Chapter 10: Solar Dragon

Twenty-eight years on from Himmel's death, Frieren and Fern reach the Riegel Canyon hunting a grimoire stashed in a Solar Dragon's nest. Fern's blast glances off the beast without effect, and when it materializes right in front of them, the two flee. Conceding that a spellcaster has no business dueling a dragon head-on, Frieren decides they need a fighter and turns toward a nearby settlement. An earlier exchange with Eisen surfaces in her memory: the old warrior had pointed her toward his pupil Stark, then answered the question of the boy's skill only with a grim look.

The village is so calm it hardly seems threatened. An elderly woman greets the pair and brings them to Stark, recounting how three years prior the youth faced down the attacking dragon without flinching until it withdrew, and how the place has known peace ever since. They find him chatting with two children, anxious that strangers might provoke the creature again. Once he learns who Frieren is and sends the locals off, he asks whether his master is furious that he slipped away to hide here.

Pressed on why the dragon still lives, Stark finally confesses. He never drove it off at all. Arriving years ago, he had meant to fight but froze in terror, and the beast simply lost interest. The grateful villagers crowned him a hero, building a reputation he could not escape. Fern, openly disgusted, urges Frieren to look elsewhere. The elf instead studies a strange gash carved into the cliff, says nothing about it, and grants Stark a single night to make his choice.

Over dinner the pair hear how deeply the village adores him. Frieren calls him decent; Fern calls him a coward, and the elf does not argue, though she quietly recalls Fern's own first clash with a monster. A loud crash interrupts them, and Frieren guesses its source before retiring to the inn. There she remembers Eisen explaining that Stark, like himself, once fled alone when demons razed his home, which is exactly why the warrior poured all his knowledge into the boy. If that holds true, Frieren concludes, Stark is genuinely strong. At the cliff, Fern discovers the source of the noise and the gash: Stark hammering out his Lightning Strike with his battleaxe.

The chapter brings the third member of Frieren's traveling group into view and frames the test that will prove him. Stark's worth hinges not on the false legend the village believes but on Eisen's reasoning that a coward trained to protect others can still become a true warrior. Frieren's wager, that she can finish the Solar Dragon if Stark merely pins it for thirty seconds, sets up the fight to come.

The grimoire driving the whole errand holds a spell that turns clothing transparent, valuable to Frieren only because it can expose concealed weapons. Its presence in the lair reflects a habit of dragons, which build their nests out of magically charged objects.

This is the first dragon Fern has ever seen. Stark claims the scar on his brow came from battling a Shadow Dragon, a detail Frieren waves off as unremarkable. Throughout the visit she suspects his fear of monsters well before he admits it, and the villagers are repeatedly described as remarkably kind. The chapter was adapted as the fifth episode of the anime.