Chapter 58

Serie keeps pressing Fern to join her, dangling unmatched growth as a mage, but Fern holds firm as Frieren's student and points out that Serie's own unerring instinct guarantees a pass regardless. Unwilling to squander such promise, Serie concedes the point and lets her through. The remaining candidates follow, each judged in a heartbeat: Denken passes because he briefly imagined fighting her, Ubel before she says a word, and Wirbel for treating magic as nothing more than a tool for killing.

Land earns his pass through sheer nerve, fooling no one with a decoy clone while his true body sips tea back in his village, and Methode amuses Serie by calling her cute. With six more cleared, the exam ends. Outside, the twelve scatter to celebrate or sulk, and Denken thanks Frieren for helping him toward his goals, saying he can at last go home to visit his late wife's grave.

Serie passes Ubel, Fern, Wirbel, Denken, Methode, and Land, bringing the long First-Class Mage Exam to a close. Afterward Denken tells Frieren he can at last go home to his village and pay respects at his late wife's grave.

Serie afterward apologizes to Sense for how many new first-class mages the exam produced. The reasons behind each pass reveal her values: she confesses a wish to have known a younger, more driven Denken and nearly dismisses the elder statesman he became, until he admits he had sized her up for a fight; she rewards Wirbel for his cold view of magic as a weapon, and Land for the audacity of a bluff even Ubel could not see through. Frieren congratulates Fern with a pat on the head as the candidates go their separate ways.