Chapter 254: Smokes and Mirrors
"Ugh, gods, what is that smell on you?"
Kordia released Kir almost as soon as she hugged him, during the secret lunch date he proposed to make up for not being there this morning.
They were sitting in one of the "hidden" gardens of the school. A square space with a small magical fountain in the middle, made for being seen from above, not used. There were no benches, so they sat at the edge of the fountain, Kir’s glamoured tail playing in the water.
"I, uh, just tried smoking for the first time..." Kir blushed under his wolfkin glamour.
"And your past life thanks you for your service," Kiryu snarked from inside Kir’s head. "I swear the stuff here is way better than all that chemical-added shit from Earth."
"It’s also mana-rich," Kir added. He’d bought "the good stuff" after all, to hold up his end of the deal. In exchange, Kiryu was going to help Kir with developing Programmable Magic.
"Please don’t make it a habit," Kordia replied, "My nose is pretty sensitive."
"Please do make it a habit," Kiryu said. "I haven’t felt this alive since I died."
Aside from making him spend a large gold on good tobacco, Kiryu made Kir buy a rosewood and gold pipe similar to a kiseru - a style of smoking pipe from Japan. Losing three large gold to smoking meant he was temporarily unable to even pay his own bounty if a student managed to land a cut on him...
They were just finishing up their meal when a rustle sounded in one of the nearby bushes.
Who would be eating lunch away from the cafeteria?