In case something went wrong and the empire pushed back, the magic capital would definitely be the area the empire most wanted to reclaim.
After all, this had originally been imperial territory. There was no way the empire wouldn't want it back.
And once the conflict spread here, the magic capital would likely suffer quite a bit of disaster. Because of that, the entire city was filled with a tense, uneasy atmosphere.
Quite a few people in the city were still stockpiling supplies, but even more who had already prepared earlier chose to stay indoors, pressured by the tension.
So in this dusk, the once-bustling streets actually didn't have many people around.
He walked absentmindedly toward his home, but before he even reached the entrance, he happened to see two girls walking out together.
"Mm," The sight of the two familiar girls made him pause, quietly worrying about what he should say.
"Wow! It's Uncle!", Kanne, with her cute orange twin-tails, froze for a moment, then like a little puppy spotting its owner, rushed toward him with a smile that practically overflowed, grabbing his hand and shaking it nonstop, "You're finally back~ We were really worried about you!"
"Hmph! You didn't even show up for the privilege ceremony. And now you've got the nerve to come back?", The silver-haired girl with long straight hair, Lawine, stood there with her hands on her hips, looking displeased.
"Don't say that. Weren't you the one worrying earlier about whether Uncle ran into trouble, or got killed by imperial assassins? Like that rebellious witch from over twenty years ago?"
Faced with her blunt childhood friend, Kanne looked completely helpless. The example she brought up was something even Ash had heard about.
Of course, Ash knew more than most. Because that rebellious witch was a female elf, an ancient mage who, like Frieren, had obtained the Holy Wand certification.
Those who obtained the Holy Wand certification were also called great mages.
Each one was incredibly powerful, and the only ones who could survive long enough were elves. And as far as he knew, they were all female. Though that didn't include Serie.
But compared to the "legend" details Ash recalled, Lawine, having been exposed by her friend, instantly blushed bright red from embarrassment, stomping her foot in agitation.
"I was not! If you keep talking nonsense, I'll…"
"Alright, alright~ I know you're both good kids, so stop arguing," Even though this was his own doorstep, he could only pat both girls' heads at the same time, trying to calm them down, "Good girl~ good girl~"
"Don't treat me like a kid!", Lawine glared at him angrily, but didn't actually push his hand away. Kanne, on the other hand, narrowed her eyes and smiled happily.
After calming them for a bit, he looked toward his lit-up home not far away and asked curiously, "By the way, did you come over to hang out today too? If you can… could you tell me how the people inside are feeling right now?"
"Yes! Yes! I know!" Kanne raised her hand like she was answering a question. Lawine, meanwhile, showed a gleeful, gloating smile and continued, "Frieren and Fern are both really angry right now. You're done for!"
"Uh… did Ubel and you guys add fuel to the fire or something? That's kind of unfair, isn't it?"
"Ubel took a commission from the association and went to the empire. She also said she'd be back soon and told you to wait here for her."
"I see. Well, let's not worry about her," That strange bit of news bothered him for a moment, but he quickly gave up thinking about that eccentric girl and instead asked, puzzled, "I can understand why Fern is angry, but why is Frieren angry?"
"That…", Lawine's expression suddenly turned strange, making him guess, "Is it because Fern is really angry, so Frieren got angry too?"
"No, no, actually—mmph?", Kanne was about to explain, but Lawine suddenly covered her mouth, then quickly dragged her away toward home. Before leaving, she turned back and gave him a meaningful smile, "You'll find out as soon as you go back~ We're heading home for today."
"It's getting dark. How about I walk you—"
"No need~ No need~ Just hurry back~"
Lawine directly refused his offer and forcibly dragged Kanne away, leaving him standing there in confusion.
Even though he had no idea what had happened, there was nothing he could do but go home and see for himself.
———
Although it had been about a week, the house looked exactly the same as when he left. When he pushed the door open, he saw—
The familiar lazy elf was actually looking dejected while diligently sweeping the floor.
Judging by past experience, it was definitely Fern trying to train her, half-forcing her to do housework.
But when the front door was pushed open from outside, Frieren instinctively looked up.
At first, she thought it was Kanne or Lawine coming back because they forgot something.
But the moment she saw that figure, so familiar it couldn't be more familiar, her expression froze briefly. Then she silently raised the broom in her hand and strode toward him at a quick pace, a faint smile appearing on her face.
"You're finally back, Ash… I've missed you quite a bit these past few days."
"Wait! Stay right there for a second? Can you explain why you're holding that broom up? You look like you're about to hit someone?", Ash instinctively sensed danger and quickly took a few steps back.
"What's the problem? Aren't we friends? You're not going to guard against me, are you? Come here, I'll show you something nice," While emphasizing their friendship, Frieren sped up, not slowing down at all.
"Don't be like this. You're kind of scaring me. If there's something wrong, can we sit down and talk about it properly?"
"No!", Frieren shouted sharply and swung the broom straight at his head.
Walking backward, Ash dodged to the side, spreading his hands helplessly, "So why exactly? If you want to hit me, at least give me a reason, right?"
"You didn't give me a chance to explain, and now you want me to explain?"
"Sorry, what are you talking about? I don't understand at all!"
"That's exactly how I felt not long ago!"
"When did I not give you a chance to explain?"
"It's all your fault I almost got killed! Twice! Twice! Do you know how I feel right now? Every time I see you, I just want to kill you, you troublemaking idiot who keeps dragging me into things!"
———
Ash ran ahead in complete confusion, while Frieren, normally calm, had completely lost her composure, chasing after him with a broom, scolding him as she swung it.
The two of them ran around the courtyard for quite a while. Even Fern heard the noise and opened the door. But after seeing that it was Ash being chased, she ignored his pleas for help, expressionless, and shut the door again, leaving him outside to be hunted down by Frieren with a broom.
"What exactly did I do wrong for you to be this angry?", He leapt up onto the roof in despair. Frieren rolled up her sleeves and shouted from below while waving the broom, "If you've got the guts, don't come down! You did it yourself and you're still pretending you don't know?"
"No, I mean… I might have done some slightly questionable things, but at least tell me which one it was?"
Like some bizarre situation where he'd been chased onto the roof by his mother, he felt completely miserable facing this unexpected development. He even started wondering if she'd somehow discovered that he was a demon.
At that moment, Frieren finally calmed down a little. She slammed the front of the broom onto the ground and looked up at him with obvious dissatisfaction.
"Sense. Lernen… you know these two, right?"
"Of course. But… did they offend you? They're both good kids, unlike you. You must've done something wrong first, right?"
"What good kids? Those two lunatics both tried to kill me!"
"Uh… what? Why?", Frieren's aggrieved yet angry answer left Ash completely baffled. He even wondered if he had misheard.
———
Ash lay on the edge of the roof, listening to Frieren's strange claims from below, feeling like… none of this made any sense at all.
He even felt like he could compete with Harry in terms of being wronged.
In the courtyard, Frieren leaned on her broom and glared up at him, "Stop acting innocent. Think carefully about what nonsense you told them!"
"Did I say something?"
'Did I mess with their relationship? No, three parties?', Ash suddenly started wondering if he had said something bad about Frieren to Sense and Lernen.
But no matter how he thought about it, he had no such memory. He looked down at the broom-wielding girl in confusion.
"I really don't get it. And even if that's the case, that would only be possible if you already had some issues with them, right? If so, how is that my fault?"
"So now you're trying to shift the blame off yourself?"
"You're misunderstanding. What I mean is, if they have issues with you, then shouldn't you go find Serie instead of me? Why are you coming after me? Aren't you just bullying an honest man right now?"
"Honest man? What kind of honest man are you?", Frieren was so angry she almost laughed, "It's clearly your fault, and you're still not admitting it?"
"Then at least tell me what exactly I did wrong!"
"Sense wasn't too affected by you, so she was easier to deal with. But Lernen…", Frieren stared at him with a gloomy expression and let out a long breath.
"In short, for no reason, he said he wanted to leave behind the infamy of killing me, to add another name to Serie's disciples in history. At first I didn't understand what he was trying to do, but after thinking about it, I realized he just doesn't want to be forgotten by Serie."
"Isn't that simple? Just tell him… tell him, um…", At that point, Ash suddenly thought of something, and his expression turned strange.
Seeing that, Frieren narrowed her eyes, "You thought of something, didn't you?"
"No, nothing like that… just explain it to him properly, he'll understand. And you were there when Serie talked about her attitude toward her disciples, weren't you?"
"Yes, I know. I understand that Serie doesn't forget her disciples. I explained that to him too," Thinking back to what she went through the other day, Frieren gritted her teeth, "But! He didn't believe me!"
"Why?"
"He said what I said sounded exactly the same as what you told him to comfort him! In Serie's eyes, Flamme was also a failed work, something she said was just a passing whim. But in reality, every disciple she took on in a moment of impulse, their personalities, their preferred magic, she still remembers them clearly to this day, and has never regretted it."
"R-right, saying it like that… isn't that enough?"
Hearing those oddly familiar words from someone else, just missing a tiny part, Ash agreed, but his gaze couldn't help drifting away.
And the moment he said that, Frieren completely lost control of her emotions. Her agitation shot up on the spot, like her blood pressure was about to explode.
"That's exactly what I said! But it didn't work! That guy didn't believe me at all! At first I thought he didn't trust Serie… but after we fought all the way to the Magic Association and both sides were exhausted, even Serie herself was forced to come out. Only then did I realize, this is all your fault!"
"How could it be…"
"How could it not be! You idiot! If you were going to comfort him, then fine, but why did you add that last part, 'especially me!' and say Serie told you that personally?", At the mention of "especially me," Frieren looked like she was about to grind her teeth to dust.
"What's wrong with that?", Seeing her overwhelming anger, Ash could more or less imagine what had happened. He gave an awkward yet polite smile, his hands gesturing slightly in the air, "I just added a tiny bit of personal flair to the truth. There's no rule saying you can't add a little personal touch when passing on a message, right? Compared to rumors, I was already pretty restrained. Besides… how was I supposed to know he'd do something like that?"
"What tiny bit of personal flair! Because of that 'tiny bit,' no one trusts me at all! They think I'm lying too?"
Frieren, furious, hurled the broom straight at him and even jumped up to engage him in close combat.
That scared him into immediately jumping down from the other side and dashing back into the house, slamming the door shut behind him while Frieren kept banging on it, like a delinquent blocking the entrance, threatening to stay there until he gave her an explanation.
It wasn't until night fell and it was time to eat that Frieren, who had been sitting cross-legged in front of his door blocking him, was temporarily dragged away by Fern.
By then, however… he had already slipped out through the window and escaped.
———
[Sense's House, Inside a Luxurious Bedroom]
The girl who had been elegantly reading suddenly seemed to sense something just as the sun had set and moonlight spread across the ground. She sharply turned her gaze toward the window.
Her overly long hair began to move as if it had a life of its own, ready to act at any moment.
But from below the windowsill, a hand appeared first, waving to show there was no hostility, before a head popped up.
"Lord Ash? There should be a no-fly barrier here. How did you—"
"So I climbed up," Without breaking the no-fly barrier, he said it as if it were obvious, then flipped over the windowsill and sat casually on it.
"Ha!", Sense could only stare blankly, tilting her head, unable to process what she was seeing for a long moment.
Ash didn't wait for her to recover. He reached out, placed a hand on her head, and asked with a hint of helplessness, "Sense, is there something you want to tell me?"
"About what?", Sense blinked slowly, looking confused.
"No, why do you look even more innocent than me?"
"Did I do something?"
"I don't know either. That's why I want to know what you did to Frieren."
"..."
Hearing that, Sense finally seemed to realize something. But she averted her gaze slightly, lowered her head, and fell silent.
Just looking at her gave him a headache. He didn't bother saying anything more and simply started shaking her head with the hand resting on it, making the petite girl sway along with it.
Before long, after being shaken around like a toy, Sense grew dizzy and, with a dazed expression, spoke up on her own to plead:
"W-wait, Lord Ash… even though I did put a hole in Frieren's stomach, I should have already apologized to her, right?"
"But you dragged me into it too! I got chased by Frieren with a broom because of you!"
For a mage like Frieren, getting close to a warrior is dangerous. Getting close to a close-combat mage like Sense is also dangerous. If Sense got close by surprise, he wouldn't be surprised if she could kill Frieren, but…
After a brief complaint, Ash sighed and shook his head helplessly, "Forget it. Just tell me what happened. I believe you're not the kind of bad kid who hurts people for no reason."
"Um…", Now that she had the chance, Sense instead looked troubled, as if she didn't know where to begin.
Ash reached out with both hands and held her face, pulling her closer. Sense looked at him with a conflicted expression, but was forced to realize she had to give an explanation.
However, when the words reached her lips, she suddenly fell silent again. Her eyes flickered, as if searching for the right way to say it.
After struggling for a long time, she lowered her gaze and finally spoke just one sentence:
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