The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 78: Cold Moon

Chapter 78: Cold Moon

One month after his fight with Lugh, Kir was in good shape.

He’d finally figured out how to harness his mana internally and to good effect.

Problem was, his fight with Lugh had revealed to the Arcane Knights that Kir’s ability to cast was sealed away. He had all of one week of peace before the first third year came around, trying to provoke him.

Chancellor Lumis’ announcement that wagers for expulsion and crippling were now banned due to the coming war prompted a rash of new duels. The obvious loopholes were to take away a student’s supplies and money, which wouldn’t be immediate but would hit poorer students harder.

Kir felt bad that he might have set the example for that, having demanded gold as compensation for dueling him.

After refusing the first attempt, he now had first-years challenging him every other day. Someone had started spreading a rumor that a first-year defeating a second-year could allow you to take their place.

Such a rumor was clearly targeted at Kir. When he continued to refuse, Kir started taking his lunches to go.

His money situation hadn’t improved. Even though Kordia eventually hit on the fact that his feathers could basically bankroll him beyond his debt, Kir didn’t want to introduce a bunch of angel feathers into the market suddenly. For one thing, given their color, it wouldn’t take long to connect the source to him. For another, he still had two months before the interest on his debt started.

As he told Kordia, "If I end up absolutely needing it, I will sell some feathers. But for now, don’t worry. I’ve got a plan."

He tried seeing if Moshui would buy some, since she at least seemed trustworthy, and had gotten one gold for the trouble. Her operation was surprisingly low on liquidity for being a renowned artist sought out by adventurers.

"I’m not in it for the money," was all Moshui said when Kir asked. "But I could throw in a magic tattoo for a couple of the big ones."

Kir talked her down to accepting a few more feathers in exchange for enchanting large storage circles into the tattoos she’d added to his chest and arms when he was drunk. He now had three new spaces from which he could draw items, and he was going to need it.

Which led him to this moment.

"It was a pleasure working on your weapon, young Kir," Enumasam the blacksmith said as he smiled across the counter of his shop. Between them on the counter was a long mound hidden beneath a cloth. "A weapon without steel... I never thought such a thing could be, but here we are."

He pulled the cloth from the weapon and looked proudly at what his work had wrought.

A sword gleamed on the counter, but not just any sword.

Kir had given Enumasam a formula for one of the hardest substances he could recall. Made of equal parts chromium, cobalt, and nickel, the hard part for Kir had been identifying the metals in the first place. He’d searched for ages in the school inventory for magic tool crafting until at last he figured out what they were called in this world.

The only reason he even got enough for a weapon was that nobody knew how valuable chromium and cobalt were. Kordia was the one who secured enough of the material, being in the magical crafting course. Then, with knowledge from his first life, he checked them using a grinding stone by comparing the sparks to his memories.

The material he was going to create had been one he felt a strange familiarity with. As if shaping it in large quantities had been important for something. Identifying them left him with an odd sense of nostalgia, and sometimes he dreamed fragments of learning about alloys and what they could do.

After that, he spent days after class convincing Enumasam to use them, promising the man he would see a metal tougher than any he knew. It helped that Kir had done all the math in advance, but Enumasam had budged only because Rainier helped in the negotiations.

Kir had rewarded his boyfriend with a few wild nights that may have caused Rain’s grades to drop. "It was worth it," Rain said with a happy smile when Kir asked if failing his quiz was okay.

In the present, Kir reached down and picked up the blade. Its weight was perfect, and its shape suited to both cutting and stabbing.

He’d learned he very much liked bastard swords over the last month of training, which he could do in peace with Lugh sworn to avoid him. Bastard swords were versatile, and he wouldn’t need a shield as much as with a single-hander.

The sword in his hands was a katana version of the same. 70 centimeters long, with a handle almost 40 centimeters in length. The blade had a silvery, mirror shine, and curiously the edge was a cold blue that became white where the light touched the sharpest point.

"You might not be able to tell, but the grain structure is so fine, it may not ever need reforging." The smith spoke proudly. "I will enjoy seeing what I can make with the remaining material."

"Why is it blue?" Kir asked.

"That happened when I had it enchanted. When you said it would get stronger when chilled, I did not believe it. So I went to a friend and tested it. She insisted on adding her touch once it became obvious the blade could survive even the hardest ice." He smiled fondly as if the sword were a favored child of his. "The enchantment will make the blade colder if you feed mana into it."

Kir suppressed the urge to wince. Over a month after being sealed, any outflow of mana was painful for him. He’d managed to stay ahead of the seals in his ears for the most part thanks to body enhancement training, but there were a couple of nights when he’d forgotten and Rainier had summoned Kordia to help deal with the paralyzing pain that filled Kir in those instances.

"Thank you... and your friend," Kir said. "I’ll repay you both someday."

Enumasam nodded. "Perhaps." He sheathed the sword in a scabbard far finer than what Kir had arranged. "As agreed, the blade is yours. But before you leave with it, I would like to know its name."

Kir was surprised. "I thought the tradition was that the blacksmith named the weapon."

The old man laughed. "If I named every weapon that I made, I’d spend half my time trying to be clever instead of doing work. Now come, we can drink while you decide."

"I’m going to have to decline. I’m going into the city dungeon tomorrow... Besides, I think I have a good name for her already," Kir smiled.

"Oh?" The blacksmith looked at the blade in Kir’s hands.

"Kangetsu. It means ’Cold Moon’." When Kir first beheld the blade, he had immediately thought of the pale white moon of Earth, shining on water on crescent nights.

"Kangetsu... Kangetsu... Strange name, but I like it. Cold Moon, eh?" the smith smiled. "I shall remember."

"Hi there! You remember me?" Kir looked over to see Stella in her orcish form, which was just as short as her actual one. Today she was dressed as an Academy student.

Kir suppressed the urge to groan as Enumasam addressed Stella.

"Ah, the young girl who was interested in smithing. I didn’t know you were with the Academy. I’m afraid I cannot offer an apprenticeship at this time." He smiled warmly.

"Oh, no, I’m not here for an apprenticeship or anything like that..." Stella blushed. "I just heard you finished a biiiig job. So I was just interested in doing a bit of hands-on learning..."

Her leading tone and forward lean, which displayed quite a bit of green cleavage, was met with a smaller smile from the blacksmith. "No."

"Aww why not?" Stella whined.

"Please take your friend with you when you leave," Enumasam said to Kir. "I will not dishonor my husband today."

Taking the hint, Kir dragged Stella out by the collar.

As soon as a conveniently unoccupied alley presented itself, Kir pulled Stella into it.

"Gah! I should have guessed he was gay! If I was at peak power, I’d go incubus and seduce him out from under-"

"What is with you today?" Kir asked. For the last month, Stella had grown increasingly pushy, and Kir had finally had enough.

"It’s none of your-"

"Tell me!" Kir ordered, and at once Kir’s earrings flared in response to the mana cast forth through their bond. Both Kir and Stella had a long moment of intense pain that left him braced against the wall above her while she caught her breath. He hadn’t meant to make it an order, but as the holder of Stella’s contract, his will could be forced upon her if he backed his words with mana.

"I can’t evolve!" Stella yelled at him. "Are you happy?! There! I said it! I’ve got more than enough mana but it’s just... It isn’t happening and I don’t know why!"

And then she started to cry.