The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 149: Back In Black

Chapter 149: Back In Black

At the Guild of Fine and Magical Creations, Noir and Sam sat across from a stone elf of aged countenance, who was peering through a set of lenses into the soul sapphire before him. Noir had kept a tight hold on the soulstone, and he’d been quite anxious with every inspection of it, and the disappointing offers that were rejected, which led them up the chain of experts to the slate-haired elf sitting before them.

And that was because it was a slow day.

The representative of the Association of Jewelers, Lazuli Highstone, whose subset of the Creations Guild handled the legal trade of all mana crystals in the city.

With a large swallow, he analyzed each gem protrusion, every facet, even the fossilized bone under the gems, though he didn’t spend long on that.

"I was quite surprised when I received the message to come see this. I no longer regret failing to leave early." He pulled away from the stone, rotating the lenses out of his eyes and staring across the room through his glasses.

"So it’s valuable?" Noir asked, sipping the tea that had been served.

"Quite so. I can offer you fifty orichalc now, and a pass for you and your friend to take the next Guild ship when it arrives, assuming we are still besieged by then."

Noir almost spat out his tea, but he realized he was about to, and so in his attempts to refrain only managed to choke himself for the moment it took for him to force down the tea. After a furious round of coughing, he gasped, "Fifteen? As in one hundred fifty gold?" He was about to accept when Sam raised their arm to silence him.

"Too low... Offered too fast..." they stared down the elf.

Mr. Highstone sighed, unwebbing his hands to cross his legs before holding onto his knee. "If you are willing to accept city bonds, I can go as high as two hundred fifty, but I would need at least three days to get the transfer set up."

"Why the big jump?" Noir asked.

"Because you would be gambling on the survival of the city. I have it on good authority that the demons have yet to take the battle seriously, and the defenses weaken by the day. Rumor has it the walls won’t last the week, which is about when the next Guild ship is due to arrive to retrieve those of us who remained to help with the defenses."

It seemed even the prospect of death couldn’t stop someone from seeking profit.

"In other words, if I take the bonds and the city falls, then you’re just out the orichalc." Noir frowned. "What’s the real value of this?"

Sam shifted, eyeing the Association leader without obviously attempting to intimidate him.

He seemed to take the hint. "If I am being honest, I do not know. Such a... collection of gems would need to be sold as one, and the bidders would be kings, sovereign mages, and the richest of arch-mages and collectors. To say nothing of divine beings who may take an interest. After the expense of arranging such an auction, the price may rise at least above one hundred orichalc."

A thousand gold? Noir could barely think of what he could do with that amount of money, or even just his share. And they’d buried close to half of what they- No, Noir would not rob his friend’s graves. It would be a secret he took to his grave.

But wait, sold as one? That meant he couldn’t just break off whatever was worth what the man could pay.

Noir sighed. "Are there any such folk here?"

The man sighed. "Assuming you are able to reach her, the Chancellor of the Academy is the only woman of significant peerage remaining in the city. But she is actively involved in the magical defenses. Your odds of reaching her are-"

*

"-close to nil," Noir said as he wrapped up telling Kir about his journey up the authority chain of the Creations Guild, before handing back the soul stone.

"I’ve met her, so I think it’ll be a little better than nil," Kir said. "Assuming I’m not going to be hunted down, that is." He’d spent some of the time before Noir returned pacing as he tried to contemplate the siege and how rapidly they’d be allowed through.

Before she left on her own mission, he’d talked to Stella about it.

She’d said, "You worry too much. Norneau hasn’t had a war since before I moved there, and twenty-plus years is a lo~ng time to forget shit."

"Yeah but you got in rather easy. I thought for sure those guards were going to catch y- us."

"The horny can have a strong influence on the weak-minded," she’d stuck out her tongue and made a lewd grinding gesture with her hips in the air as she held her arms behind her head.

Kir coughed, dispelling the memory. "Earlier today might have been a fluke, assuming the guards and soldiers would have known otherwise to watch out for me specifically."

"Thank the gods for the demons pounding away at the city then, eh?" Noir joked.

"This siege is a farce," Amarena opined. "Magic duels, pah."

Kir had sparred with her earlier standing across from her and mostly working on blocks. Through that, his assessment of her mood was ’grumpy.’

All he could do was sigh though.

"Hopefully Stella comes back with good news."

An hour later, as everyone was eating in the now mostly-cleared store, Stella burst into the room.

"I have good news and bad news," she announced.

"What’s the good news?" Kir asked, only to get a slap on the elbow from Noir.

"Never take the good news first," he advised, before returning to his bacon sandwich.

"Alright, what’s the bad news?" Kir amended.

"Bad news is, everyone’s celebrating because there’s an army on the way to lift the siege. They’re rushing this way, and now everyone on this side is talking about storming out the gates and throwing themselves at our guys like magma beetles." She made a popping motion with her hands. "Lotta folks gonna die if they do that."

"What army?" Kir asked, not really sure he considered Maledict’s army ’our guys’.

"I don’t know some beastfolk clan head or queen or somesuch," she looked at Noir, who shrugged and gave a look telegraphing his ignorance.

Kir sighed. "What’s the good news?"

Reaching behind her back, she produced a paper-wrapped package, placing it on the table in front of Kir. "They had your size at the tailor’s and I was able to hire a discreet messenger to look for Kordia. Oh, I even got you a discount on your clothes," she winked.

Kir opened the package to find a fresh blouse and undershirt; non-magical, black, and lacking any of the red that would have marked him as a second-year. A discount seemed... out of character given his memories of interacting with the one place that sold Academy uniforms.

"How’d you talk the owner into a discount?" he asked as he pulled on the undershirt. Having gone shirtless since the mimic incident yesterday, he felt inclined to restore some propriety right away.

"Who said anything about talking?" Stella stuck her tongue out all the way. It was a very long tongue.

Kir facepalmed.

Noir almost choked on his sandwich.

Amarena guffawed past a mouthful of meat.

Sam looked confused.

"Thank you... Stella," Kir said as his hand drifted down across his face and back to the table. "You sent the message exactly as I worded it?"

"Exactly so," she said, crossing her arms and leaning back. "Pretty sure it’s at the school by now. Probably won’t hear from her until tomorrow."

A surge of magic alerted Kir to the closeby presence of something massively enchanted.

Standing from the table, he looked out the window to see an air carriage landing on the street. Out of it stepped a cloaked figure, and Kir saw with his enhanced sight that they were wearing the grey uniform of the Academy.

"Someone’s coming," Kir announced, standing up and moving to the door. Peering out the tiny window on it, he watched their visitor approach.

Only special course students wore grey, and Kir had only seen a couple of such students in the library. None of them had cared to duel him, or even talk to him, so he’d paid them no mind except for the fact that Kordia had wanted to join them.

The way the student’s cloak billowed, it was hard to make out if they were Kordia or not as they approached the shop, the air carriage taking off immediately after they stepped away.

When they were three paces from the door, he opened it, stooping a bit to exit as he blocked the frame with his body.

The grey-clad student stopped and pulled the hood from their head.

Kordia stared up at Kir with tear-filled eyes. "Is it really you?" she asked.

Kir smiled, his posture relaxing as he beheld her silvery-blonde hair, the fennec-fox ears that twitch with some unnamed mix of emotions.

"It’s me," he said.