Chapter 35
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.
However, I had overlooked one thing. The path she pointed out was not perfect, and I should have made up for its imperfections. Even if I remembered the future, it was impossible to remember every detail of those long years perfectly, so I failed to detect the trap properly.
The result of failing to detect the trap properly was horrific.
“Damn it..”
I have to find her quickly.
Back then, I had still been inexperienced, so it had taken me a long time to find her, and in the end I had been forced to face Lumia when she was on the verge of death. Fortunately, Cecilia had been by her side, so Lumia hadn't died, but she had struggled for a while after that.
I can't let Lumia get hurt here, either.
I ground my teeth.
“Ruril.”
Ruril, who was holding my hand, turned her head when I called her. When she asked why I was calling her, I fell silent again. Since Cecilia was a saintess, I thought it would be better to tell her in advance.
But Ruril wasn't.
She was merely the archer in the party, so I hadn't thought it necessary to tell her. However, if I wanted to use my power now, I had no choice but to tell her the truth. The reason was that the power I was about to use was the Hero's power from the future—already fully developed.
Even if she knew nothing about the Hero, she had lived in the Holy Kingdom, so she would know what sort of power the Hero possessed. And she'd realize that the power I was about to use was no ordinary power, either.
If I told Ruril, she would never do such a thing, given her personality, but if she told Lumia about it.. Lumia would realize my identity. She might already realize who I was if I made a scene now, but all I could do was hope that wouldn't happen.
That, at least.. I wanted to avoid.
Because this was reality to me now.
All I could do was hope my excuse would hold up.
“Ruril.”
“Yeah.”
“Everything I'm about to show you is a secret. You must never tell anyone around us.”
Especially not Lumia.
The moment Ruril nodded at my words, faint rays of light began to stream from my body.
The holy sword I was holding began to shine, and its blade lengthened. Normally, the holy sword remained sealed, but the situation was urgent, so I had fully released it.
I would no longer erase it.
Unless I brought a new blank sheet of paper, the fact that something had already been drawn on it wouldn't change.
If that was the case, then as long as I didn't draw it wrong, I wouldn't need to use an eraser even if I went a little farther, would I?
I.
This time, without fail.
This time, I will save her.
The holy sword's power was fully unleashed.
I could only fully unleash the holy sword's power or use abilities that welled up from my soul; physically, I was no different from when I had first set out on my adventure.
But that fact didn't matter to me.
The physical abilities I'd gained by developing the Hero's power were more than enough to accomplish this.
The enormous barrier spread throughout the forest was purified by the holy power flowing from the holy sword and shattered completely, and the fog obstructing my vision began to vanish. I ran up a tree and leaped into the sky, then looked around and quickly found where Lumia was.
As soon as the magic was dispelled, I spotted Lumia preparing a protective spell in front of the enormous tentacle monster, which was panicking as the barrier protecting it disappeared.
I wasn't too late..!
“W-what the hell..?!”
Ruril and Cecilia were startled to see me shoot suddenly into the sky, so I lifted them, one in each hand, and moved rapidly toward Lumia. Once I reached her location, I slowed down and approached her at what looked like my usual running pace.
With Stage One—using only the power of a newly awakened Hero—I leaped straight up and swung at the panicking tentacle monster.
- Kieeeek?!
I worried that I might have failed to control my strength, but fortunately, the tentacle monster I struck wasn't killed instantly. It was split halfway open and crying out in pain. Since it hadn't died right away, Lumia wouldn't suspect anything.
“Are you all right, Lumia?”
I passed the nearly dead tentacle monster and approached Lumia. She seemed quite surprised to see me appear so suddenly. It was an expression I had never seen from her here before, and it made me think that I had really done it.
“Lumia?”
I pretended that I had just found her in danger and arrived at the last possible moment, but.. I didn't know whether it had worked on someone as perceptive as her. She merely nodded or shook her head instead of answering.
But the answer I wanted right now was, of all things, for her to shake her head. I figured she would think there was no need to use telepathy in this situation.
And then,
“...”
She only shook her head without giving any answer.
Thank goodness.
I let out a sigh of relief.
.
.
.
.
‘What the hell is he..?’
How did he find me?
This was a place covered by the necromancer's barrier, so there was no way he could have found me this quickly at the Hero's current level. I looked around, wondering what was going on, and saw that the barrier that had been in place moments ago had been dispelled.
What was going on? This was strange.
Of course, as far as I knew, the barrier in the forest was so enormous that the necromancer didn't maintain it continuously; there had to be some sort of medium somewhere in the forest.
Finding and destroying it would dispel the barrier and make the necromancer easy to find, but.. that would be impossible unless someone had learned its location over multiple rounds.
There was a reason I'd called this a place that was easy to get through in the game.
But had the Hero really done this so easily..?
‘He really is a regressor..’
“You could call it a miracle, but I found and destroyed the totem maintaining the barrier.. I'm glad I wasn't too late..”
.The Hero said that as he took my hand and suggested we go catch the necromancer.
Hmm.
Just as I thought.
But what was this guy thinking? Whether it was me, Cecilia, or Ruril, what was he thinking, blurting out that none of us were regressors? Of course, it was an excuse based on the truth, so it wasn't all that strange..
Did he really think such a coincidence would be believable?
Still, if I assumed he wasn't a regressor and considered the situation that way, I had no choice but to accept it. It was strange, but the situation had been resolved, so there was no other way to interpret it.
I hesitated, then took the Hero's hand. Setting everything else aside, the fact that he'd come straight to save me made it seem that he really had returned to the past to save Lumia.
...
To save Lumia..?
Suddenly, I thought of myself not as Lumia but as a transmigrator who had stolen Lumia's body. If the Hero hadn't been a regressor, he wouldn't know about me, so even if I acted as I normally did, he wouldn't find it strange..
He was a regressor, a devoted man who had even returned to the past to save me. Was being saved by him really the right thing for me to do? I told myself it was for the sake of survival, but the thought suddenly occurred to me.
I felt myself growing disgusted with myself.
Shouldn't I tell him the truth even now? I thought about it, but I couldn't bring myself to. If I told him, he might even kill me.
I lowered my head.
They say that life is a tragedy when viewed up close and a comedy when viewed from afar. Someone who didn't know the circumstances might think this was a romantic scene, but unfortunately, to someone who saw it up close—someone who knew what was happening—it couldn't be any uglier.
I felt gloomy.