And, the next day, with a bruised and swollen face, carrying injuries all over his body, he flew at full speed toward the Central Lands. There was no helping it.
Healing magic was the goddess's domain. Normally, only those who possessed holy scriptures, mainly clerics, could use it.
And unfortunately, as a demon, even if he had holy scriptures, he could not use them. The goddess seemed to... No, she very clearly despised him, unwilling to grant even the slightest bit of grace.
After half a century, the royal capital felt like a lifetime ago to Ash, who was still young among the demon clan.
A lot of brand new buildings had sprung up from the ground, and the scenery of the streets seemed to have changed a little too, but in truth it had only been fifty years. For a city of this era, the changes would not really be that big. The direction of Himmel's house...
"Crap, I don't remember at all!"
A place he had only been to once, and that was fifty years ago. There was no way he could remember it clearly, and he ended up getting lost in those big and small streets.
And the royal capital also had a barrier that prohibited flying, which made him start to worry. He was even troubled over whether he should fire some magic into the sky to draw attention, to see if he could catch the attention of someone he knew, when—
"Are you... Ash?", A strange and aged voice came from behind him, making him turn his head without thinking.
"Hm? Who are you?", He turned around, and all he saw was an old man standing behind him with a bald head, a big white beard, a blue cloak over his shoulders, and a cane in his hand, looking at him with the same curiosity he himself had.
"Could you be," Relying on the mole at the corner of his eye, he tried uncertainly, "Himmel?"
"Haha~ that surprised look of yours is just as funny as Frieren's," Himmel wore a kind smile as he stroked that overly big beard.
"No, wait a second."
"What?"
"You're a whole head shorter than Frieren now, right? Did you finally stop being human and switch jobs to a dwarf?", Looking at this old man who was almost as short as Eisen, Ash really could not hide his shock and blurted it out.
After all, even if a normal person shrank with age, they should not shrink this much. The current Himmel was practically half a meter shorter than before. In some sense, it really could be called a mutation.
Seeing such an overly shocked look, even Himmel could not help laughing, "You really have not changed at all. You still speak without any thinking, but even so, that is a bit too much, isn't it?"
"No... this is definitely not normal, okay?"
"You being like this, not changing at all, is what is not normal," Himmel smiled as he looked him up and down, then said with a smile,
"Really... it makes me nostalgic. Seeing you and Frieren makes me unable to stop thinking about our adventure fifty years ago, even though you were always not around at the important moments, like you were just dropping by."
"Well, I am pretty weak, after all."
"Really? Even if peak Eisen fought you now, just in a pure fistfight, he might not necessarily win, you know?"
"Is that so?", He did not answer directly, only showing a vague, puzzled look.
Himmel murmured with some emotion, "Even though Eisen has already grown old, and you cannot see any sign of decline in you at all, worthy of the great mage of the mythic era, even able to create magic like this."
"It really is impressive."
"By the way, how old are you now?"
"Well a little over a hundred?"
"Is that so? Then that really is—Oh right, let's not just stand here talking. Come to my place and sit for a while. Let's have a proper chat."
Seeing an old friend after so long, Himmel looked very happy, and he did not intend to bring up any depressing things. With a face full of smiles, he pulled him through the big and small streets, heading toward the residence that had not changed at all from fifty years ago until now.
Along the way, the two of them never stopped talking, and Himmel also revealed that Frieren had not come to visit them even once over these fifty years.
As for why that was, of course it was because...
".Every year when we got together, it was always just the three of us. You two were like you had agreed beforehand, not coming even once. We all started to wonder if you had forgotten us."
"Uh, no... that is not the case, really."
Himmel complained with quite a bit of resentment, which made him, with mixed feelings, awkwardly turn his face away.
It was not that he did not want to. It was just that twenty five years ago he had thought of coming once, and had even used it as a chance to bid farewell to Serie, only to be coldly rejected.
("Humans are not the same as us. Their lives are as fleeting as a mayfly. Even if you have a good relationship, what meaning does it have? It is just a waste of time and adds unnecessary worries. You are not allowed to go.")
These words, upon seeing Himmel's appearance, surfaced in his mind without him realizing it.
But looking at his aged old friend, he could not help wanting to ask Serie now, 'If that is so, then why did you teach so many human students?'
Yet at the same time, facing this old man who was already like a candle flickering in the wind, he could also understand Serie's words.
.
.
.
As a hero who once saved the world, Himmel's house was more plain than one would imagine, just a very ordinary private home.
Himmel, just like an old man, lit a fire in the fireplace, then sat down first on the rocking chair that he himself had really wanted to experience once. No, right, Himmel already was a real old man.
"What is it? You want to try it too?", Himmel, gently rocking on the chair, seemed to notice how much he was paying attention to it, and tentatively said, "How about I get up?"
Seeing that Ash really seemed to care about the rocking chair, Himmel, as he spoke, actually propped himself up with both hands on the chair and was about to give up the seat.
That look was just like an old man yielding to a willful grandchild, making Ash hurry over to push him back down and deny it flatly, "No! No! No! There is no need. I was just curious. I did not want to sit. At most I was just feeling something. You are completely just a normal old man now."
"Haha! What are you even saying," Himmel kept shaking his head, showing a kind smile, "Even though I am still this handsome despite my age, in reality I am just a normal old man. You are the one who has not changed, right?"
"That is true."
"By the way, you came for the promise from fifty years ago too, right?"
"Of course."
"Frieren did too, but she arrived three days ago. I just have not seen her at all. It seems she went out of the city to get something? I do not know where she ran off to," Himmel sighed helplessly, but then smiled teasingly,
"You two are really heartless, never coming to see us even once, but looking at it now, you were not so heartless that you even forgot this promise."
"Uh, sorry. I have been really busy lately."
Facing what was probably a counterattack to what he had said earlier about him switching to dwarf, and also feeling guilty about never coming, Ash could not quite lift his head now.
"Haha~ I am just joking, do not take it so seriously. But honestly speaking, we had all kind of started to suspect that we might never get to see you again in this life, so to have the chance to meet again, just that alone is enough to make us happy."
"Just that alone is enough to be happy?", The more he said it like that, the more Ash felt like he was not human. Though he really was not.
But Himmel did not press any further. Instead, with a gentle smile and a gaze full of nostalgia and remembrance, he looked at him and returned to the main topic, "By the way, when Frieren came, I had already written to Heiter and Eisen. They have been in this country all these years, and tomorrow morning we will meet up outside the city gate."
Himmel, who no longer had the youthful vigor of before and now spoke slowly, added at the end, "For now, let's talk about what you have been busy with these fifty years. Just treat it as keeping this old man company to pass the time. You do not really have anything to do here anyway, right?"
"Well... that is true. I have basically just been training."
"I can tell that you have made great progress in all kinds of areas, but..."
"But?"
"No... never mind."
'If you are already heading toward the end of your life, why train like this? And even if a human's appearance can be fixed, can the state of the body really stay forever? Why are you still in a rising phase?'
Himmel did not ask these things out loud. He only gently shook his head, then looked at him with the kind gaze of an old man toward a junior, smiling softly as he said,
"You are our friend, so we have actually always been curious about what you and Frieren have been up to during this time."
"Is that so?"
'Why emphasize the point about being friends right now?', Ash felt that it was a little abrupt. Combined with the half asked question from before, he could somewhat sense that something was off.
But, since Himmel did not press further, he also did not need to bring it up at this moment. After all, this was not something worth celebrating.
With that in mind, he said with a slightly troubled tone, "Nothing interesting really happened in my life these years. Is that okay?"
"It is fine, it is fine. Go on and tell me~"
"Mm, do you know the Continental Magic Association?"
"Ah! Yes, I have heard of it. That was set up by your master, right?"
Unable to resist such warm hospitality, Ash was forced to talk about the only part of his life he could talk about.
That was the time he went to kick in someone's door only to accidentally kick in the door of the real deal. Those past events that left him quite helpless yet somewhat amused.
After that, Ash also chatted with him about what he had been doing during this time, and they kept talking like that until night fell, then went together to a tavern to drink and talk.
As for Frieren, who should have arrived first, they really did not run into her, and who knows where she had gone.
———
The next morning—
Sunlight slanted into the room, laying a layer of warmth and softness over the winter cold living room, and the air was filled with the unique warmth of burning firewood.
Ash, who was staying over at Himmel's place, lay down in the rocking chair by the fireplace after washing up early in the morning.
With the gentle rocking of the chair, paired with the crackling of the firewood by his ears, everything was so comfortable that he could kind of understand why Himmel liked this rocking chair.
He himself, without realizing it, fully immersed himself in this comfort, closed his eyes, and began to sway freely.
But, not long after, the living room door was slowly pushed open.
A voice that was still easy to recognize even after half a century, and also very nostalgic, came from behind him, "You are... Ash?"
In a daze, he slowly opened his eyes, and the owner of that voice appeared before him.
Frieren looked like she had seen something unbelievable, staring at him without blinking, "Why... are you here? And what are you doing?"
"Hm? Ah! You want to try it too?"
"No!"
Seeing him hurry to get up and offer it to her, Frieren could not help but reflexively reject the invitation in one breath.
This was supposed to be a long awaited reunion, but looking at him on the rocking chair, looking as comfortable as an old man, it was just like the homeowner Himmel himself.
This made her really feel that, 'Even if this guy's appearance has not changed, in reality he must truly be old now, right?'
Even though she did not know what human old people were supposed to be like, from something close to Himmel's state, she could roughly see it, just that...
"How old are you now, really?", Even though she did not want to ask, she still asked it out directly without thinking.
"Well, a bit over a hundred, one hundred and one?"
"Humans being a bit lazy really can make them live long, I guess?"
"No, this is still kind of within the normal range. Probably."
"Is that so?", Frieren looked at him on the rocking chair with an indescribably strange expression.
To be honest, when she came this time, she had already prepared herself for the bad news that Ash might not make it here, or might have already passed away. She had lost count of how many times she had made that kind of mental preparation.
But every time she thought he was dead, he would suddenly pop back out lively and well. Even she felt like she was getting worn down mentally by Ash's back and forth like this.
And when Ash noticed that strange expression, he could not help but raise his eyes and glare at her, "What kind of face is that? Do not tell me you were hoping I would die sooner."
"How could I? It is just that I thought this time, I would really never see you again."
It was not that she wished for her friend to die. It was just that the feeling of thinking he was dead again and again, only for him to pop back out, was hard to put into words.
That made her fold her arms and show a thoughtful look, "By the way, this is Himmel's house, right? Why are you in his chair?"
"He took a comb and went back to his room. He is probably going to comb his hair. He said I could use this for now."
"I feel like it is unlikely, but while I was gone, you did not fight Himmel over this rocking chair, did you?"
Having just said that suspiciously, she suddenly thought of something and frowned, "Wait, I remember. Himmel is bald now, right?"
"I do not know. Even bald people have their own pride. I remember he said it like that."
"I do not really get it. Humans really are strange," Frieren shook her head in distress, then sat down on the chair opposite him, propping her elbow on the table and resting her cheek on her hand as she stared at him and scolded him irritably,
"What have you been doing all this half century? I heard you were pretty awful, never coming to see them at all."
"Then what about you? Why did you not come either? I thought you would come. Do you know how sad I felt when I heard you had never come even once?"
"That... sorry, that is my fault. It always felt like I blinked and forty nine years went by, Hm? No, wait a second?"
Frieren drooped her head gloomily from what he said, but right as she was about to finish, she suddenly came back to her senses and felt something was not quite right.
But just as she narrowed her eyes in displeasure, Ash waved his hand.
"Forget it, forget it. I forgive you. Let us not talk about the past anymore. Of course, if you could push me a bit while you are at it, I would be happy."
"Are you a grandpa? And.... you have no right to say that about me."
Realizing she had been tricked by him, Frieren was full of frustration.
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