This episode is cleanly split between two separate stories that focus on the members of Frieren’s party besides herself. We begin with an idyllic wagon ride as Fern nods off and falls into Frieren. We learn it’s been four years since they started their adventures, and one year since Stark joined them.
At the next village they visit, all of the inhabitants are asleep. It’s a curse, the kind of magic humans have yet to figure out, but those who practice the teachings of the Goddess—priests like Sein—know it all to well. By the time he’s determined that a monster has caused this curse and must be dealt with, Stark is already out.
The difficulty level is further heightened when on their way to the monster Fern succumbs to the curse as well. Frieren puts them in a protective barrier while she and Sein carry on. And yet before they encounter the monster, Frieren also passes out.
She does so knowing Sein can wake her up with his magic, but only for about five seconds. Before losing consciousness, she tells him to wake him up when he finds the monster; she promises she’ll defeat it. Now suddenly Sein is on his own against a subspecies of chaos flower.
Sein is not without battle magic, and attempt to use it against the plant, but it’s not quite quick enough to reach the core, as the plant’s leaves deflect it. While able to dodge the plant’s strikes, he presumably only has so many proverbial bullets in his clip.
While he initially went into battle thinking it would be impossible to get Frieren to understand what to do in the five seconds she’ll be awake, he thinks back to a lesson he got from Heiter. He told Sein that while Frieren lacked trust and mutual understanding, Sein learned to trust in her words.
Taking that lesson to heart, Sein recalls that Frieren said she’d deal with the monster if awakened. Sein chooses to believe her, and casts a reawakening spell on her. Before he can get two words out, she’s already launched a magic attack that counteracts the plant’s deflection ability.
After one-shotting the foe exactly five seconds after her eyes open and coolly declaring “I’ve got it,” the day is won. And while Sein may prefer the pretty older woman who led the village they saved, he also doesn’t mind the head pat Frieren gives him for trusting in her words.
In the second half of the episode, the party reaches the walled city of Vorig, halfway to Ausserst. Fern reports that they’re pretty much broke, and just then a noble-looking fellow inspects Stark, says “he’ll do”, and invites him to his mansion.
Frieren doesn’t recognize this particular Lord Orden, but does recognize he’s from the Orden Family, with whose predecessors she also interacted. The Ordens also happen to trace their lineage to the same village Stark is from (which is now no more), hence both he and the lord having red hair.
Orden gets down to brass tacks: his eldest son and heir Wirt has recently died in battle, and he needs to keep morale high in order to protect the northern lands. Stark, the spitting image of his departed son, is to pose as Wirt for a crucial soiree to take place in three months.
Since the party’s broke, he can’t turn it down, so the etiquette lessons begin. Orden’s butler Gabel administers the lessons, everything from dressing, standing, studying, and dancing. It wears Stark out, but he’s a tough kid, and he absorbs it all like a sponge, as demonstrated when he meets Fern in the hall, goes down to a knee and tenderly yet gallantly takes her hand. Even though Fern thinks this kind of thing doesn’t suit him, you can tell she was charmed.
It’s while learning the Orden style of swordfighting that Stark encounters the lord’s younger son, Mut. Stark naturally feels a connection to him as a fellow younger son, but unlike his father, Lord Orden acknowledges that Mut will probably become a better knight than he, for while he lacks Wirt’s natural talent, he’s a hard worker.
It’s two months in before Fern suddenly learns she’ll be accompanying “Wirt” Stark at the soiree, so she gets a crash course in Bein’ a Proper Lady. That includes getting her hand slapped for trying to snatch donuts during tea, getting subjected to corsets, and tripping and falling in spectacular fashion during dance lessons. But as she undergoes these lessons, Stark is watching.
Like Stark, Fern is incredibly hard-working, so there was never any doubt that when the day of the soiree arrived, they would do the job they’re being handsomely paid to do flawlessly. It just so happens that doing that job also means being getting to dance together, and they are just about the cutest goddamn couple of the entire Fall 2023 season as they perform an achingly gorgeous waltz to perfection.
After the soiree when Stark’s hair is back to its normal unkempt self, Lord Orden admits that he and his son Wirt were at odds when they last spoke. Indeed, he told Wirt he never wanted to see him again; he didn’t mean it, and was devastated to get that wish. He tells Stark that he always has a home in Vorig shouldn he desire it when his adventures are over.
Stark thanks Lord Orden for his kindness, but his goal is to return to Eisen and tell him the tales of those adventures. Besides, Orden still has a son in Mut, who will surely grow up to become fine heir. As Frieren takes an inordinate amount of time looking through the Orden library for a grimoire to take as a sweetener, Stark and Sein notice Orden outside with Mut, personally giving him some swordsmanship pointers.
Frieren takes a beat away from the books and simply watches Fern, Stark, and Sein, and smiles a soft, easy smile. You can tell she’s learning to properly savor the people in the party she’s in, and the vanishingly brief (at least for her) time they have together.
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