"Anyway, if he says anything to you, just tell us. We will scold him for you."

For some reason, instead of Qiong Xing, it seemed the captain was the one who would end up getting scolded.

"Hey kid! We brought a mana stone. Teach us how to use it."

"???"

Huh?

Upon arriving, Qiong Xing had been abruptly dragged to the soldiers’ training grounds.

He blinking his eyes in confusion at the situation.

A mana stone was casually handed to him, and when he looked around for guidance on what to do with it, the surrounding soldiers were watching him with expectant eyes.

"...Is the vice captain here?"

He tried to look for the vice captain in order to ask for an explanation, but the man was nowhere in sight.

He saw only a group of large soldiers surrounding the area from a distance.

"Rohen? If you mean him, he should be in his room today, staring at a stack of documents."

Probably "today as well," not just today.

And should he not be helping?

"I understand you are busy, but may I speak with you for a moment?"

Since no one here seemed willing to explain anything, Qiong Xing requested an audience, and was promptly dragged off again and led to what seemed to be the captain’s office.

"Hello."

"...Qiong Xing, was it?"

The vice captain who was sitting in a luxurious chair that likely belonged to the captain, looked up.

Th dark circles were clearly visible under his eyes.

His voice also sounded unusually drained.

It was unclear whether he was even properly recognizing Qiong Xing.

"Sorry to bother you while you are busy. Actually, the captain has—"

"What did you do to him?!"

His eyes suddenly snapped wide open, and in the next moment he lunged at the captain beside him, grabbing him by the chest and shaking him violently.

Despite that, the captain only laughed heartily as if nothing was wrong, which was impressive in its own way.

"Um, nothing has been done yet."

"Then you were planning to do it next?! Get down on your knees and apologize!"

"Was he always like that?"

His behavior seemed strange, likely from exhaustion.

Albe had also clearly been taken aback by the change compared to before.

After borrowing the captain’s help to somehow calm him down, everyone finally sat down to hear the explanation.

"So why did you call Qiong Xing here without telling me anything?"

"Huh? Did I not say anything?"

It seemed the captain had come up with this idea on his own.

"You remember, right? You said that if we use mana stones, we might be able to do something like last time. So I brought one, so teach me how to use it."

Qiong Xing understood why he had been called, but why was he being asked for something like this?

He had indeed said that mana stones might be useful.

But that did not mean he knew how to use them to make swords.

He glanced at the vice captain who was holding his head and slumped over the desk.

"I do not know."

"Huh?"

The captain glared at him as if he had just said something absurd.

"It is true I once suggested that mana stones might be useful, but I never said I knew how to create something like that."

"...What is that supposed to mean?"

That was what Qiong Xing wanted to say.

He had been dragged here due to a misunderstanding and now he was being blamed for not being able to do it.

"However, I will try to think of a way."

"Seriously?!"

The captain’s mood instantly improved.

Qiong Xing smiled at him faintly, then pointed at the stack of papers piled on the desk.

"So until then, please do some work and wait."

"Eh?"

"Ugh."

The vice captain looked up in surprise, while the captain twisted his face in obvious displeasure.

"N-no, I mean, Rohen is here so I..."

"So you mean a captain would really dump all his work on his subordinates, force me, a complete outsider, to use magic to make a sword for him, and then just do whatever he wants himself?"

"..."

He looked away, which basically confirmed it.

"That is not the case, right?"

"N-no, it is just, I am not good with this kind of thing..."

"So you mean you do not have to do it? That whoever can do it should just do it? If that is how things are working, I will not argue, but I do not think the vice captain, who clearly looks exhausted, is in any condition to keep doing it all alone."

"...f, fufufu, hahahahaha!"

Suddenly, the vice captain burst out laughing while holding his stomach, startling not only Qiong Xing but even the captain.

"Th, this is bad! The captain is getting lectured! Ahahahaha!"

It was unclear what exactly hit his funny bone, but he kept laughing uncontrollably while saying things like "this is bad."

"See? This is turning into a mess because of you, Captain."

"Me?!"

Seeing the vice captain like that, the captain finally seemed to feel guilty and reluctantly sat down, beginning to work in silence.

"What Qiong Xing said is that it is good to entrust work to those who can do it, but it is not good for oneself to become lazy because of that. In fact, even though the vice captain is working himself to exhaustion like this, those above who know nothing only evaluate the captain, and the vice captain does not get any recognition."

"..."

The room fell silent.

If they were fine with that, then it was another matter, but those above only looked at results.

They did not evaluate what happened along the way, who worked hard, or who supported whom.

"...I am sorry."

"No, I also did not think that far ahead."

"In times like that, it is better to say thank you. It is not only a word of gratitude, but also a way of saying you know and acknowledge the effort someone put in."