The Witch's Lecture and the Assistant's Awakening
The orc horde had gathered at the very edge of the barrier spread around the clearing. It looked like they’d chosen the spot as a temporary base to rest; aside from a few sentries, most of them had set their weapons down. Traces of the battle they’d fought on the way here still clung to them—undried blood trickling from every gap in their armor. Orc warriors chopped down trees to throw together hasty barracks, while an orc shaman rattled a staff bristling with skulls and chanted something that looked like black-magic sorcery in an attempt to divine the barrier’s weakness. They seemed to be making their own clumsy efforts to break through.
The orc chieftain sat on a tree stump, swigging from a leather pouch and barking at the slackers. From inside the barrier, we watched their every move.
“So, what’s your impression after seeing orcs with your own eyes?”
“…They’re disgusting.”
Joshua peeked out from behind me, face only, clearly repulsed on a biological level. She looked so adorable I had to fight the urge to scoop her up in a hug. But I couldn’t keep babying her forever, so I settled for a wry smile and a gentle pat on the head.
“Orcs usually travel in packs centered around a leader. You might be tempted to dismiss them as mere monsters, but they’re not all that different from people.”
I pointed out each role as I explained.
“The ones skulking around our perimeter are sentries checking for enemies. The one waving his staff near the barrier and casting that black magic is an orc shaman. Joshua, how strong would you say the shaman’s magic is?”
Following the shaman’s chant, dark energy spiraled from the ground up the staff and slammed into the barrier… but it didn’t leave so much as a scratch.
“It looks… really weak.”
Even I could tell the spell was so pathetic that a ten-year-old Joshua could probably beat it. In a one-on-one, the orc shaman was nothing but a joke.
“Correct~ But think about it. When you’re busy fighting the orc warriors, having the shaman throw black magic into the mix makes things a lot harder. And there’s something else that makes orc shamans truly dangerous.”
Status Ailment Immunity
Groggy Immunity
Strength +10%
The reason you had to take the shaman out first. In the game’s system, those buff skills were a nightmare to handle. In a turn-based JRPG, an enemy whose health dropped below a certain threshold should enter a groggy state and lose their next turn. But orcs with the shaman’s buffs ignored groggy entirely. Even at 1 HP they’d still be smashing your party’s skulls in. On the community forums they were infamous as a newbie cutter for anyone who wasn’t familiar with JRPG mechanics.
In the game you could simply snipe the shaman first with an archer or rogue, but in reality it was hard to even locate them, and the chieftain always guarded the path. That’s why, when facing orcs, you avoided a head-on fight if at all possible.
“Orcs have an excellent sense of smell, so ambushes are nearly impossible. Plenty of adventurers learned that the hard way and said their final goodbyes to the world.”
I pointed at the orc sentry sniffing the air in front of the barrier.
“On top of that, they’re strong enough to lift a human woman with one hand. The most important thing is not getting caught, right?”
The bulging veins threatening to burst through their green skin writhed like living things.
“Ugh… I really, really hate them.”
“Even if you hate them, you still have to listen. You need to know your enemy to know how to fight them. Lives are lighter than you think—if you’re not careful, you’ll be flying off to heaven before you know it.”
Some people even recommended suicide over letting yourself be captured by orcs. Men were eaten alive as food; women were eaten in an entirely different sense. As proof, several human prisoners were writhing inside a portable iron cage. One man, three women. The women’s eyes were already dead. The man wasn’t moving—probably unconscious.
That had been my first encounter with orcs, too. Back when I was still adjusting to being a witch, the small village I’d chosen as my first base was burned to the ground in an orc raid. I still remembered the festival they held with their captured humans. With orcs, you aimed for the head, not the heart. Their low intelligence meant that if you could set traps, you had the advantage. Mages had to avoid close combat and secure their own safety first.
It was probably a boring lecture, yet Joshua listened with total concentration until the end. I was impressed.
“It’s exactly like what I read in the books.”
“Of course it is. I wrote those books, after all.”
She’d even read Estelle’s Great Encyclopedia – Monster Volume, the notes I’d compiled in my previous life about the monsters in Aria Chronicle. The series had expanded since then and the number of monster types had grown, so only a few pages were still useful, but still.
“Theory class complete! Ready to move on to practical training?”
“W-wait just a—!”
I snapped my fingers, ignoring Joshua’s sudden wide-eyed panic. The barrier vanished. The orc sentry I’d turned into a living mannequin spotted us instantly and flared its nostrils.
“Chief! The barrier’s gone! We can get through now!”
The orc chieftain, who had been ignoring the shaman, suddenly jerked upright at the sentry’s roar.
“Chief! It’s a female!!!”
“Female!!!!!!! Where’s the female?!”
The magic stone embedded in the chieftain’s forehead glowed brightly as instinct took over.
“…Right here.”
I’d heard rumors that an orc’s roar could trigger panic, but—
“Joshua? Joshua~? Hellooo?”
Joshua had completely shut down.
Huh? This was throwing a wrench in my plan to restore my dignity with a spectacular performance. I waved a hand in front of her face, shook her shoulder—nothing. If I could open her status window right now, I bet it would show Lv. 10 with a shiny Beginner certification mark. Orcs were around level 30, so this was definitely premature…
So unfair. She should’ve been a bit more of a genius. She picked up everything I taught her so quickly that I thought she’d adapt to combat just as fast. Maybe orcs right off the bat really were too much? Should I have started her with slimes? Fighting might have been too stimulating for a fifteen-year-old.
“Chief! I saw her first! She’s mine!”
I blew the head clean off the orc who dared reach for Joshua without permission. As if I’d let you touch my precious daughter.
“My beloved assistant. Could you keep your eyes closed for just a little while until I come back?”
I stroked her hair, trying to reassure her. When she finally seemed to come back to herself, tears shimmered in her eyes. I smiled at her.
Watch closely. My absolutely god-tier control. An open-field action RPG you’d never see in those clicker games!
And I would absolutely tell Joshua’s children, and her children’s children, that she’d burst into tears the first time she saw an orc. Just imagining the next two hundred years of endless teasing filled me with joy.
Contrary to what Estelle believed, Joshua wasn’t afraid of fighting. She was the girl who had admired the heroes in fairy tales—the ones who slew evil dragons and wicked villains to reach their happy endings. The orc’s roar was certainly loud, but not loud enough to send her into a panic. At most it was just annoying. While listening to Estelle’s patient, detailed explanations, she had even let her imagination run free, picturing all the different ways she might fight them.
The reason she froze had come just before Estelle dispelled the barrier. Even though the barrier should have hidden them, her eyes had met those of the woman trapped behind the iron bars.
“Just a moment…!”
The instant she saw the woman’s unfocused, empty gaze, Joshua’s body locked up. Her mouth opened and closed without sound. For some reason she could feel every ounce of hope and despair contained in those eyes.
Save me.
Help me.
Kill me.
Please save me! I’ll do anything if you just save me—kyaaaaaah~!!!
The image of a small child trembling beneath the floorboards was reflected in the woman’s eyes like a mirror. The scream from that day seemed to echo right beside her ear. The terror of what was about to happen, the helplessness of being able only to cry in silence—her mind went pure white.
Even as the orc’s massive arm descended to crush her head, the thought of running never occurred to her. Maybe if that arm smashed her, it would finally crush the suffocating weight in her chest as well.
She squeezed her eyes shut. Her teeth clenched so hard they felt ready to shatter. It was time to go meet the parents who had left her behind.
But then a touch so impossibly gentle it couldn’t possibly belong to an orc made her open her eyes again. Even after fifteen years, it was the same tender hand that had comforted her the day they first met. The same warmth she had felt even before that flowed from Estelle’s fingertips.
“My beloved assistant. Could you keep your eyes closed for just a little while until I return?”
My beloved daughter, Joshua. You must never come out until Mom returns. Understand?
Tears flooded her eyes. Estelle and her mother overlapped so completely that she could no longer deny it. And because she never wanted to lose her mother again, she could not stay frozen here.
The powerless seven-year-old girl named Joshua was gone. The mind that had turned pure white was now being painted over in the colors of Estelle and Joshua.