After shaking off the [Snake-Tailed Chicken], the three of them charged back into camp with the egg in their arms.
They successfully gave Fern a fright.
Shane brushed the leaves off his head and could not help laughing. Sein and Stark looked at each other, then started laughing along with him.
All three of them had scrapes of varying severity and looked utterly miserable, yet for so reason, they could not stop laughing.
The strange sight left Frieren and Fern completely baffled.
Even after Sein finished treating them, the group was still chattering excitedly about the danger and thrill they had just experienced.
Once Frieren figured out what had happened, she shook her head. The way she looked at Shane and the others was no different from the way one might look at monkeys.
Fern lectured them with a serious face. "You must not joke around with your own safety."
Shane muttered under his breath, "But this egg tastes like pork cutlet..."
The young girl hesitated for a mont.
"Then rember to run faster next ti."
Sein and Stark struggled to hold back their laughter.
At lunch.
After half a month of bread with vegetable soup, their al was finally replaced by golden fried eggs with an irresistible aroma.
"How long have you all been traveling?" Sein asked while eating, casually starting a conversation.
"Counting from the ti I set out with Shane and Lady Frieren, it has been about four years."
Stark's mouth was stuffed full as he mumbled, "For , around a year, I guess."
"As for , if I count it properly, it should be about nine and a half years..."
Hearing this, Frieren raised her head and looked at Shane. "Have we already been traveling together for more than nine years? It feels like hardly any ti has passed..." (T/N: wait I'm confused too, 9, really?)
The corner of Shane's mouth twitched. "Humans are talking. Elves don't interrupt."
Frieren: "..."
Seeing this, Sein smiled.
Shane patted him on the shoulder. "Relax. From now on, everyone will be spending a long ti together."
After the al.
The group continued on their way.
Because the egg had been stolen, the angry clucking of the [Snake-Tailed Chicken] kept echoing through the forest. The group had no choice but to take a detour and avoid the [Snake-Tailed Chicken]'s territory.
Along the way, everyone walked while enjoying the bright spring scenery.
Spring in the Northern Lands was very short.
Because of that, once spring arrived, plants and animals alike beca extrely enthusiastic about reproduction.
On the road, they saw squirrels in pairs, birds in pairs, snails in pairs, and pairs of...
Suddenly, Sein stopped walking.
"Do you all feel like this party is missing sothing?"
Frieren rubbed her chin. "We have a vanguard, a mage, and a priest... I don't think we're missing anything."
"Are we missing a [Thief]? After all, Lady Frieren is always tricked by [Mimics]."
"How is that being tricked? Treasure chests contain infinite possibilities, you know."
Shane scoffed. "That is clearly a Mimic."
Stark retorted, "Your [Gargoyle] isn't much better... Maybe we should recruit a [Fortune Teller] who's good at appraisal?"
"No."
Sein cut off their chatter.
"What we're missing is sothing far more important."
Everyone looked at him in confusion.
Then they saw Sein clench his fist with a look of deep anguish.
"We're missing an mature lady... A normal party should have at least one, right?!"
Stark looked completely innocent. "Don't we have Frieren?"
Fern also looked innocent. "That's right. Lady Frieren is over a thousand years old, after all."
Sein turned to Shane with a mournful face, hoping Shane would understand. "What I want is a sexy, well-matured old lady..."
Frieren looked down at herself.
"Well, sorry about that."
As she said that, she suddenly rembered sothing.
"Oh, right. Shane seems to be very popular with sexy older won. Whenever we arrive sowhere, the inn's proprietress always greets him very warmly."
Fern nodded along. "Indeed. Every ti, the proprietress gives him milk. They are extrely friendly."
Sein's envious gaze landed on Shane, who laughed awkwardly.
"Uh... looks like there's a village up ahead."
Everyone's attention was diverted. They followed the direction Shane pointed in and saw a small village faintly visible at the end of the forest path.
The mont they stepped into the village, Frieren felt that sothing was wrong. Shane's hand also pressed down on the sword hilt at his waist.
It was nearly dusk.
Normally, this should have been the lively hour when farrs returned ho and won prepared dinner, yet the entire village was deathly quiet.
At the village entrance, only a few chickens were leisurely scratching at the ground for food.
Stark was walking at the front of the group, and he imdiately spotted a child collapsed beneath the large tree at the village entrance.
"A child fainted!"
He hurried over to help.
But Sein's voice sounded from beside him.
"It's not just the child."
It was indeed not just the child. Shane walked a few steps forward and saw unconscious people lying everywhere: beneath the large tree at the village entrance, in front of houses, beside the village well...
There were old people and young people, n and won. Everyone in the entire village had fainted.
Sein imdiately went forward to examine them. None of them had external injuries, and their breathing was steady, as if...
As if they were asleep.
The strange thing was that aside from the people, the chickens, ducks, geese, cows, and sheep were all completely fine.
"It's a curse," Sein said gravely. "This is troubleso."
Frieren nodded. She felt the sa.
"Just like the [Saint of the End's Curse] we know, among the magic used by monsters and demons, there are still many dangerous spells we cannot analyze. They can cause people to fall asleep or turn to stone. These curses are all very troubleso."
"If human magical techniques cannot analyze their principles, that ans it is difficult to find a way to remove them at the root. That leaves only two ways to solve the problem: a priest removes the curse, or we kill the source of the curse."
As she spoke, Frieren looked at Sein.
"How about it, Sein? Can you handle it?"
Sein focused on giving several nearby farrs a detailed examination. His expression was serious, and he did not rush to answer Frieren's question.
Frieren did not urge him further. The others simply waited beside him.
Stark looked sowhat confused. "When a priest removes a curse, doesn't he need to know what the curse actually is? I rember that [magic is realized through imagination]. So how does a priest remove a curse?"
Hearing this, Frieren puffed out her cheeks slightly.
"Priest magic is all very strange. I don't know either."
Stark was shocked. "There are things even you don't know?"
Beside him, Shane quietly explained to Stark, "It's not that Frieren doesn't know. She just doesn't really like [Priest] magic."
"?"
"Frieren once said that priests use [Goddess's Magic]. It is recorded in the Sacred Scripture. Most of it is just like demon magic, obscure, difficult to understand, and impossible to analyze. She tried once... and after an entire year, she couldn't finish reading a single page..."
As he spoke, the corner of Shane's mouth curled up. He rembered the ti they stayed with Heiter, when Frieren had thrown the Sacred Scripture into the stove.
[Not very interesting.]
That had been the elf girl's evaluation at the ti.
All copies of the Sacred Scripture distributed by the Holy City were waterproof and fireproof, so throwing one into the stove was actually harmless. Still, that sulky act of "if I can't understand it, I'll throw it away" had made Heiter and Shane laugh endlessly.
"Heiter once said that a [Priest]'s talent allows them to use [Goddess's Magic], but using it doesn't an they [understand] it. That is why more than ninety percent of the contents in the Sacred Scripture remain unanalyzed. Naturally, no one understands the principles behind them either."
Frieren heard Shane's teasing explanation, but said nothing.
Everyone continued waiting quietly.
Thud.
Stark, who had still been talking just monts ago, swayed twice, leaned against the wall, and slowly slid down.
Fern was a little surprised.
Frieren, however, looked perfectly calm.
"He fell asleep."
Shane shook his head. "A warrior's ntal resistance really is low..."
At that mont.
Sein finally finished his examination.
"It's a special curse. To remove it completely, we would need to prepare a lot of magical materials and tools, and it would take quite a long ti. My suggestion is... we simply eliminate the source of the curse. It saves both ti and effort."
"I've already sensed its location. It's to the northwest. Let's go."
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