High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 2851: Chapter 1072: Montreya Family

”——The Montreya Family, from which Professor Montreya hails, is a very ancient family in the Wizard World. This family has its own ancestral hall and Holy Shrine, where they worship their own god ’Qibuja’. In special circumstances, they also perform rituals to the Starry Sky. The family elders require long-term fasting and seclusion to maintain the purity of their souls and magic power. Lineage is maternally inherited, so both the clan leader and religious leaders are female, but the titles are passed down paternally — much like ’Montreya’, the most outstanding wizard of this family would use ’Montreya’ as their name, somewhat akin to ’Lei Zhe’ or ’Augustus’, except this name circulates only within the Montreya family...”

In dorm room 403, Xiao Xiao held a black-covered notebook and spoke endlessly.

Zheng Qing, having listened to this point, couldn’t help but mutter quietly, ”... I always thought Professor Montreya doesn’t reveal their full name for safety reasons.”

This situation is quite common within the Alliance; apart from a few extremely confident big figures, the vast majority of wizards only reveal part of their names — a point to clarify is that, apart from a very few with extraordinary talent in bloodlines, most wizards only attain a true name upon reaching the registered level. This is why this rank is named ’registered’, because from then on, a wizard’s name is successfully ’registered’ in this world.

A true name carries immense magical power, but that doesn’t mean ordinary names are without risk. As a link between the real and the virtual, a ’name’ has a strong directional nature, possessing mysterious and unique magical effects at any stage.

”——Are you still listening or not?” Xiao Xiao tapped the table with his fingers, looking impatient, ”If you’re not listening, I’m going to write my Alchemy assignment!”

Zheng Qing quickly raised his hand and made a zipper motion by his mouth, indicating to zip it.

The afternoon conversation with Professor Montreya — whether by the Lakeside of Bell Lake or in the professor’s office — left Zheng Qing with a lingering feeling that something was left unsaid. It seemed as if the professor had something to say but didn’t, yet no matter how much he thought, he couldn’t grasp it. This matter was like a stone lodged in his chest, causing him to frequently lose focus in Mo Lu Studies classes.

He wanted to fetch a copper coin for divination.

Only then did he realize, to his amazement, that he knew very little about Professor Montreya’s information — neither age, nor birthplace, nor full name, not even the most basic elements for divining.

After the Mo Lu Studies class in the evening, Zheng Qing went straight to the office building to check the ’professor annals’, but the results only made him more surprised. Because the information on Professor Montreya provided in the annals did not exceed what he already knew, and in the extremely limited content, most were about the professor’s work and achievements at the school.

This made him even more curious.

Returning to his dorm in the evening, he immediately sought out Xiao Xiao.

Apart from the library and the Wandering Bar, if there was anywhere else on Buji Island that could provide information on Professor Montreya, it was undoubtedly Doctor Xiao. Besides, compared to the vast and overwhelming resources of the library, and the meticulous yet costly services at the Wandering Bar, the free, prompt, and convenient ’Xiao brand’ Q&A device clearly suited Zheng Qing’s preferences better.

The only drawback was needing to be well-behaved and not anger the doctor.

Sure enough, seeing Zheng Qing’s gesture of ”zipping his mouth”, Xiao Xiao gave a slight smirk and continued flipping through his notebook.

”... From the tenth to the fifteenth century, the Montreya family had successive fierce conflicts with the Olmec Family, the Aztec Priesthood, and the Maya people, and after the sixteenth century, it had several great wars with wizards coming from Iberia. The wars lasting hundreds of years caused many excellent wizards from the Montreya family to fall one after another, and many branches were destroyed, leading to the dwindling of the family’s bloodline, gradually unable to support the birth of high-level wizards.”

Reading up to here, Xiao Xiao also seemed intrigued, quickly flipping forward a few pages and nodding thoughtfully, ”...In short, Professor Montreya, who just advanced to a big wizard, is the most outstanding member of their family in several hundred years. No wonder he could use this name.”

Zheng Qing hurriedly raised his hand, speaking rapidly about his earlier confusion: ”——But when I checked the ’professor annals’, I saw that Professor Montreya was attending the Great Wizard Conference of the Alliance quite early on?”

”Not surprising.”

Xiao Xiao adjusted his glasses, calmly explaining, ”It’s said that ’a starved camel is still bigger than a horse.’ Even if the Montreya Family is in decline, it’s still one of the handful ancient clans in the Alliance, possessing more depth than those medium and small families. For instance, their family may have puppets, spiritual beasts, or even forbidden techniques with the power of a big wizard; also, some years ago, he probably used some residual family influence when serving as a professor at the First University as a senior registered wizard; and...”

”Gamma Street No.18!”

Zheng Qing suddenly exclaimed, startling Tuan Tuan who had been dozing off, abruptly stopping his snoring.

”What?”

Xiao Xiaolian showed a bit of perplexity on his face.

”Gamma Street No.18, the headquarters of Blood Comrades, the Montreya Family was among the original donors!” Zheng Qing finally remembered, when he met Augustus back then, he seemed to have seen this name engraved on a commemorative stone outside the headquarters.

Xiao Xiao shrugged, closing his notebook, ”——In any event, if you’re just planning to divine whether there’s any deeper meaning to what Professor Montreya said, these elements are enough. Knowing more doesn’t serve much purpose. Furthermore, to be honest, given your level of divination skill, attempting to probe a big wizard’s thoughts is akin to an old man eating arsenic, courting death.”

”Then why did you tell me all this?” Zheng Qing looked puzzled.

”Because I’m really curious about where your limits lie.”

Doctor Xiao made no effort to hide his mischievous intent, ”Besides, even if the professor realizes you’re divining him, there wouldn’t be any terrible consequences... First University has dozens of bold students every year trying to divine their professors in hopes of guessing the final exam questions, but at most, they end up with a nosebleed... The professors have ample experience dealing with these kinds of ’adventures’.”

Zheng Qing sought to divert the risk, immediately coaxing, ”Well, since that’s the case, why don’t you do the divination? Don’t you find Professor Montreya very mysterious?”

”If you feel something’s off, why insist on participating in that project?” Xiao Xiao, naturally not falling for it, lightly deflected with Tai Chi, ”From what you said earlier, both Old Yao and Professor Montreya seem to have advised you to withdraw from this project.”

”Because I always feel something’s not quite right.” Zheng Qing realized it wasn’t easy to deceive the doctor, disappointingly sighed a small sigh.