High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 2491: Chapter 712: Cause and Effect (Part 1)

After the Curse Course ended, Old Yao called out to Zheng Qing and Jiang Yu, who were about to leave the classroom.

”After class, remember to come to my office.” He simply reminded them like this before turning around to continue explaining the classroom’s puzzling knowledge points to other students.

Zheng Qing knew that the professor’s ”after class” meant after his morning Time Conversion course ended. But he was a bit puzzled about the professor’s purpose for calling them.

Before this, he had already planned to consult Doctor Xiao about his graduate thesis at noon.

Although Xiao Xiao had been pretending not to see him by looking nose to nose during the class, after a morning of ’cold war’, his anger should have dissipated quite a bit.

”Old Yao calling us definitely has nothing to do with the little incident caused by Matthew.”

Speaking of the incident before class, Jiang Yu puffed her cheeks, her tone carrying a hint of displeasure: ”Everyone knows magic can’t be casually performed in the classroom, how could he dare experiment with new spells so recklessly!”

”It indeed doesn’t seem like his usual steady self,” Zheng Qing agreed with a nod, cautiously probing, ”Last night... did you sleep well?”

Having heard some news from Li Meng, he felt slightly more confident discussing this matter.

But after the words were spoken, he felt somewhat strange.

Jiang Yu glanced at him, with a smile that was not quite a smile, said nothing, and instead opened the door to the adjacent classroom—empty in the morning, making it ideal for their time conversion.

Hanging the Invisibility Talisman.

Inverting the hourglass.

When Zheng Qing recovered from the mild dizziness, he heard a series of light footsteps gradually fading away, indicating that Jiang Yu had already left the classroom.

He took out his pocket watch to check the time—7:50 in the morning, with more than half an hour remaining before the official start of the class.

Looking around to ensure he hadn’t overlooked anything, he hurriedly pushed the door open and dashed in the direction of those light footsteps, hoping the Witch would leave him a message on the wall like after the last Curse Course.

But after searching both sides of the corridor for a long time, he found no words or phrases.

Instead, a dwarf from a picture frame on the wall was waving an axe and causing a commotion, which irritated the young warlock.

Zheng Qing looked up and surprisingly found this noisy dwarf to be the one who startled him in the morning, prompting him to squint, confirm that no one was around, pinch his nose, smear a lump of snot on the dwarf’s face, and then turn and run.

The picture frame remained silent for a few seconds.

Then a deafening roar from the dwarf filled the young student’s heart contentedly, sweeping away the morning’s accumulated gloom, even bringing a certain lightness to his steps as he escaped.

The Ancient Magic Arts Study classroom was on the second floor.

When Zheng Qing slipped into the classroom through the back door, Jiang Hua was lying on the desk, copying homework borrowed from somewhere else. A long parchment was curled under the desk, while the thin feather pen trembled like it had a seizure, leaving a row of ugly, twisted words.

Zheng Qing never knew that a feather pen could write such hideous characters.

Upon sitting down, he noticed the black ribbon tied to Jiang Hua’s arm, gently fluctuating in the sunlight like a ghostly fish swimming in a golden sea.

This was a tribute and remembrance for the deceased.

With a solemn expression, due to the limitations of time conversion rules, he couldn’t interact with the others on the ’abnormal timeline’. After hesitating for a few seconds, he took out a piece of paper, folded it into a small boat, inserted a small paper flag on it, with the words ’condolences’ written on the flag.

Then he put the little boat in a slightly prominent place on his desk.

When Jiang Hua finished copying the homework, the first thing he noticed was the little boat and the two words written on the flag.

His eyes immediately lit up.

”Whoa! This is definitely not violating the rules of Time Conversion!”

He petted the feather on the feather pen, looked around, then leaned his head towards Zheng Qing’s seat, lowering his voice: ”After the last class, I specifically consulted a senior who had used the Time Converter, he said the situation isn’t as severe as described in the contracts.

Although Danghag’s restrictions on time conversion are a foot thick, most of those rules are designed for ’free time converters’. For wizards like you, performing time conversion within the school—I mean within the First University campus—the supervision by Danghag isn’t so strict.

After all, this is the First University. Compared to the complex and interconnected time lines outside the campus, Buji Island and the university’s relatively closed environment allow its time line to exhibit a certain independence, making it much easier to manage. This also relates to the school’s repeated reinforcement of Buji Island’s space-time structure.

Of course, I’ve also heard that affairs concerning time conversion in the school are managed by the relevant departments, and nothing good ever comes from dealing with them, so you shouldn’t be too reckless... but regarding our previous topic on private Hunting Competitions, have you given any thought to it... it doesn’t matter if you can’t speak, we can write!”

Jiang Hua was as noisy as he was during the last class.

Zheng Qing immediately regretted writing those two words, hastily snatched up the paper boat, crumpled it into a ball.

”...’condolences’ are really unnecessary.”

Jiang Hua stared at the crumpled paper Zheng Qing took away, naturally shifting the topic from ’how to avoid regulatory supervision’ to the ’black ribbon’ tied on his arm, without any sign of heaviness in his tone.

”This thing,” he touched the ribbon on his arm and added, ”You can treat it as a memorial or tribute. But there really is no need for ’mourning’. Being killed in battle is a blessing for every Stellarian. It’s far better than dying of old age in bed, drooling helplessly.”

Zheng Qing listened to his endless chatter, constantly worried someone else might hear something, unable to resist glancing to the side. His gaze swept past Jiang Hua’s shoulder and landed on the window at the back of the classroom.

Then he vaguely felt something waver outside the window.

Focusing his eyes, the outside was empty and clear, with nothing in sight. Just as he wished to examine more closely, he suddenly realized the scene of himself hiding outside the window earlier this morning, evoking a sudden sense of awareness—how the gaze he felt in the morning was indeed his own, both then and now.

As the saying goes, gazes not only have weight but temperature too. Even if he couldn’t see himself, one real self looking at another real self would always induce a subtle feeling.

Upon further reflection.

Just because he looked an extra time now, he ended up with the unexpected evasion in the morning. If looking at himself has such a sudden impact, what about on others? What about places he hasn’t noticed?

The saying ’each drink and peck have been decreed beforehand’ shows why the Alliance imposes such strict control over Time Conversion, surely for good reason.

During the entire Ancient Magic Arts Study session, Zheng Qing was somewhat distracted, contemplating the minor violations from his time conversion, silently warning himself whilst completely ignoring the Blue Gown’s chatter beside him.