Another side...
Kitagawa Marin was holding a small tray with steaming tea and snacks, placing them one by one on the table.
"Please have some, Miss Alicia." Kitagawa Marin sat next to Alicia on the sofa and asked with concern, "Are you still angry at Dio-kun?"
"I'm not angry, and I have no intention of running away from home."
Alicia shook her head and explained: "It's just... I hope he can learn to care a little about other people's feelings."
"Is that so..." Kitagawa Marin laughed, her face showing a nostalgic expression. "But I think Dio-kun probably does understand this principle."
"Eh?"
"After all, ever since I met him, he's been able to notice each person's different emotions and come up with countermeasures one by one."
Kitagawa Marin stretched lazily and didn't continue the conversation. Instead, she took a snack from the table and put it in her mouth.
"So good——!!"
"Miss Alicia, you should try it too. This is really, super, incredibly delicious!!"
"Here, ah——"
She picked up a snack and brought it to Alicia's mouth.
Alicia hesitated for a moment, then gently took a small bite and chewed carefully to savor it.
"It really is delicious..." Alicia swallowed the snack and softly agreed.
"Right!!"
Hearing the words of agreement, Kitagawa Marin's mood seemed even better, her two legs swinging nonstop.
Kitagawa Marin's exaggerated reactions actually helped Alicia relax quite a bit.
Alicia voiced the question in her heart: "Miss Kitagawa, forgive me for being presumptuous, but what did you mean just now when you said Dio can notice other people's emotions... specifically what do you mean?"
"You don't need to use polite language!" Kitagawa Marin responded loudly, waving her hands up and down, tilting her head as she continued, "Like... noticing that I gave up on my dream, and that little Kita can't play guitar but really wants to return to Kessoku Band. Dio-kun is actually very considerate..."
Speaking of this, Kitagawa Marin raised one finger with a bright smile: "Moreover, before saying something overboard, he actually uses playing games as a cover first!"
"I see..."
Alicia was stunned.
During past journeys, negative labels like tyranny, moodiness, and treating human life as worthless were almost stuck on Diego, comparable to a child's nightmare.
Therefore, after hearing positive evaluations, Alicia even felt a little excited!
"That's right!"
Midway through the conversation, Kitagawa Marin's eyes suddenly sharpened. She put her hands together and asked: "Um, can we talk about things between the Demon King's army and the Hero's Party?"
"Sure, what specifically?"
Alicia readily agreed.
"It's about after touching the Goddess Stele and being surrounded by the Demon King's army..."
"Dead end!!"
A voice suddenly rang out abruptly.
The two looked in the direction of the voice. Standing at the entrance were three people: Takanashi Rikka and Dekomori Sanae striking strange poses, and Frieren, who was lowering her head to fiddle with a camera.
"Evil King's True Eye User!"
"Thunder Warhammer User!"
As soon as the words fell, Frieren noticed two enthusiastic gazes firmly fixed on her.
＜(´⌯ ⩊ ⌯`)＞!
For some reason, they seemed just like Kanne and Lawine...
Frieren inexplicably felt she didn't fit in. She pointed a finger at herself and tentatively said: "G-Great Mage?"
"Hehe, reporting in!" ×2
Smack!
Seeing that Frieren understood her meaning, Takanashi Rikka immediately proudly raised her left hand high and high-fived Dekomori Sanae.
"Frieren... how did you all get in?" Alicia was a bit surprised.
"Oh, you mean this..." Frieren spread her five fingers, and a magic grimoire appeared out of thin air and fell into her hand. "This is "Magic That Can Open Doors Even If You Forgot the Key". It can open even doors of types you've never seen before. Pretty impressive, right.."
"It's practically a divine technique death!"
Dekomori Sanae chimed in.
"Dio entrusted me to deliver something." Frieren walked up to the two and casually placed the camera on the tea table. "I just happened to hear you talking about something interesting."
Kitagawa couldn't help but ask: "Then what about Rikka and the others?"
"They said they sensed the aura of an invisible boundary and proactively offered to lead the way for me." Frieren explained.
"Talking about another world and not bringing us along!"
"I demand to audit death!"
...
(Premise summary: Future Frieren touched the Goddess Stele and returned to the original timeline)
The first year after Diego's party set out.
——Northern Plateau, Kino Mountain Range——
"Umm..."
The violent jolting sensation woke Frieren from her sleep.
"Ah——! It hurts so much——!!! My face..."
Before she could regain her senses, the intense pain on the left side of her face forcibly pulled Frieren back to reality.
"Awake?"
Diego's voice came from beneath her.
Frieren then realized she seemed to be lying on Diego's back. On the other side, Silver Bullet was carrying Alicia and Sui, with Mabel also running along. The two horses were galloping as if in a race, constantly fleeing.
Frieren covered her head with one hand. She hadn't fully grasped the situation yet and muttered vaguely: "Where... are we..."
"Why are you racing Silver Bullet while carrying people, Dio?"
It's the familiar Frieren...
...It seems she has safely returned to the future.
Seeing Frieren's reaction, Diego breathed a sigh of relief, along with the sweat overflowing from his forehead: "Now there's some bad news. Do you want to hear it?"
"...What are you talking about, you guy?" Frieren shook her head.
Sui spoke up and briefly explained: "While you were asleep, the Demon King's army's frontline troops surrounded the entire Kino Mountain Range. We're all injured and currently breaking through the encirclement!"
"I see... Um, who are you again?"
After waking up from a nap, there was a new unfamiliar elf in the party, and she was inexplicably deep inside a demon encirclement.
Frieren felt her worldview had been overturned.
"She's the swordsman I newly recruited—" Diego shouted to explain. "Can you stop chatting for now? Look behind us?! Once the fully powered Six Sages of Destruction catch up, the five of us can head to heaven early to meet the Goddess! My little dinosaur reserves are already used up. Quickly release magic to snipe those bastards!!"
Frieren amplified her mana perception. The result made the hand holding the staff tremble involuntarily.
"Are we done for..."
"Why are there demons everywhere?? Not only are there demons chasing from behind, but there are also some in front, left, and right!!"
『Ruinous Lightning Magic』!!!
Complaining was complaining, but Frieren still quickly activated magic to repel some of the pursuing demons.
Then, Frieren keenly noticed something wrong: "Also, what's with the Six Sages of Destruction? Isn't it the Seven Sages of Destruction?"
"Grausam has already been defeated by Dio."
"Ah?!!"