The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 267: Mysterious Disappearances

Chapter 267: Mysterious Disappearances

An explosion of feathers and blood, contained in a small glass box, marked the end of yet another experiment with Programmable Magic.

"Chickens... no good..." Sam sighed.

They were in Kir’s kitchen/dining room, and the curtains were shut to keep the riots of light down as the experiments continued.

"We’ve gone through rabbits first, then pigs, and now chickens... I think we’ve confirmed that animals without mana can’t handle even a simple program." At least this time he had the foresight to build a container... the smell of pork and rabbit was still somewhat present.

The problem wasn’t applying the magic, a piece of paper and some mana would burn the spell into whatever was underneath with surprising accuracy, it was powering it. A being with no capacity for mana would explode with the amount of draw even a single-set program had, building up until their bodies were rent apart by the unfamiliar energy.

For the tests, Kir had chosen a program that would render such creatures silent with a toggleable on/off condition. He hoped the opposite would be just as easy to program for Sam. Ironically, in a way, he had succeeded in making them silent...

"Or maybe it’s the lack of mass... we could try a horse next-"

Sam suddenly punched him. "No... Don’t kill... horsies..."

"Alright, no horses," Kir reassured them. They’d insisted on watching, so Kir promised to run his experiments before they had to go to work. Even if they couldn’t work the forge, Sam still ran the smithy’s shop with the other apprentices and occasionally Goro.

Even with all the blood and viscera they weren’t easily phased.

"I’ll let you know when I’m ready to try again," Kir said.

Sam nodded.

There was a knock at the door.

Kir checked his glamour before opening it, surprised when one of the last people he wanted to see was standing outside, her hands behind her back.

"You’re the one from the docks," Michelle said. "Kiryu Nasumi, correct?"

"Officer," Kir said, noting her rank had improved quickly. "How can I help you, Captain?"

"I’m given to understand you’re somewhat of an expert on mana siphons."

"I don’t consider myself an expert... Who told you that?"

"Can we take this conversation inside? My feet are getting cold and I hate to waste mana," she asked, showing Kir her soleless boots. Kir knew all to well that she had a maven’s talent for fire magic, and could even jet about on gouts of flame from her feet.

"I suppose so," Kir said.

"Bye..." Sam said to Kir as they rushed out the door. Kir knew they weren’t fond of city guards or watchfolk.

"You seem to have a mess on your hands," Michelle noted, looking at the glass box.

"A magical experiment gone awry. I have the Chancellor’s permission and awareness, and am restricting my tests to animals only at this juncture. Now, someone told you I was an expert on siphons?"

"Chancellor Lumin did, as a matter of fact. I was at the Academy making... inquiries... and brought the cases up to her." She took a seat at the table, noting the scorch marks and barely raising an eyebrow at the box, now that she was up close.

Dammit, Lumin... "What sort of inquiries?"

"The kind you don’t need to know about. It’s the cases that should concern you. People have been going missing."

"Students?"

"Not yet. City folk."

"What does this have to do with siphons?"

"We suspect, based on people’s reporting, that it’s targeting people with high mana reservoirs, and keeping people with high generation rates. So far only a couple of hedge mages and mavens have gone missing, but if this keeps up, the thing will only grow larger, as will the range at which it can drain people. Entire neighborhoods would be at risk. Victims have been turning up with severe mana deprivation, but no one has reported seeing a person or entity that would do such a thing. Some of the older mages suggested it’s a siphon, so that is what I am assuming. That or it’s Ghostheart."

"The legend grows!" Kiryu snarked. "Soon you’ll be Superdemon!"

Kir ignored him. "I’m afraid I can’t exactly help you without more to go on. Is there a particular pattern to the disappearances?"

"So far no, except that they all happened in the 3rd District, in seemingly random places."

The 3rd District... that was where Corlwin’s shop had been, the place where Kir first encountered a mimic, only to have it flee... Oh no...

"The most I can offer is to look out for it," Kir said, hoping she didn’t hear the slight twinge of guilt in his voice.

A slight bump sounded from below.

"Does someone else live here?" Michelle asked.

"Down in the basement, Stella runs a massage parlor," Kir answered. "She’s a human," he tacked on, feeling the need to.

"Massages you say? I’ll pay her a visit next then." She stood and turned for the door. "Thank you for your time, Professor Nasumi. Please look out for it and report anything suspicious." Without even bothering to shake his hand or wait for a response, she left.

As soon as she did, Kir rushed for the trap door, sticking his head down and calling out, "Stella, City Watch incoming."

"Fuck dammit!" Stella shouted back. "I’m in the middle of something!"

A deep-voiced noise of confusion told Kir she was probably working with a giant or minotaur customer.

"I need to head out," he said. "Stay safe."

"Fuck you too!" she called back.

"Love you."

A slightly chokey cough told Kir that she didn’t have a proper response before a deep-voiced person asked "Are you two married?"

"Hell no!" Stella replied, right as a knocking signaled Michelle’s arrival.

Using magic to clear the box, Kir deposited the unwanted chicken matter into a nearby storm drain. He needed to get to the Academy soon if he was going to snag breakfast and potentially the Chancellor for an impromptu meeting.

Luckily, he only had to wait a few minutes and pay a large copper to catch the bus.

*

As it turned out, both were ready and heated by the time he sat down at the staff table.

"Took you long enough. Guess who I had to entertain yesterday evening."

"A Watchwoman named Michelle?"

"Oh, I see she wasted no time seeking you out then."

"People disappearing is a serious matter."

"As is the potential assumption that a mage might have something to do with them. I need to ask you to stop your experiments until it’s proven that what we’re dealing with is a protean siphon of some kind."

"Mimic," Kir said. "I find the term fitting, given what they do to ambush their prey." He frowned, not liking the idea of having to stop when he wanted to use Programmable Magic to help his students.

"Good luck popularizing that," one of the other teachers snorted, a professor of fire magic named Kluthen. He was a completely bald human with big grey eyebrows. If Kir had to guess, he was at least in his sixties by appearance, even though the average age of teachers in the school was into the one hundred fifties.

"You seem to not approve," Lumen noted. "One would think you’d be tired of exploding pigs in your living room."

Kir took a moment to compose his words for an idea that struck him. "I’d like to propose an alternative. The mimic has mana, and thus far animal experiments have proven unsuccessful. I have all but confirmed it’s because animals do not have the capacity for mana. Usually."

Monsters and spirits were exceptions in animal cases, and they were stages in the evolution of creatures under mana corruption, Kir theorized, which was a much more gradual process out in the wild than what he was doing.

"Let me guess. You want to capture and experiment on it," Lumin said.

"In a word, yes."

"Out of the question. Besides, don’t you have access to other mana-rich subjects?"

"Not any I am willing to risk," Kir said. "Given the experimental results thus far." Was she suggesting he test out Programmable Magic on Stella? Or Nimfi? Ruthless, he thought.

"And given what happened to that pig, I do not want to find out if a being rich in mana would amplify such an explosion. Something large enough to hold multiple people captive must be at least as sizeable as an elephant. So find a smaller test subject or wait until one shows up in the market. I won’t have the City Guard marching on the Academy because of some Watchwoman with a vendetta."

The other teachers at the table nodded their heads in approval; some more sycophantic than others.

"Did that Watchwoman have anything else she wanted?" Kir asked.

"Yes, as a matter of fact. She wanted to know about a pain in my ass student who died a few months ago."

Kluthen chortled at the oblique reference to Kir. Likely he was one of the teachers who didn’t like having a demonkin on campus.

"What did you tell her?" Kir continued, ignoring Kluthen.

"I told her he died saving the city, and that she could visit his grave in the east garden. I escorted her myself. She was not enthusiastic when I told her about next year’s crop of demonkin students."

Kir’s eyes widened. A frown appeared on Kluthen’s face, as well as several other teachers.

"How very progressive," Kir said with a slight smile.

"Progressive, eh? I like that term. Even if ’progress’ in this case means not wasting the talent of potential friends, in light of real enemies."

"Potential enemies, more like," Kluthen grumbled.

"If I wanted your advice I would ask for it," Lumin chastised the man. "Now, Professor Nasumi, do we have an understanding on your experiments?"

"Yes, Chancellor."

"And that you are not to perform unapproved testing on any mimics you happen to encounter in the city, on pain of losing three months’ pay? I know you want to help your students, but so long as that thing is within city bounds, I will not approve any risky experiments."

Kir had to resist the urge to smile. Even when she publicly disapproved of his actions, she threw him a little way out. He had more than enough gold to go without getting paid for a few months.

"Yes, Chancellor."

"But cheer up. I found enough in the budget for a ship to handle your little field trip to World Tree Amrita, during winter break. But I expect you to take at least three special students with you, to provide additional security. I’m sure you know why."

Now Kir let himself smile. He could finally see if the seed he’d planted months ago had taken root, or if the Syndicate was ready to go down swinging. A bloodthirsty part of him hoped for the latter, given how he was still stamping out little attempts at slavery in Norneau.

"Of course, Chancellor."