Solitar's strange, long-term planning, the way she spoke that felt completely unlike a demon and more like a human, left Ash stunned, and Frieren even more dumbfounded.
But Solitar completely ignored the two of them being at a loss. She clasped her hands together in front of her chest, gently swaying her head as she enthusiastically explained, "Of course, this might take some time. After all, we're both Great Demons, so the difficulty should be higher than for ordinary demons. So we can take fifty years and work hard to create the first—"
"Alright, you should shut up now."
The overly unrealistic plan made Ash step forward quickly, sighing as he pressed down on Solitar's head, stopping her from saying anything even more bizarre that might land him in trouble.
But the way Frieren looked at him now was extremely strange, forcing him to explain, "Don't get the wrong idea. That's just her one-sided nonsense. I personally don't have any plans like that for now."
"'For now' huh? So you just need some time to prepare? I understand~", Solitar didn't seem to notice Ash's frustration. She stood on her tiptoes and gently patted his head, smiling warmly, "Ah, ah~ I get it. You're still young, and I don't have any experience in that area either, so before that, we definitely need to get used to each other first."
"No, no... wait, my head's getting messy now... how exactly do you 'get used to each other' for something like that?"
Feeling like her mind was about to go blank, Frieren unconsciously asked Solitar a strange question after a long daze.
But the moment she said it, her expression twisted like she'd swallowed a fly.
Even she hadn't expected that one day she would be asking a demon about something like this. After all, normal demons were like elves, no one would teach them this kind of thing, right?
But Solitar, who had a deep understanding of humans, smiled like a patient teacher and said, "Well... I'm not entirely sure either, but probably like humans. Get closer, have some physical contact, and that should be about it?"
"I shouldn't have asked you. I should ask Fe—no, can I even ask Fern?"
Even as Frieren said it, she sounded unsure.
After all, Fern didn't seem like she had anyone to teach her either.
Frieren herself didn't understand, so she never talked about it. Heiter was a more upright priest than Sein and genuinely kept away from women, so he wouldn't talk about it either.
So if Fern knew anything, there was only one possible suspect.
"Beast!", The moment she thought of Ash teaching Fern that kind of thing, Frieren instinctively turned and shot him a cold glare, her voice full of disgust.
"Huh?", That came completely out of nowhere. Ash felt like he'd been hit by a stray bullet while lying down, his face full of confusion, "Wait... I was just standing here, I didn't even say anything, and I haven't done anything either, right?"
"Anyway, if Fern turns into a bad kid, it'll definitely be your fault."
"What are you even talking about all of a sudden?"
"You've seen Fern's body, haven't you?"
"I've seen it?"
"Pervert."
"Hey, back then Fern wasn't even as tall as you! She couldn't do anything by herself, so I had to help her, didn't I? How is that being a beast? I was being completely upright, alright!"
The topic somehow derailed, and Ash ended up arguing with Frieren, his face full of dark lines. In the end, he couldn't be bothered dealing with this elf who was thinking who-knows-what anymore, so he gave her a knock on the head and left, dragging Solitar along.
Frieren was left behind alone, holding her head. Only after a while did she realize, she had forgotten to confirm things with Fern before accusing him.
After Ash walked far away, Frieren was still crouching on the ground, gloomily holding her head and easing the pain.
After a long while, she finally stood up, already deciding that once she got back, she would complain to Fern.
But just as she turned back toward the house, planning to rest for a bit, she suddenly seemed to remember something and lightly tapped her palm, "Wait, I almost forgot. Before talking about Ash, I should ask whether Fern even understands this. But what should I do? If I, as the older one, suddenly ask something like this, won't my image in Fern's mind completely collapse?"
Frieren, completely lacking self-awareness, wanted to confirm the situation, but couldn't help stroking her chin and frowning, caught in a dilemma between "her own image" and "Ash's innocence."
It didn't feel right to wrongly accuse Ash, but she couldn't be entirely blamed either, right? And besides...
"Would anyone normally just hit a girl like that? Couldn't he just talk it out? No matter how you look at it, that's too much. And that demon girl didn't look like a good person either... and he's even associating with that kind of demon."
Muttering under her breath while rubbing her head, Frieren looked especially displeased.
If she weren't worried that going there as a "human" might provoke Macht and trigger a conflict, she would have already followed them to see what was going on.
And thinking about Solitar's existence, she strangely began to understand how Aura had felt that day.
Even though, just like Aura, she had no idea what this feeling actually was.
———
On the other side, with the authority Denken transferred to him, Ash easily passed through the great barrier of the Golden Land with Solitar.
The pale moonlight illuminated the golden ground, the air around them was cool and still, and everything was silent.
In such an atmosphere, the two walked along the golden road, yet there was unexpectedly no sense of romance at all.
After all, Ash felt that the whole situation was strange, and he himself felt wronged, while Frieren had been even stranger.
Though Frieren was usually a bit strange anyway, today she was even more so than usual, and he had personally experienced what it meant to get hit by a stray bullet.
As for Solitar, who always said strange things, he was more or less used to it.
Though just thinking about getting used to it made him feel uncomfortable in return, and he wasn't exactly happy about it either.
Still, when he seriously thought back to what Solitar had said earlier, he suddenly stopped and turned around:
"Wait, something's not right!"
"What's not right?", Solitar smiled curiously.
"Even though it's kind of weird to complain about it now, I still want to say... you're over a thousand years old, and you're only 'about' at the age to get married and have kids? Aren't you maturing way too late?"
As he said that, his gaze unconsciously fell on Solitar's chest, which was about on par with Frieren's, completely unremarkable.
He couldn't help wondering if there was even any chance for it to "mature" again.
'Or maybe demons don't breastfeed, so they don't need to develop in that area... but isn't Aura pretty well-developed?'
Although she was about the same height as Frieren, there were also those with good figures and tall builds, even if their combat ability wasn't great.
"Your gaze is quite rude," Solitar noticed his stare and smiled in mild trouble.
He coughed lightly and silently looked away, "Don't misunderstand. That was a research-oriented gaze, nothing impure."
"Really?"
"If I had to say, I was just a bit curious."
"You're very honest."
"There's nothing weird about it, don't get the wrong idea."
Even though it sounded like praise, he couldn't feel happy about it.
Because he knew Solitar understood exactly what he meant... she was just deliberately teasing him out of bad taste.
So he didn't plan to continue this strange topic. Shaking his head helplessly, he quickened his pace and walked ahead.
Although he wasn't good with directions, having gone back and forth once, he still managed to return to the city gate and then proceed straight to the glittering lord's mansion.
———
Macht, who already knew they were coming, was standing at the entrance of the courtyard.
But this time, Macht's gaze fell on Solitar, and he frowned slightly, "Solitar, what are you doing here?"
"I'm just curious. After living among humans all these years," Solitar smiled and asked back, "Have you found those emotions you discussed with me a century ago?"
"...."
"Ah, looks like you failed," Just by seeing Macht's deepening frown, Solitar didn't wait for an answer and made her conclusion with a smile.
Of course, there was no mockery in her smile, only a hint of regret, as she continued on her own:
"As expected, things turned out just like I said back then."
"No, you're wrong."
"Wrong?"
"Just a little more, I've already felt something forming in my heart. Or rather, at the moment everything turned to gold, I did feel something," Surprisingly, Macht shook his head slightly and denied her conclusion, "All these years, I've been wandering this city, thinking about what surfaced in my mind at that moment."
"But in the end, you still couldn't figure it out?"
"Perhaps with a bit more time, I could. We have all the time in the world. But people keep coming here and interrupting my thoughts."
Macht shook his head in annoyance and ended the topic, then said, "More importantly, you didn't come all this way with him just to ask about that, did you?"
"I came to try and change your way of thinking."
"Change it?"
"Simply trying to understand humans and coexist with them through that method is nothing but a fantasy," Solitar denied it without malice, her smile instead carrying a genuine intent to remove his concerns.
She interlaced her fingers in front of her chest and spoke gently, "Even if you find it unpleasant, you can't deny that the previous Demon King had the same idea as you, and in the end started a full-scale war with humanity, wiping out two-thirds of them, while demons themselves nearly went extinct."
"That's because people like you never participated in the war. Otherwise, how could it have ended up like that?"
"Can't be helped~ For me, that war was too boring. But all my friends died in it, so... I've always believed coexistence is a very dangerous idea."
As she spoke, Solitar nodded to herself, as if reinforcing that belief.
But Macht didn't agree. He simply stared at her expressionlessly.
"That's not an answer. You've said before that you wanted coexistence with humans. Stop going in circles and say it directly... what exactly do you want to do?"
"I'm not lying. I do want coexistence with humans. It's just that the method is wrong, too dangerous, so I suppressed that idea... until this child helped me discover a more peaceful, more practical, more meaningful way to coexist."
The more she spoke, the more excited she became, even breathing faster. Her flat chest rose and fell, her cheeks flushed red, and she looked at Ash with burning enthusiasm.
A beautiful girl blushing and breathing unevenly while staring at him... even for someone like Ash who had lived so long, this was a first.
But—
"This child? Me?", He froze and pointed at himself.
Solitar nodded with a dreamy smile, "Yes~ Don't worry, I'll definitely raise you into an outstanding adult."
"If you want to play that kind of 'raising game,' aren't you picking the wrong target? And no matter how you look at it, that's not exactly healthy behavior."
"Oh? And you're saying that?"
"What's that supposed to mean?", Her strange counter made him confused again, feeling like he'd been hit by another stray shot. Solitar's smile deepened.
"Aura and Linie both grew up under your influence, didn't they? And didn't you deliberately raise them into the kind of people you like?"
"Wow, what kind of karma is this? Are you my retribution? And what do you mean I like that? They turned out crooked on their own, alright? I messed up raising them!"
There were too many things to complain about, to the point he couldn't even get them all out.
But Solitar just smiled without arguing, which somehow made him feel even more frustrated.
———
Even though they were standing in an enemy stronghold, the conversation had become so strange it was almost absurd.
At least Ash felt like complaining. He was so irritated he almost wanted to attack his own side first.
But with a demon's unique sense of time, Macht showed no urgency at all, silently listening to their exchange.
Only after they finished talking, while Ash was still rubbing his head trying to figure out how to deal with Solitar as an "internal problem," did Macht, leaning against a golden wall, slowly speak:
"So... you came all this way just to persuade me to abandon my previous ideal of human-demon coexistence?"
"That's right."
"Why bother with something so unnecessary? We're not close enough for that, and it doesn't seem like something you would do."
"Well...", Solitar smiled and thought for a moment before explaining, "Maybe it's because I see the shadow of an old friend in you... after all, I couldn't stop the Demon King back then either."
"If you really wanted to change my mind, killing me would be more efficient. You of all people should understand how difficult it is to change a demon," Macht remained unmoved, coldly refuting her, "What you call 'efficiency' is just you transferring your obsession onto someone else."
"My, my... demons really are troublesome. Is this the stubbornness of long-lived beings?", Solitar wasn't surprised. She smiled and continued, "But actually, I lied. I did come here intending to kill you. After all... your idea of coexistence is based on trying to understand human emotions, right?"
"Your magic has no advantage against me."
"That's true, so I gave up. I'm not as obsessive as Schlacht. While I'm willing to contribute to the continuation of our race, risking my life... that's a bit much, don't you think?"
As usual, Solitar interlaced her fingers in front of her chest and tilted her head. Without waiting for a response, she murmured with a faint smile, "No matter how strange or extreme we are, we're still demons. And I'm a coward. How could I easily risk my life for an unnecessary fight?"
"You really are an honest coward."
[🎉 Shoutout to Vey, Felix and Erik for joining p@treon. Thank you very much.🤗]
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