High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 2265: Chapter 486: Little Red Riding Hood

After the alchemy class ended, Zheng Qing hung several invisibility talismans on himself and quietly slipped out of the classroom amidst the low chuckles of his companions, carefully avoiding contact with anyone along the way.

He had ample experience with this sort of thing and was quite adept at it.

However, when he passed by the first row of the classroom, Jiang Yu, who was helping Li Meng mark important points for revision, seemed to sense something and glanced at the podium, sending a shiver down the boy’s spine.

Fortunately, the witch seemed to be acting on a whim, and her gaze merely swept past before she quickly lowered her head again, continuing to tug at the little witch’s ears while scolding her.

Leaving the classroom, the young scholarship student dashed away.

Besides picking up a custom gift from the Hooke Brothers Watch Shop, he also needed to return to the dormitory to see what gift the owner of Qingqiu Mansion had sent him. Additionally, he had to write two heartfelt replies, and considering there was a practical class in the afternoon, time was extraordinarily tight. Zheng Qing highly doubted whether he would have time for lunch after completing all these tasks.

”A little hunger can make the mind more active.”

He could only comfort himself with this thought.

However, just as he ran out of the teaching building, the warlock stepped onto the snowy ground, slipped, and fell in front of a few first-year witches. The fluffy snow scattered, outlining the warlock’s blurry figure, causing those little misses to scream sharply. Almost immediately, a group of spirited warlocks rushed over, intending to heroically capture this ’misbehaving’ guy.

”Damn it.”

The young scholarship student got up from the ground in annoyance, without arguing with the juniors, shook out two Armor Horse Charms, and disappeared with a flicker in the chaotic cursing of the first-year students.

This was the second big snow since the beginning of winter, happening just over a week after the previous one.

The last big snow began around the solar term ’Big Snow’ and ended at the tail end of the Winter Hunting, lasting intermittently for a week. This was partly because the school’s Hunting Committee wanted to increase the difficulty of this year’s Winter Hunting.

The ongoing week of sunny weather hadn’t completely melted the snow in the corners of the school when another round of big snow arrived. Unlike last time, this snow was arranged by the school’s weather monitor to greet Christmas, starting from last midnight, which was when Zheng Qing left the moonlight ball, and continuing until before the first class this morning.

In just one night, the campus was again covered by thick snow, combined with the faint festive atmosphere today, causing exclamations to echo around Zheng Qing — most of these exclamations were caused by puffy snowballs being thrown. For many first-year students, it was their first experience of the ’malice’ from the campus; they were walking along nicely when suddenly a large tree beside them would shake off its snow, or a series of snowballs would be shot out from a tree hole, making them dizzy.

The veteran students were much more experienced.

For example, Zheng Qing, even with an invisibility talisman and Armor Horse Charm on, was determined not to pass through the tree-lined path, preferring to take a longer route through the snow elf-laden shrubs, at least these timid elves would not actively attack a wizard.

Hooke Brothers Watch Shop was located diagonally opposite Green Grocery. When Zheng Qing hurried to the shop’s entrance, he happened to see a Little Red Riding Hood staggering out of Green Grocery with a large pile of gifts, looking like she might fall and be buried under those flashy wrapping boxes at any moment.

With what little gentlemanly courtesy he had, the young scholarship student summoned a few vines with a Binding Spell to help Little Red Riding Hood lift the gifts.

”Where should I put them?”

Zheng Qing tore off his invisibility talisman, speaking somewhat urgently. The entwined vines looked like a giant claw, gripping the pile of gifts, suspended in mid-air.

Little Red Riding Hood was startled by the sudden appearance of a figure in the air and vanished with a pop. Hearing the question, she popped her head back out of the air, revealing a finely featured face filled with doubt.

”Just put it in my pumpkin car, thank you!”

She squealed, pointing casually at a pumpkin car in the snow. Zheng Qing noticed the rabbits pulling the carriage were happily munching on a few carrots.

”Are you the elves delivering gifts this year?” The young scholarship student stuffed the large pile of gifts into the pumpkin car, patted the car door, and looked at Little Red Riding Hood, who was already seated in the driver’s seat, thoughtfully.

Last year, the school hired a large number of mouse people to pull pumpkin carts and serve as messengers for delivering gifts. The pumpkin carts were well-received, but the rough behavior of the big mice drew many complaints. Furthermore, the underground mouse clan, along with the Rat Immortal, had vanished, and the entire First University had only the two big mice of the Ears Brothers in D&K, so hiring mice again as messengers was obviously impractical.

”Yes, sir.”

Little Red Riding Hood shook the reins, prompting the rabbits pulling the carriage to put down their carrots. She also handed the young scholarship student a small card, squealing, ”If you need anything, we’d be happy to help! For free! Sorry, time is a bit tight, goodbye!”

Saying this, she tugged at her bright red hood and gave the reins another firm shake.

The rabbits stuffed the last bit of the carrot in their mouths, quickly chewing their cheeks, giving the warlock a reproachful look for not delaying a bit longer, and then kicked their hind legs hard at Little Red Riding Hood’s shout.

Poof!

Puffy snowflakes burst in the snow, and the rabbits, Little Red Riding Hood, and the pumpkin car vanished amidst the flying snow. Only then did Zheng Qing realize why he hadn’t seen them in the campus before.

Jingle jingle.

The bell at the entrance of Hooke Brothers Watch Shop emitted a string of crisp sounds. Big Hooke quickly raised his head and saw a hooded figure enter the store, the huge hood obscuring the customer’s face, making him unsure of the customer’s identity.

”Hello?”

He greeted warmly.

A long parchment delivery note appeared in front of Big Hooke.

”Two Moonlight Boxes, be quick about it.” The customer’s tone was somewhat impatient.

”One moment,” Big Hooke rapidly checked the mark on the parchment while ringing another bell on the counter: ”... Your pickup time was 8 p.m. on the 24th, it’s fifteen hours late, and requires a late fee of fifteen copper coins.”

The customer tossed out a silver dime.

Big Hooke quickly caught the silver dime in his palm.

A burst of hurried footsteps sounded from the staircase, and soon, a short middle-aged warlock burst through the corner door, stumbling while holding two exquisite wooden boxes, and asked breathlessly: ”Two Moonlight Boxes? Do they need packaging now?”

”The customer hasn’t inspected the goods yet!” Big Hooke gave his younger brother a reproachful look, admonishing him while turning to the hooded customer, smiling all over: ”Care to sit? Would you like some hot tea?”

”No need, I’m tight on time.” The customer tapped the counter, urging him on.