章 57: Please Frieren, Let Me Die
At dawn, dew dripped from the leaves, and sunlight pierced through the thin mist, gradually dispersing it. The world seemed to be waking up to a new day.
When Frieren woke up, she was greeted by this peaceful scene, though something inside her felt amiss.
She was lying on the edge of a cliff, overlooking a vast plain that stretched out endlessly below. Behind her, a boundless forest reached out to the horizon, its dense canopy almost impenetrable. It didn't take long for her to realize that Aura had brought her here.
Neither demons nor humans would pursue her this far; she was finally safe.
"Aura?"
Her voice was soft, uncertain. The first thing she did upon waking was to search for the familiar figure of the purple-haired demon who had, against all odds, protected her. Yet, as she glanced around, Aura was nowhere to be seen beside her.
Panic began to set in as Frieren stood up, her eyes darting around for any sign of Aura.
The ground was wet with morning dew, but here and there, she noticed something else—a sparse trail of bloodstains. Her heart pounded as she followed the drag marks leading from the forest to the edge of the cliff.
The trail didn't go far, but every step felt like an eternity. The silence was heavy, broken only by the soft rustle of leaves in the breeze. When she finally found Aura, her heart sank.
The purple-haired demon who had descended from the heavens to save her at the brink of death was lying quietly under a large tree. Her once elegant purple-and-white fitted dress was now tattered and stained, its vibrant colors marred by deep reds and purples. The blood had crusted over, leaving her body a patchwork of wounds, some still fresh and oozing.
Aura's face, usually so full of pride and confidence, was now serene, almost too calm. She was leaning against the tree trunk, her head tilted to one side, eyes closed tightly as if lost in a deep, dreamless sleep. Frieren watched the faint rise and fall of Aura's chest, a tiny sign that she was still alive, though just barely.
"Aura! Your horn?"
Frieren knelt in front of Aura, her face full of concern. She reached out to touch the broken left horn on Aura's head but hesitated, fearing she might cause Aura more pain. Her hand hovered in the air before retracting.
But then Frieren realized that the broken horn was the least of Aura's injuries.
"These penetrating wounds on your body... Who did this?" Frieren's voice trembled as she examined the pool of blood that spread from Aura's body, finding more and more terrifying injuries. These were no ordinary wounds—any one of them would have been fatal to an elf or a human. But Aura, somehow, had endured them all.
Fortunately, Aura was a demon with a body built for endurance and vitality far surpassing that of humans or elves. It was this incredible resilience that allowed her to survive the wounds that would have otherwise been fatal.
But survival for a demon like Aura was not without its price. The unimaginable pain she endured was ceaseless, a torment that should have brought the sweet release of death, yet it cruelly eluded her.
As Aura lay there, drifting between consciousness and oblivion, she heard a faint noise that pulled her back to the waking world. Her eyelids fluttered open, heavy with exhaustion, and her vision slowly cleared. The first thing she saw was Frieren, kneeling before her, her expression filled with concern and something that resembled guilt.
But Aura's first reaction wasn't one of relief or recognition. Her gaze was cold, indifferent, devoid of any warmth or softness that might have been expected in such a moment.
"Your leg? How did you manage to bring me here with such an injury?" Frieren's gaze finally fell on Aura's thigh, and tears were about to fall.
A deep, jagged gash ran across Aura's thigh, a wound so severe that it exposed the severed muscle beneath. The fact that the bleeding had stopped was little consolation; it was clear that such an injury should have rendered Aura immobile.
Could it be… that Aura had crawled out of the forest, dragging herself along with Frieren on her back?
Why? Why did something so cruel have to happen?
"Wait, Aura, I'll heal you right away. You got hurt like this to save me—I won't let you die! I won't let you die!!" Frieren's nerves were tense. Her hands trembling uncontrollably as she reached out to touch the terrible wound on Aura's thigh, intending to use her healing magic.
But just as her fingers were about to make contact, Aura's hand shot out, slapping Frieren's away with a surprising strength given her condition.
"Aura?" Frieren's eyes widened in shock, confusion flooding her features. She looked up at Aura, searching for an explanation in the demon's cold, hard gaze.
"Don't misunderstand, Frieren. I didn't come to save you. That spell just works like this—if you die, I die too." Aura's voice was flat, almost emotionless, as if she were reciting a simple fact rather than explaining her own actions.
"What are you talking about? What spell? Aura, please stop talking. I'll treat you first. Don't move. It might hurt a little—"
"Stop pretending, Frieren!! Aura's voice, sharp and laced with venom, cut through the air like a blade. She dragged her battered body back, distancing herself from Frieren as much as her injuries would allow.
"You can't see the spell contract between us?!" Aura's eyes were wide, wild, filled with a mixture of hatred and something that bordered on despair. The look she gave Frieren was one of utter loathing, like a stray animal backed into a corner, too weak to fight but too proud to submit.
"Aura... why... why do you talk to me like that? We... aren't we friends? We are friends!! There is no such thing as a contract, I don't even know about it!!" Frieren's voice trembled, starting with sobs but quickly becoming firm.
"Heh, you must have figured it out a long time ago." Aura's sneer was bitter, her words dripping with sarcasm. "I foolishly thought you wouldn't notice the obedience spell since you haven't been learning magic for long. But you're Frieren—the one who could even analyze a cross-system demon curse. You must have known from the second time we met—that I couldn't disobey your orders."
Aura's tone was accusatory, her cold gaze filled with a deep-seated hostility that had been festering for who knows how long.
She didn't want to pretend anymore—playing the childish game of elves and good demons with Frieren, enduring this charade. How long would Aura have to endure this kind of compromise? How many more ridiculous orders from Fulilian would she have to endure?
"I... I... I…" Frieren was at a loss for words. She wanted to deny it, but Aura's tragic, resolute gaze made her realize this wasn't something that could be covered up with lies.
"I did know..." Frieren finally admitted, her voice trembling. She nodded, but then quickly added:
"Although I have known the effect of the contract for a long time, I don't know where this contract came from, and I don't want to delve into it. I just want to maintain my relationship with you! Aura, I have never—never—wanted to use this contract to force you into anything. You must have noticed that, right? I have never given you any orders that crossed the line! Not before! And I swear, never in the future!!"
"Frieren," Aura's eyes, filled with a mixture of sorrow and defiance, bore into Frieren's soul. Her long, purple hair fell like a curtain around her face as she lowered her head and hiding her pale face.
"What did you take me for?" Aura's voice was low, almost a whisper. "A doll? A slave? A convenient tool to be called upon and dismissed at will?"
"No, no, you're my friend! My teacher! It was you, Aura, who taught me magic. You were the first friend I made who was my age! Aura, aren't you a good demon? I've never thought of you as an enemy or a tool! We will always be--" Frieren tried to swear something but was cut off by Aura.
"Stop lying to yourself, Frieren! Do you think there are really good demons in the world?" Aura shouted, with only mockery in her eyes.
"Don't think that the demons have humanity."
"But you..."
"It's all an act to stay alive. You should know very well that demons will do anything to survive. Frieren, did I play my role well? In the past twenty years of playing house games with you, am I not perfect in my image as a good demon?"
"Aura, you...!"
Frieren was already very upset and angry at Aura's words. She was about to say something but was interrupted by Aura in a louder voice.
"What do you want to command me to do now, Frieren?!" Aura's voice was sharp, filled with years of pent-up rage and pain.
"I didn't intend to command you to do anything." Frieren's voice was barely a whisper as she lowered her eyes, unable to withstand Aura's searing gaze.
"You didn't intend to command me to do anything, haha—" Aura laughed bitterly, using her hands to push herself higher up the tree trunk so she could look Frieren, who was squatting down, in the eye.
Aura's voice trembled with despair as she confessed, each word a dagger aimed at Frieren's heart:
"Your first command was not to harm humans. Did you consider my identity as a demon when you gave that order? Demons are born enemies of humans and elves. Even if I didn't harm humans, would they believe I wouldn't hurt them? And even if they believed, would they stop hurting me because of it? Frieren, do you know how cruel that command was? You pulled out the claws and fangs of a wolf in the snowfields and placed it in a sheep pen, expecting it to survive among the sheep's horns and the cold winter. Frieren, you're a naturally cruel elf—"
"I... I didn't think that far at the time..." Frieren's voice was small, her earlier conviction crumbling under the weight of Aura's words.
"Your second command was to understand humans. Forcing two different species to understand each other—do you realize how absurd your command is? Can you imagine what it's like for a person's consciousness to be trapped in the body of a cockroach, realizing they're eating their own kind, consuming garbage, and laying eggs—things that were once normal but are now terrifying for a cockroach who thinks they're human? Frieren, you're a naturally arrogant elf—"
"I'm not..." Frieren tried to protest, but her words faltered in the face of Aura's fierce accusations.
"Your third command was for me to teach you magic wholeheartedly. At that time, you took every piece of magic I had—demon or human. Everything I knew, I taught you. In the end, you studied demon magic in depth and became the first elf in the world to practice demon magic. But all the knowledge I spent my life acquiring, my proudest treasures, my reliance as one of the Seven Sages of Destruction—but you took it away with just a thought. Those were mine! My things! The meaning of half my life! You took it all so lightly. Frieren, you're a naturally greedy elf—"
"I..." She had no defense, no words to counter Aura's anguished cries.
"And your fourth command was for me to learn to smile and laugh like human. You know very well that demons don't need to laugh. That's just imitating humans. We don't express joy through laughter. You want me to learn something useless and incomprehensible, just so that I can better show my joy in a way that you can understand. Frieren, you're a naturally tyrannical elf—"
"..."
Frieren could no longer say anything. Faced with Aura's four heart-piercing accusations, she was left at loss of words.
"I don't want to understand humans. I don't want to teach you magic. I don't want to mimic human smiles... Frieren, don't you understand? Kindness is not my nature, killing and evil are... I was born to be a demon like this, the desire for killing is deep in my bones, and the desire for human suffering and despair is engraved in my soul. It's only because of your order that I can't kill humans, and I can't kill you!"
Aura screamed, her voice echoing in the silent forest. But as the last of her strength left her, she slumped against the tree, her body drained, her eyes now calm, resigned to whatever fate Frieren would decide for her.
Aura's voice, now barely more than a whisper, carried the weight of years of suffering.
"Frieren, I'm tired. Please... Please... let me go."
"Aura!!!"
Frieren's voice cracked with desperation as she cried out. Her world had been turned upside down in the span of a few agonizing moments. Everything she had known, everything she had held dear, seemed to crumble around her.
Why did she have to face such a cruel truth now? Why had Aura chosen this moment to shatter the fragile illusion they had maintained? Why now, when the Elven Village lay in ruins, and she was left homeless, lost, and alone?
'Please, Aura... at least not now, not at this moment, don't treat me this way!'
'Please, even if you're a demon, you can still mimic, can't you? Imitate the old you, the Aura who was like a human. Even if it's a lie, don't reveal the truth with that face. Don't... don't make me kill... my... last family member...'
"Come and kill me, Frieren! You should have done this the moment you met me!"
Aura bared her teeth, fiercely staring into Frieren's eyes. Despite her shattered body, Aura's gaze never wavered, completely different from the Aura who used to beg for mercy.
Aura had considered running, but her body was too damaged, her legs too broken to carry her far. She had tried to crawl away, dragging herself through the dirt and blood, but her strength failed her, and she fainted before she could get far. When she woke up, Frieren had caught up with her.
'Frieren, will you not let me go no matter what?'
Aura never wanted to experience that strange, agonizing sensation again—the curse of [understanding humans]. It was a horror that went beyond physical pain, a terror that made even demons shudder. It was more painful than any wound, more terrifying than the prospect of death.
Yes, demons are a race that will never give up on life under any circumstances. Every time she endured excruciating pain in the past, Aura would cry, scream, throw tantrums, and beg for mercy, but she never considered dying. That was the nature of demons. The demon Aura would never seek death, but the human Aura would rather die.
Aura looked up at Frieren, seeing the conflict etched on her face. Frieren's hand trembled as she finally raised it, placing it gently against Aura's forehead. The mana began to flow, and Aura felt a strange sense of relief. For the first time in what felt like an eternity, she welcomed the sensation. It was as if she was finally being freed from a burden she had carried for far too long.
Aura smiled. The smile was so beautiful, so unexpectedly human. This wasn't the smile of a demon pretending to be human. This was a smile born from a place of true, untainted emotion, the kind that only a soul freed from its burdens could express.
'Yes, that's it, Frieren. You should have ordered me to take my own life when we first met.'
'If you had done that, the elf village, your family, and all those elves would not have believed in the existence of a good demon, and they would not have been slaughtered without resistance when the demons attacked.'
'If I have made you believe that there are good demons in this world, then let this only good demon disappear.'
"Frieren, do it—" Aura whispered, closing her eyes, bracing herself for the end.
"Aura, you're free."
The words were soft, barely more than a whisper, but they echoed in Aura's mind, resonating deep within her soul.
Snap—
All the commands imprinted in Aura's soul vanished.
In an instant, all the commands imprinted in Aura's soul vanished. The command to [understand humans], the command to [not harm humans], the command to [learn to smile like humans]—all of them dissolved as if they had never existed.
Aura opened her eyes, and for a moment, she couldn't comprehend what had just happened. The familiar weight of Frieren's commands, the invisible chains that had bound her for so long, were suddenly gone. Her violet eyes widened in disbelief as she looked at Frieren, searching her expression for any sign that this was a cruel trick. But all she saw was Frieren's tear-streaked face, filled with an emotion Aura couldn't name—regret? Compassion? Desperation?
It didn't matter.
The realization hit Aura like a lightning bolt—she was free. Truly, utterly free.
Her body reacted before her mind fully processed the situation. With a sharp intake of breath, Aura turned away from Frieren, the one person who had both bound and protected by her for so long. She didn't allow herself to hesitate, not even for a second. Every instinct in her screamed to run, to escape, to get as far away as possible.
Her injuries made every step agonizing, the deep gash in her thigh sending sharp pains through her body with each movement. But Aura didn't care. Pain was a small price to pay for the freedom she had longed for. She could feel the cool air against her skin, the earth beneath her hands as she crawled and stumbled forward. The levitation magic she used to lighten her body only did so much—her body was still battered and broken, but the adrenaline pumping through her veins pushed her onward.
She was like a bird released from a cage after years of confinement, her wings battered but still capable of flight. The moment the door to her prison opened, she didn't hesitate—she took to the skies, fleeing as far as she could, as fast as her injured body would allow. There was no time to think, no time to look back. All that mattered was putting as much distance between herself and Frieren as possible.
Aura's breath came in ragged gasps, her vision blurring as tears mixed with sweat on her face. The forest around her passed in a haze of green and brown, the trees and underbrush a mere blur as she propelled herself forward. Every time her foot caught on a root or a stone, sending her crashing to the ground, she pushed herself up again, refusing to stop. She couldn't stop. Not now. Not after everything.
She needed to escape, to flee from the memories, the pain, the complicated emotions that had been forced upon her. She had spent years pretending, lying to herself and to others, and now that she was finally free, she had no idea what to do with that freedom—except to run.
And so she ran, her figure becoming smaller and smaller in the distance until she was nothing more than a shadow, and then not even that.
Back on the cliff, Frieren collapsed to her knees, the weight of what had just happened crashing down on her all at once. The realization that Aura—her teacher, her friend, her last connection to a life that was now in ruins—was gone, tore at her heart with a pain she had never known before.
"Uuuuuuu!!!"
A heart-wrenching wail tore from Frieren's throat as she clutched the ground beneath her, her fingers digging into the earth as if trying to anchor herself to something solid, something real. But there was nothing—only the emptiness of the forest around her, the vastness of the sky above, and the overwhelming sense of loss that threatened to swallow her whole.
The tears came in waves, blurring her vision and soaking the ground beneath her. She cried out, her voice hoarse and broken, her sobs echoing through the quiet forest. She had lost so much—her home, her people, her sense of purpose—and now, she had lost Aura too.
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As you can see, now she got 1 real friend that even willing to die for Aura. I wonder who's the next one~~
What do you think of this chapter? Let me know your thought...
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