A woman in priest robes ran through the forest.
This was a woman who never took the blame for anything. Her name was Remi Osako, but here she was known as Sharanla.
She’d tried desperately to stay hidden while three bizarre chickens had attacked the other Inquisitors. She’d fought one of those things before, but this time, there were three, so she knew for a fact that she wouldn’t have come out on top. In fact, even the idea of fighting them all had terrified her. It would’ve been a death sentence.
Outside of preparing poisons, Sharanla had been a scrub of a player. She hadn’t put the effort into things like leveling up, and since she’d avoided fighting whenever possible, her combat skills were incredibly weak.
She’d spent her time in Swords & Sorceries using poison to kill other players, then swiping their gear. She’d been an assassin specializing in theft.
Earlier, she’d spotted her younger brother while she was hiding.
But he’d been surrounded by those accursed chickens, as well as three people who seemed to be his allies. She’d had to be careful.
Even without the supporting cast, her brother was a Destroyer. She’d have stood no chance of winning anyway.
If she were smart, she would’ve given up. However...
Knowing him, I bet he’s already got a base set up somewhere. And he’s human, so even he’ll have to interact with people sooner or later. So my first step should be to find his base. But...
Sharanla didn’t know when to give up. And she was looking to play dirty as always.
She wasn’t a complete idiot by any means. In fact, when it came to manipulating people, she was a genius. She was familiar with how her brother operated too. In a sense, they understood one another better than just about any other brother and sister.
She planned to find where Zelos was operating out of and manipulate the people around him.
She wondered whether she might even be able to get them to steal an item from him that could nullify the side effect of the youth restoration potion she’d taken, but that’d be completely impossible if he stored it in his inventory.
Still, if she did nothing, she was going to die for sure.
Her life was on the line here.
“That aside—he has a motorbike?! How is that fair?! Who does he think he is, using something like that in a fantasy world?!”
She’d tailed Zelos and his companions as best she could, but a human couldn’t hope to keep up with a machine. Even after losing sight of them, she’d continued frantically running in the direction the bike had gone.
She was still at it, persistent as ever, when the forest finally gave way to a stretch of grasslands.
“This is all... This is all your fault, Satoshi!”
It looked like she was never going to abandon her grudge against her brother.
“Just you wait! I’ll sniff you out, and I’ll make you regret everyth—”
But she didn’t get to finish her threat. The moment she entered the grasslands, a herd of huge cows with enormous horns spotted her. They began flaring their nostrils and kicking at the ground.
“Wai—”
MOOOOOOOOOGH!
Sharanla had no choice but to run.
These cow monsters were called bighorns. They had extensive territories and moved together to seek out food. They were highly territorial too, and easily provoked.
And they were famous for stubbornly continuing to chase their targets.
They’d been common monsters in Swords & Sorceries, and for any reincarnator who’d played the game normally, they would’ve made for easy hunting.
But Sharanla was useless at fighting monsters.
Maybe she would’ve stood a chance against just one, but none of her skills allowed her to deal with a charging herd.
She’d always played as a gimmicky one-trick, and now she was paying the price.
Ultimately, the bighorns forced her into an epic game of tag that continued across the plains, wove between mountains, and only ended when they threw Sharanla into the Aurus River.