The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 227: A Most Confounding Thing

Chapter 227: A Most Confounding Thing

Kir smiled wolfishly as a tray of very small muffins was placed between Moshui and himself.

They were meeting once more at The Mouse’s Portion, and Kir had taken the liberty of ordering in advance of her arrival. They’d exchanged only polite greetings before sitting and being served as a result.

"Oooh, the ones with the berries are the best," she delicately picked up one knuckle-sized muffin which had a single orange berry resting atop it and popped the whole thing in her mouth.

Because he was practicing the portrayal of himself as primarily carnivorous, Kir had eaten before setting out this morning. He had only the weekend to shore up his plans before the semester started.

He smiled and let her eat for a few more moments before broaching the subject. "What have you got for us?"

"Hm? Oh, the enchantment thing." Moshui reached across and dragged another table over, before pulling up a burlap sack and dumping a trio of metal shards onto it. "Yeah, the thing exploded. I thought just making it spin would be easy but it’s harder than I thought."

"Exploded how?" Kir asked, shifting the three arc shards into something resembling the original sketch of the gear he’d made for her, then picked up the least-inscribed one.

"Well, the bits all ended up wanting to go in different directions whenever it accelerated. I had to use up a catalyst to get enough mana for the third ring. That’s when it flew apart."

"The through-lines aren’t perfect arcs," Kir noted, spotting the places where the first line joining the first and second circles had been etched over.

"You’re asking me to etch steel. I don’t exactly have equipment for stuff this large. I do fiddly little spell circles," she double-forked a new pair of cupcakes, having seized Kir’s fork when it became obvious he wasn’t eating.

Then why take the job?! Kir thought to himself. "The smaller circles are perfect though."

"That’s because I do have stuff for etching small things. But a perfect circle on a half-measure diameter of steel? You’re better off using stone for accuracy, but then it won’t stay together. And even steel might not be enough if you want this thing to move so much weight."

"Every flaw in the through-lines adds degrees of difference to the direction of turn for each third. If they aren’t all perfectly angled, they each want to go in different arcs-"

"Yeah, I got that. But it’s a prototype. I thought the point was to learn about it?" Moshui sipped a tiny cup of tea.

"Fair point. Do you think you could design a tool to perfect etching the through-line arcs?"

"Do I?! Hmm... Nope. But I could reach out to Enumasam if he’s not busy. He’s got a new apprentice, finally, so hopefully his husband lets him out of the house."

"Should probably just bring in the old steelpounder. Save yourself the trouble of waiting for them to play telephone," Kiryu said.

"That’s not a bad idea. I don’t think I’ll need much of the profits anyway, not if we’re keeping this operation local. One step at a time, right?" Kir’s desire to keep the project out of the public eye until its unveiling meant working only with independent agents like Moshui and Enumasam. Even getting a gear from the local Creations Guild had drawn a few weird questions, since such things were typically dealt with in bulk instead of single orders. Steel gears like the one he acquired were for large airships.

"Miss Moshui... Do you think you could bring in your friend Enumasam as a partner in our endeavor?"

"Hm? Sure. Why even ask?" her attention was focused on a perfectly tiny cupcake with a cube of caramel stabbed corner first into the top.

"Well, it would mean reassessing the distribution of profits once the venture is complete."

"Eni’s a friend. I’m good with that," Moshui spoke as if it was a simple matter.

Kir wanted to make sure they got a good deal out of the project as soon as the time to hammer out a contract came up.

"It’s a bit confounding though," Moshui said after swallowing her cupcake.

"What is?" Kir asked.

"Sometimes I swear you’re like-"

"Oh, here it comes!" Kiryu said excitedly.

"-my father. He was much better at business stuff."

Kir felt a wave of relief. "Bet you’re disappointed," he thought at Kiryu.

"Oh hell no. If anything that just makes this funnier."

"H-how so?" Kir asked.

"Well, he was better with people. So he really got the tattoo shop off the ground. But he always... wanted to do something big. That’s why he had me learn enchanting for more than just ink on skin... I don’t know, I guess I finally feel like someone is pushing me along like he used to, instead of just buying a thing."

"You have talent, Miss Moshui, and the trust of your friends. It would be a shame if you did not receive according to your ability. And if the right tools are what you need, then I’m happy to get them for you."

"So... just send you the bill, right?"

Kir laughed. "I suppose that’s correct. I won’t sell you a dream. The profits might not come for a while, but they will come eventually. And what we put out into the city - or even the world - will make life better for everyone."

"Well then, here’s to whatever it is we’re making!" She held up her tiny teacup.

After a delicate moment with his claws to lift his own, he returned the toast with a tiny clink and drank. Quaffed, more like.

Things seemed just about wrapped up, and so Kir shifted as he prepared to stand. "I have some business to prepare for tonight, Miss Moshui. If there’s nothing else, I’ll see you around."

"Wait!" Moshui surprised Kir. "There is one thing I’d like to know, Mr. Nasumi..." She seemed a bit nervous.

"Go on," Kir encouraged her.

"Those amplifier disc things you had me make... they aren’t for a weapon are they?"

"Why ask that?" Kir replied.

"Well... I promised my dad I’d never make weapons, though enchanting them is just fine. And Enni and I were talking a bit ago and we sort of put one and one together..."

"Weird morality, but I think I see the distinction."

"Do you consider an arrow a weapon?" Kir asked.

"Uh... no, not by itself unless it’s a really sturdy arrow."

"Exactly. A bow and an arrow. A simple system that forms a weapon. A weapon system. By themselves, the parts you made for me are not weapons. They work with spells as part of the system, no different than using a casting focus, except all they do is amplify. If anyone dies because of them, that’s on me, not you."

"Oh. I guess that’s good?" Moshui rubbed her chin.

Kir felt relieved that his answer was accepted. He didn’t want to go too deep into moral arguments when he intended to use the new incarnations of Bri and Dar to kill. "Is there anything else?" Kir asked.

"Yeah. Why is your manasight always active? You haven’t turned it off once since we sat down. Amongst mages that’s kind of rude."

Kir froze. He didn’t have time to think things through, so instead he said the first thing that came to mind. "I have an eye condition."

"Eye condition? One that keeps manasight always active?" She tapped her lips as she thought.

"May I ask how you know I have my manasight active when it doesn’t seem like you are using yours?"

"Oh certainly!" she turned, presenting her neck. "I got this baby off that jerk I told you about. Then I made a few changes."

On the back of her neck was a perfect copy of the demonically designed tattoo Kir had on the back of his neck, along with another tattoo linked to it by a through-line.

"Once I figured out it was always gonna be on, I added a suppression rune to make myself look less like someone who wants to fight all the time. It’s really helping my enchantment work and mana stamina. I’m almost to the point where I stop collapsing at random. I can feel it!"

"I’m very happy for you," Kir said. "Maybe I could get a blocker like that?"

"Well, you’d need the tattoo first, and there’s no telling what that would do to your eye condition. Oh, and it would be permanent-permanent. As in: don’t let anything cut the back of your neck."

"I’ll keep that in mind," Kir said. "But we can talk about that down the line... For now, I must go."

He delivered a short bow and turned on his toes, walking away a little faster than he should have.

*

Behind him, Moshui finished off the cupcakes one by one. After a few, one of the mousekin servers asked her while clearing the table, "So... he’s a handsome beastie. Come to the wild side have you?"

"Yeah, he’s nice," Moshui said, disinterested in the obvious innuendo but appreciative of his objectively well-groomed appearance and shining red, grey, and silver fur. "But I don’t know, Teni, he seems... weird."

"Weird how?"

"Well, first thing, he doesn’t smell like a wolfkin. I’ve been up close inking plenty of them."

"Could be he likes keeping clean? I didn’t know humans got so sniffy."

"I’ve been a bit sense-sensitive lately," Moshui evaded, not wanting to broadcast openly that her tattoo was demonic in origin. "Which is why I think today was the best muffin breakfast I ever had!"

"Aww, it’s nice to be appreciated."

Teni left the table without continuing the conversation, so Moshui kept the second thing to herself.