.
Arc 02
The Party
Chapter 03: Part 01
Naru VS Qual
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Seven years of wandering with Naru had turned into something Frieren never expected: a strange rhythm that somehow worked. They had passed through forests where the air tasted like rain, deserts where the sun melted the horizon, and ruins where the dust was older than both of them combined. If there was a place that could be explored, they'd likely stepped foot in it, and if there was a trap in said place, Frieren had almost certainly gotten caught in it. Mimics, especially. Always the mimics.
"It's so dark! Scary! Naru! Help me out!" Frieren's muffled voice would echo from inside the wooden chest-shaped monster, followed by muffled cursing and an exasperated grunt from her apprentice. Without fail, Naru would grab the mimic by the hinges and force its jaw open with terrifying ease, dragging her mentor out like she was pulling a stubborn cat from under a bed. Every time. Seven years, and Frieren still hadn't learned.
Naru, though, had changed. The blonde demon girl who once barely reached Frieren's shoulder now stood almost eye-level with her—tall enough to seem more grown-up, but not so tall that Frieren had to crane her neck. The soft roundness in her cheeks had melted away with the years, giving her face a sharper, more mature beauty that made strangers glance twice. The innocence hadn't gone anywhere, though. Her horns had grown slightly, the orange ribbons tied neatly in the same short twin ponytails as always, her orange-white frock swaying with every step, stockings perfectly in place. It was as if she'd stepped out of the same picture year after year, refusing to change anything except the inevitable aging of time.
Frieren was quietly relieved the girl hadn't surpassed her in… certain physical aspects— namely the chest area. Not that she would ever be jealous of her own pupil—absolutely not. She wasn't that petty. But still, it was comforting to know some balances remained in place.
Her face was still blank most of the time, almost unreadable unless something truly caught her interest. An ancient magical device, an unusual spell effect, a particularly fluffy cat—then her eyes would widen, lips part slightly, and her voice might even lift in pitch. Those rare shifts in expression felt like seeing flowers bloom in a snowy field.
Training her hadn't been easy. Naru wasn't naturally gifted. She had no miraculous prodigy moments where she mastered something after a single try. Every spell, every concept, every nuance of mana control took repetition. And more repetition. And then more repetition after that. But she was stubborn in a quiet way. Never complained. Never asked why. She simply nodded, tried again, and again, and again. Frieren had long since stopped expecting shortcuts from her, and in a way, that made the moments Naru succeeded all the more rewarding.
Her ability to create clones was a blessing, though. When they were working on a spell, she could multiply herself into a dozen Narus, all practicing at once, like a small army of identical orange-clad magicians marching through incantations in perfect unison. It was both efficient and mildly unnerving to witness.
Despite being the teacher, Frieren often found herself the one being looked after. Naru was the one who woke her up when she wanted to sleep in until noon. She made sure Frieren ate properly on days when she "forgot" to cook or when they were traveling through nowhere and she tried to live off dried bread alone. Bathing? If Frieren got lazy, Naru would scoop her up without hesitation, march to the nearest bath, and dump her inside like it was part of her job description.
And then there was her strength. Being a demon came with the kind of raw physical power humans and elves didn't casually possess. Frieren took full advantage of that—unashamedly so. Heavy luggage? Naru carried it. Fallen trees in the path? Naru moved them. Frieren feeling tired? Naru carried her. Once, in a snowy mountain pass, Frieren had simply climbed into Naru's arms and been carried the rest of the way down as if she were a particularly spoiled princess. The girl never complained. She didn't even look mildly annoyed. She just carried her, silent and steady, her horns catching flakes of snow.
Sometimes Frieren wondered if Naru even realized how much she did for her. Probably not. Naru didn't think in terms of effort or fairness. If Frieren asked, she did it. That was all.
And maybe, Frieren thought, glancing at her apprentice as they walked through yet another nameless stretch of forest, that was why she'd come to rely on her so much—not just for her strength or her presence, but for the quiet certainty that Naru would always be there when she called.
—oOVOo—
The air in the clearing of Görße Forest was still, the morning mist curling lazily through the towering trees. A patch of sunlight broke through the canopy, spilling gold across the mossy ground where Frieren stood. She was calm and poised, her staff lightly resting in her hands. Across from her, Naru mirrored the stance, her own orange-ribboned staff held at the ready, blank blue eyes locked on her teacher. The silence was absolute, broken only by the faint, rhythmic chirping of a cricket somewhere in the undergrowth.
Without a word, Frieren's fingers twitched, a faint hum of mana building at the tip of her staff. Then—flash!—a razor-thin beam of mana shot forward, cutting through the air like a line of pure light. It sizzled toward Naru, the speed almost instantaneous, a testament to Frieren's flawless casting.
The blonde demon didn't flinch. Her horns caught the light as she swung her staff upward in a smooth, practiced motion, summoning a shimmering orange-tinted barrier in front of her. The beam struck the shield with a sharp crack! before glancing off, dissipating harmlessly into the forest shadows. Naru's barrier held, but Frieren saw the faint tremor in her apprentice's hands and the subtle shift of her weight, a clear sign that the raw force had been significant.
Frieren lowered her staff slightly, her gaze level. "That was a singular, linear attack," she said, her voice even, though the faintest curl of a smile tugged at her lips. "You reacted perfectly, and your barrier held. A good, basic defense. But what if…"
The air thrummed again. This time, six separate beams burst from her staff in a fan-shaped spread. But instead of flying straight, they bent and curved mid-flight, weaving around in unpredictable arcs like hunting snakes, each one seeking a different path to its target. They were faster this time, and the mana pulsed with a more sinister intent.
Naru's eyes flicked from one to the next, tracking their movements. Her expression was still blank, but her pupils were dilated, her mind working furiously to calculate the trajectories. She dropped her barrier, pushed off the ground, and leapt high. Her skirt and ribbons fluttered as she twisted midair, landing lightly on a branch several meters away in a crouch, balancing perfectly despite the swaying wood beneath her feet. The beams, now without a target, crisscrossed beneath her, sizzling and cracking against the ground where she had just been.
Frieren tilted her head. "Your reflexes are great as always." Then her voice sharpened slightly. "However… what if you're in a position where you can't dodge it? A narrow cave, a hallway, or a room with no place to run or leap. What do you do then?"
Naru blinked, processing that, then said flatly, "Then Naru dies?"
"Yes," Frieren replied, as if stating a weather report. "But we don't want that, now, do we?"
The demon girl tilted her head slightly, her face still as unreadable as ever. "If Naru is gone… then who will look after Frieren-sama?" she murmured, the thought a simple, undeniable fact to her.
For just a second, Frieren's composed face cracked—one eyebrow twitching, a tiny sweatdrop forming on her temple. "...Anyways," she muttered, "the trick to surviving such an attack would be—" she paused, tapping her chin, "—actually, figure it out yourself. It's a fundamental principle of mana control. You'll understand it when you're ready."
Naru tilted her head again. "Why, Frieren-sama?" she asked, hopping down from the tree with a soundless drop, landing beside her teacher.
"It'll be good for your brain," Frieren replied smoothly, a hint of playful mischief in her eyes.
The demon girl nodded once, obedient, her mind already turning over the problem. She looked down at the ground, a little frown forming on her lips, then the realization dawned on her expressionless face. Her eyes narrowed faintly—Frieren had called her dumb. Again.
Without a word, she turned on her heel and started walking in a random direction, her staff resting lazily against her shoulder. She was heading deeper into the forest, a path that led nowhere in particular.
"Not that way, Naru," Frieren called after her, already stepping lightly over a root. "There's a village we need to get to. Let's go."
Naru stopped, glanced at the wrong path she'd been taking, then adjusted course without hurry. Her shoulders slumped just a fraction of an inch, a silent sign of her defeat. "…Naru is coming, 'ttebayo," she said in her usual flat tone, trailing after her mentor as the misty forest swallowed their footsteps, leaving the clearing quiet once more.
—oOVOo—
The midday sun was warm on the dirt road as the two of them reached the small wooden gates of the village. A weathered man in a wide-brimmed straw hat sat by the entrance, leaning lazily against the fence. The moment his gaze fell on them, his eyes widened, and he scrambled upright, his voice carrying a sudden burst of energy.
"Frieren-sama! You're back!"
Frieren slowed, tilting her head slightly at the familiarity in his tone. The man beamed, though the wrinkles around his eyes suggested he'd been waiting decades for this moment. He was a human in his late fifties or early sixties, his skin tanned and his face full of laugh lines that seemed to have been carved by the sun itself.
She squinted at him, then her eyes narrowed in faint recollection. "…Ah. You're the brat who flipped my skirt when I came here with Himmel and the others. Himmel was very angry." Her voice was calm, but the bluntness of her words made Naru glance between them with mild curiosity. "It's surprising that you're still alive."
The man laughed awkwardly, running a hand through his thinning hair. "That's a harsh thing to say, Frieren-sama… but since I've seen you again, I'll surely live for another century!" He chuckled, then straightened. "In fact, I've been waiting for you to arrive."
"Really?" Frieren arched a brow, unconvinced.
"Indeed. I've told so much about the Hero's Party to my children. They even met Himml-sama, even in his old age, he would come here and check on this place every now and then."
Frieren's expression remained unreadable, but her voice lowered into something thoughtful. "I see… Well… he was the hero. He never forsook people. Even in old age."
Beside her, Naru blinked. "What is Frieren-sama talking about?" she murmured, tilting her head.
The old man's gaze drifted toward Naru, and for the first time, surprise flickered across his features. He opened his mouth as if to comment—but seeing the demon horns on her head, he closed it again without a word. He cleared his throat and looked away, a nervous twitch in his eye.
Frieren didn't stop to explain. She simply turned to the right, her robe swaying lightly, and called over her shoulder, "Follow me."
Naru adjusted her staff and trailed after her, curiosity buzzing in her mind.
As they walked deeper into the village, the cobblestone path crunching underfoot, Frieren finally spoke again. "Years ago," she began, her tone as calm as if she were narrating the weather, "among the humans who traveled across this place, the Great Demon Qual used to slaughter them. It's said he killed over seventy percent of the central province's army."
Naru's brows lifted slightly. "He was that strong?"
"Yes," Frieren replied simply. "We couldn't kill him. He had a sure-kill spell called Soul Track—a magic that penetrated any kind of defense, magical or otherwise."
Naru frowned faintly. "Isn't Soul Track a normal magic spell?"
"It is now," Frieren said. "But back then… it was a disaster. There was no known counter to it, no way to block or deflect it. It simply… went through everything."
Naru's tail of hair swayed slightly as she asked, "And why is Frieren-sama back here with Naru?"
"We didn't have the magic to counter his attacks," Frieren explained. "So we—the Hero's Party—had to seal him." She lifted her chin toward the hill up ahead. "He's still alive. Look."
Naru followed the line of Frieren's finger, and her eyes landed on a massive stone statue. Its figure towered over the grassy field—large horns curling from its head, a broad, muscular build carved in brutal lines, and a face twisted into a perpetual snarl.
"…He's a demon?" Naru asked, her voice flat with intrigue. "He doesn't look like Naru."
"Not all demons are ninety-five percent human-looking like you," Frieren said, glancing at her briefly. "You look like a half-blood with human genetics, but a demon is a demon."
Naru tapped her staff against her shoulder. "Frieren-sama will finish him off, 'ttebayo?"
"That was supposed to be the plan," Frieren said evenly. Then her lips curved faintly. "But… no. You're going to do it."
Naru froze, blinking once. "…Eh?"
Frieren stepped back, her expression as calm as ever, but there was a glint of anticipation in her green eyes. She rested her staff lightly against her shoulder before lowering it with a smooth, almost lazy motion. "This will be a good test for you."
Naru squinted at her, her face a mask of mild confusion. "...Frieren-sama wants to get rid of Naru."
"You're overthinking it. This is just a test," Frieren replied, a faint, knowing smile playing on her lips. Then, almost too softly to hear, she whispered something under her breath.
A deep BOOMM split the air.
From the sky, a concentrated beam of golden light shot down like judgment from the heavens, striking the massive stone statue with a deafening crack. Dust exploded in every direction, turning the air heavy with the smell of scorched earth. The forest floor trembled, and birds scattered from the trees in a frantic flurry.
When the debris cleared, the statue was no more—just fragments scattered around a massive, smoldering crater. And in its place stood the Great Demon Qual.
He was a terrifying sight, massive and powerful, easily twice Naru's height. His skin was the color of deep slate, and his horns curled like deadly blades from his head. Every movement he made radiated a predatory ease, as if the world itself could not touch him. His crimson eyes, glowing with a malevolent light, locked onto Frieren with a look of instant recognition.
"Frieren," he rumbled, his voice like distant thunder. "How long has it been?"
"Eighty years," she answered, her tone as casual as if she were discussing the weather.
"Not much... in our standards," Qual mused, a cruel smirk gracing his lips. His gaze sharpened slightly, a flicker of genuine curiosity in his eyes. "Tell me—did your party defeat the Demon King? Are they still around?"
"Yes," Frieren replied evenly. "Though Himmel and Heiter have passed away peacefully."
"I see..." Qual's tone softened just enough to suggest a faint, almost grudging respect for his former adversaries. But then his eyes shifted, noticing the young demon standing a short distance away, gripping her staff. "...A demon lass?" His lips curved into a wider grin. "What's your name?"
"It's Naru, Qual-san," she replied, her voice flat and formal, bowing her head slightly, though her stance remained guarded and her staff was held firmly in her hands.
"Did you make Frieren unseal me?" Qual asked, his grin widening into something sinister. "Then you deserve a reward..."
"Actually," Frieren interrupted smoothly, her voice cutting through the air like a blade, "I voluntarily unsealed you so that she can kill you. She is my dear pupil."
Qual blinked once. Then, to Naru's surprise, he threw his head back and laughed—a deep, rolling laugh that echoed across the empty field, shaking the leaves on the trees.
"That," he said, wiping at his eyes as if this were too absurd to be real, "is the most ridiculous thing I've heard since Schlacht claimed Solitär would die at the hands of a child. A demon learning from a human? Ridiculous. It's an act of blasphemy." His grin grew sharper, showing the tips of his fangs.
Frieren gave the faintest shrug, her face a portrait of serene confidence. "Attack."