"'Disobedient,' 'cowardly,' 'lazy,' 'sleepy,' 'dishonest,' 'dead fish eyes'..."
"Although I can't refute it, saying it so bluntly is too much."
"Isn't this completely making me sound worthless?"
"So, Flamme, I really can't like Agusheed after all."
"I hate him most in the whole world..."
In the castle under the heavy dusk, dejected Frieren complained while lying in Flamme's arms.
She sulked under Flamme's gentle caressing, letting out muffled hums as she spoke.
The little magic sprout complained to her forever-gentle teacher about her husband,
Completely ignoring that at this distance, Agusheed cooking in the kitchen could easily hear her grumbling.
"Actually, you've done very well, at least no worse than Agusheed's other student."
"It's just that Agusheed probably has greater expectations for you, so that's why he said that..."
Flamme continued patting Frieren's back with a chuckle.
With a gentle tone, she comforted her silly disciple while making excuses for her husband.
But her comfort didn't have much effect; Frieren in her arms remained in no better spirits.
"Greater expectations..."
"In other words, he's thoroughly disappointed with the current me, isn't that right?"
Frieren rubbed her head against Flamme's palm and complained in a somewhat muffled, low voice.
—Although she hadn't received Agusheed's blame, she couldn't feel happy at all.
...No matter how stubborn she acted,
Frieren actually still wanted to be praised by Agusheed.
After all, she had worked hard for so long.
After all, she had been his student for a while...
"Flamme, besides you, has Agusheed never praised anyone?"
Frieren asked in a muffled voice.
The meaning of her question was actually quite obvious—
Agusheed had only interacted with a few people all along.
Besides Flamme and Frieren,
There were almost only that elf who had once traveled with him and his other "disciple."
And Frieren's target in her current words was very clear—
She was simply asking Flamme
What kind of evaluation Agusheed had of his other disciple?
Flamme naturally heard the meaning in Frieren's words.
So after a moment's thought, she gave Frieren an answer based on the past events Agusheed had told her.
"Besides me, Agusheed indeed seems to have never praised anyone else..."
"As for his other disciple, that demon the Demon King forced him to teach—"
"The only answer I got from Agusheed was 'disgusting.'"
Flamme touched Frieren's little head and whispered near her ear:
"So looking at it this way, Frieren is actually Agusheed's favorite disciple..."
Favorite disciple...
Flamme's evaluation against her conscience made the little magic sprout purse her lips.
"Flamme, except for you, Agusheed probably can't be said to like anyone."
"No matter what you say, he'll comply; no matter what you do, he'll accommodate..."
"I always feel that even the tiny bit of concern he has for me is just because he doesn't want to disappoint you."
The white-haired little sprout's precise and self-destructive words left Flamme both troubled and unable to refute.
Because she had once hoped Agusheed could teach Frieren in her place,
So Agusheed would be conscientious and responsible in this matter.
Undeniably—
Agusheed's concern for Frieren undoubtedly came from her.
Perhaps this might gradually change in the future, but at least that's how it was now.
But Flamme couldn't just accept Frieren's words like that.
Otherwise, when this child got sad, she really could cry for three days and nights.
...
"What a troublesome silly disciple."
With an unconscious shake of her head and sigh, Flamme thought about how to cheer up Frieren.
—The thinking didn't last long.
In fact, in just a few short minutes, Flamme had a rough idea.
She picked up a blank sheet of paper from the table beside her,
And casually brought the quill pen from the study over as well.
"Frieren..."
Flamme rubbed the paper and pen in her hands and softly called to the white-haired elf in her arms.
After having Frieren lift her head and turn to sit facing her in her lap,
Meeting Frieren's gaze directly, Flamme began to move the paper and pen.
"'Disobedient,' 'cowardly,' 'lazy,' 'sleepy,' 'dishonest,' 'dead fish eyes'..."
"Really, Flamme, are you going to laugh at me again?"
"Or do you also think I'm this terrible..."
Under the little magic sprout's speechless and disappointed words,
Flamme finished copying the last vocabulary from Agusheed's evaluation—
"Frieren, do you think these words have any special meaning?"
Light red hair fell across Frieren's eyes, and Flamme's words made her contemplate for a while.
"I can't see any special meaning in these words that are all derogatory."
"And I think with Agusheed's personality, there probably isn't any deep meaning in his words either."
The white-haired elf's final answer made Flamme shake her head.
"That's not true..."
She lightly tapped the quill on the paper and softly denied.
Then under Frieren's puzzled gaze, she slowly began to draw.
The text was smudged with ink, gradually becoming blurred and unclear.
The blank spaces on the paper also became fewer and fewer.
And when most of the paper was blackened,
What finally appeared before Frieren's eyes—
Was a short word formed by the final blank space in the center of those blurred, unclear words.
—'Frieren'
"See, when you combine all these words together, isn't it Frieren?"
"Although they're all flaws, Agusheed remembers them clearly, not missing a single one."
Flamme gently rubbed Frieren's face and used her improvised method to deceive:
"So... Agusheed actually really cares about Frieren..."
"This isn't just because of me."
"Mm... if I had to say, it's definitely because Frieren is too cute."
Frieren looked up at her smiling teacher with an expression that said 'guess whether I believe this or not.'
"You just made that up on the spot..."
"And Flamme, even if you call me cute, I won't be happy."
Despite saying this, the pleased expression on Frieren's face couldn't fool anyone.
"But Frieren really is very cute..."
Kneading Frieren's soft cheeks, Flamme continued praising.
Tap tap...
Setting the prepared desserts and meat dishes on the dining table one by one,
Agusheed untied his apron and signaled to his wife and silly disciple that it was time for dinner.
Sitting at the dining table, Agusheed scooped up a spoonful of Mercury Pudding and slowly fed it to Flamme.
Then he looked at Frieren, who was obviously not as angry anymore, and asked his wife with some confusion:
"How did you cheer her up this time?"
He had originally thought that given Frieren's glass heart, she would sulk until at least the day after tomorrow.
He didn't expect Flamme to cheer her up so quickly.
"Really now..."
Slowly swallowing her husband's feeding, Flamme looked helplessly at Agusheed, who didn't understand people's hearts.
"I've said it many times before—just praise this child more..."
...
...
Another brief scene of daily life slowly faded under his observation.
The dream should have continued like this...
But some inexplicable disturbance at this moment disturbed his slumber.
So once again...
He awakened from the beautiful dream.
Once again facing this cruel and lonely world.
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Powerstones?
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