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

Roko walked down the stairs of the elven inn that he did not live in to the very normal and iconic sight of Treesa sweeping the inn floor that he was not used to..

"Morning Roko!" Treesa chirped with a bright smile on her face, "You almost got a full day's worth of sleep!"

"And I feel horrible." Roko groaned as he held his head.

"Is the poisoning that bad?"

"Not as bad as my disdain." Roko growled, "Narcolepsy? Really?"

"There's nothing wrong with that. You're sick after all."

"If I can't stay awake, I can't get anything done. That's why I've taken some amphetamines and drank several energy drinks in order to stay awake."

"I...is that healthy?"

"No."

"...Are...you not concerned with the possible side effects?"

"I can handle it. I've got things to do."

"...Are you a workaholic, perhaps?"

"No, I'm just bored."

"..."

"..."

"...Was that sarcasm?"

"You seem well today, Treesa." Roko said, "Much better than you were in Duskwald."

"Yes, it's good to be home." Treesa smiled, "Sunlight does quite some good for one's complexion."

"Well I'm glad you can get some time to yourself. Without all that angst and tears that came with Mistral and Spa-"

"Never mention those names in front of me ever again." Treesa said in a dead serious tone with a gleefully deceptive smile on her face.

"...Okay...I thought you got over this already..."

"Hey, I don't question how you do things do I?"

"I'm pretty sure you kinda did just a while ago?"

"Shut up and leave me to do what I do best."

"...Sweeping?"

"This is surprisingly therapeutic after what I went through."

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

"Well I know for a fact that you're not healthy."

"You know what, I'll just go find the girls."

Roko found the princesses preparing a cart of basic necessities. A small supply of food, portable tables and chairs, cooking instruments, sleeping bags, just a bunch of camping equipment that were marginally better than the ones they always used for travel. But along side them were some actual furniture. Things like a cupboard, a variety of differently colored boxes and even a grandfather clock.

"You guys are really confident that this is going to work aren't you?" Roko frowned.

"Oh hey Roko!" Helena grinned, "Finally woke up did you?"

"You know if he doesn't like the place, we're out of ideas, right?"

"Yeah but when has one of your plans not worked?"

"I told Corissa to pray and it didn't work."

"Well yeah cause Corissa's an atheist."

"Is she?"

"Roko, all the gods left us. EVERYONE's agnostic at best."

"I forget about that sometimes."

"I do too sometimes."

"Helena!" Momo called from the front of the cart, "We're all ready to set off! If we delay anymore, we might be late to meet up with Enlil."

"And we don't want that cranky old man getting on our case for being late." Helena nodded, "Alright! We set off!"

"How far away is the meet up point?" Roko asked.

"Oh, you can rest in the cart Roko. Don't want you all tired by the time we get there. There should be a space for you in the cart."

"Did Corissa make a bed for me again?"

"Roko, this is Corissa. Of course she did."

"Does it have four pillows again?"

"No, there's only enough room for two. But one of them is a body pillow."

"...Who's on it?"

"What do you mean? There's just like a rose pattern on it."

Arriving at a sort of mid-way point between Granreveria and Enlil's house, the group found Enlil and Ereshkigal standing there, each with a backpack on them as they looked up to greet them.

"There you are!" Enlil greeted them, "About damn time!"

"What's with all the stuff on the cart?" Ereshkigal asked.

"Oh, this is for the long stay we'll be having at your new place." Helena smiled.

"You know, we haven't agreed to move there yet right?" Enlil frowned.

"Yeah but it's going to be too late for us for us to make a simple return trip by the time we get there. So we'll be spending at least one night there."

"Okay but that still seems like a bit much to bring along. I mean, is that a goddamn grandfather clock?"

"You like it? I had it specially ordered from a human artisan."

"Does it have the bird that pops out when it makes a chime?"

"Yep."

"Cool."

"Ahem." Enlil cleared his throat to get their attention again, "Anyway, where's your leader? That Boko fellow."

"I'm right here!" Roko called from the cart, "Also, I didn't get to say this back when Polaris was introducing us but I want to make it clear that I'm not the leader."

"Really, you want to correct that over 'Boko'?" Helena smirked.

"This was a more pressing matter."

"I mean, you kind of are our default leader though." Momo said.

"That doesn't make me the leader."

"Everyone else already considers you the leader though." Kaguya said.

"Roland doesn't." Roko replied.

"I don't!" Roland confirmed.

"Then who does Roland consider the leader?" Ereshkigal blinked.

"Himself."

"ME!"

"You see, Eresh? Don't grow up with such a delusional ego like that man." Enlil said.

"Okay, got it."

"What do you mean by tha-HEY, don't write it down!" Roland cried, "What hell is wrong with you?!"

"Anyway, we should head over to this orc encampment already." Enlil coughed, "We need to reach there before it get too dark and set up camp."

"You got it, Mr. Enlil." Helena gave a thumbs up, "Go ahead and ride on the front of the cart. You probably won't make it there if you walk like the rest of us."

"Finally, some common decency." Enlil said as Helena jumped off the front of the cart to make room for him.

"Do I get a seat?" Ereshkigal asked.

"When you get tired. I'll get off and let you rest for a bit." Corissa said, "But for now, I have to stay here to keep an eye on Roko."

"Okay, sure."

Enlil climbed clumsily onto the cart and exchanged acknowledging nods with Corissa as he settled down and the trip began. The two sat there for a while in awkward silence before Enlil turned to Corissa,

"You know, you're very pretty."

"Hey, hey, HEY!" Roko snapped his fingers, "No flirting while I'm here!"

With the noon sun waning in the sky above, the group arrived at the orc encampment that they had raided oh so long ago. It was eerily quiet, unnervingly still. Destroyed houses and even a few bloodstains remained but those were already quite faded in such a short time. The memories of their desperate battle kept each of Roko's team on a bit of an edge but even they could tell it was actually quite peaceful right now.

"Well, it doesn't matter how we feel about it." Roko said, "How does the old man feel?"

Looking towards Enlil, the old man had stopped in the middle of the barren grounds, looking up at sky with a dumbfounded look.

"I...I can't feel them. I can't feel their gaze on me. It's...it's so peaceful..."

"Nice job Roko!" Helena called to him in hushed tones, "Looks like it's working!"

"This isn't my doing." Roko sighed, "It's Corissa's. If anything, I'm surprised the space has remained sanctified. Surely the effects of the spell must have dwindled to some extent."

"You want Corissa to recast it?"

"We can hold off on that for now. We still don't technically know if he approves of this place enough to-"

"Hey Enlil!" Helena called loudly, "So what do you think of this place? Wanna move here?"

"Huh?!" Enlil said, snapping out of his stupor, "Uhhhh..."

"If you still can't decide, we can stay the night here and see how you feel in the morning."

"Oh uh...sure."

"Okay Momo. Start unloading the cart."

"On it." Momo chuckled.

"The best cover we have is the cave." Kaguya said, "I'll go check out its condition and secure a sleeping and dining space for us."

"I'll start preparing dinner." Corissa smiled as she helped Momo unpack the cart.

"And I'll help!" Helena grinned.

"What do I do?" Roko asked.

"Take stock of the outside huts." Kaguya suggested, "We do need a good idea of the layout of this place in order to get an idea on the renovation. Shouldn't cause any of your symptoms to flare up either."

"And what should I do?" Ereshkigal asked.

"Uhhh...just...watch over your dad I guess?"

"Is that it?" Ereshkigal frowned, "He doesn't exactly move very fast you know."

"Uhhhhh..."

"Think of renovation ideas." Roko suggested, "That is, assuming you want to move here."

"I can do that. So...do I just wander around on my own or..."

"Why don't you follow Roko?" Helena smiled slyly, "We need someone to keep an eye on him anyway."

"Am I a babysitter?" Ereshkigal frowned.

"We have a surprising amount of child-like adults."

"Wow, I feel sorry for you guys."

"Much appreciated." Helena grinned.

"So am I one of the pitiable ones or one of the problems?"

"Roko, what kind of answer do you even want from that question?"

"You know what, I'll just get to work."

"Just don't overwork yourself!" Helena waved as Roko sulked off.

Roko spent his time picking through rubble. There were a few intact huts though they were sparsely decorated and really wasn't safe for more complex living conditions. Chances were that they'd have to scrap them all and rebuild them. There was nothing they could salvage from them either. Neither the beds nor even the bed stands. There were some weapons lying about but they paled in comparison to the craftsmanship of basically any other advanced race. Surprisingly there were a sizable amount of books leftover for an orc settlement. The occasional hut even had a small bookshelf that couldn't hold more than ten books and were also of equally poor construction. Roko wasn't quite sure what these books were about but according to Ereshkigal, they were orcish training manuals. Most of them were on combat though some of them were tactical records of Granreveria's structure and location, notes on elven magic and even reminders on how to take care of certain races as slaves. Roko wasn't allowed to read them but none of them sounded particularly appetizing either. Not even the notes on elven magic as Ereshkigal told him they were extremely basic and were "honestly more racist than scientific." Beyond that there really wasn't anything to note of the huts.

"It's honestly shocking how little of these huts we can use." Roko mumbled to himself as he shifted through a drawer of rubbish, "We should find a way to overhaul the huts instead of just outright replacing them."

"You know how to upgrade buildings?" Ereshkigal asked.

"No, we're going to have to call in a specialist."

"Human or elf specialist?"

"Depends on what you want your homes to look like."

"Homes huh?" Ereshkigal pondered, "Does that mean I can get a whole house to myself?"

"Well even if you do, these huts aren't that big so it's more or less just another room for you."

"I guess so."

"By the way, I've been meaning to ask." Roko turned to look at the dark elf child, "Do you intend to continue on your father's work?"

"His work?"

"Divination."

"Oh. Well I don't really know what else I can do..."

"That might be a problem." Roko crossed his arms as he leaned on a nightstand, "As far as I know, this magic includes magic from the grimoires which is what your father has been trying to avoid. I'm sure he has no intention of reigniting his paranoia but what are you going to do?"

"...I...all I've ever really known is magic..."

"You were adopted right? Do you have any memories of your time before that? Maybe with your original family?"

"Original family..." Ereshkigal looked down, "I...all I remember before my dad found me was...dying of hunger and thirst...bleeding, injured...lying on the ground...and...immense terror."

"...So you're too traumatized to remember anything?" Roko mused, "What might've happened to you?"

"Dunno." Ereshkigal scowled, "Not sure if I even wanna know."

"That's fair. Still, you don't have to do something with magic. I'm not sure you'll be able to if we can manage to stabilize sanctuary around this area. You can learn something more practical. I know someone around your age that does wood carvings."

"...But..."

"You think your best skills are in magic?"

Ereshkigal nodded.

"If that's what you feel like is your calling, I won't stop you. But can you at least practice something other than divination?"

"I think I can do that."

"In that case, I can arrange for some sort of magic tutor for you from Granreveria. You might have to make trips from here to Granreveria but maybe we can arrange a space for the tutor to live here even if only temporary. How does that sound?"

"...Why are you helping me?"

"Altruism is a funny thing to question isn't it? An unwise person may choose to not look a gift horse in the mouth but at the same time, it's hard to imagine someone wanting to help you for no reason and even harder to allow yourself to accept it without feeling indebted. I'm not saying that doing so is wrong, but you'll rarely receive an answer that won't hurt yourself in some way. Suffice it to say that I just want to help you. If you can't accept that, I can come up with any number of reasons. Which do you want?"

Ereshkigal gave Roko a weird look, "No...I'm good."

"There you go then." Roko said as he got up off the nightstand and picked up a poorly maintained sword that was lying on the wall. It had small chips in it's blade and was pretty dirty from all sorts of fluids and detritus, "Another one for the pile." He sighed.

"...How do I stop myself from becoming selfish then?" Ereshkigal asked.

"Remember that you're not asking about their intentions but for their reasons." Roko replied, "Nothing hurts more than a well intentioned act being misinterpreted as malicious. Remember the reasons why you do something for someone and if they say they're repaying you for something, remember what you did and use it to measure you and your friend's accomplishments and weaknesses. Every act of altruism is setup for further acts of altruism in the future. Even if some acts are never reciprocated, what's important is that you can drive you and those around you forward."

"Uh huh..." Ereshkigal said as she considered Roko's words, "You're more talkative than I thought you'd be."

"I'm sick, what do you want from me?" Roko scowled.

"About that, is that also why you refuse to accept your friend's help when you're seriously sick?"

"This and that are two different things!" Roko snapped.