High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 867: Chapter 215: The Crazy Pumpkin Car

For the students of First University, this year’s Christmas was just as amusing as in previous years.

For instance, several Big Wizards with Druid titles animated many tall pine and cypress trees and then adorned them with colorful little gifts, allowing them to lumber around the campus with heavy steps. Whenever they encountered a student with empty hands or someone all alone, they would kindly offer a Christmas present—this has been a traditional event for Christmas Day at First University, part of the ’Campus Underprivileged Group Holiday Care Initiative’ led by the student council.

Another example is the School Works Committee creating a large batch of Puppet snowmen, small ones only about a foot tall and the largest just over a meter. Since today is Christmas, as per tradition, the campus would be covered with thick layers of snow, and these lively snowmen brought extra vitality to the entire campus as they frolicked in the snow.

Of course, these snowmen served more than just this purpose. They were even more important for their fluffy bellies. Those thick snowballs were perfect for obscuring the line of sight.

If a young warlock wanted to give a gift to a witch he fancied for Christmas but was too embarrassed to do so in public, he could simply stop a wandering snowman in the snow, stuff the gift into the snowman’s belly, and then insert a Paper Crane Talisman into the snowman’s head. The snowman would then follow the guidance of the Paper Crane Talisman and deliver the gift into the hands of the witch.

Since snowmen could not speak and were loyally devoted, they were considered the perfect ’Santa Claus.’

Compared to them, another batch of postmen seemed quite noisy.

This year’s Santas helping students deliver gifts were not the traditional Talisman Paper Puppets, nor were they the rumored reindeer and sleighs; instead, it was mice and pumpkins.

Yes, this year, the animals pulling Santa’s carriage were not reindeer but glossy-furred Big Mice; and the carriage they pulled was not Santa’s sled but round, rolling pumpkin carriages. If an agile student lifted the hat of one of these ’Santas,’ they would see a white beard under the brim but with pointed snouts—yes, this year’s Santas were also played by mice.

”It’s not the Year of the Mouse this year, so why does the school have so many mice!” a short witch muttered to her companion as she passed by Zheng Qing, ”This morning in the cafeteria, I ran into three mice driving pumpkin carriages to deliver my gifts... Those pointy-mouth creatures speak in such a strange tone, and they look dirty, I really don’t understand why the school chose them as messengers.”

Although her tone seemed to be filled with dissatisfaction, Zheng Qing always felt like she was showing off something in her words.

”Yeah,” the short witch’s companion sneered, mumbling, ”I also think the school is being slick... you think, the school was having us catch mice a while ago, could it have been for them to pull pumpkin carriages? Does this count as mistreatment of animals? Can we protest to Danghag?”

Whether making mice pull carriages counted as animal abuse, Zheng Qing was not sure. However, he knew that the two girls had gotten something wrong. But before he could speak up, Doctor Xiao, walking beside him, couldn’t help but jump in.

”Uh,” Xiao Xiao coughed and popped his head forward, interrupting the witches’ conversation gently, ”This year is the Year of the Earth Mouse; although it’s still a month until New Year’s Eve, it definitely is the Year of the Mouse... Additionally, Danghag does not accept public interest lawsuits initiated by natural persons, so if you want to protest against the school for mistreating mice, submitting related documents to the Moon Council’s court might have a higher chance of being accepted.”

The two witches were clearly startled by Doctor Xiao’s sudden interjection and stared blankly at him before huddling together and scurrying off as if stung by wasps.

In the snow, only a trail of snickering laughter and a certain short-statured warlock remained standing in place, his face shifting between red and white.

”Foolish actions.” Xin Fat Man, who was walking behind Zheng Qing and Xiao Xiao, finally caught up with their pace, panting, and commented as such.

It was 1:50 in the afternoon, and less than ten minutes remained until the start of the Life Skills class.

Today was Thursday, and the afternoon scheduled a mandatory school-wide general education course—Life Skills.

Although it was a required course, because the material was simple and the credits were low, everyone’s enthusiasm for attending was not high. During this period close to the end of the term, students preferred to spend their limited study time on courses like talisman paper, magic script, and potion studies.

Like most students, including the Absolution Hunting Team, they squeezed every minute of their lunchtime to the limit—some even managed to get a sick leave note from the school infirmary to take the whole afternoon off—so arriving in class just in time, as Zheng Qing and others did, naturally was not seen as anything out of the ordinary.

”Indeed stupid,” Zhang Ji Xin nodded his head in agreement, analyzing, ”Even in the year of the rat, there shouldn’t be so many mice in the school... In other words, does that mean during the year of the dragon, we’d have ice chilong and Chi qiu flying all over the streets?”

Xin Fat Man’s eyes widened in full shock at his companion’s statement.

”I didn’t mean ’stupid’ in that sense!” The fat one corrected loudly: ”Is your brain made of muscle? Can’t you think flexibly about the dos and don’ts when witches and warlocks communicate?”

”What does that have to do with what Xiao Xiao just said?” Zhang Ji Xin was thoroughly confused.

While talking, Zheng Qing, who was walking ahead of the group, suddenly let out a sigh: ”Damn, here it comes again...”

Before his words finished, a streak of yellow lightning wrapped in a flurry of snowflakes swooped down from the trees nearby, with a whistling sound, burrowing right into the snow pile in front of the young scholarship student.

Zheng Qing hesitated about whether to flee immediately when the snow pile wriggled a bit and out crawled a small mouse wearing a red robe, sporting a ridiculous pointed cap, and with a bunch of white beard dangling on its face.

”Ninth-Grade Astronomy Class 08-1, student Zheng Qing, student ID 2008TW-1-002, you have a Christmas gift to sign for!”

”Ptooey, by the Elderly Ancestor, what accursed weather!”

The little mouse complained in a high-pitched voice, while looking up and glancing around: ”Excuse me, could someone help dig my pumpkin carriage out from the snow pile? Delivering gifts in this big snow is quite a hardship; you wouldn’t refuse to lend a hand, would you?”

Xiao Xiao cradled his notebook, turning a blind eye to the plight of the small mouse. Xin Fat Man and Zhang Ji Xin also folded their arms, looking amused.

Only Zheng Qing, after a few sighs of lament, crouched down and helped the mouse dig out his pumpkin carriage from the snow pile.

Given his proficient movements, this was obviously not his first time doing this.