Chapter 2

Roughly two decades past the hero's death, Frieren roams the Central Lands and loses her way in the woods beyond the Holy City of Strahl while hunting for Heiter's home. A young girl guides her there, and the elf finds the priest far advanced in age. That child, Fern, was left parentless by war in the Southern Lands and taken in by Heiter. Frieren confesses she has come to repay the debt she owes him before he dies. Heiter asks her to raise Fern as a mage, but she refuses, unwilling to march a friend's ward toward the lethal odds apprentice mages face. He then produces a grimoire unearthed from the grave of Ewig the Sage, rumored to hold lost magic of resurrection and immortality, and asks her to tutor Fern across the years its decoding will take. Frieren guesses five or six and agrees.

Four years on, the cipher is nearly cracked and Fern has been pushed past what most reach in ten. Heiter collapses, yet Fern will not leave her drills until she can blast a distant boulder, the benchmark he set for standing on her own. Rescued by the priest from killing herself after the war claimed her parents, she intends to repay him by proving she can live unaided. Once she shatters the rock and Frieren confirms the book holds no miracle, Heiter admits he knew all along; the decoding was only a stall to ripen Fern into a fit pupil. He spends his last days making memories with her before he passes, and Frieren pours liquor over the grave before the two leave together to gather more magic.

Frieren reunites with the elderly Heiter and is introduced to Fern. He sets her two charges: decode the grimoire of Ewig the Sage and teach the girl. Fern masters long-range casting and finally fells the far-off boulder, proving she can stand alone. The grimoire turns out to contain neither resurrection nor immortality, laying bare Heiter's real motive. Heiter dies and is laid to rest, and Fern joins Frieren, forming the new party that carries the tale onward.

The sage Ewig's grimoire conceals its contents in image-based ciphers rather than ordinary writing. Fern had already picked up the rudiments of magecraft before Frieren ever began drilling her. Frieren gestures at three core components behind long-range casting without ever naming them. A small detail establishes that Heiter had a drink in hand when he first encountered Fern. The chapter unfolds in the wooded outskirts ringing the Holy City of Strahl, taking in Heiter's house, the cliff where Fern trains, and the plot where he is finally buried.