The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 255: Go With The Flow

Chapter 255: Go With The Flow

Without Keiya in class, the twins Briar and Thorn decided it was time to go all out.

By the end of class, they were left exhausted and on the edge of passing out from mana deprivation.

"He’s too strong..." "It’s not fair..."

"Hmph," Bailey looked away, having taken a potshot at Kir after the twins were done. He seemed to be in his own head a lot lately, which was fine by Kir, only he suspected something else was up; since even though Bailey managed to make it on time or only slightly late, he often showed up with bruises and cuts.

But Kir didn’t have time to look into Bailey, not this day.

"Briar, Thorn, please clean up the room before you leave," Kir said. Despite his best efforts, some of their shots had been deflected into the walls and furniture, leaving impact marks.

""Awww...."" they groaned.

For the first time since starting as a teacher, Kir left the classroom first, out the backdoor for teachers and staff. He needed to hurry if he was going to find Lumin, because he was excited to figure out how to help Keiya as soon as possible. Plus he had something else he wanted to ask Lumin for...

*

After a bit of running around, he finally learned that Lumin was having dinner at the cafeteria’s staff table.

Who eats dinner in the middle of the afternoon?

"Old people," Kiryu replied.

It turned out convenient when he arrived because aside from a few of the non-teaching staff and one special student in grey who seemed to be taking notes on what was said, it was easy to approach the table without interrupting anything important.

"... so I just needs a shed somewhere to store the fire-aspected crystals so that students can’ts get to them," an older-looking orcishman said over a bowl of braised vegetables and rice.

"Approved. Pick a spot and let me know if there’s anyone you want to handle digging and construction. Thanks Will." Lumin replied as the student in grey scratched everything down. In front of Lumin was a suspiciously familiar, plate-like disc of food. One that left Kir wondering "When the hell did they invent the pizza?"

"It’s probably that girl you scared the piss out of when you were five," Kiryu answered.

"I didn’t scare the piss out of her!" He’d only tried to tell her how lightning worked while he was trying to recreate pizza. It was supposed to be a surprise for when they got home, but they managed to come home at the worst possible moment. As a result, his first dive into bringing Earth cuisine to another world - a fiction staple - burned in the oven while he was sent to his room.

He’d made no grand attempts since then; just the odd recipe when he felt inspired and had materials to cook with, which had been rare before coming to the Academy and only occasional when he’d been temporarily stranded in a dungeon.

"Well, you certainly left an impression. I can still remember her traumatized little face..."

Asshole.

He was making fun of Ann, a childhood acquaintance from Kir’s hometown, a human-centric colony named Darlbridge.

The pizza Lumin was eating slowly with a knife and fork featured sauce from the purple pseudo-tomatoes native to Ayther, bell peppers, ground aurochs beef, garlic, onions, chives, an unidentifiable mix of cheeses - some of which was blue - and a crust decorated with thin slices of an orange, mildly savory fruit whose properties resembled those of dried prunes, but with a taste like duck jerky.

Kir could only wonder from the smell alone if it tasted good, but he suspected, given who he suspected had produced the recipe, that it would.

Afterwards, Lumin turned her attention to Kir. "Yes, Professor Nasumi?" she asked in a voice that was far sweeter but still professional compared to her private demeanor.

"I have a lead on what might help one of my students. I’d like your permission to start work with a student, Keiya-"

FWRZZRAP!

Black lightning hit Kir from behind. A familiar sensation filled him as his shield spells were actively eaten away...

"MISS DELLA RECCA!" Lumin suddenly slapped the table as she stood.

Kir turned to find Daisy being held back by a pair of special students, the hand holding her wand-style magic focus twisted at the wrist until she dropped it.

"Let go of me! I don’t have time for this! It’s all his fault!"

"Hold up now," Kir said as he took a small leap, landing in front of the three. "What’s wrong, Miss Daisy?"

"It’s Keiya! I went to check on her after class, but when I got to her room she was... she was..."

Daisy started to cry.

"What happened?" Lumin asked as she arrived.

"I saw her out the window... she was standing on the edge and then she just... she jumped..."

Lumin’s eyes widened. "Why attack your teacher then?"

"It’s all his fault! He’s supposed to help us but all he’s done is measure and teach weird shit and make stupid bets!"

By now, the fight had the attention of the entire cafeteria.

"Bets?" Lumin glared at Kir.

"I’ll explain later. Keiya got involved with an undine. That’s a type of-"

"I am familiar enough with water spirits, get to the point," Lumin snapped.

"She was partially bonded to it. I only found out today, so I told her to take the class off to think through if she wanted to finish establishing the bond or not. I have no idea why she would jump though."

Lumin raised a hand to her forehead. "Idiot child... There’s no telling what a spirit wants if it’s not raised to be a familiar. Assuming she bonded it, it might have used that bond to take control. For all we know, it wanted her to die so it could take her mana."

"That’s not the impression I got," a new voice said. It was Kordia. "Madame Chancellor, I can corroborate Professor Nasumi’s story. We met Keiya at a fountain during lunch and saw the familiar, a blue undine. Professor Nasumi did nothing to prompt her into a bond, only asking her to consider it."

I love you, Kir thought towards Kordia.

"Well, what should we do then? You’ve made more of a study on spirits than I have, Miss Van Mora." Lumin asked.

"I believe the undine is bound to the lake... Since it was otter-like, it likely has a lair, somewhere nearby or with one of the islands out there. Some place she would take Keiya now that they’re bonded... since she didn’t seem powerful enough to sustain a bond at any great distance."

Lumin paused to think, the diminutive human massaging her temple at one point. After a minute stretched to completion, she raised her eyes.

"Here’s what’s going to happen: Professor Nasumi, Miss Van Mora, you two will head out on the lake to track down Keiya and the undine. If you cannot find her within two days, you are to return immediately-"

"I’m going too!" Daisy shouted.

"What is your relationship to Keiya?" Kordia asked.

"She’s my friend. And I’m friends with her girlfriend. I can’t do noth-ah..."

A tiny charge of magic zapped out of Lumin’s raised hand. It was readily absorbed by Daisy, who fell asleep instantly.

The primary weakness of Daisy’s anti-magic was spells that needed to be absorbed in order to work. Like compulsion magic.

"You two will go alone," Lumin emphasized to Kir and Kordia as the special students lowered Daisy to the floor. "You have half an hour to get what you need and get started. I’ll ascertain the damage to your arrangements later. Pray the evidence doesn’t implicate you past what we’ve established here." She said the last to Kir, her eyes diamond hard. "Now, before I release you two, are there any further revelations you have to share?"

"Nothing else," Kir said.

"I’ll go get ready!" Kordia said, a little bit of excitement spiking in her voice despite the serious mood.

"Good. Because if Keiya is dead, getting fired will be the least of your worries, Professor Kiryu Nasumi."

"Did I mention I like this hag?" the real Kiryu Nasumi said.

"You say that about anyone who threatens me."

"No. I say that about anyone who can threaten you. Big difference."

"And what do you think Lumin has to threaten me with?"

"If I knew that, I might not like her so much. Somehow I doubt it’s running off to tell Heaven she’s been hosting a whatever-you-are for the last few months, which only makes things more interesting.

"I doubt that too... But who else could she be working with?"

"What, you don’t think the old bag could take you alone? She held off General Sreev single-handedly during the siege."

"True," Kir remembered the bursting lights in the sky, each burst emitting enough mana to make him feel it across the length of the city. Since mage society after a certain level mandated containing one’s own power, he actually didn’t know how powerful Lumin really was.

But he had something more important to worry about right now.