The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 292: Sailing For Amrita

Chapter 292: Sailing For Amrita

Across the bow of the Lakewater Tears, Kir stared out into the retreating waters of Norneau’s bay, wondering how he’d gotten himself in this situation...

"Alright, you lot! Remember what the Professor said! No magic unless it’s an emergency!" Princess Lapins van Montmorency shouted. "Briar! Thorn!"

""Aww~"" the twins intoned, releasing the spell they had composed between them.

"Put that knife away, Miss Daisy," Kordia intoned at the girl staring into Kir’s back with murderous intent, while she polished a clearly magical weapon etched with so many magic runes for sharpness, Kir wondered if she’d managed to make its edge into a monofilament... Which would ironically be useless outside of laboratory environments.

"Want me to put them in line?" Bailey offered Kir, only to get waved off as Kir tried to sort through his thoughts.

The long and short of his worries were as follows:

Lapins bribed her way into the trip, replacing Xunter and bringing Mercy and a frankly unwieldy amount of luggage. Thanks to Lapins, Kordia had almost no chance to interact with Kir.

Keiya and Nimfi were practically worshipped by the sailors. They kept trying to curry favor with the small spirit and her mage, which involved lots of small fish and deferential treatment that seemed to be rapidly going to Keiya’s head. Hopefully, she’d figure herself out before making an incident out of the attention.

Bailey was suddenly acting reliable; which was intensely suspicious, but as long as he kept the twins in line, Kir could hope that Bailey was turning over a new leaf... A bad pun from Kiryu about "Bay leaves" had set Kir cringing and rubbing his temples.

Daisy seemed to be plotting his murder by more conventional means... which was par for the course given her desperation to earn money and, as Kir discovered through Bailey - who Daisy seemed to like for some reason - just as desperate that her merchant father didn’t find out she was spending all her money on artifacts to drain in order to keep up with her classes.

Moshui, about two meters away, was puking over the side of the ship - apparently so susceptible to seasickness that it enabled her to vomit out to an impressive range.

It didn’t help that his glamour ring was making his finger itch, with how hot it was, but it hadn’t failed yet... He’d been so distracted by Moshui’s self-experimentation that he completely forgot to bring up the ring to Lumin while making the argument that Moshui be brought in to assist him with the Amendatory Arcanics students. Hopefully, it would last for the two-week trip...

His biggest concern, however, was that Stella and every demon in her harem - and Aghest, who was afraid of physical intimacy - were hiding belowdecks, sending waves of arousal and the occasional spike of fear throughout the vessel whenever they got frisky... which Kir hoped would not be all the time. He could only pray that Lumin’s "colleague" would be willing to make some additional accommodations... At least Stella had enthusiastically desired to leave Norneau once the fact the city was about to be on Heaven’s radar was made clear...

Kir had gotten out just as a delegation of twenty-one angels arrived for their inspection of the city... And Lumin made clear that if they were going to stay for more than two weeks, she would find a way to send word to him.

The situation had very quickly added up to one hell of a migraine for him. Removing his fingers from his temples Kir announced, "I’m going to bed, the special students are in charge while I’m gone."

"It’s not even noon though..." Kordia said, a note of protest in her voice.

"Just keep the ship afloat," Kir sighed, then added "Please." He looked at Kordia with what he hoped his glamour was conveying as sincere need.

As soon as he reached his cabin, Kir pulled the ring off of his finger and dropped it on top of his suitcase - which contained exactly zero suits but did have a magical storage capacity of about ten cubic meters. Then he closed the door and flopped onto his bed, burying his face in his sole pillow.

"We’re barely out of port and you’re already ragged. From one teacher to another, you need an assistant," Kiryu said.

"Wlfd hf ff tphd wftnt tpghg stab mff..." he mumbled into the lumpy, downy article.

"Hey, you’re the one that made the bet. End it, live with it, or maybe actually let one of them win. Then you can move on. And if you get stabbed, that’s fairly minor consequences compared to what happened as a result of my so-called ’teaching career’."

"What, did you end up teaching some sort of mad scientist?" Kir replied in his thoughts.

"Of course I did. Me."

"..." Kir’s thoughts turned towards whether or not Kiryu was in the mood to let him find out more about Kiryu’s past-

"How many cigarettes did you bring?"

Kir sighed. He’d brought none...

"And that’s how many answers you’re going to get. But who knows, maybe there’s some magic elf tobacco or something where we’re going. Use one of those bars of gold you plan on stealing to buy me some, and I’ll give you one answer."

"Isn’t it usually one question?"

"Not when I’m reading your mind, it isn’t. Ive got a list of all your biggest questions here on your character sheet."

"You made a character sheet of me? What system?"

"43rd Edition."

Kir remembered the book, and got the vaguest sense of having hated it for being overly complicated...

"Exactly like you," Kiryu chuckled.

The early afternoon passed without incident, but with a lot of scurrying overhead. Kir was even able to get a nap, and despite it being only about an hour he woke up feeling refreshed enough to face whatever the late afternoon had to offer.

He plucked his ring off of his suitcase and placed it on his finger. He had a moment to feel the heat before-

PAP!

With a sudden popping sound, Kir’s ring exploded, lights and warped bits of his wolfkin persona forming in the air and twisting as the metal flew into pieces. One shard of it left a cut down to the web between knuckles, and Kir cried out in alarm as the heat, the pain, and the cascading failures of destroyed enchantments played out in his mind all at once.

"Fuck! Dammit!" He took a full minute to swear and hold his wounded hand as the implications of his situation hit him.

Suddenly his door burst open as the lock clicked open and Stella forced her way in, followed by Kordia. Stella was disguised as a rakish-looking orc and Kordia had a very, very concerned look on her face.

"What are you two doing here?" Kir asked.

"I needed to talk to you about something," Kordia said.

"Familiar bond, duh. What happened?" Stella asked, while Kordia shut the door and bolted it.

"My ring broke... I’m fucked!" Kir gestured at the now cool bits of gold alloy that littered the floor, his suitcase, and his bed.

Voices started carrying throughout the hall, and suddenly there was a knock.

"Um... Is everything alright in there, Professor?" The deep, feminine voice of Encke asked.

In a flash, Stella shapeshifted into Kir’s wolfkin form. "Things are fine..." She looked at Kir, as if for input. "I just stubbed my toe!"

"O-Okay... I have some questions..."

Trying her best to read Kir’s lips, Stella answered, "We have... two days. Can it wank- wait! Can it wait?"

Kir facepalmed.

"I can wait..." the giant answered "...Sorry to bother you." The sound of Encke walking away was accompanied by Keiya’s voice, though Kir couldn’t detect more than that the latter was asking questions.

As soon as Kir was sure they were alone, he turned to Stella and Kordia. "This is a crisis. Stella, I need you to take my place."

"What?!" Stella exclaimed in her original voice. "I can’t teach a bunch of brats! And you said they’re trying to kill you!"

"Bleed me, yes, but you can suspend the bet or something while we’re in Amrita."

"I don’t even know what they’re supposed to be doing!"

"This is a research trip. They’re supposed to look up any cases of magical maladies similar to their own, and Keiya plans to research spirit bonds in between helping everyone else. All you’re doing is them taking to the library and the royal archives every morning and taking them back to the hotel in the afternoon. The rest of the time is theirs... Oh, except for the last day, I want to have a big feast the day before boarding."

"Ugh... how is this supposed to be exciting?"

"I’m sure you’ll be plenty excited by trying not to get caught... I need to figure out some sort of disguise."

"I might have just the thing for it-"

"Before we handle that," Kordia interrupted, "There’s something I really, really need to talk to you about..."

Tap-tap-tap.

Outside the porthole of his room, a blue heron was tapping its beak against the glass.

"I think the spirit of the lake wants to see me."

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