It had taken Baron Elmar and his men a year to complete their investigation. As expected, it had somewhat flimsily led to accusations against the academy, and therefore Lila. William was listening to the end of the… negotiations… involving the accusations.

“Of course I did it! The head of the Van Cann family was a stupid idiot who lied to me and went directly against our deal! You’re a stupid fat idiot for trying to say I was in the wrong. Now get out of my office!” Lila pointed toward the door.

William sighed internally. There went most of the dignity she had built up as Headmistress Lorenz. Though insults might have been part of the formula in such situations, they were generally supposed to be more… dignified. Not that William felt that anything said was wrong. How did a demon lord get fat anyway? Weren’t they supposed to train and be strong? Did he practice a sumo style or something?

Baron Elmar just stood there with his mouth opening, trying to form words. “Fine then, since you won’t leave on your own, I’ll make you!” When Lila started to move forward, William stopped her with a gentle hand on her shoulder. She glared at him, but when William stepped forward she calmed down. William didn’t have any official position in the academy at the moment, but he was participating in the meeting in the guise of a bodyguard. Not that Lila needed that, but additional firepower was good. William grabbed the baron by his expensive jacket and started dragging him. It must have been magical, because it didn’t rip or tear.

“Hands off! I can walk on my own, you filthy peasant!”

“Too late. You didn’t walk when you had the chance.” William found it very satisfying to actually physically throw him out the front gate of the academy, then shut it behind him. Of course, the baron’s troops were all standing around the academy. He didn’t bring any guards in with him because he was arrogant… but the reason they didn’t just kill him inside their walls was because it would be inconvenient. Killing him during negotiations would like be deemed improper, which could cause all sorts of trouble. Though William was feeling rather strong, he’d rather not face any real army, even with Lila at his side.

-----

Lorelei refrained from commenting on how the negotiations went. “I’ve activated the defenses. Unless I’m severely underestimating the baron’s forces, that should prevent them from causing any damage. They might attempt to climb the walls, but they’re nearly frictionless.”

“They might try stacking people on top of each other again,” Lila commented, “That was an interesting strategy to see, but it did make them rather defenseless. Especially since they couldn’t do it with armor.”

William frowned, “Does the academy get attacked often?”

“Not really.” Lila shrugged, “But it’s happened before. Some people aren’t a fan of a woman in a position of leadership.”

“Sounds unpleasant. So, what battle plans do we have?”

“The professors will be placed on the walls… except the few who can’t do much more than theory. The rest will depend on how the Baron advances. We’ll keep the three of us mobile to go take care of any problems that arise.” There was a flash and the sound of an explosion, “I believe that is them trying to break down the front gates right now.”

-----

Lila headed off to the front gate, and William found himself waiting with Lorelei, watching various things that would indicate if any attacks had been launched in other places. Of course, they also looked out the windows to see those on the walls. So far, the only action was by the front gate. William watched as a few spells splattered on what appeared to be thin air in front of the walls. A few of those on the walls launched spells down, but the angle wasn’t good enough for William to see what happened. “Nice wards. One directional ones are… hard to make.”

Lorelei nodded, “And expensive. They also take a very high amount of energy to maintain.”

“Will that be a problem?”

“Not in a battle of this level. It uses most of the energy when struck, and since they are focusing on one area, it will be relatively efficient. Though, they don’t seem to know that. If they attack somewhere else, you’ll go down to deal with it.”

William nodded. “You know, I was thinking. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you fight.”

“That’s right. You haven’t. There was no reason to me fighting in human territory, and it would only cause problems. I also try to avoid fighting, if possible.” She grinned, “I can, though. Some people learn that the hard way.”

“Like who?”

“Stupid demon lords who think I only have the position of archmage because I’m the Demon King’s lover… which I’m not and never was. He was far too stupid.” She looked out the window, “Ah, something’s happened at the back gate. If you could go look into it?”

-----

When William arrived at the back gate, he wondered if it had been planned all along, or if Baron Elmar hadn’t realized how much trouble he would have at the front gate… and dealing with Lila. If it weren’t for the fact that there were other buildings in the city nearby, William could imagine everyone at the front gate being wiped out in a single spell. That would actually be quite hard and probably inefficient… but that didn’t mean Lila wouldn’t try. However, even if she didn’t care about nobles so much, she did care about the opinion of the commoners and the city, so she would avoid destroying any of their buildings. Probably.

Above the gate William found a professor he didn’t expect. The walls were rather extensive, and the population of the academy wasn’t very large, so each professor covered a large area of wall. If William hadn’t arrived, those on either side of the gate would have needed to come to assist, but then they wouldn’t have been able to watch for more enemies. Honestly, the walls were far too large for the number of defenders.

“Hello Professor Zakkai. Didn’t expect to see you here,” William said to the mousy professor. He was one of the rare gevai who had curly red hair, which made him look almost clownish with his pinkish skin… not that people here knew what clowns were.

“Ah, young Josef! I uh… thought I would try my hand at helping out. Unfortunately, with the ward, I can’t um… I don’t seem to be able to cast effectively at all.”

William looked down off the wall. There were only a handful of people at the gate below. He chanted- a proper chant, because of the circumstances, and created a fireball spell. He saw a noticeable decrease in power as it passed through the ward. Though it was one-directional, it unfortunately wasn’t perfect. It was biased toward stopping anything dangerous. As his fireball struck the demons below, it merely singed them. William pondered. He could use more force, of course, but there should be a better way. He couldn’t help but think about his jail cell. Maybe he could make use of that idea. Well, if there was any actual danger of those below breaking through he would go all out… but before that he had some things to try.