"So you were always alone?" I asked, keeping my tone casual.
"No, I had..." she started, then stopped.
She went back to chewing in silence, her expression giving nothing away.
I was still hungry, by the way.
"So you lost someone," I said carefully.
She nodded, just a small motion, but it carried enough weight that I didn't push further.
That actually made sense, because what would've been hard to believe was her surviving out here from a young age with absolutely no one at all.
"So why did you come here?" I asked, though I already had a rough idea.
"I don't know," she said softly.
What was I even expecting?
"So you just randomly stumbled across me?" I couldn't quite keep the skepticism out of my voice.
She nodded.
I sat with that for a moment, because something about all of this didn't sit right. Why had I run into her here? Could the entire month I'd spent unconscious outside the Azure Empire have been arranged for exactly this reason, to put me in the right place to meet her and get pulled into the raid? It added up in a way that was hard to dismiss, and I wasn't the type to believe in coincidences.
But why?
"So where will you go after this?" I asked, already shifting my thoughts toward something more useful.
There was no point pretending anymore. My chances of surviving in this world in my current state were almost zero, and I needed something, anything, that could tip the odds even slightly in my favor. I still had too many unanswered questions, and I still hadn't figured out what the old man meant when he said there was no other way.
"I don't know," she said again, but this time she looked straight at me when she said it.
"Then come with me," I offered.
I wouldn't have said that to anyone else, but this was Liliana, and in the early parts of the game she was known for being naive and easy to influence, and on top of that she was eventually supposed to become an ally anyway according to the plot. Whoever had pulled me into this world was clearly trying to keep me tied to canon events through the LP system, and these coincidences were probably all connected to the same source.
Even so, I couldn't let this chance slip by, because Liliana was without question the most powerful character in this world, or she would be, since she hadn't gone through her second awakening yet, the event that gave her that unmatched level of power. But even now she was far stronger than me, and I needed that.
"Huh?" She tilted her head, eyes wide.
Don't look that adorable when I'm trying to manipulate you.
"You don't want to?" I asked, keeping my voice indifferent.
"No, I'm just surprised," she said, setting down what was left of the meat.
"So?"
"Will you cook?" she asked, and that was not what I was expecting.
"I can't cook," I said flatly.
"Why?"
I pressed two fingers to my temple. "Because I don't know how to."
I was genuinely hopeless in that department. Back on Earth when I lived alone, cooking had never been something I managed, and boiling noodles was about the ceiling of what I could pull off.
"But you cooked this," she said, gesturing at the bones on the ground.
"Well, technically, yes," I muttered.
And now that I thought about it, it had turned out surprisingly well.
[You didn't do anything, so stop taking credit.]
"Huh?"
[It's one of your passive skills.]
"I have that?"
[Yes. The real Amael had a natural ability for cooking, and while you don't consciously carry his knowledge, his instincts as a cook are still active at a subconscious level.]
"So I'm automatically good at it?"
[Not exactly. You're at level one at best, but that's enough to roast meat, so don't get ahead of yourself.]
"And the more I practice, the better I get?"
[Exactly.]
"Alright, I'll cook," I said out loud.
Liliana's face broke into a smile, the first one I'd seen from her since she appeared out of the dark.
"On one condition," I added, looking at her seriously.
"What is it?" she asked, her guard going up just slightly.
"You protect me," I said, making it plain.
She had to know by now how much stronger she was than me.
"...Alright," she said after a pause, and then she smirked in a way that had absolutely nothing innocent about it. "After all, I am stronger than you."
I stared at her.
What had just happened to the naive act? And why did I feel like I'd somehow walked straight into my own trap?