What if you are reborn as a demon after a funeral?.

only.....

Bang——! !

An invisible repulsive force erupted with a powerful impact, instantly dispelling all the approaching flames.

".....What are you doing?" Ash, who was completely unharmed, stood still in the same spot, maintaining his previous posture without wavering, but the smile on his face had become somewhat stiff.

But Frillie's expression also turned serious:

"...Can the Phantom Ghost now actually withstand the hellfire? And it can even mimic the abilities of an imaginary person?"

"Phantom Ghost??" The strange words left him somewhat dumbfounded: "Are you serious or doing this on purpose? Those kinds of monsters that only create illusions have no fighting power at all! You would have destroyed them in one hit normally, why are you acting like you want to..."

"Is this how it should normally be, that is... a psychological attack?"

"It really is me!"

"Shut up, how could a human live that long?"

Frilian simply couldn't believe that the person in front of her was an old friend from a thousand years ago.

After all, this is simply too contrary to common sense.

"Is it possible that I accidentally stumbled into a strange trap and woke up to find myself here now?"

"...Are you trying to say that you're frozen, or stuck in some kind of stagnation?"

"—This is it!"

"Are you lying to me?"

Without thinking, he slammed his fist into his palm and nodded vigorously in agreement, but Frillie narrowed her eyes, and the magic in her hand gathered again.

This was completely different from the heartwarming reunion he had imagined, driving Ash almost crazy: "Why?! Can you trust me for even a little bit?"

"....evidence."

"Suddenly I... Ah, Emperor's Wine is really hard to drink? This is something only a few of us should know."

"The hallucinations that appear in psychological attacks are essentially using one's own memory to say things that I don't know."

"No... what are you doing??" Looking at the girl who was on high alert, he was completely dumbfounded: "Are you serious? What's the point of me telling you things you don't know yourself? If I told you that when you were bitten by the mimic, I was the one who spanked you, would you believe me or not??"

"—Go to hell."

The girl's voice suddenly became colder than ever before.

The tranquil forest once again burst forth with an unusual light.

Boom!!!

With a loud bang, the air throughout the forest vibrated.

In the blink of an eye, a massive cloud of smoke, from the overwhelming saturation of magical attacks, covered half of the forest.

...........................

A magical bombardment, resembling a war, suddenly erupted in the forest, immediately putting the fortress at the foot of the mountain into a state of emergency.

However... as the smoke and dust gradually dissipated with the breeze.

The earth was ravaged beyond recognition, right before the two of them. Yet Ash remained standing there, not even a speck of clothing on his clothes. His expression, however, was as strange and indescribable as Frilian's when they first met.

"...What are you doing, Frilian? You'd be dead if it weren't for me!"

"You're not dead, are you?" Frilian seemed unusually indifferent, her gaze as if asking: Why are you alright even after all this?

This gave him a strange stomachache: "I might get hurt!"

“There’s a church at the foot of the mountain; the priest can heal you right away.” Frillie casually pointed to the fortress at the foot of the mountain, which had evolved from a village over a thousand years, and still looked at it with an almost disdainful expression:

"Ultimately, I'm attacking the surrounding area more? Normally, you should be able to defend against it, at most you'll be covered in dust... or rather, it's better if you can't defend against it."

"Wait a minute... You already know I'm me, right?!"

"Ah."

Faced with his accusations, Frillian simply nodded expressionlessly.

"And then they attacked again?"

"Is there a problem?" the girl asked calmly, turning her head slightly, leaving him speechless: "You... I..."

He opened his mouth to scold her, but he didn't know where to start, so he put one hand to his forehead and started to worry to himself.

It was at this moment that Freya finally revealed a slight smile:

"But I'm still quite happy to see you again... to be honest."

"Ah... um..."

"What's wrong? Shouldn't you say something at this time?"

"No, my head's a bit of a mess, let me sort it out first..."

His carefully laid plans were completely disrupted. Frillie's erratic mood swings and actions made him squat on the ground, trying to sort out his thoughts and the situation from the beginning to the present.

But Frilian clearly didn't think that much about it. She just smiled and opened her arms as she had before, saying, "Don't think about it now, come here."

"Uh, what?"

"A touching reunion hug... I knew it, you said something similar before, didn't you?...You seemed to be looking forward to it just now too?"

"Even so, even though that's true, but..."

"What else is there to complain about? Hurry up and finish this, my arms are getting sore from holding it up."

"Ah, okay, I'm coming right now..."

Urged on by Frillie's sudden impatience, Ash, remembering his initial goal, stepped forward and, wondering how she could remember so well, squatted down and hugged the girl who had her arms outstretched.

Feeling the soft and delicate touch that remained unchanged even after thousands of years, he didn't even have time to marvel before Frilian turned around and stroked his head.

"Huh?? What??"

"I don't know, it's just that humans seem to like doing this, so I tried it out. You're happy, aren't you?"

"To be honest... I'm not happy at all. To be honest, when I think about it seriously, this is completely different from what I expected."

"What? It's been a thousand years, and you're still so willful?" More than Ash was dumbfounded, it was Frilian who became dissatisfied first.

However, just like Ash, she also had far too many things she wanted to complain about.

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Frillian's End-of-Life Care?

Ash was actually quite moved by the reunion after a thousand years.

At first, upon seeing his long-lost friend, he really wanted to hug him, but... what happened next completely exceeded his expectations.

Now... with Frilian patting his head, doing what's clearly an elder doing to a younger person, he instinctively made a sarcastic remark, then placed his hands on Frilian's shoulders, pushed her away, and solemnly said:

"Wait a minute, Frilian, isn't there something wrong with this procedure?"

"Procedure? What procedure?" Frillie looked completely bewildered.

"I'm the elder here. Besides... wouldn't a normal person hesitate when faced with a phantom ghost's illusion? Why do you seem to have no hesitation at all?"

"If a mage hesitates, they might accidentally die, right?"

Compared to his indignation, Frillie had an expression of utter indifference.

"But I'm a mage too! If I react even a little slower, I'll die too!"

"It's alright, you're not someone who dies so easily."

"What do you mean 'nothing's wrong'...?"

This strange trust left him momentarily at a loss as to where to begin complaining.

There were so many things he wanted to complain about, but then Ash suddenly remembered something and asked:

"Put all that aside for now, is your phantom ghost me??"

"Sometimes I'm a teacher, sometimes I'm you... How should I put it? Although I haven't known you for very long, you've all left a deep impression on me."

As he spoke, Frillie's expression was more like she was possessed by something strange than the girlish sentiment he had imagined; her expression was quite subtle.

Even at the end, Frilian looked him over and added, "...Besides, I'm pretty tired of hearing you and Master begging for mercy. It's quite refreshing that you don't beg properly."

"...What kind of image do I have in your heart?" Ash had only meant to tease the other person, but now he was the one who got hurt.

He clutched his stomach to ease the pain before letting out a deep sigh and changing the subject:

“We’ve known each other for over ten years, and for Vlame it’s been decades, which is a long time no matter how you look at it, right?”

"In reality, it only takes that much time."

"...Okay, I don't want to complain about this anymore."

"Really? But you've asked all your questions, now it's my turn, right?"

"You? No, I haven't finished speaking yet!"

"Then just bear with it for now, and then... squat down."

Frillie rolled up her sleeves as she gestured for him to squat down in front of her, instantly putting him on guard: "What? You're not... planning to hit me, are you?"

"That's right, you're too tall, it's not convenient to slap you in the face, so could you please squat down first?"

"—Of course not! What are you thinking?! How could anyone agree to such a request?!"

These inexplicably polite, yet seemingly impolite, words made him instantly retreat three meters.

But Freylan simply said expressionlessly, "Think about it carefully, it makes perfect sense, doesn't it?"

"Where?? Because you asked?"

"You disappeared without a trace, making both Master and me think you were dead. In the end, Master was still regretting that he couldn't find you. Also, for the first half-century after you disappeared, I couldn't get a good night's sleep... I wouldn't be too much to ask for a couple more punches for all this, would I?... That's what Celie said."

As she spoke, Frilian, who had been approaching step by step, stopped in front of him and looked up, saying, "But before we actually make a move, I'd like to hear what you have to say."

"...That was just an unavoidable situation." The unspeakable truth left him with a hint of embarrassment as he silently looked away.

"What exactly happened?"

"It was probably outside the capital that I fell into a magical trap and was frozen in ice... By the way, I only woke up a month ago."