What if you are reborn as a demon after a funeral?

Page 20

For this reason, Vlame even decided that he would not go back to see his mentor if he could not achieve his goal... in order to spur himself on.

This is because, compared to five hundred years after Ash's birth, in the present world, humans regard magic as the technology of the demon race, and open research on it is considered taboo.

Before returning to Celia, she had already persuaded the emperor of the empire, which occupied most of the continent, and began to educate the imperial court mages.

Ash and Frilian did not participate; they were merely guests and sightseeing in the imperial capital. Ash would occasionally sit in on the proceedings to reinforce his basic knowledge.

And so, several years passed in the blink of an eye.

Life went on peacefully, and surprisingly, even in the imperial capital, there were no palace intrigue scenes as rumored. Perhaps Vlame had taken care of those things.

After all, her status was not unexpectedly high. Even when Ash got lost and chose to climb over the wall, accidentally entering the emperor's harem, he was not held accountable. He was simply forbidden from climbing over the palace walls from then on and was required to memorize the palace map.

Aside from that little incident, Ash and Frillie often sparred, and Ash would also occasionally go outside the city to find suitable targets for actual combat.

On one ordinary morning, Ash, as if nothing out of the ordinary, effortlessly broke into Frillie's room...

"—It's already morning! We made a promise to go monster hunting together! Frilian, wake up!"

Ash ruthlessly yanked off Frilian's blanket, intending to forcibly drag her to fulfill their promise and go hunting together outside the city.

However, Frilian skillfully turned over, facing away from him, and without even opening her eyes, took a new blanket from the bedside and covered herself with it.

Not only did she show no sign of wanting to get up, she also weakly raised one hand and waved it listlessly.

"I was definitely talking about the afternoon... Please... let me sleep... five more days... five more days... just this much..."

"...So that's how it is? But, Frilian." Her predictable state made Ash sit on the edge of the bed, and he pulled the blanket away from her again, advising with a troubled expression, "The imperial city is so big, and the areas with monsters are far away. If we leave at noon, we won't be back until midnight. Sigh, wouldn't it be better to leave in the morning?"

"...No...you should just...kill me..."

"...You're so lazy." Watching her pull out a new quilt from the wardrobe without even opening her eyes and cover herself with it, Ash felt like he had inadvertently given her a strange ability.

Seeing how unwilling Frilian was, he hesitated for a moment, then gave up on his plan to carry her away. Shaking his head helplessly, he turned and left: "...Never mind, I'll go by myself. Remember to tell Vlame when you wake up that I'm going out."

"Ah... I understand... Thank you, take care on the road... See you tonight..."

Even in the end, Frilian didn't open her eyes. She just mumbled weakly, her words as indistinct as if in a dream, before pulling the blanket tighter around herself and falling back asleep.

Ash closed the door for her and then regretfully prepared to leave alone, but...

He had only been out of Frillie's room for two minutes when he suddenly felt something unusual in the hallway.

It's as if... the whole world is rejecting my illusions, and even the surrounding space is inexplicably starting to distort.

"Is this... trying to throw me out of this time and space? I thought time travel was unlimited, but... is it the origin of the world, or a time travel restriction left by the goddess?"

Ash had discussed the idea of ​​time travel with Celia, so he probably understood that time travel was not impossible in this world.

But that right belongs exclusively to the goddess, a right monopolized by the goddess.

However, after the chaos of the mythological era, the goddess seemed to have left this planet and vanished without a trace.

Only the "Goddess's Stele," a remnant from the mythological era, still retains the power she sealed within it, potentially triggering a time-traveling effect.

...But to be honest, he really couldn't understand what was going on, but he felt that the sense of rejection was more like sending him back than eliminating him.

It was in this state that he realized he couldn't stay there for long, so he drew his long sword from his waist, intending to leave some information on the ground.

But the moment the blade touched the ground, the surrounding spacetime suddenly distorted, causing him to vanish abruptly from the corridor in the next instant, without even leaving a mark.

..........................

At noon, Frillie, who loved to sleep in, finally got up and was about to have lunch when she discovered...

"...Where is Ash practicing magic again?" She glanced at the empty space beside her, but didn't pay much attention.

Ash often went out to practice his magic, and even sought out magical beasts outside the capital to practice with in order to gain practical experience... Vlame was well aware of this, and wasn't too worried, only muttering to himself somewhat blankly:

"However, he would normally say something... Why didn't he tell anyone today?"

"They probably just picked someone randomly, and then that person forgot about it?"

"....Too."

Vlame nodded vaguely, feeling somewhat uneasy for some reason.

Just then, Frilian suddenly exclaimed "Ah!" as she remembered hearing his voice in her half-awake state that morning, and the incident of him taking away her blanket.

I was just not fully awake at the time and completely forgot about all of that.

As Vlamé watched, she then brandished the fork in her hand and said:

"I remember now, that guy asked me to go monster hunting with him this morning."

"Going to hunt monsters again?"

“Although he is still young, he is quite strong, so Master doesn’t need to worry. He will be back by himself tonight.”

"Well, you have a point."

Upon receiving this answer, Vlame showed a slight sense of relief, but for some reason... a strange and unsettling feeling still lingered in her mind.

The Burial of Frilian: Chapter Thirty - News of Death

At first, after receiving confirmation from Frilian, Vlamé had a strange feeling, but he wasn't too worried about what might happen.

For some reason, Ash still didn't return the next day.

Of course, this situation can happen occasionally, and although he may be injured, he will eventually return unharmed.

After all, Ash's strength is normal, so there's really no need to worry. It's just that on the third day, the fourth day, or even a month or two later...

They thought he had suddenly left without saying goodbye, but when they went back, they found that he had never returned at all.

At Vlame's request, the emperor also sent people to search, but still found nothing.

The empire even investigated everyone in the country named Ash, but found no one who matched the description, and there was no news about him at any of the empire's border crossings.

Ash vanished completely, as if he had suddenly evaporated from the face of the earth, without leaving a trace.

In the blink of an eye, fifty years have passed.

Vlamé fulfilled his dream...and died peacefully in his sleep.

According to her will, Frilian returned to the unchanged underground ruins after a long absence, carrying her last words.

The world around them is constantly changing, but this palace filled with books and the elven girl on the throne seem to be a corner forgotten by time, quietly existing and witnessing the changes of history and the times, while they themselves remain unchanged from when they first saw them.

Even Frilian, who brought the visit, was no different from before.

“…Frilian, I thought it was Ash.” Celia, still half-squatting on the throne, looked down at the familiar girl below and said with a hint of mockery:

"If I'm not mistaken, you must really hate me. Why did you come here alone? To be honest, I thought we'd never see each other again."

"Ash is probably dead... Even if he were alive, he would probably have died of old age like the teacher."

"...Dead? Oh, I see." Frillian's sudden announcement of the deaths of two of her apprentices caused Celia to pause for a moment, but then she smiled.

"Has it been half a century since you last came here... and we haven't heard from him? Is he dead?"

"...Aren't you sad?" Frillie asked expressionlessly from the bottom of the steps.

"Just a disciple of the whim sect." Celia casually waved her hand, causing the will in Frillie's hand to fly up automatically, and asked without even looking up:

"But you, they were probably the closest people to you, right? Both of them are dead, aren't you sad?"

"Are you sad? I...I don't know." With a slightly hollow sigh, Frilline lowered her head sadly and murmured softly:

"Thinking back now... there's still so much I don't understand about either the teacher or Ash... but... if I had agreed to go out with him back then, maybe... he wouldn't have suddenly disappeared?"

"What? Are you crying?"

"I don't know... I just feel a little empty inside... For the past fifty years, I've been... I've been... thinking about this all along..."

She hadn't shed a tear when burying Vlamé... she just didn't understand why the people around her were crying, but now Celie's words stirred up a strange emotion in her heart, and her eyes became hot.

But just as tears streamed down her cheeks for the first time in her life... Celia, who was resting her chin on her hand while reading the will on her throne, suddenly said:

"Although Ash should normally be dead, my intuition tells me he's still alive?"

"Still...alive?"

"You know what? My gut feeling."

"...So you know where it is, right?"

"I don't know, it's just intuition, not divination."

"Aren't you supposed to know all kinds of magic? Why can't you do divination?"

“I told you last time, that kind of convenient magic is monopolized by that goddess, so even if you know it, it won’t be effective.” Celia seemed quite unhappy when this was mentioned.

But Freya was completely confused: "...This thing can be monopolized?"

"Think of it as a huge barrier that envelops the entire planet; that will make it easier to understand."

"Just consider it...? What exactly does that mean?"

"How would I know the specifics? If I knew, I would be a god."