High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1206: Chapter 268: Lakeside Conflict

Even though everyone had sensed a growing tension at the academy since last weekend, the speed of its escalation had still exceeded the expectations of the hunters from the Absolution Hunting Team.

On Saturday morning, shortly after the Black Cat slipped out the window, Xin Fat Man was rudely awakened by a red paper crane that glowed with fire, flying and exploding as it entered. The fiery avian had sneaked in through the gap the cat left open. It screeched like a skyrocket, circling above Xin’s head leaving behind a string of red bubbles, with one bursting every couple of seconds.

”Pop!” ”Pop!” ”Pop!”

Even from beneath the covers, he couldn’t block out the intensifying explosions. The Fatty Cat, Tuan Tuan, growled twice in anger and sharply extended its claws digging viciously into Xin’s heel.

Overwhelmed and beleaguered, Xin eventually found it impossible to go back to sleep. With great effort, he lifted his arm, rubbed the corner of his eye with the back of his hand, and then grabbed the paper crane by its wing. Still groggy, he unfolded the note and squinted at it with one eye, using the brilliant sunshine flooding in through the window.

There were only six hurriedly-scrawled characters on the letter, accompanied by two enormous exclamation points:

”Trouble at Lin Zhong Lake!”

The handwriting belonged to Minister Linda from the Campus Newspaper, who was also Xin’s immediate boss. Xin grumbled a few words, then suddenly snapped to alertness, leapt from his bed with surprising agility for a fat man, and bellowed:

”Get up, something’s happened outside!!”

No one in the dorm room paid him any attention, except for the Fatty Cat. Startled by Xin’s actions, it hissed at him angrily before jumping down from his bed and scampering off to Zheng Qing’s. The Sprites hanging from Zheng’s bed, Hehe by name, comforted the cat, stretching out their tiny hands to scratch behind its ears, which gradually calmed Tuan Tuan down.

Xin Fat Man looked around.

Zheng Qing’s bed was empty, and so was Xiao Xiao’s; they must have gone for morning training. Only Dylan’s coffin was shut tight, making it sound as though he had just fallen asleep not too long ago.

Xin’s howling paused the snoring from behind the curtain for a couple of seconds, then a muffled response came from within the coffin, ”What does it have to do with me? I want to sleep!”

Xin, after taking the warm towel and toothbrush with toothpaste on it handed to him by the Sprites, started to wipe his face and cram the toothbrush into his mouth. Then he made his way to Dylan’s bed and yanked open the thick red curtains forcefully:

”Why sleep through life? Death will be a long slumber anyway! We must grasp our limited time and devote ourselves to exhilarating, boundless endeavors!”

He tried to pry open Dylan’s coffin lid as he spoke.

But the coffin lid was securely fastened, and no amount of pushing from Xin could budge it. Instead, an exasperated voice came from below the lid, that of Mister Blood Werewolf: ”The man who said that died in his thirties... and I’m already dead!”

The strength drained from Xin Fat Man’s arms instantly, a stunned look on his face: ”Oh... almost forgot, you’re already one of the Spirits. Although a non-typical one.”

Dylan, since he wouldn’t get out of bed, the fat man naturally wasn’t going to waste any more time in front of his coffin. Soon, with the help of a group of sprites, he had gotten ready and, amid the screeching of the dressing mirror, slammed the dorm door behind him, clutching his notebook and feather pen as he sprinted toward Lin Zhong Lake.

On a typical Saturday morning, there were few students to be seen on campus, as most young wizards would seize the brief period of bliss to catch up on their never sufficient sleep.

But today, on his way to Lin Zhong Lake, Xin Fat Man keenly noticed an increase in the number of students around. Most of them were young warlocks, walking in twos and threes, many disheveled, clearly just having crawled out of bed without taking the time to properly wash up.

The closer he got to the lake, the more students there were, and the noisier it became. By the time he reached the open space before the lakefront—the small square in front of Book Mountain Library—the crowd had swelled to hundreds. Considering the entire Jiuyou Academy had fewer than two thousand students in total, nearly a quarter had gathered here at the small square.

When Xin, following the message carried by a paper crane, found Minister Linda, the blonde, blue-eyed witch was standing atop a slightly elevated stone step, assigning tasks to the surrounding campus newspaper journalists.

She wore a sharp little suit with frameless glasses perched on her nose, and her golden hair was carelessly bundled into a bun at the back of her head, fastened by a slender brush that served as a hairpin. Xin noticed that the tip of the brush was still damp, as if it had just been lifted from its ink stone not long ago.

”Alex, Alex, you’re in charge of the first reporting team. Follow the movements of the Atonement Hunting Team, they were the earliest Alpha students to appear near Lin Zhong Lake, they must know what led to this incident...”

”Mickey? Mickey Raul?! You’re in charge of the second reporting team, try to get as close to the 3A club members as possible. Remember, take photos against the light, we couldn’t see anything but that big fireball in the sky in your last snapshots!”

”Han ZhiYuan! You and Kim TaeYin try to pry something out of Zhao Qiao’s mouth, I know you have a good relationship with him...”

”Minister, we’ve broken up!” a pointy-chinned, large-eyed witch argued loudly: ”Can someone else interview him? Maybe Xin Fat Man can go.”

”Zhao Qiao, or Sepulano, I trust you’ll make the right choice,” Minister Linda’s voice was very cold, and her suggestion somewhat insensitive: ”I can give you an excuse... like you want to get back together with him?”

The pointy-chinned witch clutched her notebook and stormed off in a huff.

Xin Fat Man, cautiously controlling the sound of his breathing, tiptoed in an attempt to move behind the Minister’s back, trying to stay out of her line of sight. Unfortunately, damn Han ZhiYuan had just mentioned his name, and with just a turn of her head, Minister Linda spotted the fat man’s large figure.

”Xin!”

As soon as Linda spoke, Xin Fat Man quickly raised his hand, protesting: ”Minister, I can’t go interview Sepulano, I’m from the Absolution Hunting Team, our captain just sent Sepulano to the infirmary a few days ago... You know about this! Don’t think we can have a conversation just because we’re similar in size... If I show up in front of that guy, he’s definitely going to beat the shit out of me!”

His crude words carried a hint of dark humor.

This made the already anxious editor-in-chief of the school paper give a small laugh.

”No, you don’t need to worry about getting beaten up. Sepulano is my responsibility, you’re in charge of Nicholas Green Oswald,” Minister Linda’s voice softened a bit: ”He’s your classmate, you should know how to handle it.”

It was only then that the fat man noticed the warlock standing in the center of the crowd, Nicholas.