The Necromancer (4)

I let my guard down.

I thought things would be different from before.

Unlike that time, I thought I'd responded properly. Unlike before, I'd put Lumia at the front and connected myself to her with a rope, thinking I could keep a close eye on her.

Lumia had been locating the place and guiding us there just as she had before. From everything I'd seen so far, she was no different from her past self. She placed an oddly strong emphasis on efficiency, and there had been more than one instance of her acting awkwardly.

Even so, her personality hadn't changed, and although she showed her emotions a little more than before, even her tastes—including her palate—were exactly the same.

That was why I could be even more certain that she really was the Lumia from the past. If she had returned to the past like me, she was the sort of person who pursued perfection, so she would have acted perfectly and shown herself to be different from before.

She always had.

“Phew..”

It was unfortunate that she couldn't remember the future, but I could see that as an opportunity for me. This time, I followed the method she had suggested, but I tied the rope myself and connected it to her.

Maybe it was because I'd revealed that I liked Lumia, but unlike before, she allowed me to eat with her. She had even helped me, so all that remained was to keep a close eye on her...