High School of Demon Hunting

I’m not losing this fight.

Zheng Qing quietly told himself in his heart—

I just don’t hit witches, that’s all.

After repeating this to himself several times and successfully doing his mental prep, he finally had the courage to face the Big Wizard in front of him again. Fortunately, the people in black robes and those naked bodies in the room had already left, so no one else paid attention to this brief silence.

"Didn’t you say those ’Edge No. 1’ are the perfect way for Edge Academy to showcase the spirit of ’sacrifice’?" After he opened his mouth and met the witch’s eyes, which were full of ’aggression,’ the boy still unconsciously took a step back.

Even with the black robe on, he still felt kind of bare.

Korma cleared her throat and continued to look Zheng Qing up and down, her gaze full of hard-to-read meaning.

The boy couldn’t help but wrap the robe around himself a little tighter.

"Mm, sacrifice isn’t the same as waste. There’s no need to waste our precious ’spirit’ in a place like this." After answering the warlock’s question, she suddenly gave a wicked grin and blinked: "—Speaking of precious, am I the first one to see your..."

"No!" The warlock’s face flushed red again; he practically screamed as he cut the witch off, his tone firm: "Absolutely not! A hundred percent definitely not!"

This wasn’t exactly a lie.

After all, once he turned into a cat, he never wore clothes.

A hint of suspicion flashed in Korma’s eyes. She folded one arm across her chest, pinched her chin with the other hand, and said thoughtfully, "Really? Then who was the first... Su Shijun? Jiang Yu? I always feel like you and the two of them aren’t quite at that ’bare-all honesty’ stage yet... Or is it that you’ve been sneaking around behind their backs? Tsk tsk, looks like that nickname wasn’t wrong at all..."

"I want out!" The warlock finally couldn’t stand it anymore and shouted.

"Out? Really?"

Another "really?" sounded from behind him, only this time it was a man’s voice. Zheng Qing turned his head; the speaker was Professor Montreya, who had just entered the room. He looked a little surprised: "—Just a few days ago you were still so determined, weren’t you?"

That rhetorical question landed on him like a blow to the head.

Zheng Qing instantly calmed down.

He quickly glanced at the slightly annoyed Korma and suddenly felt a bit wary. Given Korma’s status and usual style, she shouldn’t be needling him like this right now—after all, the Giant God Soldier project was the most important matter during Edge Academy’s founding phase, and he was currently the only qualified candidate on the project team.

He had this inexplicable feeling that both vice deans of Edge Academy wanted him to quit this project, but didn’t want him to be talked into quitting by the other vice dean?

Subtle and complicated thoughts flashed through the boy’s mind in an instant.

"No, I—I’m not thinking of quitting."

The young qualified candidate tried to forcibly forget the awkwardness and anger from a few minutes earlier. He tightened the belt of his robe, forcing a slightly stiff smile onto his face: "—I was just joking with Sister Korma... I’m a cost student of Jiuyou Academy. How could I possibly shrink back from a task assigned by the school?"

Clap, clap, clap!

Crisp applause came from behind the three of them.

Zheng Qing turned toward the sound and was stunned to find that Old Yao had somehow appeared in this slightly empty room as well. He was biting his pipe and clapping cheerfully.

"Well said, very well said! Truly worthy of a Jiuyou Academy student."

He gave Zheng Qing a thumbs-up, then glanced at the two vice deans of Edge Academy: "—Since Student Zheng Qing doesn’t intend to withdraw, and since everyone happens to be here, why don’t we have a little talk?"

Korma and Professor Montreya’s expressions were serious, making it impossible to read what they were thinking. But Zheng Qing had the inexplicable sense that Old Yao’s appearance hadn’t been in their plans, because they stayed silent for quite a while in response to Old Yao’s final suggestion.

In the end, it was actually Zheng Qing who broke the slightly awkward silence.

"Talk about what?"

The warlock hitched up his belt—the robe Korma had found for him was a bit too big, and he kept feeling like it was sliding down—looked around, and spoke with a hint of hesitation in his voice: "Don’t we need to find a meeting room or something?"

He remembered Korma saying that the first thing they were going to do today was hold a brief check-in meeting.

"Meeting room? No need, no need. Here is just fine."

The esteemed dean of Jiuyou Academy held his pipe in one hand and waved the other. As his body leaned back, a dark-red high-backed chair silently appeared behind him. Then he tapped his fingers lightly on the armrest, and an oval meeting table appeared in front of him, along with three more chairs. At the same time, the walls around them and the floor under their feet rolled, extended, and reshaped themselves, sprouting gathered drapes and tall floor-to-ceiling windows.

The originally plain, enclosed "changing room" instantly turned into a proper meeting room.

Old Yao gestured with his hand: "...Sit, sit, all of you sit. Let’s have a simple chat about the next steps of this project, shall we? Where do we start? How do we allocate the remaining two special configurations?"

Korma and Professor Montreya silently chose the two sides of the oval table and sat down. That left Zheng Qing with only one empty seat, directly across from Old Yao.

He had actually wanted to remain standing.

After all, everyone present could be considered his senior, and their ranks were all high—one Legend and two Big Wizards. No matter how you looked at it, he didn’t seem qualified to sit at the same table. But the high-backed chair behind him kept persistently nudging at the backs of his knees, leaving him no choice but to sit down.

It was a bit awkward.

But Zheng Qing’s mind felt unusually clear at the moment. As he sat, he was already mulling over the information hidden in Old Yao’s earlier words.

What did he mean by "the remaining two special configurations"?

Did that mean there were once more than two? Where did the other special configurations go? How would the remaining two be allocated? One for me and one for senior sister? Or one for me and one for Professor Montreya? Or do I back out and the two of them each get one?

In the blink of an eye, he seemed to have stumbled onto an answer to something that had been troubling him all along.

Old Yao’s words seemed to confirm that as well—

"...The reason the school canceled the third ’special configuration’ wasn’t only because the Edge Type’s previous trials revealed certain flaws, but also because this configuration is simply too expensive. The cost far exceeded the original budget. As for the remaining two, they’ll still be allocated according to the original plan: one to the Qualified Group, and one to Edge Academy, to serve as a control group. On the Qualified side, we’re down to just one candidate, so there’s nothing to discuss. For the Edge Academy unit, you two can talk it over among yourselves and decide who goes up. And let me remind you one more time: whoever goes will be taking on tremendous life-threatening risk... This is absolutely not an exaggeration. I know you’re not afraid of sacrifice, but you still need to think more about this new academy, and about the students in it."

"The good news is that Special Configuration No. 1, which has already been completed, will be given priority to the Edge Academy team... Because your school will be holding its founding ceremony very soon, the trial run schedule will naturally give you priority..."