Three Rewards from the Past
“I...”
Lily Elbrite (Fake) wishes to speak with you.
The moment the dungeon was cleared and my rewards were calculated, out of nowhere came a request for a conversation.
And the one requesting it was the false Lily.
The Lily Elbrite of the past.
“Hmm... let's give it a shot, then.”
There were things I wanted to ask, too.
The moment I pressed the accept button, the world changed.
Azure particles swept over everything around me, and before I knew it, I was standing in a stark white room.
Krrrk—
“......”
“I've been waiting for you.”
A single table, split down the middle by a wall of transparent glass. In the chair facing mine sat a woman with my exact face.
The Lily of the past.
“It does feel like a visitation room.”
“Apparently this is the only way we're allowed to talk. Unfortunately.”
I took my own seat and studied her across the table. On it sat a single small button; when she pressed it, a semicircular slot opened at the base of the glass wall.
So things could be passed through there?
“First, I should explain the situation. I imagine it's rather confusing.”
Past Lily cleared her throat and looked at me — no, more precisely, she looked at the camera filming the two of us.
“I am the past of Lily Elbrite. In other words, something like your childhood self. Or more accurately... call me your backstory.”
At first, I hadn't known.
“I didn't know my future self existed, and I assumed I would never run into her. I lived my life with everything I had, after all.”
“......”
“Though I suppose that barely counts as living 'with everything I had' compared to the 'Senior' sitting in front of me.”
I let out a soft sigh.
“...That wasn't me saying what you've done was meaningless or lacking. I said it because it was a shame to give up. I had absolutely no intention of belittling your life.”
After all, the Lily in front of me was me.
Past Lily gave a small nod.
“I thought as much. You're me, Senior. I understand.”
“...Um. All this 'Senior' business feels weird.”
“Then shall I call you Master instead?”
Master?
“Surely you don't mean the thing I'm thinking of.”
“I do. We both learned from the same being, after all.”
……
“...I'd rather you not say careless things.”
I had never taken a master.
Well, to be precise, I'd picked up foundational knowledge before I gave up being a Saintess — but never once after that did I study under anyone. If I had ever been bound to a “master” after that point, it wasn't a relationship of learning. It was one of paying a price.
“I don't consider 'that being' my master either. But—”
“But?”
“I figured if I wanted you to make even a slightly better choice, I'd need to build some common ground first.”
A better choice...
Did that mean Past Lily was involved in whatever dungeon reward I was about to receive?
......
“Go on. Keep talking.”
“Before that — about the 'Master' thing—”
“Just call me Senior.”
There was no way on earth I could sit through being called “Master.”
When I shook my head firmly, Past Lily looked at me and gave a faint, unreadable smile.
“When I first came face to face with you, Senior, I agonized over it. The Senior before me was my future — and since the future comes after the past, I concluded that my existence must be the fake one.”
Past Lily had believed all of this was fake.
So she abandoned everything she'd been doing and clung to my side, struggling however she could to escape this counterfeit world.
“But when I met you again, I finally understood. Even a fake world doesn't have to end as a fake.”
By then, however, it was too late.
“I had already given up so much, and the world was mercilessly barren. You would know better than anyone, Senior. What that means.”
“......”
Past Lily — Lily of the eighteenth year — had burned seven years chasing after me, and in doing so had missed countless opportunities for “growth.”
Growth itself could still be pursued, of course — training in spaces with different time streams, steady effort over time. But there were certain pivotal events that could never be reclaimed.
Events through which I had grown tremendously, both mentally and physically.
And because the world only grew more treacherous as it barreled toward the thirtieth year, missing those windows of growth made things desperately difficult for anyone wearing the name of Lily.
A Lily of year twenty-five would have to fight nameless high-ranking celestials and demons on equal footing, after all.
“So that's why you resorted to something like this?”
“It was the only chance I had left.”
“There wasn't another way—”
“There wasn't. Not a single intact continent remained.”
Clap!
Past Lily clapped her hands once and gathered the conversation back to a single point.
“It's a simple story, really. While pursuing you, Senior, I missed my window to grow strong, and I no longer had the power to hold back the threats that were coming. Left neither one thing nor the other, I made a single choice.”
“What choice?”
“If I could not live on in this fake world... then I would go to a 'different' real one.”
To the true god who had created the fakes.
She had sought out the sleeping Forgotten Emperor, and around him she had constructed a ten-floor underground ruin — shaped as closely as possible to what the Lily of the future had already seen. Then, making sure that Scorpio, who would one day arrive, could fully master his authority, she laid out the arrangements and made her proposal.
Send me there.
“Even though I could never go back, I no longer wanted to remain in that place. And the god accepted my offer.”
“...The system did?”
“Yes. In the form of a 'reward' — as a choice.”
Jiiing!
A small semicircular hatch opened in the transparent glass wall, and through it Past Lily passed over three scrolls of parchment.
Long, tightly rolled parchment.
“May I look?”
“Of course.”
I unrolled one of them.
Lily Elbrite (Fake) offers you a reward.
You may choose one of three rewards.
The first reward is a Quest.
Class Advancement — Sacred Thaumaturge (?)
Objective — Repel Lily Elbrite (Fake).
Reward — 4th Advancement of the Sacred Thaumaturge, Path of the Spear (Limited).
If this quest is not cleared, the World Boss “Lily Elbrite (Fake)” will appear within the world!
“...This one.”
A 4th Advancement?
When I looked back and forth between the parchment and her, Past Lily wore a bitter smile.
“It's not the choice I want. But if you pull it off, it does happen to be the outcome I'm after.”
“Going to Deoen?”
“Even if only I remain there. Which is just as well — there's nothing left for me in this place anyway.”
“......”
Not bad.
I could reach my 4th Advancement while skipping over that bizarre excuse for a quest, after all.
True, it came with a limitation — and Lily of year eighteen was considerably stronger than my current self — but not so strong that I couldn't beat her.
And if I failed to win, I'd walk away with nothing while a world boss wearing my own face roamed the continent.
...Yeah, that'd be a problem.
“Next. Show me the second one.”
Leaving the first parchment folded, I unrolled the second.
The second reward is the skill, Divine Descent.
“Divine Descent?”
“A lesser version of the Crown of Succession. A technique with weakened power, but no Penalty attached.”
Within the parchment was drawn an emblem: a white hammer set inside a blue circle.
A lesser Crown of Succession.
This one wasn't bad either.
Given that the Crown was effectively sealed away, it was doubtful I could easily take down a top-tier world boss as part of a 4th Advancement quest. Barring some freak turn of events, the Kraken looming on the horizon would likely be a top-tier boss — and I couldn't reach the 4th Advancement before it arrived.
By that logic, there was absolutely nothing wrong with taking Divine Descent, available right now.
“.......”
It also looked like Past Lily was hoping I'd take this one.
“What happens to you if I choose the second one?”
“Divine Descent is a fragment of my own power. If you receive the skill, my power disappears entirely. And with it... I disappear too.”
“...And you want that?”
“Yes.”
Past Lily gave no further explanation. She simply waited in silence, as if some private agreement had already been reached.
I didn't press the matter, and unrolled the final parchment instead.
The moment it opened, a hollow laugh escaped me of its own accord.
The third reward is a Quest.
Class Advancement — Sacred Thaumaturge (?)
Objective — Redeem the Forgotten Emperor.
Reward — 4th Advancement of the Sacred Thaumaturge, Path of the Saintess (Limited).
If this quest is not cleared, the World Boss “Forgotten Emperor (Complete)” will appear within the world!
“What is this one?”
“...He's a pitiful child.”
“A celestial?”
“Senior, I'm not recommending this one either. The god simply offers many choices.”
To the one who has learned the truth — a chance at challenge and oblivion.
To the abandoned child — a tender and merciful grace.
“......”
“The choice is yours, Senior.”
Three choices lay before me.
“I...”