High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1445: Chapter 189 Grain in Ear

June 5th.

Grain in Ear.

The Big Dipper’s Handle points towards the Bing position (slightly southeast of true south), and the sun has been gradually moving overhead, bringing abundant light and heat, significantly raising the temperature, and resulting in plentiful rainfall and increasingly humid air.

Along with the sticky, muggy air, another thing drawing ever closer is the end-of-term exams.

This has become the nightmare of all young wizards at the First University, especially at Jiuyou Academy. Each day upon waking, the first thing they face is the upcoming exam, and each night before falling asleep, they still enter their dreams feeling restless because of the upcoming tests.

Exams, like the damp air before a heavy rain, are omnipresent, casting a somber mood over the entire campus while also painting a picture of a free and indulgent future for everyone.

Today is Friday. There was supposed to be a Practice class in the afternoon, but Assistant Hilda submitted a request to the school, allowing students to freely review their lessons—in fact, many, including Zheng Qing, suspected that their teaching assistant was too busy with the school’s ’big affairs’ to have time to teach—anyway, after lunch, Zheng Qing and his companions came early to the Monitor’s study room to begin their revision ahead of time.

The Monitor’s study room is Liu Fei Fei’s study room.

The place has recently become a joint revision location for the Absolution Hunting Team Jiuyou Squad, the Jiang Yu Sisters, as well as Nicholas and Liu Fei Fei. Compared to the library, this study room might be smaller, but the similar atmosphere of study makes it even more popular than the library.

It’s already two o’clock in the afternoon, and neither Liu Fei Fei nor Jiang Yu has arrived. As the Monitor and the top student, even with the end of term approaching, they still have many extracurricular trifles to deal with.

In the study room, there are only four boys—Zheng Qing, Xiao Xiao, Xin, and Nicholas—oh, and there’s also Li Meng, who is dozing off on the experiment table. Her teddy bear, named Li Neng, serves as her pillow and is currently tilting its head, staring eagerly at a three-legged toad slowly crawling not far from its nose.

It is a toad, struggling to climb out of the bamboo basket for its life and freedom, attempting to escape its unfortunate destiny.

The teddy bear’s jade-like inverted triangular nose twitched slowly, and a pair of small, sad eyes filled with grief.

The toad, with a gulp, glanced at the piece of jade, as if judging whether it was food or a threat. But soon, its eyeballs bulged.

Because a pair of large hands, decked in silkworm gloves, descended from the heavens and mercilessly grasped its neck, hoisting it into midair.

”This frog only has three legs... can it be used?”

Zheng Qing held the amphibian by the neck, examined it closely, and then looked towards Nicholas, ”Will it affect the effect of your spellcasting?”

Nicholas cheerfully accepted the sacrifice.

”What determines the effect of magic has never been the size of the sacrifice, but its existence,” he said, like a philosophy lecturer uttering enigmatic words: ”If the sacrifice is not to taste, then even sacrificing an entire world would hardly win the corresponding favor.”

”Besides, this is a toad, not a frog.” Xiao Xiao prodded the toad’s blister with the tip of his feather pen, observing the pale yellow pus flowing slowly, he added, ”...and it’s a poisonous toad, scientifically known as the Queensland Cane Toad, originally from northeastern Australia. Its skin can be used to make top-quality toad leather gloves, and toad cinnabar is a catalyst often used in various magic potions.”

This answer indeed sounded like something a Doctor would say.

Zheng Qing rolled up the newspaper on the table and dusted off the dust before him.

Then he took out his pocket watch to check the time.

”Why haven’t they arrived yet?” he muttered.

The fatty glanced sideways at the young cost student.

”Does it affect your revision whether they come or not?” He teased, his tone carrying a hint of mockery: ”Are you planning to run off holding Jiang Da Headmaster’s hand again today?”

Zheng Qing’s face immediately turned red.

Last time, when reviewing in this self-study room, the young public-funded student dozed off and witnessed in his dream a strange wizard climbing the Cat Fruit Tree and causing mischief—of course, by now he knew that the strange wizard was Professor Trudeau, who had plotted to use a minor curse to torture him because Zheng Qing had usurped his ’World’ title—but at the time, the awakened warlock didn’t have this understanding; he was single-mindedly determined to catch that stranger who had climbed the Cat Fruit Tree.

And so, he dragged Jiang Yu and ran out.

Heaven knows what was going through his mind at that time.

Ever since then, his companions hadn’t stopped making fun of Zheng Qing, and the logically defeated young wizard could only stand in place and give an awkward laugh in response to their teasing.

Hearing Banna bring up the past incident, the other two wizards in the self-study room burst into laughter immediately. Their laughter scared the little witch who was sleeping into sitting up with a start.

”...In 1945, during the 1,536th meeting of the Great Wizard Conference of the Mage Alliance, the ’Wizard Behavior Management Method’ was established, specifying the range of activities for ordinary wizards and restricting interactions between wizards and the mortal world...” She recited loudly from the History of Magic, her face marked with earnestness.

If only she could wipe away the drool at the corner of her mouth and the red creases on her face from being pressed against something, her ’seriousness’ might be more convincing.

In the midst of laughter, Li Meng slowly came to her senses.

Oh, so her cousin hadn’t come back yet. With a plop, she grabbed the plush bear and collapsed back onto the desk, not bothering to pick a fight with the few guys, unwilling to waste even a second more of sleep.

Amidst the laughter, a bright light flashed across the black curse mark on Nicholas’s forehead, and in his hand, the three-legged toad, which already had bulging eyes, swelled even more, as its flesh gradually shriveled up until at last, with two eyeballs rolling out of the sockets with a gurgling sound, the toad yearning for freedom ultimately turned into a scoop of ashes.

In exchange, a dark yellow halo of magic light lit up between the pages of Nicholas’s Law book.

The tip of the plush bear’s nose twitched again.

Its eyes became a bit clearer.

Yeah, what’s so bad about lying down? If the price of freedom is to turn into ashes, it would rather be a pillow for life, lying beneath Li Meng’s head.

Thinking this, the plush bear lifted its arm and carefully touched the little witch’s head.

Like a Flower Fairy touching the first bloom she sees in spring.

”Meow~!”

A soft and gentle meow interrupted the laughter in the self-study room and startled the plush bear. Its paw pressed a bit harder, causing Li Meng to twist her neck and murmur a complaint with her eyes still closed.

The plush bear turned its head in anger, wanting to see which life-threatening cat dared to scare it, the great bear, at this time.

It turned its head back and forth, its two jade button-like eyes shooting out a footlong green light.

But within its field of vision, the entire self-study room, other than the body of the teacher, magical creature specimens, and four foolish wizards, only had an additional scruffy-looking Gouzi; there were no cats.

While it was still puzzled, that Gouzi wagged its tail at the plush bear and let out a cheerful cry:

”Meow~!”