High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 428: Chapter 97 A big bunch of roses_1

In late autumn, with daylight growing shorter, the sky darkens quickly after the sun sets.

From the pedestrian street to the tree-lined avenue within the academy, it seems as if it’s only in a blink of an eye that everything is enveloped by the night.

The various decorations prepared along the road for the Moon Hunting event appear more abundant.

Mascots as tall as a person listlessly wander around, occasionally caught by passing witches for a quick photo session. The colorful flags rustle in the night wind, and occasional flashes of dazzling light across the flag surface create an extra tension for the upcoming hunting competition.

Most eye-catching of all are the lanterns floating in every corner of the academy.

Most of these lanterns are palace lanterns—chubby and round, extremely festive looking. The skeletons of these lanterns have spells stamped on by wizards, allowing them to slowly meander in a narrow space between one and a half to two meters above the ground.

Red candles are nestled inside the thin wooden skeleton of the palace lanterns, shedding silent tears. The candlelight shines through the thin muslin skin of the lantern, clearly displaying the ’mystery runes’ imprinted on it. Many students stand under these lanterns, pondering and trying to decipher the secrets within.

This is a warm-up activity conducted by the organizer of this year’s school hunting party before the official start of the Moon Hunting event.

From sunset to moonrise, various kinds of lanterns will drift around the entire academy. Riddles about spells are set up on the lanterns and anyone who can solve these riddles will cause the lanterns to explode, releasing a puff of mist twinkling with ’stars’ and a random bouquet of flowers.

Inserted into the bouquet would be a talisman —a standard talisman corresponding to the riddle of the lantern.

This prize-guessing activity clearly sparked the interest of many students.

As a result, the academy has become much livelier these past few nights, finally portraying some of the Moon Hunting festival’s atmosphere.

Zheng Qing follows behind Jiang Yu, strolling through the campus —even though he does it under the pretext of accompanying Jiang Yu, a witch, back to her dormitory, everyone knows that it is highly unlikely for a wizard to encounter any issues in the academy, even when it is late.

Zheng Qing didn’t say anything, and of course, Jiang Yu didn’t have any reason to probe.

She leisurely strolls around, attempting to solve the riddles posed by the lanterns that occasionally float towards her. Zheng Qing also occasionally joined in the fun.

It must be said, witches from distinguished families often have unique advantages in terms of basic magical knowledge. The lanterns in front of Jiang Yu would explode into a puff of golden mist every now and then. In no time, she held many bouquets in her hand.

For some reason, all the bouquets she received were roses.

Red, white, gold, blue—roses of all colors vied for attention in her arms, looking exquisitely beautiful.

”Hold these.” Jiang Yu suddenly turned around, indicating Zheng Qing to take over the bunch of bouquets. Maybe it was the flowers’ reflection, or maybe it was the lanterns’ illumination; there was a faint blush on the witch’s fair cheeks.

”I need to collect the talismans among the bouquets.” She mumbled her explanation.

It indeed was necessary.

Zheng Qing looked at the shining talismans nestled among the flowers, nodded repeatedly, and hastily reached out to take the flowers. He accidentally touched a hand underneath the bouquets.

The hand was a bit cool, causing the young scholarship student’s heart to quiver.

Jiang Yu lowered her eyelids, and her eyelashes fluttered.

”One, two, three...” She mumbled softly, searching for her trophies among the roses.

”You’re amazing.” The young scholarship student praised sincerely.

”It’s nothing... I used to play this ’mystery runes’ game a lot when I was young.” The witch smiled, her chin slightly lifted, and her long, black hair fluttering in the wind.

Zheng Qing thought this would be a good opportunity.

”So,” he ventured to ask: ”Do you like hunting?”

”I enjoy watching hunting competitions, not hunting itself.” Jiang Yu seemed quite pleased with the shift in their conversation and immediately started talking, ”Every year, my family holds a grand hunting party, usually in spring or autumn... Sometimes we even invite those wizard families we are on good terms with to the ceremony... During last year’s Autumn Hunt, our family’s hunting team hunted down a big demon... The wizard alliance even issued a special commendation letter.”

Zheng Qing sniffled, feeling very pressured.

He was suddenly a bit unsure if his trivial matter could arouse the interest of this young lady.

”...According to tradition, our coming-of-age ceremony requires us to spend the night alone in the hunting grounds... It’s really scary. There isn’t a single person in the pitch-black hunting grounds; besides a law book, even an amulet is not allowed to be brought in.”

As Zheng Qing listened to the witch talk about hunting, he was drafting a script in his heart.

Finally, after Jiang Yu finished talking about her coming-of-age ceremony, the young scholarship student couldn’t help but ask, ”Did you participate in this year’s school hunting competition?”

”School hunting competition?” The witch looked at him in surprise, seeming to have noticed something. Her expression suddenly became somewhat strange: ”I am the class representative communicating with the Hunting Association Organizing Committee, so of course I participated... or should I say, are you referring to ’personally’ participating?”

She emphasized the word ’personally’.

Zheng Qing quickly nodded his head: ”The school hunting competition has a derivative event...”

”The Freshman Hunting Competition.” Jiang Yu rubbed her forehead, her expression sagged slightly: ”Are you talking about this? You plan to participate in the Freshman Hunting Competition?”

”You know too?!” Zheng Qing didn’t notice the witch’s subtle expression, instead he excitedly asked, ”The Freshman Hunting Competition only allows us freshmen to participate... the rewards are very generous, are you interested in participating?”

”Who did you join, Tang Dun? Or Matthew?” Jiang Yu didn’t answer Zheng Qing’s words, instead, she asked a question that left him somewhat puzzled.

”Tang Dun? Matthew?” Zheng Qing chewed these two names in his mouth for a moment, and then he reacted: ”Are they both participating in the Freshman Hunting Competition?”

”You didn’t know?” The witch’s beautiful eyebrows furrowed: ”Then whose hunting team are you participating in?”

”I created my own.” Zheng Qing scratched his head and chuckled.

Jiang Yu finally said no more.

She blinked, gazing at the male witch with a hurtful look.

After a long time, she slowly said in a probing tone, ”If you act as the main hunter, even if I agree to be your auxiliary hunter, our hunting team will have a hard time making any impressive performance in the hunting ground.”

Zheng Qing gave a wry smile.

”You put it too gently.” The young scholarship student laughed at himself and shook his head, ”Although I am the Hunting Team Leader, the main hunter is Zhang Ji Xin, the auxiliary hunters are Sin·Banna and Xiao Xiao. The scout is Blue Bird from Starry Sky Academy... I only serve as a non-essential wandering hunter.”

Jiang Yu’s face turned slightly red.

”Since your hunting team has Elder Zhang and Doctor Xiao, it shouldn’t be worse than other teams.” She lowered her head and continued to look for the talisman paper in the bouquet of roses, muttering, ”I see your hunting team is already full... want me as a substitute?”

”If there’s a substitute, it would be me.” Zheng Qing immediately vetoed this possibility, he paused and finally stated his request, ”I’m asking you to be our hunting team manager... Doctor once said a famous saying in the wizard world, ’Behind every successful hunting team, there is an excellent manager’... I hope you can become the figure standing behind our hunting team.”

Jiang Yu did not respond immediately.

But she finally finished picking the talisman paper from the roses.

”Give me the flowers.” The witch gestured.

Zheng Qing held out the large bouquet of roses, carefully passing them to the witch’s arms. This time, he was very mindful not to touch the witch’s hand.

”What are you two doing?!” A surprised voice interrupted the two young wizards in midst of exchanging the bouquet.

Zheng Qing turned his head.

Li Meng was standing not far away, holding a teddy bear, looking astounded at the two of them.