Fern's Paper Boat

By evening, the setting sun no longer cast enough light to illuminate the land, and darkness shrouded it.

Dugu Qing, Fern, and Frieren arrived at an abandoned manor.

The manor's fence was broken, a shattered cart stood in the courtyard, and fallen leaves covered the ground. The house had collapsed, and the whole place was in ruins. It looked as though no one had lived there for a long time.

Frieren wanted grilled bird, so she shot a few pigeons and had Dugu Qing cook them.

"Pigeons are so cute. How could you bear to do it?"

Dugu Qing looked at the dead white pigeons with sympathy, even as he threaded them onto iron skewers, placed them on the grill, and sprinkled them with spices.

Fern gathered branches and fallen leaves and put them to one side.

Frieren used magic to light a fire.

Before long, the faint aroma of meat drifted from the grill.

Fern gathered branches in the clearing in front of the manor.

Her fingers accidentally touched a nearly decayed skeleton.

The skeleton flickered with black light and came back to life, staggering to its feet.

It had two enormous skulls, four powerful arms, and a towering frame nearly three meters tall. Its entire body was made up of massive bones, making it look utterly terrifying.

"A m-monster!"

Fern stared in shock, frightened witless. She froze on the spot, unable to move, think, or act.

"Fern!"

Seeing this, Dugu Qing summoned the Battle Sword from his suitcase and strode forward with his head high and chest out.

"Dugu Qing, this conjoined monster isn't very strong. With Fern's abilities, she can easily defeat it."

Frieren put a hand on Dugu Qing's shoulder, stopping him from going to Fern's rescue.

"I know, but can't you see Fern's scared out of her wits?"

Dugu Qing broke free of Frieren's hand.

"Sooner or later, she'll have to fight alone and face her fears. This is a necessary part of her growth."

Frieren reminded him of the crucial point.

Frieren and Dugu Qing had protected Fern too well. Real danger never even got close to her.

So they had to put her through some trials now.

They had to keep Fern from becoming a flower in a greenhouse and triggering the "Tumu Crisis"...

"This..."

Dugu Qing hesitated, watching helplessly as the conjoined monster brought its fist down at Fern.

The conjoined monster's enormous fist descended from above. A spark of life returned to Fern's eyes, and she grabbed her staff, turned in a panic, and ran east.

"Lady Frieren!"

"Dugu Qing!"

Fern remembered only to run. She forgot the magic she had learned and placed all her hopes in Frieren and Dugu Qing, shouting for help in a panic.

"Even if this is training, it's too cruel. I have to come up with a gentler teaching method in the future."

Dugu Qing watched Fern flee in terror, his eyes filled with compassionate sympathy.

"Suit yourself."

Frieren watched Fern, confident in her.

"Dugu Qing! Lady Frieren! Where are you?"

Fern ran into the dark depths of the forest and cried out in despair, but the quiet forest gave no answer.

Frieren and Dugu Qing seemed to have vanished, and the world was shrouded in darkness.

The monster behind her drew closer and caught up.

Fern gritted her teeth. If she kept running, the monster would kill her anyway. She might as well stop and fight with everything she had!

"Mana Bullet!"

Fern turned lightly, raised her staff, and launched her attack.

Surging mana, like a small sun, lit up the peril-filled world. It gathered into a massive magic bullet and shot forward with furious force.

It pierced straight through the conjoined monster's body in an instant.

The conjoined monster's body was swallowed by the night, vanishing completely into nothingness.

Fern stood stunned. She hadn't expected the monster that had driven her into a corner and made her question her life to be so pathetically weak.

How... ironic!

"Congratulations, Fern. This should be your first time fighting on your own, right? Well done!"

Dugu Qing and Frieren walked out, relieved to see that Fern was unhurt.

"Where did you go just now...?"

Fern looked at Dugu Qing and Frieren, a little angry.

"Dugu Qing was going to help, but I stopped him. Fighting a monster alone was a rare chance for you to gain experience. Haven't you become more mature now?"

Frieren looked at Fern calmly.

"Even so, growing up really hurts."

Fern had a complicated expression.

If she could, who wouldn't want to be pampered forever? The price of growing up was too high...

The three returned to the manor and enjoyed the delicious grilled bird.

Late that night, Frieren and Fern set up a tent in the clearing.

Dugu Qing found a large tree and lay down on a branch.

His flowing white hair spilled out in the wind, and he soon fell asleep.

Fern, however, couldn't sleep. When Frieren fell into a deep sleep hugging her quilt, Fern tiptoed out of the tent.

She saw Dugu Qing lying at ease, motionless on a branch, his body stretched out, light and graceful as an immortal.

"Dugu Qing, even the way you sleep is so captivating."

Fern's face reddened slightly, her hands and feet tingled, and her heart beat faster.

She stared blankly at Dugu Qing for a long time. Suddenly remembering something, she returned to the tent, fetched a blanket, and draped it over him.

Dugu Qing sensed someone staring at him and blinked awake.

"Sorry, I disturbed you."

Fern's face grew redder, but fortunately, in the depths of the night, no one noticed.

She pulled up the blanket, making her attempt at concealment all the more obvious, proving that she absolutely hadn't been spying and had only come to bring him a blanket.

"Thanks for the blanket. By the way, why are you still awake?"

"I'm still thinking about the monster we ran into earlier."

At the thought of the vicious monster from earlier, Fern's face turned deathly pale, her breathing became uneven, and her thoughts refused to settle.

"Shall we take a walk?"

In his previous life, Dugu Qing had faced an exceptional number of difficulties alone. He had solved them all through his own efforts, but the process had been full of torment and pain.

If he could, he was more than willing to help Fern as she grew up, so she could avoid some detours.

"Okay."

Dugu Qing and Fern returned to the ground and walked along a path. Before long, they came upon a winding stream.

The water burbled over the bluestones in the moonlight, its clear surface rippling.

Dugu Qing offered Fern an idea.

"If you're feeling down, you can write what's on your mind on a piece of paper, fold it into a boat, and throw it into the river. As the paper boat slowly disappears and sinks to the bottom, your troubles will fade away on their own, forgotten forever."

"Really?"

Dugu Qing summoned a notebook and pen and handed them to Fern as a matter of course.

Fern sat down on a battered chair by the road, hid what she was writing from Dugu Qing, and wrote on the paper:

"Conjoined monster, you actually ambushed me and scared me to death... If I ever see you again, I won't go easy on you."

"Lady Frieren, I never expected you to test me when I was in danger! Although I did grow from it afterward, I'm still upset... Couldn't you pay a little more attention to how I'm feeling?"

After writing down what was in her heart, Fern felt much better.

"Are you done?"

Seeing that Fern had casually filled half a page, Dugu Qing looked at her with concern.

"There's more!"

Fern glanced at Dugu Qing and wrote rapidly in the notebook:

"Dugu Qing, I fell in love with you the first time we met! The kind of love where I like you very, very much."

"I don't know how you see me. When you first saw me, did you think I was beautiful? Was it love at first sight?"

"Or do you just think of me as a little sister, a friend...?"

"Lord Heiter said elves are very slow when it comes to feelings. I didn't believe it before, but now I see it. I almost thought you were a blockhead who only ever thought about magic and good food..."

"But luckily, we're about to go on a long journey, and I have plenty of patience and confidence to drop you subtle hints. I hope you'll open your eyes!"

"Surely you can't expect me to make the first move! I'd die of embarrassment."

"..."

The last blank space on the page was filled with black ink, and Fern put down the pen, her mind weighed down with worries.

She tore out the sheet, folded it into a paper boat, and sent it to the bottom of the river.

The paper boat became wet and drifted slowly along the faint ripples until it disappeared from sight.

Fern's tense heart slowly relaxed.

"Let's go back to sleep!"

"Okay."

Dugu Qing withdrew his curious gaze and returned to camp with Fern.

He lay down on the branch and went back to sleep.