Serie was a little surprised. So it wasn't a story about a hero defeating the Demon King, but a story about setting out on a journey after the Demon King had already been defeated.
"That is interesting."
"Realizing that time passes very differently for elves and humans counts as growth, I suppose."
"That girl Frieren must have cried miserably."
Rowan recalled the scene of Frieren watching the hero Himmel die, and nodded.
"She really did. No, not just miserably—she cried her eyes out."
Serie burst into laughter again, as if she had just heard something immensely entertaining.
"What a shame. I didn't get to see it myself. I could have laughed at her for ten thousand years."
Rowan: …
Yeah… elves really did have a completely different sense of time from humans.
Rowan asked, "Do you want to read the manga?"
"No." Serie shook her head and gave Rowan a half-smile. "Surely you don't think I can't use magic to see the future?"
Future-seeing magic was one of the more unusual spells in the world of Frieren.
It was, quite simply, magic that allowed one to see the future.
In the story, only two people were known to possess it.
The first was the Hero of the South, known as the strongest human hero before Himmel.
The second was Schlacht the Omniscient, a member of the demon race.
With this magic, Schlacht could see a thousand years into the future and mentally run through countless possible developments of events.
He could even speak, through someone's memories, to people in the future who were capable of seeing those memories.
Meanwhile, the Hero of the South used the same magic to win battle after battle against the Demon King's army.
So what would happen if those two ever met?
The answer was that Schlacht played dirty. In order to stop the Hero of the South, he led all of the Seven Sages of Destruction in an ambush against him.
And so, the Hero of the South died.
Even so, in that battle, he still managed to kill three of the Seven Sages of Destruction and take Schlacht down with him.
And the Hero of the South had already seen that outcome a full year before the battle, using his future-seeing magic.
He knew that even if he avoided that battle, he would still eventually run into Schlacht again in the future.
Because Schlacht could see the future too.
So, in order to carve out a future for humanity, the Hero of the South knowingly walked into that trap and, in the end, killed three Sages and took Schlacht down with him.
That was also one of the reasons why Himmel the Hero was later able to defeat the Demon King.
And for someone like Serie—who had lived from the mythical age to the present, a living grimoire containing nearly all the magic in human history—it wouldn't be strange at all if she had mastered that spell too.
So if she wanted to, she probably really could witness Frieren crying miserably.
It was just that she chose not to peep the future in that way.
Since that was the case, Rowan didn't bother pressing the subject and changed it.
"So, what do you think of this world, Great Mage Serie?"
"Just call me Serie."
Recalling the events of the manga, Serie let out a soft laugh.
"It's a very interesting world. Especially the Devil Fruits. I'm curious—do they really contain devils?"
Rowan shook his head. "That I don't know. But I can take you to meet some Devil Fruit users. I can even give you a Devil Fruit if you want."
"Oh? You have Devil Fruits?"
"I don't, but some of my friends do," Rowan said.
The "friends" he meant were naturally Tobirama and the others.
Serie asked with interest, "Which fruits do you have?"
"The Slow-Slow Fruit, the Castle-Castle Fruit, and the Bomb-Bomb Fruit."
"No interest." Serie immediately shook her head. "What interests me right now is the Revive-Revive Fruit. Or the Soul-Soul Fruit."
"Even in my world, there's no magic that can bring the dead back to life, much less magic that can manipulate souls so freely."
Rowan said, "The user of the Revive-Revive Fruit, Brook, is in the Florian Triangle. If you're interested, Serie, I can have someone take you to see him."
Serie really was interested. She turned and looked at Rowan.
"You're being awfully proactive about helping me. Do you want something from me?"
Rowan nodded without hiding it in the slightest. Playing games with someone who had lived for countless years was not a good idea.
Did you really think someone like her wouldn't see through your little schemes?
So Rowan made no attempt to hide his attitude.
"To be honest, Serie, I really want to learn magic."
Serie let out a small laugh. "I see. So you want to learn magic. Unfortunately, you're not from our world, so you may not be able to learn the magic of our world."
"No need to worry about that."
Rowan said calmly, "The moment I opened the door to your world, I learned your world's language. At the same time, I also gained the qualifications to learn your world's magic."
To prove he wasn't lying, Rowan added, "I'm not from the One Piece world either, but I still awakened that world's Conqueror's Haki."
"Conqueror's Haki?"
Serie's eyes lit up.
When she had been reading the manga, that was one of the powers that had intrigued her most. She hadn't expected Rowan to actually have it.
"Can you let me see your Haki?"
"Of course."
Rowan nodded.
Black-red lightning burst out, and his violent Conqueror's Haki crashed down toward Serie like a landslide and a tsunami.
The invisible blast whipped Serie's hair wildly around, but she herself remained completely unaffected.
Rowan's Haki was powerful, but against an ancient monster who had lived for who knew how long, it was meaningless.
She had lived through the passing of ages and become living history itself. Why would a little Haki scare her?
"So this is what so-called Conqueror's Haki feels like."
She murmured to herself as she experienced Rowan's Haki.
At the same time, a pressure of her own burst out and blocked his Conqueror's Haki.
"Mental intimidation magic."
Serie said calmly, "This is magic that uses overwhelming mental pressure to crush others and knock them unconscious. It seems somewhat similar to your Conqueror's Haki."
"But this mental intimidation only affects the mind. It can't create physical force."
"In that sense, it's different from Conqueror's Haki."
"By the way, can you use Conqueror's coating?"
Rowan nodded. "I can."
Serie gave him an approving look.
"Show me."
"Alright."
The moment Rowan spoke, invisible Conqueror's Haki wrapped itself around his hand, crackling with black-red lightning.
In the next instant, he launched himself at Serie.