Frieren 54

Title: The Gap Between Ideals and Reality

Forget about a mature big sister—there wasn’t even a teenage girl. The scrawny, ancient elf called herself a mature big sister, standing with hands on her hips and puffing out her chest proudly.

Honestly… Ash suspected this shameless person was mocking his aspirations in her own way.

But he was tired of constantly complaining about Frieren, so he quickly changed the subject: “Instead of that, where’s the dwarf lady? If there isn’t one, I thought a legendary cute dwarf girl… or a teenage girl would be acceptable too.”

“Dwarf lady? What dwarf… Wait, what do you mean ‘instead of that’?? Are you really looking down on me?”

Frieren was shocked and immediately displeased with his dismissal. She wanted to argue, but a rather gruff voice interrupted from behind: “If it’s a dwarf… I’m already here?”

“That voice… I suddenly have a bad feeling…” The overly rough voice made Ash instinctively hold his forehead: “Though I thought it was impossible, maybe all dwarves have rough voices. After all, they mine every day, so their vocal cords must be damaged, right?”

“Why do dwarves have to mine?” Frieren asked, puzzled.

“Don’t storybooks always say that?” Ash answered without thinking. This made Frieren pause slightly: “…How old are you? Or have you been living in the mountains all this time?”

“I was just training, wasn’t I? Besides, I’ve never met a dwarf.”

“Oh, right. You’re really a training maniac… no wonder you were fooled by Master about weird things.”

Recalling Ash’s monk-like training, Frieren now understood a bit. But…

“Actually, dwarves don’t mine. We’re mainly warriors.” A dwarf uncle with a super-long yellow beard, wearing a horned helmet and carrying a double-edged axe on his back, walked up from behind and stood beside her.

“No way, I was tricked by that jerk Flamme again…?!” With just one glance, Ash immediately understood the harsh reality—fairy tales were indeed lies.

But the cute girl turning into an uncle, this massive gap in reality, made him feel dizzy for a moment.

Ash couldn’t help but turn around, crouch on the ground with his hands on his head, trying hard to process this strange reality that was far from his expectations.

Of course, he had to admit, the main reason he wanted to be a hero back then was to meet all sorts of beautiful girls… That’s why he believed Flamme’s suspicious stories.

After all, humans are like that. Even knowing they might be deceived, they can’t resist believing in beautiful dreams spun by others.

Unfortunately, after hoping so much and being betrayed repeatedly, he thought even a cute dwarf girl could somewhat make up for the huge gap between reality and the scenes he expected.

Though Ash wasn’t a pedophile. He just thought… at least a cute girl who wasn’t super old like Frieren would be nice. He could at least have some fun, right?

Though Ash wouldn’t go further, as he was a serious person, getting too close to that tiny girl… but teasing her occasionally would be interesting, right?

But…

“You okay?” The dwarf uncle stood in front of him, observing him curiously. Even he, usually quiet, couldn’t help but ask: “By the way, are you a warrior? Or a mage?”

Ash looked closely, from the eyes down, almost entirely covered by a thick beard that reached his chest. The helmet covered above the forehead, so he could only see the eyes.

“So much beard… so this is reality? Cruel and merciless, no beauty at all…”

Ash completely ignored the question, instinctively grabbing and plucking a bit of the thick beard in front of him.

The odd sensation confirmed this was indeed an uncle, not a tiny girl…

Though the beard was so thick and long that he could only see the eyes and not any other features.

But… even if he took a million steps back, if there was a tiny girl like this, Ash would never accept it.

The gap between ideals and reality made Ash depressed. He unconsciously kept plucking the overly long beard in front of him.

This made the dwarf warrior look a bit annoyed, and he instinctively turned to Frieren: “He’s your friend, right? Why’s he like this? Can you make him let go of my beard?”

“Sorry, Eisen, he’s a bit weird… but I’ll talk to him nicely.”

Though she wanted to pretend she didn’t know Ash, she couldn’t really leave him there. Frieren slapped Ash’s hand, which was still playing with the beard, then grabbed his hand and dragged him elsewhere.

After they were far enough, Frieren turned back to him with a sigh: “Ash, why did you come here?”

“Well…” Ash hesitated for a moment, then said: “…Actually, I was worried about your safety. After all, the Demon King is really dangerous, right?”

“Don’t lie. You just want to find women, don’t you? But you’ve seen it—there are no beautiful women here except me. Go back, shoo, shoo.” Frieren waved her hand as if shooing a small animal.

“I won’t comment on your self-definition, but you can’t stop my longing for stories.”

“Stories about meeting beautiful girls?”

“I miss that, but I’m also interested in serious adventures.”

Ash earnestly stated his thoughts. From behind, the curious dwarf uncle—Eisen’s voice sounded: “What? You want to join too?”

“……Maybe I should rethink this.”

Just glancing at the dwarf uncle and seeing the two other young men far from his expectations, Ash fell silent and felt confused again.

Because he felt this scenario was wrong. Compared to the ideal adventure story, this team looked like—a team of side characters who could die at any moment?

The two people who could see the future didn’t tell him which hero’s party could defeat the Demon King. This made him genuinely worry that Frieren might die halfway.

Based on his gut, Frank, who said he’d pave the way, sounded more like someone who could win in the end.

Did that mean this team wouldn’t make it halfway? Or would the Demon King be defeated while they were on their journey?

Ash couldn’t help but worry.

“What’s wrong, Ash? Why…”

Noticing Ash looked a bit worried about her, Frieren was slightly surprised. But she thought of something, her heart warmed, and she unconsciously showed a faint smile: “I didn’t expect… you’re really worried about me.”