High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1075: Chapter 137: A Note

”Even if the Return Soul Poplar seeds can’t turn into butterflies, they can still grow into big trees...” Korma waved his hand, hummed listlessly, ”Cut the small talk. You know why you’re here today, right?”

”If I knew, I wouldn’t have been waiting here for so long.” Elena reined in her smile, glanced around, and lowered her voice a bit, ”Moreover, your plan is set to proceed in a month... Didn’t we agree to play it safe recently? Why are you calling me out today?”

”I didn’t want to!” Korma kicked at the nearby Return Soul Poplar irritably, causing the branches to rustle. The ’caterpillars’ that were hanging from the branches tumbled to the ground in heaps.

Elena carefully dodged the falling seeds, looking at her partner with an implied speechlessness.

Korma let out a long sigh and, finally without hesitation, pulled out a piece of paper and flicked it towards Elena, ”This is what I received the day before yesterday... It appeared directly on the bar at Gini Cottage, with no signature. Inside, it says to delay our plan and wait for further notice, or the moment we kick off our plan will coincide with the summons from the Danghag High Court arriving.”

Elena’s expression changed drastically, and she quickly grabbed the paper, reading it thoroughly.

The Black Cat hiding in the tree canopy had trouble seeing the contents of the note, but with a twitch of its ears, it had picked up most of what Korma just said, which set its heart pounding.

From the tone of his senior, it seemed that whatever he and Elena were up to wasn’t exactly legal. Should he intervene now to prevent their mistake or feign ignorance?

It was a dilemma: no matter what he did, no one would be grateful, and he would likely earn significant resentment.

At this thought, Black Cat felt deeply annoyed with its own curiosity, cursing it silently—if there’s a next time, let me be a puppy! it swore to itself.

Beneath the tree, Elena had finished reading the note.

”Tch,” the witch spat dismissively, ”What else can we do? We’ll just have to wait as they asked! Initially, you didn’t want to take the blame for the dark tide in Silent Forest and chose to delay the ceremony for two months... Now it seems, we’ve just traded for a different pot.”

”And we don’t even know whose pot it is,” Korma said with a darkened face, his tone somewhat gloomy.

”Do you have any suspects?” Elena picked up the paper again, inspecting it closely, ”Based on this note alone, I can’t decipher much.”

Korma didn’t hold back, ”The paper is standard issue from the school; they can be found in any study room, library, and also in classrooms and labs; the same goes for the ink. As for the handwriting, I showed it to a guy in the North District known for forging documents. He said the writing is atrociously ugly, like it was crawled out by insects, and not something an average person could produce.”

”I’ve never heard of anyone whose handwriting is this ugly,” Elena agreed, shaking her head as she looked down at a mouse carcass covered by a swarm of ants not far from her feet, then suddenly said, ”But mice might be a different story.”

”Mice?” Korma’s eyes brightened as he muttered, ”I hadn’t checked that lead before...”

”What leads have you checked?” Elena flipped the note over and over, even holding it up against the light streaming through the gaps in the branches, squinting as she examined it.

The Black Cat hiding in the branches of the tree couldn’t help but carefully shift back, fearful of being seen by the two fierce girls below and captured for their games.

Luckily, Elena was focused on the note and didn’t notice the Black Cat’s presence.

”Checked many.” Korma counted on his fingers, replying in a muffled voice, ”There are still some clubs in the Northern District that might do this kind of ritual, can’t rule out them tripping us up in secret...”

”I’ve met those people before, most of them lack confidence, seven or eight out of ten are just watching what you’ll do, shouldn’t be them.” Elena denied.

Korma nodded, ”I also think it’s unlikely these fools are the ones sending me notes, but with handwriting this ugly, I can only wonder if it’s them who could have written it. Other than that, I do have three main suspects.”

”Which three?”

”Societies, demons, Dark Council.”

”Hiss!” Elena took in a sharp breath, her delicate eyebrows knit tightly, ”Do you have any evidence? The guys you’re talking about aren’t easy to deal with... How would they notice these small actions of ours?”

”If I had evidence, I’d be here today to discuss taking action with you.” Korma spread his hands, his tone revealing a hint of helplessness, ”It’s just deduction.”

”There’s some tension between Jiuyou and Alpha, which in turn affects Sacred Will and Blood Comrades almost every other day. If in some time those two societies fight over a trivial matter at school, I certainly wouldn’t be surprised.”

”So you think someone from them wants us to stir the waters even murkier?” Elena pondered.

”And those demons... Although the school has always been vague, everyone knows this semester the school must be planning something big. If everything were peaceful, it wouldn’t make sense to have started pulling back hunting teams from the New World since last semester... and after coming back, they all but disappeared. It’s possible that demon spies have infiltrated the school, wanting to make us the scapegoats.”

Upon hearing the second suspect, Elena’s face immediately turned a bit sallow.

She knew that a certain pet snake was a spy and had intended to keep this under wraps, to claim credit after sorting out her own matters, maybe even letting that snake take the fall for her. But unexpectedly, that pet snake had shed its painted skin early on, recently causing quite the stir at the academy.

”None of them are fools.” The witch suddenly snickered, shaking her head.

”As for the Dark Council, I don’t have any direct reason to suspect them. It’s just that they caused such a commotion during the Winter Hunt at the end of last semester, I’m guessing they might want to have another go this term.”

”After all is said and done, according to your speculation, this note ultimately intends for us to be the fall guys, right.” Elena sighed.

”What else?” Korma curled his lip, ”I’d like to take on a heavier burden, but with our small stature, I doubt we could withstand the weight of others’ greater malice.”

This sense of self-awareness seemed quite fitting, the Black Cat thought, perched amidst the tree canopy, recalling the plight of the Big Cat and the few little cats back at Gini Cottage, slightly twitching its whiskers in agreement with Korma’s statement.

”What are your plans moving forward?” Elena didn’t mind her companion’s self-deprecating remarks and countered, ”Are you planning to postpone as the other party requests?”

”Do I look that stupid?” Korma bent his thumb back, pointing at his nose, a few traces of the Northern District Wizard’s characteristic fierceness coming through in his tone, ”People suffer without knowing it, content only with what they have just gained. Since they don’t dare to show up blatantly, it means both our houses must not come to light... When narrow paths cross, only the brave prevail; we must never let others lead us by the nose, or we’ll be devoured without a trace left.”