The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 322: Playing With Fire

Chapter 322: Playing With Fire

"...and so, when you understand that fire is simply a reaction of transferring energy and states between heat, air, and a combustible material-" Kir snapped his fingers, producing a sphere of flame, whose only source of magic was at the bottom. "Making true fire is simply a matter of understanding mediated by magic."

"That hardly used any magic at all!" one student exclaimed.

A couple of more enterprising students tried snapping their fingers. Some managed to make sparks.

"How are you doing that in mid-air?" One student asked after a couple of unsuccessful starts. "There’s nothing to burn."

"Ah but there is," Kir said. "And by the end of the semester, you’ll learn how to compress the right elements in the air so that you too can make true fire."

A bell chimed and everyone started getting up. Everyone left Kir’s class happy because he’d announced there would be no homework before the next class.

He was still in the process of learning everyone’s names, but there was one student whose name he did know already, and that one decided to remain in his seat as everyone cleared out.

"Can I help you, Prince Kassin?" Kir asked as the room grew quieter.

Kassin Karabodur was not a large foxkin. His boyish face and orange-furred ears were accompanied by an equally orange tail that ended in a black tip, and his fingernails were still in the process of becoming claws like Kordia’s.

He had deep green eyes and a curious, piercing gaze that left Kir feeling a bit on the spot because...

"Are you sleeping with Kordia?" he flat-out asked.

Kir froze, his mind suddenly in a million places he’d rather be, especially with Kiryu’s gaze turning toward the situation. He eventually settled on answering the question with a question. "What makes you ask that?"

"You are, aren’t you? I heard a rumor..."

"You shouldn’t listen to rumors. Have you tried asking her yourself?"

"I would, but she’s a fifth year now and I haven’t been able to find her. And going into the girl’s dorm would be..." He blushed a bit.

Kir could tell he was about to realize Kir hadn’t answered him, so he quickly filled the silence. "She’s your fiance, yes? A political marriage?" he feigned a bit of ignorance.

"I haven’t seen her since before the siege. You didn’t answer my question."

Clever fox...

"Would you believe the number of rumors that abound throughout the academy about who I sleep with or don’t?"

Kir hardly did. And the one half-night he’d slept on campus in order to use the astronomical equipment had come with quite a few lust-resonant dreams from some of the beastkin students who found him attractive enough to fantasize about. For some reason in most of them, he was a a dominant, powerful figure of magic with unrealistically proportioned privates...

"I’m not asking about those," Kassin said. "I’m asking if you’re involved with Kordia van Mora."

"We work together," Kir sighed. He hated lying. "I assure you that Professor Kiryu Nasumi is not so unprofessional as to sleep with a student." It was true... from a certain point of view.

"Says you!" The real Kiryu Nasumi - Triple PhD in Quantum Physics, Applied Physics, and Theoretical Physics, Masters in Archaomanufacturing, BA in Additive Manufacturing, Computer Programming, and Pottery - protested. "I got so much tail as a visiting professor I never had to worry about my winter heating bill-"

Kir shut Kiryu out of his mind as he held eye contact with Kassin. He wished he had an out-

As if on cue, the door at the top of the room opened and Chancellor Lumin walked in... with Kordia right behind her.

Kir grimaced internally. He was supposed to dine with the Emissary today and Kordia had decided to back him up, taking Moshui’s place since the latter was presently moving into his basement.

Lumin did not care for reading the room as she called down, "Professor Nasumi, it’s almost time."

"Prince Kassin?!" Kordia exclaimed, surprise rising on her face as her six tails stiffened and fanned out on their own.

"Hi Kordia!" Kassin called back, red rising into his face.

He clearly liked her...

Kir almost missed Lumin rolling her eyes. "Ah, Prince Kassin. Would you care to join us for lunch? The Professor and Kordia will be seated at the staff table, but I can make an exception for you to... continue your conversation."

"We can also continue tomorrow-"

"I’d love to!" Kassin replied to the Chancellor, his eyes on Kordia, who affected a nervous smile, her eyes flicking over to Kir briefly.

Neither of them had been looking forward to lunch, but now there was even more reason to dislike the event.

The moment they fell into formation behind Lumin, Kassin took Kordia’s hand and planted a kiss on it. "I’m happy to see you," he announced with a smile. A big, sincere smile...

"I’m... happy to see you too," Kordia said. "It’s just... such a surprise." She looked at Kir pointedly, one of her ears flicking aggressively.

Kir couldn’t help but think things would be so much easier if he’d just told her the day he saw Kassin during the entrance exams... but he wasn’t the proctor for the practical exams, and so he didn’t know if Kassin had actually gotten in until the Prince had showed up to his class... And then with the assassination and the next moves he had to make to industrialize the city...

It wasn’t that it had been easy to forget Kassin, it was that he’d considered other things more important... But he knew when he saw the flash of anger in Kordia’s eyes that what he’d failed to prioritize was their relationship... just like with Tulare.

"It’s not your fault she collects royalty like you collect strays," Kiryu said, impressions of Moshui and Sam laced into the thought.

A new realization occurred to Kir, one that he should have thought of before... Montmorency and Gra’Rhuel both shared borders with the Laikal lands. And in the three-way contest of nations for control of the continent, it made sense for both nations to have their heirs in proximity to Kordia...

There might have been more politics in Lapins’ romancing of Kordia than what Kir had assumed...

"I apologize, Princess," Kir bowed his head to Kordia. "As I am not a subject of any royalty, I did not feel it appropriate to inform on one royal to another... I am more than willing to discuss the matter later."

Kordia’s eyes widened slightly with hurt.

"I’m sure he meant well," Kassin said. "His class is the most interesting one I’ve signed up for, even though it’s only the first week." He drew Kordia away and into conversation as Kir wound up at the back of their formation, almost hanging his head at how his plans at the Academy had backfired on him... which was becoming a theme carried over from his brief time as a student.

He’d specifically designed his classes for first and second-year students to attend because he wanted minds young enough to more easily overcome "classical" theories of magic... And last year things had gone fine! He’d had two semesters of relative peace, enough to figure out how to manage industrializing the city at the same time. But now...

Kiryu transmitted a series of munching sounds directly into Kir’s mind.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Eating popcorn."

"Fuck you."

"You can come up with your own apology then. I’d hate to think of dying because you pissed off Princy enough for the empire to strike back. Getting killed by royalty would be the worst irony of my existence."

Thanks to the chaos of the Heavenswar. Gra’Rhuel was an empire in form if not name. The various clans of the Wolf Plains had either integrated or allied with them in order to secure enough food and supplies to fight the armies of Ghomal-merka, the new self-declared Duke of Gluttony, who was ravaging the plains.

The closest clans to the Lakelands were the only ones who remained independent, thanks to contracts that saw them guarding the caravans going to the city, though once the glideway tower had gone up, they lost about a quarter of their business from Norneau...

"Hey, body. You’re losing the moment."

Kir looked up to find Kordia and Kassin disappearing around the corner, and he hurried to catch up.

"...I’ve just been so busy with art for the city. I didn’t know they’d want to keep everything consistent for the new districts."

"I’d love to see your art sometime," Kassin said sincerely, his single tail brushing into the bundle of Kordia’s six.

"Oh, uh, of course. They’ve put up the line art for the Ghostheart mural..."

Now Kassin scowled. "Ghostheart, really? I thought he was just a trouble-making demon."

Kordia’s ear flinched slightly, but she kept her composure overall. "He is, but he’s a popular figure in the city... and since the people voted on it, I was asked to copy the style of the manga artist who popularized him."

"My mom had Silverchild’s books banned in Gra’Rhuel, that’s all I know about those," Kassin said. He ignorantly used Kordia’s pen name, which had only appeared after the first ten books in the series, and on reprints. "The rule is to burn them whenever any are found."

"That is... regrettable," Kordia replied, giving Kir a brief glance that was telling him to let her handle Kassin. "It should be a well-learned lesson by now that oppressing people for what they read is like playing with fire."

"Oh," Kassin said. "But we’re royalty. Isn’t it only right that we protect people from agitators?"

"Trying to burn out ideas only sets them more firmly. And more firmly against you. If you’re going to be king one day, then I think we’ll need to talk more about freedom of speech."

Behind them, Kir smiled.

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