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

For about a week Roko continuously returned to the mana dense area to practice archeomancy. And he was undeniably making progress...into the grave. Every time he returned from the forest, Roko seemed to be in worse and worse condition. His eyes grew a tired look, as if he had lost weeks worth of sleep despite missing any bags under his eyes and him getting plenty of sleep. His posture had developed a bit of a slouch and he would violently cough at irregular intervals, sometimes even throwing up a bit of blood. Sometimes he would just stop whatever he was doing and just stare off into space and if they left him alone long enough, he would just fall into sleep. The only thing that hasn't changed was...

"Roko, I think we can all agree you have to stop." Helena said.

"On the bright side, we're getting great data on the mechanics of mana poisoning." Roko replied.

"Roko, seriously, I don't know if your condition is even reversible."

"Technically a condition being reversible and being curable is different."

"Don't you nitpick your way out of this mister!"

"Can I nitpick these cuffs then?"

"I'd like to see you try." Helena smirked as Roko jangled the handcuff that kept him tied to the hospital bed he was on, "I don't think lockpicking is one of your oddly many talents."

"I don't have a lot of talents actually."

"And because you don't have a lot of talents, it's okay to rely on others you know." Kaguya said, "We tell kids this all the time."

"I'm not a kid though?" Roko said and then coughed.

"Well you're acting like one."

"I have one talent and I need to train it. Hardships are proof that your training is working. Momo understands this. Right Momo?"

"Unironically, yeah." Momo smiled guiltily, "Your training is only as effective as you are suffering."

"See?" Roko coughed.

"But I thought that wasn't you style though?" Momo asked.

"Physical training, mental training, it's all the same."

"I don't think that's true."

"Look, even if I die, we still have some really good data on mana poisoning. Right Mistral?"

"I mean, yeah?" Mistral said as she sat at her desk, working through some forms, "But honestly, you might be able to find better treatment if you just went back to Granreveria. They've got more advanced stuff than our little village."

"But I still need to train."

"Oh boy, this guy." Helena sighed, "Corissa, do you have anything to add?"

"Not really." Corissa smiled as she wrung out a wet cloth to place on Roko's head, "I decided to just have fun treating Roko."

"I'm not feverish though?" Roko coughed as he poked the cloth on his forehead.

"Actually, you are." Mistal reported, "You just don't feel it."

"What? Why don't I feel it?"

"That's probably because your soul is dying."

"Yeah but...aren't we all?"

"This guy..." Helena sighed, "Well...if there's anything good we got out of all this, it's your condition. Hey Roko, boobs or butts?"

"Helena!" Corissa cried.

"Boobs."

"Roko! Don't answer her!"

"Hey we all know you've got both working for you so it doesn't matter which he answered." Helena grinned.

"You can't use his delirium to answer weird questions!"

"But that's the fun part! Hey Roko, what do you think of Roland?"

"For someone who's never taken a fight seriously, he sure is confident that he'll never face a fight worth taking seriously."

"Hey, I take things seriously." Roland smacked the top of Roko's head.

"Notice he didn't say 'fights' like I did, he just said 'things'. Now what kind of things could he be talking about?"

"Why don't you spell it out for us then, genius?" Roland scowled.

"It's girls." Helena said.

"It's girls." Kaguya said.

"It's girls." Momo said.

"It's gir-" And then Roko began coughing violently.

"Deserved." Roland smirked, "Why don't you tell us what you think of Corissa then?"

"She's the type of person to stay in an abusive relationship just because her husband shows her a little bit of affection sometimes. Which very likely might happen if we don't keep an eye on her."

"So true bestie." Mistral called.

"That's not true!" Corissa protested, "I know when I'm in an abusive relationship!"

"Have you ever been in a relationship?" Helena asked.

"Well, no..."

"Ya see what he's talking about then?" Helena smirked, "Also, Roland, no using Roko's delirium to force out opinions that might make things awkward for anybody."

"Isn't that exactly what you did though?" Roland frowned.

"Yeah but we all knew you two don't like each other."

"Hey." Treesa called as she walked into the medical tent, "How's Roko doing?"

"Doing good." Roko called back with a thumbs up.

"Don't listen to him, he can barely stand." Mistral called back.

"It's been like five days since you locked me in this infirmary. Surely the effects have passed by now."

"You wouldn't be here if that was true."

"Well..." Treesa blinked, "Is he good enough to have a talk with Polaris?"

"What does he want?" Helena asked curiously.

"Dunno. He just asked me to see if Roko can come visit him. Alone preferably. Seems like he has some sort of guest."

"I mean he could probably hold a conversation." Mistral sighed as she turned to look at Roko, "But can he do it alone though?"

"I'm good." Roko repeated with another thumbs up. And then a cough.

"That's not your call to make." Mistral replied sternly, "I'd probably want at least one of you to go with him. At the very least stop him from skipping out on his treatment while he's free."

"I wouldn't do that."

"Would you do that though?" Helena asked.

"I might do that." Roko shrugged.

"Yeah we might want somebody to help keep Roko from answering troublesome questions too." Kaguya added, "Any volunteers?"

"Well, if you want somebody like that, I think our only options are you or Helena." Momo said.

"Very true. And between us I think we know who's more motivated."

"Hey, I didn't want to volunteer since I didn't want to hog all the funny Roko moments to myself but if you're offering then I won't complain." Helena smiled.

"Don't you have a dissertation to write?" Roko asked.

"Writer's block."

"Why don't I believe that?"

"You want out of this infirmary or not?"

"Can you unlock my cuff then?"

Roko spent the time walking to the council room doing his best to look normal again. He was pretty sure Polaris knew about his condition but his guest probably didn't. Roko was sure he wasn't going to be able to hide the exhaustion but he can try to keep himself from coughing. He wasn't exactly sure what he was like before but he could try and pull himself together a bit more. So he walked in there with his back straight and a clear determination in his eyes. And he saw Polaris floating there in human form and two guests. One was the young dark elf girl he knew as Enlil. And one-

"What's a human doing here?" Roko frowned.

"Wha- POLARIS! What is the meaning of this!" The old human man standing next to Enlil shouted.

"Very impressive, Roko." Polaris grinned, "So you've figured it out already? This is the 'elf Enlil' I told you about. He is an old friend of mine that I helped move into this forest with a little bit of illusion magic to help him out. He should appear as an elf unless someone already knew...or figured out that he was a human. So do tell. How'd you figure it out?"

"Nobody else knows about this but the seer in that hut was actually targeted by a pair of wendigos that I killed. Wendigos are humans turned into monsters that are cannibalistic. If they wanted to eat whoever was in that house then that means the person we were looking for might be a human."

"Impressive!" Polaris laughed and clapped, "To think you were almost attacked by wendigos, Enlil!"

"I had left to get groceries at that time." The old human man named Enlil scowled, "If the house was attacked it would've been Eresh all alone to defend herself, Polaris!"

"Allow me to introduce you all." Polaris continued, pushing past his human friend's crankiness, "Enlil, this is Roko, the leader of the group that 'forced' your daughter to do that reading for them. Next to him is the daughter of the king of Aporia, Helena. Roko, this is the 'elven' seer I sent you to find. The human I helped to hide, Enlil. And this apparently is the dark elf child he had adopted while I wasn't looking, Ereshkigal."

"Yo." The dark elf that had conjured the memory for them to view just waved awkwardly.

"So what happened you see..." Polaris snickered as he tried to explain, "Was that Enlil had left to get groceries when you came along. And do understand, the nearest place to get groceries is a few days away since this man doesn't want to show his face around elves that much in case his secret gets out. So he leaves the forest and travels to the human village to get several days worth of supplies to bring back. In that time while he was away, YOU all showed up and talked to Ereshkigal who PRETENDED to be the great sage Enlil."

"I ain't no great sage, Polaris!" The old man snapped, "And these people clearly TRICKED Eresh into revealing that memory for them!"

"I don't remember any trickery going on while we were there." Helena grinned as she placed her hands on her hips, "Roko, do you remember?"

"Any trickery going on seems to have been from the young dark elf who called herself Enlil." Roko said.

"Don't you try and pin this on my daughter!" Enlil cried, "You clearly tricked her! Right, Eresh?!"

"Y-Yeah...totally..." Eresh said, looking away from everyone.

"Well let's ask Eresh her opinion." Roko said, "Why did you do the reading for us then? Did your dad not tell you not to mess with his equipment?"

"W-Well he did but..." Eresh answered, trying not to meet anybody in the eyes, "But..."

"What? Did you mean old dad piss you off so you decided to rebel a little?" Helena called.

"Never mind that now!" Enlil cut in, "What are you going to do to compensate me?!"

"For what?" Helena continued to playfully taunt the old man, "We didn't vandalize anything last I remembered."

"The memory you viewed was dangerous!"

"Dangerous?" Helena said, now intrigued, "What do you mean by 'dangerous'?"

"The monsters!" Enlil cried, "The monsters are aware of me again!"

"Monsters? You mean the eldritch ones?"

"Yes!"

"Interesting." Roko mused, "The monsters did seem to be able to interact with us across time. However, the fact that you said 'again' means that you've had dealings with them before?"

"Y-Yes. I came across them once time and have had a horrible time running away from them. That's why I had to hide using this forest's magic."

"Very relatable." Roko nodded, "We've come across them hundreds of times by now and they never seem to go away."

"You see?!"

"However, because we've seen them so many times, we have a good grasp on their abilities."

"W-What do you mean?"

"Let me ask you a question, Mister Enlil. Have you ever seen a book without any titles and mild adornments? One whose pages are full of indecipherable text that you somehow still managed to understand?"

"I..." Enlil's eyes darted about, looking for an exit, "I don't..."

"One with a black cover maybe?"

"Dammit, how do you know so much about this?!"

"Like I said, I've come across these monsters many times before." Roko smirked, "And one particular powers of these monsters included the ability to summon zombies and ghosts. Raising the spirits of the dead if you will. So I have always been wondering if your expertise, calling upon spirits of the dead to share their memories, came from the same source."

"I...You're much too keen for your own good." Enlil scowled.

"I'll say." Helena crossed her arms, "You've been thinking of all this and never told us?"

"Why would I? I had no way of confirming my suspicions."

"We'd still like to hear about them!"

"We?"

"I'D still like to hear about them!"

"Regardless, you don't have to worry about that particular grimoire." Roko continued, "I actually came across it and gave it to...a magical expert. They have assured me that they've sealed it away."

"You don't understand, you can try to seal them but they won't hold forever." Enlil scowled, "Still...I guess if you've managed to seal it away, I've got less to worry about..."

"Then I hope you can be more forthright with us." Roko crossed his arms, "Starting with why your daughter was impersonating you."

"You really want to know?" Enlil growled.

"I already know. I just want you to admit it."

"...Fine. I came across this 'grimoire', as you called it, and studied it to further enhance my divination magic. I used it to make a good fortune but I was plagued with nightly terrors and when I tried getting rid of the book, I was beset by monsters of the dead. I was stuck between improving my craft and escaping these nightmares. I escaped to this forest and that was when I discovered Eresh, though she was an abandoned elf child without a name. She was quite skilled magically so I taught her a bit of my divination magic but...I didn't want her to see those monsters and end up like me so I forbid her from doing anything more than reading."

"But dad, you can't do divination for forever." Ereshkigal frowned, "You're already getting up there in the years and we need someone to bring in the money again. Plus you rarely do divination nowadays so we're just living off retirement funds. That's not going to last forever."

"Quiet, Eresh!" her adopted father hushed her, "You need not worry about something like that in your age!"

"I'm almost as old as you are in human years though?" Eresh grumbled.

"But not in elven years!"

"So your daughter did the divination for us for the money?" Helena smirked.

"And the practical training." Eresh added, "Gotta prove I can actually put all the magical theories to good use."

"Relatable."

"You shut up, Roko." Helena sighed, "So now that we've seen the memory and the monsters therein, you think you're in danger again?"

"When I was reading the book, it was like a voice in my head was telling me the answers." Enlil held his head with a worried look, "Now that I've turned away from it, I feel like an invisible all seeing eye has been following me. Watching me. Never letting me out of their sight. No matter where I run..."

"Even in this forest?" Polaris asked.

"It felt safe for a little bit. But now I can feel them looking at me again. It's like a glance now but in the future..."

"Are you sure it's not just in your head?" Helena chuckled.

"Don't you try to worm your way out of this! It's because all of you showed up that my Eresh had to dig up that memory! And what even for?!"

"To find out why elves turn into dark elves."

"OOOOHHH, Polaris you rat bastard!"

"Hey, if I knew your daughter would've done the divination for me no problem, I would've gone myself instead of sending some humans." Polaris grinned.

"Fine, fine, FINE!" Enlil continued to shout erratically, "Just do something now!"

"Honestly I don't know what more I can do for you." Polaris said solemnly, "If this forest can't hide you then I don't know what can."

"You can't just use me then leave me to suffer the consequences of YOUR curiosity!"

"We're sorry our expedition caused trouble for you." Helena said in a calming mediating voice that Roko rarely saw from her, "But we're just simple humans. I don't know what we can do that elves can't do for you."

"Well figure something out! Me and my daughters are in danger because of you!"

"In danger might be...ah, I can't pretend it's not an exaggeration." Helena sighed, "Roko do you have any ideas?"

"..."

"Roko?"

"..."

"Roko!"

"..."

"ROKO!" Helena cried as she slapped Roko on the back.

Immediately Roko stumbled forward, snapping out of his stupor and coughing violently, even throwing up a bit of blood onto the floor.

"Uuuhhhhh..." Eresh said, surprised and concerned.

"Oh! Sorry about that Roko!" Helena yelped, "You good?"

"Yeah..." Roko coughed, "I'm good."

"You know, maybe you should take a break again."

"I said I'm good." Roko said as he straightened himself up again, "And I have an idea."

"Wait, really?!" Polaris, Eresh and Enlil all cried in sheer surprise.

"Roko, if you're feeling feverish, you can just go back to the infirmary." Helena said concerned, "I won't even cuff you to the bed this time."

"I'm. Fine." Roko scowled, "And my idea is...well I won't promise that it'll work but I can say it has potential."

"Okay, let's hear it then Roko." Polaris said curiously, "What's your idea?"

"So..." Roko coughed, "How do you feel about living where orcs used to live?"