High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1284: Chapter 31: The Gift

The sudden and brief devastation that occurred in North Beta Town did not stir a ripple across the campus of the First University.

On one hand, neither the Trident Sword nor the investigator from the School Works Committee had appeared at the scene of the accident; on the other hand, the privileged few high in their ivory towers rarely cast their eyes toward that magical hollow.

Of course, the main reason was that before anyone else noticed that ”minor” accident, the Yellow Flowered Cat had already pulled Mr. Wu’s projection from the void, and, using Zheng Qing’s silver pocket watch, had turned back the time by a few minutes.

This rewind was a ”selective rewind.” Mr. Wu merely restored the street to its original state, and the few dead Tricksters and the vague shadow of the Outer God were not brought back to life with Mr. Wu’s magic.

Every time he thought about it, Zheng Qing felt a burning sensation in his heart.

This sensation became especially clear when walking through Jiuyou Academy on a Monday morning.

Because he felt incredibly hypocritical.

He could scurry everywhere for the life and death of a few small sprites, yet he felt no grief for the few Tricksters who had died right before him—to the extent that he wondered if Mr. Wu had tampered with his body while repairing it.

However, Mr. Wu had left immediately after adjusting the time, giving him no further chance to ask.

This only added to his gloom.

”It’s not your fault,” Jiang Yu had whispered reassuringly to him last night before leaving, ”They had already accepted the possible consequences when they used Sacrificial Magic... Every sacrifice has its cost.”

That slight comfort was like the last morsel of a plum in a desert, constantly refreshing the young subsidized student’s mouth, sparing him from losing life under the assault of burning heat and thirst.

Therefore, when he saw Jiang Yu in the Curse Course on Monday morning, Zheng Qing’s face showed a brilliant smile of relief, which puzzled the witch.

”Is my hairstyle funny today?” she asked Li Meng softly, touching her bun while turning her head.

Today, instead of wearing her hair down as usual, Jiang Yu had taken a bit of time and styled it into a modified crown braid—where hair falls over her shoulders while a crown braid encircles the top.

This hairstyle, charming with a touch of innocence, superbly enhanced her delicate makeup and fair neck. To hold the style, she also wore an olive branch headband, adding a touch of vivaciousness.

”Extremely beautiful,” Li Meng complimented before asking with a hint of appeasement, ”Cousin... really, there’s no way to make exceptions? I promise to complete the homework by this afternoon!”

Jiang Yu gave the little witch a sidelong glance, silently giving her an answer.

Li Meng dejectedly opened her ”Standard Spells: College Freshman” textbook and began mumbling as she previewed today’s lecture. She was holding the feather pen so tightly she accidentally poked several small holes in the textbook.

Zheng Qing also poked a few small holes on paper.

However, these holes were not made in a textbook but in a temporary replacement Law book he was using.

Since his own Law book had been sealed by an ”amulet,” and his reserve book had been destroyed during last night’s copying, Zheng Qing was surprised to find he had no usable Law book for Monday morning’s Curse Course.

He had no choice but to borrow a public Law book from the library.

As it was well-known, compared to ”personal customization,” another meaning of ”public product” was ”inferior quality” and ”rough construction,” analogous to private versus public hospitals, private high schools versus public ones, personal security versus the USSS, and so on.

Zheng Qing held a public law book in his hands.

The yellow deer-skin cover was full of stains, and it was hard to determine whether they were from dragon’s blood ink or if a kappa had let out a thick spit on it; the thin and brittle silk paper could only handle a soft, small brush, as using a slightly harder quill pen would certainly create a few unsettling holes.

Just like now.

Zheng Qing, holding the cheap shorthand pen he had bought from Green Grocery, looked at the damaged page in the law book with some uncertainty, and turned to look at Xiao Xiao, ”Do you think the library will ask me to pay for this? The law book... it was already fragile in the first place.”

Xiao Xiao was fiddling with a report and glanced at the law book Zheng Qing was holding.

”How novel,” he replied in a matter-of-fact manner, ”I’ve never heard of the library asking someone to pay because they accidentally poked a hole in a book. You just need to choose around five o’clock in the afternoon, the busiest time for the library, to return it, and no one will inspect every page.”

This answer did not bring comfort.

On the contrary, it made Zheng Qing feel even more hypocritical.

”I’ve never been a good student,” he muttered to himself, as if that could make himself feel a bit better.

Then he looked again at the report in Xiao Xiao’s hands.

”What are you writing?” he asked curiously, ”I see you’ve been writing it all morning...”

”It’s the meeting report for the lunch meeting! Don’t tell me you forgot about the Forgiveness Knight Order meeting today at noon!” Xiao Xiao replied somewhat irritably, ”Besides... if you remember your responsibilities as the head of the knight order, you should be writing this yourself!”

Struggling with a sense of shame, the young cost student put on a pleasing smile, quietly flipped open his textbook, and pretended to be engrossed in his studies——although it was a bit embarrassing, tasks like this clerical work were tacitly handled by Doctor Xiao by everyone in the knight order, including the Absolution Hunting Team.

With the doctor’s reminder, Zheng Qing only spent five minutes on lunch and returned to room 403 quite early.

Even so, he was almost the last one to arrive.

Even Monk Shi Yuan had arrived earlier.

The meeting was initiated by Lin Guo, but before it started, there were other topics of conversation.

For example, congratulating Sister Korma on becoming a Big Wizard—this news was still spreading within a small circle, but being low-key didn’t mean it could be ignored. Every witch who knew this good news should show their respects in some way.

The easiest way was to give a gift.

”Last time, Sister Korma showed great interest in the talismans I drew, so I plan to give her a superior quality talisman,” Zheng Qing quickly decided on his gift—what he didn’t tell his friends was that he planned to give Korma a blood talisman.

Mr. Wu had once sternly warned him to control the frequency and use of blood talismans.

”I remember a dried dragon head at home, probably a Romanian Fire Dragon head that’s been there for three hundred years,” Dylan hadn’t slept today, but was struggling with what kind of gift to give to the Big Wizard, ”If only she had advanced sooner. Previously we had a fan made from Azure Phoenix tail feathers, but it was already given to Su Daxu.”

”Li Meng said she baked a box of ginger cookies,” Xin Fat Man scratched his nose with a feather pen and rolled his eyes, ”I also want to give that kind of simple gift...”

”You could pair it with a jar of growth hormone,” Xiao Xiao suggested, ”I heard that the demand for amphibians like frogs is very high in the North District lately, and they certainly don’t have enough growth hormones.”

”The frogs speed-grown with hormones lack depth of time,” Zheng Qing gently reminded, ”Professor Li mentioned this concept in Magic Potion class... The frogs collected by Gini Cottage are to be used in magic rituals.”