Education? More Like Accidental Explosions
I blinked. “Uh… huh?”
In moments like this, even my usual confidence in showing bewilderment failed me. When something feels awkward, it just gets… prickly. So I simply swallowed the sigh building in my chest and kept my mouth shut. (As a side note, today was supposed to be the first day of our party’s reformation, yet my luck was already rotten. Why do these parts of my life never change?)
“Since it’s your request, I said I’d do it, but why the vigilante corps members specifically?”
While I was still fumbling for words, Jian was carrying the conversation with surprising ease.
“Well, being the village chief doesn’t mean I can only handle my own business.”
“Yeah, I guess that makes sense.”
Whether he didn’t notice my continued floundering or was just pretending not to, the discussion flowed on without me.
“Please just check Jian-hyung’s personal skill level. That’s what he said was the most urgent.”
“Got it. I’ll bring her right away. We don’t have much time, so jumping straight in will probably be easiest on all of us.”
Archimon nodded, then went into the back room and returned with a female orc. At the time, I wasn’t paying much attention to that fact. My head was a complete mess, so ignoring trivial details felt natural.
But a moment later, my mind cleared up. It wasn’t a clean, ribbon-pulling resolution—just a sudden, guillotine-like chop right down the middle.
“Hello! I’ve heard so much about you from my husband.”
The instant I heard the female orc speak, every thought about education and vigilante corps evaporated from my brain. The word “husband” had completely broken my thought process.
“Husband?”
Jian and I spoke at almost the same time. Osmer beamed and pointed at Archimon. “Yes! My husband!”
“Wait, what? Hold on. Archimon, you got married?”
“Yes. I was planning to tell you during the ceremony, but that was right around the time you two were unreachable…”
It seemed Archimon’s wedding had taken place while we were swamped with work. I didn’t feel particularly disappointed or anything—mostly because the sheer bewilderment had already demolished my emotional priorities.
“Right. Well… congratulations. Even if it’s late.”
“Haha! No, thank you.”
Jian seemed to be in the same boat; he offered his congratulations with a stiff, forced smile. Whether Archimon’s understanding couldn’t quite reach our inner turmoil or he was simply too shy to acknowledge it, the guy just laughed it off.
A short while later, we followed Osmer’s lead. It should have been an easy path where we only needed to trail behind her, yet the whispering between us never stopped. (To be fair, Karena and Laverre were grumbling the whole way too, but that’s basically their default state, so let’s move on.)
“…Did you know about this?”
“How would I know? Of course I didn’t.”
It was shocking enough that our younger friend had gotten married without us knowing, but more than that, Archimon seemed far too young for it. Even accounting for how early orcs usually wed, he was still young.
“Um… Madam…?”
Jian pronounced the word “madam” with the awkwardness of someone who had just learned it and was testing its usage after deep consideration.
“Haha. It’s fine to call me that, but there’s no need to be so formal. Please just call me Osmer comfortably.”
She said to call her Osmer comfortably, but every time we said her name, we felt anything but.
“Let’s talk about this later. When we have time. Right now we have the job Archimon gave us, so first we should…”
While Jian was whispering to me, Osmer called out to him.
“Jian teacher?”
“Ah. Yes! Yes!”
“We’ve arrived. This is the vigilante corps barracks.”
Even though I was standing right in front of the vigilante corps barracks, I hadn’t realized it at all. The building was clad in the same crude orcish architecture, making it impossible to tell its purpose from the outside. As a side note, when looking at orc buildings, you have to treat them like orcs themselves. Never judge what’s inside by the exterior. Of course, the same goes for elves… but anyway, let’s move on.
What I’m saying is that trying to guess the interior of an orc building from its outside is foolish. Even if it looks like nothing more than a dull pile of gray-brown bricks from the outside, you never know what facilities might be inside.
With that thought in mind, I stepped into the barracks—only for Osmer to stop me.
“Just a moment. Henry, this isn’t where you’re going. You need to head to the archer barracks.”
Normally I would have asked without thinking, but even that failed to come out. Still, since she answered, my bewildered expression must have done the asking for me.
“Archers?”
Brain. Stopped. Thoughts halted.
“Um… I don’t know the details either. My husband just asked me to tell you that…”
“Looks like we’ll have to split up here for now.”
Worry flared back to life like embers in a brazier, instantly scrambling my thoughts. The conclusion I’d reached earlier—that I wasn’t in any state to teach—came rushing back.
“Yes. Jian, you can go inside. The corps captain will explain the rest.”
“Alright. See you later.”
Jian headed off, and even by the time I reached the archer barracks, no good alternatives had come to mind.
“Henry, you can go inside. I’ll show the other two ladies a place to rest nearby. Since they’re both women, perhaps the accessory shop…”
My head was too cluttered to remember the exact situation clearly. But I distinctly recall the moment Karena suddenly stepped forward and said:
“I’ll just watch Henry teach.”
“Oh, is that so?”
Karena replied in a surprisingly polite tone that didn’t suit her at all. “Thank you. I’ll definitely check out the accessories next time.”
In the end, Laverre and Osmer headed off toward the market in the distance, leaving Karena beside me.
“…Why? Suddenly interested in learning magic?”
“No. I’m just curious why you’re not saying anything and what the hell you’re thinking.”
“Huh? I wasn’t thinking anything special.”
“I thought you might actually have a plan, but you’re just the same as usual.”
As we entered the building, we gradually exchanged words, but every single one of them was pointless.
“It’s not like I knew I’d end up at the archer building.”
“If you’d told them from the start that you can’t use magic, this would’ve gone a lot better.”
“Saying it out of nowhere is embarrassing. I’m supposed to be a wizard, after all.”
“Even back when you could use magic, you weren’t exactly proud of it.”
It was ridiculous to hope for a useful solution from someone as useless as me, but here we were.
A little later, the captain came out and led us inside.
“H-he-hello. Are you Henry Morrison? A-and the person next to you is Karena, right?”
“Yes. We came at Archimon’s request.”
“I-it’s truly an honor! Thank you so much for coming!”
The captain looked visibly nervous at first glance. Karena casually scanned the surroundings as if none of this bothered her, but I felt burdened. No—burdened wasn’t even the word. I felt like I might throw up from the pressure.
The three of us followed the captain deeper into the building. He explained various things along the way, but I barely listened.
“Oh… Ah… Yes.”
That was about all I repeated.
“By the way, is there really anything for me to lecture on in an archer building?”
“Ah! I’ll explain right away. There’s an armory just ahead, so it’ll be easier to show you! In our armory, we keep a large number of arrows and various types of bows prepared for any threat, and also…”
“Oh… Ah… Yes.”
He was a man whose explanations were brutally long compared to my level of interest. He opened the door to the armory.
Several boxes labeled Arrows were all covered in dust. Behind them, bows of various sizes stood neatly like pillars. Yet even in the dimness, something at the far end was sparkling.
The familiar sight drew me forward like a magnet. As the light grew closer, its identity became clear.
“These… are scrolls?”
“As expected, you recognize them! These are the new weapons we recently introduced!”
Before anything else, one thought rose above the rest.
Fuck. Thank god.
I felt a momentary sense of relief, but I still wanted to make sure.
“But why did the archers purchase scrolls?”
“As you know, training mages isn’t easy. So in smaller settlements like ours, instead of raising mages, we supplement long-range firepower with archers. But after facing elves, we realized that countering magic with arrows has clear limits. That’s why we decided to use scrolls—which require relatively low proficiency—as weapons to respond to magic.”
The vigilante captain’s explanation was overly detailed for his position, but the important part was that they were using scrolls.
“That’s a smart decision. With scrolls, you can use magic without any special knowledge.”
“Yes! Exactly! However, we only know how to handle bows. We’re complete novices when it comes to magic—even with scrolls. So we invited you here, Henry, hoping you could give us at least a brief explanation about scrolls.”
“Of course, I can do that!”
I examined the scrolls carefully. Upon closer inspection, I noticed they were tangled together inside the box like a mess of yarn.
“Hmm. First, let’s move the scrolls.”
“Is there a problem?”
“I’ll explain later, but you shouldn’t store scrolls touching each other like this. Because…”
To demonstrate, I reached into the box. At that moment, a blue light flickered from within, and then mana erupted like an explosion.
The mana trapped inside the scrolls reacted with the outside air, emitting an intense light that grew stronger and stronger, filling the entire room.
What happened next occurred in the blink of an eye. There was a sound like wind being sliced, and my body was yanked backward, slamming into the floor.
“Hey!”
A frantic voice belatedly registered the situation. A moment later, the light faded. The room had returned to its original dull gray.
Before I knew it, I was lying on the floor, Karena was gripping my collar, and the captain had just stretched out his hand.
“Henry, are you okay?”
“Yeah.”
I gave Karena a short answer and quickly got to my feet.
“Wh-what just happened?” the captain asked again.
I answered his question.
“It was a malfunction. If they aren’t properly maintained, this happens sometimes. If the suppression works midway, it ends like this, but in normal cases, they usually just explode. That’s one of the biggest differences between ordinary weapons and magic.”
Then I added casually,
“So, could you gather the members? It’ll be easier if we start right away.”