Reincarnated As Aura

'The Sage Aurelia.'

Fern became curious, so when she looked it up in a book, she immediately found out that Aurelia is one of Aura's children. Her name frequently appears in the book that Aura handed her with the comment, "At least read something like the history of magic."

Aurelia, the third child and second daughter of Aura, is not from a long line of magic families or anything like that. She is the only living biological child of Aura, a human monster who has already lived for 500 years through magic.

"Take that!"

"Wow..."

With a satisfying crack, the firewood split cleanly in half under Aurelia's hand. It wasn't a metaphor—she had literally cleaved it with a casual hand chop, using nothing but precise manipulation of mana to emit minimal dispersive force at the moment of impact. Despite her carefree demeanor, the technique displayed an absurd level of refinement, efficiency, and mastery of mana—skills approaching the level of a demon. Even Fern, observing, couldn't help but gasp.

Indeed, before earning the title "Sage Aurelia," she was often referred to as "Witch Aurelia" or even "Demon Aurelia" and was frequently regarded with awe and fear.

However…

"By the way, Fern-chan?"

"Yes, what is it, Sage Aurelia?"

"Hmm... You seem a bit stiff. You can just call me 'onee-chan' casually, you know."

"Yes...?"

"I love you, onee-chan!"

"Wait... That's a bit..."

"Onee-chaan!"

"U-uh, I... it feels a bit inappropriate..."

"You're part of my family too."

"...Aurelia-nee-sama..."

"—Mmm!! Ahem... Well, that's fine for now. Hehe... My sister granddaughter legally became my little sister...!"

When she got like this, things always took a turn.

Seeing the face like Aura who's usually stoic and serious, suddenly glowing with excitement, shaking her head from side to side while holding her cheeks and looking like she wanted to shout "Yay!"—Fern's brain was about to glitch, and it did.

"Um, Aurelia-sama—"

"Onee-chan."

"...What kind of magic do you use?"

"Oh, my magic? Of course, it's Zanesft: The Magic That Constructs the Body With Mana."

Zanesft—the magic that completely transforms the human body into one constructed of mana. Only one person in human history has succeeded in this, and it's a magic with no reproducibility. It's a magic on the level of a "curse," and that's why she was called a demon.

Furthermore, she is a pioneer in making the clone magic that creates copies of oneself, a magic that was once said to be only usable by demons, into a magic that can be used by humans, and she is a sage who, like the demons, has an almost ageless body.

"How did you come up with such a magic?"

"Well, if I died from human lifespan, I wouldn't be able to watch over the cute elves' activities, would I?"

Fern, who hadn't even asked for the reason, found herself at a loss for words as she received an even more bizarre answer.

"So, I decided to make everything of my body except for the horns and brain like my mother's. I've been doing this since I was little. Well, I couldn't replicate the brain, though. You know, everyone wants to become someone they admire, right?"

Aurelia said this with a smile, and when she spoke, she erased all expression from her face and gave a cold smile, just like Aura. In other words, the real nature of her magic that constructs the body with mana is nothing less than "the magic to make her body like Aura's."

Furthermore, according to the magic theory Aurelia had briefly explained, it was obvious that no one else could replicate it. Aurelia's magic was optimized to replicate only the body of Aura, and it could only have been accomplished by analyzing every single detail of Aura's body, from the hair to the body fluids. The magic was specifically optimized for this purpose.

This made it clear that she was an extraordinary being beyond even humanity. Fern thought it was, to put it mildly, insane.

"To love something means to let yourself be driven crazy by it, Fern-chan. You'll understand it someday."

"Is that so...?"

"And now, the book I've been compiling after seeing and hearing about it directly from the elves and spending my whole life on it - this is the Easy-to-Understand Elf Encyclopedia!"

With a loud thud, a book was placed in front of Fern, far larger and thicker than a national history book, and it had a strange, almost blinding presence due to its massive size.

"Ah, Frieren-sama..."

The book's cover featured a magical portrait of Frieren, who was tilting her head and giving a peace sign with one hand, and despite the book's size, the design was quite fancy.

By the way, it's said that Aurelia advanced photographic magic by centuries, and thanks to her work, many modern mages can now take photographs.

"This is the 27th revised edition, you know. The one out there got stopped from being released by the person herself, so it doesn't have that version, but this one has Frieren-sama in it! Frieren-sama alone fills all 1470 pages!?"

"I want to read it."

"I'll give it to you. Looks like you've started to understand Frieren-sama's charm... you have a promising future ahead."

Fern was happy to receive the book, vowing to treasure it as a family heirloom.

"Now that I think about it, I heard from Zi-chan that you're worried about being related to your mother?"

Zi-chan -- Fern's mind flashed with the image of Zitrone, expressionless and holding a lemon in her hand, giving a thumbs up as she said, "I thought it was for your own good." What an unnecessary meddling.

"That's fine. It's practically negligible at this point. Besides, if you're saying that, I'm a woman who passed through a demon's birth canal, right?"

"...Uh, well..."

"Don't sexually harass your descendants."

"Nyah!?"

The Easy-to-Understand Elf Encyclopedia, floating in the air through magic, hit Aurelia on the head. The massive book, slightly smaller than Ferun, easily squashed her from above.

"My... mother's... love is so heavy...!"

"It's the weight of your obsession, isn't it?"

By the way, the encyclopedia weighs about 250 kilograms. This was the result of Aurelia's long years of "obsessive" dedication to her interests.

Aura, who had come to help, as usual, stood with an expressionless face but had her mouth twisted into a slight frown as she said something. Apparently, she had come to check on them since the firewood splitting had taken too long.

"But still... it makes me happy, so it's a reward...!"

"Fern, you shouldn't take anything this one says seriously. She'll probably keep bothering you regularly."

"I understand."

For young Fern, at least, Aura had become someone she could respect. While she occasionally made demon-like statements, she was one of the most sensible people Fern knew.

Then, before anyone knew it, a woman with a sleepy face appeared next to Aura, who looked more mature than Freiren. With her distinctive long ears and extremely high mana, it was easy to tell she was an elf.

The elf was clutching a bottle of alcohol and gazing at it with misty eyes.

"Mirialde-sama! Is something the matter?"

"Aurelia, we're out of alcohol."

At that, Aurelia, who had been crawling out of the Easy-to-Understand Elf Encyclopedia as if she were part of it, immediately placed her hand over the elf—Mirialde's—hand. At that moment, one could see matching silver rings on the ring fingers of their left hands.

Mirialde is also friends with Frieren, and is a sloppy, hopeless, and disappointingly cute elf whom Aurelia discovered, just like Frieren is to Aura.

'I don't care if it's just until the end of my life—out of the hundreds or thousands of years you'll live from now on, please stay with me! I promise you'll never feel as bored as you do now!'

That was how Aurelia had proposed to Mirialde, who had lost both the will and purpose to continue living through the long years of an elf's life. Though centuries had passed since then, Aurelia, with her relentless enthusiasm, continued to drag the essentially unmotivated Mirialde along, and, despite everything, they had stayed together ever since.

Incidentally, Aura had once commented about their situation, calling it "a marriage scam, isn't it?"

"I got it! I'll go and buy it right away!"

The next moment, Aurelia took off into the sky using flight magic, heading toward the Holy City of Strahl at a speed about a third of that of the meteoric iron bird, Stille. In about thirty minutes, she would likely return with an armful of alcohol bottles, possibly convincing Heiter to lift the ban on drinking as well.

"No matter how many times I see it, it's so fast..."

"The eldest daughter, Laura, was even faster than the meteoric iron bird, Stille."

"She may be fast, but she's the weakest among your children since she hasn't mastered any decent combat magic, Aurelia."

"... It's nothing new, but every time Mirialde, who's far older than me, calls me 'Mom,' I can't help but feel a little squirmy."

"Fufufu… Give it a few more centuries, and you'll get used to it."

Mirialde, still wearing her sleepy expression, let a sly smirk creep across her lips. She seemed to be enjoying herself in her own way.

By the way, Fern was currently being trained in practical magic by Frieren, receiving lectures on magical theory from Aura, and practicing against Zitronne in preparation for battles against demons. On top of that, visiting figures like Aurelia and Mirialde would occasionally join her training.

In short, Fern was growing up in an environment that couldn't have been more ideal for a mage.

——————

Among Aura's children, the only one still alive is Aurelia. Additionally, Aurelia mostly spends her time traveling among various elven dwellings and is almost entirely uninvolved in Frieren's journey. The story will continue to alternate between past events (such as the demon-occupied village) and future developments (Fern's time).