High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1946: Chapter 167: ’Pleasantries

Iseni is a very special fishman①.

It moves agilely between Lin Zhong Lake, Jiuyou, Alpha, and Beta Town like a real fish. Each of these places considers it a ’friend’ and is willing to provide a bit of assistance within their capabilities.

That was enough.

Because no matter how special it is, it is ultimately a fishman, constrained by the Wizard’s Code and campus regulations, with a very limited scope of activity and quite despised (discriminated against) by ordinary wizards.

From another perspective, no matter how hard it tries to pretend to ’resemble’ a wizard, the caution, selfishness, cunning, and even cruelty inherited from its fishman bloodline silently influence it, drawing a clear line between it and its ’friends,’ much like its appearance.

On this side of the line are its wizard friends; on the other side are its kin.

When it led its fellow lake dwellers out of Lin Zhong Lake and crossed that line into an unfamiliar land, its kin exhibited significant sensitivity and suspicion, unsettling and agitating at any slight disturbance.

Just like now.

The original trade between the fishmen and the Ouroboros Hunting Team had already tightened the fishmen’s fins, and now new unexpected guests from the river exacerbated the situation—this made the number of wizards greatly outnumber the fishmen. To ordinary fishmen, it was difficult to distinguish between an Alpha and a Jiuyou Person; in their eyes, anyone in robes seemed the same.

So, when Zheng Qing’s gaze fell on the fishmen, the fishmen behind Iseni bared their fangs and hissed threateningly from their throats.

Zheng Qing did not plan to arrest these fishmen, who were obviously classified as illegally leaving their territory, and take them back to school, even though this act could earn him a small bonus from the School Works Committee.

Having just escaped a group of crazed Getrassi, the young wizard needed to sort out his thoughts.

He had looked more intently at the fishmen before because Zheng Qing found the scene particularly familiar, giving him a strong sense of déjà vu—the fishmen under the moonlight seemed shrouded in a thin layer of halo, and their scales glistened with a translucent luster.

Under the magical moonlight spilling over the river bend, the young cost student could clearly see the fishmen’s transparent, slightly wrinkled eyelids, their large, round eyeballs, and even the black spots and dense blood vessels on them.

After recalling for a while, he realized.

During a patrol last year, one night, in the same forest and under the same night sky, Iseni also led fishmen companions to trade with a stocky wizard.

Except that the wizard back then was named Sepulano.

And now.

Zheng Qing had just nodded slightly to Iseni.

The short, stout figure of Andrew Taylor abruptly inserted itself between Zheng Qing and the fishmen, blocking the gaze of the Atonement Hunting Team Leader, smilingly addressing these unexpected guests: ”...The weather is nice today.”

Zheng Qing looked up at the waning moon and wordlessly withdrew his gaze: ”What are you all...”

Before he finished, Andrew interrupted: ”Did you come from the water?”

Zheng Qing was momentarily choked, paused, then nodded reluctantly: ”Obviously.”

”Wizards have a rule for guests from the water—they need to be questioned first, not the other way around. Otherwise, they’ll get into a lot of trouble.” Andrew seemed to be explaining his impoliteness.

Zheng Qing had never heard of such a rule.

But he wasn’t foolish enough to argue over such matters, so he merely glanced at the fishmen behind the short, stout wizard and chuckled: ”Looks like they came the same route as us... Did you question them?”

”No.”

Andrew shrugged, looking sincere: ”Which is why I’m experiencing a bit of bad luck now... To prevent this misfortune from spreading, I hope everyone adheres to this rule of the old-school wizards.”

Zheng Qing was choked again.

He remembered Andrew didn’t speak so much nonsense before; how did he become like this after just a summer? But then again, no one would be in a good mood when their secrets were exposed.

Moreover, Andrew’s temperament was already somewhat poor.

Compared to the amiable leader, there were several hot-tempered members within the Atonement Hunting Team, who upon hearing the sarcastic remarks from across, immediately darkened their expressions.

”Spit it out!” Zhang Ji Xin impatiently tugged at his gloves: ”Ask whatever you want, why so much nonsense! Your bad luck is your own business, my luck is more than strong!”

”I can tell.” The leader of the Ouroboros Hunting Team complimented, turning to Zheng Qing: ”Then, a very simple question, what brings the guests here?”

”Certainly not for these things.” Zheng Qing glanced at the boxes in front of the fishmen.

Julian silently edged in front of the boxes, seemingly trying to block the cost student’s view. Zheng Qing gave him a friendly smile, indicating he had already seen everything.

The first box was full of damp law books, neatly stacked, with three dusty deer-skin bags on top, bulging and tightly tied, with unknown contents.

The second box contained neatly arranged herbs. Zheng Qing easily recognized many familiar materials—such as fish bone wood, siren scales, fish scale grass, dried fish wives, red carp skulls, Chinese perch blood, etc. Before the ’notification’ from the Blood Comrades was issued, D&K of the Atonement Hunting Team and the Lake Bell fishmen also had ’transactions,’ and these items had once been displayed in the store’s cabinets.

The third box was a jumble of miscellaneous items—things like damp deer-skin packs, dragon-skin gloves missing fingers, unknown herbs in glass bottles, bizarre talismans inscribed on bamboo slips, cauldrons and mortars covered in green moss, and so on.

A wide variety of items, astounding to see.

”Really ’letting the mandarins light fire but not allowing the commoners to light a lamp.’” Zheng Qing sighed.

Andrew raised an eyebrow, unexpectedly keeping silent.

Dylan pulled out a floral handkerchief from somewhere, covered his nose, took a few steps forward, glanced briefly at Andrew, and set his sights on the boxes: ”Wow... so many secondhand goods!”

”Precisely speaking, they are merely old items.” The leader of the Ouroboros Hunting Team corrected the Blood Werewolf’s choice of words, no longer warm and now maintain a lukewarm demeanor.

Zheng Qing was initially puzzled as to why Dylan suddenly stepped in, but the next second, he understood that Dylan had half a werewolf bloodline within him, belonging to the ancient Tabbot family of the Werewolf Clan, whereas Andrew belonged to the new, rising Taylor family within the Werewolf Clan. The two families had never been amiable towards each other.

”No difference,” Dylan glanced arrogantly at the short, stout werewolf, displaying a sense of superiority: ”True moonlight nobles would never use anyone’s secondhand goods, for buying secondhand items is also buying someone else’s misfortune.”