In the middle of the night, Sharin, drunk on catnip, had pushed me over.
“By the way, Arisugawa, was the powder I snorted yesterday a drug?”
“No, it’s not a drug. It’s made from grass that only cats get drunk on.”
“Then am I… a cat?”
Sharin tilted her head, looking unconvinced as she walked. After a moment of silence, she asked in a small voice if she could get more of it in her world. It might be addictive; I should be careful.
After walking for a while, we took a break for a meal.
In contrast to me, who was exhausted from the past two or three days and slumped over, Piyo was full of energy, even singing.
“Haha, you’re full of energy.”
“Shh, quiet.”
Suddenly, Sharin perked up her ears and began to look around warily.
“Something’s there! Where?”
The forest suddenly fell silent, and tension filled the air. Piyo also stopped singing and looked around, her eyes darting.
At that moment, a rustling of leaves could be heard from a tree behind us. I quickly turned around and saw a girl holding a dagger, looking down at me from above.
“Tsk, I’ve been found. Oh well, die! Intruder!”
The next moment, the girl pointed her blade and lunged at me.
“Dangerous!”
I narrowly escaped thanks to Sharin pushing me aside. Piyo, startled, leaped into the air.
“You’re lucky to be alive, intruder.”
Having failed to bring down her prey, the girl quickly moved behind us, blocking our retreat.
She wasn’t human. Her lower body was that of a pinkish-scaled snake. She had long hair of a similar color tied back in a ponytail.
“Ah, who is that?”
“That’s a Naga. Her lower body is that of a snake. They are a race that combines strength and speed. Even a weak woman can easily break a person’s neck with her snake tail.”
“Hmph, I won’t let you escape next time!”
The Naga girl re-leveled her sword and, using her long tail like a spring, lunged at Sharin with incredible speed. Sharin instinctively dodged in the opposite direction from me.
However, the girl suddenly plunged her sword into the ground and stopped abruptly, her belly scales grinding against the dirt.
Then, with the same momentum, she spun her body around.
“Hah, wai-”
Her tail, coiling like a whip, struck Sharin’s body as she dodged in the opposite direction from me.
