Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – 14 – Eternal Love

Fern remembered Stark’s birthday and gave him the gift of a silver bracelet. But when Fern’s birthday arrives, Stark does not give her a gift. She is rightfully pissed, but is perhaps a bit too harsh in her protestations, leading Stark to run off. Sein, an older male, tells Fern that perhaps she should go after the young, emotional Stark. Frieren agrees.

Fern finds Stark in the town plaza, but can’t quite work up the courage to talk to him. Sein, in turn, buys Fern a birthday gift; a cute pouch with a butterfly motif, like her hairpin. Sein, an older fellow, knows that Fern would rather she and Stark get along, so he gently urges her to go to him and work things out, in her own time.

By the time Fern finally confronts Stark, he’s the first to apologize; he had actually remembered her birthday, but wanted her to pick something out for her present, as he wasn’t sure what would please her. She in turn apologizes for being too harsh on him, and actually wears a smile as she accompanies him to the market so she can pick something out.

I’m not going to say Fern and Stark are the cutest goddamn couple in all animedom. But I’m also not going to not say that. These are two young people who were so carefully honed into the demon-obliterating mage and warrior that they are that they scarcely had time for things like romance, but here they are, still trying their best.

Both Sein and Frieren observe the two from a rooftop, glad that they were able to make up on their own. Sein notes that both youths could benefit from the guidance of their elders, but he considers himself lacking in the mature adult department.

It comes as a surprise to Sein for Frieren to report that Heiter was not always the wise and dependable priest he knew. On her adventures, Heiter was drunk and/or hungover more times than not. As the years progressed, he matured, as all people tend to do.

In his older years, Heiter still looked forward to the time when his Goddess would praise him in Heaven. But until then, Frieren decided she’d be the one to praise him, with a simple head pat that meant all the world to him. In the present, she applies the same head pat to Sein, who was instrumental in getting Fern and Stark to make up.

The party ends up availing themselves of a ride aboard the wagon of a merchant to the next town. Frieren notices that the design of Fern’s bracelet, given to her by Stark, resembles a ring that Himmel once gave her. Frieren rifles through her disorganized luggage and eventually finds that ring. That very moment, the wagon is snatched up by a giant demon bird monster. That poor horse!

Frieren and Fern can both fly, but as she explains to Stark, they can’t make objects larger than themselves, i.e. the wagon, fly for long. Since there aren’t enough mages capable of flight to carry Stark, Sein, and the merchant to safety, Frieren goes with Plan B. Plan B is for Frieren to fly out on her own, behead the monster, and slow the fall of the wagon enough so that everyone else isn’t pulverized. And it works!

Everyone is fine, but the fall damages the wagon, so everyone gets to work repairing it. As they do, Fern is made aware of the fact that the particular design of the bracelet Stark gave her has a special meaning: it represents eternal love.

Neither she nor Stark knew that, so she deems Stark an idiot, but she also has no intention of allowing Stark to replace it with anything else, and is offended by the very suggestion. Needless to say, Fern and Stark are now one of my favorite couples of the season, surpassed only by Chise and Philomena in The Ancient Magus’ Bride.

As the wagon repairs progress, each night Frieren strikes out on her own, in search of the ring Himmel gave her many decades ago. While Stark didn’t know the bracelet he gave to Fern was a pronouncement of his eternal love for her, Himmel knew exactly what he was doing. We know this, because when he presented Frieren with the ring, he got on one knee as if he was proposing to her.

Frieren was moved back then, and remains moved now, by Himmel’s gesture, and so even though Himmel gave her other things, the ring she lost still carries a great deal of meaning for her. It’s fortunate then that the merchant that was giving them a ride in his wagon happens to possess a spell that allows one to locate a lost accessory.

Once she has that spell, Frieren flies up into the air, and a flash of light indicates the location of where the ring was dropped. Just as Fern’s bracelet means a lot to her, and she doesn’t mind that it had the unintended meaning of eternal love, so too is Frieren exceedingly happy to have found the ring Himmel gave her as a token of his eternal love for her.

And let me underscore that it is eternal, as Frieren herself (virtually) is. Even though Himmel has passed away, his love endures, and very time Frieren looks upon that ring, she will be reminded of that enduring love.