Frieren's world officially entered the first year of the Dio Era…
"Yo, you're awake."
Atop the Magic Association, Serie sat with her legs crossed naturally to the side in her chair, watching the four who had just woken up with an utterly bored expression.
Alicia clutched her head, mumbling groggily, "Lady Serie? Where are we…"
She looked around.
The elf Sui hung her head, eyes red, hugging her knees and lost in thought.
Frieren was beside Mabel, pushing her repeatedly and patting her face, trying to wake her.
"Mabel, Mabel, wake up. We're going home."
And Mabel?
"Mmm… mmm…" She was sleeping soundly, drool hanging from the corner of her mouth, muttering nonstop: "Mama…"
"Who's your mama?!"
Eh?
Déjà vu… this strange feeling…
"…I don't wanna work aaaah!! Mama, didn't you say it yourself!! Live as a parasite, die without ever working. I've been mooching off my ancestors this whole time, all thanks to the Freeze God Sword!!"
The faces of all four—including Serie—went completely black. They stared speechlessly at the still-sleeping Mabel.
"Do you remember?! When I was nine, the mama who ran off with a young man…" Mabel sniffled while talking in her sleep.
Finally, Serie grew impatient and put an end to the farce.
Whoosh!
A spell designed to awaken someone from sleep shot from Serie's hand and struck Mabel square on the ground.
"Eh? Why is everyone staring at me with those faces?" Mabel got up from the ground, still completely out of it.
"Ah… because… it's just too painful to watch one of the heroes who defeated the Demon King—the noble Mabel of the Ice Clan, wielder of the Freeze God Sword—shouting 'I don't wanna work'…"
Sui put on a dead-fish-eyed expression, silently staring at Mabel before kindly providing an explanation—followed immediately by a hand chop that snapped Mabel fully back to reality.
"Ugh, so embarrassing…"
Frieren delivered the finishing blow from the side.
"Don't be like that, everyone." Alicia played her little-angel role, waving her hands to lighten the mood.
Mabel gradually pieced everything together and turned into a blank-stare zombie, desperately searching for a way to escape the embarrassment more dignified than digging her toes into Magix Castle.
"I-It… it was just a joke!" Mabel's face turned beet red. Her body even physically rejected the lie, tears streaming as she trembled. "Labor is the most glorious thing!! Mabel… really wants to work…"
Poor Mabel. Despite possessing overwhelming strength, she was the ultimate shut-in who never wanted to work, dreaming only of staying home forever.
[Then don't work. I'll ×× support you for life…]
Eh? Why work? Someone seemed to say they'd support me forever…
Who was it?
I'm hallucinating from work aversion now.
Mabel clutched her head, shook it, gave a self-deprecating laugh, and stood up from the ground.
"Now that the farce is over, let's go."
Serie's voice remained cold and merciless. She beckoned for everyone to leave.
"Let's go then! I never thought learning a spell to find people would knock all four of us out… The difficulty of magic study is insane. Did you manage to learn it, Frieren?"
"Nope. After flipping through the grimoire for a while, a sudden flood of massive, fragmented magical knowledge surged into my brain and I passed out instantly."
"Heh heh~ Food time, food time! Freeloading royal capital gourmet is the best!"
"Mabel and I are clearly sword-oriented types—why did we suddenly get the urge to learn magic? My head hurts so bad…"
"…Why were we learning a spell to find someone again?"
That strange feeling…
"Seems like we were looking for someone. Weird, I can't remember now."
"If we can't remember, it probably isn't important. I really didn't expect Serie to actually give us a legendary spell…"
"The peak of the half-century meteor shower is coming soon. Let's go watch—it's supposed to be really beautiful."
Their voices gradually grew quieter and faded away. Serie stepped down from her high chair, expanded her mana detection to confirm no one was around, then secretly let a few small tears fall.
She conjured a candy stick with magic and stared at it quietly for a very long time…
...
The four left the Magic Association and arrived atop the royal capital's walls.
"Uwaa, we're too late…" Alicia looked a bit dejected, but quickly perked up. "But the tail end is still really pretty!"
"Perfect for welcoming the arrival of a peaceful era." Sui sighed in emotion, then shifted her gaze to Mabel—who was still nonstop devouring skewers—with dark lines on her face. "If Mabel hadn't slept so long, we could've caught the peak of the meteor shower."
"Eek!" Mabel, suddenly called out, made an exaggerated startled pose, scratched her head, and mumbled through a full mouth: "chew chew S-Sorry… won't happen next time. These skewers are seriously good. That stingy old man treated us—the flavor jumped up a whole level."
"Hahahahahahaha!" ×4
"These five years really were full of so much… No one could've imagined the party that killed the Demon King would end up being the all-female team everyone looked down on at first."
That sense of wrongness…
Our party… really was… only women…?
The feeling of wrongness lingered in all four hearts.
After a period of silence, the meteor shower entered its final moments.
"Can't see it clearly from the city…" Frieren pondered for a moment and shared her thoughts on the meteor shower.
"We're in the middle of being moved—don't say such mood-killing things, Fufu—" Sui sighed and flopped straight down onto the wall.
"Then next time, in fifty years, I'll take you all somewhere with a clearer view."
Frieren's words were shocking—classic long-lived species disease, with an extremely vague sense of time.
"…Hehe." Alicia smiled, a trace of loneliness in her eyes.
"What's wrong?"
"In fifty years I'll be a grandma already." Alicia patted Frieren's head with the gentle, loving smile of an old lady looking at a child.
That must be why elves grow so detached… But the Elga royal family, despite being long-lived, possess short-lived emotions, so they withdraw from the world and become lonely even faster…
Sui shook her head, stopped thinking about unnecessary things, took Frieren's hand, and spoke earnestly: "Frieren, you have to take action. If you just sit around doing nothing, Alicia and I will turn into grandma pen pals with you in the blink of an eye."
"Because I already know—if you do nothing and just wait in place… you get nothing."
I don't want… to end up like that…
"Fifty years is so long. I might not even be able to get up by then—you guys have to come find me, okay?" Mabel rubbed her hands together awkwardly.
"You literally just said it wouldn't happen next time…"
The gentle wind brushed against the four faces, feeling like someone's caress—comfortable and cool.
"It's over. Five years have passed… We really went through so much."
Alicia stretched lazily, unintentionally revealing her alluring curves that contrasted with her cute personality, yet somehow combined into something incredibly captivating.
Frieren smiled and said slowly: "Even though the time we spent together was short…"
"It was pretty long, wasn't it?"
"Frieren still doesn't understand anything, huh… haha…" Alicia covered her mouth, laughing until tears came out.
"Alicia-sama!!!"
A resounding cry that shook the heavens rose from below—the citizens and guards were loudly praising the name of the world-saving hero.
Alicia often helped villagers, followed the cleric path, had healed and saved many people, was a great beauty with an equally great personality, and enjoyed sky-high popularity. She was deeply loved by the people of the empire.
(PS: Plus the influence of Diego's achievements being credited to Alicia.)
"The hero lady is really popular!"
"No no, it's all thanks to everyone taking care of me…"
Alicia instantly turned into chibi form.
In the distance, a figure flashed by—long, slender ears signifying extraordinary status, pale yellow hair sharp and brilliant. Silently watching the celebrations in the city, she murmured:
"When everyone is shouting the name of 'Hero,' little do they know the true 'Hero' who killed the Demon King… no longer exists anywhere in this world."
"Is this the ending you wanted, Diego Brando… How boring…"
Is this really okay…
The wind carried Serie's thoughts. The ultra-tsundere ancestor thought so.
What kind of ending would be worthy of this long, tumultuous journey?
...
The final meteor streaked across the night sky. The half-century meteor shower officially ended.
"So, starting tomorrow we'll all be going our separate ways. Does anyone have plans for the future?"
Alicia clasped her hands together and asked first, looking forward to everyone's answers.
Sui took an ancient magical tool out of her spatial storage magic, examined it carefully for a moment, then slowly replied:
"I'm going to take all the ancient magical tools we collected over these five years back to my country. After that I'll probably resume traveling and continue gathering the ancient magical tools scattered across the world. If any of you hear related information, let me know."
Mabel put on her beast cloak again, lay on the ground for a bit, then stood up with a grin, gripping the Freeze God Sword as she slowly spoke:
"I'm going back to my hometown. I'll rely on the stingy emperor's rewards and the hero party's glory to mooch off them for life… ah no, to shine and contribute… hehe."
This girl is absolutely planning to shut herself in until the money runs out…
Frieren shook her head, thought for a moment, and was about to speak when Sui gave her opinion.
"Frieren is probably going to continue her unimaginably long journey and keep collecting magic, right?"
Déjà vu…
Frieren's head throbbed faintly.
"You really understand me. I plan to continue collecting magic—maybe spend a hundred years traveling the central nations."
"Heh heh~ If you find any ancient magical tools on the way, remember to tell me. I'll help collect precious grimoires too!"
"Come visit us from time to time!"
"gulp gulp~"
Just as they were about to part, Sui suddenly noticed the Star Platinum Stone ring hanging on Mabel's chest.
"Right, Mabel—we can sell the Star Platinum Stone ring we got from conquering that dungeon. I can help you negotiate at a pawn shop. The money we get would last several hundred years easy."
"O… okay—no! Don't!" Mabel was about to agree when a sudden palpitation hit her. She clutched the ring tightly to her chest, tears pouring uncontrollably. "I can feel it—this ring is really important!"
"Eh, Mabel, why are you crying… wait, me too…" Sui felt the wetness on her cheeks, touched her face, and realized she was already in tears. "The ring on my ring finger…"
"Is everyone crying tears of joy because peace has finally arrived?" Alicia patted their backs, soothing them.
"Eh, me too?!" Frieren incredulously touched her face and got a handful of tears. "What is this… could the rings be cursed?"
Sui wiped the tears from her face and silently made up her mind… I need to go to the Demon King's castle. I can feel I left something there—something extremely important…
At that moment, beneath her bangs, the jade stone on Sui's forehead emitted a faint glow.
(PS: This jade stone is a royal heirloom with the power to protect Sui's mind and block mental magic attacks.)
What exactly did I forget…
Who exactly did I lose…
...
The next day, Frieren set out alone at night for the Foll Basin. She found ruins protected by a massive tree, covered in an extremely powerful barrier magic.
There were signs someone had broken in…
This had once been the residence of the great mage Flamme. Frieren had come seeking the answer to a question that had troubled her ever since she woke up.
There's been something bothering me since yesterday…
[Frieren, I… will always love all of you]
'Love'… what is it?
This was an emotion Frieren had never understood to this day. The words lingered in her heart, constantly urging her to take action.
"In the end, even after more than a thousand years, I'm still being led around by the nose by Master."
[One day, you will begin to regret the mistakes you've made and start wanting to understand humans.]
[When that day truly comes, come back here.]
[I, the great mage Flamme, will lend you my strength!]
Master, I want to know—what is 'love'…
Eh, a treasure chest?
"It's so dark! So scary!"
Why is there a mimic in Master's ruins!
Years ago, the Diego who broke through Flamme's barrier and casually placed a mimic there: Just thinking about someone opening this chest and getting eaten by the mimic makes me want to laugh.