The Heroine who plays a role (part 2)

"Impossible! No one is supposed to take the beginning of bovine epidemy seriously, much less be able to treat it!"

Back in her room, Ava was walking back and forth while biting her lips and clenching her hands so hard she drew blood.

"... that's just not how the events played out in the game...!"

She scoffed furiously.

"Was that because I monetized the miraculous tonic? It reached too many people before they got desperate enough, so they had time and resources to do some backward engineering and figured out the recipe...?"

Ava muttered to herself and felt her skin crawl.

"Did I already mess up? The incomplete panacea recipe is my only leverage in this world. The moment when someone else manages to figure it all out, the heroine position becomes useless, and I can forget about a life of luxury that the game's epilog promises...! If I knew that, I would have made the price go up to one small gold coin!"

She trembled, wrapping her arms around her body, already foreseeing the despair that she would experience once the royal family lost interest in her.

"No... no... wait. It can't be. The secret ingredient leaves no trace after doing its job. The game story could happen because the heroine finds out about it because of the plot's convenience..."

Ava flinched and squinted her eyes, staring at the floor while standing still in the middle of her room.

"And even if someone was as lucky to identify all the ingredients, including miraculously stumbling onto the secret one, how would they know which ingredient was the one affecting the Foul Reaper so they could then swap it with the one effective against the bovine epidemy...?"

The pixie-cut girl blinked a few times, noticing the flaws in her own theory.

"Too many convenient coincidences... this doesn't feel ri..."

Ava took a few deep breaths to compose herself and tried to think things slowly when she accidentally locked eyes with her own reflection in a full-body mirror standing by the window.

"...unless..."

Ava's expression turned severe, and she dragged her feet towards the window, leaning forwards and placing one hand of her injured palm on the wall behind the mirror.

She leaned in and stared daggers at her own dark-brown eyes.

"I am not the only reincarnated person in Wondalandor..."

She realized, feeling her inside churn.

"...some trash is trying to steal my place...! Just wait, you little scum, I will make you regret the moment you..."

Ava spat through her teeth, taking her hand away after leaving bloody marks on the wall.

"...wait... wait..."

Suddenly the furious girl shook her head and breathed out.

"What am I doing? Am I an antagonist in a novel? Whoever they are, they might not try to mess with me on purpose... there is a chance for a truce or even cooperation between us. So instead of being stupid and charging in on the warpath, the best course of action for me to take is to find them and figure out what they want to do."

She scolded herself for making rushed assumptions.

"As far as I know, no one tried to compete with me when it comes to the cure for the Foul Reaper, so the other reincarnation doesn't seem to be in need of money – so I should start my research with that as a basis... It pisses me off that the event they try to mess with is the one that should bring Theo and me closer together... He is one capture target that I am not willing to give up..."

The girl with the pixie cut calmed down a lot, but still, her eyes turned cold as she said the name of the boy she and her uncle had mentioned before.

*******

"Uncle, I want to go walk around the town, maybe buy something... Is it okay to bring only Theo along?"

The following day, after finishing breakfast, Ava asked – but although it seemed like she was talking to Benjamin, her eyes were on the light-brown-haired man in his mid-twenties who was joining them during the meal.

"As long as you plan on not leaving the town and keep to the main street... sir Hector and his underlings are doing a great job at keeping the peace.

The girl's uncle also

turned towards the light-brown-haired man as he answered, clearly wanting for the input from the more knowledgeable person.

"..."

Still, sir Hector didn't seem too happy about the question – opposite even.

He furrowed his brows as he wiped his mouth with a napkin as if he was trying to get rid of the bad aftertaste lingering on his lips.

"If I may give my own opinion, I don't think that it's a good idea."

"...eh...?"

"Why is that the case?"

Hector put down the napkin and declared, shocking both Ava and Benjamin.

"You see, while it might seem like Startinton has become safe, the truth is that the thugs that usually would be daring and reckless got a lot smarter and organized. It feels like since the past year, someone has taken the lead and showed the Startinton criminals different means of extorting people..."

The captain of the soldiers dispatched by the royal castle to protect the important benefactors lowered his head and said.

"Why won't you do something about it then? You are here to protect us – having an organized crime ring on our doorstep is directly endangering us, isn't it?"

"...it is a difficult situation..."

Ava rubbed her forehead with one hand before pointing out, but Hector's expression turned even more troubled.

"How is it difficult?"

The pixie-cut girl scoffed with a frown and inquired, irked as she couldn't even put her plan into motion.

"Those thugs. They are extorting the people for protection money..."

Hector took a deep breath and reveled.

"That doesn't sound difficult at all – they are terrorizing innocent people into basically paying them not to get robbed or have their stores vandalized. Plenty of reasons to deal with them!"

Ava shook her head in disbelief and gave the officer a look of disapproval as her opinion of him plummeted.