Ghost

Frieren read the records about Heaven in the notebook.

Fern leaned behind Frieren, also looking at that notebook, and asked Frieren from time to time.

Sometimes Frieren answered her, and sometimes Eisen answered her.

Rienta listened quietly, without expressing his own opinion.

Unlike Fern, he did not care if a certain matter wasted too much of his time.

After all, in a sense, the time he had left would very likely be longer than that of an elf.

All in all.

Eisen's commission turned into having Frieren search for that Heaven—Aurevole.

Frieren also agreed.

The four of them boarded the carriage back to Eisen's house.

Frieren was a bit tired, leaning against Fern and falling asleep.

Only she was still muttering things like "the Demon King's Castle is too cold" and the like.

Fern felt the atmosphere was a bit awkward and shook Frieren's body, but received no response.

Frieren's movement of leaning against Fern turned into lying on Fern's lap.

"Let Lord Frieren rest a bit longer, Fern."

Rienta also felt a bit helpless seeing this scene.

But after all, this commission was completed very quickly, without taking several months like before.

It was just sleeping for a while in the carriage.

Eisen looked at the sleeping Frieren and his two disciples, and chuckled softly.

"Rienta, Fern."

"Is Frieren a good master?"

Fern said a lot, and Rienta knew she wanted to express that Frieren was a very good master.

Then what about for himself?

Strictly speaking, Frieren could not be considered a good master.

However, as far as the imparting, teaching, and resolving of doubts that a master should do were concerned, Frieren did not miss a single one for either himself or Fern.

Frieren did very well at teaching students in accordance with their aptitude.

Fern had talent as a mage, so she taught her magic.

Although he had out-of-spec healing magic, she did not demand that he must specialize in healing magic.

She let him go practice swordsmanship and research those flashy magic spells.

Fern and Eisen looked at the deep-in-thought Rienta, not disturbing him.

"Lord Frieren, she."

"Is a very good master."

Rienta gave his own answer.

The conversation among the three came to a temporary pause here.

Seeing this, Rienta also leaned against the carriage shafts for a short nap, until Fern called out to wake him up.

In front of Eisen's house.

"Eisen, are you really not coming with us?" Frieren asked with some expectation.

"I am already old, Frieren."

"But my disciple is also a very excellent warrior, you can consider him."

Rienta recalled Eisen easily lifting a boulder several people high in the forest earlier; that looked nothing like being old at all.

"I'll go find him." Frieren replied.

Eisen sighed: "Do you still remember how to get to Ende, Frieren?"

"Mm, I remember." Frieren did not quite understand why Eisen asked this question.

"First to Wille, then cross Riegel Canyon, and then it will be the checkpoint of the Northern Lands, right?"

Eisen said apologetically to Rienta and Fern:

"It took the hero's party a full ten years to reach Ende."

"Sorry about that, Fern, Rienta."

"This is going to be a long journey."

With a somewhat complicated mood, Rienta's gaze swept over the three of them one by one.

Originally, Frieren's journey was to visit the traces of where she and Himmel had adventured, before they weathered away.

The new commission was also to go to the Demon King's Castle.

Rienta always felt something was a bit strange, but seeing the three of them chatting happily, he did not say much else.

After chatting, the few of them said their goodbyes to each other.

Eisen returned to the small cabin.

Rienta and the two of them embarked on the new (original) journey.

On the road, Fern said with some emotion:

"The time spent together with Lord Frieren has already taken up half of my current life."

"From now on it will become even more." Frieren's tone was flat.

Rienta was long since used to Frieren occasionally saying very touching words.

Because the dull elf still did not quite understand the meaning of time to humans.

"Has it been nearly ten years since coming to this world?"

Wille Region of the Central Countries.

Rienta and the two of them luckily caught a hitchhiked ride heading towards a town.

After purchasing supplies and preparing to leave the city to continue their journey, the party was stopped by a stall owner.

"Are you planning to go along the mountain path?"

"Several people have gone missing there."

Frieren's footsteps stopped, and she called out to ask the stall owner:

"Are there monsters active?"

The stall owner arranged the goods in his hands, and only then said to Frieren:

"I heard they are ghosts, and someone saw them with their own eyes."

"You'll have to go ask those eyewitnesses for the specific details."

After Frieren thanked the stall owner, she decided not to travel for the time being, and the three of them scattered to inquire about news of the ghosts.

Near dusk, the three reunited in Rienta's room and pooled the information each had gathered.

"So, they are ghosts that can turn into one's own family members and even speak?"

Rienta summarized the information and arrived at this answer.

Fern looked at the relaxed Frieren, and asked curiously:

"Does Lord Frieren already know what the cause is?"

Frieren picked up the items purchased earlier, yawned, got up, and prepared to return to her own room, saying before leaving:

"They're just a bunch of guys with bad taste, nothing to worry about."

But Frieren had no intention of continuing to explain; she wanted to sleep.

Fern and Rienta exchanged a glance, both feeling somewhat helpless.

"Then, Fern should rest early too."

"Good night, Brother Rienta."

Fern also returned to her room.

Seeing that Frieren did not care about the so-called ghosts, Rienta also breathed a sigh of relief.

It was just ghosts or something; Rienta was not afraid.

Yet after hearing about the ghost matter, Rienta's mind kept flashing back to things like wedding dresses, red embroidered shoes, and the like that he had seen in his past life.

However, he had been nervous for quite a while, so he had also exerted himself immensely when inquiring for news earlier.

Rienta did not turn off the lamp, lying directly on the bed, wanting to fall asleep as quickly as possible yet having no sleepiness at all, feeling always as though something in the dark was watching him.

Pondering for a moment, he released projection magic to condense a saber and a sword, placing them by the bedside.

Only then did he feel slightly more at ease.

Wrapping the quilt tightly around himself without leaving a single gap, Rienta fell into a deep sleep.

Early the next morning, the three arrived at the place where the villagers had vanished.

The residual Illusion Magic allowed Frieren to confirm her own thought.

Only then did she introduce the specific information of the ghosts to Rienta and Fern.

"Ainzam."

"Particularly cunning and greedy even among monsters of the same type, and they feed exclusively on humans. They will morph into someone extremely important to a person based on that human's memories."

"However, the phantoms are very fragile, and can be resolved just by releasing attack magic."

Fern followed behind Frieren, and said thoughtfully: "So as long as we launch attacks on the phantoms, that's fine, right?"

"Yes," Frieren gave an affirmative reply, then asked: "Can you bring yourselves to strike?"

"Of course I can."

"They're just imposters."