"Eh? Wait!"
Before Frieren could even refuse, Ash, who had outright given up on explaining anything, reached out and grabbed her ankle, forcibly dragging her off the bed.
Just like that, he skillfully hoisted her upside down and walked outside on his own.
In the past two years, Ash had done this at least five times. Even though this was the first time she was being carried out of the room like this, Frieren still only wore a numb, drained expression.
Under Milli's repeated and stern demands in the past, she covered her skirt as best she could while also glaring up at him from below, dissatisfaction written all over her face.
"This is what they call se×ual hara$sment, right?"
"I'm not interested in kids."
"I'm an elder, you know?"
"I'm not interested in old ladies either."
"Old lady? That's the second time now."
At first, Frieren hadn't really cared, but hearing that word seemed to cause a subtle change in her expression, as if she were jotting it down in some little mental notebook.
Ash, however, didn't look at her at all. He simply scanned their surroundings.
"Be quiet. Listen carefully. Don't you notice something off?"
"The most off thing about this village is you, isn't it? Put me down already. Do you even know what time it is?", Still with her head facing the ground, Frieren looked around and didn't notice anything strange. In irritation, she even kicked at his wrist.
That made him let go without hesitation.
With a thud, Frieren's head hit the ground. She immediately clutched her head in pain and cried out.
"That hurts! You actually dared to do that! I've already—Mmph?"
"Quiet."
Before she could finish complaining, he shoved his hand straight into her mouth, instantly shutting her down.
Caught completely off guard, she even forgot about the pain. She just stared blankly, mouth open, at the bastard who had shoved his fingers into her mouth.
But it was at that moment, amid the silence neither of them was making, that she finally noticed how much quieter the surroundings were compared to usual.
In a forest village like this, the absence of insect chirps and bird calls at night was extremely rare for Frieren.
So even though she had grown up in this overly peaceful, remote village far from any conflict, she finally sensed that something was wrong. She immediately pulled his fingers out of her mouth and cautiously observed their surroundings.
"What's going on?"
"I don't know. There should be enemies lying in ambush nearby."
"They're here to catch you?"
"Me?", Suddenly having the blame shoved onto him, he pointed at himself in confusion.
Frieren asked expressionlessly, "Aren't you a deserter general?"
"That's true, but if they wanted to catch me, it's still about five hundred years too early."
"What do you mean, five hundred years too early?"
"More importantly, do you have any ideas? This should be your people's problem, right?"
"None at all."
Having never left the village, Frieren couldn't think of any reason it would be attacked. After all, the village hadn't suffered any attacks for so many years.
One could even say that given the elves' temperament, they were unlikely to offend anyone outside, which was why the village had been able to persist until now.
And precisely because of that calm, non-meddling disposition, it really could be considered one of the elves' secrets to longevity. Which meant—
"So it really is you?", After thinking it over and still coming up with nothing, Frieren suddenly turned back to him, "Why don't you just be honest, go apologize, and admit your fault?"
"Did I do something?"
"In this entire village, the only one who would go around causing trouble is you."
"The country I deserted is very far from here. It can't be them. And on the way here, at most I just freeloaded a bit. I didn't do anything else."
"Freeloaded?"
"Not working, eating the food of elders at home."
"You even do something like that?"
After elves came of age, they all lived independently. Frieren found his freeloading utterly distasteful and even couldn't help suspecting, "So… your family elders have come knocking now?"
"I don't think that's likely. Stop slinging mud at me for no reason. It's more likely your people did something, right?"
"But we shouldn't have offended anyone."
"Really?"
"If we were all like you, there's no way we'd live this long, right?", Frieren kept her guard up while scanning the area, then shot him an annoyed glance.
Ash, however, was unconcerned, "Who knows? Someone as lazy as you might make enemies too."
"Other than you, I can't think of anyone who would hold a grudge against me."
"That's great. But more importantly, shouldn't we think about how to deal with the current situation first?"
"I don't think we need to. After all, they're already coming out."
Just as the two of them were talking, the strange figures hidden around the village, or rather, demons, abandoned the idea of a surprise attack for some reason and instead walked out openly from all directions.
They had originally been silently flooding into the village from all sides, but upon noticing that the two at the center were mages, the group of demons stepped out brazenly, no longer hiding their presence at all.
Leading them was not a mage, but a warrior clad in heavy armor, wielding a massive greatsword, with two enormous demonic horns growing from his head.
Being suddenly surrounded by a group of demons instantly put both Ash and Frieren on high alert. Even the sleeping elves in the village sensed these intruders who were openly flaunting their presence without any attempt at concealment.
"This is bad, wouldn't it be better to run right now?", Sensing that the leading demon warrior was quite formidable, Ash had already begun thinking about how to escape.
Hearing that, Frieren turned and glared at him, "So it really is trouble you brought?"
"No, I don't know. It shouldn't be," It really shouldn't have been. After all, he had mostly been in the southern kingdoms before and hardly ever encountered demons.
But if it was about making enemies, elves didn't really seem the type either. Could it be humans hiring demons to kill? Or demons discovering that he was freelancing around, unwilling to submit to the Demon King, and wanting to kill him? But how many proper demons would voluntarily go serve the Demon King anyway?
His strained expression as he tried to recall things made Frieren even more suspicious.
"So it is you?"
"Huh? N-no, probably not?", Even Ash himself wasn't very sure anymore.
At that moment, the demon heavy-armored warrior standing over five meters tall, with a blade larger than a person, Demon General, Basalt the Throne, spoke in a booming voice.
"Human mage, this matter has nothing to do with you!"
"Huh? It's not my problem?", Even Ash was surprised to hear that.
Basalt looked impatient, "The Demon King's order is to wipe out the elves. Your life is of no concern."
"Is that so? Then thank you very much," Ash looked at Frieren in delight and said happily, "See? It's not me. It's your problem."
"Deserter, if you're leaving, then leave already. Don't embarrass yourself here," Frieren didn't want to deal with him at all. She stared intently at Basalt.
"That's a bit harsh. Is that really the kind of person I am in your eyes?"
"We've only known each other for so long. How would I know what kind of person you are?"
"Wait,it's been TWO years already."
"Only "two" years, right?"
"What do I do? I guess I should really just leave on my own at this point."
Her matter-of-fact words made him cover his face and look back at the demon general Basalt, who was holding the massive sword.
Basalt also looked impatient now, "Have you decided? Are you staying or leaving? Choose for yourselves."
If not for the mission at hand and the need to conserve stamina, Basalt would have already cut them down.
"Sigh! Fine! Fine! I'm different from these cold-blooded elves. I've lived here for two years. I've developed at least some feelings."
"Is that so? Then—KILL THEM!", A cold gleam flashed in Basalt's eyes as he raised the massive blade without hesitation.
The surrounding demons immediately moved, either casting magic or charging forward with their weapons.
The villagers who had been awakened were also hastily readying weapons or attempting to counterattack with magic.
At that moment, Ash drew the military knife he carried with him and stepped forward.
"I'll take care of the big guy. You handle the rest yourselves."
"Is that so? Thanks, that helps a lot," Frieren sounded a bit surprised, but she still silently raised her hand.
In an instant, multicolored lights illuminated the entire village.
"Foolish. Truly foolish," Basalt looked at the boy approaching at an unhurried pace, at the blade in his hand, and a look of contempt appeared beneath his mask, "A mage trying to fight a warrior with a weapon? Seeking death?"
"No, you've misunderstood. This is for harvesting lives after I use magic. So for now, I've named it Reaper Number Seven."
"What are you even talking about?"
"Don't worry about it. This will be over soon."
"You! Are you looking down on me?"
Though he wasn't particularly famous among the many generals, and his strength wasn't outstanding either, he was still a general. Being treated this way in a village made Basalt's anger flare instantly.
"That's not it. It's just because—"
"DIE!"
Ash's utterly untense voice made Basalt unwilling to listen any further. Driven by his surging rage, he raised the greatsword and smashed it down at him.
The massive blade tore through the air with a howling roar.
Ash showed no fear at all. Ignoring the enormous difference in their sizes, he swung his blade upward in a rising slash, putting all his strength into meeting the attack head-on.
BANG!
The two weapons collided violently, sparks bursting out in an instant.
Unable to withstand the tremendous force, Ash's body slid backward uncontrollably. His legs carved two trenches several meters long into the ground.
'The conversion worked very well. But even after converting into a warrior, directly clashing with a monster like this really isn't wise.'
Muttering to himself, he stared at the hand gripping his military knife. To test the mythic-era great demon magic he temporarily called "Reaper Mode," which converted him into a warrior form.
Blood was already flowing freely from the web of his hand.
In this world, the difference between mages and warriors was simply whether they used magic to strengthen their bodies or to attack enemies. In theory, this conversion should have made him a perfect warrior. But still, he was no match for his opponent.
Basalt didn't understand any of this. Though he had instinctively stepped back half a step, seeing this scene felt like an immense humiliation to him.
"Just a human… just a mage!"
With a roar, Basalt went all out. The greatsword whipped up roaring winds in midair, tracing an arc as it cleaved straight toward Ash's head, intent on splitting him in two.
But Ash didn't dodge or retreat. He slammed one foot down hard.
The ground shook violently. Purple gravity lightning burst outward.
Within a six-meter radius, the land shattered with a thunderous crash, as if an invisible massive weight had slammed down.
The greatsword's trajectory entering that range was forced off course. It grazed his clothing by a hair's breadth before crashing into the ground like a heavy cannon.
BOOM!
Already overwhelmed, the earth completely collapsed in that instant.
The greatsword, larger than Ash himself, crashed down, and under the effect of abnormal gravity, the ground trembled and split apart.
Though the dust kicked up behaved strangely due to the abnormal gravity, shards of stone still blasted outward, some even striking Ash and making him wince in pain.
This scene was witnessed by Milli, who had just rushed out of her house. She had originally been worried that he would be easily killed, but now she saw this awe-inspiring sight.
Ash's past seriousness and diligence in studying magic, and the trust he displayed now, made even her, an elf, feel admiration.
It was precisely this spirit of relentless study that gave him the leeway and confidence today to cast this strange magic while maintaining absolute faith in his own magic. Even knowing that the slightest slip could get him cleaved in two, he didn't retreat a single step.
At least, that was how it looked to her.
In reality, no one noticed the cold sweat sliding down from Ash's temple, nor that his body had stiffened slightly.
In truth, it wasn't that he didn't want to retreat. It was that this was his first time using in actual combat the gravity lightning he had painstakingly developed by combining mythic-era gravity magic.
The result was that he had stomped too hard. His foot was driven straight into the ground, but his body hadn't fully adjusted yet.
He couldn't pull it out at all.
After all, ground compressed by gravity like this was even sturdier than concrete. The fact that his foot hadn't been crushed was already proof of his strong physique.
Fortunately… as his body tilted backward, his head narrowly avoided an ending like a summer watermelon.
[🎉 Shoutout to Kaustup, Gonzalo, Tiago and Roger for joining patreon. Thank you very much.🤗]