Frieren 57

Title: A Greeting from Five Hundred Years Ago

Under a cloudy sky.

A light drizzle soaked the city Ash had once built himself, beneath a snowy plain.

Thanks to the silver mine above the plain, the city had grown increasingly prosperous. But the locals hurrying through the rain made the city feel as lonely as when it was first built five hundred years ago.

Walking along the city’s oldest street, seeing familiar sights, memories of the past flashed before his eyes. But… Ash couldn’t recall anything clearly.

The events here were too trivial. The only thing he remembered was that this was the place where his first friend, Cassie, his acquaintance, had lived.

Now, he, who didn’t have many friends, was left with only Frieren in the blink of an eye… and he didn’t even know if the elf Milli was still alive.

“Life is truly unpredictable… it should be like that. But you two, who could see the future, ended up choosing to kill each other?”

The death of his friends filled Ash’s heart with an indescribable sorrow.

This made him unconsciously return to these familiar streets before heading to the hero’s party… Like someone who sometimes feels a longing to return to their hometown, this city, to some extent, was like his native village.

Though, the people from the past could no longer be here.

“Even so, this place is really boring… Come to think of it, though I’m stronger than before and can do more things, even if I really become the Demon King in the future, what’s the point for me?”

Ash didn’t actually have much desire for power. Compared to grand achievements, he preferred living freely.

At most, he only hoped to protect the people he knew. But… people from the past were like falling leaves, always withering away.

Now, it seemed there was nothing left to wither. To make new friends… demons’ personalities were too strange, and humans died too quickly.

“…But what Cassie said back then, I think I can understand now.” Ash muttered to himself, staring at the cloudy sky, but he could no longer recall what his first friend looked like.

Five hundred years had passed for the world, and decades had passed for him too.

Just as he felt a bit melancholic and planned to leave this place for good, a window beside him suddenly opened.

“Y-you… could you be Ash…?”

“Hmm?”

The unfamiliar voice made him turn in confusion.

Like the voice, it was a young man he didn’t recognize at all. For some reason, the young man’s expression seemed even more shocked than Ash, whose name had been called.

“…What?”

“You… no, Sir… Sir Ash?”

“My name is Ash, yes. Who are you?” Seeing the stuttering young man, Ash couldn’t help but frown.

The other’s expression clearly wasn’t like Frank or Schlacht, who had the magic to see the future.

But if it wasn’t that, it was a bit intriguing.

“I-I… I’m Anderson! My mother was…”

The flustered young man immediately listed his entire family lineage. But seeing Ash seemingly clueless about the situation, he warmly invited him into the house.

Anderson led Ash to the living room and eventually searched his parents’ room. He pulled out a beautifully crafted wooden box hidden in a cabinet.

The wooden box was clearly enchanted with protective magic. Its magic stone was replaced every so often, and it was specially treated to prevent decay. The materials used were quite exceptional.

Inside the box was a palm-sized magical device. When opened, it revealed an image… or rather, a magically preserved picture. In it, Ash was wearing a military uniform.

Clearly, it was ‘taken’ five hundred years ago.

The magical device producing this image had obviously been repaired multiple times and felt like it had endured a very long time.

“Could this be… a relic from Cassie? No, that’s impossible, right?”

The overly familiar sight reminded him of the past when the image was made. But now, Ash slightly suspected he was under some mental attack.

After all, five hundred years had passed. For humans, countless generations had gone by.

Seeing his disbelief, Anderson grew even more excited: “You’re really Sir Ash—?! You actually exist?!”

“…What? This…?”

“I don’t know! I don’t know anything, my grandmother just told me this! If I met the person in the picture, I had to greet them, and then…” Anderson took a deep breath, looked into his eyes, and said slowly: “‘We’ll meet again. Even if it’s not me, that’s fine. As long as my bloodline endures, and there are still descendants, someone will remember your existence.’—Something like that, my grandmother wanted us to tell you?”

“Huh… this?”

“I don’t know either. But it’s written like that under the red cloth. My grandmother said so too.” Anderson flipped the red cloth beneath the magical device, and indeed, those words were there.

This left Ash speechless. He also unconsciously recalled his deputy when he was a general. He stroked the wooden box and shook his head instinctively: “…She really did something like this. But what’s the point? By the way, how… did you keep this box preserved until now?”

“T-that… actually, my father and grandmother also said that if there was a problem we couldn’t solve, finding the person in the picture would surely bring help…? She told me to keep it safe for the future.”

“You… treated me like a death-proof talisman and passed it down?”

The truth Anderson cautiously revealed left Ash unsure whether to be angry or laugh.

But deep in his heart, Ash felt an indescribable longing. As if the final scene before their parting would surface in his mind.

He, who was supposed to leave immediately, stayed that night at the young man’s house, warmly welcomed by the entire family.

According to the father, Cassie seemed to have said she was under a sealing spell, so her descendants might meet this powerful mage… At the time, Ash chose to settle here, likely because he thought he might come.

He felt a bit toyed with. Ash’s mood was a little strange, but he didn’t expose the lie.

After staying here for some time, he left a sum of money as a gesture of care for his friend’s descendants. Then he temporarily bid farewell to Cassie’s lineage.

But as he suddenly looked back, seeing the figures waving from a distance, for some reason, he felt there might still be a chance to meet again.

Though, those he’d meet again might be their descendants.