“Mmm… five more years…”
“That’s way too much sleep,”
“Haha, Frieren’s morning grumpiness is as bad as ever, I see.”
“Even bears in hibernation don’t sleep as much as you.”
Lively voices reached her ears.
Reluctantly, Frieren decided to get up.
The familiar faces of the three were looking at her. Next to Frieren was a bespectacled priest who had his hair slicked back. And sitting diagonally in front was a gruff-looking dwarf in a heavy helmet – Heiter and Eisen, the members of the Hero’s party. They were all crammed into the carriage, making it feel quite cramped.
“Good morning. Did you sleep well?”
Himmel smiled gently at Frieren.
“Well, more or less… I had a dream about my master.”
“Your master, you mean the great mage Flamme? You’ve been dreaming about the distant past again, haven’t you?”
Just as Frieren was about to say it wasn’t that long ago, she felt a sense of déjà vu. She had a similar conversation with Flamme in her dream. Amused by the coincidence, she couldn’t help but smile.
“Ah? It seems like you’re in a good mood.”
Uh-oh, Heiter leaned in close. The smell of alcohol was strong. A bottle peeked out from the gap in his sleeve.
“You’re drinking, aren’t you?”
“Just a little tipsy.”
He seemed quite drunk.
“This smelly priest. I don’t care if you get a hangover.”
“Could you please take care of me then?”
“Maybe I’ll just leave you outside.”
“How terrible!” Heiter cried out, pretending to sob. Seeing this, Eisen sighed.
“Honestly, any chance you get, you start drinking. How can you call yourself a priest?”
“I’m a little embarrassed.”
“I’m not praising you.”
Heiter let out a loud laugh. He was busy laughing and crying.
Despite the mission to defeat the Demon King, they are so carefree and lively as always. This was the normal state of the hero’s party. Frieren shook her head in disbelief, but she didn’t dislike this relaxed atmosphere.
Suddenly, she looked outside.
An endless grassland stretched out before them. The horizon clearly divided the blue sky and the grass.
It was exactly the same scenery she had seen in her dream.
Huh? Frieren tilted her head.
“Say…”
“Hmm?”
“Where is this carriage headed again?”
Not again. This feeling.
The same thing had happened in the dream. In the end, the destination was unclear. And in reality, Frieren had forgotten the destination.
It was a strange sensation. If she tried hard, she felt like she could remember. It was right on the tip of her tongue. But no matter how much she wracked her brain, she couldn’t recall it.
“You know right, Himmel?”
When Frieren asked, Himmel answered, “Of course.”
“This carriage is…”
At that moment.
Suddenly, Heiter forcefully opened the carriage door. As if he couldn’t bear it anymore, he leaned out with his upper body. Wondering what was happening, Frieren was-
“Uuuuugh…”
He vomited.
Ugh, Frieren was disgusted. Of course, drinking on the carriage was not a good idea. She complained inwardly, “I told you so.”
“Hey, this is bad! Heiter is…”
Himmel was trembling with an overly serious expression, and then he shouted.
“Heiter threw up!”
“……”
“……”
“Uugh…”
Silence fell in the carriage, broken only by the sound of the wheels turning and Heiter’s stomach rotating.
Eisen glanced at Himmel.
“Was that a pun?”
“Yeah, I was hoping it would at least make someone laugh a little.”
“It wasn’t that funny.”
Eisen patted Heiter’s back. His movements were practiced. Himmel, whose grand pun had fallen flat, slumped his shoulders dejectedly and looked at Frieren.
“Frieren, do you have a magic to make shaved ice or something?”
“shaved ice… Well, I guess…”
“That’ll do. Please, I beg you.”
Himmel took a handkerchief from his pocket and spread it out. Frieren used her magic to create a pile of shaved ice on it.
“Here, Heiter. Drink this is instead of water.”
Heiter sluggishly put the mountain of shaved ice in his mouth.
“It’s cold…and there’s nothing on it…”
“Don’t be so picky.”
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Eisen silently continued to rub Heiter’s back as he ate the shaved ice with tears in his eyes.
Himmel leaned back against the seat, satisfied that Heiter would be alright.
“Geez…if only he didn’t drink, he’d be so capable.”
“At least he didn’t throw up inside the carriage.”
“I don’t even want to imagine that.”
Himmel shuddered. Then he turned to Frieren again.
“Sorry, what were we talking about again?”
The answer he wanted was where this carriage was headed, but the earlier commotion had completely dampened her interest. Besides, she didn’t particularly need to know. She’d find out when they arrived.
“It’s not important, so don’t worry about it.”
“Okay? But still…”
Himmel still seemed unconvinced, but he didn’t press the issue further.
“Anyway, Himmel, why did you wake me up? Did you need something?”
“No, not really. I just wanted to chat with everyone.”
Himmel said this in a bright voice, then looked at Frieren, scrutinizing her expression.
“…Was I being a bother?”
“I could’ve slept a little longer.”
“Sorry about that.”
Himmel lowered his brows like a scolded child. Interrupting her nap was a grave sin. But seeing that face made Frieren feel a little guilty.
Oh well, time to show some adult tolerance, Frieren sighed.
“Well, I don’t mind keeping you company.”
Himmel’s face brightened like the clearing sky.
“Great! Then let’s discuss in detail how amazing the statue made for me was-“
“I think I’ll just go back to sleep.”
Oh, come on, don’t say that, Himmel insisted. Seeing this, Eisen shook his head wearily, and Heiter had a face like the undead.
After that, they continued on with pointless, rambling conversation.
She would probably forget it all by tomorrow. It was just idle chatter. If she was going to waste time like this, it would be more productive to search for magic books, practice magic, or take a nap. But Frieren never got bored.
Even if the content of the conversation held no real meaning, there was still something fulfilling about it.
“–And so, the magic I found to do handstands back then has been really useful, you know?”
“Frieren really does love magic, doesn’t she,”
Himmel said with a smile on his face.
“Not particularly,”
“But you know so many different kinds of magic, don’t you?”
As Himmel said this, Heiter suddenly lifted his head, having been completely down before but now gradually recovering.
“There are many different mages, but I don’t know anyone as passionate about collecting magic as you are…”
“I wouldn’t say I’m that passionate. I’ve just been collecting magic for a few hundred years without seeing many people,”
Himmel looked at her puzzled. Heiter and Eisen exchanged a skeptical glance after hearing this.
“Another grand-scale story has come up,”
“Elf jokes are hard to understand,”
“I wasn’t actually trying to tell a joke…”
Himmel looked at Frieren with a somewhat worried expression.
“Don’t you ever feel lonely?”
“Not really. As long as I can collect magic at my leisure, that’s fine by me,”
“It’s kind of a hermit-like way of living, isn’t it?”
“Most elves are like that. …Ah, but-“
A fellow elf came to mind then.
Frieren’s mentor Flamme, and Flamme’s mentor – the powerful and arrogant mage, Serie, whose magical abilities far surpassed Frieren’s.
Unlike the lonely Frieren who had been alone for hundreds of years, Serie had taken on many disciples. This was driven by her ambition to train powerful mages, not out of a fear of loneliness. Still, the solitary, hermit-like lifestyle that Himmel had described was likely not something Serie would desire.
“Not everyone is like me, though.”
“That sounded like you were speaking from experience.”
“There are all kinds of elves, even though I haven’t seen them in a while and almost forgot.”
Although she had just remembered Serie, Frieren did not feel any particular nostalgia. They were of the same race, but they were not particularly close, and Frieren had the impression that Serie disliked her, or perhaps simply didn’t recognize her. In any case, Frieren didn’t really care.
“But I’m glad,”
Frieren tilted her head in confusion.
“Glad about what?”
“That you haven’t been feeling lonely all these hundreds of years. I know you elves live much longer than we do, so you’ve probably experienced many partings. And you’ll probably continue to…”
Himmel’s gaze took on a faint sadness.
“Sometimes I wonder if the happy memories and desire to be with someone might end up hurting you instead. Unwittingly, we end up placing so much on you.”
“…I don’t really understand what you’re saying,”
“Ah, sorry, sorry. Just a bit of sentimentality. Don’t worry about it too much,”
But then, continuing, Himmel struck a pensive pose, resting his chin in his hand.
“Though, if I look a bit melancholic, won’t I seem even more handsome?”
“How ridiculous,”
“Ahaha,”
And then, with a thud,
the carriage came to a stop.
At that moment, an indescribable sense of loneliness welled up in Frieren’s chest, like the setting sun sinking into the darkness, a feeling that something was ending. As she tried to trace the source of this emotion, Himmel furrowed his brow with a regretful expression.
“Well, I suppose it’s time to get off now.”
Unconsciously, Frieren lightly gripped the hands resting in her lap.
“What are you getting off here for?”
Outside the window, there was only grassland stretching out. The same situation as when she had parted with Flamme in her dream.
“There’s someplace I have to go.”
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