Chapter 114: The Sword of the Hero

Their search of the cathedral ruins comes up empty, and though Eisen calls the whole detour wasted, Himmel counters that ridding the area of the abyssal dragon has made it safer all the same. The group prepares to move on before noticing Frieren has gone missing yet again, caught inside another mimic. Pressing on through scattered villages, they reach a recently founded settlement with little lore of its own, where a resident points them toward Kiesel, a dwarven blacksmith well past a century old who might know more.

At his home the smith pauses his woodcutting to chide Himmel for failing to give his name, and the moment he hears Himmel the Hero he welcomes them inside. He surprises Himmel by knowing his deeds, explaining that hopeful rumors travel fast, and rattles off feats from driving back Aura the Guillotine to cutting down Böse the Immortal. His praise as the finest hero ever swells Himmel's ego, leaving Kiesel to remark how unlike the stories the man proves to be.

When Frieren asks about the Goddess's Monument, Kiesel admits he knows nothing of it, yet recalls that his old village once kept tomes about the Goddess inside the chief's house. He agrees to reveal its location on a single term: a close look at Himmel's blade. Himmel hands it over without hesitation and openly concedes the weapon is only a copy of the legendary hero's sword, which Kiesel already understood, since he forged that very replica early in his career for a merchant out of the Imperial Capital.

Marveling that his counterfeit has wandered so far and found its way home, Kiesel offers Himmel a finer blade at no cost, both as thanks for giving the fake new meaning and for returning his handiwork. Himmel cuts in, but not to accept; he means to keep the false sword, now his trusted partner, until the Demon King falls. Moved, Kiesel hones and polishes the weapon instead, then directs the party up a mountain trail to his former village, warning that monsters have overrun it. Drawing the freshly sharpened blade, Himmel treats clearing them out as one more step toward a peaceful world.

This 114th chapter ran on October 4, 2023 in Issue 45, eighteen pages of the twelfth volume in the Goddess's Monument arc, and marks the debut of the smith Kiesel. A newly settled village of the Northern Plateau serves as its setting, and the replica hero's sword is sharpened over the course of events. Aura and Böse appear in flashback, while the Goddess of Creation and the Demon King are mentioned. The weapon's fraudulent nature was first raised back in Chapter 25.