Morning sunlight filtered lazily through the trees, spilling gold across Eisen's little kitchen. The smell of sizzling eggs and fresh bread filled the air, though the source wasn't Eisen—it was Naru, moving with that unhurried but oddly precise manner she always had.
By the time Eisen sat down, she was already setting a tray in front of Frieren. The elf sat there like a dignified queen who had been forcibly stuffed into pajama mode, letting Naru feed her as if she were a toddler incapable of lifting a fork.
"Open, Frieren-sama," Naru said in her usual flat, almost robotic tone, holding a bite of bread toward her.
Frieren obediently leaned forward and bit into it, chewing with the sort of lazy satisfaction only she could pull off.
Eisen sighed deeply, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "She's over a thousand years old, and you're treating her like a spoiled child."
Frieren didn't even look at him—just swallowed her bite and gave the faintest shrug.
Naru, meanwhile, was wiping a crumb from Frieren's lip with a napkin, then calmly lifting a cup to help her drink water.
"Naru will now assist Eisen-sama, if required," the girl said, turning her gaze toward him.
"I'll pass," Eisen said immediately. "I'm not as cheap as Frieren, getting pampered by a young girl."
Frieren gave a lazy, almost smug glance toward him. "Jealous?"
"Hardly," Eisen grunted, though there was an amused twitch at the corner of his mouth. Then his tone shifted, settling into something heavier. "Actually… there's something important I've been meaning to tell you."
"Hmm?" Frieren replied without much urgency, still chewing. Naru was in the middle of dabbing her mouth with the napkin again.
Eisen folded his arms, leaning back. "Heiter and I used to exchange letters regularly. In one of them, he told me about a place he'd discovered."
"Oh?" Frieren asked.
"Voll Basin."
Frieren's movements slowed. She sat straighter, her expression sharpening just slightly. "…How nostalgic."
"You know this place?" Eisen asked.
"A long time ago," Frieren said, her voice quieter now, "my master, Flamme, planted a sapling there. Though… I'm curious what Heiter saw in it."
Eisen nodded. "He thinks it holds something important."
"What is 'it'?" Frieren's gaze narrowed slightly.
"The sapling you mentioned is a tree now," Eisen said. "And that place might contain Flamme's original notes."
Frieren's eyes softened with a faint, thoughtful glimmer. "…Not entirely impossible."
"Then how about a little adventure?" Eisen offered, a spark of challenge in his tone.
Frieren turned her head toward the blonde girl at her side. "Naru, what do you think?"
Naru's blue eyes met hers steadily. "Naru would like to go, 'ttebayo."