The black cat tucked in his paws and lay in the middle of the oval conference table.
He was somewhat absentminded.
Beside him sat a withered potted plant, while above his head hung piled-up inverted candles, like a white Gothic building. The wax tears flowing upward carved winding lines into the candles, creating a bizarre splash of color.
The other seven animals sat scattered around the conference table.
The enormous blood-red bat with its wings folded was Mister Arrogance, codenamed Lucifer; the Persian Cat with beautiful heterochromatic blue-green eyes was Lady Envy, codenamed Leviathan; the black-and-white animal that resembled a large wolfdog was Mister Wrath, codenamed Samael; the parrot-like peacock with golden-red feathers was Mister Sloth, codenamed Belphegor; there was also a red-furred fox, Mister Greed, codenamed Mammon; a little white pig with black spots, Mister Gluttony, codenamed Beelzebub; and a sleek-furred Black Goat, Lust, codenamed Asmodeus.
Zheng Qing did not know when the Seven Deadly Sins' meetings had gradually started becoming fixed affairs. It seemed that, ever since this semester began, he had been forced to set aside precious rest time every friday to come to this cramped little meeting room and listen to these people of unknown identity ramble on about dangerous, tedious topics.
The time he had originally reserved on friday nights in his class schedule had been intended for the possibility of getting injured during practical classes. He had never imagined it would be wasted in a place like this.
"...I said it at the last gathering—Zheng Qing is loaded. Well, have you all heard about this Shanglin Garden Spring Hunt? That guy casually used over a thousand talismans in a completely worthless performance spell. That was more than a hundred jade coins! How big were First University's betting pools for the entire Hunt of the