself here except to accept a path that we determine.

She paused for breath, "I had thought to offer you an alternative. One that buys time for renegotiation unless" she turned to the Matrons "a compromise can be reached."

Fruhe deployed her fan once more, hiding a scowl no doubt. Kordia’s mother was more direct with her glare, fixing it on her cousin.

Kordia’s hands twisted in her lap. She’d been shoved aside by Chancellor Lumin, whom she respected above all others at the Academy.

It was Kordia’s mother that broke the silence first. "I suppose the Chancellor’s position has some merit."

"Out of the question!" Fruhe snapped her fan shut. "The alliance is needed now, and every mage of some power would serve the best fighting with the largest armies that can protect them. Gra’Rhuel has that army, and I am already-"

Kordia barely heard what was said as she retreated into herself. Into memories of home. Their house by the lake. Reading with her father during a storm. The people she cared about...

For all the confidence she’d gained since coming into her tails, she could still feel that scared girl of two years back, who had run away from home with only a semester’s worth of gold and nothing else. The girl who was afraid that someone, anyone, could simply take away everything...

And they had.

Chancellor Lumin, Matron Fruhe, her own mother...

Kordia reached the bottom of her despair. The place inside where, as a child, she’d imagined that one day she would be a legendary mage. Powerful enough to do what she wanted, not shut away in her family’s estate like a porcelain doll.

She remembered it... the imagining of herself as a nine-tailed foxkin. The very form of power.

If only to avoid having to listen, she began to stir the mana inside her. Trying to will it into that version of herself. She was a little surprised when her mana began to fill the mental formation, like construct magic, but her surprise was all it took to lose her grasp on her mana and fall back into the present.

"Then it is agreed," Chancellor Lumin said, and pins were presented to the Matrons present with which to seal a magic contract with blood.

"What is agreed?" Kordia asked.

Her mother explained as she pricked her finger and pressed it to the contract. "The Laikal Clans will have self-governance, but no right of secession or withdrawal from war. In exchange for our alliance, until ten years after the conclusion of this Heavenswar." By her tone, she was treating Kordia’s disassociation as a mere annoyance, as she always had.

"You," Lumin picked up where she left off, "will be permitted three years to conclude your magical training.-"

"Which I will fund," Fruhe interjected.

"-Under the auspices of the special student courses and whoever I can find to apprentice you under. For the duration of the war, you may also be called upon to aid in non-combat capacities near the city, assuming the armies of Gra’Rhuel are needed here."

Which was all but certain, given Norneau’s status as a magic academy city.

Fruhe tapped her fan against her arm. "Do try to get more powerful, daughter-in-law... It would be a shame if you didn’t exceed your mother..." she pouted her lips and gave Kordia’s mother a patronizing look that pushed even Kordia to the edge of her patience.

Is this what politics is? A playground for bullies to bash each other about the heads with words instead of fists?

Kordia bit back the urge to scream as the contract was passed her way, along with a fresh pin.

"You may read it, if you like," Chancellor Lumin said.

Kordia shoved aside her indignation to do so.

All in all... it wasn’t a bad deal. She wouldn’t have to get married today, thank the gods, but she would upon graduation. Three years wasn’t a long amount of time, but it was something... perhaps time enough for Rain to conclude whatever Heaven wanted from him and return.

He’d said to forget him for now... to see other people if she wanted, but Kordia didn’t intend to do the former - nor the latter without Kir to talk with.

But then she got to the end of the contract.