The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 245: Classassination

Chapter 245: Classassination

Twin bolts of energy seared across the space between Professor Kiryu Nasumi and the students behind him. He was writing on the board when the mousekin twins - kangaroo mousekin to be exact - abruptly stood and fired two very-powerful spells into their teacher’s back, only to have both dissipate harmlessly against his shields, which caught them mid-air and held them until they disappeared entirely.

"Twins this time," the real Kiryu Nasumi said inside the Professor’s head.

"That’s a first," Kir Gale, a demonkin masquerading as a wolfkin replied.

"Guess they’ve finally discovered the power of teamwork."

It was a sarcastic statement, given that the twins Briar and Thorn needed each other to make more than pretty lights. Without physical contact, they couldn’t cast very well. And as he’d discovered while testing their particular malformation of magic, without being within sight of each other they couldn’t cast at all.

Every student in the room had something wrong with their magic. Or, in the case of the one student that wasn’t in the room - Bailey Black, a human with the ability to draw power from death - an ability that needed to be studied as deeply as possible.

Kir didn’t know whether to be concerned or angry that after only a month Bailey had broken their trust that he would be on time and attend class as much as possible. Whatever the case was, he had other students to teach, and so he turned, pretending he hadn’t just been shot at.

"Now, who can solve the equation behind- Yes, Keiya?"

"I just wanted to point out that the twins violated the rules just now, attacking while you were teaching." Keiya was a pink-haired elf with fair skin and an aura of watchful expectation that had "big sister" written all over it. The black uniform of a normal academy student was edged in green, and hers had a flourish of flowers and potions sewn into the lapels.

She was of middling power for a fifth year, which meant an opaque orange to her mana aura. The twins behind her were light red but could spike up to orange for their spells. Their uniforms were edged in white, being first-years.

"No fair!" "Snitch!" Briar and Thorn cried out.

Kir rubbed his eyebrows. "I’ve said it before, but those times I’m preparing, such as writing on the board, are available for attacks. Perhaps I should clarify that teaching, by my definition, means when I am talking or demonstrating."

"But I find it quite disruptive..."

"There’s no reason you can’t cooperate amongst yourselves," Kir said. "If you find it disruptive, bring the issue up with them first, since I have stated it is allowed."

"Oh..." Standing up with a scrape of her chair, Keiya stepped rapidly around the tiered desks until she was behind both twins, pinching them on the over-large ears.

"Gah!" "We’re sorry!" "Stop that hurts!" "We won’t do it again, big-sis!"

Another hand raised. "Yes, Miss Daisy?"

Daisy Della Recca, AKA Daisy the Destroyer, cleared her throat. She was a human girl of average size starting her fourth year - her uniform was highlighted with yellow. Her "malady" was that her spells were comprised of anti-magic, which had a siphoning effect when they encountered mana in other people. The side effect of this, however, was that she was slowly losing the ability to generate mana.

"One hundred twenty force units."

"Correct," Kir smiled at her. For some reason, she blushed at the attention.

"Force units... Newton would be rolling in his grave."

"You can’t expect me to name everything like it was on Earth. People will ask questions."

"Oh don’t get me wrong, I’m just having fun imagining it. Newton’s fine for baby’s first physics, but I’d have had them on Dirac by now."

"Nobody here got to learn using neural optimizers."

"Technically you did. Through me. Better get inventive, or teaching this lot could take years. And you only have a semester for half of them."

"Thanks for the reminder."

With the possible exception of Bailey Black and Daisy Della Recca, every student in Kir’s class was facing the end of their time at the Academy, if not the end of any chance they’d have at a career in magic.

Kir had no intention of having any of them fail unless it was what they wanted for themselves. But of course he couldn’t tell them that.

As the physics lesson went on, Kir tried to include his newest student, a giant from the southeast of the continent, and a first-year transfer student named Encke. But she was too shy to answer any of his questions. If anyone was even looking at her, she couldn’t cast magic, and thus Kir ironically had the most trouble with her malady of magic because it seemed entirely psychological.

"Just give it a try. A two-stone mass accelerating at twenty-one measures per minute would need how much force?

"Well... I... Uh..." Encke poked her fingers together.

"Forty-two..." whispered Briar. "Forty-two..." Thorn followed.

SLAM

Bailey Black made his entrance, a semi-permanent scowl entrenched on his face.

"Mr. Black. Take a seat," Kir ordered. As Bailey descended, Kir noticed there were bruises and cuts on the boy’s face. "Are you alright?"

Red danced into the air as Bailey drew his thumb along a cut on his cheek, sending blood flying. As those cells died, he drew on them to power a dark-red bolt of energy that slammed into Kir’s shields, aimed right for his head.

It was strong enough to shatter a single hex of Kir’s shields, but he’d already slid another into place and it dissipated harmlessly. It had been a little less powerful than the twin’s spells combined, such was the might of a thanergist.

Good to see youtoo... "We need to speak after class, Mr. Black."

Bailey grunted and took his seat, planting his feet on the desk and staring off immediately.

As far as his normal behavior was concerned, this was actually rather tame.

That was Kir’s signal that something was definitely wrong.

Half an hour later, almost as soon as the bell rang, Bailey got up and made for the door quickly.

"Mr. Black, please stay," Kir said, actualizing his order by shutting the door in front of his most delinquent student. Catching the hint, the other students started to file out of the giant-sized door that led outside on the opposite side.

"Good luck," Daisy whispered to Bailey as Kir started up the stairs of the amphitheater-style room.

As soon as everyone was gone, Kir asked, "What happened to you?"

"What’s it look like?"

"It looks like you got in a fight."

"Yeah, no shit. Happens all the time. Guessing my shot at the bounty is fucked now."

As part of Kir’s unconventional teaching style, he’d told every one of his students that they were free to attack him. A successful strike that drew blood would be rewarded with a passing grade, the freedom to attend or not attend as they wanted, and twelve large gold - the equivalent of three years tuition at the Academy. The last was the "bounty" to which Bailey referred.

"Depends on if you started the fight or not."

"I didn’t."

"Was it with students?"

"No."

"Are you going to tell me what happened?"

"No," Bailey crossed his arms.

"Well he’s not lying from what I can tell," Kiryu said. "Bet it’s his dad."

"Did your father do this to you?" Kir asked.

"I don’t have a father!" Bailey raised his voice.

A long, awkward silence stretched between them. Looking into Bailey’s eyes, Kir saw only pain and rage.

"Class is over, am I free to go or not?" Bailey asked.

"You’re free to go," Kir said. "Ask another student about today’s lesson if you need help. The bounty is still available for you to claim."

"Yeah. I’ll do that," Bailey said.

It was hard to tell if he meant the notes or the bounty.

Turning swiftly, he opened the door and left, letting it swing freely as he departed.

"School... School never changes," Kiryu said.