The Hero Party had returned to the outskirts of the Royal Capital three days earlier after ten years on the road. The Demon King was dead. The long war was over. Tonight the sky would open for the Era Meteor Shower that appeared only once every fifty years and the four of them had chosen a quiet ridge above the city to watch it together one last time.

Himmel sat with his usual easy posture, already talking about the statues he intended to commission so that future generations would remember their faces. Heiter passed a bottle around while making the same tired jokes about retirement. Eisen remained mostly silent yet the faint curve at the corner of his mouth showed he was content. Frieren sat a short distance apart from the others with her staff resting across her knees and her eyes on the darkening sky. She had spoken little since the final battle. The victory still felt unfinished to her in ways she could not yet name.

As the first pale streaks began to cross the heavens Himmel turned and called the others closer. He spoke of meeting again in fifty years at this same place to watch the shower once more. Heiter laughed and agreed at once. Eisen gave a single nod. Frieren only tilted her head after a long pause and answered that fifty years was not so long a wait. She did not look at any of them when she said it.

A short way down the slope another figure stood among the scattered trees and low stones. The person had arrived sometime during the afternoon and had remained at a respectful distance while the party settled for the night. None of the four had addressed the newcomer yet. Frieren’s gaze passed over the ridge once without lingering and returned to the meteors. The light from the falling stars touched the edges of her silver hair and the quiet lines of her face yet her expression stayed calm and distant as though the celebration already belonged to a time she was beginning to leave behind.

The night wind moved through the grass. The meteors continued their slow bright paths across the sky. The Hero Party remained together for a few final hours before the road would separate them and the long quiet years would begin..

Frieren sat a little apart from the others on the ridge and watched the first meteors begin their slow descent. Ten years. The number still felt strange in her mind. She had agreed to the journey because Himmel had asked and because the Demon King needed to die yet the length of it had never settled properly inside her. Decades were short. Centuries were ordinary. Ten years should have been almost nothing. Instead the faces of the three people beside her had become familiar in a way she had not planned for and that familiarity refused to fade even now when the work was finished.

Himmel’s voice carried easily across the grass as he spoke of statues and future meetings. Heiter answered with the same lazy humor he had used since the first month on the road. Eisen listened in his usual quiet way. Frieren heard them all without turning her head. She thought of Flamme’s old warning that one day she would look back and realize she had failed to understand the people who walked beside her. The thought arrived without force and stayed. Fifty years until the next shower. She had said the words aloud already and they still sounded reasonable. Humans aged inside numbers that small. She did not. The difference sat between them like a gap she had never learned to cross.

Her fingers rested lightly on the staff across her knees. The mana she kept suppressed out of long habit felt steady and distant. Victory against the Demon King had changed little about the practice. She would continue it tomorrow and the day after and for as many years as remained. That part of her life required no decision. The part that involved these three companions did. She had not asked enough questions. She had not watched closely enough. The realization was late and she knew it.

A shift in the air further down the slope drew her attention for a moment. Someone new had arrived during the afternoon and had remained at a distance among the trees while the party settled for the night. The figure had not approached or spoken. Frieren’s gaze moved across the ridge once without lingering and returned to the sky. The meteors continued their quiet paths. The night was still long enough for whatever would come next.

Himmel called them closer again and the others shifted to answer. Frieren stayed where she was for a few breaths longer then rose and walked the short distance to join them. The newcomer remained visible at the edge of the gathering yet no one had spoken to the person yet. The meteors kept falling. The final hours of the journey stretched open and unclaimed in front of them all.