The Monument

Just then, the tree suddenly trembled again, and its thick trunk slowly rose a bit, revealing a hole that had been hidden among the tangled roots.

So what's in here?

Frieren glanced into the cave entrance and could vaguely make out a stone tablet and... a floating notebook?

"Who knows? Let's go in and take a look."

Lorenzo was also very puzzled, as Flamme had not mentioned anything else.

Under their watchful eyes, the notebook suspended in mid-air began to flip through the pages.

"Hello, Frieren, it's been so long, I've really missed you. But since you can see this note, you must have already embarked on your so-called 'understanding humanity' journey."

Frieren was taken aback when she saw this.

"She even knew about this?"

"What are you looking at me for? I didn't write these notes."

Lorenzo said instinctively.

As soon as he finished speaking, the words on the page continued to appear.

"To be honest, I'm quite sorry. I wasn't able to be with you all the time while you were alive, and I didn't fulfill my responsibilities as a teacher. I always adopted a rather 'hands-off' attitude towards you."

"But you can't entirely blame me. If you want revenge, go find Lorenzo. It's all because of him anyway."

Frieren silently turned to look at Lorenzo, Lorenzo instinctively looked away, a sign of his guilt, though he didn't quite understand why.

"Alright, let's get back to the main topic. Whatever your reasons for wanting to understand humanity, the True Magic I created will definitely grant your wish."

"True Magic? What True Magic?"

Frieren asked Lorenzo with some confusion.

"The Resurrection True Magic."

Upon hearing the name, Frieren's eyes widened in surprise.

Resurrection? Does such True Magic truly exist in this world?

Although she had collected True Magic over a thousand years and witnessed countless divine spells, she had never heard of True Magic that could truly bring the dead back to life; most of it was just hype.

But it was Flamme who said this, the Great Mage Flamme.

Is it true?

Frieren asked Lorenzo, her voice trembling slightly.

"At least that's what Flamme told me."

Lorenzo looked at the notebook in her arms.

"She divided the Resurrection True Magic, along with her own soul, into ten parts, storing them separately in ten Goddess's Monument. Here they are."

Lorenzo pointed to the stone tablet next to him and said to Frieren.

The pages continued to turn.

"Frieren, by now you should know the name of that True Magic."

It feels like it's being updated in real time. Could this book also contain a bit of Flamme's spirit?

"The reason you embarked on this journey to understand humanity must be because you lost someone very important to you."

"I don't know who that person is, nor do I know what happened between you. After all, when I wrote this, none of those things had happened to me yet."

"However, since his departure could finally change someone as stubborn as a block of wood as you, who has remained unchanged for over a thousand years, he must have been a truly remarkable person."

Flamme might not know the hero Himmel, but it's unlikely she didn't know Himmel, especially since she was certain she had "spoiled" him.

Honestly, this person is such a liar; I wonder who taught them that.

"If you wish to see him one more time, go and find the remaining Goddess's Monument."

The last line of text slowly appeared.

"When the ten stone tablets are reassembled, the Resurrection True Magic will be fully revealed."

The writing stops here.

Frieren's fingers tightened slightly, causing a crease to appear in the paper.

A person's image came to mind.

The aged warrior lay on her bed, peacefully facing the end of her life. On the day of her funeral, many people gathered around her tombstone, weeping and recounting stories she had never known.

It was only then that she realized she knew almost nothing about the person she had been traveling with for ten years.

"I heard that girl is the hero's companion?"

Companions? I guess you could call them companions, even though it was only for a short ten years...

"She's not even a little sad; she's so heartless and ungrateful."

Sadness? Why feel sad? Ten years is a very short time, almost fleeting.

Himmel had simply ended her short life as a human being, something that was destined long before they met. Humans age and die, something she had always known.

But for some reason, it felt like something was suddenly missing from my chest.

What began as a peaceful, almost inevitable farewell gradually took on a different form amidst the intermittent sobs around her. Those stories she had never heard before, those of Himmel she had never met, seemed to be reminding her of something else...

Why didn't I try to understand him more back then?

She has always thought this way over the years.

The question was raised again and again, and the questions were pressed further, but no matter what answer was obtained, it always ended up back in the same place.

Regret.

I don't want you to be alone in the future, do I?

This is what Himmel said when he erected bronze statues everywhere.

That makes him seem really selfish.

Even the heroes praised by the world are not without flaws. They always presume to care about the future of others and worry about the loneliness that has yet to come, but they never ask those left behind if they would be willing to only remember them through cold bronze statues.

He was the one who left first.

Since you're so worried about your future, why not tell yourself more about it directly?

Why not ask yourself what ten years truly means for a human being?

Why not be a little willful when we part ways and ask yourself to come back sooner?

Why...

In the end, it was nothing but baseless complaints.

Although elves have a strange concept of time, they are fundamentally different from the emotionless monsters of the Demons.

Himmel has done everything he could.

The only person who never tried to understand was oneself.

That's why, when the words "resurrection" appeared before her, Frieren couldn't treat it the same way she treated other True Magic.

Resurrected from the dead...

"I see."

"Frieren said in a low voice."

She closed her notebook and carefully smoothed out the pages she had just crumpled.

"That Flamme fellow is really remarkable. Back then, she was always mysterious, often disappearing for years at a time. I never imagined she would actually research and develop the 'Resurrection True Magic'."

The elf said this.