After leaving the City of Magic, they didn't head north right away. Instead, they chose to go east, planning to make a trip to the royal capital.
Along the way, when Frieren woke up, the moment she opened her eyes, she was thoroughly startled by her situation.
After all, she had been sleeping properly in a bed, and suddenly waking up in the middle of the wilderness, floating in midair, anyone would be shocked.
And after learning what had happened, Frieren got angry at Ash again, blaming him for dragging her away while she was asleep, not even letting her see everyone one last time. She even ignored him for the next three days, which left Ash quite helpless.
Still, after swaying along in a carriage and occasionally walking for a while, it took about half a month before they finally arrived at the kingdom's capital.
After all, the two nations were already at war. Frieren urgently wanted to speak with the kingdom's higher-ups, leaving no time to take on commissions. They were completely in travel mode.
"Th-this is… incredible…"
As she stepped into the royal city and walked along its streets, Fern's eyes sparkled with disbelief, as if an unknown world was slowly unfolding before her.
Not only were there three layers of barriers outside the city, even the city gates, carved with intricate and exquisite patterns, were forged from an unknown metal. A faint magical glow flowed across their surface, making them both sturdy and mysterious.
The central square was bustling with people. Towering buildings lined both sides of the streets, with shops everywhere. From refined magic tool stores to pastry shops filled with rich aromas, to markets selling strange beasts, and even libraries packed with magical books. Everything one could imagine was there.
The royal guard patrolled the streets meticulously. Merchants smiled warmly as they called out to customers. From time to time, groups of children could be seen chasing each other and playing. There were even people performing magic by the roadside, or manipulating puppets.
The most outrageous sight, however, was the large number of autonomous golems, working among the crowd, carrying goods and maintaining order.
All of this, something that couldn't be seen in other cities, or even other nations' capitals, made Fern, who had already been amazed upon entering the kingdom, unconsciously tug at Ash's sleeve again.
"So the king here must be a very wise ruler, right?"
"Probably. At least in this capital, the degree to which magic is integrated into daily life is even higher than in the Empire," Frieren observed the cargo-carrying golems and couldn't help showing a surprised expression, "But in just over eighty years, the changes in this country are really… strangely fast."
Frieren's remarks, coming from an elf, sounded quite bizarre to human ears.
Even Ash, standing beside her, couldn't help but remind her, "For you, eighty years might just be the time you spend being a little lazy. But for humans, eighty years is already a long time. That's the result of the combined effort of three, four, even five generations of the kingdom's people."
"Even so, other countries haven't changed much, but this one alone is developing at an unreasonable speed. It even gives me the feeling… that a thousand years of change in human nations doesn't compare to these eighty years."
At first, she thought this should be a good thing. After all, everyone seemed to be living peacefully and contentedly in this country. No matter how you looked at it, that was a good thing.
It even made her want to stay here and live comfortably for a few hundred years. After all, magic was highly developed here, and there were probably plenty of magic books.
But now that she knew, in the war with the Empire, the kingdom had sent a Great Demon to bombard imperial cities, causing them to fall.
And since Great Demons were also present in this kingdom, Frieren couldn't tell whether this rapid development was good or bad, or whether beneath this peace there was actually some enormous hidden crisis.
Perhaps all of this development even relied on demons. After all, demon magic, something like the Golden Land was at least better, it simply couldn't be understood so far. But beyond that, there were many things humans couldn't comprehend at all, with no theoretical foundation.
Just as her master Flamme once said, magic like something out of vague fairy tales, if such special magic that could advance human development existed, it wouldn't be impossible.
Unfortunately, after worrying about it for a while, she had no evidence and didn't know what to say. After adjusting her mood, she looked back at Ash with a faint mischievous smile.
"You're quite familiar with the kingdom's higher-ups, right? Then today we won't stay at an inn. Let's go straight to the royal palace. I wonder if Lord Ash can arrange a guest room for important foreign guests for us?"
"That's no problem," He hesitated slightly, but still nodded in agreement.
The group then walked along the stone-paved road, all the way to the base of the royal palace.
Outside the palace walls, there was still another layer of barrier. At the entrance, groups of guards stood watch, and mages atop the walls closely monitored anyone approaching.
But when the gate guards saw it was Ash, they immediately made way for the three of them. They even welcomed them inside with a respectful attitude and thoughtfully prepared a carriage for them.
"You can just walk straight into the royal palace like this. You really are quite an important figure," As she boarded the carriage, Frieren couldn't help teasing, "Our Lord Ash is really full of naughty secrets~"
"..."
Ash ignored her. Resting his arm on the carriage window, he simply gazed outside at the scenery that was familiar beyond words, completely brushing off her comment.
Frieren, who had been curious about how deeply he had hidden things, found his attitude rather boring. She turned her head to look at Fern.
After thinking for a moment, she decided it was necessary to remind her of something.
"Fern, even though you've always been polite since you were young, I still need to remind you again. When dealing with nobles, especially someone like the king, you must be extremely respectful. Even speaking a little too loudly could be considered disrespectful. In the central lands, that's a capital offense."
"I've heard you mention that before. Didn't Lord Eisen and Lord Himmel almost get sent to the execution platform because of that?"
"Yes. Luckily, that king was in a good mood and let them go," Even now, thinking back on it, Frieren felt a bit emotional. She couldn't help turning her gaze back to Ash and cautiously asked, "The king of this country… has a decent personality, right? Otherwise he couldn't have built the country like this, right?"
"What kind of personality… huh?"
This question, which should have been easy to answer, unexpectedly stumped him. Ash covered his mouth and lowered his head, thinking for a long time before finally squeezing out three words, "Not bad, I guess?"
"Judging by your behavior, this isn't your first time here, right? Why don't you even know what the king is like?"
"Well… uh, actually…"
He didn't know how to explain that he had no interest in the king at all. He didn't even know the current king's name, and almost blurted out that the king was obedient.
Even though that sounded a bit absurd, but who would go out of their way to understand a puppet controlled for generations? Were they that bored?
"What's wrong? You don't actually not know anything about the king, do you?", His suspicious behavior made Frieren wonder if he was just bluffing, pretending to know the king and the kingdom's higher-ups like those people who liked to brag.
But he wasn't the type to brag. And realistically, how could someone who just bragged get through the palace gates?
Because of that, she genuinely couldn't figure out what was going on.
Ash racked his brain, thinking of a reasonable excuse. After a long while, he finally forced out a sentence, "Actually… I've always called the king by his nickname. I really can't remember his real name."
"A nickname?"
The moment he said that, Frieren doubted her ears even more.
She had never heard of anyone daring to call a king by a nickname, except the king's parents. But even they wouldn't use a nickname once their child had become the ruler.
This made her suspect he was joking, or deliberately avoiding the real name just to mess with her.
"Even if you're messing with people, at least make it logical. Who could normally call a king by a nickname? Are you planning to just make one up to fool us? Do you think we wouldn't ask? Although we really wouldn't!"
For the sake of their lives, they definitely wouldn't ask. Frieren stared at him suspiciously and probed, "Then when we meet the king later, would you dare call him by his nickname?"
"If I do, then what?", he asked instinctively.
"If you do, then I'll do whatever you sa—"
"Don't play around! No matter how you look at it, that's a capital offense!"
Fern, who had been quietly listening, finally couldn't take it anymore. She quickly grabbed him and shook her head vigorously, then glared angrily at Frieren, her voice filled with irritation, "Lady Frieren too! What are you even saying? Even jokes have limits! No matter how close you are, what if something like that gets out? People could die!"
"That's true. Sorry…"
Whether she truly admitted fault or was simply intimidated by Fern's pressure, Frieren lowered her head and apologized quietly.
Ash didn't say anything more. With a trace of concern, he inwardly felt relieved that Ubel had already taken on a mission from the Magic Association and gone to the Empire. Otherwise… things would probably get even more troublesome.
For now, he could only think about how to handle things later.
———
When they arrived at the palace, the castle surrounded by an additional outer wall. They stepped off the carriage onto the wide drawbridge outside, just as they entered the outer gate…
Frieren seemed to sense something. She suddenly looked back, then stepped backward a few steps, then stepped forward again. She repeated this several times.
This strange behavior made Fern confused.
"Lady Frieren? What are you doing?"
"There's not just a defensive barrier here. There's also a one-way barrier. The outside can't sense what's inside, and you can't even clearly see the people within."
Frieren stepped back outside again and looked at Fern, who was inside, with confusion.
"How many secrets does this place have? Why would the palace need to set up a separate one-way visibility barrier?"
"Don't tell me you've never encountered this kind of barrier in other palaces?"
"But those are used by kings to indulge in… daytime debauchery on the walls. But this is supposed to be a wise king, right?"
Well-traveled as she was, Frieren had heard of various eccentric hobbies of human nobles. As for kings, they were definitely included among the more perverse nobles.
The existence of a one-way barrier wasn't strange, but usually only strange kings would use them, which made this situation odd.
Because generally, countries that used such barriers wouldn't decline, but they certainly wouldn't progress either, completely different from this country's overall atmosphere.
But before she could continue discussing it with Fern, Fern seemed to think of something. Her face flushed red, and she unconsciously stepped back, very unwilling to enter the palace.
This made Frieren speechless. She turned to Ash instead, hoping for an explanation from someone on the inside.
"What do you want me to say? How would I know the king's interests? Probably for some other purpose," Ash spread his hands, casually brushing off the question.
"If it's not for something strange, then there must be a lot of secrets inside. What exactly is going on with this country?"
Just entering the capital had already brought her plenty of shocks. Now her doubts and questions were nearly overflowing, making her feel uncomfortable if she didn't uncover something.
So she stared at Ash relentlessly, as if she wouldn't let him go unless he said something.
But at that moment, another carriage stopped not far away, and someone stepped out.
That person carried a large wooden crate from the carriage and walked toward the palace entrance, naturally drawing Frieren's attention.
Because the person carrying the goods was a tall, mature woman who gave off a gentle and elegant impression, appearing to be around thirty years old.
Dressed in a black cloak with a hood, she also wore a pendant of the Goddess on her chest.
Although she looked like a noble lady, her strength was unexpectedly great. She carried a crate as tall as a person with one hand, looking quite relaxed.
She didn't pay attention to Frieren. Instead, when she saw Ash, she showed a surprised expression, immediately set down the crate, and knelt on one knee.
"Lord Ash, it is my honor to meet you again at this time."
"Louisa… you're pretty quick," Ash, who had arranged for her to retrieve Lawine's stone statue, hadn't expected to run into her here and found it somewhat amusing.
"Yes. Your command is my mission," The woman called Louisa smiled, placing a hand over her chest and bowing deeply.
This statement made Frieren suspicious. Her gaze unconsciously fell on the sword at Louisa's side as she knelt.
"You're a nun, right? Instead of treating the Goddess's teachings as your mission, you treat someone else's orders as your mission? And, if I remember correctly, that should be Count Taher's family heirloom sword?"
"Lord Ash, who is this person?", Louisa didn't answer Frieren's question. She looked straight at Ash.
"Don't worry about her. Continue your work."
"I understand. Then, excuse me."
Hearing that, Louisa naturally ignored Frieren and walked straight into the palace.
Louisa, who had appeared out of nowhere, soon disappeared from sight carrying what looked like a life-sized figure.
But Frieren's gaze followed her back, and she couldn't help saying, "I'm pretty sure I didn't see it wrong. That really is Count Taher's family heirloom sword."
"So what?"
"If I remember correctly, the year before we went to defeat the Demon King, when we passed through a small country further north on a peninsula, Count Taher once forced us to retrieve that sword. If we couldn't, he would throw us all into prison until we gave in."
"That really does sound like an unreasonably overbearing noble. Though even if the northern nations aren't as barbaric as the central ones, quite a few nobles there are still pretty unreasonable, casually pinning crimes on people," Ash sighed with some feeling, "Even though just two years before that, you sealed the Sage of Corruption, and they didn't show any appreciation."
"Don't change the subject. What I want to say is… the reason that sword is so often lost is because demons keep sneaking inside the barrier to steal it. And the reason they do that is because it originally belonged to a famous demon. In other words…"
"So only demons understand its true value, and they're the ones who would specifically sneak into a lord's mansion to steal it, right?"
"Exactly. So, is that person a demon?"
Finally unable to hold back, Frieren stated it plainly. Her gaze locked onto his eyes, as if trying to see whether he would lie.
But Ash simply smiled helplessly.
"Whether she is or not, what difference does it make? Do you think you can just kill someone inside the royal palace?"
"She's a demon."
"But causing trouble in any country's royal palace is a capital offense," Facing the girl who stubbornly fixated on that identity, Ash could only shake his head, "You understand that, which is why you didn't act, right?"
"I understand. But a country that lets demons act freely is extremely dangerous. And…", Thinking about everything concerning this country, Frieren frowned.
"This country not only cooperates with Great Demons, but also allows ordinary demons to come and go, and even uses magical beasts as tools of war. It's like sitting on top of a volcano. Other countries are one thing, I don't care to interfere, but a country this developed being destroyed like that… even I would find it hard to accept."
"You don't need to worry that much. At least nothing has happened all these years, right?"
"...."
Frieren said nothing, just kept staring at him.
It was clear she had many questions. Ash, feeling a bit troubled, thought for a moment before finally saying, "Anyway… you should go to the annex and rest for now."
[T/N: To Frieren: Mind your own business.]
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