High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 2152: Chapter 373: The Five Stages of Grief

Proficient in Transformation, Zheng Qing could begrudgingly accept it.

But spreading rumors that his transformed form was a fox, and that he used this fox form to ’seduce’ Su Shijun, was downright malicious.

Was he, Zheng Qing, the type to be kept by someone?

On second thought, if everyone mistakenly believed his transformed form was a fox, it would not only mean the ’Black Cat’ could move around campus more safely in the future, but also better conceal his identity in the Seven Sins. From these angles, it wasn’t such a bad thing.

”Indeed, no harm in it.”

The young cost student nodded reluctantly, but grew increasingly puzzled: ”So, why are they trying to catch the fox? Do they think I’m one of those foxes? Hahaha...”

Doctor Xiao said nothing, just looked at Zheng Qing with a look of pity.

Zheng Qing’s laughter grew fainter and weaker, and his expression became more bewildered.

”No way? No way!”

He repeated this phrase several times before slowly sorting out his thoughts: ”Could anyone really be trying to catch my transformed fox form and do something to it?!”

Xiao Xiao shrugged, offering no comment.

The young cost student began to cautiously use his imagination.

However, the more cautious his imagination, the more it carelessly took flight, until in moments, the warlock, who had been full of red light on his face, visibly turned ashen gray.

The renowned wizard scholar Elizabeth Kübler-Ross proposed the ’five stages of grief’—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance—in her book On Death and Dying. Some have suggested a sixth stage, revenge.

At this moment, Zheng Qing easily skipped the first three stages and went directly to ’depression’ and ’acceptance.’ Perhaps this was because he had already denied and been angry many times before, and bargaining had yielded no results. So when faced with a similar situation again, he didn’t need to go through those processes.

”It’s not as bad as you think.”

The diviner of the Atonement Hunting Team comfortingly patted their team leader’s shoulder: ”Not all foxes are troublesome. The ones being caught are those wild foxes with unknown lineage and identity, and nobody does anything bad to them... I heard the commissioners only pluck a few hairs or smear some paint on them... It’s like making a mark... If the commissioners go too far, the school’s magical creature ethics committee is sure to intervene.”

The last sentence inexplicably reignited someone’s anger, making him revisit the first two stages of grief.

”If those damn ethics committees were any good, there wouldn’t have been that parade on Halloween night!” the young cost student complained angrily: ”Endless! Endless! Just because I had a kid with Su Shijun? They’re acting like their wives were stolen... Do they know where the Greenhill Mansion’s door is?”

Squeak.

An ear-piercing sound came from Mister Wolfman’s tent as the coffin lid was violently opened. Zheng Qing looked over just in time to see a pair of grim eyes.

He shivered, suddenly realizing that besides the fat guy, there was another ardent fan of Su Daxu in the dorm who, because he considered himself a Moonlight Noble, usually behaved very reservedly.

”By the way, if you don’t mind, we could also take this commission.”

Doctor Xiao spoke timely, softening the indescribable tension in the dorm while pacing between Zheng Qing and Dylan. He fished out a parchment from who knows where and shook it gently in the air: ”I studied this commission carefully and found that the commissioner only targets foxes appearing within the school’s premises, which means we need to compete with those numerous ’registered hunting teams’...”

The so-called ’registered hunting teams’ differ from the Atonement team, which has completed registration processes, like the Fringe Hunting Team or the Ouroboros team Andrew formed—just reporting to the Hunting Committee for registration suffices, even freshmen who just joined the school face no limitations.

The difference being, registered teams like the Atonement team can participate in off-campus events, take outside commissions, and even apply to leave school to complete tasks.

But registered hunting teams can only participate in the ’Campus Cup’ hunting competitions, and accept only the school’s occasionally published practical commissions or other students’ or professors’ private commissions.

Low threshold means high quantity.

High quantity means low prices.

The sheer number of registered hunting teams makes commission prices within the school very low, so generally, registered teams will not lower their status to compete with them.

Of course, since the Atonement team is newly established, it has little reputation burden in this regard and won’t mind its status. The only two factors limiting the team’s task intake are they are currently in an intensive second-year academic phase, and the team leader is ’Zheng Qing.’

Everyone worries particularly about whether knowing Zheng Qing accepts a commission and leaves the school would lead to someone hitting him dead in the depths of the Silent Forest—especially after last Sunday’s bag incident, when jokes turned into reality, making everyone increasingly cautious, even only occasionally accepting short-term peripheral Silent Forest tasks for outside commissions.

Just like catching those Blue-mouthed Pheasants last night.

The periphery of the Silent Forest is covered by the School Guardian Array; it receives more attention because it lies between the forest and school, hence it is relatively safer. Thus, the Atonement Hunting Team occasionally wandering is not that dangerous.

”I actually don’t mind.”

The young cost student folded his arms, pouting: ”But you’d better consider, it’s already late November, and in a month, it’s the end-of-term exams for this semester...”

”So I just studied the commission a bit and didn’t bring it up for discussion at the hunting team’s regular meeting.” Xiao Xiao interrupted him, quickly put away the parchment, and turned to Dylan: ”...You woke up quite early today?”

Zheng Qing had rushed back to the dorm this afternoon, just half an hour after the magical zoology class ended. Based on a typical wizard’s schedule, Mister Wolfman had technically woken up around five in the morning, which was quite early compared to his usual ’after eight’ uprising.

Dylan gazed at the short wizard with puzzled eyes, then turned to Zheng Qing and gnashed his teeth, flipping the coffin lid to dive back in, immediately falling asleep again.

The young cost student quietly let out a sigh of relief.

Can’t afford to cross them, can’t afford to cross them, better not to easily provoke these ardent fans lest someday they short-circuit and drain him dry of blood in the night.