Thinking back on how she had just been treated, she felt that before getting things clear, she had every right to be properly angry, however, with her messy hair, she had only just taken one step forward when the door of the small house behind Ash suddenly opened, and another familiar figure appeared in her sight.
That familiar hunched figure made Frieren forget her anger and gape in shock once again.
"You're kidding, right?"
Heiter, who had rushed out thinking it was Fern and Ash arguing because of the noise outside, also widened his eyes when he saw who it was, "Frieren? You actually came to see me?"
"So you're still alive too, you booze soaked monk."
"Haha! You people really are heartless. You greet me with something like that the moment we meet? Or is it that you want us to die that badly?"
Even though this should have been a moment to get angry, Heiter just laughed heartily and pushed open the door behind him, gesturing for them to come inside to talk.
Frieren, on the other hand, frowned a little uneasily, glanced at Ash, and then defended herself.
"That's not it, but... I kind of wish Ash would hurry up and die already. Every time he's about to die, he survives in some absurd way. That feeling is really weird, and... with that kind of attitude too, even I get a bit pissed."
"I told you, I was worried about your chin."
"That's obviously not it. You definitely just thought it was fun!"
"So you found me out? Somehow... I feel a little shy~"
"Stop acting. How many years do you think I've known you?"
Frieren replied with disgust, but his fake shy head scratching was so nauseating that she could not even be bothered to argue with him. She grabbed her luggage and hurried inside.
It was only then that Fern could not help but curiously ask, "So you really are friends, Lord Ash?"
"What?"
"To make an elf say things like that, it feels like you've really known each other for a long time. So Lord Ash really is over a hundred."
"So you should be gentle with me, you know. I'm old, and if I get too excited I might die early, okay?"
In reality, even a hundred years was nothing to an elf, but even though he was thinking that, he still put on a frail act and had no intention of correcting that misunderstanding.
But his words made Fern show a slightly sulky expression.
"I want to be gentle too, but Lord Ash sometimes does reckless things."
"Yes, yes, my fault, my fault~", Ash casually pinched Fern's cheek and then quickly followed after Frieren.
Leaving Fern alone, who was worrying about how she was supposed to find a balance between being gentle and still being able to keep him from messing around, in this late autumn season, at an age where he was barely holding on, having two old friends appear in his home made Heiter extremely happy.
Even though he was old and his hands shook a little, he still took the initiative to let Ash and Frieren talk first while he went to the kitchen to prepare food and drinks.
Although it might seem a bit improper to make a hundred year old do that, everyone present except Fern was older than him, and they were long past the stage of being polite with each other, so no one fought him over it.
Only Frieren, after putting down her luggage, sat at the dining table with her chin resting on one hand, staring at Ash with an unfriendly gaze, clearly still not over what had just happened.
Fern, on the other hand, took the initiative to bring tea to both her and Ash, then obediently went to the kitchen to help.
That made Frieren glance at the little girl, and she could not help asking, "Who is that child?"
"My great granddaughter."
"Great granddaughter? I see, that makes sense, hm... huh? Wait a second, great granddaughter? Great! Pff! Cough! Cough! Cough! Cough! Cough! Cough! Cough!"
Frieren had just casually picked up her tea, but in the middle of taking a sip, her brain finally processed what he had said. Shocked, she instinctively raised her voice to say something, but in her excitement, the tea went down the wrong pipe.
The bitter tea stimulated her so badly that for the first time in her life, she was so shocked that she actually sprayed it out, painfully pounding her chest and coughing nonstop.
"Oh my, that's really something. I expected you'd be surprised, but... I didn't think you'd actually spray it out~"
In front of the well prepared Ash, a light blue, diamond shaped shield appeared, completely blocking the tea, allowing him to happily sip his drink while enjoying the amusing sight of the elf on the other side struggling in misery after choking on tea.
After calming down from the overwhelming shock for quite a while, Frieren finally recovered, though she was still rubbing her chest, trying to feel better.
Throughout the whole process, her eyes had never once left Ash. She could not hide her shaken astonishment as she said,
"You actually, already have a great granddaughter? When did you get married? Why did none of us know?"
"What's so surprising about that?", Ash asked with an easy smile, "Humans getting married and having children is pretty normal, isn't it?"
"That's true, but... no, wait! Shouldn't I be asking why you never told us?"
"You didn't know? Actually, Fern's grandfather is Heiter."
"Seriously?", The completely unexpected answer was placed before her, and after a long moment of silence, Frieren slammed her hands on the table and leaned forward in shock.
However...
"Don't get so excited. Part of that was just a joke," Feeling that if he kept teasing her, this old elf's blood pressure would get out of control, Ash quietly put a hand on her head and pushed her back to her seat. Then, while she was still stunned, he smiled and said, "Fern is actually an orphan from the wars in the southern lands."
"Huh?", Such a completely different answer made Frieren's face darken instantly, "How is that only partly a joke? That was all..."
"But Heiter really does treat her like a granddaughter."
"No way!", Frieren rejected it without thinking, "Neither of you are the type to go out of your way to help—"
"Her ancestors used to be my subordinates, and also my first friends. I'm not good at raising kids, so I brought her here. They ended up getting along surprisingly well."
"...."
Interrupted mid sentence, Frieren's mind was now in chaos. She wanted to say something, but his sudden information left her not knowing whether she should be angry at him for lying or complain about something first.
Ash, meanwhile, leisurely drank his tea and smiled, "More importantly, what brought you here?"
"I was just going to the Holy City to buy things and happened to pass by here. I remembered that I owed Heiter a lot of favors," Frieren turned to look at the old man who had come out of the kitchen, paused for a moment, then continued, "If you were still alive, I wanted to repay them before you died."
"Hey! Wait a minute. Don't just repay Heiter. What about mine?"
"I don't remember."
"Ahh~ If Millie was still around, she definitely wouldn't say that," He let out a big sigh in a way that said he had chosen his friends poorly.
That made Frieren immediately remember that she had owed him a big favor even a thousand years ago. Because they were so close, they often fought, and she really had not thought about it just now.
Now, although she had to admit that she owed Ash even more, his attitude still made her narrow her eyes in annoyance.
"I was planning to repay it, but right now you should just be glad I'm not beating you up."
"Hehe~ You two have always gotten along so well," Sensing they were about to start arguing, Heiter quietly sat down between them, deep wrinkles on his cheeks, smiling gently, "It's really enviable."
"Not at all. It's just a cursed relationship," Frieren turned her face away, not wanting to deal with them.
"A cursed relationship is fine too. But speaking of which...", Heiter did not mind, and after glancing at Fern in the kitchen peeling potatoes obediently, he looked back at Ash. Remembering the tactic that had worked last time, a meaningful smile appeared on his face.
Without a word, Ash understood what he meant and nodded slightly.
So the two of them stood up at the same time, leaving Frieren confused.
"What is it?"
"Come over for a moment."
"There's something we want to ask of you."
Ash and Heiter spoke in perfect sync, one after the other.
That level of coordination made Frieren feel a bit of goosebumps, along with a very strong sense of foreboding. After all, these two could be said to be the weirdest people in the party.
But she did not think they would actually harm her, so after hesitating a little, she followed them into the room Ash was staying in.
"This is the grimoire of the sage Evisch," Ash handed her the book on the table, while Heiter smiled and continued, "It records the lost magic of resurrecting the dead and immortality."
"I've heard a lot of rumors about that kind of magic, but... does it really exist?", Frieren, just like Ash, was skeptical about magic that granted immortality.
She opened the book and took a quick look, seeing only dense, complex diagrams and some marks that looked like dye or stains. That made her nod slightly.
"Coded script using diagrams? People of that era really loved this kind of encryption. But this..."
"My request is that you help us decipher this book," Heiter said with a smile.
"And while you're at it, I'd like you to help teach Fern magic."
Ash's magic had basically all been modified by himself to suit demon casting methods, so it was not suitable for teaching humans.
Even though he had tried teaching a bit, it felt awkward, so he had given up.
After all, Schlacht had also told him not to teach others the future magic he had taught him. He also had to worry that if he got confused and taught it wrong, it might interfere with the future and deviate from Schlacht's best outcome, which would be troublesome.
Facing these two scheming old men, Frieren did not think that far. Flipping through the book casually, she nodded and said,
"That's not a big problem. It should be solved in five or six years. But are you two actually afraid of death?"
"Who isn't afraid of death?", Heiter calmly turned his back, avoiding showing anything on his face, and slowly said, "I just didn't show it before because I wanted to show off in front of you. But now, the closer I get to death, the more afraid I am than before. Of course, I only want to buy a little more time. It's not like I'm seeking immortality."
"For that child?"
"Of course. And the scriptures also say to live healthily, and long life is the height of health."
"Booze soaked monk, you really have the nerve to say that."
"Haha~ Ash said something similar earlier. You two really aren't very kind to this old man," Heiter did not mind and laughed as he left.
Frieren, holding the book, turned to Ash in confusion, "What's your reason? Are you afraid of death too?"
"Of course. What human isn't afraid of death?"
"Is that so? Then do your best to live until I finish deciphering it," Frieren nodded slightly, then gently stroked the grimoire, a hint of gloom appearing on her face as she added, "But you two shouldn't get your hopes up too much. I don't think that kind of magic really exists."
"It's fine. No matter what the result is, we won't blame you. And during this time, we'll be counting on you to take care of Fern."
"That's no problem. I mean, could you stop touching my head all the time? You're really annoying."
She had just nodded in agreement when he put his hand on her head. Feeling dissatisfied, Frieren slapped his hand away, just as she said she was annoyed by his habit.
But as she watched him leave and saw the door close, she could not help feeling a little lonely inside.
Millie had gone somewhere. Maybe she was dead. Maybe they would never meet again.
So after her master passed away, among the friends left from a thousand years ago, there was only this one.
If suddenly there was no one left to annoy her like this, no one left to touch her head. At first that sounded nice, but when she thought about it seriously, Frieren felt an indescribable sense of emptiness.
.
.
.
And while this "old elf girl" was sitting alone in the room feeling sad, on the other side...
Outside the house, the two old men silently raised their hands and high fived.
"Want a drink?", Ash lifted the bottle, and after hesitating for a moment, Heiter raised his cup.
"Yeah... just a little."
Not only were they high fiving to celebrate, they even decided to have a small drink to celebrate how smoothly the plan had gone.
Of course, it was not that they were immoral and deliberately deceiving their old friend.
It was just that if they had straightforwardly asked Frieren to teach a student, she definitely would not have agreed. Past examples were enough to prove that.
Although it might seem a bit too much to scheme against Frieren and leave her here to teach Fern, it was not really that excessive.
Five or six years was a long time for humans, but for Frieren, just like she herself had said before, teaching a student could be over in the blink of an eye, even if they died. For her, this amount of time would pass just by being a little lazy.
As an apology, Heiter made dinner more lavish than ever, though it might also have been because he was happy to have an old friend visit.
———
Frieren unexpectedly kept her promise and taught Fern with all her heart. With such a teacher far better than any academy, Fern studied diligently as well.
Ash, on the other hand, was completely freed up. From time to time, he would run off to the north and disappear for a month or two, then come back as if nothing had happened.
He disappeared like that now and then, without telling anyone in much detail, but they all tacitly chose not to ask.
Another winter arrived quickly. Frieren, who hated the cold, had no intention of going out in this weather and just stayed by the fireplace.
Ash had just come back from outside and, out of habit, tried to pull Fern onto his lap to use her as a heater, but Fern, who was handing him hot tea, shyly shrank back and dodged him in strong refusal.
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