A Life-or-Death Game of Tag Between a Persistent Wolf and a Tenacious Vagrant. And Then, a Mysterious Old Man Appears!

Arc 3 of The Omake Reincarnator is starting!

The story goes on.

It most certainly goes on.

Autumn!

The season when the leaves of the scattered trees growing from the craggy, rock-strewn mountain slopes turn a brilliant red!

Cutting through the cold air! Sending fallen leaves dancing in my wake like the wind! I am running! At absolute full speed!

And why?!

“GYAOOO!!”

“......Hup...... there!”

I crouch and brilliantly evade the sharp claws swinging down from a wolf that lunges at me with a roar!

Yep, I'm actually calling my own moves “brilliant”!

I immediately make a right-angle turn and continue my escape!

That's right!

Right now, I am in the middle of a desperate escape from a monster called a “Grim Wolf”!

This thing is an ultra-clingy wolf monster, named for being “as persistent as the Grim Reaper, never letting the prey it targets escape”! A total stalker creep!

I've been attacked by and fled from all sorts of monsters up until today, but in terms of persistence, this guy takes the cake!

We've been playing tag for a good 3 hours now, haven't we!?

3 hours, I'm telling you! 3 hours!

The tenacity of this stalker wolf, chasing me for such a long time, is abnormal!

But I think my own vitality for continuing to flee is pretty impressive too!

I think I'm the most tenacious 6-year-old in the world!

Oh, this is hardly the time, but I turned 6 the other day.

Omake-sama and I celebrated with a (from a distance) cake (or cake-like object), made by piling red bugs on top of a base of white bugs packed together. Yay!

It's already been several months since I left my hometown village (or rather, forest)......

You might be thinking, “Huh? You're still wandering? Didn't you go into any villages or towns?” but it's not that I didn't go in. It's that I couldn't.

Now that I've lost the Naso Forest, which Omake-sama called <a base that couldn't be any safer>, there'd be nothing better than being able to live in some village or town.

I wanted that too.

But I couldn't.

See, the destruction of Trash Village had apparently sent quite a shock through the neighboring towns and villages, the local governments (?) had raised their alert levels, and they wouldn't readily take in a suspicious vagrant without so much as an ID. That's reason No. 1.

And above all, reason No. 2: the discrimination against black-haired, black-eyed “cursed children” was far fiercer than I'd imagined.

I never thought there'd be places where the village gatekeepers would drive me away with spears without even listening to me!

I thought the discrimination against black hair and black eyes was just because the people of Trash Village were such hicks that they had a visceral reaction to anything unusual, but apparently, it's not that simple.

The roots of this problem run deep.

Even Omake-sama doesn't seem to know the reason for the discrimination, since she <hasn't seen it on any Isekai Reincarnation Broadcast>.

I wonder why things ended up like this?

Anyway, that's how I was wandering aimlessly when this persistent stalker wolf spotted me out on the grassland, 3 hours ago.

From there, I crossed rivers, pushed through forests, and kept up this game of tag where getting caught means death for sooooooooo long, and now I'm running across some mountain.

Seriously, where the hell am I!!

“GYAOOO!!”

“......Upsy...... daisy!”

I evade Grim Wolf-kun's attack for the umpteenth time.

The thing's an idiot, so it always screams before it lunges.

Once I realized that, avoiding those claws became easy.

Your hunting skills are way too pathetic.

I bet the Grim Wolf-kuns are so bad at hunting that they evolved along the lines of “Well then, if we've got the stamina to chase prey until it drops, that's good enough, right?”

No, just get better at hunting.

For now, my strategy is the same as before.

After crouching to avoid the claws, I change direction and bolt, putting distance between myself and the wolf while it's open!

Wait, ah......

<Aah! Emi!>

Even Omake-sama can't help but scream.

That's right, I forgot.

Having been chased by the Grim Wolf, I'd ended up halfway up some mountain before I knew it.

The rocky ground beneath my feet is unstable and uneven.

I tripped on a rock jutting out of the ground and tumbled. Gorogoro.

I still haven't gotten my hands on that marvel of civilization called shoes, but slamming my bare feet into the rocks? That part's fine.

Thanks to 【Body Strengthening】, whose precision and strength have been increasing again lately, my body won't take a single scratch from something like that.

However......

I push myself up.

My eyes meet Wolf-kun's. It had crept right up beside me.

Red, glowing eyes stand out against its jet-black fur.

Dribbling stinky, stinky drool and licking its chops, it looks every bit the evil Grim Reaper.

But don't underestimate me, stalker wolf!

This is a rocky area! In other words, a treasure trove of my main weapons!

I snatch up the pebbles lying around and immediately go 【Stone Throw】, 【Stone Throw】, 【Stone Throw】, 【Stone Throw】, 【Stone Throw】OOOOOOH!!

A rain of pebbles pours down on the wolf.

But this guy only looks a little annoyed when the pebbles hit; it doesn't show the slightest sign of pain.

Ah, this is bad.

It's just like that shaggy-haired trash of a thief boss.

Thanks to 【Body Strengthening】, my 【Stone Throw】 isn't working on this wolf.

Yikes, I'm seriously out of moves here, aren't I?

<What are you being so nonchalant about?! You have to run again, quickly......!>

Yeah, I know, but.

I know, but...... this is bad.

My stamina and my magic power are both at their limit.

My legs are shaking and won't move.

The moment I realize that, the fear of death washes over me.

I realize now that this shaking isn't just from fatigue.

The image of Trash Village, ravaged and destroyed by monsters, comes back to me.

The villagers' corpses, carelessly devoured and left lying all over.

Because I'm so weak, am I just going to die right here, just like them?

“GYAOOO!!”

The Grim Wolf lunges.

It doesn't look like I can dodge it.

Somehow, time feels like it's slowing down.

Memories of this life flash through my mind one after another.

So this is what they mean by your life flashing before your eyes.

My father, hitting me when I was small.

My mother, who clung to a handsome traveling merchant and abandoned me.

The village children, including Torch-kun, playing happily just out of my reach.

The village adults, who threw stones and drove me out of the village.

The thieves, who stole my base......

......I'VE GOT NO GOOD MEMORIES AT AAAAAAAAAALL!!!

Like hell I'm dying!

Like hell I'm dying in a place like thiiiiiiis!!!

I'm going to survive and eat a delicious feast with Omake-sama, no matter whaaaaaaaat!!!

But fate is cruel!

I have no way to avoid these lethal claws!

Second by second, the Grim Reaper's claws close in, aiming for my throat.

No.

I don't want to die.

No, no, no, no, no, no, NO!!!

Contrary to my completely immobile body, my thoughts are spinning at ultra-high speed.

In the next instant, they went blank.

Ah, I didn't die.

I just couldn't keep up with the sudden turn of events.

But what happened is clearly burned into my eyes.

The Grim Wolf, lunging at me.

Someone hit it with a surprise attack from the side.

One flash of a hand chop.

With just that, the head of the monster that had shrugged off my 【Stone Throw】 was cut clean from its body and sent flying off somewhere.

Its body slammed into me with all the momentum of its lunge.

Covered in wolf blood, I tumbled along. Gorogoro.

Not understanding what was happening, I lifted my head and looked up at the person who had saved me.

He was fairly slim, but the muscles peeking out from his clothes were clearly well-honed.

Numerous old scars could be seen all over his body, including his face.

Deep wrinkles were carved into his rugged features, and his wavy white hair was swept back.

And a sharp gaze, so piercing it looked like he could kill a person just by glaring at them.

Standing there was an old man with a truly tremendous presence, like some “I am the very embodiment of menace” type.

Magic power overflowed from his body.

And killing intent.

Struck by that killing intent.

The moment my eyes met the old man's.

I lost consciousness.