A few years later
Teufel
While her mother was still reading up and deciphering the grimoire that Heiter gave her, Teufel offered to help teach Fern to pass the time. Currently, it was winter as the young human girl held her staff and steadily built her mana up to fire off a Zoltraak at the boulder across the valley.
"You're building it up too fast…slow down and conserve your mana." Teufel instructed Fern as the young half elf girl stood beside the human girl.
Fern nodded, "Right." she spoke softly, her face expressing a flat determined look as she held her staff at her side, mana energy gathered at the tip of it by steady amounts. "Now?" she questioned.
Teufel nodded as she felt Fern had accumulated enough mana to fire off a low mana cost Zoltraak, "Fire at will." she told Fern, to which Fern's eye gleamed a bit before firing off her spell towards the boulder.
BWEEM
The Zoltraak spell casted by Fern was able to be fired for quite the distance, but just barely reached the boulder by what Fern could see from a distance. "Hmm…" she let out an annoyed tone, "not enough distance." she noted.
Teufel shook her head at Fern and pointed at the Boulder, "No, you succeeded, but barely." she corrected the young human girl, prompting Fern to look at where Teufel was pointing.
Indeed, there was a mark on the boulder across the valley, but just barely noticeable; a scorch mark was visible, showing that Fern was indeed making progress. Smiling a bit in reaction to her work, Fern glanced over at Teufel. "This is good." she remarked, as she spoke with Teufel.
"Quite ." Teufel nodded in agreement with Fern, before the half elf brought out from her pocket a watch, and noted the time, "It's almost noon." she remarked, before pocketing her watch back while noting the curious look on Fern's face. "It's a nice little thing I got myself when my mother took me to a city, one of the vendors was selling pocket watches, and I wanted to get one." she explained, earning a nod from Fern.
Before Fern began practicing another attempt, Teufel stopped her by reaching out and touching her shoulder, "Ah, almost forgot, I wish to visit the nearby city of Strahl." she spoke, while getting the attention of Fern, "Do you wish to come with, or continue this alone?" Teufel asked earnestly. The young girl could undoubtedly defend herself from any wildlife, and last Teufel checked, there wasn't a problem with roaming bandits or the like harassing the countryside.
Fern frowned a bit as she thought about it, before nodding to Teufel, "I'll come along, I haven't visited the Holy Capital since Heiter took me there, and that's been over two years ago." she spoke quietly.
Turning on her heels to exit the area, Teufel began to walk off with Fern in tow, "By the way." Fern spoke up calmly as caught up with Teufel and walked beside the young Half half, "What sort of staff catalyst do you use?" she asked as she held her own staff close to her while glancing over at Teufel to her left, "Sorry…just curious…I've seen master Frieren's, but I've yet to see yours." she noted with a curious gleam in her eye.
Teufel smiled a bit in response as she walked with Fern through the woods, and conjured out her Staff, "Sure…I don't see why not." she answered the young human girl, and held aloft her own staff in her hands, "Mother gifted to me, before I had it customized to my liking."
"Hmm." Fern hummed a bit as she and Teufel walked through the woods, her eyes trailed to the staff that Teufel conjured out for her to show, "Why do you have a spade piece at the end, and a blade on the other?" she asked curiously, her face expressed little but her eyes gleamed a bit in child wonder.
In response to Fern's question, Teufel held her staff up a bit further to hold it horizontally in front of her, the half elf began to hold her staff with one hand and gentle brushed her palm along the catalyst for conjuring her spells, "I wanted something to give me an edge if I am to ever find myself in close combat, even though we are in a bit of a peaceful era.." she began to note with her eyes inspecting her staff in front of her, she glanced back at Fern while leaning her staff up against her shoulder.
"The spade part is very utilitarian, really, and the blade on the other end is what I like to call a bayonet." Teufel explained, while Fern's attention was now wholly on the young half elf as she explained the uses of the additions to her staff, "If I ever find myself in a close quarters combat with an enemy, and I can't get a spell going, I'll always have these additions to aid me." she explained.
Fern nodded in acceptance, and spoke with a calm voice, "I see…." she remarked, "But what sort of demons are you expecting to fight?" she asked, while giving Teufel a sideways look, "I don't think there'd be a need to be that ready." Fern noted with a soft frown.
Teufel shook her head negatively, before speaking up, "Not Demons, Fern, anyone can be a danger, even humans." she warned Fern, while giving Fern back a sideways look of her own as the two females continued walking through the woods, "And unlike what Mother has said how Demons operate and behave, Humans are more complex and dangerous."
"What do you mean by that?" Fern asked Teufel in confusion, "Heiter said Demons have more mana than Humans, and are thus more dangerous, so I don't understand how Humans are more dangerous."
Teufel shook her head, "I'll explain when you're older, Fern, you are only a little girl afterall." she remarked with a small somber smile.
Unable to help herself, the young girl Fern puffed her cheeks out in annoyance and pouted at Teufel's answer, "You're a little girl too." she shot back, earning a grumble from Teufel in response, while expressing a glowering look back at Fern.
"I may be little, but I'm over fifty years old! There's a difference!" Teufel insisted, earning a bit of a giggle and a small smile from Fern.
Strahl, the Holy Capital
While the streets weren't exactly bustling with people from street to street, there was indeed enough activity of folks milling about doing business, traveling from one temple to another, making a pilgrimage into the city, to finding an inn to stay at for the night. Fern and Teufel in particular were in the midst of passing through the market street where vendors were hawking their wares.
"It's really busy here." Fern noted with a visible reaction of her eyes glancing from side to side of the various vendors, the human girl herself walked beside Teufel to the left of her while the Half elf herself carried with her a briefcase. Fern then glanced over at Teufel while eyeing the Briefcase for a bit, before looking back up at Teufel, "What was that spell again, that let you carry that much stuff into your suitcase…" she asked.
Indeed, as when the two young girls reached the city wall where the guards inspected each person before allowing them in, the girls were no exception to the rule. When Teufel offered her briefcase to be searched and inspected, the amount of objects the guards pulled out superseded the space the suitcase allowed.
Teufel smirked a bit and explained as she and Fern walked through the market street, "It's the same spell that allows mother to carry a lot of stuff in her own traveling suitcase." she answered, and gave Fern a sideways look, "Curious to learn it?" she asked.
Fern looked to think on it for a bit, before nodding, "After I finish mastering Zoltraak." she answered.
Teufel frowned in response to Fern's answer, "Mastering will take more time, I think what you're looking for is to gain enough understanding of it to the point that you can cast it without issue."
Fern frowned back at Teufel's comment, "But…isn't that called mastering it?" she asked with a tilt of her head.
Teufel shook her head, "Well, maybe I was being subjective on the matter." she remarked while thumbing her chin in thought, while gaining a curious gaze from Fern, "I'd like to think of Master a spell, is when you can use a spell as a base to create new magic from it, to understand its intricacies and such." she pondered.
"Hmm…" Fern nodded in agreement, "I can't understand that a bit." she noted, before she began to look around, "By the way, what do you plan on doing first around here?" she asked.
Teufel blinked for a bit, before answering Fern as she dug out a small pouch from her coat pocket, "I need to exchange some Reich gold coins for Stahl coins." she answered, before pocketing her bag of currency, "But since the Stahl coin is weaker the further you leave this area, I'll only need to exchange a few."
"I see." Fern noted as the two girls continued walking through the market, "So what do you intend on buying?" she asked.
"A few books." Teufel answered with a smile back at Fern, "Maybe even a grimoire if one is at an acceptable price." she added.
"Ah." Fern said with a small nod, "Any spell in particular that you are looking for?" she asked, earning a shrug from Teufel.
Expressing a small smile, Teufel spoke back to Fern. "Not really, mother enjoys collecting grimoires, and I do enjoy reading a book or two during our trips she takes me on." she explained to Fern.
"Oh." Fern noted, before looking on ahead and pointed at a store far down the street, "Like that place there? It's the place Heiter took me into, and bought a book from." She offered.
"Excellent!" Teufel nodded forward, her pace picking up with Fern following with, "Hopefully they take Reich coins, so I don't have to exchange them at a bank beforehand." she remarked.
Fleisch's bookstore
Within the bookstore that the two girls ventured into, the store itself was lined with books and scrolls all the way to the ceiling. While Ferne expressed wonderment at all the books and scroll available as she trailed after Teufel, the half half herself strolled around while skimming her sight along the covers and spines of the books.
"Hmm." Teufel hummed as she reached out and gently slid her finger across the front cover of a book, "Recipes on cooking…" she spoke aloud softly, earning the attention of Fern as she stepped up beside Teufel to look at the book in question.
"What kind of cooking?" she asked in burgeoning curiosity, as the two of the looked at the book in question.
"Don't know." Teufel responded as she reached out to pull out the book and read it, "it looks like…the author was a survivalist, and wrote down meals to cook in the wilderness." The half elf answered as her eyes skimmed through each page she flipped through, before shutting the book close.
Teufel took quick notice of Fern's eyes on the book in her hands, and couldn't help but express an amused reaction at Fern, "Curious enough to own it?" she asked, while offering it out to Fern.
Hesitantly reaching for the book, Fern retracted her hand, and shook her head, "I don't think I have enough money to own it." she answered with a downcast look.
Teufel however shook her head, and hefted the book under her arm, "nonsense, I'll buy it for you, in commemoration of the progress you made so far with your training, you've really come along since mother had taken you under her wing." she remarked with a calm smile.
Fern looked back at Teufel with a grateful smile, "Please…you've done enough for me as well, you don't have to." she shook her head.
"Then I'll buy it for myself." Teufel said back to Fern, earning a surprise look from the young girl as the half elf girl walked with the book still under her arm, "I'll lend it to you whenever I can…afterall, it's always a good idea to have the means to survive in the wild."
As Teufel walked off through the book store to shop for more books, Fern couldn't help but smile at how kind the daughter of master Frieren was, and smart as well…though, she guessed that was a given since she was over fifty years old, it was hard to forget that the half elf girl wasn't just a young girl, as her appearance belied her true age.