Standing at the window watching the passersby below, Lara absentmindedly touched her own hair.
She slid her five fingers in near the roots and tugged gently to one side; the strands slipped from her fingertips like a black waterfall.
This is how fast a genius learns magic!
In order to look at least somewhat presentable when she met the Hero’s party, she had pulled an all-nighter to master Hair Care Magic, her face brimming with pride at her own talent — though the dark circles under her eyes also bore witness to everything that had happened the night before.
The crowd of onlookers lining the streets had been packed shoulder to shoulder since morning, and it wasn’t until nearly midday that they finally caught sight of the heroes.
Bathed in sunlight, the figures of the Hero’s party gradually came into focus, each one’s colors striking the eye with distinct personality.
Blue Himmel, red Eisen, black Heiter, and snow-white Frieren.
That snow-and-silver hair was tied up into twin tails, the strands at her temples swaying in the breeze.
For some reason, looking at Frieren, Lara was reminded of that same silver from a certain night, and a faint flush crept onto her cheeks.
Frieren, too, seemed to sense something; her gaze, sweeping over the surroundings, came to a halt right on Lara.
Noticing Frieren’s reaction, Lara — to cover her own embarrassment — leaned out of the window like the residents around her, waving her right hand toward the procession while letting out a cheer.
…
Once they had passed through the city gate, Frieren and Himmel and the rest stopped their idle chatter.
She simply walked, single-mindedly, while Himmel beside her busied himself with responding to the crowd.
Most of the crowd welcoming the procession were admirers of the Hero Himmel, and as a rule their gazes didn’t linger on Frieren for long.
But at one particular moment, she sensed a faint, concealed Magic power.
The technique used to hide that Magic power was rather mediocre and hadn’t slipped past her passive detection.
She also picked up sharply on that person’s line of sight — it had stayed fixed on her without ever moving away.
?
Frieren lifted her head and scanned the surrounding buildings, locating the source of that gaze — a little girl with black hair and crimson eyes.
Just like the ordinary people around her, she was waving and cheering at the advancing procession.
The unusual hair color and eye color left a strong impression — this ought to have been their first ever meeting, and yet it felt as though they had crossed paths somewhere before.
The strange sensation prompted Frieren to file the moment away in her mind.
The vast procession marched on through the cheers, gradually disappearing from view of the window.
Lara had no intention of going to meet the Hero’s party right away.
Every shut-in knows one thing: one of a transmigrator’s biggest advantages is foreknowledge of how the future will unfold.
Intervening too early with key figures could cause massive changes down the line — that’s the butterfly effect.
So she planned to wait until Frieren set out on her own and had begun her journey through the Central Nations before going to meet her.
…Even though she knew it would be far easier to win Frieren’s help with the Hero present.
What Lara wanted to avoid was any interference with the two important characters who would matter over the next fifty years — Eisen and Heiter.
The lives of Fern and Stark depended on it.
At this point in time, Frieren had yet to live through the events of later years, and her surface-level emotions were rather thin.
All Lara could do was give it her best shot.
Back in her room, Lara fetched a wooden basin and filled it with water, then began rehearsing the scene of meeting Frieren in front of her own reflection on its surface.
She kept pressing one hand to her chest while extending the other in front of her, palm turned upward, her expression doing its best to look pitiful with a sincere edge to it: “Frieren, I need you!” “No… that’s not right, is it?
Who do I even think I am?” Lara cringed at herself.
She slapped both palms against her cheeks and then squeezed hard.
Her mouth puckered from the pressure, and her voice came out muffled: “How could she possibly agree to a request that comes out of nowhere like that?
I need to phrase it differently.” Next, she tried switching to an even more pitiable pose.
“Frieren!
Could you do me a—” …
Time passed.
Lanterns and torches gradually lit up along the streets, and the cries of street vendors, the laughter of romping children, and the cheers of theatergoers rose and fell in turn.
Out on the street, the Hero’s party ate their complimentary dinner together, chatting and laughing, their faces radiating a hopeful anticipation for the life ahead of them.
Amid the easy conversation, the Era Meteor Shower arrived.
Lara, having ended her practice early, stood atop the city wall, watching the wonder that came once every half century.
Across the dark night sky, countless points of starlight streaked across the heavens.
This silent, magnificent fall raised the curtain on an age of peace; even her breathing slowed in the face of so utterly quiet a miracle, and she was completely absorbed in the sight.
As the rain of light thinned out, a voice called Lara back from her reverie.
“Hey — time to come down.
If anyone catches us up here, I’m the one who’ll get an earful.” A tawny-haired guard stood on the staircase with only his head poking up — clearly the same one who had inspected Lara at the city gate before.
As soon as he’d spoken, he turned around and headed back down.
“Alright, alright.” Lara chuckled softly.
She didn’t put the young fellow to any more trouble; she followed him down off the wall, then quietly slipped away while no one was looking and left the city.
The sun rose and the moon set.
The next morning, by the small river outside the city— Frieren bade her three friends farewell and set out on a journey to travel the nations.
After walking less than two li down the forest path, she suddenly gripped her staff in her right hand and spun around to face the source of the Magic power that had been tailing her.
“How about coming out?
You’ve followed me this far — what is it you’re actually after?” Ever since she had parted ways with Himmel and the others, something had been following her.
Judging by the minute, somewhat restrained Magic power, the possibility of it being a demon was essentially ruled out — and besides, this presence rang a bell.
Hearing Frieren’s words, Lara stepped out from behind a tree, a trace of awkwardness on her face.
…She still hadn’t worked out how to strike up a conversation with Frieren.
“Um… ah… Lady Frieren, I take it?” Lara crossed her hands over her stomach — it was the first time she’d ever stood that way.
Nervous and excited at once, she felt there was so much she wanted to say, and yet she couldn’t get any of it out.
“?” Frieren tilted her head.
The little girl in front of her seemed overly stiff and self-conscious — clearly not someone who had come with ill intent.
The atmosphere eased a little.
“Yes, I am the Frieren you’re referring to.
Did you need something?” Frieren lowered the hand holding her staff and asked the visitor what she wanted.
… Lara took a deep breath.
At a moment like this, her mind was actually clearer than she had expected.
First, she took a magic scroll out of her backpack — this was the ‘spell to make hair soft and smooth’ that she had copied out by hand the night before.
Frieren had a habit of collecting spells, and it wasn’t one she had picked up only after Himmel’s death.
Using this spell as payment would make things much easier to develop from here.
“This is a spell to make hair soft and smooth.” Lara held the scroll out to Frieren and then let her own Magic power flow free.
“In exchange, there’s something I’d like to ask of you, Lady Frieren.” In Frieren’s eyes, Lara’s Magic power was like a small stream, slowly rising and drifting up toward the sky.
For her age, it was — not weak.
That alone proved she at least had decent talent.
“You may speak frankly.
I’ll decide once I’ve heard what it is.” Frieren did not rush to take the magic scroll.
She was a little different from that Frieren in the anime; due to different experiences, the latter’s urgency about collecting spells was far greater than this Frieren’s was now.
Hearing Frieren say that actually set Lara at ease.
After all, her own problem at most counted as a nuisance — it could hardly be called dangerous.
Worst case, she could simply tag along with Frieren for part of the journey; Frieren was going to begin her tour of the Central Nations from this very Royal Capital — Inlan — and in the early stages their directions of travel were nearly identical.
“Then I’ll come right out and say it, Lady Frieren.
I’ve run into a rather significant problem on my path of magical training, and I was hoping you could give me some guidance.
If at all possible, I’d like to travel alongside you for the coming stretch of your journey.” Lara did not pull back the hand holding out the scroll.
Her eyes, fixed on Frieren, were filled with sincerity.
“Guidance aside for the moment — I cannot accept traveling with a mage’s apprentice who can’t yet stand on her own.
You’d only become a burden.” Frieren shook her head.
She had no wish to travel alongside someone who needed protecting — but that response didn’t dampen Lara’s spirits in the slightest.
She pressed the scroll into Frieren’s hand and gave a mysterious little smile.
“Just give me a moment.
Rest assured — I won’t hold you back in the slightest.” With that, she stepped behind the bushes nearby.
Before long, accompanied by the sound of metal scraping against metal, a walking iron can came out from within.
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