"Ash, whatever you do, don't make her angry on the road. I really do prefer a happy Fern."
"That's exactly what I want to say too. From the very beginning, I've never once thought about making Fern angry," Ash looked speechless as he glanced at the elf who was earnestly warning him. But when his gaze shifted to Fern's back, a smile unconsciously appeared again.
"But, growing up really does have its advantages, huh~ Mm, my education was really good."
"You really have no shame. Fern was basically taught by Heiter and me, wasn't she?"
"But I met Fern first, and we lived together for several years."
"You really have the nerve to say that. Those years were basically Fern's nightmare, weren't they?", Frieren shot him a sidelong glance, her eyes full of disgust and obvious displeasure, "And, you even wanted to casually hand Fern off to some random person."
"Don't exaggerate it like that. I was actively looking for someone more suitable than me."
"So you did want to dump her, didn't you?"
"Even if there were indeed some shortcomings, please respect the precious memories between me and Fern. In the end, that wasn't abandoning her, it was trying to find something better."
He tried hard to defend himself, but Frieren coldly delivered another fatal blow.
"Fern said she really hated being alone at home when she was little."
"Uh, that… I'm really sorry… b-but... No matter what, overall there must have been some good influence from me, right?"
"Like being terrifying when she's angry?"
"No, that is absolutely not my fault!"
At first the two of them were chatting quite happily, even sincerely hoping Fern could always stay like this. But somehow, as the conversation went on, it turned into Frieren scolding Ash.
In most other matters, it was usually Ash doing the scolding. Even if Frieren was technically in the right, she could never argue him down. But in this one case, he truly had no defense and carried genuine guilt, to the point that even his excuses sounded weak.
And in the midst of all this, before long the three of them paid to board a carriage that happened to be heading the same way.
Before they knew it, both girls had fallen asleep, unconsciously leaning against Ash.
Fern wasn't just sliding over by accident. She turned sideways and half lay against him.
Despite the bumpy ride, she slept very peacefully, breathing steadily as she leaned on him. The corners of her mouth even curled up slightly, as if she were having a pleasant dream.
On the other side, Frieren, who had tipped over with the jolting and then couldn't be bothered to sit back up, wore a pained, furrowed expression. From time to time, she muttered strange things in her sleep.
"So cold… the north… hate it… I… I don't… want… to go…"
"Still afraid of the cold, just like always."
Her strange murmurs, as if she were struggling in a nightmare, made Ash shake his head with a chuckle.
In reality, their two destinations weren't just in the north. But the entire northern continent, though it made up over half the world's landmass, was mostly highland. And "north" plus "highland" naturally meant that the temperature was much colder than in the south or central regions. On top of that, Frieren was especially sensitive to the cold.
"Poor thing~", He casually rested his left hand on Fern's head and his right on Frieren's, gently stroking their hair. Then he closed his eyes again and began training his magic.
As for national development, which should have been a headache, the nobles and ministers had managed to find some capable people who were willing to devote themselves wholeheartedly. As long as there were no major problems and no wars, things would remain stable for now.
As for those troublesome individuals, he could only wait until the girls settled somewhere temporarily, then make a hurried trip north to deal with them, aiming to resolve each issue within a month each time.
After all, with Frieren and Fern's party, if Frieren was involved, accidentally staying in one place for a year or more was perfectly normal.
Of course, with him around, unless they were going far north, that kind of situation would have to be prevented somehow.
———
The carriage rolled along leisurely, and after two days they arrived at a place called the Riegel Canyon.
As they passed through a village near the canyon, they unexpectedly noticed a stone statue that was clearly of Eisen.
Fern stared at the statue, recalling what the villagers had said when they were buying supplies. She looked utterly incredulous.
"They said Lord Eisen happened to pass by and casually defeated a Solar Dragon. But didn't Lord Eisen say he was already old?"
"Even if he's old, he's not that old," Frieren casually corrected her, showing little interest in the statue or the story behind it.
At that moment, Fern instinctively turned to Ash and asked curiously, "Lord Eisen said you're even stronger now than he was when he was young. So that means, Lord Ash, you could also defeat a dragon using martial arts alone?"
"Well, there are many kinds of dragons. But something relatively weak like a Solar Dragon is pretty easy."
"There are weak dragons too?"
"Because there are plenty of warriors who can defeat a Solar Dragon. It just has decent magic resistance. Aside from that, it only has flight, physical combat, and fire breath. Truly strong dragons are things like the Hell Emperor Dragon. They can breathe fire, have extremely powerful magic, possess reverse detection abilities, and their flight speed is incredibly fast."
He casually gave an example of the strongest and most dangerous type of dragon in the north.
Hearing the name, Frieren couldn't help but sigh, "Hell Emperor Dragons, huh? Solar Dragons have strong magic resistance but are slow and can't use magic. I could try a few times and still deal with one. But if you really run into an Hell Emperor Dragon, it's better to escape immediately. Even Eisen at his peak could only run."
"Are they really that dangerous?"
"Of course. So if you ever encounter one, Fern, you need to focus on escaping immediately, okay?"
"But I can't even tell the difference between the dragons," Frieren's oddly considerate advice only made Fern feel awkward.
Compared to their experience, she was truly just a beginner.
"I knew it…", Ash smiled as he pulled a monster encyclopedia out of their luggage, "At night before bed, Frieren can read you magic history, and I'll read you the monster encyclopedia."
"No! I'm not a child!", His perfectly serious proposal was met with Fern's unhappy protest, "What kind of parent-reading-to-a-child-before-bed scene is that anyway?"
"I don't mind."
"I'm fine with it too."
For some reason, Ash and Frieren once again reached perfect agreement in the strangest way. Fern, who had been in a good mood, immediately turned sulky, completely ignoring them as she strode ahead.
"See, she's sulking again. Your fault, right?", Frieren looked helpless as she casually pinned the blame on him.
That left Ash completely speechless, "My fault?"
"Because even I know Fern doesn't like being treated like a child, even though she really is one."
"Sigh… she used to be so cute…"
"At least on that point, I agree."
The two elders, just like when Fern had been happy earlier, simply followed silently behind the girl they had watched grow up as she sulked, once again reaching strange mutual understanding. Together, they shook their heads, sighed, and reminisced about the past that could never return.
And so, amid laughter and banter, they crossed the canyon and smoothly passed through the final checkpoint connecting the Central Lands, entering the Northern Lands closest to the center.
———
On the morning after they had successfully left the Central Lands, Ash was sitting on a fallen, dead tree trunk training his magic when Fern, who had been cooking breakfast over a pot nearby, suddenly cried out.
"Lord Ash! Lady Frieren got up!"
The rare loss of composure made Ash open his eyes with irritation.
Before he could say anything, Fern rushed over and forcibly dragged him along, saying sternly, "Lord Ash! At times like this, we must properly praise her!"
"Why do I have to do that too? That old— just leave her al—"
He reflexively complained halfway, then suddenly remembered Frieren's taboo and immediately cut himself off, warily glancing at the sleepy-eyed Frieren.
She seemed not to have heard clearly and was still blinking drowsily, which made Ash let out a small sigh of relief. He quickly put on a smile and walked over, smoothly changing the subject.
"Fern's right. Getting up early like this definitely deserves a proper reward," As he spoke, he even acted out of character and gently began rubbing Frieren's shoulders.
Watching him, Fern hesitated as if she wanted to say something, but decided not to expose his guilty behavior. She picked up the vegetable soup she had simmered, and like feeding a small child, blew gently on the spoon before carefully bringing it to Frieren's mouth.
However… After calmly enjoying the service, chewing the vegetables and swallowing the soup, Frieren finally looked up at Ash above her and said flatly, "You… said it again. Add half."
"Ain't I already rubbing your shoulders? And you're adding another half? Aren't you being a bit too vengeful? It's been a thousand years! No matter what, shouldn't it have reset by now?"
"Absolutely not! Because of you, I couldn't sleep properly for half a century."
Even though Ash had apologized long ago, just thinking about it made Frieren's gaze turn dangerous, as if she intended to remember this for her entire life.
He used to joke about her being old, but it had really been a thousand years, and she was still keeping count. Now Ash genuinely wondered if, after another thousand years, she'd still be counting.
He was having a headache over this, but Fern grew curious instead.
"Half a century without proper sleep? Lady Frieren, what are you talking about?"
"Oh, that was a thousand years ago," While enjoying food being delivered straight to her mouth, Frieren asked, "If one day this guy suddenly disappeared, and it happened because he asked you to go out with him, but you wanted to sleep and let him go alone, and then he just vanished from the world for a thousand years… Fern, what would you do?"
"Is that about when Lord Ash was sealed?", Fern answered after imagining it, looking like she'd sink into depression just thinking about it. She then stared seriously at Ash and scolded him, "Lord Ash, please reflect properly! And then apologize properly to Lady Frieren!"
"B-but that was force majeure, wasn't it? And I already apologized so many times!"
The two girls suddenly united against him, making him want to hide behind Frieren just to escape their reproachful stares.
Seeing that he did seem genuinely repentant, Fern didn't push further. Instead, thinking about the keyword "a thousand years," she muttered, "But it really is surprising. The great mage Flamme was basically like a fairy tale. I even doubted whether she really existed. And yet the two people around me both knew her, and knew her well."
"A fairy tale?", That ordinary description made Frieren's expression dim slightly.
"I suppose so. It's been so long. The people who still remember what she looked like are probably just Ash and me."
"No, Serie should remember too."
"Serie? That willful one?"
"Willful? That's true. But she can be quite interesting sometimes."
The two of them slipped into talking about things no one else could understand. Fern gradually stopped feeding her, falling silent as she stared at them, clearly unhappy about being unable to join the conversation.
Despite being very slow on the uptake, Frieren had, over the years, learned to read Fern's expressions alone. She quietly cut off the topic and changed it.
"By the way, the weather's nice today, isn't it?"
"Huh? Ah! Yeah, it does look like it won't rain tomorrow," Ash froze for a moment, then, following Frieren's subtle glance, noticed the odd expression on the child who always took care of them. He nodded along silently.
But their awkward topic change made Fern both annoyed and amused.
"Lady Frieren and Lord Ash… did you two learn how to change the subject from the same teacher?"
"Come to think of it…"
"What?"
Fern stared at Ash without blinking, waiting to see what new diversion tactic he would come up with.
But Frieren rubbed her sleepy eyes, glanced around, and picked up where Ash had left off.
"Come to think of it, we're already in the north, near the heartland of monsters and demons. But there are hardly any monsters around here, and we haven't encountered any demons either, don't you find that strange?"
"I know about that," Fern said instinctively, "I remember the Kingdom of Oisast has been breeding monsters and set up a very large monster breeding zone. They capture large numbers of monsters and pay high prices to buy them alive, so indirectly this area has become much safer, right?"
"Is that so? But even demons won't raise monsters. They don't believe monsters can be tamed. Where does that confidence come from?"
"But isn't that a good thing?", Fern said reflexively, "Everyone's safer."
"But it's not just monsters. Even demons have strangely decreased…"
Once again, Frieren unconsciously linked this to the mastermind behind the demons, frowning as she was about to continue.
Sensing where she was heading, Ash timely changed the subject.
"When I was in the Northern Lands before, I heard that in recent years, monsters and demons have decreased in many countries. But the north hasn't become peaceful. Instead, human conflicts have increased. Deserters, bandits, and the like have grown much more common."
"The Northern Lands were already constantly at war. Without the pressure of demons, are they gradually becoming more like the Southern Lands?"
His words made Fern think of her war-torn homeland, her gaze growing dim.
Seeing this, Frieren's expression immediately turned troubled. Not knowing how to comfort her, she turned and stared silently at Ash, urging him to clean up the mess he'd caused by changing the topic himself.
"Speaking of today's—"
"Pick something else!", Before he could finish, Frieren secretly kicked him. He spread his hands innocently, "I was going to say the weather's nice today, so maybe we should hurry on."
"You might as well talk about the weather."
"Uh…", He pondered for a moment, then suddenly thought of something, "Right, Frieren, are you a first-class mage?"
"A first-class mage? What's that?"
"Fern, you explain."
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