High School of Demon Hunting

Upon hearing the tavern owner’s retort,

the black gem cat was stumped.

Because it truly didn’t know why it came here today.

Fortunately, this matter wasn’t without a solution.

"What did you do today?" It placed its two front paws together, getting into a comfortable position as it lay down, and with interest, shook its ears: "—Just tell me briefly, I’ll help you analyze."

This idea of analyzing the main body on behalf of others.

had a rather odd flavor to it.

"Nothing much?"

Korma blinked, adopting a thoughtful posture: "Just held a meeting with Old Yao, listened to Doctor Du Zemu talk about the principles of special configuration... Oh, and he went streaking naked in front of me once."

The black gem cat raised its paw and wiped its ear.

Suspicious of having heard wrong.

"What did he do?" It slightly lifted its upper body, assuming a posture of serious listening.

"He went streaking in front of me... the kind where you don’t wear clothes."

The witch calmly repeated her words, completely ignoring the little cat in front of her, who was startled upright. But as she watched its tucked tail, she seemed to think of something and solemnly added: "—Speaking of which, Zheng Qing, that scoundrel, usually looks fair and clean, but unexpectedly, his figure’s not bad. Ahem, I mean, his build is quite good."

The black gem cat was completely stunned.

Somewhat at a loss, it looked up at the fireflies beneath the ceiling, sincerely thinking that being a bug should feel pretty good. At least the simple brain of bugs wouldn’t be mashed into mush by the sudden, illogical webs of cause and effect in life.

One person.

One cat.

Big eyes staring into small eyes.

Silently facing each other, they remained quiet for a long time.

Eventually, it decided to pick a topic it could understand to discuss.

"Last time I came here, when we talked about the Edge-type defect, you said something, ’The heritage of the Edge Academy must be held by wizards with a spirit of self-sacrifice,’ right?"

The black gem cat lifted its paw, smoothing out its whiskers: "After going back, I pondered and pondered, thinking your idea still had flaws... For instance, those wizard families or sect law groups, it’s not difficult to find a few warriors willing to sacrifice themselves, or even some Dark Wizards who use methods like brainwashing or mental control to make low-level wizards wield the Edge-type... To those powers, it’s not difficult, and very tempting. After all, possessing the Edge-type is equivalent to having the ability to mass-produce Big Wizards. How many Big Wizards does the entire Alliance have? Five hundred? A thousand? I’ve heard from Su Shijun, there’s only about a hundred seats permanently set up at the Magic Alliance Conference."

"A spirit that is lost or controlled isn’t pure, and can’t meet the minimum resonance requirement." Korma sat up slightly, supporting her head with one hand and playing with a delicate jade wine cup with the other: "...This is a prerequisite based on specific interactions between Big Wizards and certain laws; there’s no way to cut corners."

"Then the wizard families..."

"Wizards willingly sacrificed by their families, who choose to embrace sacrifice to wield Giant God Soldiers, aren’t they truly Fringe Wizards?" The Great Sage from the North District laughed self-mockingly: "In this world, it’s not only the North District that has Fringe Wizards. Every class in the school, every family in the Alliance, every corner of the Star Sea, as long as there’s favoritism, there will always be the existence of those on the fringe."

"But this still can’t prevent those large wizard families from creating their own Giant God Soldiers, right?"

The black gem cat maintained its pessimistic stance: "—Ultimately, the greatest cost of using the Edge-type is merely lifespan damage, even worse, each use may result in a wizard’s death, but this cost is also something those noble families can afford. From this perspective, can the Giant God Soldiers still be considered Edge Academy’s heritage and backup?"

The North District Grand-Wizard looked at the little cat in front of her with a peculiar expression.

Finally, she extended her jade-white finger and flicked the black gem cat’s forehead.

"This is undue worry, isn’t it?"

She finally showed a grin beyond fatigue, tugging at the corner of her mouth: "Don’t think just because you can easily interact with Giant God Soldiers, others can easily do it too... Moreover, creating Giant God Soldiers is not a simple matter. You need not just one Legendary Wizard who disregards identity and gains to do ’hand’ work, you need the full support of the First University, four research institutes, and five academies; you need a project team with the coordination and operational ability spanning dozens of major magic disciplines and hundreds of related specialties; countless rare magic materials and vast amounts of jade coins; you also need more than one truly talented Alchemist working full-force outside the timeline; you don’t really think this project was completed by the school in half a year, do you?—Among all conditions, the only problem those noble families can solve is the jade coins, but jade coins are the least significant consolation of the entire project—In summary, even if the Giant God Soldier’s design leaked, it would be impossible for a ’Family-type’ to be born. Because this world has only one First University."

The black gem cat licked its lips.

Although it was merely a stone, just now a feeling of inexplicable thirst crept up.

"What if the Giant God Soldiers were stolen?"

The black gem cat fully embodied the stubbornness of a stone, persistently seeking an opening for risk: "—Or, what if the wizard controlling the Giant God Soldier fell? Wouldn’t the expensive creation by the school fall into the hands of the Land of Desolation? We lose a Giant God Soldier, yet the Fallen Wizards gain a mad Big Wizard!"

It instinctively shivered.

As if trying to shake off all its previous dreadful thoughts.

Korma stared fixedly at it for a moment, then shook her head: "There are no perfect solutions in this world. Someone on the project team proposed your idea long ago, and one solution was to install a self-destruct module in the Giant God Soldier. But as far as I know, this plan was unanimously rejected by several legends, who preferred to personally take action and install prohibitions for the Giant God Soldiers..."

Saying this, she paused, seemingly realizing she had divulged quite a bit of insider information, and after a brief pause, she resumed: "Actually, in my view, the current configuration is perfect. If there truly were a resonance degree qualification allowing undamaged control of a Giant God Soldier capable of unleashing Big Wizard power, then the Giant God Soldier would no longer belong to the Edge Academy. In other words, maintaining the cost at a certain level ensures it won’t be overly coveted."

She extended her fingertip and poked the black gem cat’s cheek.

"As for your purpose tonight... although you don’t know, I can probably guess a bit. Go back and tell him, one of the special configurations is his, and the school has decided to let me handle the other... The reason, probably, is because of that one time during Christmas when I spontaneously visited the Greenhill Mansion, followed him to the San You Bookstore."