The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 268: The Curious Case of Bailey Black

Chapter 268: The Curious Case of Bailey Black

The reactions in Kir’s class to learning they had the chance to go on a paid field trip that winter were mixed, to say the least.

The twins were automatically excited - free to do what they wanted since they were stuck at the school until graduation or expulsion since their family had two more sets of twins at home.

Keiya was excited, and she asked Kir after class if they could visit the spirit of the lake on the way, to which Kir said "I’ll see what I can do," with a reassuring wink.

Encke didn’t react. Even though Kir tried to find out more about her through conversations, she was quite shy with information. He knew there was a brave girl in there somewhere, but drawing her out was... not his strong suit.

Daisy’s eyes glittered with malicious intent. She hadn’t tried attacking Kir directly with spells in the cafeteria or crowded areas, again, but her efforts seemed increasingly desperate and slightly unhinged. Kir pretended not to hear her muttering to the enchanted dagger under her desk. "There’s so much we can do when we’re not in the Academy, little Sunshine. Just wait..."

And Bailey...

Bailey Black, the school’s number one delinquent, looked away, refusing to come down after class to inform Kir whether or not he would go.

When he remained seated after class, Kir stood up and went to sit one seat away from him. "Is everything alright, Mr. Black?" He’d come in with some slightly faded bruises, which did not bode well for how his weekend went.

"Yeah. Can’t go." He put his hands behind his head, with its shining mop of unkempt black hair. "Gotta stay here."

"May I ask why?" Kir asked.

"I got someone to look out for."

That was a surprise to Kir. Bailey had kept up his lone wolf act for so long, Kir had assumed he was getting abused at home if not picking fights - not that Bailey told him anything. As long as he didn’t use his blood magic outside the school, Lumin was content to let him suffer whatever he was outside of its ground. And thus far Kir hadn’t made much time for Bailey, given his usual habit of leaving as quickly as possible the moment school was over.

"A close friend?" Kir tried.

"Something like that."

"Why are you still here then?" Kir asked.

"I’m waiting for the bus. It only comes on the hour and it’s fucking cold outside."

"Well, we can wait together then, since I plan on riding home as well." A smiled worked its way up Kir’s lips, filled with the sardonic knowledge that the bus might have more of a revolution than getting people to work or school on time, in the case of his most intransigent student.

"No thanks. We’re not friends. You’re just the latest know-it-all Lumin wants to analyze me."

"Now there’s a word you didn’t use before we met," Kir chuckled.

Despite his delinquency, Bailey was actually a fairly decent student. His grades were average, but he did genuinely seem to want to learn. He just didn’t want to look like he was learning.

A moment later, there was a flash of steel as Bailey tried to stab Kir.

Having maintained his habit of shielding himself at all times, the unenchanted blade did little to his active barriers, which worked against the tendency of steel and iron to resist magic by hardening the air in ever-regenerating layers.

After letting the knife skid aside, Kir grabbed Bailey by the wrist and disarmed him. "I’ll take that," Kir said. "Weapons aren’t allowed on the bus. Good try though." It was a rule the city had instigated when one adventurer decided his greatsword deserved to take up three seats.

It gave Kir the idea to make a special bus just for adventurers down the line, or maybe just seat them all on the bus roofs, once the double-deckers were approved and finished. So far, the city had commissioned one more "regular" bus, as a backup for if something went wrong when the first was modified into a double-decker.

"Hey! I need that!"

"Why?"

"Self-fucking defense, ass sniffer."

Kir frowned. Just because he was disguised as a wolfkin, didn’t mean he liked being called a dog.

"I’ll make you a deal then. I’ll ride as far as you’re going. You will have your knife back when you leave the bus. Not before."

"You’re a fucking demon. Making deals for everything."

Kir tensed, but it was just Bailey venting.

"Fine," the young human said. "Just... don’t act like you know me or anything."

Kir got up and pocketed the knife. The moment his back was turned, Bailey sent a bolt of magic into his back.

"Had to try," Bailey said when Kir turned, sighing and standing up.

"Don’t make trouble on the bus."

About a quarter hour later, the bus arrived, and they stepped on. Finding qualified drivers had been a bit of a pain, but it turned out there were plenty of Academy students who needed work and were more than willing to learn the techniques, once Kir taught Moshui how to operate the bus.

Being young, they took to it as quickly as he... well, Kiryu had, at least according to his other half.

Today’s afternoon driver was...

"Kordia?"

"Kir- Professor Nasumi?"

Bailey tsked and walked to the back of the bus where the heated seats were. "Move," he commanded a third year who stared up at him like a mouse looking at a cat.

Kir cleared his throat loudly to remind Bailey of what he told him, but by then the student had moved to the other side of the bench, and Bailey took his spot in the corner.

"Kordia, when did you learn to drive?"

"This morning. It’s actually kindof fun, and Miss Moshui said I was a natural at controlling my mana. Oh, but I’m on short shift since I’m new, so I’ll be switching out once we get back to the 4th District." Her platinum ears and tails complimented the blue bus driver uniform perfectly, as did her golden eyes. It was rare to see Kordia in regular pants, but Moshui seemed to have quickly modified something for her to wear or had pants for beastkin arranged in advance.

By this point, the city had appointed managers to the Norneau Bussing Service, and while Moshui was serving as an "advisor" - while essentially running the whole operation from recruitment to manufacturing - she was keen to get back to new discoveries now that she was getting the hang of Programmable Magic.

"Well then, how about I escort you home after that?" he offered. "It wouldn’t do for a young lady, even a mage, to walk alone."

"That would be great if it’s not too much trouble," Kordia answered, a slight blush on her cheeks.

As Kir sat down, he was oblivious to the stares of the female students on the bus — especially those of the beastkin girls eyeing him like a forbidden hunk of meat.

Kir took his seat near the front and waited until the bus was loaded. Exactly one-tenth of an hour later, Kordia accelerated the bus on its loop. By then, Kir had elected to stand in order to avoid making contact with the students he’d given up his seat for. He took a seat when the first students - those of wealthier, local parents and the Academy’s sibliary houses - left after the short trip to the 1st District.

Unlike the test run, the ride was so much smoother thanks to the paved concrete that had been generated over the cobbles, smoothed at great expense to perfectly slope at light angles between each tier of the city.

Consequently, Kir had been secretly charged with retrieving the half of the city’s funds he’d failed to intercept. In a self-destroying letter given to him by Terry, she told him the mission, the locations of several Syndicate holdings on or near World Tree Amrita, and which chest on the ship would secretly be a dimensional storage box.

Of course, once he loaded it with gold, he would need to stay nearby to power it... Which begged the question of where he was going to keep the damn thing. Something about wooden boxes gave them far more potential volume than bags or even tattoos, with a price in mana and money to match.

He doubted Lumin would tell him how she’d acquired both the information and the box, and spent most of the ride thinking about what sort of itinerary he could make that would let him get away with the most Ghostheart activities... as well as what rewards Kordia would like when he showed her how grateful he was that she was operating his invention...

In short order, Kordia called out "Third District!"

Bailey waited for everyone else to leave before approaching Kir and taking back his knife. As Kir handed the blade to him with two fingers, Bailey tried to push instead of pull, clearly hoping to stab Kir in the hand, but Kir had anticipated such a move and was clearly the better mage when it came to bodily enhancement magic.

"Tsk," Bailey left with a scowl on his face.

Kir frowned, but perked up a bit after Kordia drove the bus back to its final station, switching off with another student.

"I’ll go change my uniform and be right out," she said.

"Sure you don’t want to leave it on?" Kir asked with a suggestive wink.

"Well... I suppose I could just carry my school clothes home..."

*

They had just passed the gate when Kir saw Bailey Black, running at full tilt with his knife in his hands as a gang of young adults and kids chased him.

"Shit," Kir said.