High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1371: Chapter 118 What Makes People Feel Afraid

[Pillar of Fire (Extinct)]

[Popular in Europa from the 10th to the 15th century according to the White Ding Calendar, commoners believed they could use these tools to burn wizards to death, but this was merely wishful thinking. Some wizards, who were averse to bathing, relished the preparation of a warm fire bath by the commoners for themselves. Many innocent female commoners were also killed by their peers in this manner.]

[Inside the glass cabinet, there is a wooden platform with three wooden posts standing upright. The posts are wrapped with hemp ropes soaked in oil, and the middle post has a struggling wizard tied to it, his face bearing an exaggerated, feigned smile. Below the platform is a dense crowd of heads, from Zheng Qing’s perspective, only the various shapes of the backs of their heads are visible]

...

[North American Bison (Extinct)]

[Mammalia, Artiodactyla, Bovidae; fierce in nature; attacked Native Americans for thousands of years; known as the barbaric cattle at the mouth of the tents; adult bison weigh up to a ton and possess a pair of hard horns, but lack the ability to stand upright on hind legs like genuine Minotaurs, and have low intelligence; Native Americans fought them with rocks, bones, and witch rituals, suffering heavy losses; it wasn’t until the Europeans came overseas with firearms and plagues that they stopped the bison from further harming the locals.]

[Inside the glass cabinet stands a towering North American Bison, its eyes fierce, its back pierced with several slender javelins, blood slowly trickling down its back. Surrounding it are several natives crouching in fear, wearing leather skirts, and a white man riding a tall horse holding a musket, with wisps of smoke still coming from its muzzle.]

...

[Ape-Man (Existing)]

[(Scientific name: Commoner) Homínidae, body length 1-2 meters, weight 40-100kg, brain capacity (about) 1500ml±300ml; in appearance, physique, and brain structure they are similar to wizards, with little body hair, smooth hairless palms and soles, and sparsely scattered short hair on the back; juvenile ape-men behave erratically and are highly destructive; adult ape-men are lethargic, with severe deficiency in vital energy and blood.

Ape-men have a life span of 30-90 years, belonging to the Short-Lived Kind. Due to their high intelligence, they have served the Wizard World for millions of years, making them quality specimens for experimentation, but their strong reproductive capacity has classified them as one of the four major pests along with fairies, goblins, and giant monsters. Because they cannot use magic, they easily succumb to diseases and aging, thus posing the lowest threat.

Ape-men have a strong survival ability and can inhabit various environments including plains, mountains, and rainforests; they live in groups; small groups are called ’villages’, and consist of about 1-1000 individuals, while large groups, called ’cities’, have hundreds of thousands to millions of individuals. There is also a special combination of city and village divided by regions, called ’nations’. Members of different ’nations’ of ape-men are prone to fight to the death at any time, similar to the unrestricted combat ring of Starry Sky Academy. Members of different ’nations’ use all means to fight (including firearms, metal blades, plagues, etc.), many of them dying in such conflicts.]

[In the glass cabinet, a white man in a suit, smiling with eight teeth showing, gazes vacantly into the distance, with a leather briefcase tucked under his arm. Next to the white man stands a black-skinned lady wearing a peculiar grass skirt, exposing sensitive parts on her chest adorned with silver hoops; beside the legs of the two adults stand several children over a meter tall, with different skin tones from yellow to brown to red, and their clothing equally varied from robes to leather armor; the yellow-skinned child holds a homework book, the brown-skinned child holds shells, and the red-skinned child holds a dagger.

Just like the white man, whether it’s the black-skinned lady or the children, all have strange yet radiant smiles on their faces, as if they have seen an angel. And the moment is frozen right there.]

...

”Ridiculous, it’s just too ridiculous.”

Zheng Qing stares at the shiny metal plaque in front of the glass cabinet and then looks up at the ’specimens’ displayed inside, mumbling to himself over and over again: ”It’s just too ridiculous!”

This is First University, the Magic History Museum.

Zheng Qing is standing in the Ancient Wizards Exhibition Hall.

The specimens on display are not gorillas or monkeys, nor the ’ape-men’ labeled on the plaques that Zheng Qing remembers, but real, genuine humans.

The very same humans that once lived in Zheng Qing’s former world.

But now they had become exhibits. After being killed by poison gas, they were turned into lifelike but rigid specimens with magic potions. Zheng Qing had no doubt that the wizards must have created many more similar specimens, carefully selecting the ones with the most beautiful smiles to be displayed here.

Displayed here in the museum of the highest institution of learning in the Magical World.

This was something he found difficult to accept.

He had always thought of the Wizard World as a more advanced, more civilized world.

After leaving the dormitory, the teacher took him straight to the exhibition hall of this museum. Although Zheng Qing knew the school had a museum rich in collections, he had never visited because he was always busy with studies or various other troubles.

So he didn’t know that the school had such a terrifying corner.

The visit left him in a gloomy mood.

He never knew that this was how wizards originally observed the Commoners or, say, the Common People’s World.

”Do you know what makes people scared?” the teacher asked again as they were leaving the ’Ancient Wizards’ exhibition hall.

This time, Zheng Qing felt he had found a hint of an answer.

”Prejudice,” the warlock sighed and answered with assurance: ”Prejudice is too frightening... Wizards possess such powerful forces and so many brilliant minds, yet they have such ludicrous misconceptions about a civilization that is right under their noses. It’s really too dreadful... Likewise, ordinary people also have too many prejudices about wizards.”

The teacher nodded and then shook his head.

”Prejudice causes confusion, but it doesn’t inspire fear.” He casually pointed a finger and listed two words in the void: ”Using the logic of one’s own world to explain events in another civilization is an extreme display of insecurity. I prefer to extend the meaning of ’confusion’ to ’pity’, rather than fear.”

Zheng Qing furrowed his brow slightly and glanced back in the direction of the Gorilla exhibit.

”Is it ’ignorance’?” He was less confident when he answered for the second time, but still voiced the second term that came to mind: ”The ignorance of wizards about ordinary people, the ignorance of ordinary people about wizards...”

He deliberately used ’ordinary people’ instead of ’Commoners’.

Because the visit had given him such a bad impression.

This time, the teacher did not analyze his answer further.

”It’s ’truth’.” The teacher directly gave the answer he was looking for, then suddenly smiled and hummed: ”Betraying my love, forcing me to leave, and then the tears of the one who knows the truth fall down...”

The gloominess that had been hovering in Zheng Qingyuan’s heart instantly dispersed with this somewhat comical little tune.

He couldn’t help but laugh.