"No, I didn't take the wrong way!"
The young scholarship student's gritted voice drifted over on the morning breeze. Without looking back, he headed down the tree-lined path toward the lakeside corridor. "...Before I go into the library, I'm cutting off this damned shadow! It isn't my shadow!"
At the young wizard's feet, a pitch-black shadow stretched itself at an angle, forming two large fan-like hands that cheerfully waved at Youzui's diviner as though bidding him farewell.
It did not care in the slightest about Zheng Qing's threat.
On the contrary, it welcomed Zheng Qing's decision. If it had known that causing such trouble would make Zheng Qing decide sooner, it would have openly clung to other witches' shadows right in front of Jiang Yu from the first day back on campus.
Xiao Xiao watched Zheng Qing and the shadow recede into the distance, shrugged, then hugged his spellbook and turned toward the entrance of Book Mountain Hall.
Just as the two hunters of the You Zui Hunting Team went their separate ways in front of the library, a brief but heated argument broke out among the freshmen who had hurried away after being "humiliated" by Zheng Qing.
"I told you that guy Zheng Qing wasn't someone to mess with."
The round-faced, bald wizard in a blue vest rubbed his shiny scalp, irritation in his voice. "...I heard that second-years Lan Que and Dylan are close to him too. They're all from the You Zui Hunting Team. We've only just arrived at school—we shouldn't have provoked them so rashly... Even if we wanted trouble, we should've waited until nightfall, brought sacks and clubs, and snuck over to knock them out. Challenging them so openly would be unfair!"
The white-robed male wizard gave the round-faced wizard a strange look.