Frieren/Synopsis

## Synopsis

### Beyond Journey's End

After spending a decade journeying together and defeating the Demon King, the Hero Party, consisting of Frieren the Mage, Himmel the Hero, Heiter the Priest, and Eisen the Warrior, return to the Royal Capital where they are celebrated and praised. The party reminisce their journey and watch the Era Meteors, a phenomenon that occurs once every fifty years, with Frieren promising to show them the sight again at a better viewing location. Afterwards, they go their separate ways, and Frieren continues her journey for the pursuit of magic.

A still-youthful Frieren returns to the Royal City fifty years later to retrieve a quest item entrusted to Himmel, now a much older man, for safekeeping. They reunite with Heiter and Eisen, with Heiter having also aged considerably, and they make the trip to the viewpoint Frieren mentioned fifty years ago, once again watching the Era Meteors and reliving their adventuring experiences together.

Not long after, Himmel passes away peacefully, and the Hero Party and townsfolk gather and mourn him at his funeral. During the procession, Frieren breaks into tears and voices her regret over not getting to know him on a deeper level during their time together even though she knew his human lifespan was much shorter in comparison to her Elven lifespan. As she bids farewell with Heiter and Eisen once more, she vows to commit more effort into understanding humans in her future adventures.

Twenty years after Himmel's death, Frieren goes to visit Heiter and meets his adopted apprentice, a young girl named Fern. Given that Fern is undergoing training to become a mage, Heiter requests Frieren to take her on as an apprentice, especially since he will pass soon. Frieren denies this request, citing the fact that Fern will likely die in battle in her current state. Heiter respects her decision and asks if she could instead decipher a grimoire detailing immortality and resurrection for him to make use of while also having her train Fern during the process, to which Frieren accepts.

Frieren later searches for Fern and discovers her on a cliff. She notes the child's prowess in general mage capabilities and mana concealment, a feat that could have only been accomplished through intense training. Fern explains a task given to her by Heiter: once she is able to knock down a giant rock on the other side of the ravine, she will be able to manage herself out on the battlefield. She demonstrates an offensive spell that disintegrates slightly short of the rock and requests if Frieren could give directions on how she could train. Frieren learns that Fern has a fairly decent level of enjoyment surrounding magic, and she begins instructing her.

Over the next four years, Frieren continues training Fern, who has an unnatural and almost unhealthy passion towards magic and her training. When Frieren is progressing through the grimoire and discussing Fern's growth with Heiter, he suddenly collapses. Frieren asks Fern to spend time with Heiter and away from training, but she refuses and insists that she must become capable of managing herself. She details how Heiter saved her and that becoming independent is her form of repayment to him so he wouldn't have to worry about her. Frieren acknowledges her thoughts and returns to deciphering the grimoire while Fern continues to train.

Ultimately, Frieren manages to finish the grimoire and informs Heiter that there were neither records of immortality nor resurrection. Heiter discloses that he was already aware of this fact, and upon him questioning Frieren about Fern's current capabilities, Frieren realizes Heiter used the grimoire as a method to stall Frieren long enough for Fern to become a proficient mage. Although he asks Frieren to leave with Fern before his death, Frieren urges him to spend as much time with her and give her a proper farewell as she breaks into tears. As Fern spends time with Heiter, Frieren checks on the rock and is happy to see that Fern has successfully pierced a giant hole through it. After Heiter's death, Frieren pours alcohol on his grave as an offering and departs with Fern, now a teenage girl.

Six years after her initial encounter with Fern and twenty-six years following Himmel's passing, Frieren engages in various jobs alongside Fern within the Turk Region of the Central Lands in exchange for grimoires that enable them to perform trivial forms of magic. After completing one of their jobs, an elderly woman approaches them and requests their assistance in cleaning a statue dedicated to the late Himmel. Upon successfully cleaning the statue, the lady voices her desire to embellish it with a flower bed, and Frieren proposes blue-moon weed—a local flower from Himmel's hometown. The lady recognizes the name and mentions how all the ones previously in the area had unfortunately been destroyed. Nevertheless, Frieren insists on looking for one and recreate a flower bed with it. They spend half a year searching, and when Fern is on the verge of giving up, the lady gives her seeds of a related flower to use as a reference. While she is with Frieren, a seed rat steals the seeds, and they chase it to an abandoned tower inhabitated with many other rats. Frieren flies to the top of the tower and discovers the entire ceiling covered in blue-moon weed, the product of the seed rats burying their seeds in the tower. Upon viewing the huge growth of flowers, she reflects on how Himmel initially wanted to show her the beauty of the blue-moon weed during their adventure. Returning to the statue, Frieren successfully cultivates a blue-moon weed flower bed, and she places a flower crown of the blue-moon weed on Himmel's head. With the job complete, they set forth on their next destination.

Twenty-seven years after Himmel's death, the pair arrive at the trading city of Warm. Frieren proposes they split up to purchase necessities, but Fern grows suspicious of her intentions after seeing Frieren's face and chooses to follow her in secret. Frieren first visits a jewelry stall and appears visibly stressed over choosing an item, confusing Fern. Her next stop is a tavern, where she seeks local dessert shop recommendations from fellow adventurers. Reuniting at the inn, Frieren invites Fern to eat dessert together. At the shop, Frieren gives Fern a butterfly hair ornament as as gift for her sixteenth birthday, and Fern accepts it with gratitude and thanks Frieren for her thoughtfulness and efforts in understanding her better.

After leaving Warm, Fern inquires about the purpose of their journey, prompting Frieren to share her goals of acquiring magic and retracing the footsteps of The Hero Party to reminisce about their adventures together.

As they continue their travels across the Central Lands, they eventually encounter the Größe Forest, where Frieren conducts a training session for Fern. After the session, they stumble across a village where an elderly man welcomes and guides them to the site of Qual, a Demon sealed away by Frieren during her journey with The Hero's Party eighty years prior. Frieren reveals that she returned with the intent to kill Qual, as the seal's expiration was imminent. The man expresses that he expected she would come, as Himmel had reassured him during his previous visits. After assessing the seal's condition, Frieren declares her plan to release and confront the Demon the following day. That evening, Frieren explains to Fern that Qual was too strong for The Hero Party when they first fought him, hence why she sealed him away instead of killing him. She also reveals to Fern that Qual was the original creator of Zoltraak, a piercing magic that resulted in the demise of numerous adventurers and mages within the region.

The next morning, Frieren unseals Qual, and he promptly unleashes Zoltraak on the two mages. Fern easily defends against it with her magic, and she realizes that Zoltraak is present-day offense magic—the result of many years of human research. Although Qual tries to retaliate with another attack, Frieren strikes him first with Zoltraak, ultimately annihilating him with his own creation.

Twenty-eight years after Himmel's death, Frieren accepts a job from an elderly man to clear up the coast along the Granz Channel in exchange for a grimoire written by Flamme, albeit fake. Three months pass, and the clean-up job lasts into the winter, though Frieren reassures the old man that they will finish by the new year. During their work, Fern contemplates how she is always performing motherly duties for Frieren due to her laziness and wonders how her former party members felt. Frieren shares that they were rather tolerant of her, but they got upset once because she overslept and missed the new year's sunrise at that very village. The mages manage to finish cleaning up the shore one day before the new year. When the sunrise starts the next morning, Fern manages to wake Frieren, and they enjoy watching it together.

Frieren and Fern journey to the Bredt Region, where Frieren reunites with Eisen for the first time in thirty years. They accompany Eisen on a search for writings by the Great Mage Flamme—Frieren's former master—in the Voll Basin, which Heiter had previously looked in to. Eisen explains that he pitied Frieren for her regrets about not getting to know Himmel and wanted to help her locate the notes, rumored to contain references of Flamme conversing with the dead. Frieren guides them to a giant tree acting as a barrier over the ruins of a building and she enters, immediately being confronted with a book. She recalls how Flamme foresaw that she would seek advice in the future after experiencing regrets. Upon reading through the notes, she learns of Flamme's conversations with the dead at the northenmost end of the continent: Ende, the site of Aureole, known as the land where souls rest, and also the location of the Demon King's Castle. With a proper destination in mind, Frieren decides to journey with Fern there and pursue the opportunity to meet Himmel once more. They bid farewell to Eisen and set their course to Aureole.

Frieren and Fern arrive at a village in the Wille Region, where they are advised by the residents to avoid crossing the mountain pass due to recent disappearances. After listening to other witness accounts, they decide to investigate. Fern detects phantom magic, and Frieren tells her the perpetrators are Einsam, phantom demons that use illusions of loved ones to lure humans in, and instructs her to immediately blast one with magic if she comes across an illusion. They venture into the forest and slowly get surrounded by fog. Fern is greeted by an illusion of Heiter and freezes, while Frieren, expecting to see an illusion of her master, encounters one of Himmel instead. She spares no hesitation to shoot him with magic, and when the demon materializes above the illusion of Heiter, Fern manages to attack and kill it as well.

Frieren and Fern venture to the Riegel Canyon and observe a Solar Dragon guarding its nest, which contains one of Frieren's desired grimoires. Fern attacks the dragon with her magic, however, it hardly deals any damage and instead aggravates the dragon, which forces them to flee. They decide to recruit Eisen's warrior apprentice Stark for help, as he is currently residing in a nearby village. The villagers bring them to Stark and praise him for driving off the dragon three years prior, thus granting them safety ever since. Stark attempts to dissuade Frieren from fighting the dragon, but upon her questioning, he reveals his cowardice and lack of battle experience. Frieren observes a giant crevice nearby and tells Stark that he has one night to consider his options.

The mages spend the night in the village, where they learn that public opinion of Stark is quite high. Although Fern has doubts about Stark's capabilities, Frieren puts her trust in him due to a past conversation she had with Eisen. The next morning, Stark agrees to help fight the dragon, under the condition that they will defeat it even if he dies in the process. As Stark faces the dragon, Frieren notices the similarities between Stark and Eisen and explains to Fern that the dragon avoided the village after facing Stark upon realizing the warrior's incredible strength. Stark lands a blow on the dragon and yells at the mages to attack, but Frieren stops Fern from interfering, much to Stark's distress. Frieren points out that the first blow killed the dragon and praises Stark for his efforts; she then proceeds to loot the nest, and Stark mentions how Eisen found the Hero Party's journey enjoyable due to her carefree pursuit of magic. With the dragon defeated, Stark decides to join the mages on their journey, and they depart from the village.

In the fortress city of Waal, the trio are refused entry into the Northern Lands through Waal's checkpoint due to high monster activity. Frieren, ecstatic at the opportunity to spend time researching magic, separates from Stark and Fern to visit a magic shop. She later meets up with them while hiding from the castellan, but he spots her and profusely apologizes for the rudeness of the guard captain at the checkpoint. He realizes her as the mage of the Hero Party and, under the impression that they are looking to virtuously drive out the conflicts in the north, grants the party entry past the checkpoint, much to Frieren's dismay. They exit the city in the presence of a large crowd celebrating them and enter the Northern Lands.

Frieren reminisces about Flamme's fairy tale-like presence during her journey with the Hero Party and considers how she might be the only one that remembers her face. In the present day, she wakes up early, receiving much praise from Fern. The party continues on to the Eng Road and comes across a landslide that blocks off the path, where a merchant and his wagon are unable to cross. Frieren removes the rubble with Fern and Stark, and she explains to Stark that instead of simply helping the merchant pass with flying magic, clearing the path would make it easier for other travelers. The merchant thanks the party and comments that Frieren is the first Elf he has met over his long life. Frieren explains that due to the lack of romance or reproductive instincts among Elves, her species's numbers are dwindling, and she herself has not seen another Elf in over four hundred years.

They arrive at a nearby town, where the Liberation Festival—an annual celebration of the Hero Party—creates a bustling atmosphere. Frieren feels indifferent to the celebration and considers it excessive, but the merchant expresses that although it has been eighty years since the Demon King's defeat, the town still remembers that day. Frieren is reminded of a conversation she had with Himmel: he claimed affection for his statues as they both preserved his existence in the world and served as future companions for Frieren once she outlived the other party members. The merchant and Frieren's party enjoy the celebration in front of a statue of the Hero Party members decorated with flower crowns. Afterwards, they continue on their journey.