"Is that a declaration of love?" she asked back, tilting her head with genuine curiosity.
"Whaa?"
My brain short-circuited for a solid second.
Heiter burst out laughing before I could recover. "Alright, alright, let's get on with the mission. Eisen should be waiting for us already. I'm guessing Frieren was with him earlier and came to meet up with us?"
Frieren's eyes widened slightly. "Ah, yes. How could I forget."
She quickly grabbed her magic staff and hurried forward with surprising urgency. "I hope he hasn't left yet."
Heiter shook his head with confidence. "Not happening. He's a very patient man."
We walked for about five minutes before spotting Eisen standing in the clearing ahead of us. He held a massive axe planted into the ground beside him, his posture calm and unmoving, like he had been standing there for hours just enjoying the silence.
"Gojo," he said as we approached, "did you oversleep?"
"Slightly so," I replied casually, a grin forming on my face.
"Well, don't worry," Eisen said, nodding toward Frieren. "This elf over here is a nightmare to wake up. I've grown used to waiting."
"Ahh, nostalgic feelings, huh?" I said.
"Pffft, oh yeah," Heiter laughed. "Frieren was such a headache during that journey. Remember when she got stuck inside the mouth of a mimic?"
"Or all those times she made us wait in nameless villages just to collect useless spells," Eisen added calmly. "Himmel had to convince her every time that it was not worth it."
"Oh wow," I said, eyes widening. "I'm really missing out on a lot of lore, aren't I?"
"But don't worry," I continued. "If I ever tell any stories about you guys, I'll make sure to get them straight from Heiter and Eisen."
Frieren's face turned bright red almost instantly. "Please do not listen to these two."
"Right, right," I said seriously. "I'll just quietly take notes while they talk about the time you got stuck in a mimic."
Wait.
Hold on.
"What even is a mimic?"
I turned toward Eisen. "Can I ask a question?"
"Yes," he replied without hesitation.
"What is a mimic?"
Everyone stared at me.
"You really are a strange one," Heiter said. "Mimics are one of the most well known monsters. They are even used in bedtime stories to scare children."
"Ehh? I didn't know that," I replied. "But please explain. I'm curious."
"Mimics are a strange type of monster," Heiter said, thinking for a moment. "They disguise themselves as objects. Most commonly treasure chests in dungeons."
Ahhh. I see.
So that was a mimic. The name was not very creative. I would have gone with something like Imitator. Not much better, but still.
"The thing is," Eisen continued, "they are actually easy to identify once you know the tricks. But Frieren here has been caught by mimics at least three hundred times during our journey."
Frieren snapped back instantly. "That is a lie. I may have been caught once or twice, but hundreds is an exaggeration. Satoru, you believe me, right?"
I nodded seriously. "Of course. I'll make sure to tell my future kids that mimics are the greatest weakness of the hero party's mage, Frieren the Slayer."
She let out a long sigh. "There is no winning with you, is there?"
Absolutely not.
"Well, we can always talk about this later, or never preferably," she replied calmly, "but right now we have something to get on with. Also, I am still waiting for the spell you promised me."
I was finished.
Not in the dramatic sense where someone dies or the world ends, but in the much worse way where expectations had been set and I had absolutely nothing concrete to show for it. I had stayed up the entire night scribbling theories, formulas, diagrams, and half baked magical frameworks that looked impressive on paper and accomplished nothing in reality. What I had was not a spell.
I had essentially created Sukuna's shrine but using magic and I had not been able to use it effectively yet
I had understood everything and all, I mean it was pretty easy when I was already used to dealing with stuff on a molecular level. With my perception and processing power, I could see how it might function. The problem was not understanding it..
The problem was teaching it, that was an entirely new problem.
As I said previously, using magic wasn't entirely hard for me but it was hard for others, what I saw as extremely easy they probably saw as extremely hard.
"Suffering from success," I sighed out.
And then there was Frieren.
She was an absurdly skilled mage, possibly the most skilled in existence, but explaining atomic structures to someone who had never even conceptualized atoms felt like trying to explain the internet to a medieval knight using only interpretive dance. Even if I somehow succeeded, the result would be unusable without my perception. It was virtually impossible.
I did not want to scam her. I mean I did promise her.
I also really did not want to disappoint her, which somehow felt worse.
Throwing out a simple flame spell would be insulting. Showing off Limitless directly was out of the question since she would immediately notice that I was not using magic at all. This was Frieren we were talking about. Any decent mage would be able to sense that magic wasn't being used, or at least I think they would be able to..
I stood there silently, staring into the middle distance, running calculations and escape routes in my head, when a hand waved directly in front of my face.
"Hey. Snap out of it. Hello?" Heiter called out, leaning closer with concern. "Focus. We are discussing something important now," he added warmly.
Right.
The demon infested death zone.
A very small minor detail.
I straightened up, cleared my throat, and smiled confidently, because if there was one thing I was good at besides bending reality, it was pretending I knew exactly what I was doing.
"Yeah yeah, got it," I said. "Tell me where the prey is."