The Emperor's Secret Gift

What were these two even doing?

I had come looking to pry some information out of Serek, and here they were, having quite the interesting conversation instead.

The relationship between Serek and Pharaoh — something I'd always been curious about but never bothered to investigate. As long as I didn't interfere, there was no way they'd notice me, so I'd watched it unfold like a gripping drama, until the frustration finally got the better of me and I nudged things along. Just a little.

All I did was make them a little more honest with each other...

Interesting.

They reacted far more intensely than I'd expected. Serek scrambled to her feet, her face flushed crimson.

"Wh-what brings you here? You said you had an ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠appointment with His Majesty the Emperor..."

"I have something I'd like to ask you personally. Do you have a moment?"

"...Oh. Of course. Ask me anything you like."

Serek cleared her throat with a firm ahem! She rose from her seat — but made no move to give it up.

Which was only natural. Lily Elbrit was an important person to Pharaoh, but not important enough to surrender the imperial seat. Serek was effectively the Emperor's proxy, and every one of her actions carried the weight of Pharaoh's own will.

Besides, it wasn't as if I was meddling with Desertum itself.

"By the way... have you come as some sort of clone? You look ever so slightly different from when I saw you a year ago."

Serek tilted her head.

The me of right now was far weaker than the Lily of this era. Granted, I knew countless techniques this era's Lily had never learned, but in terms of raw power, present-day me would fall considerably short.

And I am wearing a clone at the moment, too.

My relationship with Serek wasn't something to mention on stream, so I had deliberately conjured an illusion to appear on the broadcast while contacting Serek in person. The illusion on stream was currently wandering around the lower floors of the Palace of the Low Sun.

"I'm pressed for time. The Iron Devourer of the Eastern Continent is on a rampage, so I need to wrap things up quickly and get back."

"Ah, you mean the iron-eater."

The Iron Devourer was a monster that ate metal — a gray creature the size of a small hill. Normally it roamed mountain ranges and the underground, chewing through iron, and it hadn't originally been all that ferocious. With its round eyes and enormous mouth, it was almost cute to look at, and since it fed primarily on minerals, it never had much of a temperament for attacking living creatures. But the war between heaven and the demons had churned the land inside out, its food supply vanished — and so it began raiding human kingdoms.

The problem is that it doesn't just eat iron.

The dim-witted beast swallowed anything at all, including anyone wearing or carrying so much as a scrap of forged metal. Afterward it digested only the iron and spat out the leftover pulp as-is — and its maw was packed edge to edge with teeth made for grinding ore...

...Anyway.

For knights, it was nothing short of a walking nightmare.

The Iron Devourer's rampage would begin in earnest four months from now. In my original time, I had gone to it myself while it was laying waste to the kingdom, crushed it flat with my hammer, and sealed it inside a sword called the Iron Soul Sword. The Lily of this era didn't much care about its existence yet — but dangerous was dangerous, and there was no harm in mentioning it now.

"A disgraceful creature. Still, it's no Plague Monstrous Bird — it'll settle down soon enough."

"I heard the news that you captured the plague bird. Even kingdoms that traded with us suffered at its talons from time to time. Truly a relief."

The Plague Monstrous Bird was the very bird I had sealed into my feather ring before coming here. A bird that spread plague — exactly what the name said. A monstrous bird famous for traveling in enormous flocks, it had dyed three whole subcontinents in epidemic.

Wherever that flock passed, the ground was always carpeted with corpses.

Some called it the sower of hell, but in the end it was subjugated and sealed — by me. There had been endless debate over whether it was one of the demons' experiments, but once I caught the thing, it turned out to be nothing more than a vicious monster.

"......"

Something felt strange.

Talking about genuinely vile monsters after so long made it truly feel like I'd come back to the past.

"It was nothing."

"Nothing? That bird was an absolute horror. Humans and countless other races alike lost their lives to its plague. You are remarkable, my lady."

"...Anyway. There is something I want to ask you."

I'd merely held a conversation, yet I'd burned through more interference than expected. Since I had no idea how much I'd still need, it seemed wise to finish quickly.

"Where, might I ask, is the imperial treasury?"

"...I beg your pardon?"

Serek stared at Lily in open bewilderment.

The treasury. And not her own, or anyone else's — the treasury of the Empire. Of Pharaoh.

Save for the topmost floor of the Palace of the High Sun, it was the most heavily secured place in the entire Empire. Even Serek, mistress of the Palace of the Low Sun and second-in-command of all Desertum, could not approach it.

Though I suppose he would admit me if I asked...

"I confess I never imagined you would desire such a thing, Lady Lily."

"Desire isn't quite... hmm. Let's just say I desire it."

"Regrettably, it is a place no one may enter except His Majesty the Emperor himself. If there is something you wish for, you need only request it separately and it shall be—"

"No. I only need the location."

"......"

Why on earth was she acting this way?

The Lady Lily she knew had possessed no material greed whatsoever. She had been a woman filled to the brim with vengeance against heaven and the demons, and a blind, burning devotion to saving humanity — not someone who clung to wealth or precious treasures.

"......."

Could someone else be impersonating Lily Elbrit?

Lily had come here to meet him, and by this hour she would most likely be in that meeting. For her to slip away and visit via a clone mid-errand felt far-fetched — far more plausible that some unknown someone was wearing her face.

But it is Lily.

Her aura was faint, yet the aura she sensed was unmistakably Lily's own. She also knew intimate details like the Iron Devourer and the Plague Monstrous Bird — things only the real Lily would know. And her manner of speech didn't seem all that different either.

Lily smiled faintly.

"Don't overthink it. It's all for Pharaoh's sake."

"...For him?"

"Yes. It is absolutely necessary."

For Pharaoh of the far-distant future.

"Tell me."

In the end, Serek did not tell her. Because she was Pharaoh's retainer.

She understood full well that this was a matter concerning Pharaoh himself — but she could not betray his will, not even for him.

Loyalty over love, then.

It was an ambiguous stance, but I understood Serek for it. It was precisely because of a personality like hers that she had been able to remain at Pharaoh's side for so long. And Pharaoh, for his part, had cherished that about her — which was why, even after thousands of years, he kept her close.

That said, I did walk away with some genuinely useful information.

A place Pharaoh occasionally dropped by to leave things — no, gifts.

...At this point, hasn't she basically given the whole thing away?

It was Serek's private chamber — her dressing room.

"Serek is someone important to Uncle Inom, after all. The odds are high that this is the place."

My situation up to this point: I had heard from the Empire's subjects about a figure called "Serek," ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠tracked her down, and found her. Using my ghost-like nature, I had gathered all sorts of stories and pieced ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠together the great revelation that Serek is important to Pharaoh!

...Which, okay, I'd already known. But beyond "important person," I knew absolutely nothing — the me of this era hadn't spared the matter a single flicker of interest.

And then, when I slipped into the maids' quarters, I overheard something truly shocking.

'He gives her secret gifts and just disappears? That Pharaoh?'

Rasty would find this absolutely hilarious.

"They say His Majesty the Emperor has been visiting this room quite often lately... Doesn't that just scream 'important location' to you?"

At first I'd assumed it would be the imperial treasury, but after hearing Serek out, I'd changed my thinking. In that brief, frantic span of time, Pharaoh had been fighting to protect both his own life and Serek's. Would he really have been shuttling back and forth to the treasury in the middle of all that?

Far more likely, if he'd wanted to hide something, he had hidden it in a hurry wherever Serek was and then departed. Which meant somewhere in this room, a secret hiding place had to exist.

I shot a glance at the maid tending the dressing room, then moved to the spot Serek had described. From the thirteenth compartment, I drew out the garments Pharaoh had given her first, and from the gap behind them, the necklace — the very first gift he had ever given her — along with the other jewels...

"...I don't understand."

What were these two even doing?