In A Noble Magic Academy, The Only Spell I Know Is Scan

"Enlil was a young dark elf girl?" Polaris said, stunned.

"Yeah, didn't you say he was a normal male elf?" Helena said, "What's going on with that?"

"I...I don't know..." Polaris frowned, "Did something happen to him?"

"Did he undergo ebonization...and reincarnated as a girl?"

"I highly doubt that."

"Well, how do you explain it?"

"I don't know..." Polaris sighed, "I'll have to ask him myself."

"You mean ask HER yourself."

"I'll have to ask THEM myself."

"Fair play."

"Anyway, the fact that you managed to see the memories of the past elves is amazing." Ash said, "We're still going through the report and it's pretty wild."

"I'm stunned by the amount of new information." Cinder nodded, "We had no idea about this era of elven history."

"Well, that was the creation of dark elves we witnessed so it's little wonder you hadn't heard of it." Helena said.

"Still, you'd expect for there to be SOME sort of record in the dark elf side." Roland crossed his arms, "Is there any reason some records might've been destroyed?"

"There's a plenty of wars and battles between the elves and dark elves you can pick from." Glacier smirked, "And let me tell you, we dark elves weren't often on the winning side."

"Yeah, I've got a dissertation to write but I'm not chasing down 700.000 years of history." Helena scoffed, "Besides, someone else probably did that already."

"No one I'm aware of." Glacier said, "And I'm pretty sure no one's ever heard of these elves before either."

"I think we might know of them by their role but definitely not by name." Farad nodded, "We've heard of things like the Hyssop Circle before but not about any of its members. Although, the elves might have more records."

"What can you tell us about this Hyssop Circle then?" Helena asked.

"They're a circle of high level mages that are said to write and enforce the laws around magic use." Polaris explained.

"Like...actual rules of how magic works?"

"No, no one has the power to determine the functions of magic."

"So like...governing laws of magic?"

"Yes. Though the Hyssop Circle was said to have died long ago. Any mentions of them nowadays are as a rumor, like a dying secret society. A conspiratorial legend. People even doubted that it existed in the first place but now it seems like it's real."

"Huh...so they're not just guards of the elven king?"

"No, there hasn't really been a title for the king's guards." Brook explained, "Besides like… 'Royal Guard'."

"Well I guess the term 'Royal Guard' is already a pretty intimidating role."

"Yeah it is." Roland smirked.

Everyone turned to Roland like they wanted to say something but no one did and eventually just moved on to a new topic.

"So where are your friends today?" Fulminous asked.

"Hmmm." Helena thought for a moment, "Momo is training Romer's troops as a sort of thanks for training the elven soldiers. Kaguya's checking out the local flora like always. Corissa's spending time with Treesa now that she finally left her room. Just making sure she feels better and all that. And Roko..."

"What happened to Roko?" Cinder asked.

"He left to go on a 'training' session that he absolutely refused to elaborate on."

"Hm. I can only assume that he's doing something bad for himself."

"Damn, you guys know him just as well as us now!" Helena grinned.

"Should we send someone to check up on him?"

"Don't worry, I already have Reaumur on the task. Seems Roko took Klaus with him so at least he won't be alone."

"That human really doesn't seem to value his life." Glacier remarked.

"Well, I'm sure Roko won't be fine."

"You mean he will be fine right?"

"I mean he's probably fine now. Can't say how he'll be feeling later."

"Sounds serious."

"Yeah but if we try to stop him, he'll just complain."

"How childish."

"Yep yep. Like a really complex child, that man." Helena nodded, "Still, he's pretty easy to read most of the time and he doesn't usually hide things from us. So it makes it very obvious when he is trying to hide something from us. And all the more worrying."

"Hey Klaus." Reaumur knelt down and rubbed the blink dog's head and neck, "You doing good buddy?"

"Ruff." Klaud barked affirmatively with his tail wagging.

"Is Roko around?"

Another confirming bark.

"So he's right in here then? Alright."

Walking forward, Reaumur entered a small grove. A hole in the magical canopy allowed sunlight to fill the area with sunlight for the flowers in this small opening. Magic circles of various shapes and designs floated around the air, inactive and abundantly taking over the atmosphere. And in the middle of all this, sitting on a rock was Roko, freely creating magic seals without paying any attentions to his surroundings. At least that was what it seemed until he spoke up as Reaumur approached.

"I see you brought the whole gang with you. Here to take me out by force?"

"No, we just haven't seen you in a while." Drift smiled.

"And we know we can't get you to leave so we won't bother." Ohm agreed, "Still, we're worried about you."

"Shouldn't you be more worried about yourself? You guys have more magic in your systems than humans."

"That's true but that doesn't mean you can stay here all day either." Reaumur chuckled, "This is the poison area, you know? The place with the high density of mana in the environment?"

"Of course I do." Roko scoffed, "But this is the only place I can easily practice archeomancy without trouble."

"So you're trying to improve your archeomancy?" Ohm asked, "You're trying to actually learn to use magic?"

"Ideally, yes. But if I can't then I'll have to find some way to use this knowledge."

"If you're not sure if it'll be successful then why don't you try something else? Maybe something with a more tangible result?"

"Because this is something I think only I can do."

"Is the mana poisoning really necessary?"

"In a way. I need the mana volume to practice archeomancy anyway since it's way easier like this."

"Don't you normally make things harder if you want to train at something?"

"Maybe if you're more experienced. Right now, I need to get an understanding of what and how things work. If you want to make a sword maybe make a knife first."

"True." Drift folded his arms, "But will all these sigils disappear at some point? Does this count as pollution?"

"If the mana density erodes spacial foundation magic, my little seals won't last long without me."

"True, true." Reaumur nodded, "So how long are you going to stay here?"

"Well for the first few days, I'm just going to stay until I feel sick."

"Roko, that's not how mana poisoning works..."

"Well how does it work?"

"Did you not ask Mistral or even Polaris about this in advance?"

"Do you think I could've done that without raising suspicion?"

"Okay but from what I hear..." Ohm looked up as he tried to recall what information he had about mana poisoning, "Your intelligence will start to drop until you literally can't even think of leaving. Once that happens you fall asleep and never wake up."

"Sounds scary. You guys should get out of here soon."

"Roko..."

"I'll be back in time for dinner."

Reaumur sighed, "Alright. We'll leave you alone."

"Are we now?" Drift raised a playful eyebrow.

"But...we're going to have to tell Corissa."

"I mean, she was always going to find out eventually."

"Yep yep. And once she learns of this, she's going to come here and use holy to destroy all the mana in this entire area."

"...Please don't."

"Roko..."

"Look, this is the only path I have to becoming stronger. I'm not someone who can throw their head against a wall until it finally breaks. If there's some way to climb over the wall, I would."

"And we understand that. But you have to do these kind of things responsibly."

"And I haven't done anything irresponsible yet!"

"You didn't talk to us or your friends about it."

"They don't need to know! This is my project!"

"This isn't a project. This isn't training. This is suicide."

"I don't come here expecting to die! I'm coming back eventually!"

"Eventually?"

"Soon!"

Reaumur sighed, "Whatever. I said we'll leave you alone and we will. We'll head back and even leave Klaus there to help guide you back. We need someone to come back to tell us when you die anyway."

"Why are you speaking like I'm already going to die?"

"Let's just hope mana poisoning doesn't have any lasting effects after continuous habitual exposure to it."

"Well if you can ask Mistral or Polaris about it then I won't have to."

"Are you trying to avoid them?"

"I'm trying to avoid trouble, yes."

"Then stop putting yourself into it."

"If I did that, we'd never have met."

"Always got something smart to say as always." Ohm scoffed, "I just hope you know what you're doing this time."

"If Alec can survive for days in here so can I."

"I've only heard stories about this Alec..." Drift mused, "But he must be a pretty impressive individual if he's your rival."

"He's not my rival, he's my nemesis."

"I didn't know you were capable of hating someone that much."

"It doesn't happen often I'll tell you that."

"What about Roland?" Reaumur asked.

"There's no point in hating Roland. He'll always self-destruct at some point. I just speed it along."

"Actually valid."

"So that's what's Roko's been doing." Reaumur reported as Mistral looked the three over in her tent, "That's pretty much all we can do at this point."

"I'm sorry for the trouble." Corissa sighed, "I'll make you some milk tea later as an apology."

"Aw, you don't have to apologize for Roko." Reaumur grinned, "We all know what he's like."

"Very true in the most unfortunate way."

"You gonna do anything about it?" Ohm asked.

"...No..."

"You sure? You could go up there and put a stop to it all right now."

"What Roko does is his own business." Corissa cross her arms, "We can only interfere so much in his life."

"So you're okay with it?"

"Absolutely not." Corissa smiled a seething smile, "But if we force him to stop, who knows what he'll resort to next."

"You make it sound like he'll start taking drugs."

"I know he won't but I don't actually believe he won't."

"Same." Treesa sighed, "If there's anything you can expect out of Roko is that he'll do something unexpected."

"All we can hope is he's a proud enough person to not go off the deep end." Mistral nodded, "By the way Treesa, you feeling better?"

"...I guess."

"Aha. I knew Roko would be able to get you outta there."

"Credit where it's due. Now if only we can get Roko out of there."

"Ah, it's almost dinnertime now anyway. I'm sure he'll come back any moment now."

"We better start making dinner soon then, Corissa."

"Right. But let's leave Roko out of it."

"You're going to let him starve?" Reaumur chuckled.

"Is it any worse than what he's been doing to himself?" Corissa smiled her scary smile again.

"Hey, it's none of my business what the mama bear does to her cubs." Reaumur grinned as she held up her hands, "It's not like I'm unfamiliar with some tough love tactics."

"Being a single mother must be hard." Mistral nodded.

"You have my sympathies." Treesa placed a hand on Corissa's shoulder.

"I'M NOT EVEN MARRIED THOUGH?!"

Roko saw the gate of Duskwald again and breathed a sigh of relief. The walk back was harder than he thought it would be, even with Klaus helping him navigate the labyrinthine woods. He was already feeling a bit of the effects of mana poisoning, or at least that's what he felt. Perhaps he could limit this type of training to every other day? He wasn't sure if a day of rest was enough to recover from the poisoning's effects but he still needed the practice. Even if he wasn't sure if it was ever going to bear fruit.

"Bark!" Klaus cried as he appeared next to Roko's side again.

"Oh hey buddy." Roko said tiredly, "Got something to report?"

"Bark!"

"They're not feeding me? ...Well...guess I'm eating out today."

"Bark!"

"I don't know what blink dogs can eat so you should probably go back to Reaumur for dinner."

"Bark."

"Yo! Brother!"

"I don't recall becoming brothers with you." Roko frowned as Roland strolled up to him with a smug look on his face.

"Don't be like that, my brother. For now we are comrade in arms."

"I never agreed to this."

"Come mein freund. There is no need for hostility today."

"Hey Mikado. Varis. Is it another boys night tonight?"

"I assume so." Mikado shrugged, "Roland gets like this when he's happy about something."

"What are you happy about?" Roko scowled.

"Because we're comrades." Roland replied, "We're both men who have earned the scorn of women tonight."

"THAT'S why we're 'comrades'?!"

"Do we need anything else?"

"First of all, I don't think we're nearly on the same scale when it comes to earning the scorn of women. Second, I highly doubt Mikado or Varis has done anything to fall into this category."

"None that I recall." Mikado confirmed.

Varis shrugged.

"This is about you...and me." Mikado wrapped an arm around Roko's head, "What matters is that right now, we are the same."

"Where does all this confidence come from?"

"Probably from the fact that I found someone who's worse than me with women."

"And who would that be?"

"Take a look."

Roland pointed off in the distance where Treesa was alone, walking around and buying some groceries. And approaching her from behind was an awkward looking dark elf who used to be an elf.

"Hey..." Sparks said, "Do you have a minute?"

"...What is it?" Treesa said, her small feeling of apprehension coming through in her body language but notably out of her even tone.

"I...look, I'm sorry for what I said. I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable. I...I do still care for you and I don't want to abandon you a second time. So...if you'd like...I'd like to be married to you alongside Mistral."

Treesa gave him the most offended look that Roko had ever seen in his life.

"S-SORRY!" Spark immediately bowed and apologizing profusely, "I'm sorry! I didn't mean it! I'm sorry! It's just a joke, of course I-"

"...think about it..."

"Huh?" Spark looked up.

"I said I'll think about it!" Treesa snapped, turning shyly away from Spark.

"OH! Oh yeah, sure! Uuuh...I mean if you want of course, I'm sure Mistral would like to spend more time with you too so-"

Treesa simply turned her back on her former husband as he continued talking anxiously as he slowly backed away and ran off in fear and surprise.

"See?" Roland said.

"For once you might be right."

"Right?"

"Still somehow more successful than you."

"Hey hey. Don't focus on that. Focus on the comradery we share in not being that guy, waga tomo yo."

"Yamete Kudastop."