Wärme | A Frieren Fanfic

Chapter 3: The Concept of Love

Author: We swear. This is an Ubel fanfic, not a Sense fanfic.

Author: You say that as if we're not gonna spend most of the first arc with Sense.

Author: You literally said that Sense is good for Zeit

Author: You have an entire ending planned for the both of them.

Author: SHUT UP

Author: Also light spoilers for the Frieren manga. If you don't want any, just read until Chapter 100. Trust us. 

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Death is a familiar scent. Especially in the woods. It's faint on me, but I recognize it's scent very well. I see it in the wolves. The soil. The birds. Even on the humans that I dwell with. The scent is faint. It's lovely. However, there's a scent that's rather intoxicating today. Too intoxicating to ignore. 

It's a demon. What else could it possibly be? The mana that I see is like a thick beacon of light. Perhaps that's why this village is remarkably empty. Too empty that there's no trace of any man left. The dogs and cats were spared. So were the birds in the sky. However, there's this strange feeling... Almost as if I was visiting a funeral.

A funeral for an entire city. And the dogs and cats are the loved ones left behind. 

I can understand what it feels like to be a pet. To be chained. To be loved and yet expected to be subservient to another being that deems itself to be greater than you. I can see the apathy in the eyes of the cats, but I can see the grief in the eyes of the dogs. 

I sigh. 

I open each and every home looking for a pet that I could set free. I leave each door open, every window broken and every food supply I can find out in the open in the middle of the town. I watch as the animals enjoy their hearty feast. Some of them even nuzzled over to my legs asking to be pet. I oblige. 

"Lovely creatures aren't they?" A female voice came from behind me. 

"They are... I take it that you're the reason as to why this place is a ghost town?" I turn around to see a...

Okay if I had a gold coin for every short mage that is ridiculously stronger than I am.

So far I'd have three.

If I ever encounter Frieren the Slayer.

Then maybe four.

Although I would dread ever meeting her. Outside of Himmel the Hero, she's the one who I fear the most. Luckily for me, it seems that I haven't crossed paths with her yet. Or ever. Hopefully, not ever. The moment I do...

I feel like it would be the end of me.

However, in the face of a Greater Demon... It feels calming in comparison. Is this what humans feel when they are in the face of Serie? I must say, it feels rather pleasant. This demon... does feel different. She feels human in a way. 

I don't know if it's her personality, the way she conducts herself or that childlike smile, but if it weren't for those horns on her head, I would've mistaken her as human. That stench though. The stench of death. Is very evident in her very being.

Her asymmetrical turquoise hair, grassy green droopy eyes and village girl clothing. She also has a similar pendent to mine. Although it's tube like. She tilts her head and gives off a fake, but otherwise loving smile.

"I simply wished to befriend them. They, however, did not respond in kind. I tried to spare their mouths so that they would have no choice but to converse, but all that came out was needless noise."