High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 733: Chapter 81: Diverging Paths_1

”Is it strange for a mouse to read a book?”

Ding Dong Ear was quite miffed at the fat man’s doubt, grabbing a strip of squid and shrilly retorting, ”We’re all civilized folks, why can’t we read books?!”

”We’re not like those uncivilized mice!”

”Creatures like me that have been enlightened by our elderly ancestors can recognize letters and write diaries! From your tone, it seems like you are looking down on our Mouse Clan? That’s discrimination! Barefaced discrimination! We’d receive a summons from Danghag if we were outside!”

”I didn’t challenge whether you guys catch lice or not, or whether you wear clothes, did I?”

After venting up to this point, the little mouse seemed to feel he might have been a bit presumptuous with his last statement. He stopped talking, paused for a bit, then hesitantly asked in a soft voice, ”When you guys play, you don’t catch lice off each other, right...”

The faces of the surrounding wizards, including the fat man, immediately darkened. Only the black cat, with a body covered in pitch-black fur, hid any change in its color, appearing nonchalant.

”Monkey catch lice, not wizards.” The black cat immediately corrected the mistake of the little mouse, explaining brusquely, ”Fat man meant no harm, he was just a bit surprised. After all, even though we are all in the wizarding world, no bookstore in Beta Town, or no book dealer in Four Seasons Pavilion, sells books to mice.... to the Mouse clan.”

”Oh, we don’t buy books from bookstores.” Ding Dong Ear stuffed the half-eaten squid strip back into his mouth, explaining unclearly as he chewed, ”Normally, we just read books in the Elderly Ancestor’s library... Of course, sometimes when students from the school go camping, we may flick through a few books in their bags...”

”Isn’t that stealing books?” Lin Guo exclaimed incredulously.

The eyes of the little mouse immediately bulged round in shock, his rounded ears flipping outward in anger, the veins on his earlobes throbbing visibly. ”How can reading be considered stealing?! Is a mouse reading a book considered stealing?!”

What followed was a slew of incomprehensible remarks, phrases such as ’each mouse has its fur, but some people lack decency,’ ’each mouse has its body, but some people lack courtesy,’ ’three years and yet you still don’t know me,’ and ’slander me, denounce me, look at you now.’ These phrases caused the young wizards to roll their eyes. Unable to respond.

Eventually, when the little mouse finally closed his mouth for a breather, the black cat quickly changed the topic, directing the mouse’s attention elsewhere.

”I remember you mentioned ’hitching a ride’ earlier—what did you mean by that?” The black cat sprawled out, switched positions and laid back down again. Staying in one position for a long time could be quite easy for cats, but maintaining a single posture for an extended period is a painstaking task indeed. If there are more comfortable alternatives, Zheng Qing would naturally opt for the more ergonomic approach.

The actions of the black cat influenced others as well.

Lin Guo changed his sitting posture from squatting to kneeling in order to be more comfortable, and even pulled his black mountain goat over to lean against as a backrest. The fat man could not stand up after squatting for quite a while. In the end, it was the boy wizard who used a binding spell and summoned two tendrils from the void to hoist the fat man up.

Ding Dong Ear stared, entranced by the glowing law book in the boy wizard’s hand, its mouth slightly ajar in a way that indicated it might drool at any moment. It took two repetitions of the question by the black cat before it finally responded.

A ’hitch a ride?’” The little mouse scratched his whiskers, his little eyes spinning round and round. ”Did I ever say that?”

”You did!” Lin Guo rested his hands on his knees, affirming seriously.

”You said it!” The fat man propped himself against a nearby tree, affirming as well.

The black cat said nothing, simply squinting its eyes and yawning lazily.

”Hmm, I seem to recall saying something like that.” The little mouse eyed the sharp teeth filling the black cat’s mouth cautiously, quickly changing his stance, ”Initially, I’d hoped to hitch a ride and have you take me back...”

”But didn’t you not want us to visit your home?” interrupted the black cat, immediately catching the contradiction in the little mouse’s statements, ”We can’t take you home if we can’t go there ourselves, can we?”

”Taking me seven or eight stops out of ten would suffice.” The little mouse spread out its small paws and chuckled, ”I thought that after you’d taken me closer to home and I woke up, I’d find a chance to slip away...”

”So why did you wake up early?” interjected the fat man, ”According to what you said, we’ve only gone one or two stops out of ten, your home is still very far away.”

”Because I couldn’t stand listening to the conversation between you and that stupid cat any longer.” Ding Dong Ear twitched his whiskers, sighed and glanced back at the forest cat in the distance before adding, ”I’ve never seen a cat as stupid as that one.”

The black cat nodded, deeply in agreement.

”Since I’m already up, it wouldn’t be right to continue bothering you all.” The little mouse patted his paws, wiping away the last of the oil stains and residue from in-between his claws, light-heartedly saying, ”In that case, I’ll take my leave first... See you again?”

Upon hearing the little mouse’s sudden farewell, the fat man hesitated, wanting to speak but holding back. Although Lin Guo appeared to want to say something, he closed his mouth in the end, and simply looked hopefully toward the black cat, seemingly hoping for it to do something.

Zheng Qing was not surprised by the little mouse’s intentions – he had anticipated this scene ever since the mouse refused to lead the way.

”Indeed. Since you’re already awake, we won’t escort you any further.” The black cat dusted himself off, rising from the ground and looking at the mouse in front of him with his chin, cautiously saying, ”Hmm, next time you visit the academy, you can come find me directly by the bench at the lakeside from today... I should be there if I have time.”

By ’having time’, it naturally referred to the times when Zheng Qing was in cat form.

”See you then!” With that, the black cat lifted its white paw, waving seriously at the little mouse.

”It’s a pleasure to know all of you!” The little mouse stood on its tiptoes seeming like it wanted to pat the black cat on the shoulder but ultimately only patted its arm twice, ”After going back, I’ll report to the elderly ancestor... If there’s a chance, I’ll invite you to visit our home next time!”

Without waiting for the black cat’s response, the little mouse turned and slipped into the nearby bushes. In the blink of an eye, he was out of sight. The cats playing and frolicking nearby didn’t notice the mouse’s disappearance at all.

When the black cat and wizards went to look, all they saw were the withered leaves on the ground and a hole that was slowly shrinking and disappearing.

”That explains why the tree hole disappeared.” Sighing lightly, the black cat didn’t seem all too surprised, just casually asking, ”Was this magic? I didn’t sense any magic fluctuation.”

The fat man shrugged, indicating he had no knowledge of such things.

”It should be some kind of inherent talent,” Lin Guo guessed while biting his finger, ”Just like how vampires obtain memories by sucking blood, werewolves have impressive regeneration powers, zombies have tough bodies.... These are all talents and don’t cause any magic fluctuation when used.”

”So, this is a passive skill that doesn’t consume any mana.” The black cat issued a conclusion no one could understand, then lifted its paw and beckoned to the cats not too far away, ”Kiddos, it’s time for us to head back!”