"I understand." Frieren finally nodded, her voice returning to its usual flatness. "So, you are still going to use Stasis Magic?"
"Mn. That is the path I chose for myself." Flam smiled gently, trying to dispel the slightly oppressive atmosphere.
"Besides, that is not sothing happening imdiately, right? We still have a long ti to research many interesting spells and visit many places. For , that is already wonderful enough."
"Is it long?" Frieren murmured softly. "Actually, it is not long at all."
Ti passed quietly in the sowhat subtle atmosphere.
Flam tried hard to talk about so interesting things she encountered recently. Frieren mostly listened quietly, occasionally responding, but Flam could feel she seed a bit distracted.
On the way back to the Association, while Flam was still talking about tomorrow's assessnt arrangents, Frieren suddenly stopped.
"Master Flam, I have sothing I want to ask Lord Rhodes privately."
Flam was stunned. "Now? Is it about... the runes?"
"Mn." Frieren didn't deny it. "I have so questions I want to ask him directly."
Flam looked at Frieren's face, which appeared exceptionally clear under the streetlights.
She could roughly guess what Frieren wanted to ask.
After hesitating, she ultimately didn't stop her. With so doubts, perhaps it was better for Master Rhodes to answer personally.
She just raised her hand and gently ruffled Frieren's hair again.
"Go ahead. Master is usually in the laboratory at night." Flam instructed, "Co back early to rest once you've asked."
"Mn." Frieren responded, nodded slightly to Flam, then turned and left first.
Outside the laboratory, a knock sounded on the door, unhurried.
Rhodes didn't respond imdiately. Only after finishing the research at hand did he speak: "Enter."
The door opened, and Frieren appeared at the entrance.
She walked in and stopped a few steps away from Rhodes—the boundary she usually wouldn't cross.
"Lord Rhodes."
Only then did Rhodes move his gaze from the magic circle before him to Frieren.
He frowned. It wasn't common for Frieren to co find him alone so late.
But connecting it to her recent interactions with Flam and the information Flam might have revealed, Rhodes had a rough guess.
"Sothing the matter?"
Frieren cut straight to the chase. "Regarding the Life Magic runes you published, Flam said only you can use them. Is that true?"
As expected.
Rhodes understood. "It is true." He affird it without further explanation.
"Is there any other way to learn it? Or use other thods to achieve a similar effect?" Frieren pressed on. "For example, not necessarily exact immortality, but extending lifespan? For Master Flam."
Rhodes looked at her.
An elf whose face barely changed over long ages, with eyes naturally detached from others, yet strangely obsessed with extending the life of a specific human.
This combination gave him a strange sense of absurdity.
Discussing in depth with a near-immortal, emotionally detached elf that human birth, aging, sickness, and death were natural laws?
In his view, it was aningless and an unnecessary interference with Flam's personal will.
Moreover, he didn't want others to know his true thoughts.
"Frieren," Rhodes's tone carried a clear note of finality, "Flam has her own path and decision. This is not sothing you, or I, should forcibly intervene in. This topic ends here."
He thought Frieren would argue. After all, from a certain perspective, this elf was sowhat stubborn.
However, she didn't.
After hearing his words, Frieren's expression didn't change at all.
She just looked at Rhodes quietly, her eyes calm, and then nodded.
"Oh." She responded, her tone unreadable.
Then, she said nothing more, turned around crisply, walked out of the laboratory, and closed the door behind her.
Rhodes stood there, frowning again.
Just... ended like that?
Given the degree of concern she showed for Flam, she accepted his refusal so easily? No questioning, no persistence, not even a ripple of emotion left behind?
This actually puzzled him a bit.
anwhile, Flam was in her room, having a headache over an application list that needed review tomorrow. Hearing movent, she looked up to see Frieren push the door open.
"So fast?" Flam was surprised. "Did you see Master? Did you ask clearly?"
She thought it would be a relatively long conversation and was even prepared for Frieren to return in low spirits.
"Mn. I asked. He won't tell ," Frieren inford her truthfully.
Flam froze. "Won't tell you? That shouldn't be!"
She was puzzled. Why wasn't Master willing to tell Frieren the reason? Theoretically, as long as Master explained the non-replicable and indecipherable nature of this immortality magic to Frieren completely, it would be fine.
"Mn." Frieren gave an affirmative answer again.
Flam sighed inwardly. It seed Master Rhodes simply didn't want to tell Frieren.
Just as she was about to comfort Frieren, telling her not to take it to heart and accept reality—
"However," Frieren spoke again, interrupting Flam, "I will not give up."
Flam: "—?"
Frieren didn't explain further. She just picked up a magic book and began reading intently. Watching her profile, an ominous premonition suddenly rose in Flam's heart.
Her premonition soon beca reality.
The second night, at almost the exact sa ti, a knock sounded again outside Rhodes's laboratory door.
Rhodes paused his hand movent. This ti...
"Enter."
Frieren walked in, stood in the exact sa spot as last night, with almost the sa posture.
She looked at Rhodes and spoke: "Regarding thods to extend Master Flam's lifespan, do you have any new considerations?"
Rhodes: "—No. Get out."
Frieren nodded: "Oh." Then turned and left briskly.
The third night, the knock sounded punctually.
"Enter."
Frieren walked in: "Regarding thods to extend Master Flam's lifespan, do you have any new considerations?"
Rhodes rubbed his brow: "No. The sa answer will not change. Do not co again."
Frieren: "Oh."
Left.
The fourth night—
The fifth night—
Whether Rhodes sternly refused or ignored her, that petite figure would appear in his laboratory at the fixed ti, asking the question verbatim, with not even a change in intonation: "Regarding thods to extend Master Flam's lifespan, do you have any new considerations?"
After receiving a negative answer, it was an "Oh," then a brisk departure. No entanglent, but no stopping either.
Rhodes gradually realized this wasn't Frieren asking on a whim or emotional pestering, but a serious consideration.
For an elf with nearly infinite ti, repeating the sa question day after day, year after year, until getting the desired answer was logically feasible, perhaps even an efficient strategy.
After all, she only paid a small, fixed amount of ti each day, and the goal was changing the fate of a human important to her.
This was an incredibly headache-inducing war of attrition based on the elven concept of ti.
Serie soon discovered this strange phenonon as well.
One day, she ca to discuss sothing with Rhodes and happened to bump into Frieren leaving after clocking in her daily question.
"She ca again?" Serie watched Frieren's retreating back disappear at the end of the corridor, unable to help asking, "What day is this? I've heard Flam sigh several tis, saying she can't dissuade her either. Frieren ignores her completely and goes out on the dot."
"Seventeenth day," Rhodes reported the number accurately.
"You're counting?" Serie wanted to laugh but also felt a bit of sympathy for Rhodes.
Being harassed by an elf in this manner was sothing even she hadn't expected.
Although Ela had done similar things in the past—sneaking near their secluded hut every day to observe secretly—that hadn't lasted too long. Moreover, Serie later took her as an apprentice, giving her a legitimate excuse to observe.
But Frieren's case was different.
"What do you plan to do? Keep going like this?" Serie asked.
Rhodes remained silent. The real reason he had been avoiding the topic was actually quite complex.
On one hand, Flam's path was her own choice, and he respected that choice. But on the other hand, he harbored so selfishness.
Just like when he asked Norne if he wanted to use his magic to extend his life.
He knew clearly what that magic would eventually turn a person into, but he still offered it because he didn't want to watch soone he cherished leave just like that.
Norne was like this, and so was Flam.
But Rhodes had no better way to extend Flam's life. At least, the current him had absolutely none.
Therefore, he was unwilling to tell anyone about this, nor did he want anyone to know the conflict and complexity in his heart.
Clearly, Frieren didn't intend to let him continue avoiding the topic.
Using this clumsiest yet most effective thod, she was slowly grinding away Rhodes's aningless persistence.
"Let's see who can outlast whom." Rhodes finally spoke flatly, but Serie heard a rare trace of helplessness.
"I think," Serie suppressed a laugh, analyzing objectively, "in terms of wasting ti, you might really not be Frieren's match. Her patience is not in the sa dinsion as our understanding."
Rhodes didn't refute.
He looked at the laboratory door, as if foreseeing the figure appearing punctually and asking the unchanging question tomorrow, the day after, and even further into the future.
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