"Phew..."
Having slipped through the city walls without incident, Nanoda let out a quiet breath of relief and adjusted the large hairband she'd bought on her way in. If not for it, she might have had her hood pulled down at the worst possible moment — and her identity as a member of the Demon Race exposed on the spot.
"So much has changed. I wonder how long it's actually been."
She had wanted to ask the gate soldiers how long the war between the Empire and Gaderia had been going on, but thought better of it — the last thing she needed was to be hauled in as a spy from some foreign power.
As for why she wasn't announcing herself — it was purely to avoid the fuss. Returning after vanishing without a trace would set off an enormous commotion, and she wanted to give Aaron a surprise first. A quiet visit, just long enough to find out what had happened in her absence.
Inside the third wall, permanent structures were few. Most of it was makeshift tenting — merchants wrapped in travelling cloaks with grain sacks, ironware, and books spread out on rugs and rickety shelves. People drifted in and out, some from outside the city, some from the inner districts, all of them haggling and trading.
It was, essentially, a massive open-air market. Minus the ring of military encampments surrounding it all, of course.
She was still picking her way down the lane when a large hand reached toward her shoulder from behind.
Nanoda's stride widened in an instant. She sidestepped outward — a single smooth pivot, like a dance step — and the reaching hand caught nothing but air.
"Who's there?"
The man was tall, dressed head to toe in white, and — she could tell by the Scripture cradled in his arms — a monk. The same kind of Scripture Nanoda herself was currently carrying.
He looked somewhat caught off guard. Clearly he hadn't expected her reflexes to be that sharp. The word "brother" had been halfway out of his mouth before he thought better of it and swallowed it back down.
"Ah — miss. Are you a follower of the Goddess's Order?"
As he spoke, he waved his Scripture in her direction — just in case she hadn't seen it — by way of establishing his credentials.
Nanoda gave a calm nod and waited for him to continue.
"God — that's... that's just terrible!"
"Pardon?"
Nanoda blinked. A monk carrying the Goddess's Scripture, declaring that a fellow believer in the Goddess's Order was... terrible?
"What exactly do you mean by that?"
She genuinely could not work it out.
"Don't you know? The Goddess has abandoned us!"
"...Ah. Oh."
Something was clearly not right with this person.
"You look like you don't believe me! Have you ever stopped to ask yourself — when was the last time the Goddess actually performed a miracle?!"
At that, the monk's entire manner shifted — bright-eyed, fervent, practically vibrating with conviction.
"Let me tell you something else. The magic we see written in the Scripture — all of it — it was never the Goddess's gift. It is the miracle of another true god!"
Nanoda said nothing. He pressed on.
"Comrade! It is not too late to leave the Goddess's Order behind! Come with me — join the New God's Faith! Worship the nameless New God together! Praise the New God!"
"The... New God's Faith?"
Nanoda had never once heard of such a thing existing in Frieren's world. She had only been gone a while — how had an entirely new religion sprouted up in the meantime? Whatever happened to the Goddess's Order having an unchallenged monopoly over humanity's faith?
"Join now and you'll receive all the benefits of a provisional believer! And when enlightenment comes upon you and you are ordained as a true priest, you will enjoy the supreme and boundless gospel that the New God bestows!"
The fanatical monk in front of her reminded Nanoda strongly of those aggressively enthusiastic multi-level marketing recruiters from her old life.
"Comrade! Believe in the New God's miracle! He is a creator far greater than the Goddess herself!"
With that, he flipped open his Scripture and thrust it toward the black-robed girl in front of him, jabbing a finger at the page. "Do you see this? This is the New God's miracle! His gospel! His proof!"
Nanoda could see it clearly: written on the very first page of the Scripture was the Genesis Chapter — a passage she knew better than almost anything else in this world.
"I'm sorry. I don't see anything."
She was genuinely curious about what sort of organisation this New God's Faith actually was — but she had real business to attend to, and no desire to get further tangled up in this. She chose, strategically, to play blind.
The monk first looked startled by her answer, then stared hard at his Scripture, then began beating his own chest in dismay.
"I apologise, comrade. It seems you simply lack the aptitude — but please, believe me, the New God truly does exist! If you only have faith, the New God will accept you in time!"
"Right, sure, I'll give it a try someday," Nanoda said, stepping neatly away from his outstretched hands as he reached for her again with barely-contained excitement.
"Remember — the New God is real! Believe in him! Praise him! One day, divine revelation will come to your Scripture too!"
With his recruiting done and his fervour apparently spent, the monk returned to something approaching normal and offered Nanoda a warm, gentle smile. He gave a little wave and walked away.
"Have I gone crazy," Nanoda murmured, "or has the world?"
Some product of a civilisation from an entirely different world had appeared in the Scripture — and apparently fractured off a splinter faction from the Goddess's Order in the process?
Even if there was some indirect connection to her past life, she had never once gone around spreading that kind of faith.
All she could think to say was: good grief.
She put the thought aside and went looking for the entrance to the second wall.
"Hehe!"
A child came laughing and sprinting past, on a collision course with Nanoda's side — and passed clean through what appeared to be her, the impact glancing off a drifting afterimage. The mother who came hurrying after murmured a quick apology and rushed on.
Weaving through the merchant tents, Nanoda realised she still hadn't spotted a single familiar face. Everyone here had the look of newcomers — settlers from elsewhere, travelling merchants.
The original residents of Gaderia, and the members of the Demon Race, were probably all further in, behind the inner walls, she supposed.
It was only when she reached the gatehouse of the second wall that she finally saw someone she recognised.
The Demon General — Lightning Schulek.
His enormous steel sword was wedged into the gap between the stonework of the wall. Schulek himself was leaning back in a white chair, the brim of his iron helm dipping low enough to curtain his eyes behind a tangle of unkempt hair. He gazed down from the wall with the air of a magnificently imposing guardian deity.
What surprised Nanoda was that, aside from Schulek himself, every other soldier on the wall was human. One demon leading a group of humans — and yet, against all odds, it looked perfectly natural.
"What a hassle. Another gate."
Nanoda was now regretting that she hadn't asked Him for the Paradox of Self-Existence back when she'd had the chance. With all these eyes on her, she had no choice but to submit to inspection.
Then she thought: why bother?
Nanoda simply activated her flight magic, planted her foot against the air, and rose.
Schulick's brow creased. He grabbed his great sword and rose to his feet in one motion. His Mana Perception had flagged someone using magic — and now he was going to show that reckless individual exactly what kind of conduct was expected inside Gaderia.
The black-robed figure alighted on the parapet as lightly as a drifting feather. Facing her: Schulek's raised blade and a bristling forest of spears from the surrounding soldiers.
"You there. What do you think you're doing?"
The Mana radiating off her was not particularly strong — yet something about it made Schulek's chest tighten. Years of surviving on the battlefield had given him an instinct for these things, and his instinct was telling him clearly: this one is not to be taken lightly.
He would not back down. He would not allow himself to back down. That was a matter of his own conviction and his dignity. If she moved against him, he would fight her to the death.
Beneath the curtain of his hair, his eyes burned with battle-lust and the cold light of a predator.
"You really haven't changed, have you. Same stubborn streak as always, Schulek."
As the words left her lips, Nanoda pulled back her hood. The black cloak billowed; white hair swept freely in the air; and a pair of those unusual eyes looked quietly at the man who had been about to throw himself into a fight to the death.
The moment Schulek saw her face, even his characteristic composure shattered. Something enormous moved through him.
The shock lasted only a moment before it gave way to an expression of deep reverence.
He lowered his blade. The clatter of armour rang out as he dropped to one knee.
"You... have finally returned. Forgive me for failing to recognise you just now. I await whatever punishment you see fit."
Schulick's bearing had completely changed in an instant.
The human soldiers, who moments before had been braced for a confrontation, exchanged bewildered looks at the sight of Schulek kneeling.
"On your feet, Schulek. You did nothing wrong."
Nanoda sighed and waved a hand.
One of the human soldiers seemed to have recognised her face. He called out: "Wait — isn't that the statue? The one in the square in front of the Lord's Manor?"
"Lower your weapons."
A single command from Schulek and every weapon went down.
"You — go to the Lord immediately. All you need to tell him is that 'she has returned.' He will understand."
Schuleck beckoned to the nearest subordinate and sent him off at once.
"No need to bother with that. I'll fly directly to the manor inside the final wall."
Since she'd already blown her cover, there was no point in being subtle about it. Nanoda planted her foot on the air, rose, and flew toward the innermost wall.
Behind her, Schulek's voice rang out — urgent, for once.
She caught three words: "You must not —"
From the top of the first wall, black and white light flickered in rapid bursts. Several oval-shaped projectiles — roughly the size of a human head — screamed toward her at terrifying speed.
The distance closed in an instant.
"BOOM."
A chain of massive detonations split the sky. Small white clouds of smoke bloomed in the air; shards from the projectiles rained downward, crumbling to fine powder before they ever hit the ground.
Everywhere within Gaderia's walls, people lifted their eyes automatically toward the sky. It wasn't the first time they'd seen this sort of thing. The general consensus was that whatever intruder had tried to fly in had been blown to nothing.
"Ow."
Schuleck slapped the side of his iron helm with a pained look. He'd forgotten to warn her about that.
Still — he was confident that level of attack wasn't enough to hurt her.
Sure enough, a figure came bursting out through the hanging smoke.
Nanoda glanced at the corner of her black mana cloak, which had been blown clean through. She was mildly surprised.
Those things had felt almost like rocket launchers. The range seemed longer than any conventional weapon, the blast radius relatively contained — but they made up for it in sheer volume of fire.
Even the Defensive Magic she'd thrown up on the fly had been punched through by the sustained explosions. She'd had to rapidly absorb the Mana from the blasts themselves to cancel out the impact.
And threaded through the Mana of those explosions — she'd felt it — the distinct signature of Killing Magic.
Nanoda was fairly certain that any mage below third rank with less than exceptional ability would have been obliterated outright by a volley like that.
"Interesting. You've built yourself some very capable weapons."
A vast and familiar surge of Mana registered in her senses.
Qual — in his long coat, glasses perched on his nose — had appeared on top of the first wall at some point. He pressed one hand down over the barrel of a cannon in a nearby guard's hands, and a slow grin spread across his face, revealing pointed teeth.
He had seen her.
His king had finally come back.
...
A short while later, inside the Gaderia Lord's Manor — beside the office sitting table and sofa.
"Welcome back, Nanoda. I'm glad you're home."
"Mm."
Few words were needed between them. After working together for so long, Nanoda and Aaron had developed an understanding that needed no explanation.
"Try this — it's from this year's first coffee grind."
Aaron set down his cup and saucer, then placed the walking stick he'd been holding against the side of his chair, and settled into the seat across from her.
His gaze moved over her steadily, searching, for long enough that Nanoda began to feel faintly uncomfortable.
She breathed in the familiar scent of coffee, lifted the cup, and took a small sip.
Bitter and rich, with a faint sweetness underneath.
"How long was I actually gone?"
It was the walking stick that had done it — and the new lines at the corners of his nose, eyes, and brow; the skin that had lost some of its former glow; the muscles that were no longer quite what they once were.
Nanoda suddenly understood: in the time she had been away, Aaron had aged — noticeably.
He'd already been well into middle age when she left. Now he was very nearly an old man.
Aaron drew in a slow breath, then let it out.
"Ten years."
Perhaps sensing that the weight in his voice had made things feel too heavy, he let out a laugh and added: "Don't look at me like that. I'm only in my fifties. Still perfectly sound in body. Give me another ten years and I'll still be standing."
Ten years.
She had spent just over a year inside the Return Magic — and ten years had passed in the world she'd left behind.
Ten years of Gaderia without her, navigating its survival among forces pressing in from every side.
Nanoda, who had always managed to keep her feelings at a comfortable distance, felt something dim and heavy settle in her chest. The elation of returning home was swallowed up by guilt.
She gave Aaron a brief account of her year inside the Return Magic — editing carefully as she went, cutting out the parts that concerned Him, since her identity as a transmigrator made that particular thread far too complicated to explain.
Aaron listened quietly, coffee in hand.
"The Goddess's magic... truly extraordinary. And you've had it hard too."
"I'm sorry. I promised to work with you — to protect Gaderia together — and I left you to carry it alone all these years."
It was the first time Aaron had ever seen Nanoda look genuinely dispirited. He softened his voice as much as he could.
"I told you a long time ago — you don't owe Gaderia anything. If anything, it's the other way around. Without you, there would be no Gaderia as it stands today. What I've done is nothing worth mentioning."
"Even so..."
"Please — don't worry yourself over it. All you need to do is stand on our side as Gaderia's representative — as a Great Demon of the Mythical Era. You are powerful, but you are also allowed to lean on us when you must. Gaderia does not fall easily."
"Your return, above all else, is the best news Gaderia could have received. It is not too late for anything."
"Since when did you get so good at saying the right thing?"
Nanoda felt the knot in her chest ease. Some of the weight lifted. She asked the question that mattered most:
"So — what exactly has changed in the ten years I was gone?"
Aaron's expression grew serious.
"A great deal... has happened."
____
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