High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 847: Chapter 195 Mice and Cats

Soon, Zheng Qing, or rather the other young wizards in the room, understood the reason for the vampire’s astonishment.

For some unknown time, faint and sobbing suona sounds had begun to resonate in the small shop, intermittently mixed with sounds of traditional instruments like gongs, drums, small cymbals, and scrapers.

The sound of the suona was very sharp.

The sound of the gong was very loud.

The sound of the scraper was very piercing.

When these different timbres and ranges of sounds intertwined, they composed a melody full of plaintive style. It was hair-raising to listen to, yet people couldn’t help wanting to hear it a bit longer.

Normally, when the blood flames were burning, they would emit similar, soul-wrenching strange sounds, which covered up the melody to some extent. But as the melody grew louder, eventually even the sounds of the burning blood flames couldn’t drown it out.

Duke Milton was the first to notice this.

He sat cross-legged on the tall counter, tilting his head, with his eyebrows raised high, his face full of surprise.

Though the young wizards around him were curious about the strange melodies, everyone knew that now was not the time to investigate their source.

Now they should take advantage of the vampire’s distraction to increase their chances of escape.

The Ouroboros Hunting Team members were all hands on deck, helping their captain with pain relief and treatment, while the three members of the Absolution Hunting Team at the rear quickly pulled out their best talismans and amulets. Zheng Qing, with the help of the sprites and two witches, clumsily reloaded his charm gun with Fu Bullets made from explosive charms.

As for Li Meng, from beginning to end, she just held a certain cat and spaced out at the side. This was a relief for Zheng Qing, who feared the little witch’s overzealousness might add chaos to the confusion.

It was not until both charm guns were loaded with Fu Bullets and everyone was fully armed—an entire process that took only about ten seconds—that the young wizard on a state budget began to take an interest in the vampire. Following Duke Milton’s gaze, he then noticed the source of the odd melody.

A troop of big mice dressed in red, green, and yellow vests, formed a neat line, emerging one after another from a freshly opened hole in the corner of the wall. The troop consisted of about a hundred mice, and at the forefront, were a group of mice playing instruments.

At this moment, their tune had changed to the ’Radetzky March’—and surprisingly, rendered with erhus and drums, the ’Radetzky’ sounded less grand but had a more subtle feeling to it, giving a sense of having one’s heart tugged on.

In the center of the mice procession was a large, eight-bearer palanquin.

The palanquin had no canopy, only featuring a dark purple agarwood carriage in the middle. Seated on the carriage was a plump little mouse, the size of a fist, with wrinkled skin that, from a distance, resembled a peeled walnut.

”Our store has insurance, right?” The first thought in the young state-funded wizard’s mind wasn’t to trace the origin of the mice, nor to think about how to escape, but to worry whether the wall, repeatedly tunneled and repaired by the mice, would collapse due to fatigue.

After all, even metal can collapse from fatigue, let alone some brick and mortar.

Since it concerned whether the substantial investment of the Absolution Hunting Team could go to waste, it was not a matter to be taken lightly.

Of course, he would only mutter such penny-pinching thoughts to himself, definitely not voicing them out loud. After all, there was a witch whom he had taken fancy to standing beside him, and it wouldn’t be good for anyone’s dignity if he appeared too nitpicky.

”Which mouse is Dangdang Ears, or Ding Dong Ears?”

This was the second thought that popped into Zheng Qing’s mind.

Without a doubt, this group of clothed mice, banging gongs and drums, abruptly appearing in the store, must be connected to the ’Ears Brother’ that had troubled them for half the day. Moreover, if Zheng Qing was not mistaken, the one seated in the agarwood litter, the ’Walnut Mouse,’ was probably the ’great figure of the Mouse Clan’ that Dangdang Ears had previously been longing for.

”Who is that ’Walnut Mouse’?”

This was the third thought that emerged in Zheng Qing’s mind.

Unlike the first two thoughts, as soon as this one surfaced, someone eagerly provided him with an answer.

”Rat Immortal?”

Although Duke Milton used a questioning tone, his manner was very confident, ”I’ve heard a lot about...the Underground World of First University being controlled by a mysterious Mouse Clan. I never expected to have the chance to meet such a dignitary today. This trip has truly been worthwhile.”

The procession of clothed mice slowly came to a halt, stopping between the young wizard and the tall counter.

The ’Walnut Mouse’ seated in the litter didn’t respond to the vampire duke who seemed to be greeting him but drooped his eyelids as if he were dozing off.

Duke Milton, seemingly oblivious to the ’Walnut Mouse’’s impatience, continued to talk incessantly, ”...Do you intend to intervene in today’s affairs? This is truly unusual... To my knowledge, the Mouse Clan of First University, from the time of their creation, has always stayed in their own world below, never interfering with affairs under the sunlight or beneath the moonlight.”

”Moreover, I need to remind you, this matter is much more complicated than what you see...”

The one seated on the litter, ’Walnut’ the gentleman, gurgled in his throat for a while and finally coughed up a lump of phlegm, spitting it onto the carpet Xin Fat Man had just purchased. At the same time, he spat out a word, ”Ptooey!”

The witches standing behind the warlocks all displayed expressions of disgust, and Li Meng was particularly unstinting in making a sound of revulsion. And the members of the Absolution Hunting Team glared at the little mouse, wishing they could pin it down and use its seemingly absorbing fur to meticulously scrub the carpet clean.

However, everyone still had a sense of the bigger picture and knew that now was not the time to quibble over this small matter.

As for Duke Milton, who bore the brunt, he seemed to be even less concerned by Walnut Old Mouse’s rudeness, possessing the composure of someone unbothered by spitting in his own face.

”A mere child daring to speak the word ’complicated’ in front of an old man like me... Do you really think that because you’ve grown a pair of wings and sit a little higher, you are much smarter than the mice?”

Different from the previous somber atmosphere, the one seated on the litter, ’Walnut’ the gentleman, or rather, the Rat Immortal, was much sharper in his speech and more like a mouse: ”I’m only here for business today... As for the rest, you can do whatever you want.”

”As for intervening... With that cat around, what need is there for me to do anything?”

With that said, the Rat Immortal tilted his head slightly, pointing with his sharp snout toward a corner of the room.

Duke Milton followed the Rat Immortal’s gesture.

There, in a corner shelf of the room, a yellow tabby cat was perched at the very top, holding a small dried fish in its paws and nibbling with relish.