A Hundred Years

Another day passed.

The closer they drew to the royal capital, the flatter and wider the road became. Even the air seemed infused with the bustle and prosperity of the distant city. The fields along the road were carefully tended, and the spires of noble estates could occasionally be seen in the distance.

The party proceeded at an unhurried pace.

Ruby walked beside Frieren, her little face taut with concentration. She raised and lowered the hand holding her staff, a faint magical glow flickering at her fingertips as she tried to guide the wildflowers by the roadside. But the results were never quite what she wanted—either a few blades of grass reluctantly sprouted seed heads, or a few wildflowers bloomed and withered, then bloomed and withered again, repeating the cycle in a chaotic mess. It was a far cry from the perfectly natural sea of flowers Frieren had created in her imagination.

A few weeds suddenly shot up, but the flowers they produced were a strange purplish black and gave off a pungent, peculiar smell. Startled, she hurriedly waved them away.

An enormous sunflower appeared out of thin air, though its head was only the size of a face. Its stalk was as thin as a bean sprout and trembled as if it could barely support the flower.

She did manage to make a small patch of grass bloom with little blue flowers, but their shapes were crooked and their colors varied in shade, like a mischievous child's scribbles.

"Ugh... why isn't it working yet...? Adding the color change made it even harder. I could make normal flowers before..." Ruby pouted and kicked a pebble at her feet in frustration.

Frieren walked a few steps behind her, taking it all in. When she saw the misshapen sunflower, a faint hint of amusement flashed through her emerald eyes, but they quickly grew calm again.

After another failure, Ruby stamped her foot, fine beads of sweat appearing on her forehead.

Frieren glanced at her without breaking stride, her tone as calm as ever:

"There's no need to rush."

Ruby raised her head, unwillingness in her green eyes. "But Lady Frieren, you make it look so easy..."

Frieren looked toward the end of the road, as if gazing far into the distance. "When that woman first taught me, it was only ordinary Flower Field Magic."

She paused, as if recalling something.

"After that, I spent two hundred years refining it myself," Frieren continued, her voice betraying no particular emotion. "I observed the colors of petals under different lighting, recorded the effects of rain and wind on the shapes of flowers, and adjusted the rhythm of my mana infusion... That was how I gradually created the advanced Flower Field Magic you think is 'perfect.'"

"Two hundred years!?" Ruby nearly jumped, her eyes going wide. "Two hundred years just to change a spell?! Lady Frieren, don't tell me you're an old—"

Before she could finish saying "old woman," a cold gaze bearing an almost tangible pressure fixed on her.

Ruby shuddered violently, the rest of her words sticking in her throat. She cautiously looked up and met Frieren's placid green eyes. They were slightly narrowed now, and the corners of her mouth had even curved into an exceedingly kind smile as she gazed "gently" at Ruby.

The air seemed to freeze.

Ruby's little face instantly turned deathly pale, and cold sweat broke out in a rush. In the blink of an eye, she clapped both hands tightly over her mouth, making muffled noises as she shook her head like a rattle drum. Her eyes were full of the desperate survival instinct that said, I was wrong, I'll never do it again.

The "kind" smile remained on Frieren's face for three seconds before slowly fading. She looked away and faced forward again, as if nothing had happened.

"You're already learning very quickly," she remarked mildly, bringing the previous topic to a close.

Ruby let out a long sigh of relief and patted her chest, feeling the cold sweat that had broken out across her back. She trotted after Frieren, no longer daring to bring up anything to do with age, and merely muttered, "Two hundred years... Then I've still got a hundred and ninety-nine years and three hundred-odd days to go... Elves really have a scary sense of time..."

Himmel, who was walking a little ahead, seemed to hear the commotion behind him and looked back questioningly. Heiter also peered over curiously. Eisen remained silent.

Lowell walked on Frieren's other side, a barely noticeable smile playing at the corners of his mouth. He had clearly witnessed the whole thing, but said nothing.

Ruby was quiet for a while, but her unwilling gaze soon began wandering between the flowers and grass by the roadside and Frieren. Suddenly, as if she had spotted something, she pointed to a clump of plants not far away, where little pale-purple flowers bloomed in the shade of a tree.

"Look, Lady Frieren! Those flowers are pale purple in the shade, but where the sunlight hits them, the edges of their petals give off a little blue glow! How amazing!"

Frieren looked where she was pointing and nodded. "Yes. Those are Shadow Flowers. Their pigment reacts to light in a special way. To imitate that trait, you need precise control over how your mana changes the microscopic structure of the petals."

Ruby seemed to understand only partly, but her eyes grew brighter. "Mana... changes the structure?"

"Like this." Frieren casually raised her hand without even using her staff and lightly traced a line in the air with her fingertip.

The petals of an ordinary white daisy beside her began to shift and change color before their eyes, from pure white to pale pink, then to light gold, finally settling on a deep blue Ruby had never seen before, as if it held the light of stars. The edges of the petals also gave off a faint glow.

The whole process took no more than a second, natural and smooth as breathing.

Ruby stared, dumbfounded.

Frieren lowered her hand, and the daisy slowly returned to white. "Did you understand?"

Ruby shook her head honestly. "...No."

Frieren did not seem surprised. "So there's no need to rush."

Ruby looked at the daisy, now back to normal, then at Frieren's serene profile. Suddenly, those two hundred years seemed... not so hard to understand after all. She clenched her little fists, her fighting spirit rekindled.

"I understand, Lady Frieren! I'll keep practicing!" she said loudly, then added in a small voice, "...But I probably can't spend two hundred years on it."

Frieren did not respond, but sunlight fell across her, casting a soft halo around the edges of her silver hair. A gentle breeze brought the faint sound of bells from the distant royal capital and stirred the clump of Shadow Flowers by the roadside that had just briefly been illuminated.

Ruby took a deep breath. Instead of dwelling on succeeding immediately, she began to observe more carefully the subtle differences in every flower and every leaf along the way. Perhaps the true essence of magic was hidden in this seemingly ordinary roadside scenery, waiting to be captured with care rather than sheer effort.

Lowell watched the two figures beside him, one tall and one small, one as tranquil as an ancient well, the other as lively as a stream, the amusement in his eyes deepening. The journey seemed to have grown more interesting because of this little interlude and insight.

The outline of the royal capital was now clearly visible on the horizon.