Chapter Summaries

Lowell showed Ruby and the others Radaal’s memories of the Shadow Warriors, who spent decades posing as a family in a village and gradually formed real attachments. The scene ended with Radaal grieving the death of Big Brother, while Lowell explained that their forgotten mission had turned their make-believe family into something real.

• Lowell explained that the Shadow Warriors were a covert group of enhanced warriors who assassinated mages, and identified Rain, Hawk-Eye, and Hawk-Eye’s lover as former members.
• Lowell conjured a screen showing Radaal and other Shadow Warriors infiltrating a village as a family, where they lived ordinary lives between assassination missions.
• Big Brother married the grocer’s daughter and raised a child, while he and Radaal grew close as decades passed.
• Dad and Radaal discussed how the village had become home and whether they wanted their mission to end, as Dad admitted that their life together had not been so bad.
• Lowell showed Radaal visiting Big Brother shortly before his death and grieving beside his bed.
• Lowell concluded that the Shadow Warriors had been forgotten and that their decades-long game of make-believe had finally become real.

Lowell left the decision about Radaal to Himmel, and the group departed the village the next morning. Radaal remained behind, and his wife’s ambiguous reply suggested she might have known about the letters all along.

• Ruby reflected on Radaal and the assassins, and Lowell compared their lack of education with Demons while saying he would not get involved.
• Lowell left Radaal’s fate to Himmel, who told everyone to rest before their journey and volunteered to keep watch.
• The group left the village without visiting the Village Chief’s house, while Ruby glanced back at it.
• Radaal stood in his courtyard as his wife asked whether he would check for a letter; he asked if she had always known, and she neither confirmed nor denied it.
• Radaal watched the morning sky, then sat beneath the eaves and closed his eyes after the adventurers had disappeared.

Ubel visited Lanto in his village and followed him after he tried to leave, prompting him to reveal why he had stayed there for five years. She offered him a team mission from the Continental Magic Association, and Lanto left with her after agreeing to consider it.

• Ubel arrived at Lanto’s home, teased him about using Clone Magic, and said she had come to get to know him better.
• Lanto packed his belongings and slipped out through a window to leave the village, but Ubel followed him to his grandmother’s grave.
• Lanto told Ubel that his grandmother had raised him and that he had remained in the village because he wanted to stay by her side.
• Ubel gave Lanto a mission notice from the Continental Magic Association and said the team consisted of her and him.
• Lanto agreed to go with Ubel, and the two set off along the mountain path after he read the notice.

In the imperial capital, Frieren reluctantly accepted a summons to join a major mission after Lowell promised to buy her magical tools. Sense and Falsh explained that nine First-Class Mages would protect Serie at a palace ball where she might be assassinated.

• Frieren sobbed over losing the chance to shop during the National Day festival, and Ruby and Lowell comforted her.
• Lowell promised Frieren that his clone had already bought magical tools and that she could choose whatever she wanted later, calming her down.
• Sense told Frieren that her status as a First-Class Mage meant she was expected to answer the mission summons.
• Falsh explained that Lanto and Ubel had left to gather intelligence, while Brugge and Serie were expected to join the advance party.
• Sense and Falsh revealed that the mission was to protect Serie at the palace ball in three days, where an assassination attempt was considered possible.

Lowell explained that his Future Sight had shown a future in which Serie died, though he warned that events might have changed and the mastermind could also block foresight. The group discussed how a warrior might assassinate Serie and whether their planned close-range guards and barriers would be enough.

• Lowell said he had summoned Himmel and the others because he had once foreseen Serie's death, but the future might have changed.
• Lowell explained that magic or tools could block Future Sight, and Frieren said she could not imagine anyone defeating Serie directly.
• Frieren warned that a warrior could kill a mage at close range before the mage could cast a spell, prompting Fern to jokingly hide behind Frieren and Lowell.
• Sense said she and Falsh would guard Serie at close range, while Brugge's Unshakable Garment could provide barriers.
• Lowell cautioned that a warrior trained to fight mages might be able to break through a barrier, and Sense considered the possibility of warriors in the shadows.

Ubel and Lanto traveled to a National Day banquet to retrieve documents about an assassination plan that Linel had hidden in a storeroom. They arrived at the mansion ready to infiltrate the gathering disguised as nobles.

• Ubel asked Lanto why the Empire and the Continental Magic Association were at odds, and he explained that both sides were powerful and secretive.
• Lanto explained that they wore formal clothes to blend in with the nobles attending National Day celebrations.
• Ubel asked why Linel could not retrieve or send the documents herself, and Lanto said her sensitive position and the documents’ confidentiality made that too risky.
• Ubel recalled seeing Linel watching butterflies and flowers at the northern branch, and Lanto remarked that Ubel had been strange to watch her all day.
• Lanto and Ubel arrived near the mansion, and he told her to mind her words and behavior before they entered.

Lanto and Ubel infiltrated a banquet storeroom to search for documents, but two members of the Empire’s Magical Special Forces discovered them. After the guards mistook their staged closeness for a romantic encounter, they recognized that a badge had been torn off someone and stormed the room, only to find it empty.

• Lanto and Ubel entered the banquet hall posing as a married couple, and Lanto stole a guest’s badge as they made their way to the storeroom.
• Lanto and Ubel searched the storeroom for documents until Ubel sensed guards approaching, and Lanto tried to persuade her to escape rather than fight.
• Lanto moved close to Ubel to make the guards hesitate when they opened the door, and Noi and Kanon mistook the pair for nobles sharing a private moment.
• Noi and Kanon recognized the badge as the Continental United Academy’s emblem, but Kanon later noticed its pin was bent as though it had been torn off by force.
• Kanon and Noi realized the badge might have been planted to mislead them, then blasted open the storeroom door and found Lanto and Ubel gone.

Lanto and Ubel were cornered in an alley by Noi, an agent of the Empire’s Magical Special Forces, and Lanto explained why the unit hunted mages. After Noi attacked and buried Lanto beneath collapsing masonry, Ubel confronted him and unleashed her cutting magic.

• Lanto told Ubel that the Magical Special Forces were the Empire’s strongest war-trained mages, tasked with hunting mages and suppressing unrest.
• Noi approached through the alley, and Lanto recalled his mother facing an officer before warning Ubel that they were being pursued.
• Noi used an invisible force to collapse a three-story section of wall onto Lanto’s position, while Ubel leaped clear.
• Noi ordered Ubel to surrender, but she ignored him and asked whether Lanto was alive beneath the rubble.
• Ubel suddenly appeared in front of Noi and slashed at his neck, cutting through the stone barriers he moved to protect himself.

Ubel fought Noi among the festival ruins, binding him with her gaze before he cut off her sight and mana perception. She used sound and air currents to seize him and call Lanto out, but Lanto emerged and refused to take part in her gamble.

• Noi attacked Ubel with flying wreckage, but she bound him with Gaze-Binding Magic and rushed to confront him.
• Noi escaped the binding by obscuring Ubel’s view and sealed off her sight and mana perception.
• Ubel navigated the darkness by sound and air currents, disarmed Noi’s attack, and grabbed his tie and baton.
• Ubel called to Lanto and exposed Noi to a possible shot, but Noi threatened to kill her if Lanto acted.
• Lanto stepped out from behind a broken wall and told Ubel he could not take part in her gamble.

Noi and Weige captured Lanto and Ubel after their battle and transported them in a mana-suppressing carriage, where Lanto confronted Ubel about risking her life and she teased him for caring about her. Elsewhere, Frieren and Fern patrolled the marketplace as Levi and Laile watched them, then departed to continue their plan to assassinate Serie.

• Lanto surrendered, and Weige bound him and Ubel with ropes that suppressed mana before taking them away in a black carriage.
• Noi examined the damage left by Ubel's attack and wondered why her magic had spared a nearby streetlamp.
• Inside the carriage, Lanto told Ubel that he had not attacked because he did not want her to die, and she teased him for caring about her.
• Frieren tried a cat-ear magic item at a market stall, while Fern tested it and judged it likely fake.
• Laile watched Frieren and Fern through a magic scope, and Frieren noticed his gaze.
• Levi and Laile left the restaurant, reaffirming their resolve to pursue victory in their plan to assassinate Serie.

Sense learned that the Magical Special Forces had been sent to the Imperial Capital after an incident in Old Empire Square, and she planned to retrieve Lanto and Ubel. Falsh urged her to stay quiet because the force hated her, but Sense dismissed Linel as unreliable and left without agreeing to intervene.

• Falsh told Sense that mana traces from damage in Old Empire Square matched the Magical Special Forces' equipment.
• Sense and Falsh reasoned that someone had deliberately recalled the force from the border and sent it to the Imperial Capital.
• Sense decided to go retrieve Lanto and Ubel and show Ubel a senior's dignity.
• Falsh warned Sense that the Magical Special Forces hated her and advised her to stay out of trouble until Lady Serie arrived in three days.
• Sense dismissed the idea that Linel would mediate and practiced punches with her hair while threatening to greet Linel if they met.
• Falsh asked Sense not to fight Linel, and Sense left the room without committing to his plan to wait.

While patrolling the Imperial Capital during its National Day celebrations, Frieren reflected on the threat to Serie and the Empire’s magical civilization. She dismissed her fears for the moment and continued the patrol with Fern, still hoping to draw their watcher out.

• Frieren tried animal-ear headbands on Fern before explaining that she felt someone was watching them in the Imperial Capital, though her mana detection found no one.
• Frieren and Fern passed a statue of Flamme and watched residents use everyday magic, which Frieren said brought the Empire close to her master's dream.
• As fireworks lit the sky, Frieren wondered who could imagine Serie's death and worried that the Empire's magical civilization might be Serie's enemy.
• Elsewhere, Serie conjured a lifelike sunflower in her carriage and studied it silently.
• Frieren decided she had been overthinking the threat, took Fern's blanket, and insisted they make another patrol round to lure the watcher out.

Schritt received a mission for the Shadow Warriors from Levi, governor of the Rorubea Domain, and passed the message through the group’s concealed network. Varos and Gazella also received their assignments while Frieren and Fern browsed a nearby magic-tool stall, where Fern challenged Frieren’s excuse for buying so many items.

• A scarred man in a dark carriage gave Schritt a mission note for the Shadow Warriors and identified himself as Levi, governor of the Rorubea Domain.
• Schritt burned the note, then gave Iris the mission and told her to notify the others and meet at their usual place.
• Iris delivered the message to Lutine, who agreed to join after sorting returned books, and Lutine headed toward the church.
• Lore fed the vagrant Varos, who later collected two copper coins from Gazella; Gazella then watched the street discreetly.
• Frieren examined magic tools while Fern asked whether buying them was meant to make the enemy lower their guard, and Frieren admitted it was.

Kanon questioned Gluck about his alleged conspiracy with Macht and offered him a way to avoid execution by claiming he had been deceived. Gluck recalled Fres’s inspection of Weise more than fifty years earlier, and Kanon decided to recommend a lighter punishment while Gluck remained lord of Weise.

• Kanon told Gluck that admitting Macht had deceived him could spare him from a secret execution, but Gluck refused to take sole credit for their work against corruption.
• Gluck deduced that Kanon was using him in a political struggle involving Duncan, then recognized Fres as the current captain of the Magical Special Forces from Kanon’s tobacco.
• Gluck remembered Fres arriving in Weise as an imperial envoy, where Macht urged him to kill her but Gluck chose to negotiate instead.
• Gluck regretted not allowing Macht to kill Fres and lamented that his old friend was gone.
• Kanon said he would recommend discretionary handling and a lighter punishment, and urged Gluck to continue serving Weise as its lord.
• Gluck warned Kanon that he hoped the Imperial Capital’s plans would not fill hell before Gluck got there.

Duncan learned that Kanon’s assignment was secret and that an emergency had drawn him and Noi away, leaving Duncan to prepare for his journey with Gluck. Meanwhile, Frieren surprised Fern by getting up early, and the group shared breakfast as Sense arrived still half asleep.

• Duncan questioned Kanon about his assignment, but Kanon said Duncan was overstepping his authority and directed him to ask Captain Fres.
• Noi reported that two mages had been caught, prompting Kanon to return to headquarters immediately after wishing Duncan and Gluck a safe journey.
• Duncan reflected that both the Empire and the Continental Magic Association distrusted him, then decided to make preparations of his own.
• Frieren woke early and dressed herself, astonishing Fern, before asking Fern to feed her while Falsh prepared breakfast.
• Sense wandered in wearing bear-print pajamas, started reading and eating at once, and struggled to understand why Frieren getting up early was impressive.

Ubel freed Lanto from his magic-suppressing restraints, and the pair considered how to escape their cell. On the way to report to Captain Fres, Noi told Kanon that Ubel’s fighting style reminded him of Fres.

• Weige locked Ubel and Lanto in a cell after checking their restraints, which blocked their magic and senses.
• Ubel and Lanto separately considered how the restraints worked and whether they could escape.
• Ubel used Nothing Is Uncuttable to slice through Lanto’s restraints, revealing that she could still use her magic.
• Kanon confronted Noi about destroying much of Old Empire Square and refused to accompany him to report to Captain Fres.
• Noi explained that he had acted quickly because Ubel seemed extremely dangerous and reminded him of Captain Fres.

Ubel and Lanto escaped from the tower after outmaneuvering Noi and Kanon, while Kanon secretly allowed them to go. The story left Kanon directing the tower’s debris away from the marketplace and planning to use the fugitives to gather information and catch their allies.

• Lanto sensed that the cell was atop a tower above the Imperial Capital’s marketplace, and he and Ubel prepared to escape before Noi and Kanon arrived.
• Lanto hid among the ceiling beams while a clone sat beside Ubel; Kanon exposed and destroyed the clone, and Noi left to search for the missing Lanto.
• Lanto emerged behind Kanon with his staff aimed at him as Ubel cut through her restraints, but Kanon warned them that he was forced to fight if they tried to take him hostage.
• Ubel sliced the tower into sections and urged Kanon to protect the people below; he agreed to move the debris away from the marketplace while Ubel and Lanto flew off.
• Weige offered to pursue them, but Kanon told him to warn Noi not to attack and admitted that he had let them escape to obtain more information and catch their allies together.

Frieren bought a fake pot, and Duncan spoke with Lutine and Sense before Frieren decided to help with the mission concerning Serie. Schritt gathered the conspirators in a forest clearing, where the group realized her older brother had not arrived.

• Frieren haggled with Gazella for a dragon-patterned pot, then learned from Falsh that it was fake and collapsed in dismay.
• Duncan returned a library book and hinted to Lutine that he knew about her past and divination; afterward, Sense questioned him about the plan to assassinate Serie, but he said he knew nothing.
• Sense returned to the base and tried to comfort Frieren, whose tantrum ended when she decided to take the fake pot back to Gazella and help with Sense's mission.
• Schritt called roll in a forest clearing and mistakenly thought everyone was present until Clematis and Gazella pointed out that her older brother was missing.

Clematis distributed a list of Serie’s guards to the group preparing to draw them away and eliminate them during the assassination. When Gazella doubted Levi could defeat Serie, Schritt showed him proof that Levi had slain the Great Mage Minusi, leaving Gazella to reconsider his doubts.

• Clematis gave Iris, Lutine, Schritt, Wolf, Lore, Gazella, and Varos lists describing the mission and its targets.
• Schritt summarized the plan, and Lutine noted that Frieren and Sense were among the seven guards.
• Varos said he had seen Frieren’s name in abandoned plans from the chaotic struggle over the previous emperor’s succession.
• Gazella recalled that Frieren and a redheaded mage had visited his shop and said the redhead was troublesome.
• Gazella questioned whether Levi could handle Serie and said he did not want to die for a pipe dream.
• Schritt showed Gazella a Proof of the Holy Staff and said it belonged to the Great Mage Minusi, whom Levi had helped kill; she argued that Levi did not consider Great Mages immortal monsters.

Iris and Lutine entered an underground passage on their way to carry out an assignment to assassinate Serie, but their progress led them into a trap-filled hall. After the two passed through, Falsh remained hidden behind a pillar, watching them.

• Iris and Lutine discussed their assignment to assassinate Serie as they followed a passage Lutine believed connected to the palace.
• Iris triggered one of Mr. Wolf’s traps, dodged a volley of poisoned arrows, and Lutine caught several arrows barehanded.
• Iris joked about being poisoned and said her special training had made her resistant to poison.
• Iris and Lutine entered a vast hall, where Iris briefly sensed something unusual before continuing onward.
• Falsh watched the pair from behind a stone pillar and stayed hidden after they left the hall.