High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1108: Chapter 170: The Visitor Behind

Perhaps it was because he had looked at materials all day that his eyes felt sore and gritty.

After saying that sentence, Doctor Duzem rubbed the corners of his eyes and took out a bottle of eye drops from the cabinet behind him.

Zheng Qing immediately shifted his gaze to other parts of the room—he expected the doctor to wash his eyeballs. Although he had seen this done several times, he was still somewhat uncomfortable with it, always feeling the scene a bit macabre.

”Not many know of my residence and identity, but nor are they few. There are plenty who could have leaked this information to a ’stranger’. That definitely does not include Miss Jiang. Very few wizards are capable of breaking the magic bound around me... She does not yet possess that power,” Doctor Duzem’s voice reached Zheng Qing’s ears, sounding very calm.

If Zheng Qing hadn’t averted his gaze, he would have noticed Doctor Duzem’s eyes sweep over the corner of the study with a flash of surprise, even before he pulled out his eyeballs.

At this moment, Zheng Qing was observing the dark wooden-cased clock hanging on the wall.

The brass pendulum swayed leisurely, and because the room was dimly lit, the silver dial appeared as if coated with a layer of dust, looking dirty. Above it was a small wooden cabin with closed doors.

Zheng Qing vaguely remembered that the first time he had come to this study, there had been an alchemy rooster crowing from inside that little cabin, quite ingeniously crafted. However, after several visits, he had never seen the rooster again.

For all he knew, it might have been stuffed by the doctor inside that room with a rag.

Soon, the sound of a bottle clinking against a glass rod rang out from the desk, interspersed with the gurgling sound of eyeballs swirling in the eye drops.

Zheng Qing examined the timepiece on the wall even more intently.

While washing his eyeballs, Doctor Duzem rambled on, tirelessly reassuring the young cost student:

”...Rest assured, they will only suspect and speculate among themselves, turning a simple little matter into a grand conspiracy. They will definitely not suspect a young wizard like Miss Jiang Yu.”

”Moreover, she hasn’t leaked any information about me, has she?”

Listening to Doctor Duzem’s analysis, Zheng Qing nodded, feeling relieved but also developing a new worry deep inside.

He had reason to believe that Fei Rui or the Rat Immortal seeking out Doctor Duzem had motives that weren’t so simple. The big figures who had bound Doctor Duzem to this yard might not bother Miss Yu afterward, or might not be able to trouble those two mice, but what about himself?

He was only an unregistered little wizard who couldn’t withstand a slap from those big figures.

”Compared to the troubles you’ve mentioned before, I am actually more curious where you found the confidence to leak my information,” Doctor Duzem’s voice rang out again in Zheng Qing’s ear as the young warlock was deep in thought, staring at the clock.

”Snap out of it!” The doctor snapped his fingers, chuckled lightly, ”I’ve already washed my eyeballs and put them back... You can turn around now.”

Zheng Qing suddenly snapped back to reality, turned his head to look at Doctor Duzem, and showed an embarrassed smile.

”I didn’t... I mean, if there was just such a possibility.” He stammered out his reply to the doctor’s question, seeming a bit flustered.

Doctor Duzem’s gaze swept over the corner of the wall once more, pursed his lips, and finally decided not to continue troubling the cost student in a dilemma.

”Alright, if there are no other issues, then let’s call it a day,” Doctor Duzem waved his hand, issuing a dismissal, ”If Miss Jiang has any more requests, as long as I can do it, I’ll certainly do my best.”

What was left unsaid was that he had been so helpful to Zheng Qing simply out of regard for Jiang Yu.

Zheng Qing naturally didn’t think that having exchanged a few words with Doctor Duzem would make them close friends of different generations. So, upon hearing the Doctor’s words, he felt no annoyance but merely nodded repeatedly and took his leave.

The young subsidized student naturally wouldn’t know that as he left the Abnormal Life Research Institute, pondering how to discreetly pass on Doctor Duzem’s message to his companion or Fei Rui, the door that had just closed behind him already saw two small figures visiting Doctor Duzem’s study.

”You emerged a bit later than I expected,” said Doctor Duzem, already seated behind his desk, clutching the experiment report from before. He didn’t rise, simply lifting his eyelids, his gaze peering over the rim of his glasses with a somewhat cool tone:

”I thought you would be so impatient that you’d come out before that kid left.”

’That kid’ naturally referred to Zheng Qing.

The word ’come out’ used by Doctor Duzem was also remarkably appropriate and fitting.

For the two uninvited guests had not entered through an ordinary door, but instead had drawn a pitch-dark passage through a crack in the corner of the room and sneaked in.

The guest in the lead was covered in ochre fur, with a small frame, round ears, and a short tail. His eyes whirled about when he looked at others, giving one the impression of an excitable fellow.

Following him was an elderly mouse seated on a large, black wooden sedan, cloaked in a black robe, his body full of folds that resembled wrinkles, his eyes squinted to slits, making it hard to tell where his wrinkles ended and his eyes began.

These two were none other than Fei Rui and the Rat Immortal.

Contrary to their stature, it was the Rat Immortal, seated behind, who spoke first in response to their host’s questioning.

”It’s a matter of etiquette for guests to arrive in an orderly fashion,” the Rat Immortal stated from his wooden sedan, which today was not being carried by the Red Vest Mouse but floated gently in mid-air, ”Moreover, do you really want others to see our meeting?”

Doctor Duzem remained silent.

Compared to the Rat Immortal, Fei Rui behaved more like a mouse.

He sniffed around here and there, sometimes dropping to all fours, dashing haphazardly around the small study. Throughout this time, Doctor Duzem observed coolly without a word.

Eventually, Fei Rui flopped beside the glass tank in the corner of Doctor Duzem’s study, peering at the pale insects inside, and clicked his tongue in admiration: ”Wow! These are the original carrion beetles from the Silent Forest, aren’t they?! It’s rare to see such pure-bred insects these days... The carrion beetles that came out during the recent Black Tide, eight out of ten had black stripes or red dots on them.”

The best of the original species of carrion beetles are known for their transparent hair and pure white phosphorescence. The more mixed the lineage, the flashier the beetles’ colors. This was what Fei Rui found regrettable.

As he was talking, Fei Rui’s claw inadvertently pulled down the velvet blanket covering the cheval mirror, revealing the antique and broad mirror underneath.

The mirror’s face twisted in the light, forming an ugly, gaping mouth.

”Oh, look what I’ve found? Two filthy little mice!” The cheval mirror woke up, and within less than a second, it started screaming: ”Constantin! Constantin!! Blast it! Just how long has it been since you’ve cleaned?!”