What happens when the heroes' journey ends? That's the question this series seeks to answer as it follows Frieren, an elf mage who was once part of a quest to defeat the demon lord. For ten years she traveled with two humans and a dwarf, and when the quest was over, she simply went on her way, only somewhat understanding that when she promises to return in fifty years, there's no guarantee that either Himmel or Heiter (both human men) will still be alive. It's a much more classic D&D fantasy than the prevalent isekai takes on the genre despite the overwhelming prevalence of demon kings in the latter, and it frames its narrative around the idea that as an elf, Frieren will long outlive her companions whether she fully comprehends that emotionally or not. To say that that makes this volume very bittersweet might be to understate—I didn't cry, but I definitely felt tears threaten a few times.

In part this is because of how the story counts time—after the first chapter, time is measured in how many years it has been since the death of the party's leader, the hero Himmel. She's visibly surprised to find him a wizened old man when she returns to the town where she left him after the promised fifty years, but before she has time to truly understand what this means, he dies. At his funeral, Frieren realizes that she never truly got to know him because she didn't really comprehend that humans lived so much briefer than elves, and now that she's cognizant of the fact emotionally as well as intellectually, it's too late. Memories of their ten years questing together imply that Himmel may have been in love with Frieren, and for her, the realization once again comes when there's nothing more that she can do. She's perpetually too late, forced to live with an understanding of the human world and her own emotions as time leaves her behind.

It's an interesting take on the fantasy genre, to say nothing of the very sad spin on the idea of a journey's end. The story essentially opens as Frieren begins to understand the difference between being lonely and being alone, with mourners at Himmel's funeral accusing her of being cold because she's not outwardly sad. What they don't understand (and what Frieren doesn't quite understand either) is that she's still struggling with the idea of him being truly gone. It's their jeers that force that upon her, and she still wrestles with it long after the funeral is over. While we don't know precisely what she does in the decade after the funeral, she must have come to some sort of resolution during that time, because when the story picks up again, she's going to visit Heiter, the other human in the party. She's expecting to find him dead as well, but to her surprise he's not only alive, but has taken in a young orphan, Fern. Heiter wants Frieren to take Fern as her apprentice, something the elf resists at first. She claims it's because of the high mortality rates for mages' apprentices, but what both we and Heiter can see is that she's afraid to lose anyone else, especially since she now has a better idea of what that really means. But that's perhaps why the old hard-drinking priest is so set on her taking Fern on – he wants her to have someone to help her through the pain of Himmel's death and his eventual (and not far off) demise, and more importantly, he doesn't want Frieren to think that she always has to be alone.

How much of that Frieren understands is debatable. Her hero's journey is finished, but the story was never about that anyway. Instead, it's about her emotional growth, her need and ability to be more than just a walking magic encyclopedia. To a degree she has always had that desire – at one point on their new journey Fern notes that Frieren only seems to be collecting odd magic spells, such as one to turn grapes sour. Frieren brushes her question off, but later we discover that Eisen's favorite food is sour grapes; it's not a huge leap to realize that she learned the spell for him rather than herself. Similarly, she seems to have acquired a rust-removal spell so that she can keep statues of Himmel rust-free, her only real way (she thinks) of paying tribute to the friend she didn't even realize the value of until he was gone.

What Frieren hasn't quite realized is that Himmel does live on in her memories. She's tangentially aware of the fact, because she remarks to Fern that they're more or less following the same route that she took with her party all those years ago, and she even goes out of her way to revive Himmel's favorite flowers, which were nearly extinct. As the volume ends, she's seeking out a spell that will allow her to speak to the dead, so there is the possibility of more closure for her, which in many ways feels like it would be the series' end goal. That likely means that this won't have the traditional happy ending as we tend to think of it, because after all, the hero is already dead and there doesn't appear to be anything that Frieren can do about that. But if she is able to come to understand how much he and her other party members meant to her, there's a chance for resolution. For Frieren, that may be the most important thing of all.