Frieren 36

Title: A Touching Reunion That’s Not Quite Touching

No matter how Ash looked at it, the person in front of him, picking wild vegetables in the bushes, was clearly his old friend and apprentice-nephew whom he thought he’d never meet again—Frieren.

Meeting again after a thousand years, her stunned expression upon seeing him made Ash unconsciously flash a meaningful smile.

As her teacher-uncle, he felt he should be understanding of Frieren, who might cry, and spread his arms, ready to embrace the petite silver-haired elf for a touching reunion scene. But… reality turned out to be a bit different from his imagination.

“Long time no see, Frieren. You’re still so tiny and adorable. Your teacher-uncle is really…” As Ash spread his arms, Frieren, who had been crouching, stood up. But she slowly raised her hand: “Hellfire.”

A blazing red flame instantly ignited in the silver-haired girl’s palm, sweeping toward him like a tsunami.

The grass and trees around them, before even being touched, were consumed by the heatwave and burst into flames. Ash’s shocked figure, in the next second, was also engulfed by the raging fire, still maintaining his arms-spread pose.

But…

*BOOM!*

An invisible repulsive force erupted with a powerful impact, instantly dispersing all the approaching flames.

“…What are you doing?” Completely unharmed, Ash stood in the same spot, maintaining his previous pose without budging. Only the smile on his face had turned a bit stiff.

But Frieren’s expression grew serious: “…So Einsam can now withstand Hellfire? It can even mimic the abilities of the person it’s imitating?”

“Einsam?” The strange term left Ash a bit stunned: “Are you serious or doing this on purpose? A monster that can only create illusions has no combat power at all! Normally, you’d wipe it out with one attack. Why are you acting like you still want to…”

“Normally, yes. So… a mental attack?”

“This is really me!”

“Quiet. There’s no way a human could live this long.”

Frieren didn’t believe for a second that the person before her was her friend from a thousand years ago.

After all, it was too contrary to common sense.

“Could I have accidentally fallen into some weird trap and woken up now?”

“…Are you saying you were frozen or in some kind of stasis?”

“—That’s it!”

“You’re lying, aren’t you?”

He instinctively slapped his palm, nodding enthusiastically in agreement. But Frieren narrowed her eyes, and magical power began gathering in her hand again.

This situation, completely different from the touching reunion he’d imagined, left Ash a bit frustrated: “Why! Trust me a little, okay?”

“…Proof.”

“Out of nowhere like this… oh, the emperor’s wine was really bad, wasn’t it? Only a few of us should know that.”

“Illusions from mental attacks do exploit memories. Say something I don’t know.”

“What… what is this??” Seeing the fully alert girl, Ash was truly baffled: “Are you serious? What’s the point of saying something you don’t know? If I said back then when you were bitten by a mimic monster, it was actually me who spanked you, would you believe it or not??”

“—Die.”

The girl’s voice suddenly turned as cold as ice, unlike anything before.

The tranquil forest erupted once again with a different kind of light.

*BOOM!*

With a loud explosion, the air in the entire forest trembled.

Thick smoke quickly spread, covering nearly half the forest, the result of an immensely powerful and intense magical blast.

The sudden magical explosion in the forest, like a war, immediately put the fortress at the foot of the mountain into a state of emergency.

But… as the dust slowly cleared with the cool breeze.

The ground was utterly destroyed, but Ash still stood in the same spot, his clothes untouched by even a speck of dust. Only his expression was as strange as Frieren’s when she first saw him, too bizarre to describe in words: “…What are you doing, Frieren? If it was someone else, they’d be dead by now, wouldn’t they!?”

“It’s not like they’d die, right?” Frieren looked extremely cold. Her gaze seemed to ask: Why are you perfectly fine after that?

For some reason, this made Ash’s stomach ache: “But I could’ve been hurt, you know!”

“There’s a church at the foot of the mountain; the priest can heal you right away.” Frieren casually pointed to the fortress at the mountain’s base, which had evolved from a village over a thousand years. She still seemed to sneer: “Besides, I mostly attacked the surroundings, didn’t I? Normally, you should’ve been able to withstand it, at worst getting a bit dirty… It’d be even better if you couldn’t withstand it.”

“No… wait a second? You already realized it’s me, didn’t you?!”

“Hmm.”

Faced with his accusation, Frieren only nodded expressionlessly.

“And you still attacked??”

“Is there a problem?” The girl calmly tilted her head and asked back. This left him speechless: “You, I…”

Ash opened his mouth to scold her, but didn’t know where to start. He could only massage his forehead in frustration.

But at that moment, Frieren finally showed a faint smile: “Still, I’m happy to see you again… really.”

“Ah… uh…”

“What? Shouldn’t you say something at this point?”

“No, my mind’s a bit messed up. Let me sort it out first…”

The plans Ash had prepared were completely thrown into disarray. Frieren’s sudden emotional and behavioral shifts made him crouch on the ground, trying to organize his thoughts and the situation from start to now.

But Frieren clearly didn’t think too much about it. She just smiled and spread her arms like he had earlier: “Don’t overthink it. Come here.”

“Huh, what?”

“A touching reunion hug. I didn’t misremember, right? You said something like that before, didn’t you?… You looked pretty expectant earlier too.”

“That’s true, that’s true, but…”

“What’s wrong now? Hurry up and get this over with. My arms are getting tired.”

“Alright, alright, I’m coming…”

Urged by Frieren’s sudden impatience, Ash, reminded of his original goal, stepped forward. While wondering how Frieren’s memory could be so good, he crouched down and hugged the girl with her arms outstretched.

Feeling the soft, petite touch that hadn’t changed in a thousand years, before Ash could even complain, Frieren was already patting his head.

“Huh?? What??”

“I don’t know. Humans seem to like doing this. I just tried it. You must be happy, right?”

“Honestly… I’m not happy at all. On second thought, this isn’t at all like I expected, is it?”

“What’s that? It’s been a thousand years, and you’re still acting spoiled?” Compared to the shocked Ash, Frieren was the first to feel dissatisfied.

But, just like Ash, she too had plenty of things she wanted to complain about.