Chapter 4: The Mage's Secret

Twenty-seven years past Himmel's death, Frieren and Fern stop in the trading town of Warm, where the elf suggests splitting up to restock. Certain her mentor is concealing something, since such moods usually end with pointless purchases like a giant skull or a clothes-dissolving potion, Fern decides to shadow her instead.

She watches Frieren agonize over an accessory stall before buying something, then ask a table of rough adventurers where to find sweets before heading back to the inn. Fern hurries through her own errands and returns, after which Frieren proposes they treat themselves to a fine meal somewhere with a pleasant view.

Over dinner, Frieren tells Fern to order whatever she likes from a secret stash of savings, and the girl correctly names merkur pudding as the elf's own craving before she can say it. The guess summons a memory of Himmel doing the same after years on the road, when he listed his fondness for ruf-omelette, Eisen's love of grapes, and Heiter's weakness for drink.

Admitting she knows almost nothing about her companion, Frieren hands Fern a box holding a butterfly-motif hair ornament for her birthday. Fern is overjoyed, telling her mentor that even these small attempts to understand her bring overwhelming happiness.

The following day the pair travel on, with Fern wearing her new ornament. Asked whether the journey has any purpose, Frieren says she means to collect magic out of simple curiosity and to retrace the path she once walked with the Hero Party before those memories slip away.

Fern, now sixteen, has grown taller than her mentor, prompting Frieren to compare their figures and wonder why her own chest stays so small despite the two of them eating much the same food.