Liberation Festival

Engu Path.

This is the mandatory path leading to the next town.

As the group chatted while walking, an elderly driver approached from the opposite direction.

Seeing their attire and stepping forward to confirm that Rienta and his companions were adventurers, he wanted to commission them for help.

The road ahead was completely blocked by a landslide, making it impassable for carriages.

The vehicle owner offered to hire the group with silver coins to clear the road, although they were not short on money right now.

However, Fern whispered a few words to Frieren and then accepted the commission.

The group followed the old man to the site of the landslide.

Since Stark could not use magic, he could only clear the rubble with a shovel, clearing the spot together with Frieren.

Rienta and Fern were on the opposite side of the obstruction.

Stark worked blindly for half an hour, then asked somewhat puzzledly: "I mean, do we need to do this kind of thing?"

"Does Stark have a question about the reward?" Frieren's stone-clearing motion did not stop.

"It's not a question of the reward." Stark put down his shovel and continued: "You guys can use magic to move the carriage across, right?"

"Didn't you pay attention to what Fern said?" Frieren looked at Stark curiously:

"Using magic is fine, but the rubble will still obstruct the people who come later."

Having said that, Frieren looked at Stark with a smile: "Stark really is willful."

"I especially don't want to be told that by you."

Stark replied somewhat gloomily.

After all, Frieren went and provoked a dragon just because of a grimoire.

Two and a half mages plus a warrior who could single-handedly defeat a giant dragon cleared things away quite quickly.

After another half hour, the obstruction on the road was completely cleared.

After settling the reward, the client said:

"Thank you all very much. Are you heading to the town for supplies? If you don't mind, let me lead the way."

"Sorry for the trouble then."

Frieren knew the way, but that was also from a century ago; now that there was a local who could guide them, they had no reason to refuse and readily accepted.

On the way to the town.

The client only then noticed Frieren's prominent feature and inquired: "You're an elf."

"This is my first time seeing one with my own eyes after living for so long."

Frieren was not surprised by this and calmly said: "Mm, elves are relatively rare."

Rienta and Fern had traveled with Frieren for so long and indeed had not seen any other elves.

Fern nodded in agreement and said: "I haven't seen any elves other than Lady Frieren."

Mentioning elves, Frieren unusually opened up.

"The number of elves is extremely small, and even I haven't seen many times."

Saying this, Frieren silently added a sentence in her heart: Except for the Elf Village.

"Elves have long lifespans, but basically every elf has the problem of emotional detachment to varying degrees. Therefore, elves are slowly marching toward extinction."

"The last time I saw one of my kind was already four hundred years ago, so we might become extinct soon."

Frieren's voice was very flat.

Rienta's heart, however, suffered a shock. Judging by an elf's lifespan, even if elves had the problem of emotional detachment as Frieren said—

After all, Frieren lived from the Mythical Era until now, and other elves would not be too much worse off even if they were not as good as Frieren.

So, either the number of elves has always been very small, or they were wiped out by some irresistible force...

While speaking, the group could already see the town.

The scale of the town was not large, but there were many carriages full of goods lined up at the entrance.

Fern said with emotion: "So many carriages, is there some kind of festival today?"

"The Liberation Festival is being held tonight." The old man explained with a beaming smile.

"It's to commemorate the day Hero Himmel liberated this place from the demons."

Frieren did not quite understand: "Humans really love making a fuss over nothing, celebrating everything."

The old man chuckled lightly and continued: "Although demons being defeated is already eighty years ago—which is enough time for humans to forget anything—on this day, everyone still remembers Lord Himmel and the others."

"People throughout the entire city will sing and dance around the statue of Lord Himmel's party in the central plaza."

Rienta: "??"

Along the way, Rienta had already seen quite a few statues of the hero party, among which Frieren's statue and the current Frieren could not be said to have no difference, only that they were identical.

Yet few people could directly recognize that Frieren was the Frieren from the hero party.

This was very isekai; Rienta did not understand, but he chose to respect it.

"Let's enter the city and find an inn first." Frieren said softly.

The group temporarily parted ways with the old man and promised to attend the Liberation Festival together in the evening.

After finding an inn in the town, they awaited the arrival of evening.

Dusk.

Rienta and the others followed the flow of people to the central plaza.

A dazzling array of various snacks and vendors surrounded the plaza in a circle.

The people in the center of the plaza were dancing around the statue.

Frieren looked at the statue in the center of the plaza that had already been decorated, somewhat dazed.

Himmel often had statues made of himself, and once remade one five times for the sake of a perfect statue.

She had once asked why, and Himmel had said this:

"Unlike you, after all, we don't have such long lives. It wouldn't do not to leave my handsome and dashing appearance to future generations."

"Still, the most important reason."

"Is probably so that you won't feel lonely in the future."

That old man also saw Rienta's group and walked up to them.

"We celebrate every year at this time."

Having said that, he looked at the statue with some emotion, suddenly realizing that the statue before him was so similar to the elf beside him.

"You look somewhat similar to Lady Frieren from the hero's party."

Is it possible that she is her? Rienta silently complained in his heart.

Since Frieren did not actively expose her identity, he would not go and say much.

Frieren did not answer the old man's question, but stared at the statue and asked softly: "Will this festival continue to exist a hundred years from now?"

"As long as this city still exists, the festival will exist." The old man did not think much and looked at the statue with emotion.

"A thousand years from now?"

"Then I wouldn't know."

Early the next morning.

Having replenished their supplies, the group continued forward toward the north.

Frieren walked at the very front, with Fern following behind her.

Rienta and Stark walked in the back.

Stark suddenly remembered that he hadn't asked about the goal of the journey since joining the party.

"Speaking of which, where is our destination?"

"We're going to Heaven." Frieren's voice came from the front.

Stark looked at Rienta beside him with some confusion.

Rienta chuckled lightly and explained: "It's the present Demon King's Castle—Ende."

"There is Aurevole, which is called Heaven, and it's said you can talk to the souls of the departed there."

"That sounds like it'll be interesting."

Stark was quite interested in heading to the Demon King's Castle.