Chapter 8: One One-Hundredth

With Flamme's notes now in hand, the three travelers board a carriage bound for Eisen's home. Frieren nods off against Fern and mutters that it is bitterly cold up near the Demon King's Castle, a remark that sends Fern to question Eisen; he explains that Ende lies at the continent's far north and carries a weighty past. Feeling awkward, Fern tries and fails to wake her dozing master.

Eisen asks whether Frieren teaches well, and Fern weighs it. She thinks Frieren chases magic with her whole heart and leans on her pupil, far keener on Himmel and the old party than on Fern herself, having taken her on only to honor a vow made to Heiter. Even so, the girl cannot deny her curiosity, recalling that her master never misses a birthday gift. Eisen's mind wanders to a night the heroes watched the Era Meteors together in the Royal Capital, where Frieren dismissed his idea that she take a student, calling it pointless since any pupil dies so soon, and answered his talk of human bonds by noting that even her years with the party had not filled a hundredth of her life. In that same memory, Heiter broke the mood by proposing a celebratory round, which Himmel instantly read as plain thirst.

Returning to the present, Eisen tells Fern their master is a fine teacher, and the girl agrees. The trio steps down and walks on before halting. Frieren asks Eisen one last time to come along, but he names himself a burden now, checks that she has the road to Ende by heart, and apologizes to Fern for the long haul ahead, a trek that cost even the heroes ten years. Frieren brushes it off as a mere ten-year jaunt, and Eisen answers that this one hundredth has already changed her. As the pair sets out, Fern observes that her span beside Frieren will come to half her life, and Frieren smiles that far more remains to spend.

Eisen, Frieren, and Fern journey back toward Eisen's home carrying Flamme's notes. Eisen and Fern talk over whether Frieren makes a good teacher, and Eisen tells Frieren her time among the heroes has changed her. Eisen parts from the group, and Frieren and Fern set off toward Ende and Aureole.

The chapter sits within the Beyond Journey's End arc and was adapted across the anime's fourth and fifth episodes. A flashback shows the heroes taking in the Era Meteors over the Royal Capital, and Eisen privately thinks of the sleeping Frieren as a carefree girl.