High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 565: Chapter 234 Ball - 1

Due to the need to accommodate four academies and a large number of invited guests, the ’Academy Cup’ dance party was not held on the small square by Lin Zhong Lake.

For the large number of guests, that small square was just too tiny.

After many comparisons and arrangements, the student council of Jiuyou Academy — the organizers of this year’s dance party — finally decided to hold the dance on a spacious lawn adjacent to the academy’s wall.

Located between the academy’s courtyard and rear garden, this patch of grass was separated from the shimmering Lin Zhong Lake by a small hill. Standing at the other end of the lawn, one could also see Dormitory Hill in the distance. Additionally, the corridors surrounding the lawn provided convenient entrances and exits for students from other academies, helping the organizers direct the flow of people at any time.

It could be said that the student council had gone all out to please the audience, in order to make up for the negative impact brought upon by the incident at Hunting Ground One last weekend.

Starting from Saturday afternoon, before the sun had set, a group of organizers, dressed in red gowns with academy and student council badges on their chests, began to decorate the dance venue.

Glass elves in bushes, tree elves on shrubs, and wild fireflies hanging between trees and dead branches were caught one-by-one by the staff and stuffed into boxes, placed outside the venue, waiting to be released again after the dance.

The entire lawn was surrounded by colorful low flower walls. Around the flower walls stood four massive circular archways made of golden oak and silver birch. Dazzling fireworks hung above them — solidified in their burst state by a few senior researchers from the Magic Research Institute, especially invited by the student council.

Below the archways were carpets of different colors.

A big red carpet, a shiny silver one, a golden one, and a deep blue one.

Without a doubt, everyone knew which door they should enter from.

At the edge of the venue, near the flower wall, there were two rows of exquisitely slender red chairs. Nobody knew if these chairs were also enchanted. When no one was sitting on them, they sparkled as if they were torches. As soon as someone sat on them, the torches would gradually extinguish, and soft, cheerful music would play from the speaker flowers on either side of the chairs.

Beyond this, the student council had also put on a few large tents outside the flower wall, in part for the council members to rest and refresh, but also for the school’s therapists and senior members of some large societies — in order to avoid any mishaps at tonight’s dance, the people of the student council had really made a great effort.

...

Zheng Qing hurried to the venue with only half an hour left before the start of the dance.

He had gone to the Pet Garden to pick up Poseidon.

Ever since he learned about the petrifying background of this little fox, Zheng Qing had gone from a pet owner to a nurturer of ancestors. He decided to bring the little fox to the dance, taking advantage of this grand occasion, fearing that this little one might feel unhappy and throw a tantrum.

The witches also liked this fluffy little thing, and there was no rule against bringing pets to the dance — of course, our scholarship student would absolutely never admit that he was a little scared to attend the dance for the first time, and thus had brought along the even more timid fox to boost his courage.

However, as soon as he set foot in the venue, he was slightly regretful.

Everywhere he looked, there was a sea of flowers and a crowd of happy people. The little fox was excited by this environment and darted around wildly. The young scholarship student, following behind it, soon lost his way.

Yes, Zheng Qing got lost at the dance party.

He had originally arranged to meet Yilian under the mistletoe next to the archway. However, after catching the little fox at the base of a pillar in the corridor, he looked around and didn’t have a clue where he was.

On his right was the corridor’s stone pillar. Luxuriant vines were growing on it, with golden fireflies neatly perched between the leaves, sucking tree sap and glowing. Between the thick oleander and old plum trees on either side of the stone pillar, a small patch of pebbles was laid, and occasionally here and there, a square stone engraved with runes was embedded, flashing through the magical pulses surrounding it.

In front of him was a throng of people.

Red robes, white robes, blue robes, yellow robes. Many students from the four academies were hustling and bustling among the crowd. Beyond them was an even larger crowd of young wizards in various colored formal wear — pristine Hima Pure, exquisite Lolita dresses, glamorous crinoline skirts, retro bofu gowns, light Luoxian skirts, and so forth — all of them abandoned the differences between the academies, laughed and danced together joyfully. It was hard to believe that just a week ago, some of them had thrown curses at each other over the hunting ground.

All he could hear was laughter and wonderful music.

Everywhere he looked, in addition to the silhouettes of people, there were brilliant fireworks and some uninvited big birds — the night glow sparrows from the depths of the Silent Forest. These big birds, which shone with a mysterious blue-green glow, loved to scrounge and drink at wizard parties.

The young scholarship student vaguely remembered that a certain loquacious parrot had a grudge against these big birds.

But he really couldn’t remember which parrot it was.

Holding the little fox, he struggled through the crowd, occasionally stood on his toes, and fruitlessly looked around, trying to figure out where he was. If it weren’t for the fact that shooting a few signal flares into the sky would be useless — the fireworks flashing in the sky now could drown out any flare signal — Zheng Qing would not hesitate to pull out a few of Xiao Xiao’s special skyrocket from the grey cloth bag.

Just as he was contemplating whether to fly a paper crane as a guide, the discussion of several wizards nearby caught his attention.

”Unparalleled sense of rhythm! An intoxicating infectious energy!” a short wizard said, passionately waving his arms and twisting his body, shouting in a shrill voice.

”Miss Linda from the O’Brien family has always been called the queen of the dance, it seems she will have to settle for being second best tonight.” Another tall and thin student said, sighing: ”Her smile is a bit strange.”

”In face of such circumstances, no one can keep a calm state of mind... To be honest, it’s already quite impressive that Miss O’Brien can still smile.” The third student whispered, ”If it were me, I guess I would have stormed out by now.”

”That’s why you’re just a rude man, and a poorly-raised, rude, poor man at that.” The first short wizard laughed loudly.

”It has nothing to do with wealth.” The tall and thin student intervened between the two: ”But it has to be admitted, this lady is indeed the queen of tonight’s dance.”

”Does anyone know her name?”

”No one knows... but it’s said that she is a freshman at Jiuyou Academy.”

”Must be a freshman, otherwise we wouldn’t have missed such a beauty.”

As Zheng Qing listened to the adulation of the seniors, he couldn’t help but squeeze into the crowd to see who was causing such a stir.