Episode 2

Frieren begins teaching Fern the fundamentals of long-range magic, noting that the girl's mana will take years to grow but her control already surpasses most mages. Four years pass as Frieren deciphers a grimoire for Heiter and Fern trains relentlessly. When the priest collapses and becomes bedridden, Fern refuses to leave her practice until she can strike a distant rock, determined to repay him before he dies.

Her resolve traces back to the war's aftermath, when an orphaned Fern stood ready to jump from a cliff before Heiter stopped her. He had lost a friend who never abandoned anyone in need, and rather than waste the memories that friend left him, he chose to save the child. Fern decides the best repayment is to become self-reliant enough that Heiter can rest easy.

Fern finally lands her spell as Frieren confirms the grimoire holds nothing about revival or immortality, a result that does not surprise Heiter. His true aim, he admits, was simply to make Fern capable enough to travel as Frieren's apprentice without becoming a burden. He asks the pair to leave before his death so the girl loses no one again, but a tearful Frieren insists on a proper farewell. After Heiter passes, Frieren pours two bottles of wine over his grave, and the two depart Strahl.

Their journey fills with small jobs traded for spells. In the Turk Region they harvest crops by magic and earn quirky spells that puzzle Fern, who doubts she shares Frieren's love of them. Asked to clean a statue of Himmel, Frieren sets out to find the blue-moon weed flowers he adored but never saw bloom. Six patient months later, following a seed rat to a tower, she discovers a field of them at its summit, and she crowns the statue with a wreath in memory of her old companions.

Frieren trains Fern in long-range magic over four years while deciphering Heiter's grimoire. Fern's backstory reveals Heiter saved her from suicide after the war, and she trains to become self-reliant in gratitude.

The grimoire proves to hold no revival magic, and Heiter confesses his real goal was to ready Fern as Frieren's apprentice. After his death, the two leave Strahl, taking odd jobs for spells, and Frieren caps a long search for blue-moon weed by crowning a statue of Himmel with the flowers.

The breakdown of long-range magic into three essential elements is original to the anime, since the manga leaves them unspecified. The adaptation also stages Fern in the kitchen as she overhears talk of Heiter's coming death, whereas the manga sets that conversation in his room without showing her listen in.

Frieren's hunt for a hot-tea spell ties back to a question Himmel once asked, detailed in a spin-off. Added anime touches include Frieren and Fern sunbathing during the flower search and her twirling a leaf while she speaks, where the manga shows a blue-moon weed instead. Her flower-field flashback is recast outside a ruined church with a statue of the Goddess.