The Spider That Collects Gold Coins
A voice rang solemnly through the quiet room.
One might argue that a mere room shouldn’t produce such resonance, but the moment you saw the barrier of blue light shimmering across every surface, the objection died on your tongue. It was a device originally crafted by the Empire’s intelligence bureau to prevent eavesdropping from the heightened senses of superhumans. The woman standing before me had created that same barrier alone, and the result was far more refined and unbreakable than anything a machine could produce.
“To think you would commit such an act and then leave my side.”
It went beyond simple soundproofing. The barrier controlled entry and exit to the room itself. Anyone trying to pass through would be denied.
Crackle—!
I had reached for the doorknob with the utmost care, yet the static leaping from the barrier stopped me cold, just as it had the first time.
“Is this truly where you’ve been hiding? Giving magic lessons of all things?”
The Emperor spoke as she gently rested her hand on my shoulder. From that single point of contact, thick mana poured into me. It slipped inside as naturally as if it had always belonged there. I knew this trick of hers all too well. I stepped back immediately, breaking the connection.
“…Haven’t you grown tired of this yet?”
The Emperor before me was a manipulation mage, just like Beatrice. The difference was that she had climbed to the eighth ring—a transcendent being. The gap between fifth and sixth ring was already monstrous; reaching eighth placed her in a realm so far beyond that words failed to describe it. I could have easily shaken off Beatrice’s mana, but the technique the Emperor had just threaded into me was dangerous. If I hadn’t severed contact at once, even I might have fallen under her control.
“From past to present, you remain a subordinate utterly devoid of consideration for your sovereign.”
“I no longer belong to the Special Affairs Division, so why would I still be Your Majesty’s subordinate? And before that—exactly which lord in the world plants manipulation techniques inside their vassal’s body in order to control them at will?”
I stared at her with open disbelief. This wasn’t the first or second time she had tried to manipulate me through her spells. Back when I served in the Division, she would frequently test her techniques on me. The one she used most often was the very object-manipulation spell she had just attempted. She seemed to possess an inexplicable confidence that if it worked on me, it would work on any other superhuman. Naturally, I never once fell for it. At the time she had only just reached the seventh ring, and I could see the flow of a manipulation mage’s mana from the beginning.
“Control you at will? It was merely a harmless prank. You have always been far too dramatic.”
“No one in their right mind would call an eighth-ring manipulation technique a ‘prank.’ And while we’re on the subject—when exactly did you ascend to the eighth ring?”
I looked at her as though she were a monster. Information about the Emperor’s realm was a closely guarded secret. While everything concerning the imperial family was classified, her ring level was something she herself managed with extreme care; only a handful in the palace even knew the truth. That was why I had been unaware she had reached the eighth. The last time I saw her, she had been seventh-ring. Even within the game, she had never attained the seventh before the ending.
At my gaze, the Emperor spoke as if the matter were trivial.
“It has not been long. Advancing to the next realm truly opens one’s eyes to many things. Thanks to that, I was able to sense the technique you used.”
A chill ran down my spine. The “technique” she referred to was almost certainly the manipulation spell I had cast while tutoring Beatrice.
She noticed it?
Common sense held no meaning before an eighth-ring transcendent. Those who had stepped into that realm were beings for whom such concepts simply did not apply. Even so, I couldn’t hide my astonishment. The distance between this place and the imperial palace was vast, yet according to her, the moment I cast the spell she had immediately detected both its nature and its user. To discern a specific technique from a distance that would take a superhuman two full days to cross was impossible—even with the imperial family’s ancient artifacts and spells. It was as if she truly watched over the world from above.
“Your reaction is most interesting. Did you not always claim you could see the future? I assumed you would have foreseen even this.”
“……”
I can see the future. It was the excuse I had used most often to justify my actions. Back then it hadn’t been entirely a lie; the knowledge of the coming apocalypse and the organizations that would trigger it had genuinely existed inside my head. In some respects it was false, in others true. By now, of course, most of it had become nothing but lies.
“Pfft.”
The Emperor let out a small laugh at my frozen expression.
“There is no need to stiffen so. It was only a jest.”
She touched my shoulder again, this time with a hand completely free of mana. It was an old habit of hers—whenever my face grew rigid, she would do something like this to loosen me up.
“…Have you come here to kill me?”
My expression, of course, remained hard. I looked down at the Emperor with the same rigid face.
The Emperor of the Empire. The person who had placed a bounty of billions of cells on my head and issued a wanted notice across every inch of imperial territory. When one considered that the highest bounty in the Empire’s entire history now hung around my neck, it was easy to see how much effort she had poured into capturing me. That was precisely why I had spent all this time fleeing from the Empire’s gaze.
“Who can say?”
She rested her chin on her hand and studied me. The aura that had grown even more overwhelming after her ascension to the eighth ring still lingered in her eyes. The Eyes of Direct Gaze—passed down only to certain direct descendants of the imperial bloodline—weakened an opponent’s power with nothing more than a look. Those crimson eyes glowed as she asked,
“If I told you I came to kill you, would you obediently die?”
“No.”
I answered without the slightest hesitation. It wasn’t even a question worth considering. After going so far as to earn the Emperor’s pursuit in order to prevent the apocalypse, why would I willingly die now that the apocalypse had failed to arrive? I had no intention of dying a meaningless death.
“Look at your current state. No matter how skilled you may be, you could never defeat me as you are now.”
“I am aware.”
Some things had to be acknowledged. Even if manipulation magic was not specialized for combat, the woman before me stood at the eighth ring. Since I could not even defeat Scarlet at the seventh, she was simply not an opponent I could face.
“The act you committed is, under imperial law, a crime tantamount to treason. The penalty is therefore death. You now stand before the very person who creates those laws. And yet you claim you do not wish to die?”
Her eyes changed. The Eyes of Direct Gaze. The authority granted to those who stood above others fixed itself upon me. To dominate. To reign. The gaze of those born with the fate of sovereigns who judged the world as something separate from themselves. Eyes born from the accumulated resentment of generations of rulers.
Unlike the killing intent released by Scarlet or other superhumans, these eyes peered directly into the opponent’s heart. Though imperfect, they could discern one’s true nature and compel submission. Naturally, they could also distinguish truth from falsehood.
Before those eyes, I spoke slowly.
“Where in this world is there a person who truly wishes for death?”
It was a subject we had debated many times. No one in the world wished for death. Since these were words I myself had often spoken, I naturally continued to uphold them. I did not want to die. Even if death stood right before me, I would struggle with every ounce of strength I possessed. That had been my unchanging goal since long before I fell into this world.
“Puhut.”
The Emperor burst into laughter.
“Puhahahahat—!”
The regal demeanor and even the terrifying Eyes of Direct Gaze vanished. She laughed with pure, unreserved delight. After laughing for a long while, she wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and spoke.
“Indeed, from the very first time I saw you, you were an entertaining human. So entertaining that I truly wish to possess you.”
“……?”
“Why do you look so startled? Did you truly believe I had come to kill you?”
Given what I had done, the possibility had seemed entirely reasonable. Still, I kept silent. The Emperor watched me for a moment, then continued.
“Since the founding of the Empire on this continent, a talent such as yours would be impossible to replace. To execute someone of your caliber for a single crime would be a waste. Would it not be wiser to bind you to the Empire for eternity?”
“…Ugh.”
It was a genuinely horrifying suggestion. I had served under her for a long time, yet regardless of the crimes I had committed, I had no desire to return. She had been a good ruler to the common people, but the endless scheming and voices of the nobles inside the palace made the place feel more like a den of ghosts.
“If that is what you believe, then why have you come looking for me?”
“Did I not already say? A talent like yours cannot be left unused by the Empire.”
“So you came because there is work you wish to assign me, correct?”
At my question, the Emperor’s expression shifted once more. They said the first skill imperial family members learned was how to control their facial expressions. Seeing her now, I could believe it.
“Heavenly Thunder.”
“……”
Heavenly Thunder. My alias from the days I served in the Special Affairs Division. Within the imperial family, only the Emperor knew that name. She had personally assigned me those secret missions. For her to speak it now meant—
“The barbarians of the North have begun to move once again.”