No one was killed in Sense’s second exam, but there was a significant casualty: Fern’s staff wasn’t just snapped in the boss fight; it was turned into kindling. When she joins Stark on his meditating promontory pouting and he asks what’s up, she says she and Frieren had another fight. Frieren suggested Fern replace the staff her deceased father gave her with a new one. Stark gravely acknowledges the lack of tact as Frieren being Freiren.
Another casualty was Lawine’s pride, made all the more devastating by the fact she surely hoped that she and Kanne would pass together, just like they do everything together. When Kanne asks if she needs a pat on the head, I was fully prepared for Lawine to put her in a hold and pull her hair, but instead she positions herself for the head pat!
Richter tries to forget his failure get back to the grind of working in his shop, but Denken and Laufen, who passed, make it hard. Before leaving, Denken tells him he’s still an “insolent youngster” in his eyes. When the next exam comes along in three years, Richter will surely be a stronger mage.
While Fern concedes that Frieren probably didn’t mean any harm, more frustrating for her is that Frieren still doesn’t seem to understand her (to this, Stark can only say he doesn’t understand her either). But when Fern happens to pass Richter’s shop, he tells her he’d have made a better profit if she’d just bought a new staff.
Upon returning to their room at the inn, she finds her newly-repaired staff lying on her bed, and Frieren dozing in hers. Frieren saw how her words hurt Fern, and decided to make it up to her by yet again taking the inefficient path she knows so well. Fern smiles as she tucks Frieren in, because her master does understand her better than she thought.
With a highly irregular dozen mages passing the second test, Serie is displeased. But it’s not that Sense’s test was too easy, or that forcing the mages to work together was misguided. The simple fact of the matter is that the Frieren’s anomalous presence was a spectacularly high tide that lifted more boats than ever.
While Serie’s grizzled human student Lernen typically proctors the third exam, she decides to call an audible and proctor it herself. Lernen has no objections, in particular because he wouldn’t be able to properly test Frieren, whom he can tell is suppressing her mana.
Serie praises Lernen for being the only person, other than herself and the Demon King of yore, to notice the ever-so-slight fluctuations in Freiren’s pristine suppression, which took over two centuries for her to master. Then Series scolds Lernen for being so old, yet still every bit the timid boy he was when she first took him on as her student.
Kanne is the first to be interviewed by Serie, and the moment the ancient elf senses that Kanne can’t visualize herself as a first class mage, she fails her. She also fails Dunste, Laufen, Scharf, and Ehre in short order. When it’s Frieren’s turn, Frieren already knows she’s going to be failed, because a mage of her age should be far more skilled than she is.
However, by spending so long learning to suppress her mana, she became uniquely suited to deceiving defeating demons. And Frieren also admits she was lucky because she didn’t defeat the Demon King alone. Without any of Himmel, Heiter, or Eisen, they wouldn’t have beaten him.
As for Frieren having the same “useless” favorite spell as Flamme, creating a field of flowers, it actually had an extremely crucial use: showing a young, lost, and scared Himmel that magic was beautiful, and inspiring him to seek Frieren out specifically when he assembled his party.
Frieren also doesn’t give a rat’s ass whether she passes Serie’s stupid test or not. She was beyond a “First Class Mage” before that term even existed; it’s just a label for her. Only one of her party needs to be First Class to access the northern lands, and Frieren is just as certain Series will pass Fern, for the same reason she and Fern beat her replica in the King’s Tomb.
Fern represents the new Era of Humans, and Frieren vows she’ll exceed even Serie’s expectations. That’s precisely what happens, as Serie initially thinks Fern is standing at a distance out of fear of her ridiculous mana. However, Fern isn’t still out of fear, but awe: she can sense the fluctuation in Serie’s mana. This is something not even Lernen has ever able to do, and thus was always a disappointment to his Master.
Rather than say she passes, Series asks Fern to become her student. Fern, as expected, is like “Um, no.” Serie tells her she can take her magic to new heights. Frieren told Fern that no matter how Fern responded, Serie would pass her. So Fern doesn’t beat around the bush: she’s Frieren’s student, period.
Unable to overlook such a promising mage despite her insolence, Serie turns to leave and tells her she’s passed. Fern is now officially a First Class Mage, baby. With that formality out of the way, their quest can finally proceed, though I presume a future second season will continue that tale. How I will miss this monumental first season once it ends next Friday…
