Chapter 138

Arriving in the city, Serie waves off Falsch's hidden watch, then accepts his offer to escort her under a concealing cloak. Their walk ends before a crude statue of Flamme, where Serie mourns that the woman's gifts to the Empire have faded from public memory, leaving her the last soul who recalls the smiles and yearning of Flamme's girlhood.

Gathered with Sense, the first-class mages learn their adversaries are the Shadow Warriors, a name that alarms Frieren, Übel, and Land until Sense clarifies that the previous Emperor dissolved the group sixteen years earlier. Their loose command structure once let them act without orders, coordinating like a single organism, but it also let them drift from imperial will and cut down whoever they judged an obstacle, which sealed their disbanding.

Probing why such a danger persists, Frieren likens it to her own role leading her party and concludes that the threat hinges entirely on the commander, a post the warriors filled by loyalty alone. Land suggests the Empire never fully purged them, and the foes they fought are phantoms unknown even to the Emperor. Übel adds that the warriors saw themselves as the only ones able to steer the Empire rightly, which Fern recognizes would brand them traitors.

In her office, Kanone hears Weg confirm the Shadow Warriors' involvement, lending weight to the assassination threat, and she orders tighter security while fuming over Fräse's continued absence. Falsch then delivers Lineal's dossiers detailing each warrior, the work of a mage so formidable she once forced Serie to her knees in a mock duel, a feat even Lernen never managed. As the profiles pass around and Frieren picks out Gazelle and Wehrlos, Sein quietly fixes on the page, where the listed enemies appear to include Gorilla. The cover features Löwe.