@cannarali - I feel she never realized the depths of his feelings as Himmel was kind and friendly to everyone he encountered along the trip. I get the impression it was never even at the stage of unrequited because he knew not to burden her with his love, knowing that she was not ready to understand it.
Rereading it as I have, in a later chapter we see the full scene of them the first time watching the meteors, and Frieren reveals that she believes there is no point to taking an apprentice because they would just die. I wonder to myself if Himmel had not heard that, if he would have let her know that he cared for her and presented her with a gift for her travels.
Either way, he chooses to be a hero and leaves her unburdened by feelings she would not know how to process or handle. 80 years later, you can see how small moments between them are taking on a new meaning. One example: His insistence on statues was not an ego trip for her. But during their journey, he hears
that Frieren regrets Flamme being forgetting as a fairy tale
-- Because of that, he has as many statues being made as possible, so that Frieren will never have to regret her friends being forgotten.
And that she can always see him again if she wished.
I still cannot recover from last chapter now that I know the hero has a thing for her 😭 and feel like MC is tracing back to their memories together to learn the meaning of her feelings cause the hero has always been the main focus of her flashbacks as well as the chapter always starts with 'it has been x years since the hero passed away'
I guess this is the pain of immortality. Whatever she does, whoever she meets, in the end, they will age and die. Even Fern, unless Fern is an elf as well, which isn't impossible, because of the pointy ears. But they'll split ways eventually as well. This story is getting real deep, and real sad. If there's a spell that cuts onions, it's being cast around me right now.