The next day, in the forest outside the capital, by a stone arch bridge—
The forest in the early morning was lightly draped in a veil of thin mist. Sunlight filtered through the treetops, scattering mottled and gentle rays of light, and the group stood quietly within it.
When the long-awaited moment of parting finally arrived, Frieren looked toward Ash, the only one who had not stated his destination, and asked with curiosity, "I plan to keep collecting magic like before, traveling around the Central Lands for the next hundred years or so. What about you?"
"Me? Well, I'll go take a look around the Southern Lands, I guess?"
"Is that so? Then... I'll be leaving first?", Frieren nodded slightly and stepped onto the arched stone bridge.
But after only a couple of steps, she turned back again, "I'll come back from time to time. Himmel, Heiter, Eisen, will you still be here by then?"
No one spoke. They simply smiled, nodded, and waved to see her off.
Yet before she even crossed the bridge, she turned back once more, looking at Ash, hesitating as if she wanted to say something, "In fifty years... will you still be here?"
"Life is always full of surprises. As for a future we haven't reached yet, who can say for sure?", He smiled helplessly, then headed off in another direction before Frieren, waving without even turning his head.
"In any case, I'll be going first. If I get the chance, I'll come see you all. Mm. If fate allows it, then we'll meet again."
A faint mix of reluctance and anticipation drifted through the air. Ahead of him, the winding path stretched onward, flowers blooming in abundance on both sides, green grass lush and thick, like nature's most exquisite tapestry.
A gentle breeze brushed past, carrying a barely perceptible chill. It was just the right kind of weather to set out on a new journey.
Frieren stood there for a while, watching him go. Then she nodded to her companions and turned to leave as well. This time, she did not look back again.
"Really... Even in the end, I still can't figure those two out," As Himmel smiled and waved, there seemed to be a hint of regret in his words.
Heiter, wearing a helpless smile, slowly lowered his still-swaying hand.
"Yeah. No idea how long Frieren has actually lived, or where Ash is really from. But if I don't drink myself to death... maybe we'll see each other again in fifty years. And Frieren and Ash both said they'd come back to visit sometimes."
"Ash might be fine, but don't put too much hope in Frieren's 'sometimes.' An elf's sometimes is something even a dwarf might not live long enough to see," Eisen's rough voice came last, and it was still hard to tell what he was feeling.
After the two figures disappeared, a faint sadness slowly melted into the air, lingering around the three of them.
Perhaps they would never meet again. All three of them inevitably had that thought.
But in this era, that was nothing unusual. Regretful, yes... but there was nothing that could be done.
———
After bidding farewell to everyone, Ash flew up into the clouds against the cool morning wind. The direction he actually went was completely opposite of what he had told them. He headed straight north.
For the sake of the future, he worked hard, studying magic with the Sage of Corruption in that manipulated kingdom, and tried to gather more demons to prepare for what was to come.
After that, in his closed-door training, the years passed in the blink of an eye.
Roughly twenty years went by in a flash, and he suddenly noticed that a strange organization had appeared in this world. The Continental Magic Association.
Its headquarters were established in the Holy Capital, while a branch had been set up in the second-largest city of his own kingdom. The City of Magic, Oisast. [T/N: Äußerst (Original), Oisāsuto(Japanese)]
Because it required a large amount of land, it recently wanted to continue expanding. The controlled local lord could not make up his mind and handed the application over to him. It was still sitting right on his desk.
"I heard it's an elf? And even Serie? That has to be someone impersonating her, right?", Looking at the application, and having heard the rumors that the founder was Serie, he could not help but suspect whether it was a friend he knew from the elven village, Millie, or perhaps some other elf pretending to be her.
In his memory, Millie was proficient in plant-based magic. Though it was mainly for brewing alcohol, her magic had not been weak even a thousand years ago. But thinking about it carefully, Millie clearly had little interest in the world or in humans, so it was probably not her.
As for Serie, that was even more impossible.
According to what Frieren had said, in the will that Flamme had asked her to pass along, she hoped that Serie would step out and teach humans.
But back then, that will had almost instantly been reduced to scraps by a scoffing Serie. She had directly refused a thousand years ago, even tearing up her disciple's will. How could she suddenly come out now?
Frieren was also impossible. She did not get along with Serie, would never use Serie's name, and was not someone who would go around founding organizations.
All of this filled him with curiosity, and with the urge to take down an imposter. He personally came to the City of Magic to see who the rumored founder of the Continental Magic Association really was. However...
As the count on the surface, he arrived at the association's reception hall as if no one was there, and without the slightest courtesy, kicked the door open.
BANG!
The wide double doors were already left crooked and half-destroyed as they flew open.
"Let me see just who it i— Uh? No facking way... Is that really Serie?", He had not even finished speaking when his expression froze in an instant.
Inside the Continental Magic Association's branch, in Serie's private reception room, a routine meeting was underway.
But halfway through the meeting, the reception room doors were kicked open.
Everyone turned to look at once. The intruder wore an arrogant, challenger's expression, but... before he could finish speaking, his words suddenly caught in his throat.
Because at the very moment the door was kicked open, this challenger, Ash, saw from afar, at the far end of the room, sitting on a large wooden chair, that short, childlike figure with terrible posture.
It was unmistakably Serie herself.
"Hm?", Serie, who had also been startled by the sound of the door being broken in, raised her eyes. When she noticed Ash's gradually stiffening expression, the corner of her mouth unconsciously lifted, and a broad smile appeared, "Oh~?"
"Sorry, wrong room!"
After a brief moment of blankness, Ash quickly stepped forward, grabbed the damaged door handle, and swiftly pulled the door back into place, straightening it.
Finishing all of this in one smooth motion, he then wore an awkward yet polite smile, nodded slightly to everyone inside, and said, "Please continue. Don't mind me."
As the people in the room were still completely dumbfounded, he casually closed the broken door again.
But just as he turned around, let out a sigh of relief, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, and was about to hurry away—
"Where do you think you're going? My good disciple."
His shoulder was suddenly pressed down, and at an extremely close distance behind him, a familiar voice followed.
"Spatial movement? That's a bit scary," Ash let out a small sigh and patted his face, trying to steady his emotions.
Then he slowly turned around, wearing a smile as if he were meeting her for the first time, looking at the petite figure floating in midair, and said in feigned surprise, "Oh my! Isn't this my respected master, Serie? How long has it been since we last met? A thousand years, right? I never thought I'd see you here. What a coincidence!"
"Tch! You pretentious bastard," Serie clicked her tongue in disdain.
"You think if you act like you just met me and noticed nothing, I'll just pretend nothing happened and let you off?"
"Let me off? What kind of relationship do we even have for you to say that?", He tried to bring up their past relationship, playing the sentimental card.
But Serie responded coldly, "What relationship? A relationship where we haven't seen each other for a thousand years. What else could it be?"
"H-ha ha... That's really hurtful, you know? I've missed you a lot. Every day I—"
"You went a thousand years without a single word."
"Uh, is that really what you care about? That doesn't quite seem like your style..."
"True," Serie nodded thoughtfully, which made him smile along with her, "Then! To celebrate our master and disciple reunion, how about—"
"Don't get ahead of yourself. Since you showed up here, you must have prepared yourself, right?"
"Prepared myself for what?"
"Let me first see just how much you've improved over these thousand years. Then we can talk about compensation."
"Compensation? For the door? That, I can—No, wait!"
His stiff smile faltered as he tried to say something else, but he saw magic gathering between Serie's hands, and cold sweat nearly burst out all over his body.
At that moment, a terrifying smile spread across the ancient elf's face, and then...
BOOM!
The sound of an explosion erupted inside the Magic Association building.
Ash's figure darted through the surging flames. He had no intention of fighting at all. He just wanted to run away first. After all, as long as you're alive, there's always hope.
But the explosions came one after another, with no sign of stopping.
"Don't let anyone get hurt, okay? Otherwise... we'll just keep going."
Along with the warning ringing in his ears, the entire building was almost instantly blown apart, even the outer walls collapsing outward.
The barriers set up around the area offered no resistance at all, easily yielding to the terrifying power.
Yet when everything settled, the situation on the scene was strangely baffling.
Even without counting the smoke and dust, the towering flames had shot up nearly a hundred meters into the air. The impact of such energy should have turned everything within several hundred meters into ruins, creating a horrific disaster.
But in reality, only the inside of the Magic Association was destroyed. The outside was completely untouched.
As an authoritative organization that had gained fame across the entire continent in a short time, such a terrifying attack occurring within the Continental Magic Association was almost impossible.
However... the impossible still happened. And not a single person stepped forward to stop it.
No, anyone who truly had the courage to stand up would probably have been turned into flying chunks of flesh in the next instant.
There were quite a few staff members here, yet the actual number of deaths was zero.
And the number of injured was only one.
Covered in ash and blood, looking utterly miserable, Ash was the sole victim of this incident.
"What kind of karma did I rack up to come to this damn place for no reason?", he muttered, lifting the collapsed wall behind him. This level of violence absolutely counted as abuse.
Unable to help himself, he turned back and looked at the elf strolling over at a leisurely pace, complaining:
"What the hell are you doing? There has to be a limit to everything, right? If it weren't for me, people would already be dead!"
"But no one died, did they? And I did hold back, you know. This counts as a trial for you."
"Your Magic Association is finished, isn't it?"
"It's fine. Isn't this the perfect time for you to compensate?"
"Wait a second? The only thing I broke was a door, right?", He glanced at the Magic Association, now basically a pile of ruins, a bad premonition rising in his heart as he warily looked at the 'girl' stopping in front of him, "You're not thinking of..."
"That's exactly what you think," Serie's smile was dazzlingly bright, making him choke on his words, barely holding back the urge to curse. "No, you, this, I—?"
"It was going to be torn down and expanded anyway. Since you showed up, doesn't that mean there's someone to pay now?"
"But..."
"How about my position, I give it to you?", Without waiting for his refusal, Serie threw out a huge temptation.
"Even though this organization hasn't been around for long, it's pretty decent among human groups. What do you say? Consider it compensation for me accidentally injuring you. I wouldn't entrust my hard work to just anyone."
"No, wait, let me get this straight first..."
After getting beaten up and then suddenly being handed such a strange sweet reward, he was utterly confused. Supporting his forehead with one hand, he stayed silent for a long while before asking suspiciously, You suddenly attack me with violence, then give me all these benefits."
"Think about it. If I suddenly handed this over to you, the people under me wouldn't accept you, right?", Serie spread her hands with a radiant smile, looking like she was doing this all for his sake, patiently guiding him.
"And under normal circumstances, why would I ever lay a hand on you? Without this, how would you show your abilities, and save those people? This is all to pave the way for you. Isn't this exactly what you always called the bond between master and disciple? The organization I created, inherited by you."
"That's not right... Honestly, you just thought it was a hassle, wanted to beat me up to vent, and then dump all the hard work on me, right? And now you're calling it inheritance?"
Ash sorted out his thoughts, wiped the blood and ash from his face, his expression full of gloom. He even asked, genuinely unable to understand, "You clearly hate dealing with this kind of troublesome stuff, so why did you come out at all? After a thousand years, to fulfill a disciple's dying wish? When did you become this gentle?"
"Haha! As expected of you, Ash," Serie shook her head and laughed loudly, "The only one who dares to talk nonsense like that to me is you."
"Nonsense? Is it really nonsense? Clearly—"
"Want to try again?", Serie smiled, but in her eyes flickered an indescribable ferocity.
This forced him to swallow the rest of his words.
"Sorry, I just remembered I still have something to take care of at home. I'll be taking my leave for today, then?", He immediately sprang to his feet from where he had been sitting and pretending to be seriously injured, dusted himself off, and turned to leave without another word.
This time, surprisingly, he was not stopped. But after only walking past a section of broken wall, he saw Serie, who should have been behind him, suddenly standing in front of him, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed, staring at him. It startled him so badly that he instinctively took two steps back.
"Are you a ghost? Appearing out of nowhere without a sound?"
"What's the rush? We haven't seen each other in so long and you're already leaving? That's a bit rude, don't you think?"
"Uh... Actually, I was thinking of going into the city to buy a gift. It's been so long, after all basic manners and all, right?"
"I don't care."
"I care!"
"Bullshit."
"Actually, I've lost a lot of blood and I'm feeling a bit dizzy now. Ah, I can't stand steadily anymore," As he spoke, he swayed and plopped back down onto the ground, once again acting like he was badly injured, clutching his head and saying regretfully, "Sorry, Serie... My body really can't handle it right now. Could you let me go back and rest first, and then we can talk about what happened earlier?"
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