Passing the border wasn’t a problem.
As long as they had adventurer qualification certificates, both of them could easily cross.
“Speaking of which, it’s weird that so few people recognize my master.” When they crossed, even though some people noticed Frieren was an elf, they didn’t seem to care much, which made Ethan very curious.
“It’s normal.
Elves are rare, but not completely non-existent.
Plus, you can basically report any name you want.” With Frieren’s identity, race, and abilities, she was far beyond the jurisdiction of any country.
She was a completely free person, able to go anywhere.
The only downside was that she didn’t enjoy national benefits, but that wasn’t a big issue for her.
If she ran out of travel money, she’d just work as an adventurer for a while.
Not to mention she had a magic-warrior apprentice to support her, so life was pretty sweet.
Ethan’s adventurer level was already very high.
Of course, this adventurer level wasn’t a proof of strength, but rather like earning reputation points.
The highest level jobs naturally paid the most money, and the people you could interact with were also gradually more influential.
Whether you used these connections to build your network or as a stepping stone to a higher level, it was all up to you.
As for taking on dangerous jobs when you weren’t strong enough…
the Adventurers’ Guild would only give you necessary warnings, and they didn’t care if you lived or died.
Anyway, if a quest wasn’t completed within the time limit, it would be re-posted until someone finished it.
Ethan was like that Goblin Slayer, who gained his reputation through the sheer volume of quests he completed.
This was because of a simple principle: stockpile grain and wait to become king.
If you don’t have enough strength, don’t act like a big shot.
In this world, monsters and demons with “first-sight kill” abilities are as common as carp in a river.
Those who boasted about starting with the highest difficulty quests right from the beginning tend to die very quickly.
Ethan, who understood the wisdom of playing it safe from his previous life, was like that.
It’s just that not many people in this world understood this principle, otherwise the number of mages above Fifth Class wouldn’t even reach five digits, and they were still far from it.
Young people don’t know the immensity of the world, but elves do, and Ethan does too.
As his strength grew, he became more humble.
When he first met Frieren, he thought she was strong, and now he had only reached the point of thinking, “Damn, Master is really, really strong.” His short-term goal was to at least reach a point where he could understand why Frieren was so strong.
And his long-term goal, of course, was to shout as loudly as possible, surpass Flamme, surpass Série, and also surpass Himmel.
As for Frieren…
his goals were already set on Série, so what else was there to say?
Looking back now, when he first left his mountain village, he thought he wanted the world to remember his name.
But looking at Frieren, he realized that this idea was fundamentally flawed.
People might remember your name, but they might not even know you were the savior they talked about every day when you walked past them.
It’s better to live in the present.
Becoming invincible is an ideal that works in any world.
…
After passing the border, visible chaos was everywhere.
There were crowds of refugees, and some even died on the road from severe injuries.
Frieren would usually help these seriously injured people as much as she could, even though her Goddess magic wasn’t as good as a cleric’s.
“If it were Himmel and Heiter, they would definitely tell us to do this too,” Frieren said before Ethan could ask.
But that was all she could do.
If Ethan hadn’t been in charge of hunting game, Frieren would have gone hungry.
She really couldn’t provide any more help to the refugees.
Fortunately, the two of them were basically traveling light, and their magic item suitcases also provided a visual aid, making the refugees believe they were doing their best to help them.
So, as they walked, they were met with gratitude, not resentment.
This was human nature.
Ethan and Frieren wouldn’t bet on it, because as long as they were human, they would want others to help them without asking for anything in return.
As Ethan saw more and more dead people, he lost his mood for joking.
Having lived two lives, he had never truly witnessed such a large-scale war scene, nor the true sight of people preying on each other.
The destruction brought by Minus was just the first cause, followed by the cruel struggle for survival among people, which was the second layer of effect.
And the third layer of cause was the gradual distortion of human nature.
Frieren was already used to it.
She had seen worse.
But Ethan hadn’t.
While his sheltered life had improved his strength, his mindset was still that of an ordinary person.
He even had nightmares at night.
In his dream, he transformed back into an ordinary person living on Blue Star.
He witnessed with his own eyes his orphanage being engulfed by a giant meteor summoned by elves whose faces were indistinguishable.
He couldn’t pick up a weapon, had no magic, and couldn’t even lead others to escape.
He could only watch the meteor slowly approach.
Finally, everything turned to nothing.
Ethan suddenly opened his eyes.
The vast expanse of stars filled the night sky before him.
His back was completely drenched in sweat.
For five seconds after waking up, he still couldn’t shake off the nightmare.
Until a cool, small hand gently touched his forehead, wiping away his sweat.
He also noticed that he seemed to be lying on a pair of soft thighs.
“Master…
I’m so dirty…” Since arriving in the war zone, neither of them had had the chance to clean themselves.
Normally, as a warrior traveling around, he could smell a strange odor on himself.
And Frieren had never disliked this smell.
“Oh my, so young, and you still care about that?” A gentle warmth entered his mind from her palm, quickly calming his somewhat panicked heart.
“Are you feeling any better now?” He never expected that the usually unreliable Frieren also had such a gentle side.
“No…” “Don’t worry, Master is here.
Even a man as strong as a mountain, if you’re tired, it’s perfectly fine to act spoiled with Master.” Ethan couldn’t see Frieren’s expression at all.
He could only stare blankly at the myriad of stars in the night sky.
In the past, on Blue Star, his understanding of Frieren was always…
she didn’t seem to understand people’s hearts.
But now, it seemed like it wasn’t quite like what the anime said.
The Frieren in this real world was more humane than he had imagined.
“I swear, Master, this is the last time.” “You’re still a child.
If you need to cry a few more times, Master can lend you her shoulder.” “…Did I cry just now?” “No, you didn’t.” “Then what the heck are you talking about!” —