The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 222: Tutelary Dinner - Part 1

Chapter 222: Tutelary Dinner - Part 1

The next Firesday came with undue speed as Kir finished sorting out his move, sneaking a date with Kordia, and checking in to make sure Sam was settling in.

Thankfully on the final front, Enumasam had readily accepted Sam as a new apprentice - though as Sam put it "He wanted... his knives back...". It sounded like there was a story there, but if Sam didn’t want to share, he wouldn’t press them.

And so, Firesday came with all the weight of the dreaded dinner.

After one unfortunate incident during the week, he came to discover that Mimzy eventually "forgot" clothes she’d eaten that didn’t have magical properties, while being able to better remember, replicate, and even modify clothes that had even a slight amount of magic. As a result, his budget for clothes had gone up but fortunately his professorial robes had been lightly enchanted for stain resistance and durability.

The more formal clothes he’d acquired were a set of black pants in the wolfkin style - more like shorts with long panels that hid the pockets and fell to about his knees. The panels were decorated with thread-of-gold scenes of a rippling pond under moonlight, with alternating crescents on both for Heaven and Hell. The second piece was a jacket styled to match, which was double-breasted and featured a wide form of choker collar. The gold thread on black was a bit militant and gaudy for him, but at least he could have Mimzy form a plain white button-up underneath.

After making sure Mimzy was good and fed, he transformed his clothes into the formals, and then added the professorial robe on top.

All in all, he thought he looked rather dashing... without the robes. With them he just looked suspicious; like a cloaked figure out for a midnight graveyard robbery.

"It’ll be fine," he assured himself as he let Mimzy settle.

"Sure kid. All we have to do is sit around with dozens of highly trained mages and a Queen surrounded by her guard detail and sycophants, pretending to like the wine and feudalism and whatever else the fuckers get up to."

"Once we get things rolling with Moshui, feudalism’s days will be numbered," Kir assured his other half.

"Yep. Then it’s on to speedrunning the revolution. Forgive me if I think you’re being too optimistic, but even with a great equalizer like magic, what I see is people just recreating the same old hierarchy shit I saw on Earth. Don’t be surprised if all they do is put you on top and continue as normal."

"If I have to stand on top of that hierarchy to break it, I will." Kir promised.

"Tell that to Princess Girlfriend."

Kir ignored his other half, grabbing up the boxes he’d prepared with a small gift inside for the party. Lumin had told him to expect about fifty guests, so he’d made white chocolate, caramel, and coffee tarts in that amount - finding it weird that they had cocoa butter but not chocolate. He’d have to find out where the cocoa beans could be sourced so he could experiment with fermenting them into the delectable treat.

Or as Kiryu put it, "Of all the shit you remember, it’s the food I used to make with the greenhouse lab."

"Why make chocolate? Couldn’t you just buy that stuff?"

"Newsflash Kir, half my career was spent held captive in space. But even sustainable rocketry couldn’t convince the cheapskates in charge to launch up a crate of real chocolate. So I cut a deal with the agronomicals. Real chocolate in exchange for some bullshit cocoa bean experiment requests. Though the zero-g chamber did make it come out smooth. Too smooth."

Kir had taken the snippet with a grain of salt, trying very hard not to openly realize that annoying Kiryu was a viable way of getting information out of him. It seemed to work since Kiryu didn’t call him on the twisty bundle of not-thought-thoughts.

Once he was ready, Kir stored the tarts and made his way toward the gate to the Academy grounds. The guards took one look at his robes and waved him through. Oddly, Kir didn’t spot anyone else in teacher’s robes once he was in the newly-dubbed Academy Ring.

The dinner was being hosted in the dining hall of the new dorms, a place he hadn’t seen much of during his stay in the manor.

The walls were decorated in blue star patterns with gold highlights. The tiles were white marble shined to a gleam, run through with seams of some silver-polished stones. Three tables were set, with white tablecloths and decorations of flowers in richly patterned vases. The utensils of the head table were golden, while the space marked for "Kiryu Nasumi - Amendatory Arcanics" had regular silverware.

Only a handful of guests had arrived, so Kir simply noted his spot and picked up his mug of coffee - thinking that Lumin was flexing her access to the drink. Deciding he wanted a different flavor, he first went to a server to ask for cream and sugar, which he mixed at his spot until it was just perfect.

As he sipped, he walked about. He’d never managed to see all the professors of the college as a student, and so he was surprised by how few professors there were in relation to the size of the room. Most of them were human or human-like, with a few beastkin. The only others present were the serving staff, who were busy setting the table, and two-dozen beastkin guards - four per door - of various types, but with a universally stony look to their eyes.

Much to Kir’s annoyance, no other professor was wearing their robes but him.

"Hello!" a voice suddenly fluttered in from behind Kir, and he turned and looked down to find a fully evolved birdkin woman greeting him. For a birdkin, she was actually quite tall, standing about two meters in height on crane-like legs. Her head resembled an eagle or perhaps a hawk, but she had an orange coloration around her eyes and behind her beak, with long black feathers sticking out from her otherwise grey-silver plumage, almost like quills. "I don’t believe we’ve met before. You must be new."

She offered a hand, but Kir elected to bow. "Kiryu Nasumi."

"Hmm that sounds like a Rethani name, but I was sure the only red wolfkin clans were Thera." The woman took a drink of something that smelled a bit stronger than tea. "Anyway, I’m Irosep Tawre. Good to finally see a new beastkin on the roster. Chancellor Lumin suggested I talk to you just the other day. I’m so sorry you got pegged for Amendatory Arcanics duty."

"It’s quite fine," Kir said. "And as to my heritage... my parents moved around a lot. My mother was from Retha."

"Oh, well you certainly didn’t inherit your height from her then," Tawre laughed. "You must be the tallest man I’ve ever seen."

Kir was starting to wonder how she could form all the human mouth sounds with a beak when some other professors approached.

"Irosep! Good to see you. And who’s this?" A stone-elvish man with crystalline blue hair approached; an elven woman with brown hair and green highlights linking arm to arm. Kir assumed they were wedded by the matching earrings they wore.

Tawre introduced Kir, and he bowed to the couple.

"I’m Professor Alsi Crowelf and this is my wife, Atirin."

"A pleasure to meet you both," Kir smiled.

"I must say, if you want to you don’t have to wear the robe. Those are really just for graduation ceremonies and the Chancellor’s speeches," Alsi chuckled.

"I was told to dress formally by the Chancellor."

"Business formal, I’m sure Lumin meant. Which if you ask me is rather casual given we’re hosting a queen tonight," Alsi sipped his glass of tea. "Ah, what drink is that? I didn’t see it at the table."

"Coffee. It’s quite good," Kir said.

"Dreadful stuff," Tawre injected herself. "Is it any wonder they call it demon’s blood?" She peeked over at his cup. "Are you sure that’s coffee?"

"With cream and sugar," Kir said as he sipped.

"Cream and sugar you say... I suppose I shall have to try it then." Tawre chuckled. "The stuff tastes dreadful but it did get me through the semester... before the demons arrived."

"I confess I’m growing rather addicted myself," Professor Crowelf winked. "What will you be teaching, Professor Nasumi?"

"My specialty is physics, but unfortunately not enough students were interested."

"Ah! So you’re the one who put the class up with the absurdly long name. I must say that’s a bad move when it comes to young minds. Keep things nice and simple, like ’Potions’. My specialty by the way. But I take it you’ll at least be assisting?"

"Actually I do have a course to run. Amendatory Arcanics."

The grimace on Professor Crowelf’s face was enough to tell Kir that it was not a highly desired curriculum. "Ah. Well, consider it a rite of passage. Most newer professors take over it at some point, just don’t invest too much into problem students who don’t want solutions, is all I can say."

Kir smirked, "I’ll keep that in mind. But it is my intent to remedy all my students’ situations if it is within my power."

Professor Crowelf adopted a patronizing smile, clearly readying himself to depart for new company. "I wish you luck then. And a bit of advice, stay shielded during class."

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