High School of Demon Hunting

Zheng Qing felt he had increasingly fallen in love with being a cat.

Lazily lying under the warm sun, sniffing the aroma of fresh grass, chewing on the nectar trickling from flowers, purring contently, he basked in the beauty and ease of life.

When hungry, he’d swipe a chicken leg from the canteen; when thirsty, he’d sneak into the Hundred Herb Gardens to lick the dew from the flowers; when bored, he’d catch mice and give them a good thrashing; when bothered, he’d call over a gang of underlings to zoom through the academy.

No burdens of exams, no irritations of homework, no worries about Hunting Team Training, no need to manage the small shop business. In his spare time, he’d whack moles and occasionally pat a Kappa on the head.

Of course, it would be even better if that little white cat would improve its temper a bit.

Thinking this, the black cat turned its head and glanced at the little white cat lying next to him, cautiously flicking its tail and gently batting the little white cat’s paw with the tip of its tail.

The little white cat raised an eyelid, gave the black cat a look, yawned a big yawn revealing a mouth full of sharp white teeth.

The black cat’s body stiffened, honestly curled up its own tail, withdrew to its side of the territory, indignantly looking towards the lake with malevolent thoughts in its heart: after all, it’s a feral cat, so uncultured, it clearly occupied my sunny spot and still has such a bad temper, careful that I turn back into a wizard, come back with a Law book, and use vines to hang you from a tree branch for a beating.

Although that’s what he thought, right now the sun was too comfortable, so comfortable that the black cat would rather give the little white cat some space to maintain the moment’s peace.

They were now lying on a long bench.

This bench was located at the end of the shaded path between the library and the back garden. On the inside of the bench stood a thick Split Leaf Paulownia Tree; on the outside was a Blue Stone Slab path. This path connected Dormitory Hill with Book Mountain Library, then crossed the north shore of Lin Zhong Lake, eventually extending to the front of the classroom building.

Most of the trees on both sides of the road were these old Split Leaf Paulownia Trees—of course, some wizards preferred to call them French or Three-ball Paulownia Trees—as these trees often bore ping-pong ball-sized fruit that the academy’s many-tailed squirrels loved to use as projectiles to throw around, causing much annoyance among students.

The School Works Committee also couldn’t arrange for wizards to specifically deal with those little squirrels, so instead, it posted notices on the bulletin board inviting the academy’s leisurely cats and dogs to patrol this shaded path to ensure the squirrels don’t scatter things about. Animals that took on the task and performed well would receive corresponding rewards.

The black cat, pondering that it had a bunch of underlings to command, took on the task. Every few days, it would send a team of cats to patrol this shaded path, chasing away the darting squirrels.

Today was a day to stand watch.

The luxuriant branches crisscrossed, shrouding the entire stone path under a dense shade. Behind the Paulownia Trees were neatly trimmed evergreens and lawns; between the trees were placed long wooden benches.

These benches were originally intended for students to rest, but those walking on this shaded path were either going to the classroom building for classes or headed to Book Mountain Library to look up materials and do homework; few would stop and rest here. This, however, suited the guarding cats just fine. Right now, on the dozens of benches on both sides of the path, there were cats sprawled out napping everywhere, which actually made passing witches stop one by one, with meowing sounds rising and falling in succession.

How foolish humans are, the black cat shook its whiskers, scoffing at the witches’ behavior.

Just then.

Suddenly, a burst of screams from students came from afar, drawing the attention of the cats.

The black cat sat up, peering in the direction of the commotion, only to find a warlock proposing to a witch, conjuring a vibrant sea of flowers, and behind the sea of flowers, a misty vapor creating a rainbow that stood arch-like above the heads of the witch and warlock. Groups of brightly-dressed little sprites fluttered through the rainbow and flowers, dancing gracefully. A group of Speaker Flowers puffed up their cheeks, playing delightful music.

The screams were from the witch’s friends.

Witches of that age were generally fond of romance.

Realizing it was just the students horsing around, the cats once again sank into their ’holy laziness’. The black cat’s previously tense muscles relaxed again, laying back down to lazily bask in the sun.

However, that rainbow was really pretty.

Indeed, pretty.

The Black Cat stared at the rainbow, watching and watching until it couldn’t help but purr.

The Little White Cat next to it had been envying the distant commotion one step earlier.

Just like that.

The two cats snuggled their paws together and lay side by side, squinting their eyes, looking at the rainbow hanging over the lake, the sea of flowers, and the frolicking Sprites, purring happily.

Purr, purr.

Suddenly, the purring of the Little White Cat came to an abrupt halt. Before the Black Cat could react, he felt a strong force at his waist that could not be resisted.

He was kicked off the wooden chair by the Little White Cat.

When he got up from the ground, dusting himself off, the Little White Cat was still squinting its eyes, purring, immersed in the light of the distant rainbow. As if the Black Cat had accidentally fallen and everything was unrelated to her.

The Black Cat was dumbfounded.

Soaking up the Sun and purring nicely, suddenly kicked off the bed by a cat—cats can bear it, dogs cannot! Was there no king’s law left? No law?!

”Hiss... Really... A tomcat should not squabble with a queen!”

The Black Cat drew in a breath, lifted its paw, and rubbed its chin that had hit a stone with its thick paw pad, silently comforting itself that it was a Big Cat and a Big Cat should be more tolerant, not stooping to the level of petty Little Cats.

Although the fallacy of ’spiritual victory’ ala A Q is often criticized, at many times, people still like to use this method as a form of mental comfort.

This is nature, irrelevant of humans or cats.

The Black Cat had wanted to leave and find a quieter bench. However, in his field of vision, his own bench was where the sunshine was the warmest, the air the freshest. Moreover, on other benches, there were at least three or five Flower Cats, or as many as a dozen cats squeezed together, creating a scene too pitiful to join in on.

After hesitating several times, the Black Cat ultimately pinched its nose, and while the Little White Cat wasn’t paying attention, sneakily slipped back onto its own chair.

Truly, there was no more miserable affair in the world than this.

As the Black Cat was brewing its mood, looking for an opportunity to resume its purring, a series of subtle rustling sounds reached its ears. It tried to block out the noise, but the persistent rustling sounds just kept burrowing into its eardrum.

Becoming a cat comes with its own annoyances!

The Black Cat suddenly realized—having too good of a hearing was an annoyance in itself.

The rustling was still buzzing in its ears. The Black Cat finally could not restrain itself, turned its head, and looked around, and through the gaps between the wooden boards of the bench, it saw a fist-sized black hole emerge at the root of the nearby Paulownia tree.

The rustling sound was coming from the black hole.

Before long, two Mice sporting waistcoats squeezed out of the hole.