After all, she actually did feel somewhat guilty about letting these people live in fear for decades.
But, she was really lazy. Even if she felt guilty, when it came to troublesome things like this, of course she'd delay it as long as possible, only dealing with it when she absolutely had no choice.
Being very aware of her procrastination, Fern stared at her ears and let out a helpless sigh.
"So is it really a racial thing? Like before, when I forgot to clean for a whole week, and the trash from a week ago in your room was still sitting there completely untouched?"
"No, Fern, that's a misunderstanding," Ash cut in righteously, interrupting her reproach.
"Huh? So that was just an accident?"
"No. In fact, not just a week. Things like cleaning the room or washing blankets, she can easily put those off for five or ten years."
"Are elves all this unhygienic? This lacking in a sense of time… no, this isn't even a sense of time problem anymore, is it?", The unexpected information left Fern deeply shocked.
"Of course not. Other elves don't really care if their houses break down, but if their rooms get messy to a certain extent, they'll still deal with it. As for hygiene, that's just Frieren being lazy. It's not a racial issue."
"Lady Frieren? What do you have to say for yourself?"
The unbelievable revelation made Fern narrow her eyes and stare at Frieren. Having no room to argue at all, Frieren could only silently lower her head and pretend nothing was happening, trying to muddle through.
That made Fern puff out her cheeks in anger, about to lecture her.
Fortunately, the elderly man listening nearby, leaning on a cane with a straw hat on his back, finally couldn't hold it in anymore. With the same awkward hesitation he'd had from the start, he interrupted, "Please wait a moment Lady Frieren. Are you planning to lift the seal on the Sage of Corruption, Qual, and eliminate him?"
"That is indeed the plan," Frieren quickly picked up the thread and, as if showing goodwill, gestured toward Fern, "And now I have an outstanding disciple assisting me, so there definitely won't be any problem."
"Then that really is… congratulations…", The old man nodded with a troubled expression, but when Frieren finally sensed something was off, he said awkwardly, "Um… didn't Sir Himmel ever mention it?"
"Mention what?"
"Qual was already… over seventy years ago, that is, before the Demon King was defeated, freed from the seal and taken away by the demon race."
"Taken away?"
The unexpected news instantly froze Frieren's previously calm expression. Her small mouth fell wide open, almost unable to close at all, as she let out a shocked cry in front of Fern for the first time.
Unable to stop herself from crying out, a chill racing through her body, Frieren shot into the air on the spot and in the blink of an eye arrived at the back mountain of the village.
But the cliff that should have been the sealing site was now completely empty, with nothing there at all, except for a few traces of destruction left behind from the battle long ago.
Both of their hearts went ice-cold in an instant.
"Really... there's nothing here...", Frieren muttered, rubbing her eyes repeatedly, trying to find any sign that she was under an illusion, or that she'd overlooked something or remembered the wrong place.
"Lady Frieren... what do we do now?", Fern tugged anxiously at the corner of Frieren's clothes.
"This is so strange. It shouldn't be like this. If Qual really left, someone as reckless as him, such a terrifying monster, once he reappeared in human lands, news of it should have spread across the entire continent immediately," For a moment, Frieren didn't even have time to comfort Fern. Her brows knitted tightly as she thought hard, trying desperately to find what was wrong.
But before she could find anything amiss, she realized yet another problem she had inadvertently overlooked.
"No, this is really strange. Not just the Sage of Corruption, Qual, but even the bloodthirsty Bloody God of War, Rivale. For half a century, there hasn't been a single report of any city or village being destroyed."
"Huh? But I remember there was a great demon in the north who single-handedly breached a large fortress city," Fern recalled the biggest incident caused by the demon race after the Demon King was defeated, one that had shaken the entire world and plunged humanity into unease once again.
"Yes. A fortress city with meticulous defensive spell formations, ancient barriers, and numerous mages and warriors protecting it. Normally, only a great demon could take it down alone. But... that wasn't done by Rivale, that battle maniac. I personally went to inspect the site. The attacker was clearly a mage, and an extremely powerful one," Frieren lowered her head in thought. Even now, she couldn't figure out who it had been.
Judging from the characteristics, that great demon who had breached the fortress city wasn't any known great demon.
But normally, an unknown great demon wouldn't act so rashly. They usually chose to live in seclusion and research magic. Suddenly attacking an entire fortress city after the Demon King's death was completely abnormal... as if someone behind the scenes had ordered it.
"But the Demon King and the Omniscient Schlacht are both dead. Who could possibly be commanding these great demons?", Frieren was utterly baffled, to the point her head almost started to hurt. Normally, she would have long given up thinking about such things, but now she inexplicably felt as if an invisible hand was manipulating the demon race from behind the scenes, controlling those terrifying great demons who could easily wipe out a city on their own.
Given them some time, even ordinary nations wouldn't be able to stop these top-tier great demons from destroying entire countries.
Meanwhile, Ash, who was standing nearby without saying a word, knew very well that the one who had taken down that fortress city was the so-called frail woman who claimed to be powerless, Solitar.
But just as she herself had said, cowardly might not quite fit, but Solitar truly didn't like stirring up trouble and had always lived in seclusion.
For someone like Solitar to suddenly attack a fortress city, it had to be an instruction from the Omniscient Schlacht beforehand. Otherwise, it completely contradicted Solitar's usual way of acting.
After all, Solitar trusted Schlacht's foresight of the future deeply. Even if she didn't know the exact reason, she would still follow his instructions.
And that, in turn, led Frieren to form a bold hypothesis. She looked solemnly at Ash and said, "Although it's just speculation, I suspect... that among the demon race, there may be an extremely powerful great demon who is steadily moving toward the throne, trying to become the new Demon King. Some of the great demons have probably already submitted to him, becoming the power he's accumulating."
"N-no, even if you suddenly say that without any solid evidence, it really sounds a bit alarmist…"
"It's not alarmist, and it's not baseless!", Frieren asserted firmly.
"Think about it yourself. Normally, demons wouldn't come to rescue someone else, right? Otherwise, we wouldn't have been able to leave someone as dangerous as Qual here so peacefully. But now someone came to save him. That's definitely suspicious."
"And that unknown great demon, as well as the Bloody God of War, Rivale, have both vanished without a trace and never appeared again. They must have been restrained by someone, otherwise they would have caused havoc."
"…"
'At this point, what should I say? Should I stay silent after all?', Faced with Frieren's concern, Ash rubbed his aching temples, troubled over how he should react at this moment.
Hearing her speculation, Fern couldn't help worrying as well.
"Lady Frieren, does this mean another large-scale war might break out? Like over eighty years ago?"
"No. No matter what, the situation should be better than before. The previous Demon King was extremely powerful, and now humanity not only has the Empire, but also the newly risen second great nation, the Kingdom of Oisast. No matter how you look at it, things should be much better than in the past."
Even though she was just as worried inside, faced with her anxious disciple, the child she had watched grow up, Frieren still smiled and patted her head, offering enough hope to comfort her.
In reality, the number of human mages had decreased significantly compared to the time of the great war, while the demon race had been quietly rebuilding its strength. The fact that no one seemed to have noticed this was deeply concerning to her.
Yet, the rise of the second great nation after the war, even showing signs of challenging the Empire, inexplicably made her feel reassured.
———
Facing the worried Frieren and Fern, Ash really couldn't say, 'The culprit you're afraid of, and the new power you're pinning your hopes on… they're both me behind the scenes.'
Thinking that it might actually be interesting if they found out later, he decided that for now, this was fine. Looking at Frieren, who seemed both relieved and troubled, he ultimately chose to say nothing. Anticipation for an interesting future scene even made him smile as he reached out and started stroking the silver hair in front of him.
"What are you doing?"
Frieren, who had just been patting Fern's head herself, looked up at the sudden strange head-patting loop with an extremely odd expression.
"Don't mind it. I just felt like it," Compared to the elf's odd look, Ash was all smiles. He casually slapped Frieren's hand away and took over patting Fern's head himself, feeling the similar yet subtly different texture under his hands.
"Is this what it feels like to have two daughters? Surprisingly nice?"
"How many times do I have to tell you not to touch my head! You never learn! You're really infuriating!"
Being repeatedly ignored about her no-head-patting rule, and now even having her right to pat Fern's head taken away, Frieren forgot her worries entirely and almost kicked him on the spot.
Fern didn't mind being patted on the head by either of them, but under the circumstances, watching their strange behavior still left her with mixed feelings and no small amount of helplessness toward her two guardians.
But no matter what, this odd atmosphere did ease quite a bit of the fear and oppression brought by the Sage of Corruption, Qual, and the likely mastermind lurking behind the scenes.
———
With a bit of noise, and a bit of lingering worry, the group soon took their leave of the village, which no longer had any reason to keep them.
Before long, they arrived at a village famous throughout the local nation as a warrior settlement... or rather, because of that fame, it had almost become one of the places the Bloody God of War, Rivale, sought out in search of worthy opponents.
"In other words, it was almost a place that got wiped out by Rivale," Ash muttered quietly, his eyes scanning the village known for its extreme martial culture, along with its strange obsessions and rules.
The village was far from the bustle of the world, isolated from society, with only a winding, twisting path leading travelers or the occasional lost hunter inside.
Its layout was scattered yet harmonious. Most houses were earthen, but neat and orderly, to the point of feeling almost obsessively so.
The ground beneath the buildings was paved with stone, while the land enclosed by wooden fences remained mostly bare soil. Since it had rained the night before, the village roads were thoroughly muddy.
Even in such conditions, every man in the village wore a pure white cloak, yet not a single one had gotten theirs dirty. They all seemed to cherish their cloaks dearly.
Only one middle-aged man, with a blade scar over his right eye, clearly a one-eyed man, wore a black cloak. Judging by his bearing and imposing presence, he was obviously the village chief.
As for his strength, honestly, he could only be said to have narrowly escaped disaster.
Although the villagers as a whole weren't weak, they couldn't possibly compare to Rivale. They were on entirely different levels.
And also…
"Does everyone in this village have a cleanliness obsession or something?"
"This is a warrior's honor. Avoiding defilement is only natural," The village chief had clearly heard his muttering. He snapped his head around and said sternly, "You're a warrior too. Maintaining spotless cleanliness in battle and daily life is proof of excellence. Don't you even understand that? And what's with that ridiculous appearance of yours?"
"Just walking around normally."
"Disgraceful! Aside from strength, don't you have any pride as a warrior at all?"
"That's a bit harsh, isn't it?"
Ash didn't really care and couldn't be bothered to argue. Fern, however, stepped forward indignantly, "What warrior's honor? What does that have to do with Lord Ash? Lord Ash is a mage! He has nothing to do with warriors!"
"A mage? Impossible!", The chief dismissed it instantly, as if he'd heard a joke, "Just look at him! Even if you're a novice mage and can't sense his sharpness or the killing aura of a battle-hardened veteran, you should at least see the calluses on his hands. Those aren't something a mage would have. They're from wielding weapons over a long period of time."
"Calluses from wielding weapons?"
Hearing his confident assertion, Fern finally turned her gaze to Ash's military knife, which he always said was just for self-defense, and to his hands, which were indeed rather rough for a mage.
The girl's suspicious look made Ash smile a bit awkwardly.
"Well… how should I put it? I am a mage, but I picked up martial skills along the way too, so I'm kind of half a warrior as well. But I'm no match for you guys~"
"Picked up martial skills along the way?", Hearing that, the chief frowned angrily, "Are you mocking us?"
"What do you mean?"
"You've clearly reached a considerable level as a warrior, yet you treat a warrior's dignity so lightly!"
"You really have strange fixations about strange things. Can't you just take it easy?"
Facing the chief, who was unusually strict about odd things and even outright angry, Ash was genuinely at a loss.
Frieren found him troublesome and casually suggested, "You two have completely different understandings of what a warrior is. Words won't convince either of you, since neither side can convince the other, why not just fight it out?"
"Lady Frieren?", The bizarre suggestion nearly made Fern jump, while Ash waved his hand disinterestedly.
"Let's skip bullying people..."
"Bullying?", The chief, Orden, showed an expression far angrier than before. [T/N: I am not entirely sure it is him but with the description so far, it is most likely him.]
He felt deeply insulted by this young man.
But Ash shook his head with a sigh, thinking of him, "You'd have been fine when you were younger, but you're already in your forties or fifties now, right? Still fighting at that age."
In this world, the warrior profession was basically like being an athlete. Unlike mages, who improved with age, warriors peaked early, usually in their twenties.
By their twenties, or at most thirties, the human body was no longer at its peak. Physical abilities gradually declined, including muscle strength, endurance, and reaction speed.
This was simply biological law, and humans in this world were no exception. Take the dwarf Eisen from the hero's party, for example.
Although Eisen could live a long time, he had passed his physical prime and was in steady decline, which was why he eventually retired into seclusion. Hero Himmel also essentially retired when the adventure ended, largely for the same reason.
Otherwise, why wouldn't he have gone north to continue protecting people? The northern demon race never stopped rampaging. The Golden Land of Macht killed demon generals who were causing havoc, and Solitar even breached a fortress city. All of that happened only ten or twenty years after the hero's party had ended their journey.
If he could have maintained his peak longer, if he could have grown stronger in his thirties or forties, would someone with Himmel's personality really have left a massive threat like the Sage of Corruption alone instead of gathering his companions to deal with it?
There was no helping it. Human limits came unexpectedly fast and early.
Heroes couldn't escape those limits, and neither could the village chief standing before them.
But Orden, even though he had stepped back into a secondary role as chief and mostly let his son command the people, was still full of confidence.
"Even if I'm older, I'm still the chief of the warrior village! Dealing with a young man like you is enough. If physical ability isn't enough, experience and awareness can make up the difference."
"Young man? I'm actually a bit older than I look."
"Oh? Already in your twenties?", Looking at Ash, who appeared no matter how you looked at him to be eighteen or nineteen, caught between boy and young man, Orden paused, then guessed as high as he reasonably could.
Ash pondered for a moment, then said seriously, "Alright, I lied. I just turned eighteen this year."
"This guy really has no shame. Fern, don't learn from him."
"Rest assured, I absolutely don't want to become someone like Lord Ash."
The moment he said that, both Fern and Frieren had looks of unmistakable disdain on their faces, perfectly in sync.
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