On the Lake

"Haha...! This is so much fun! Frieren, how's it going?"

Lowell was being swung around in the air by a huge, sucker-covered octopus tentacle, making a whooshing sound, while laughing loudly. He was being tossed around like a rag doll, his hair and robes flying wildly in the air currents.

Beside her, Frieren was in the same predicament, entangled by another tentacle and tracing an even larger arc in the air. Every now and then, she would be violently slammed into the lake, splashing up large sprays of water and getting completely soaked, her silver hair clinging to her cheeks.

"Hmm..." Even as she was thrown to the highest point again, she still had the composure to compare, "Higher than the swing you pushed."

"..." Fern was also caught in a slightly thinner tentacle, and was being tossed around in irregular circles in the air by the tentacle's wild movements. She tried to cast a spell, but the violent shaking made it impossible for her to keep her balance.

"... Can we stop playing now? I can't cast spells like this... My head is so dizzy..."

Methode, on another tentacle, was surprisingly composed, even taking the time to tidy her wind-blown sideburns.

"I find it quite interesting too."

Liletta was also entangled by a tentacle. She neither struggled nor attempted to cast a spell, but simply swayed with an expressionless face. Her golden eyes gazed at the churning lake below, and she murmured, "... Incomprehensible."

Five top-tier experts were treated like toys by a lake monster called "Kraken," and were tossed around in mid-air, completely disoriented.

"This is so much fun!" Lowell's voice drifted in the wind, yet it carried a pure excitement. "A swing can't compare to this! This is like a Ferris wheel and a pirate ship combined, and it's a VR immersive experience! Fern, do you want to try purifying it? We've got a land mount, so we need one for the lake! Coridor Lake is bigger than some inland seas; if we tame it, maybe it can even escort fishing boats in the future!"

Fern's voice was weak, tinged with dizziness and resignation. "... That's true, but I can't concentrate on casting spells right now. Please, Frieren, do it."

Upon hearing this, Frieren's eyes lit up, and a smile bloomed on her wet face.

"Oh! I'll do it!"

After a while...

On the still stormy lake, the enormous Kraken floated docilely. Its broad, flat, pale golden head, covered with suckers, emerged from the water.

Five people sat on its head.

"This 'Kraken' was clearly reddish-brown just now," Fern asked, wringing out the water from the hem of his robe. "Why has it turned light gold now?"

"Octopuses are creatures that change color according to their mood, right? 'Kraken' is probably an octopus, hmm." Lowell flicked the water droplets from his hair and answered casually.

"I see, that's strange."

The lake breeze was still quite strong, carrying moisture and coolness. Fern's long, pale purple hair was blown backward.

Lowell raised his hand and pressed it down on the heads of the group. A hemispherical transparent barrier silently unfolded, effectively isolating them from the onslaught of rain and splashing water.

"Although you explained that you were admiring the scenery," Fern said, looking at the gray, turbulent lake outside the barrier, her voice returning to its usual flat tone, "In this stormy weather, you can't see anything at all. You're wasting your magic power maintaining such a large barrier to keep out the rain; you might as well go and rest in your alternate dimension."

Lowell sat cross-legged at the very front, deliberately taking his place at the edge of the barrier, half his body inside and half leaning out, letting the fishy lake wind slap directly against his face, causing his hair and robes to flutter wildly. Upon hearing this, he turned his head, his face displaying that bright smile that Fern knew so well, one that carried a hint of "you don't understand."

"Fern, you don't understand," his voice sounded exceptionally clear in the wind, even deliberately raised, "The storm is a man's romance!"

Fern raised his eyes, his pale purple pupils looking at him quietly, and blinked.

"I am a woman."

Lowell: "..."

He opened his mouth, then choked.

Frieren sat beside him, slowly drying her wet hair with a dry towel she'd somehow produced. Seeing this, she immediately raised a hand, the towel still covering her head, and cheerfully chimed in, "Romantic! Romantic!"

Lowell instantly revived, a big smile returning to his face. He turned to look at Frieren, his eyes shining.

"Hehe, my Frieren really understands me! She's giving me face! She's supporting me! Wait, watch me show you my special talent!"

As he spoke, he casually waved his hand beside him, pulling out a streamlined, wide skateboard from the alternate dimension. It looked like a combination of metal and some kind of dark hardwood.

Holding his skateboard, he took two running steps over Kraken's smooth head, then leaped into the turbulent lake like a cannonball.

"My skateboard rides the waves, today I will conquer the raging sea!" He stood on one foot on the skateboard, violently bouncing on the crest of the waves to adjust his balance. His voice pierced through the wind and rain, each word forcefully thrown into the storm.

"Storm, you are but a stubborn rock that tempers my heart! Watch me crush your majesty with this skateboard!"

"While others cower in fear, I dance with it on the crest of the wave! This is the enlightenment of one who sees the truth!"

He rode his skateboard, frantically weaving and leaping through the surging waves, sometimes being tossed to the crest of a wave, sometimes crashing into the trough. His movements seemed clumsy, yet he always managed to regain his balance, all the while shouting words that made one's cheeks burn with a kind of primal passion.

Fern: "..."

She watched silently for a while, then looked away and turned to Methode beside her. Methode was also watching Lowell "dancing" in the waves with great interest, a gentle yet inquisitive smile on her face.

"Mr. Lowell has this side to him?" Methode asked softly.

Fern let out a soft breath and shook his head.

He's not usually like this.

Frieren had dried her hair, crumpled the towel and stuffed it back into the unknown corner, then sat with her knees drawn up to her chest on Kraken's cool, smooth skin, her emerald eyes following the tiny black dot on the crest of the wave.

"Hmm..." She tilted her head, her silver hair sliding to one side with the movement, and said slowly, "Sometimes he suddenly becomes like this. He talks about 'men's romance' or 'seeing the truth,' things that leave you speechless. He's like a completely different person. And, I always feel like when he says these things, his eyes are looking elsewhere, like he's thinking about Himmel and Ruby."

Upon hearing this, Fern thought for a moment and nodded slightly.

"Those two gentlemen's words don't seem strange at all."

Frieren smiled but didn't say anything. She simply rested her chin on her knees, her gaze following the black dots on the crest of the wave.

"Sometimes, he can be quite different."

Fern gazed at his master's quiet profile, remained silent for a moment, and then softly hummed in agreement.

"Alright. After all, the time I've known you two is probably less than a fraction of the content of your Book of Life, probably only a few thin pages. It's normal that there are some parts I don't understand."

Frieren turned her head, her emerald eyes looking at her, the watery light within them appearing exceptionally clear against the gray sky. The curve of her lips was faint, but present, and her tone was as natural as stating a fact.

Even though it's only a few pages long, Fern is one of the most important people to me.

Fern's eyes widened suddenly.

Her pale purple pupils suddenly contracted, and her cheeks flushed crimson at a visible speed. She even subconsciously raised her hand, her fingertips touching her lower lip, and her voice lost its usual steady tone.

"Huh?! Lady Frieren... you... you're such a smooth talker?!"

Seeing her unusually flustered state, Frieren seemed to feel even better. She slightly raised her chin, trying to straighten her chest and adopt a "mature and reliable" posture, although being soaking wet and sitting on the head of a giant octopus completely ruined the effect.

"Hmph... I've always been a very charming older sister."

Methode immediately clapped enthusiastically, her eyes crinkling into crescents, her voice filled with undisguised affection.

"Mmm! Miss Frieren is the cutest!"

Frieren: "..."

She abruptly turned her face back, pretending to be engrossed in watching the "skateboarding performance" on the lake, and subtly moved closer to Fern, trying to use her apprentice's shoulder to block the burning gaze from her side and rear.

Fern's blush hadn't faded yet, but seeing her master's immediate cowering, a hint of a smile flickered in her eyes. She took a deep breath of the slightly warm, dry air from within the barrier, trying to restore her voice to its usual steady tone, and changed the subject.

"By the way, Lady Frieren."

"Um?"

She took out a small, carefully wrapped package from her purse—which, though soaked, seemed to have been magically waterproofed. She opened it; it was empty.

My pudding is missing. Have you seen it?

Frieren's back straightened almost imperceptibly. She didn't turn around, still gazing at the lake, but her emerald eyes glanced quickly to the side before snapping back to a distant wave.

"... have no idea."

She said her voice was a notch lower than usual and a little unsteady.

Fern watched her quietly without saying a word, but simply handed the empty oil paper package forward again.

A few seconds passed.

"Really?" Fern asked again, his voice steady, but his gaze remained fixed on Frieren's profile, which she was trying to hide.

Frieren pursed her lips, tilted her head to the other side, and let her silver hair fall down, trying to cover her ears, which seemed to be getting hot.

"... Um."

She gave her final answer with a short syllable, then shut her mouth tightly, her gaze fixed on a certain spot on the lake, as if a treasure island without Mimics was about to rise there.