Frieren: Attribute Hero Chapter 76: I Have One Condition

"So run, Stark." (6)

"Get out of here. Hurry."

His brother, who had been smiling at him just monts ago, suddenly reached out and shoved him back.

Stark froze.

Run?

Why leave this place...

In that instant, Stoltz's figure vanished.

Black mist suddenly surged from every direction. Crack—lightning tore across the sky, followed by raging winds and blazing flas.

The entire village was swallowed in an instant.

Firelight burned everywhere. Corpses littered the ground. Stark still hadn't recovered from the joy of monts ago. Stiffly, he lowered his head and looked at the ground beneath him.

Thick blood was lting into the earth, forming a horrifying swamp of crimson.

His feet were sinking into it.

Step.

Step.

A heavy set of footsteps stopped before him.

That person—no, that demon—was a towering figure with sharp goat horns on its head. In its right hand was a gigantic battle axe, while its left casually played with a blood-soaked severed head.

"So this is the Warrior Village? What a disappointnt."

The demon grinned cruelly, revealing a mouthful of sharp white teeth.

Stark t those mocking eyes.

"Oh?"

The demon tossed the head aside and crouched before him, fingers brushing its mouth as excitent flashed through its eyes.

That's right.

Those eyes.

The eyes that endlessly repeated in his nightmares.

Stark couldn't stop trembling. He wanted to run away.

But the swamp beneath him was swallowing him whole.

Beside his ears ca sorrowful sobbing—the sound of himself crying beneath his blankets every night.

He tried to pull his legs free, but the sticky blood dragged at him. Countless hands stretched from the swamp, trying to pull him under, and he collapsed to his knees.

"Brother... I'm sorry. I got trapped. I couldn't escape..."

He shut his eyes tightly, as if doing so could let him escape this hell.

Just as he was about to give up, Shane's voice echoed beside his ear.

"Stark, true courage isn't being fearless. It's standing up anyway, even when your legs are shaking from fear."

Along with those words, a spark of anger suddenly rose inside him.

That guy really made it sound easy.

Damn it.

Still... sohow, that sounded unbelievably cool.

Thinking that, Stark stopped struggling uselessly. His gaze steadied as he slowly clenched his fists.

The small figure dragged itself through the blood beneath its feet and charged forward without hesitation!

Bang!

A childish fist slamd into the demon's cheek.

The strength of a re child couldn't move the demon in the slightest. Instead, it only earned a look of contempt.

That cruel grin appeared once more.

But this ti, Stark didn't tremble.

He rembered his brother's words.

"Stark, don't think about anything else. Focus only on the target in front of you."

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

He kept throwing punches.

Again and again against that nightmare of a face.

As his arms swung over and over, the small limbs gradually grew larger.

Boom!

With the final punch, that arrogant, twisted face was blasted away completely.

He was no longer that timid, weak child.

He had grown up.

He was Stark now—the boy who split apart a canyon.

The blood beneath his feet vanished. The swamp disappeared as well. A familiar battle axe appeared in his hands.

Without the slightest hesitation or doubt, just as he had done countless tis before, he raised the axe, gathered strength, and brought down a sharp silver slash from above...

The dust slowly dispersed.

The illusion vanished with it.

Within the canyon, only Stark's rough breathing and pounding heartbeat remained.

He looked up at the black spherical object.

There was nothing left there anymore.

Only scattered particles of magic drifting in the air.

"So this was a trace left behind from training."

A calm voice ca from behind him.

Stark turned around.

It was the human mage beside Frieren whom he had seen earlier that day.

Fern.

"You clearly refuse to leave the village, so why go through all the effort of honing these skills?"

Fern's tone wasn't exactly friendly. Stark could hear the dissatisfaction in her voice.

He couldn't refute her.

Because it was true.

He lowered his head and looked at his own hands before glancing back at the massive canyon behind him.

Fern followed his gaze toward the gigantic scar carved by the battle axe.

"So, you can split apart the mountain before your eyes... yet you can't split apart the mountain inside your heart."

The girl's voice drifted quietly through the cool night air.

It wasn't a question.

It was a statent.

"Because... I'm just a coward who runs away..."

"Cowards don't stay behind when they know they're too afraid to fight a dragon."

"..."

"Are you waiting for soone else to help you? Hoping for praise, Mr. Stark?"

Stark shrank his neck and looked away, though he still stubbornly muttered, "What would you know..."

"Of course I don't know anything. I just rembered myself. The first ti I fought a monster, my legs shook so badly I could barely stand. Right when I was running away in panic, I saw Lady Frieren and Mr. Shane. I saw the worried looks on their faces."

"'I can't let them make that expression.' The mont I made up my mind, my body started moving on its own."

"Mr. Stark, you've been hiding here refusing to leave, yet you've desperately continued training. Doesn't that an you've already made up your mind?"

Stark stared into Fern's eyes.

For a mont, Shane's voice echoed in his ears again.

[Mr. Eisen believes in you. He knows you can do it.]

Seriously...

Why did every single one of them trust him so much...?

Heh.

A faint laugh escaped him.

"You really are father and daughter. The way you encourage people is equally direct."

"?"

Fern tilted her head in confusion.

"Isn't that guy Shane your dad?"

"..."

The girl's face visibly darkened.

Stark opened his mouth, wanting to continue joking around, but the words got stuck in his throat.

That look was terrifying.

"Mr. Stark, rember to co to the village tomorrow. Lady Frieren has prepared a test for you."

After coldly throwing out those words, Fern turned and left.

"..."

Stark scratched his head.

"Girls are terrifying. They switch moods way too fast."

Still, as he recalled the things Shane had said to him earlier that day, he couldn't help finding it strange.

Even though the guy looked about the sa age as him, why did he sohow feel like such a dependable adult?

The next day at noon.

After waiting outside his house for ages with his battle axe on his back, Stark finally saw Frieren arrive.

"Are you serious?"

"It's only a dragon. When Shane joined the party, he killed a subspecies of a Venom Dragon. So I decided that'll be the standard for vanguards from now on."

Stark glanced sideways at Shane.

Shane answered with an awkward smile.

"You did investigate it, right? That dragon already attacked the village before. It destroys houses like chopping vegetables, and it breathes fire too..."

"Then all the more reason not to leave it alone. We should eliminate it as soon as possible." Frieren's tone remained calm.

Stark thought she had completely lost her mind.

"Eliminate the Red Mirror Dragon? By myself? You old hag, did you never intend to let join in the first place? Are you deliberately humiliating ?"

"Mr. Stark, watch your language." Fern sounded annoyed.

Stark glanced at Fern's stern expression, imdiately losing his nerve and shutting up.

"I'm not joking, Stark. A [vanguard] is the foundation of a party's survival. The place we're heading to is the Northern Plateau, the stronghold of the demons. I have to be responsible for everyone's safety. Otherwise, saving the world is impossible to begin with."

Stark fell silent.

He knew Frieren was right.

"In that case... I have one condition."