High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 2047: Chapter 268: Reply Letter and the Tedious Practice Class

”October 16, 2009—Work Record.”

After filling in the date, Andrew stopped writing and looked up out the window—at that moment, he was sitting in the office of Trident Sword’s Beta Town office. His desk was close to the window, offering a rich view of a small square, three intersecting streets, and a patch of sky.

It’s October now, the height of autumn, when First University holds the Moon Hunting event.

In the impression of the short, fat wizard, the weather was always great during the period when the school held the Moon Hunting. The weather monitors’ staff could always use the good weather balls they’d accumulated for this time. Like now, when he looked up at the clear and deep blue sky, like a transparent sapphire, with clouds forever floating, fluffy and soft. The brisk autumn wind gently greeted every life on Buji Island, with yellow or red leaves sometimes sweeping across the street.

A priest draped in ceremonial attire passed solemnly in front of the window, perhaps going to someone’s funeral; a sallow-faced drunkard squatted at the street corner, mumbling something to himself with a half-empty bottle of Sea Monster Langmu; a twin-tailed squirrel flashed under the eaves, a few grass spirits chased after it, cursing.

Andrew guessed the squirrel must have stolen the chestnuts the grass spirits had hoarded.

He enviously watched the little creatures’ departing figures, sighed heavily, picked up the feather pen again, dipped it in the ink bottle, and smoothed out the parchment on the table:

”...The ogre tribe death incident on the night of October 13 in a certain place in the Silent Forest (coordinates 32.14, 64.38) could not trace more details... The scene left traces of a second-rank battle array... All suspicious targets within First University have been inspected, with a focus on checking hunting teams with the ability to deploy second-rank battle arrays (Absolution Hunting Team), with no relevant clues found... The inspection of the key monitoring unit ’Wandering Bar’ is still ongoing... The Northern District Wizard Group backed by Great Wizard Korma is temporarily ruled out as a suspect... The School Works Committee’s Security Committee does not endorse Trident Sword investigation, stating areas outside the School Guardian Array are not under its jurisdiction, those sons of bitches (crossed out)...”

Mr. Commissioner hastily crossed out the last sentence—he had just written it instinctively, forgetting this was not his notebook, but a work record to be archived—ever since Lady Shi Hui left First University to serve as President of the Great Wizard Conference, Trident Sword’s work within the Buji Island region had become increasingly difficult. Old foolishness from the School Works Committee perfunctorily handled Trident Sword’s cooperation investigation letter, stalling whenever possible, as if uncovering one unsolved death case in the Silent Forest would somehow bring Trident Sword immense performance benefits!

”Those sons of bitches!”

After signing his name on the work report, Andrew looked again at the line he had crossed out, and cursed again softly.

...

...

”On the Tuesday night in the Silent Forest, a small ogre tribe was massacred, with thirteen ogres, big and small, killed,” said Zhang Ji Xin, pausing and shaking his head: ”...tsk, what a terrible number.”

Xin Fat Man quietly corrected, ”Not thirteen... the news I have says seven, because in the tribe, apart from an ogre shaman, the remaining six were all two-headed ogres. So when originally counted, six extra heads were included.”

”Those aren’t the main points.”

The red-faced warlock waved his hand: ”In any case... traces of a second-rank battle array were found at the death scene. Of course, it wasn’t Second-Rank Bo Fu... but my brother also said we should keep a low profile recently and ignore any interview invitations from the ’Beta Town Post.’”

”Even if your brother hadn’t mentioned it, none of us would pay any heed to the Post.” The fat wizard said indignantly, looking around expectantly: ”...What matters can you not tell me, right?”

Xiao Xiao adjusted his glasses and added: ”...Trident Sword sent a coordination letter to the school, but because the incident happened off-campus, and the victims were just ogres, plus with the upcoming campus hunting tournament finals, the School Works Committee is very short on hands, so they’re trying hard to minimize the influence of this incident... You can see, the newspapers hardly reported on it.”

Zheng Qing kept a straight face, listening to his companions add their bits one by one, feeling terrible.

After the morning alchemy class, Andrew from Trident Sword’s classroom-blockade action at the door aroused Zheng Qing’s vigilance, so he immediately arranged for his teammates to investigate everywhere.

Fortunately, Absolution’s information channels were very rich—Zhang Ji Xin went to find his brother, who was a ’Lei Zhe,’ Xin Fat Man chatted in the campus newspaper editing department, and Doctor Xiao, upon Zheng Qing’s urging, went to the office building begrudgingly, entering the history teacher’s office.

By the afternoon class, the young public-funded student had gleaned a rough outline from the compiled information from all sides.

One could only say, not knowing some things is far better than knowing.

Whether it was the word ’massacre,’ those suspicious two-headed ogres, or the so-called ’traces of a second-rank battle array left at the scene,’ all made Zheng Qing’s current mood exceptionally dreadful.

”The Absolution’s ’super freshman hunters,’ please look at the blackboard!”

On the podium, Assistant Hilda tapped the blackboard with the pointer in hand, reminding the warlocks at the back who were daydreaming, half-jokingly: ”...Even though I know you guys are today’s stars of the practical class, and your understanding of the second-rank battle array is profound enough, before you come up to share your insights, I’m still your lecturer for this class... So, pay attention!”

There was a light, teasing laughter in the classroom.

Many students turned their heads, staring with envy and curiosity at the four warlocks sitting in the corner—Zheng Qing, eyes on his nose, nose on his heart, sitting upright, a stroke of inspiration flashing in his mind.

Combined with the information his companions had collected, he suddenly understood a little why today’s practical class was chosen to be conducted in the classroom. Although the school was playing Tai Chi with Trident Sword’s coordination letter, it didn’t mean they would ignore the risks brought about by an unsolved death incident. Just last year, chaos caused by a swarm of Sand Time Worms led the school to cancel all classes for an entire afternoon and had all lower-grade students perform safety training in the First Hall.

Now, merely moving the practical class indoors was already considered quite relaxed.

”Very well, now that the daydreaming classmates are back to their senses, let’s continue to analyze the selection of magic power nodes in the first-rank battle array during the second-level progression process...”

On the podium, Assistant Hilda, in a departure from her usual lively style, covered a large portion of the blackboard with complex demonstration diagrams, continuously explaining the critical points of the second-rank battle array to the class——one must admit, love can sometimes have a positive and constructive effect on work.

But Zheng Qing bet that more than half of the class could barely keep their eyes open.

Everyone might never have attended such a dull practical class.