Chapter 27

The Priest of the Ordinary Village is the twenty-seventh chapter of Yamada Kanehito & Abe Tsukasa's Sousou no Frieren.

Summary
Twenty-nine years after the Hero Himmel's passing, Frieren, Fern and Stark are in the Alt Woods. A man is stuck in a bottomless quagmire, and is recounting the story of his childhood friend to Frieren in order to gain sympathy and ask for her help. Frieren uses magic to pull him out. The man walks with the party to his village and he invites them there, but they refuse as they wish to reach a major town, and they go on their way. On the way to the town, Stark gets bitten by a snake and the party heads back to the previous village to get him treated. The village's priest states that he is unable to cure Stark. However, his younger brother Sein, who is the man from before, enters upon them and recognizes Frieren's party, and immediately treats Stark with ease.The priest asks Frieren to take Sein away from the village, because he believes that Sein has always been searching for someone to support him to go on an adventure. Fern and Stark are in favour of having a priest in the party, but Frieren is unsure. Stark goes to invite Sein to join on his own. He finds Sein gambling, and Sein tells him that if Stark manages to beat him he will join them. When Fern and Frieren go to check on Stark, they find out that both he and Sein lost badly. Frieren tries to ask Sein to join them, but he refuses, saying he is too old and that it is too late now. This reminds her of how she used to be in the past and how Himmel managed to persuade her to join the Hero Party. She tries to convince Sein in the same way, and he seems to be inspired, but refuses again after contemplating a little. Frieren concludes that she truly does despise him, and that is why she chose to invite him to be a comrade regardless, a logic Sein fails to understand.

Plot Details
Per his older brother’s request, Sein went to harvest wildflowers in the forest to use for cooking, in preparation for the Harvest Festival. During his journey, he falls into a bottomless quagmire and is discovered by Frieren. In order to ask for help, he recounts a story of his childhood friend and his dream: A long time ago, Sein and Gorilla has a "silly dream" of being an adventurer, and they would to go to many little adventure together. Yet as Sein becames an adult, he begins to forget about the dream, and declines Gorilla's hand when he proposes the two of the travel together to become adventurers. It has been a decades ago, but Sein still have regrets about it, and often wonder things would have been diffferents if he had taken up Gorilla's hand. Sein then reverts back into the situation, that he falls into this bottomless quagmire and it's over for him, unless Frieren takes his hand. Frieren refuses as his hand was dirty, and instead uses “magic to pull someone out of a bottomless quagmire” to save him. Fern eventually find Frieren, and scolds her for causing trouble for Sein for not acting quicker. As an expression of gratitude, Sein invites Frieren, Fern, and Stark to his village, but they decline as they need to replenish their supplies and prefer to reach a major town by the end of the day. On the way to new town, Stark gets bitten by a snake and the party head to the Orginary Village to get treatment for him. They meets the village's Priest, but the Priest stated the poison is incurable and it's too late. Sein enters the chapel to talks with his elder brother, the village's priest, and recognizes Frieren's party. He promptly and effortlessly treats Stark, despite the poison being so difficult that even his brother, who was deemed as the most superior priest of a region by the Holy City, struggled to figure it out. Sein’s brother asks Frieren to take Sein away from the village, as he believed Sein had been searching for someone to support him. Both Stark and Fern were in favor of the proposal, for it would be beneficial to have a priest in the party, and Stark sets out to recruit Sein. Stark finds him gambling at a tavern, and Stark joins the game in the hopes of beating Sein so that he would join the party.

Frieren and Fern come looking for Stark as he is late and find both Stark and Sein stripped bare down to their boxers outside the tavern. Sein asks the party to not judge him, as all adults are dirty. He tells Frieren to find someone else, as he thinks he is a ruined middle-aged man and that it’s too late for him to pursue an adventure. His remarks remind Frieren of how she used to be prior to meeting Himmel. The flashback shows the first time Hero Party first approachs Frieren. Himmel asks Frieren to defeat the Demon King together. However, Frieren declines, saying that she as postponed that decision far too long, and that she hasn't fought a demon in at least five hundred years and has even forgotten how to fight. She remarkes that she must have been afraid of fighting the Demon King, and years has passed that it's too late now. Himmel, after listening to Frieren's excuses, smiles and told Frieren that he is "talking about the story you will have now", a line that Frieren repeated to Sein.

However, Sein doesn’t budge, and tells Frieren that she wouldn't understand his feelings. Frieren concludes that she despises him, and that is why she chose to invite him to be a comrade regardless, a logic Sein fails to understand.

Characters in Order of Appearance

 * Sein
 * Frieren
 * Gorilla
 * Fern
 * Stark
 * Sein's elder brother - the Village's Priest
 * Himmel

Locations

 * Alt Woods

Spells and Tools Used

 * Unnamed magic used to pull someone out of a bottomless quagmire
 * Unnamed flying magic
 * Sein's healing touch

Chapter Notes

 * Frieren notes that Sein is an healing expert that has natural talent for Goddess's magic, for the fact that Sein can instantly cure a poison that the superior friest of Holy City deems incurable.