Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End.
It was an anime that had started airing before Yakumo transmigrated.
He’d heard its reputation was excellent.
Unfortunately, he hadn’t watched it.
He had planned to wait until the season finished airing and binge the entire thing in one go.
Who could have expected him to transmigrate first?
Of course, he didn’t intend to start watching it now through the system browser either.
Some worlds were more interesting when the future remained unknown.
That was especially true for a world centered around heroes journeying to defeat a Demon King.
Perhaps the journey itself mattered more than the result.
Unless it was somewhere like Arknights, where every other person seemed determined to speak in riddles, Yakumo actually enjoyed discovering things naturally.
Knowing every plot point in advance was like riding a cable car straight up and down a mountain without spending any time at the summit.
Yakumo didn’t know the Hero of the South personally.
He only vaguely remembered that such a character existed.
When Yakumo invited him to stay for lunch, the man didn’t refuse.
Instead, he sat down as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
“You don’t seem particularly surprised by what I said.”
Yakumo’s lack of reaction actually made the Hero of the South curious.
“Most people would assume I was spouting nonsense after hearing something like that.”
“Maybe I’m just well-informed?”
Yakumo served him a bowl of rice.
“You probably have some kind of future-sight magic, right?”
“Oh, by future sight, I mean magic that predicts the future.”
“You sounded far too certain about everything you said.”
“This is quite a novel experience.”
The Hero of the South looked amused.
“I didn’t expect you to believe me so easily, much less deduce that much immediately.”
“Then are you curious about the Frieren I mentioned?”
“If you want to tell me, you will whether I ask or not.”
Yakumo began serving his own rice.
“But I’ll cooperate and ask anyway.”
The Hero of the South let out a helpless sigh.
“I genuinely can’t decide whether you’re easy to get along with or simply far too casual.”
“Frieren the Slayer.”
“I have seen her ultimately defeat the Demon King.”
“I came here today because I wanted to see whether I could invite her to travel with me.”
“On my way here, I never saw a future in which I met you.”
“But after seeing you…”
“It was as though another outcome appeared.”
“A future with a different path.”
The Hero of the South looked at Yakumo.
“Perhaps you are an unpredictable variable.”
“I am the approaching storm.”
Yakumo immediately fired back.
The Hero of the South stared at him in confusion. The source of this chapter is g.com.
Yakumo gave an awkward laugh.
“Never mind.”
“Will staying here with me interfere with your search for Frieren? She shouldn’t be that easy to find, right?”
“It won’t.”
“According to what I’ve seen, that great mage rather likes staying in one place.”
“She’s somewhere inside this forest.”
The Hero of the South was quite talkative.
He shared a surprising amount of information with Yakumo.
“This meal was delicious. I’ve never tasted anything like it before.”
The Hero of the South helped clean up the dishes.
He didn’t know how to use chopsticks, so Yakumo had given him a spoon.
“It’s rather unfortunate to think this will be the last time I eat it.”
“The last time?”
Yakumo frowned.
“If you want more, I don’t mind making it again.”
The Hero of the South merely smiled instead of directly answering.
“I’ll explain when we meet Frieren.”
“Perhaps bringing you along will help me persuade her.”
That was what he said.
But Yakumo could clearly sense that the man held no real hope of success.
After cleaning up, Yakumo followed the Hero of the South deeper into the forest.
Along the way, the Hero displayed astonishing strength.
Yakumo joined his party and leeched an impressive amount of experience.
At this point, Yakumo didn’t even have a decent support skill to contribute.
Even so, not a single magical beast they encountered lasted more than two attacks against the Hero of the South.
Simply sharing the experience brought Yakumo all the way to Level 35.
“At last, I’ve found you, Frieren.”
The Hero of the South stopped in front of a tree.
“I want to invite you to join me in defeating the Demon King and ending this era ruled by demons.”
Someone was crouching in front of him with her back turned.
No. More accurately, she was an elf.
She had the pointed ears typical of her race.
Her long silver hair was tied into twin tails behind her head.
From Yakumo’s angle, he couldn’t see what kind of clothes she wore.
She was currently wrapped in a long cloak, rather than wearing the outfit shown in the illustrations he’d seen online.
Frieren rejected the Hero of the South’s invitation without even turning around.
“I refuse.”
“I can’t defeat the Demon King.”
“Hmm… So it really doesn’t work…”
The Hero of the South pinched his chin between his index finger and thumb.
He didn’t look surprised at all.
“As expected. I simply don’t possess the ability to convince you.”
Only then did Frieren look back, revealing her delicate features.
“As a matter of fact, I did know.”
The Hero of the South chuckled.
He stood beside Frieren and glanced sideways at her.
After a moment, he continued.
“…I suppose there’s no harm in telling you.”
“Is that so?”
Frieren subtly glanced at Yakumo.
“There’s someone else here, though.”
She couldn’t sense any trace of mana from him.
Was he an attendant?
A porter, perhaps?
“It’s fine.”
“He’ll eventually become one of your traveling companions too.”
“And as it happens, this concerns my magic.”
“Even if I tell you, I doubt you’ll tell anyone else.”
“Besides, he figured it out the moment he met me.”
The Hero of the South’s words made Frieren examine Yakumo again.
Nothing.
She still couldn’t tell anything.
For a brief moment, Frieren wondered whether she’d spent so long inside this forest that her perception had somehow deteriorated.
“I can see the future.”
The Hero of the South stopped being mysterious and explained directly.
“This magic is what allowed me to become humanity’s strongest warrior.”
“In the future, one year from now, I will be on the Northern Plateau, where I will face Schlacht the Omniscient and the Seven Sages of Destruction…”
“I will be surrounded and killed.”
“Huh?!”
Yakumo stared at him in disbelief.
Normally, future prediction became heavily distorted when someone attempted to see events involving their own fate.
Yet the Hero of the South could directly see his own death?
More importantly…
He could speak about such an ending so calmly.
There wasn’t even the slightest hint of despair on his face.
Defeating the Demon King was genuinely considered a “great deed” in this world.
If the Hero of the South truly was humanity’s strongest, how could he possibly feel no resentment at all toward dying this way?
“I will perish on the road to defeating the Demon King.”
“Even if you accompany me, that outcome will not change.”
As he said this, the Hero of the South actually smiled.
“But not long afterward, a young Hero will come to find you.”
“He will be the one who saves the world.”
“I suppose I’m a little jealous.”
His words said one thing.
Yet the smile never left his face.