Frieren: Serie's Apprentice

"Tap"

"Tap-tap-tap"

Early morning, continuous tapping sounds came from outside the window.

The girl lay in bed with a slight frown, wanting to ignore it, but unfortunately this sound was too persistent and wouldn't stop.

Helplessly, Sola stretched lazily and was about to sit up from bed, but was shocked to discover her body had become somewhat heavy, and even her chest felt stuffy.

"??!"

"Lady Serie?"

After seeing the elf sprawled on top of her, Sola was so startled she sat straight up from the bed.

However, the "magical old-timer's" sleep remained steady. She still lay on Sola's blanket, with what seemed to be some crystal clear drool hanging from the corner of her mouth.

Sola: ...

"No matter how you put it, this sleeping posture is truly amazing."

After slowly extricating her body, Sola gently lifted the elf onto the bed, corrected her "heaven-defying" sleeping position, covered Serie with the blanket, then began searching the room for the source of that sound.

"Tap"

"Tap-tap-"

Thanks to this noise continuing intermittently, the girl quickly located its source.

Right on the small windowsill outside, a completely yellow bird was continuously pecking at the window with its beak, making tapping sounds.

(Meteorite Bird)

"Eh~"

"Is it too cold and wants to come in to warm up..."

After observing the bird's condition, the girl turned to look at the still-sleeping elf.

After hesitating briefly, she still opened the window just a small crack to let it in, then whispered:

"You must be quiet, okay? Don't disturb others' sleep anymore."

"Chirp-chirp-"

The bird that entered stood on the windowsill and called twice, tilting its head and examining the room's interior with its small eyes.

The girl, who had no resistance to cute things, immediately fell for it and wanted to reach out and pet this delicate little bird.

However, just as the girl's palm extended, a serious warning came from behind her.

"Don't touch it yet."

"Even if it's been tamed, it's still a monster after all."

"Without long-established trust, there might be some stress reactions."

After hearing the elf's words, the girl quickly withdrew her hand, looking at the bird before her with lingering fear, still finding it hard to believe.

"Are you sure this cute little thing is really a monster?"

"Mm."

Rubbing her still somewhat drowsy eyes, Serie began explaining to this disciple's sister.

"This monster's scientific name is Meteorite Bird, named because its body is as hard as meteorite."

"Its maximum flight speed can break the sound barrier, and its hard beak, under charging impact, can even chisel small holes in diamond."

"Eh!!!"

The girl was so frightened she retreated repeatedly, only feeling slightly reassured after hiding beside the elf.

But Serie merely beckoned, and the completely earth-yellow terrifying bird fluttered its wings to fly onto the bed, then hopped and walked to the elf's front.

Then—

Serie extended her index finger and thumb forward, easily pinching the Meteorite Bird's beak.

Her other hand flicked its little head, tapping it repeatedly while muttering, "Let you disturb my peaceful dreams; let you peck incessantly early in the morning..."

Sola: ...

Looking at the bird that shrank its head and didn't dare resist at all, the girl had the illusion of reading a wronged feeling from its small eyes.

Fortunately, after taking a small revenge on the bird, the elf also gently tapped its head a few times with her thumb to comfort it.

Finally, she removed the letter that had traveled thousands of miles from its foot.

Something that would make Äußerst use a Meteorite Bird to deliver a message to her would probably not be a small matter.

Indeed, the letter wasn't very long, and the written content was quite limited, but...

The information it carried was truly troublesome to handle.

After reading through it once, Serie crumpled it into a ball and sighed:

"Worldly politics are really troublesome. I knew from the beginning I should have refused His Majesty's handwriting."

After the girl heard something related to His Majesty the King, she came closer. Although she was sensible enough not to ask much, her curious gaze kept staring at the letter.

Noticing this, Serie simply threw the crumpled letter to the girl.

"Lady Serie, may I really read this?"

"Whatever, it's not something that needs to be hidden anyway."

The elf said indifferently, then patted the pillow beneath her, fluffing it up before lying down again.

Anyway, it was still early, so she could have a beautiful return to sleep.

However, the Meteorite Bird standing on the elf clearly didn't want this.

Jumping from her shoulder to Serie's front, it gently nuzzled the elf's nose with its beak and began chirping softly.

"Mm... really troublesome."

Seeing its persistent appearance, the elf also realized she was destined not to sleep well this morning.

Helplessly pressing down this "Meteorite Bird brand cuckoo clock," she signaled it to behave.

Then she got out of bed to wash up, and after preparing properly, picked it up to place on her shoulder and walked out the door with Sola.

"Senior brother, I went to the village this morning to check."

"The carpenter has already started processing, and estimates it will be completed by noon tomorrow."

"I see, looks like it can be finished before our rest period ends..."

In the inn's corridor, Gut and Hafka's conversation suddenly stopped mid-sentence, and they looked as if seeing a ghost at teacher Serie walking toward them.

Gut even looked directly out the window to confirm whether it was still early morning.

"Tsk-"

Serie clicked her tongue in dissatisfaction. "What kind of rude look is that? Is it so surprising to see your teacher up early?"

"Mm, that's right." Without any hesitation, Gut confirmed.

Serie: ...

The elf wanted to retort, but after carefully recalling, she found that except for pretending to get up early a few times when they first met, afterward, in front of this disciple, she had always maintained a lazy demeanor.

So the elf got angry and fell silent, turning her head away without arguing.

Gut's gaze turned to the Meteorite Bird standing on his teacher's shoulder, instantly guessing the reason for Serie's unusual early rising.

No wonder she woke up so abnormally early—there must be important news arriving.

Thinking of this, Gut lifted the food box in his hand and said:

"The village pastry shop's confections are said to be quite good. I packed some to bring back. Want to eat breakfast together?"

"Sure." The elf agreed and looked toward another room in the corridor, saying: "Call Ross and Zenn too."

"Mm, that was my intention. I prepared portions for everyone."

However, before Gut could step forward to knock on the two junior disciples' door, the door opened a small crack by itself.

Then the properly dressed Ross walked straight out and gently closed the door behind him.

"Mm... not bringing Zenn along?"

"Better not." Ross said flatly. "Because of me, that child was tired last night. Let him sleep a bit more."

"Hm?!!!"

Gut stepped back several paces, looking at Ross in horror.

The others' gazes also changed, and even the pure-looking girl Sola covered her mouth with her hand.

Obviously, even such a girl had heard of certain men with special preferences for little boys in the Royal Capital's social circles.

Noticing everyone's strange looks, Ross realized he had misspoken. His emotions rarely lost their calm, and he hurriedly defended himself.

"It's not what you're thinking. That child's situation is a bit too special."

Ross's tone was urgent with a trace of helplessness. "I have a habit of meditating before sleeping at night. Last night's condition was good, so I meditated quite late."

"But what does this have to do with Zenn?" Hafka asked puzzledly.

"It has everything to do with it."

"Heaven knows how shy that child is. When I finished meditating, I discovered that child, like me, hadn't fallen asleep."

"I originally thought his sleep schedule was also late, but after vaguely hearing his somewhat rapid heartbeat, I realized perhaps he was just unaccustomed to sleeping alone under the same roof with me, a relative stranger."

"To verify my guess, when I tried pretending to sleep, that child's breathing and heartbeat gradually calmed down."

"By the time he actually fell asleep, there were probably only a few hours until dawn."

Gut: ...

Sola: ...

Hafka: ...

Serie: ...

How to put it—although this sounded extremely absurd, happening to junior disciple Zenn, it didn't seem so impossible.

In previous rest periods, they mostly had one room per person or slept together on the ground in outdoor environments, which might have been fine for Zenn.

But today, this village inn's scale was truly too small, so Serie had no choice but to arrange same-gender pairs to share double rooms, which led to this situation.

"I see." Serie, as the teacher, shook her head helplessly. "I didn't consider this thoroughly enough."

"You two sleep separately tonight. The inn should be able to free up a single room after cleaning up. One of you can move there."

After hearing the teacher's solution, Ross breathed a sigh of relief and volunteered: "I'll go."

"Mm, that's fine."

After deciding to leave a separate portion of sweets for Zenn, everyone went together into the inn's dining room to enjoy the simple breakfast the inn provided.

Hot milk, toasted bread, fried potatoes, and a simple fried egg.

Although not luxurious, it was quite abundant for breakfast.

During the meal, Gut also asked the dining room server to get a plate of nuts and several fresh fish from the kitchen, serving them on a plate for his teacher's Meteorite Bird.

This bird was also quite considerate. After nuzzling the elf's cheek with its beak to request permission, without caring whether Serie allowed it, it flew to the food plate and began eating heartily.

Facing Gut's hand stroking its head, it showed no hostility and enjoyed it while eating.

"Tsk-tsk-"

Serie glanced at Gut and the bird with some jealousy, though she didn't say much.

Her disciple's perception was ultimately quite good. It was just that this little thing was too easily bought off.

"By the way, teacher."

"Is there some news from Äußerst?"

"Why don't you ask it? After all, it brought back the message."

The pecking Meteorite Bird: "Chirp-chirp-?"

Seeing Gut's deflated expression, the elf stopped joking with her disciple and seriously explained to everyone.

"Gut is right. This morning there was indeed news from Äußerst."

"Roughly, the Empire's intelligence department reported back about my accepting the King's personal calligraphy at Holy Capital Strahl, so the Empire's Emperor also wants to correspondingly give me, or rather the Continental Magic Association, a piece of calligraphy."

"If it were just that, it would be fine. The Royal Capital could probably handle it."

"But the Empire's Emperor probably intends to outdo the King, so he invited me to definitely attend a celebration banquet held for border warriors."

"Although there was no direct threat, it was also hinted that if I don't attend, the association's recruitment and magical equipment procurement within the Empire's territory would be affected."

"That really is troublesome." Gut sighed. "Indeed, anything that gets involved with politics becomes complicated."

"Does teacher have any countermeasures? You can't really attend the invitation, right?"

"Of course I won't go." The elf forked a piece of roasted potato into her mouth and denied.

"If I attend the Empire's activities, then to maintain neutrality, I'd also have to participate in the Kingdom's side."

"Political socializing isn't my area of expertise. For the association to navigate around the whirlpool of power for the long term, it would inevitably be devoured by it."

"So this kind of tendency must be nipped in the bud from the beginning."

"For this celebration banquet, I plan to send an envoy to attend in my place and bring back the Emperor's troublesome personal calligraphy."

"I see." Gut nodded. "That does seem like a good choice."

"It's just that since the Empire won't achieve its goal, they probably won't let this representative off easily."

"Teacher, you need to put some effort into the candidate selection."

"Mm..." Serie pondered.

"That probably won't be necessary."

"Hm?" Seeing his teacher's golden eyes staring straight at him, Gut couldn't help swallowing and said somewhat uneasily:

"You can't be planning... to send me, right?"

"Otherwise?" The elf shrugged matter-of-factly.

"As my current chief disciple, no one else is more suitable than you to represent me in attendance."

Gut felt somewhat apprehensive and tentatively asked his teacher:

"Really not considering other candidates? I have no political experience. For external visits, why not entrust it to those experienced staff members in the association?"

Facing her disciple's retreating appearance, the elf frowned slightly, her expression becoming somewhat displeased.

"Political experience—whether you have it or not doesn't matter."

"As long as you don't publicly contradict the Empire's Emperor, even if they make things difficult for you, they'll keep it within limits."

"After all, given the Continental Magic Association's weight in their rivalry, neither the Empire nor the Kingdom wants to see us lean toward their enemy."

[Ding!]

[Side Quest Activated (Completing side quests has a chance to obtain special items, trait upgrade/cut opportunities, etc.)]

[Side Quest · Embassy to the Empire]

[Quest Requirements: Represent the Continental Magic Association at the Empire's celebration banquet, ensure the association's reputation isn't insulted while bringing back the Emperor's personal calligraphy]

[Quest Rewards: Random Otherworld Item X1 + Additional rewards based on quest completion level]

"Sigh~, alright then."

Seeing even the system had popped up a quest prompt, Gut could only helplessly agree.

Since he was destined to spend some time unable to stay by his teacher's side, it was time to make some preparations.

(Chapter Complete)

Two days ago.

Since the group left Sword Village, over ten days had passed.

During this period, the group had crossed the difficult Alt Forest and the monster-heavy Lant Region, finally reaching a road that had been leveled.

Even though it wasn't wide, even though it was narrow and required frequent detours due to being in hilly terrain.

But it could accommodate carriages.

Looking at this road before them, Gut and Hafka exchanged glances, both nodding as they each formed the same plan.

Among their group, only a minority like Gut and Hafka had trained their physical fitness.

The pale-faced Zenn and girl Sola, whose face was covered with fatigue but still gritting her teeth to persevere—this state was more typical of most mages.

After all, even someone as strong as Serie showed visible mental fatigue after the long journey.

Therefore, Hafka, who felt sorry for his sister, couldn't be bothered with rest upon reaching the village. He immediately called upon Gut, who had the same idea, and the two split up to inquire around the village, seeing if they could hire a coachman to carry them to Äußerst, or even the fortress city Vorig ahead would do.

However, Gut's situation wasn't going smoothly.

After circling half the village, although he successfully found two or three coachman households, after talking with them, he discovered the male heads of household weren't home.

Either they had gone to take on merchant caravan jobs, or they had been hired by other people in recent days.

But in either case, waiting for them to return would take at least ten days or more.

After sighing in disappointment, Gut walked toward the village tavern—this was where he and Hafka had agreed to meet. His side had no hope, so he could only expect Hafka might have some success.

After entering the tavern, Gut ordered a cup of locally-brewed beer and found a seat by the main door, sipping while waiting for Hafka to arrive.

In the center of the room stood a burning stove, and combined with the alcohol in his drink, even in winter, Gut didn't feel cold.

However, Hafka was a bit slower than expected. After waiting a while, this figure finally pushed open the door and entered.

"Sorry I'm late, something happened on my end."

"No rush, sit down and explain slowly."

"Mm."

After Hafka sat down, he originally wanted to order whiskey from the tavern server—after all, both the alcohol content and flavor would be much better than ordinary beer.

But after glancing at senior brother Gut drinking only beer, he immediately changed his unspoken words and also asked the server for a bottle of beer.

As a mouthful of liquor went down, under the warm breeze in the room, the chill on Hafka's body dissipated, and he began his account.

"If the information I got is correct, senior brother, both our situations should be the same."

Gut was stunned. "You mean the entire village has no coachmen available for hire?"

"Correct."

Hafka confirmed, then began explaining.

"After visiting several households and getting negative answers, I stayed longer at the last place and learned the reason for this situation from the coachman's family."

"Just a few days ago, a merchant caravan transporting important supplies was attacked by several bird monsters in the wild. Multiple carriages were severely damaged, but fortunately the cargo sealing remained intact."

"Therefore, the caravan boss paid big money to hire away most of the village's coachmen. As for the remaining one or two, they were also hired by travelers who didn't want to continue with the caravan."

"Tsk, so that's what happened."

Gut clicked his tongue, then frowned slightly. "Then our plan is probably..."

"No, there's actually still a chance."

Hafka interrupted, though a trace of hesitation flashed across his face, obviously this idea wasn't very perfect.

Gut spread his hands, gazing at this junior disciple. "Might as well explain. Anyway, there are no other options."

"Alright." Hafka took a sip of beer and began describing.

"According to the old woman who chatted with me, when the caravan came to the village, they also brought back a carriage that wasn't too severely damaged and left it at the village carpenter's house."

"Also, some of the village coachmen's horses are getting old, so they keep an additional horse at home for future replacement."

"So I was thinking, if we could get both of these things, combining them would make a proper carriage."

After hearing Hafka's idea, Gut's furrowed brow still didn't relax.

"The feasibility is there, but there are also quite a few problems."

"First, the village carpenter might not have finished repairing the carriage yet. Second, even if we secure both the carriage and horses, what about the coachman to drive it?"

"All the village's drivers should have been hired away, right?"

"I can do it." Hafka said steadily.

"When I was at the country estate, I learned how to drive horse-drawn carts and ox-carts from the household servants."

"Although it's been some time since I tried, past familiar skills should still be reliable."

Looking at his junior disciple's eyes that held considerable confidence in himself, Gut pondered.

If that was really the case, it wouldn't be impossible to try.

After finishing the remaining beer in his cup, Gut nodded to Hafka. "Then let's try it."

"I'll go find the carpenter to check on the carriage, you go to the coachmen's homes to borrow horses."

"Mm." Hafka responded. "Then, meet at the inn tonight?"

"Sure."

At the carpenter's house on the village's east side.

Gut, who had only found this place after asking several villagers, the moment the carpenter opened his door, couldn't stop his eyelid from twitching.

Because at that very moment.

The carpenter in the courtyard was holding an axe, bringing it down on the damaged carriage with a chop, as if he wanted to split it open to use as firewood.

"Spare the carriage!"

Gut called out in alarm. Before the carpenter's wife who opened the door could react, he rushed to the carpenter and seized the axe from his hands, preventing him from causing further damage to the carriage.

The carpenter was so startled by Gut's sudden appearance that he jumped up and nearly wet himself after collapsing to the ground.

Fortunately, after subsequent explanations, the carpenter understood Gut's intentions.

After asking his wife to pour a cup of hot tea for this customer, the carpenter pointed at the damaged carriage with his axe and explained to Gut.

"Customer, look here—this large piece is the carriage's load-bearing board, an extremely important part of the carriage."

"Mm."

Feeling the axe marks on it, Gut nodded emphatically.

After seeing where the customer's attention was focused, the carpenter sighed.

He pointed to another spot—a place that didn't look too problematic from the outside, only slightly deformed—and said:

"Here is where the real problem lies."

"Because of this damage, this load-bearing board can't be used anymore. It needs to be removed and replaced with a new one."

"Coincidentally, we're running low on firewood at home, so I thought I'd chop it down first, and when spring comes next year, I'll dig out a suitable piece from the forest to replace it."

"I see."

Gut expressed his understanding, then under the carpenter's incredulous gaze, he reached out and snapped off the load-bearing wooden board that the carpenter needed an axe to chop.

From the cross-section of the deformed area, a terrible crack could be seen inside the board. Gut nodded, admiring the carpenter's professionalism.

This wooden board really couldn't be used anymore.

Little did he know, the carpenter was now looking at him as if seeing a ghost.

"That... that, young man, you couldn't be a demon, could you?"

"How could that be possible." Gut curled his lip in annoyance. "I'm just an ordinary, unremarkable mage."

After repeatedly confirming that the customer before him was truly human, the carpenter finally breathed a long sigh of relief.

"Master, if I could bring back wood suitable for making load-bearing boards from the forest right now, do you have confidence you could repair it within two days?"

"This..."

The carpenter stroked his chin thoughtfully. "The other parts of the carriage, I've mostly already repaired."

"If there really is suitable wood, it would just be a matter of planing it out and installing the new load-bearing board. Two days should be no problem."

"It's just that the forest is too far from the village, plus with winter snow and active monsters and beasts, getting wood at this time is too danger—"

The carpenter's words stopped halfway as he thought of Gut's earlier scene of easily tearing apart the wooden board. It seemed for this young man, the winter forest wasn't so dangerous.

So after swallowing, the carpenter said to Gut:

"If you can really bring back suitable wood, I have no problem delivering within two days."

"That's wonderful. Master, let's discuss the price."

"This..."

The carpenter looked at the accident-damaged carriage before him with a troubled expression. "Why don't you name a price."

"To be honest, this carriage was actually given to me by the caravan boss as collateral for repair costs on other carriages and cargo sealing. He said when he completes delivery and gets payment, he'll buy it back at a reasonable price on his return trip."

"If you're buying it now, I really don't know what price would be appropriate."

"I see." Gut's eyes flashed with understanding, so he simply stated the price of a normal new carriage.

The carpenter was naturally delighted to agree immediately and promised the customer that as long as materials were available, he would definitely repair it to be more durable than new.

Gut smiled, asked him for the location of nearby lumber areas and required wood specifications, then left without further delay, walking quickly toward the lumber area, hoping to bring back suitable wood before dark.

Meanwhile, on the other side.

Hafka's progress wasn't going smoothly.

Unlike carriage parts that could be arbitrarily replaced, horses as living creatures were each different.

The horses kept by coachmen were all "partners" they had spent long periods with. Some had developed understanding with their coachmen through familiarity, making them responsive to control and easy to handle.

As important tools for making a living, selling or leasing them was something the coachmen's families didn't dare decide on their own.

Therefore, even after finding households that kept spare horses, Hafka's negotiations weren't going smoothly.

After learning his intentions, the family immediately became resistant, stating they wouldn't sell or lease to outsiders.

Until...

Hafka pulled out gold coins from his purse.

Facts proved that for most "not for sale" items, as long as enough money was offered, they could actually be bought.

Seeing that sum of gold coins that the family's breadwinner couldn't earn back in several years of work, their compromise was exceptionally straightforward. They even offered to give the horse a full wash and deliver it clean to Hafka's hands.

After jointly signing a transfer agreement, Hafka breathed a sigh of relief.

His side was roughly settled. He just wasn't sure if senior brother's side was still going smoothly.

Night.

Gut collapsed on the inn's soft bed like a dead pig, his stamina completely drained—really, not a drop left.

Heaven knows how exhausting it was to drag and roll the timber back to the village from the lumber area.

And this was after Gut had carefully processed it, completely removing the tree's roots and branches, keeping only the central log portion.

But even so, its weight was still not to be underestimated.

His actions after returning to the village caused quite a stir, and countless villagers, while marveling, also actively helped.

Finally, with the joint assistance of many villagers, the already exhausted Gut managed to transport this section of log across half the village to the carpenter's house before dark.

Even the subsequent journey back to the inn required junior disciple Hafka's support for the depleted Gut.

Conveniently, since they had left the group first, Serie simply booked their rooms together.

This not only facilitated communication about their plans but also saved Hafka from having to find the teacher for keys.

After entering the room, Hafka first threw Gut onto the bed, then opened the room's window, pulled out an exquisite silver cigarette case from his chest, and lit a thick, long cigar facing the window, exhaling a cloud of smoke.

Since he was among the first to help, after jointly moving things across half the village, Hafka was also quite tired. Having one now was perfect for relaxing his muscles.

Amid the smoke, looking at senior brother lying corpse-like on the bed and thinking of how he had single-handedly dragged an entire log from the lumber area to the village, Hafka couldn't help but marvel at his monstrous physical constitution.

At the same time, Hafka didn't forget to tease him verbally.

"Senior brother, did you notice? Some of the village girls, after seeing your feat, had their gazes practically glued to your body."

Gut silently rolled his eyes at Hafka, too tired to speak.

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Powerstones?

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