This made Ash certain that this main account was truly ruined.
But even so, he still put down the child in his arms, strode forward, slapped a palm onto Aura's head, made her look straight at him, and said word by word, "I only asked you to find a teacher for this child. Don't push something like this off! Also, I have something to do tomorrow and need to go out for a while. Remember to find a decent teacher, and keep things under control. I probably won't be back for quite some time. After that, the kingdom and Liene will be left to you. Got it?"
"You still don't trust me?"
"It's precisely because it's you that I can't trust you," Even though he didn't trust Aura, he couldn't trust anyone else either. At this moment, all he could do was keep his hand on her head, shake it nonstop for a while, then sigh as if giving up, "But... I'm really counting on you."
"Ash, you're still so naggy. Five hundred years and you haven't changed at all."
"Do you think I wanted to become like this?"
"Could it be not... forget it. I'll handle it properly. Is that good enough?", Aura frowned, but gave up on further arguing.
That actually surprised him a bit. While tidying up her messy hair, he smiled in relief and said, "Aura, you've finally come to understand a little of how I feel as an elder."
"The feeling of bullying your juniors?"
"Don't talk nonsense. When have I ever bullied you?"
"....", Aura didn't speak, only looked at him expressionlessly.
Just that alone forced him to surrender and raise both hands, "Alright, maybe just a tiny bit. But you can't only learn the bad things from me, right? The good parts also should— "
"What are the 'good parts'?"
"Uh... give me a moment to think."
He believed that in the past, he must have had at least a bit of a role model vibe. But suddenly now, he really couldn't think of any.
'It must be because there isn't enough time, right?', With that conviction, he put on an awkward yet polite smile, stood up again, and patted Aura on the head.
"Anyway, it's already very late. You should go to bed early, or you won't grow taller later," After saying that, he turned around and left without any hesitation.
But Aura suddenly reached out and grabbed the corner of his clothes, smiling without warmth, "Don't rush. I'm already five hundred, so it doesn't matter. But aren't you going to talk about what strengths you actually have?"
"Don't force me to hit you before I leave," He wiped the smile off his face, turned back and glared at her. Aura was forced to let go, clicking her tongue unhappily, "Tch! In the end it's still violence."
"As long as there's a result, the process doesn't matter."
"That's usually something a villain would say, right?"
"So noisy. I've got a ton of work to do, I don't have time to bicker with you!"
Not wanting to say another word to this rebellious child, he grabbed Liene, who had been quietly listening to them argue, and quickly left.
Leaving Aura alone, staring at his gradually disappearing back, wearing a malicious smile.
"You're so busy, so eager to be a good king, lacking usable talent, of course you need a loyal executioner! And Liene just happens to be a good kid~ Mm! I'm really so considerate of others~!"
To avoid getting scolded, she decided to complete the task, but not completely.
Get a loyal executioner, but... there was no need to train her in governance or anything. When the time came, she could just say that demons only know how to fight anyway.
———
The next morning—
Already sick of working and wanting to have some fun, Ash left the royal capital without stopping the moment dawn broke.
"Although there's an old elf granny, and I heard there's also someone like a dwarf? But according to the time-honored trope, there should definitely be a beautiful girl hero. A gentle big-sister priestess. And surely even a dwarf loli. This is really something to look forward to," He couldn't help but smile as he muttered to himself, unconsciously quickening his pace.
It wasn't that he was lewd. At least, he thought he was perfectly normal.
It was just that after so many years, forget beautiful girls, he hadn't even had a chance to interact with a proper girl of his age. He really wanted to experience the taste of youth.
So when he left the royal capital, left Aura behind, his mood couldn't have been better. Even his steps became lighter, as if the wind blowing toward him carried the scent of overdue youth.
———
The thought of going back to find Frieren, joining the hero's party, and having some fun together made Ash's heart surge. After arranging the kingdom, even his steps as he left were much faster than when he had come.
After working hard for so long, striving for so long, struggling for so long, he felt that relaxing for a bit wasn't excessive.
After all, there was still plenty waiting ahead. If he didn't play around a bit and worked out every day, he'd start to wonder if he might really turn into a standard demon. Although a standard demon probably wouldn't go work on their own.
But under the influence of that anticipation, the trip there had taken him three months. On the way back, flying at high speed the whole way, it only took him two months.
After asking around a little, he originally thought it would take another month to find Frieren. However, using Frieren herself, that extremely rare and eye-catching elf, as a landmark to ask around, he discovered that the hero's party Frieren had joined had unexpectedly not even left the country where Frieren originally was.
As a result, in just three days, he very easily saw that familiar figure in a village. Though for some reason, Frieren was using magic to help farmers pull out radishes.
That beautiful and petite silver-haired fairy girl, who looked just like a shorty, also quickly noticed him while he was standing there dumbfounded. She unconsciously stopped what she was doing, widened her eyes in surprise, and walked toward him.
"Ash, you... why are you here?", Frieren looked him over in confusion.
"Mm... I heard you finally went out, so I was a bit worried and came to take a look."
He couldn't exactly say that he wanted to see what a classic hero's party was like, right? So he only smiled vaguely, and casually patted Frieren on the head.
"Is that so? Thank you. But I'm fine. You're the one, where did you come from? Where have you been all this time?", She had thought his lifespan was nearing its end, and that they might never meet again in this life. To unexpectedly run into him here made a faint smile appear on Frieren's face.
"Me? Ah~ actually I went to look for a warm, pleasant place."
"To retire?"
"Huh? Retire?"
"That is... I mean, to prepare for retirement in the future," Remembering that he seemed unwilling to mention his age, Frieren stiffly tried to gloss it over.
Normally, Ash wouldn't have been fooled by her, but at the moment he didn't care about that at all. Instead, he curiously looked around, trying to find her interesting teammates.
But he didn't see the imagined group of beautiful girls, lolis, and big sisters. Instead, a young man whose age was hard to judge was walking over.
The man had green hair slicked straight back, wore narrow-framed glasses, and was dressed in a black robe with gold trim, the attire of a priest. While Ash was sizing him up, he walked over.
After also curiously looking Ash over, before Ash could speak, he asked Frieren, "How rare. Frieren, you're actually smiling at someone."
"Just a fri— no," Frieren stopped halfway, then shook her head and carefully chose her words, saying seriously, "Ash is someone I've known for a very long time. A good friend with quite a bit of ill-fated connection."
"Huh? Suddenly so... formal? Are you okay?", Being introduced like this for the first time made Ash feel uncomfortable. He couldn't help reaching out and pressing a hand to her forehead, then, under the girl's displeased gaze, muttered thoughtfully, "Doesn't feel like a fever either..."
"So he's really just an acquaintance, right."
Frieren slapped his hand away and immediately regretted why she had bothered to think so much.
Worrying about hurting feelings at the end with someone this thick-skinned was simply a waste of emotion. That thought made her feel troubled.
"Haha~ looks like you're on good terms!", The bespectacled priest smiled as he looked at him, and couldn't help saying, "But that aside, you really are Frieren's friend... you're very strong."
"Eh, just barely getting by, I guess?"
"No. Your mana is clearly enormous, yet before actually getting close, mana detection can barely sense your existence. Normally, it's completely impossible to achieve this level of mana control."
At the end of his words, the bespectacled priest looked at his face with unconcealed admiration, "Especially since you're still so young. I truly can't imagine what realm you'll reach in the future."
"Is that so? Thanks. You're not bad either. Are human—cough! are countryside priests these days all this strong?"
"Countryside priest?", The bespectacled priest looked surprised. This made Ash suddenly think of a possibility, his expression becoming extremely subtle, "Huh? Could it be..."
"Hmm?", The priest was confused, but quickly thought of something and smiled as he shook his head. "You probably misunderstood. Actually, I'm not from this village. Let me introduce myself. I'm Frieren's companion, one of the hero's party preparing to defeat the Demon King. You can call me Heiter."
"For real?"
"What's wrong? Am I too weak? Don't I seem like it?"
"No, normally shouldn't the priest in a hero's party be female? And a mature big sister type?", Ash blurted out instinctively, wearing an expression of betrayal.
This made Heiter look troubled, "Sorry, normally women can't become priests, right?"
"For real?"
"You didn't know?"
"How could I know? I've never been to a church, let alone become a priest!"
"What exactly did you come here for? If you're fine, hurry up and leave," Frieren felt that just standing next to him was embarrassing, and couldn't help kicking him.
But he felt completely innocent and strongly protested, "No, Frieren! Didn't Flamme say that the priest in a hero's party could only be female? And that it was a time-honored tradition? She even told me to try becoming a hero too!"
"Ah? Um... it does seem like something like that happened?", Frieren recalled something, sighed with one hand on her forehead as if remembering an unbearable past, "But when you left, Master actually mentioned once that she was just trying to lure you into becoming a hero back then."
"Why? I really don't understand. Why would she lie to me like that?"
"Because back then, weren't you very interested in the emperor's consort? You even deliberately climbed over the wall to get in, so she said you must like married women and older sisters."
"Huh?"
A strange misunderstanding, only learned a thousand years later, instantly left Ash completely dumbfounded. He never would have imagined he'd been misunderstood for so many years.
Older sisters aside, but when it came to married women, he absolutely refused.
Frieren's suspicion was practically written all over her face. The way she looked at him even carried a hint of discrimination toward an older-sister married-woman fetishist. This left Ash, who considered himself a boy with perfectly proper tastes (self-defined), unable not to explain.
He even crouched down slightly, pressed a palm onto Frieren's head, and said solemnly:
"No. No matter how many times it takes, I have to make this clear. That really was just getting lost! Don't casually spread nonsense about it in front of others anymore! Otherwise, our friendship will end right here!"
"Getting lost, and you climbed over a wall?"
"I got lost, couldn't find the way, climbed over a wall to get out of trouble, isn't that perfectly reasonable?"
Frieren tilted her head in confusion, while Ash's face was full of seriousness, trying to make her believe in his innocence.
But after all these years, she had never believed that explanation, and naturally she was still full of suspicion now, piercing straight to the point, "Climbing over a wall, straight into someone else's harem?"
"That's a matter of probability, but it's definitely not my fault!"
"...", His overly serious appearance made it hard for Frieren to tell whether he was telling the truth or not. She just felt that...
"Discussing this in public, don't you feel ashamed?"
"Compared to being ashamed, I think I should be angry instead. Why are you randomly exposing my dark history? What if your teammates think I'm some kind of weirdo?"
"What's the problem with that?"
"Of course there's a problem! Because I'm not the kind of person Flamme thought I was. Even without big sisters, I still want to be a hero! So let me join you guys too!", He squeezed out as much righteousness as he could, smiling as he reached a hand toward Frieren.
However, Frieren had no intention of reaching out. She only squinted and kept examining him, "You, you're not up to something strange, are you?"
"You doubt your own friend like this? Don't you know what kind of person I am?"
He said it with great righteousness, but Frieren, who had known him back in the village, couldn't help recalling scenes of him forcing Millie to drink, then dragging herself up and hanging her upside down just to keep her from sleeping.
So now, without even thinking, she rejected him, "Going on an adventure to save humanity, that doesn't seem like something you would do."
"Don't look down on people just because you're short. Even I want to work hard for you once in a while!"
"That sounds nice. Do you believe it yourself?"
"I do. Why wouldn't I? If even I don't believe this, who else would believe me?"
"Perfect. I'm also very curious who would believe that sentence of yours. Say a name and I'll believe it! Don't think, say it right now! Say it!"
═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═
[email protected]/AmbitiousTranslator
🥳Joining P@treon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰 You can access upto 20 advance chapter through P@treon.