High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 328: Chapter 252: Writing a Letter_1

This is a cramped room.

It’s clean, but the color scheme is plain.

Floor, walls, ceiling, as far as the eye can see, the only color in this room is gray, barren, without any decorations.

Against the corner lies a gray oak wardrobe, its door half opened. Inside hangs a solitary robe from Jiuyou Academy.

A gray stone desk coldly squatting by the bed, on which nothing is to be found; no lamp, no books, no ghost detector, not even a decent clock. It truly has nothing.

Next to the desk is a low, single bed.

The bed sheet and duvet cover made from gray linen.

The orange sunlight streams into the room through the window, casting a dappled light on the small single bed.

This beam of light is the only different color in this room.

Nicholas sat on the bed, legs crossed, leaning against the cold wall.

The upper half of his body was cloaked in the room’s shadow, while his legs basked in the orange sunlight.

This is his dorm room at the First University.

Whether it was because they could not accurately match his grade, to avoid any awkward atmosphere from living with other students, or simply to provide him a better studying environment...

Since he entered Jiuyou Academy, Dormitory Supervisor Uncle Ni Wu had assigned him to a single room.

The gray feather quill burped satiatedly, blowing bubbles in the ink bottle urging its owner to use it.

Nicholas squared the notepad on his lap, picked up the quill, and began writing mightily:

”Dear Mom ...”

Having written those few words, he dipped the quill back into the black ink bottle, took a deep breath and wrote:

”It’s been a while since I write to you, may you be well in heaven.”

Nicholas hesitated with the quill in hand, suddenly feeling that the piety evoked by such blessing, perhaps he should have chosen Atlas Academy.

But he quickly discarded this ridiculous thought, shook his head, and continued writing:

”I am doing well, and so is Liz.”

”Praise to the Potion Research Institute. Without the trouble of hemophilia, Liz has shown a very strong talent... a talent more exceptional than mine.”

”Yesterday at Lin Zhong lake, when I was chatting with old Ferna who guards the wharf - you might still remember, he keeps a very old dog - he praised Liz’s talent in my presence.”

”’An unprecedented genius,’ he lavishly gestured, as though encompassing the vast lake ’I bet she could become a state-sponsored student at Alpha Academy when she grows up’!”

Writing to this point, Nicholas suddenly recalled his past experience at Alpha Academy and hesitated whether to scribble that line out.

However, he quickly discarded this ostrich-like reaction, instead, added beneath it:

”Of course, where Liz wants to go when she grows up is her business, and I believe you would respect her choice – From my perspective, that Academy does not welcome us wizards very much, so I would recommend her to choose other institutions.”

”Like Jiuyou Academy.”

”You might know, my results for the resit at Starry Sky Academy last year were not very satisfactory. I should’ve been expelled.”

”But thanks to the school’s concern, they allowed me to have a retake and to continue studying at this university of your dreams.”

”However, you might not guess which academy accepted me this time... Jiuyou Academy, the school you said only bookworms would go to.”

”You were right, this school is indeed filled with bookworms...and morons.”

When writing down the final word, a gentle smile surfaced on Nicholas’s face, he looked up, squinting at the orange sunlight while staring out of the window.

It was as though he was back on that afternoon when he first saw her.

At the damp lakeside, with the lingering smell of the departed fishman in the air. The Alpha guide yelling at her: ”I told you to let go... why are you so stupid!”

What did Fifi say back then?

Nicholas leaned his head hard backward against the gray wall, making two thumping noises, then he remembered.

She didn’t rebut her guide, merely repeated ”I don’t know”.

Then he jumped in and confronted the Alpha guide for her.

Nicholas’s lips curled downwards, admiring from the bottom of his heart his decision back then.

He dipped the gray feather quill into the ink bottle, and continued writing on the spread out letter paper:

”Jiuyou Academy’s teaching philosophy is completely different from that of Alpha.”

”It seems the only way this academy judges its students is based on exam marks – not considering additional talent, reference letters, nor club activities. The high achievers from Alpha Academy would probably become laggards at Jiuyou. After all, in Jiuyou, they cannot earn credits using the spells they inherited.”

”Only by mastering the fixed spells and knowledge points in textbooks, can they earn corresponding credits.”

”Fortunately, I received help from a state-sponsored student.

She’s the chief student of first year in Jiuyou Academy, very clever, very capable. She seems to comprehend everything that the professor lectures about in the blink of an eye. The semester has just begun, but she has already started to preview the contents for the second half of the semester.”

”She was also an incredibly beautiful, very gentle girl.”

”Sometimes, I can’t help but feel that Heaven has a particularly cruel streak. It gives some people extraordinary intelligence, beautiful bodies, but bestows upon others a flawed life. And then, allows them to meet each other.”

At this point, Nicholas halted his pen and looked back out the window.

His gaze was somewhat hazy.

...

”Why are you so stupid!” A boy frustratedly sighed at the girl beside him: ”Don’t randomly touch the stone beasts in the corridor, they will beat you up...”

The girl pouted, knotting the large snake in her hands into eighteen loops.

...

”You’re even stupider!” said the girl, laughing heartily as she twirled a thin vine with her fingertips and pointed at the boy, ”You can’t even use such a simple spell...”

The boy looked at the tangled mess at his feet, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

...

”You are so silly! From now on let’s call you blockhead.” The girl spread out the grass paper in front of her and muttered: ”Watch, I’ll calculate it for you again.”

The boy beside her nodded obediently.

...

”Didn’t you do your best? How come you only got a rank-two in the talisman exam?” The boy incessantly mumbled, blaming himself: ”Is it because of helping me with lessons, you didn’t have time to review...”

”You really are a big blockhead!” The girl scowled and lost her temper.

...

”Blockhead, what’s for lunch!”

”Boiled eggs and scrambled egg rice.”

...

”Blockhead, go to the library with me to reserve seats!”

”Okay...”

...

”Blockhead...”

”What’s up?”

”...I can’t remember... I’ll call you when I remember, blockhead.”

”Oh...”

...

With these sweet memories flowing through his mind, Nicholas never stopped skillfully writing with his quill.

”...The creed of Jiuyou Academy is to seek ultimate justice and equality, which stands in stark contrast with Alpha’s freedom and justice.”

”I am not in a position to judge who is right or wrong.”

”But to me, perhaps I feel more of a sense of belonging at Jiuyou Academy.”

”Regardless, I will continue to persist.”

”Just as you hoped for, Mom.”

”It’s getting cold, put on an extra blanket when you sleep. When the first snow falls, remember to pick two snowflakes for Liz and me. Liz is particularly fond of star-shaped fir needle snowflakes - she says they’re much like the Christmas gift you drew for her when she was a child - she still doesn’t know that you drew a sleep symbol.”

”It’s late now, I must go to the library to revise.”

”I hope when I write to you next time, I’ll be able to bring you some better news.”

”May Merlin bless us.”

Setting down his quill, he let it roll across the floor, scattering droplets of ink in its wake.

Nicholas tilted his head, absently staring at the dormitory window.

It was a similarly narrow window, about a metre high and less than half a metre wide.

The windowsill was over a metre from the ground.

The arc-shaped window frame had no curtains, and the cross-shaped window struts inserted into the four thick walls supported the thin pane of glass.

Nicholas jumped down from the bed, shaking his numbed legs. He opened the wooden chest under his desk and tucked the folded letter inside.

Sunlight filtered through his fingers.

The wooden chest was filled to the brim with letters.