High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 2461: Chapter 682: Rescheduled Meeting Time

”Have you guys noticed,”

The young teaching assistant pointed to Zhang Ji Xin’s empty seat, abruptly and decisively changing the topic: ”Since returning to school, the elders seem even busier than me? Haven’t heard he’s planning to graduate early either!”

”He indeed hasn’t planned to graduate early.” Xiao Xiao, apparently privy to some inside information, pursed his lips and gave Zheng Qing an unexpected answer: ”But this matter is somehow related to you graduating early.”

”Me?”

Zheng Qing pointed at his nose, looking bewildered.

What does this have to do with me!

”Have you ever considered what would happen if you didn’t graduate early?”

Without waiting for Zheng Qing to answer, Xiao Xiao continued his conjecture: ”Later in the year, when we’re in the third year and the current third-year veterans move into their fourth year, they would need to start preparing their thesis, preparing for social practice, preparing for registered wizard assessments... resulting in many positions they control becoming vacant... like the captain of the Jiuyou Academy Hunting Team, the captain of the Judgement Hunting Team, the captain of the school’s hunting team; like the vice president, student president of the student council, president of the club union; and for instance, the next Lei Zhe... all of these positions, you have great potential.”

Here, he paused, his eyes looking inexplicably at Zheng Qing, speaking in a haunting tone: ”Do you know, when the news of your intention to graduate early got out, how many people breathed a sigh of relief, then were unexpectedly delighted? You gave many people who had ’given up their goals’ more options, opened up more possibilities for those ’privately collaborating’... If I’m not mistaken, Uncle Zhang Zhi probably wants to take advantage of his time still in school to let his brother gain more experience.”

The consecutive use of ’more’ made Zheng Qing chuckle dryly.

Yet a strange feeling inexplicably welled up within him—a feeling somewhat reminiscent of when everyone learned about his relationship with Su Shijun, a mix of surprise with a hint of secret delight, yet surrounded by an overwhelming sense of fear.

”We are kind of the hot topic now...” he muttered something incomprehensible to those present.

”What?” The doctor slightly frowned.

He didn’t like words he couldn’t understand.

A paper mouse scurried out from the corner of the table, interrupting the idle chatter among the warlocks. The paper mouse climbed swiftly along Zheng Qing’s robe, nimbly reaching his lap, then flopped down, revealing a small slip of paper.

Zheng Qing quietly exhaled in relief, finally able to escape the disconcerting discussion from earlier.

”Sorry... uh.”

He lowered his head, almost burying it in the drawer as he looked at the letter’s content, unable to resist biting the brush handle—this was Jiang Yu’s reply. Earlier, he had mentioned the sprites’ situation to the witch, hoping to meet Doctor Duzem. The witch’s reply was simple, merely arranging to visit Doctor Duzem in Beta Town this Saturday night.

Did she have nothing else to write?

And, Saturday.

Originally, he had arranged a meeting with those devils from Seven Sins on Saturday night, and he remembered Jiang Yu had five classes on Saturday. Was this arrangement okay?

The warlock withdrew his head from the drawer, casting a melancholy glance at the witch’s silhouette in the classroom’s front row, but only hesitated for a few seconds before deciding to trust the witch’s arrangement, decisively pulling out the ring from Seven Sins to notify those devils the meeting time was changed to tonight.

—Time is limited, late attendance isn’t tolerated!

After writing these words, he felt his tone was a bit too strong, so he thoughtfully added a line at the end: If unable to reach the meeting venue on time, it will be considered an ’absence’.

Seven Sins was an exceedingly relaxed secret society.

An absence wasn’t that big of a punishment.

The sole unfriendly aspect was that absentees couldn’t participate in tasks issued during relevant meetings and needed to avoid meetings related to these tasks.

With one absence leading to another, resulting eventually in multiple missed meetings—to know, those ’devils’ attended Seven Sins not for entertainment but for exchanging information and obtaining clandestine assistance. If such information relates to their real-life identities, the intangible loss grows larger.

By the end of the Alchemy class, the replies from the seven devils had returned consecutively to Zheng Qing.

In agreement with Lord Kannai’s decision, they all unanimously consented.

This ’embracing advice’ style led the warlock to suspect if he had been under a confusion spell, forgetting the previously agreed time. But after checking records, he confirmed the initially agreed meeting time was indeed Saturday, and at that time, among the seven, three had expressed having time only on weekends, while two said they didn’t have time even on Sunday night.

This flexible interpretation of ’having time’ gave Zheng Qing newfound insight into the devils’ cunning.

Friday afternoon had only one practical class.

No Time Conversion class, nor an increased evening class.

On one hand, it was to reserve some ’safe buffer,’ as students occasionally got injured during practical classes to prevent missing classes due to injury, thus a gap in the schedule was intentionally left; on the other hand, it’s also to let the two young wizards catch a breather after four and a half days with more than twenty classes.

Just like slowing the pace during a long distance run can allow runners to last longer.

Long awaited, Zheng Qing felt a genuine sense of relaxation during class.

Not having to think about finding an empty room post-class to flip that pesky hourglass or hastily munching on a sandwich while doing homework in the study room.

He even had a new idea—to take the opportunity to have a moonlit date with little white cat—you know, the current Lord Kannai of Seven Sins was originally a black cat!

This slightly thrilling idea made time fly by swiftly for Zheng Qing.

To the extent that he became exceedingly forgiving of minor offenses around him—like in the afternoon practical class when Hilda unsurprisingly teased him about being the ’student colleague’ or ’colleague student,’ saying that acting as an assistant to an assistant was a tremendous glory for him as a teaching assistant, yadda yadda.

In the past, Zheng Qing wouldn’t have been able to resist writhing in discomfort, possibly throwing a couple of minor evil curses at someone in a fit of embarrassed frustration. Typically, this would provoke greater teasing interest from the teasers. But today, he simply drooped his eyelids, standing among the crowd with a lazy demeanor listening to Hilda’s idle chatter, while his mind focused solely on contemplating what gift to bring the little white cat when going to the Cat Fruit Tree this evening.

This indifferent attitude rapidly let the teaser lose interest.

The sky darkened just then.

The black cat sprinted out of the dormitory, and dashed towards the Cat Fruit Tree.

The good news is, it arrived quite early, even with the fluff balls on the tree still rather sparse; the bad news is, the little white cat only showed up at the tree after eight in the evening.

At this point, there was only a half hour left until the black cat’s meeting time.