High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1256: Chapter 3 Doubts About the Law Book

”It’s just... a common... Binding Spell!”

Zheng Qing replied through gritted teeth as he pulled a belt from his grey cloth bag and began wrapping it around the law book in his hands. The book was bound tightly, crisscrossed, without a single character peeking through.

Worried that the binding alone wasn’t secure enough, he took out several seal symbols, spit on them, and stuck them to every corner of the law book.

Only until the seal symbols gave off a comforting pale green glow did he stop.

Then he looked up and saw the curious and scrutinizing gazes of his roommates.

”Ahem, a malfunction in the magic book, just a malfunction,” the young public-charge student coughed and casually tossed out the excuse he had just concocted: ”...This law book has been used for a while, it’s gotten a bit... temperamental. Yeah, that’s right, temperamental. Just like Dylan’s Magic Dressing Mirror, which likes to spout nonsense when it’s fine.”

Over time, a Magic Dressing Mirror might start to offer fashion advice that is strangely worded or provide bizarre clothing combinations.

To an average alchemist, this is considered a magic malfunction, but to many users, it is simply a sign of the mirror’s ’self-awareness’ strengthening—a sign of its growing pains. It explains why so many wizards who overly rely on magic can have a peculiar sense of fashion—so these young wizards who grew up in The Magical World reluctantly accepted Zheng Qing’s explanation.

Of course, Doctor Xiao was never so easily fooled: ”A magic book malfunction doesn’t necessarily mean that the book won’t turn into ashes. Are you possibly conflating concepts?”

Zheng Qing smacked his lips, showing a hint of distress: ”Why do you, as a magician, care so much about logic?”

”Logic and magic are not contradictory,” the Doctor said calmly.

”Where did you buy your magic book from?” Dylan interjected just in time, which greatly relieved the young public-charge student, but Mister Werewolf posed his confusion from another angle:

”I’ve been meaning to ask this, but kept forgetting... Your law book seems pretty nice, eh? Bronze pins, paper pages, inscriptions—even though the materials are common, the craftsmanship is exquisite... There’s no standard version of this book available on the market... Is it a family heirloom?”

Wizard families with a bit of history all have heirloom law books, passed from grandfather to grandson, husband to wife, etc. These books are not for sale on the market and often have restrictions tied to lineage and family names, rendering them unusable by wizards who do not share the appropriate bloodline or surname. However, correspondingly, these books provide a substantial boost to wizards and are popular among family wizards.

Dylan entertained this notion because others had been unable to open Zheng Qing’s magic book.

”I’m the only wizard in my family.”

Zheng Qing had never hidden this fact: ”Just like you, I bought this law book from Lower Yuan Bookstores, but there was a public-charge discount at the time, so it was a personalized order from the bookmaker.”

The young wizard spoke the last sentence with a touch of guilt.

Last year, when he ordered his law book from Lower Yuan Bookstores, in order to get the lowest price of a single gold bean, he opted for a personalized order. It seems there was a misunderstanding with the law book maker named Old Pein, who blood refined a book for him.

This made Zheng Qing always feel like he was getting an unfair advantage.

However, when using the book, it indeed felt great. Spell formulas were copied smoothly, without problems like the inability to display some crucial spells that many law books have (for example, the Paris-bound versions require church blessings, so spells involving the devil are prohibited; Ashmol’s versions, made with sharkskin paper, have trouble keeping fire spells), and it didn’t absorb ink excessively (a phenomenon where the law book absorbs a large amount of magic ink to ease the spell operation load). Moreover, the magic power consumption was low during use.

Dylan’s inquiry into the origins of the law book made the young wizard involuntarily recall the circumstances of purchasing the law book last year, bringing back many scenes he had overlooked at the time, and he suddenly realized a problem he had previously ignored.

But before he could ponder in detail, his train of thought was interrupted by the voice of Xin Fat Man.

”Custom-made, huh... What an unequal society.” A voice laced with sourness broke Zheng Qing’s reverie, as the fat man began to grumble with a belly full of complaints. ”Just because cost students have slightly better grades, why do they get so many perks!”

”Just having good grades is enough, no need for a Persian Magic Carpet.” Zheng Qing was quite dissatisfied with the guy who had interrupted his thoughts and responded without much kindness.

”This is the system,” Doctor Xiao said incisively.

This somewhat brutal answer plunged the dormitory into silence.

Zheng Qing cleared away the ashes on the table, combed the long fur on Fatty Cat Tuan Tuan’s back, and wiped the sprites’ wings before he finally snapped out of it and turned to look at Xin Fat Man.

He remembered the suggestion that the fat man had made when their conversation initially started.

”Why are you telling me to save money?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at the fat man.

The first suggestion from the fat man, right after Zheng Qing had just woken up, was for him to save money.

”Save some money, so that when people come to you for personal injury compensation, mental distress compensation, property damage compensation, or when you need to seek a senior therapist for your sleepwalking, you won’t have to borrow from us,” the fat man replied somewhat irritably, his notebook slapping soundly in his hands.

He was packing up a feather pen and draft papers, unsure if he was heading to the library or the editorial room.

Dylan had already silently shrunk back into his coffin.

After hearing the fat man’s reply, he popped out half of his head and whispered a reminder, ”Just to be clear, I’m also very poor... The worst thing about being a vampire is that it’s very hard to wait for the day you inherit an estate. Unless you pawn antiquities.”

It was a very cold joke.

Zheng Qing gave a forced chuckle in response.

”Speaking of hospitals,” Xiao Xiao didn’t laugh. A thoughtful expression crossed his face. ”Nicholas is still in the school hospital, should we go visit him?”

The dormitory fell into silence once again.

The notebook slipped from the fat man’s loosened grip and thudded to the floor. Dylan also seemed to forget about retreating back into his coffin.

After a moment, Zheng Qing’s voice, tinged with confusion, broke the silence, ”The school hospital? What’s Nicholas doing at the school hospital? Is he sick?”

He had spent the entire previous day off-campus, going to bed as soon as he came back, and had no idea what had happened at school.

”We can talk about it over lunch,” Xin Fat Man said brusquely, shoving Zheng Qing toward the washroom. ”Clean yourself up, and then we’ll go have lunch... We’ll talk about it then.”

”You really do have a good appetite,” Dylan mocked, swooshing back into his coffin and closing the lid forcefully.

The fat man, annoyed, stared at the black coffin and began to contemplate whether or not to paint a few suns on it.