Chapter 48

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Chapter 048: Orcish Language Class

Jesse didn’t dare to go back to The Slaughtered Lamb, after all, causing trouble with the leader there would only bring more problems.

Every afternoon, he studied Orcish language at the library. He also spent 5 silver coins to have a sword made by a blacksmith in the Dwarven District, similar in weight to the Stromgarde longsword. He wanted to practice real swordsmanship with Greed, believing he could improve his skills better this way.

The days quickly turned cold in Azeroth. The calendar used by humans and dwarves was similar to Earth’s Gregorian calendar, divided into 12 months, each named differently by different races.

For example, dwarves called April "Sulunmonth," and there were differences between Lordaeron and the Kingdom of Stormwind. With deepening interactions between nations and races, the habit of using only numbers became more common.

The first day of October was a Tuesday, which was also Jesse’s first Orcish Language class.

That afternoon, following the address given by Malin, Jesse wandered around the Wizard’s Sanctum for quite a while. Despite arriving half an hour early, he still arrived a bit late when he finally found the classroom.

Once inside, the teacher seemed to be absent. A group of students sat in the not-so-large classroom, all looking towards this direction.

Jesse was somewhat surprised to see around 20 people here, seemingly none younger than him. There were many middle-aged people, and even a couple who looked like elderly partners, with gray hair, probably in their 70s.

"Jesse Seso, right?" At this moment, a middle-aged person waved and said, "I am Caro Duchamp. I believe Master Malin has already introduced me to you."

"Ah… Master Duchamp." Jesse nodded slightly, not expecting the teacher to be sitting among the students. With people of all ages present, ranging from young to old, it was impossible to tell who the teacher might be.

Duchamp wore small glasses, had a shaved head, looked tall and thin, with a smile always present on his stubble-covered face.

Seeing Jesse a bit confused, Duchamp said, "Come on, you’re the youngest in this class, and we’ll take care of you."

Others smiled and nodded politely. Jesse felt very uncomfortable in this mature atmosphere of the class, awkwardly smiled back, and sat off to the side.

"Here’s the deal," Duchamp said. "This class is not like other language courses where you follow the teacher from start to finish. It’s mainly focused on communication. Everyone brings their collected materials related to the Orcish language, based on what we already have… tries to translate, and then exchanges opinions. When looking at others’ materials, please be careful not to be too rough. Treat them with care because each piece of Orcish language book or letter is very valuable. I also recommend that each student try to transcribe an Orcish rune to bring to class, instead of bringing the original, even though it takes several times the effort. As for other precautions, we’ll discuss them gradually during our class."

Actually, as Duchamp explained the class rules, Jesse had been observing the appearance and attire of the people around. Before coming here, he was worried about encountering members of the warlock from The Slaughtered Lamb basement, so he was still a bit nervous.

After all, if Malin is right, this classroom is the only Language Orcish class in the Wizard’s Sanctum. The warlocks might try to get in if they mistake spells for Language Orcish.

Fortunately, none of these people look familiar or stare at me strangely, so they probably don’t know me.

Most importantly, Gakin is not among them.

However, when Duchamp mentioned the high value of each Language Orcish book or letter, his attention was immediately drawn to his lips.

How expensive are they?

How much could you sell a damaged book with ninety percent of its pages burned? How much for a book filled with unreadable Language Orcish and unknown languages? How much for a letter written by Teron Gorefiend himself?

Jesse definitely won’t be able to sell that burned book with the bilingual texts.

But the order from Teron Gorefiend seems to have lost its value since he already made a copy, and he’s not interested in collecting such things.

How much money could I make by selling it to a rich collector interested in orc artifacts?

Booty Bay… Booty Bay…

Thinking about the story that magic wand merchant Allan Hafgan mentioned, about selling a magic wand for 240 gold coins, Jesse started to feel a bit excited.

This letter is not just from a high-ranking Orc, but from the highest of the high, and the elite among the elite. It is not only valuable as a collectible but also holds some military value.

Maybe this means that there is indeed a real Death Knight still out there in Azeroth who hasn’t been caught. He has been waiting for Commander Teron Gorefiend’s retreat order, waiting all the way until the Dark Portal was occupied by the Alliance…

Considering all this, shouldn’t this letter be worth more than just a few gold coins?

"Jesse Seso," Duchamp suddenly called out to himself. Jesse was surprised, realizing that he had zoned out.

In the first class, where everyone was seated together in a strange classroom, he found his thoughts drifting thousands of miles to the south in front of so many people.

"Please take a look at this rune, what do you think it means?"

Duchamp handed Jesse a piece of paper written in Orcish language.

Jesse looked left and right, trying to remember the Language Orcish symbols he had seen in the library in the past two days. He felt like they looked similar to something, but couldn’t quite figure out where.

After all, he had only been learning for three or four days. Even though the intensity was quite high, it was impossible to become familiar with a completely different alphabet system in such a short time. Even if he had seen it before, it seemed like he wouldn’t recognize it.

"This symbol is pronounced as ‘Mak’gora’," Duchamp reminded, "It is a very important ritual in Orc culture."

Jesse had a vague impression of the pronunciation of "Mak’gora," but couldn’t remember the specific meaning. However, when Duchamp mentioned that it was a very important ritual, something popped into Jesse’s mind – Honorable Duel.

Because he only knew about this Orc ritual, which involved a relentless duel to challenge the position of a tribe chief.

"Honorable Duel," Jesse pointed to the paper, saying, "I know this."

After saying that, he felt like the sweat in his hair was about to come out.

"Honorable Duel?" Duchamp and the other students around him looked confused.

Jesse looked back and forth, cautiously asking, "Isn’t it?"

"That’s what a duel means, right?" said a middle-aged classmate. "But why does it involve honor?"

Jesse realized he was being too clever for his own good. Sometimes it’s better to admit you don’t know something instead of trying to sound smart.

He wanted to explain, but then he realized that if he talked about some cultural aspects of the Honorable Duel, it would make the students and teachers who didn’t know much about Orcs doubt him even more. So, he casually said, "I think Orc duels might be similar to those of human nobles, fighting for something important like a lover or dignity, but not fighting to the death. So they duel until a point… that’s just my understanding."

"There’s a possibility," Duchamp said. "Orcs are a war-loving race, so they might settle tribal matters through duels."

"I disagree…" another younger woman said. "I don’t think Orcs have any sense of honor. They have been ruthless in their raids, burning, killing, and plundering. If they love fighting, then fighting to the death would make more sense, wouldn’t it?"

Jesse knew the woman was right – before the young Great Chief Thrall ruled the tribe, Orc duels used to be fights to the death, at least until one was too injured to continue.

At that moment, an old man said, "Perhaps they are kinder to their own kind."

Another man added, "When Orcs attacked Westfall, some farms weren’t heavily looted. The towns with the most destruction were the ones with defenses. Maybe they didn’t want to harm unarmed people."

"An entire village in the marshes was wiped out. How could those villagers defend themselves against the Orc army? I see you’re close to being sympathetic to Orcs. You seem to disregard the countless dead farmers and burned farms from Elwynn to Redridge," a young man argued.

"Don’t judge others’ beliefs randomly, child," the man said sternly. "Are you willing to ignore some objective facts just to express your own sense of justice? I would like to see how you interpret the Orcs’ motives for not wanting to harm the Western farmers!"

"It’s just a form of slavery in a backward civilization," an older female classmate said slowly. "Orcs also need to eat, drink water; they need slaves to provide them with food."

"We are not in a cultural and political discussion class," Duchamp intervened to stop the discussion from spiraling into the moon, even becoming dangerous. "As for the Orcs’ values, social concepts, leave those to the historians, sociologists, and anthropologists to discuss. Our focus should be on language study."

Compared to a teacher, Duchamp seemed more like a host, always making sure the discussions didn’t stray too far from the language itself. After all, in the current alliance, how to treat Orcs was a rather dangerous topic.

Several students then shared their materials, and Jesse actually learned a lot about the Orcish language techniques that he hadn’t noticed in the library, as well as some vocabulary usage habits.

At the end of the class, Duchamp gave Jesse a stack of papers and said, "These are some summaries we made a while ago. You can use them as supplementary materials to study. When you’ve almost finished reading them, return them because we only made two copies. Copying the Orcish language runes is really very difficult."

Jesse couldn’t agree more; when would he finish copying such a thick stack of papers? It will surely help a lot with his progress in Orcish language.