High School of Demon Hunting

In this World, it’s always the unseen dangers that are the greatest.

The black gemstone cat held its head, eyes brimming with tears, and as it listened to Korma’s final words, it felt no reverence toward that concept that had existed since the savage era; it only thought that the real truth in her speech lay in those three characters: "unseen."

Like just now.

It hadn’t seen the Witch’s knuckles suddenly rap against its forehead.

"—A true Big Wizard has to start from a single bone, a single eyeball, even a single drop of blood, slowly polishing their true body, whereas a suitable candidate to pilot an experimental body only needs to pass a simple resonance test—don’t you think that’s very unfair?"

"Fairness is Jiuyou Academy’s principle." The black gemstone cat muttered under its breath.

Plop.

A skinny little Firefly fell from the cluster of insects under the ceiling, landing right between the black gemstone cat and the tavern owner, instantly drawing both their attention. It tumbled, flailing its few short, furry legs in panic and clumsiness, its wrinkled wings trembling as it tried to flee this lonely World.

But it was far too weak.

So weak that even after furiously beating its wings for a long time, it rose less than an inch off the surface before toppling back down.

Korma tilted her glass slightly, letting a drop of Amber Light fall in front of the Firefly, and then human and cat watched together as the little insect cautiously probed it, watched it greedily suck that drop of liquor, watched its shriveled belly slowly swell, blossoming with faint strands of light, one after another, and they both fell into a daze.

After a long while.

The black gemstone cat’s slightly wistful voice finally sounded again.

"It almost died, you know."

It squatted beside the Firefly that was slowly reviving, raised its paw, indicating a tiny distance, with a deeper meaning: "The distance between life and Death is just this little bit... and the price it paid to stay alive?"

It lifted its head, glanced at the ceiling, and added, "—Was nothing more than taking a fall."

Korma cast the black gemstone cat a sidelong glance.

"Because Death is a false concept. In this World there are many prices far more terrifying than Death."

Here she paused briefly, ultimately choosing not to say what those more terrifying prices were, instead gently shifting the topic to explain her previous sentence: "—From the perspective of Magic, there is no true Death in this World; each of us is eternal."

"Mm-hmm?"

The black gemstone cat snorted loudly, looking at the Witch with suspicion, feeling like she’d gone mad. After all, even in The Magical World, the most ethereal dream most Wizards could imagine was nothing more than immortality.

The North District Grand-Wizard paid no mind to the little cat’s slightly offensive gaze.

Instead, she lifted her hand and lightly swept it above her head.

The ceiling instantly turned transparent.

The blazing noonday sunlight passed through the ceiling and poured into the tavern, illuminating this slightly dim World with brilliant light, but the next second, the sunlight was drawn down into the Witch’s bottle like iron filings to a magnet.

The golden Amber Light in the bottle bubbled as though boiling, little Bubbles gurgling upward, yet not a wisp of alcohol scent escaped; instead its color grew ever more vivid.

Of course, that was not the main point. The main point was that once the sunlight overhead vanished, day turned to night in an instant, the sky blanketed with stars, glittering in enchanting colors.

The black gemstone cat quickly turned its head to look out the window.

Thank goodness.

The World outside was still daytime, it hadn’t truly become night—if Korma actually possessed the power to change Heaven and Earth, the black gemstone cat might well have obediently knelt down on the spot to massage her fingers, anxiously asking whether she’d hurt them just now when she’d knocked on the Stone.

Fortunately, fortunately, she had only made a small patch of sky show the colors of night.

This was still within the range of its understanding.

The tavern owner of course had no idea about the black gemstone cat’s sudden surge of emotion.

"When you lift your head, what can you see?" She gazed up at the Starry Sky together with the black cat, her tone faint.

The black gemstone cat twitched its ears, hesitated a few seconds: "—Stars?"

"That’s right, stars." The North District Great Wise Person let out a gentle breath, her voice seeming to lighten: "You know how far those stars are from us, don’t you?"

The black cat nodded.

"I remember you took Magic Universe Study as an elective this term... then you should also know that the starlight you’re seeing now was emitted by those stars tens of billions, even over a hundred billion years ago, right?"

The black cat nodded again.

This bit of common sense didn’t actually require an elective in Magic Universe Study; he’d already learned about light-years and the cosmos in his first eighteen years as an ordinary student.

"—Then, think about it from another angle. We can now see stars from ten billion years ago, and the stars ten billion years from now are also looking at us. No matter how faint our light may be, it exists all the same. Time stretches the distance between us and the stars, and it also stretches each of our lives. In the distant future, Earth’s light will reach every corner of the Star Sea; each of us will become young again... be born anew and grow up again in every star system at a different distance. That is a kind of eternity."

The black gemstone cat’s small mouth hung slightly open.

It felt rather dumbfounded.

The reasoning seemed coherent, but this logic... why did it feel so odd? Is it because Magic doesn’t need to follow logic, so Wizards’ wild, skyward thoughts no longer need logical support either?

Korma paid no attention to the little cat’s strange expression, continuing to stare at the heavy darkness overhead.

"So," the black gemstone cat finally remembered its initial purpose and smacked its lips: "—what do all this Death and life talk have to do with the Giant God Soldier project?"

The Witch lowered her eyelids: "The Giant God Soldier belongs to the Edge Academy, so it has to fit the Edge Academy’s principles."

"The Edge Academy’s... principles?" The black gemstone cat tilted its head: "Like Alpha’s freedom and justice, Jiuyou’s fairness and equality?"

"Yes."

"Then what are the principles of the Edge Academy?"

"Sacrifice." The Witch spoke the first word, paused, then added, "Perhaps also pioneering."

The black gemstone cat’s gaze instantly fell on that lock of her silver hair.

Indeed.

Sacrifice.

The Magic mastered by the Northern District Wizard is sacrifice: the sacrifice of Sprites, of Gypsy witches, of the Mouse People, even of the Fishman; all these marginal groups have faced sacrifice head-on—by contrast, those in the Alliance who covet the Edge Academy fear sacrifice, yet enjoy seeing others sacrifice.

It truly is an exquisitely precise and powerful principle.

"—The heritage of the Edge Academy must rest in the hands of Wizards who possess the spirit of sacrifice."

Korma held the bottle, her tone gentle yet firm: "So, when I heard that terrible news, I was unusually calm... or rather, relieved... this is Destiny’s arrangement."