High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 817: Chapter 165: Conversation Between Cousins

By the time Jiang Yu attended the D&K opening ceremony on Saturday afternoon, she was still somewhat dazed.

The series of encounters from last night after transforming into a cat replayed over and over in her mind—her paws stepping on the cold stone pavement, her body passing through the dry shrubs and grassland, meeting fellow felines, climbing trees, and then that big black cat... Stop!

This is the spot!

Once her memory returned to this point, it would become blurry and ethereal, as if an old phonograph was playing a moldy record, the voice coming out of the Speaker Flowers was hoarse, distorted, and intermittent. Along with that, the images in her memory also started to cloud over with a thin shadow, making everything appear as if seen through a fog, ultimately separated by a layer.

The only thing the Witch could confirm was that she had been groomed by that big black cat—and this sentence had only its literal meaning, the big black cat helped her groom, just like a human would, nothing more—up until now, she still couldn’t believe everything she recalled in her mind.

”Hallucinations, they must be hallucinations!”

”It’s utterly ridiculous!... How could it be possible?!”

Muttering softly, the Witch shook her head vigorously as if trying to shake off those terrifying memories from her mind: ”It must be a cognitive barrier caused by Transfiguration Magic... Yes, that must be it...”

The Witch consoled herself forcefully, and found a seemingly reasonable explanation.

Such a thing was not impossible. Wizards, after using Transformation, may experience a deviation in intelligence, memory, and even habits due to the change in life form.

This deviation was referred to as ’Transfiguration Cognitive Barrier Syndrome’ by some Wizards.

Just like after she became a cat, she would pick up many feline habits and subconsciously forget part of her memory from when she was a Witch—this forgetting wasn’t permanent, but because a cat’s brain capacity was too low to fully contain an adult’s entire memory, some less important information would ’sink’ to the deepest parts of the memory ocean. When she transformed back into a Witch, she could still retrieve these memories completely and intact.

Conversely, a cat’s memory could be preserved completely intact in a Witch’s mind—apart from the differences in perspective between a cat and a human, and some slight differences in concepts such as thought and time, a Witch could empathize with all the experiences the cat went through.

And that was the crux of the problem.

Jiang Yu had every reason to believe that if her memory was intact when she was a cat, she would not have allowed herself to be groomed by another feline—especially not a male one!

Just thinking about the rough pads of the black cat rubbing against her body while she comfortably purred under his paws made the Witch feel a sense of craziness rising within her. Externally, this was manifested by her cheeks turning crimson, and heat starting to emanate from her face.

Li Meng, walking beside her, was very surprised.

”Cousin, are you sick?” The Little Witch stood on tiptoe, trying to touch Jiang Yu’s cheek.

”Wha... What?!” Jiang Yu, as if suddenly snapping back to reality, panicked and leaned back to dodge Li Meng’s hand.

”I mean, are you sick? Why is your face so red!” The Little Witch didn’t reach Jiang Yu’s face, sounding a bit upset, but still repeated her question.

”Blushing? Ah... maybe, maybe it’s just the wind, haha.” Jiang Yu lifted her hand to touch her own cheek, forcing a laugh as she explained. The coolness of her fingertips on her face made the emerging warmth feel even more intense.

”Well, I did say you should have brought a scarf when you went out... Linjinghua’s recently launched ’Frozen Man’ face cream is said to be quite good too, it can keep your cheeks bouncy in the freezing cold, and prevent them from changing color from the wind. Su Ya said even Su Shijun bought some,” Li Meng bounced along beside Jiang Yu, her attention quickly moving away from her cousin’s complexion to start chattering about her experiences at Greenhill Mansion the day before.

In fact, since last night, the Little Witch spent half her time describing to Jiang Yu her experiences at Greenhill Mansion— especially since last night they were lucky enough to encounter Su Shijun—no matter the topic, it seemed to always circle back to Greenhill Mansion.

”...Cousin, let me tell you, there’s even a Seven-color pansy in the Greenhill Mansion garden! Su Ya said it was brought back for Su Shijun by Duke Milton from the Alps... Su Ya said that flower truly has magic power... I also want a Seven-Color Flower that grants wishes...”

”I don’t know about making wishes, but if you want a Seven-Color Flower, I can have my family look for one.” Jiang Yu, not really paying attention, said as she watched her step, ”But don’t get your hopes up... Real Seven-color pansies are just as rare as real Manjusakas.”

Li Meng seemed to completely ignore Jiang Yu’s response.

Compared to such troublesome matters, she preferred sharing her new ideas whenever they came to her, rather than focusing on whether those ideas would cause trouble for others.

”Also, also, do you know? When Su Shijun returned to the mansion yesterday, she was holding a Little Fox... you’ll never guess who she was holding!” Li Meng suddenly lowered her voice, speaking in a secretive tone as if recalling something.

”With so many foxes around the school, how would I know.” Jiang Yu sighed helplessly, her fingers flickering aimlessly in the air before pausing abruptly, ”Hmm... since you put it that way, could it be that notorious illegitimate child?”

The news that wizard world’s foremost beauty was pregnant before marriage and had given birth was one of the most explosive pieces of gossip in the second half of this year throughout the wizard society. It even dominated more newspaper headlines and dinner table gossip than the First University special aircraft invasion or Buji Island’s unexpected tide timings.

Among these, besides the identity of the mysterious Warlock, Su Shijun’s child was of the greatest interest.

According to traditional Wizarding Family customs, children born out of wedlock, without formal ceremonies like a wedding, are considered illegitimate. They have no right to claim family inheritance. Although it’s very much debatable how much this rule could bind the wizard world’s number-one beauty and a Big Wizard, regardless, in public opinion, the child was an illegitimate one.

Jiang Yu had just raised this possibility when she immediately dismissed her own conjecture:

”No, that’s not right... You also said, she was holding a Little Fox. If it were actually Su Daxu’s illegitimate child, it should at least be in human form. There’s no way it’d be a Little Fox.”

”So, she’s holding a Little Fox you know?”

”Let me think... The foxes you know at school aren’t even as numerous as our family’s plush bear at home, the one that would get you this excited... It has to be Poseidon.”

Hearing Jiang Yu’s analysis, Li Meng suddenly widened her eyes, her face showing an expression of admiration.

”Wow! That’s my cousin! How did you know it was Poseidon!”

”Cousin let me tell you, that Little Fox is so naughty, it initially pretended not to recognize me... If it hadn’t been for Xiao Xiao and the others also being familiar with it, I would have almost been deceived by it!”