Episode 31: Somewhere She'd Like

Climbing through the warm volcanic stretch of the northern lands, the party dreams of soaking in a hot spring at the next village, only to find it abandoned for thirty years, its spring long dried up. A lone household remains, and the owner mentions a grandfather's tale of a hidden spring up in the Etwas Mountains. Frieren knows the place but doubts it is worth the detour, yet Stark insists they have come too far to turn back, and she relents.

The trek drags across log bridges, cliffs, and several nights of camping. Frieren admits she once made the same climb with Himmel and lost days to it, recalling how he refused to quit until every corner was searched. The road runs through the haunt of a three-headed demon mistaken for a dragon, which regenerates unless all its heads fall at once. Frieren sends a screaming Stark running as live bait, then she and Fern strike each head together to bring the creature down before it can recover.

At the summit the famed spring proves to be a shallow foot bath, exactly as Frieren warned, but the three dip their feet and watch the sunrise anyway. Stark confesses he came because Eisen had described the place, a dull and exhausting little adventure that nonetheless became an unforgettable memory, and he wanted to see the same view his master once did.

Down in the fortified city of Heiß, tension flares when Stark mentions visiting the weapon shop on the day Fern hoped to spend with him, and she storms off. Stark turns to Frieren for advice on a girl's heart, weathering her insistence that she is the wise big sister even as he keeps calling her grandma. To help him plan a date, she walks him past the market, a jeweler, a dessert shop, and a quiet square, naming each as somewhere Fern might enjoy.

Frieren reveals she learned Fern's tastes from Heiter, who spoke at length about his ward while bedridden, hoping Frieren might come to serve as the girl's mother. That night Fern asks Frieren about her own romantic history, and Frieren recounts hunting a lost cat with Himmel, citing his rule that any outing with someone you know counts as a date. The logic leaves Fern to conclude Frieren once dated Eisen as well, and she lies awake, restless, gazing at the moon.