The SSS-rank Guide Doesn't Need Saving

The pond beneath the floating stone didn’t so much as ripple, yet somehow light still scattered across it like a hundred fractured stars caught mid-fall. Aisha stood in the doorway a beat too long, struck, no matter how annoyingly, by the fact that something so obviously built to flaunt imperial wealth could also, unfortunately, be beautiful.

For a pure energy stone that huge to appear in the emperor’s residence was beyond her guess. But thinking about the people in the lower sectors dreaming about even seeing one in their lifetime diminished what little astonishment she held onto the huge stone in front of her.

She didn’t like that something useful like that stone could only be used as a decorative piece in the emperor’s residence.

Aisha took her first step into the emperor’s residence. At first, it didn’t look like a room where the ruler of a planet would stay in. Rather, it looked more like a garden with a separate gazebo where a bed was situated. She didn’t go over, as someone else’s bed did not interest her at all.

A golden array of sweet-scented flowers on the side illuminated the path towards the gazebo-like courtyard. Aisha lightly touched the flower petals and curiously wondered if they tasted just as sweet as they smelled.

She reached out to take one petal, plucking it from its buds, and brought it to her nose first. The scent was sweeter now that it was closer. Her mouth parted as she placed the petal into her mouth.

She wasn’t afraid it was poisonous. She’d eaten worse than that, and with the power to even cleanse a miasma-filled monster meat, the flower was the least of her worries.

As expected, it tasted sweet. Maybe like honey or maple syrup?

In any case, they were great for making sweets. Perhaps she could find one later and grow them?

Wait... how are these flowers alive?

Aisha noted the irregularity and looked downward where the stem met the ground. Her eyes widened as she saw tiny little pure energy stones littered on the ground like a sea of stars.

”Do you like it?”

Emperor Nikulaus’s voice drifted from somewhere past the pond. He’d traded his ceremonial robes for something plainer, the sort of outfit a man wears when he wants to remind himself he still has skin and bones beneath all that splendor.

Aisha had already known this, but the emperor didn’t look that old. She didn’t know what sort of sorcery or miracle equipment he had used to make himself look youthful, but if she hadn’t known he was the emperor in her memories, she would’ve mistaken him for Prince Soren’s older brother.

Instead of responding, Aisha stared at the emperor. Where had he come from? She looked behind her at the entrance of the residence where she had entered from, then looked at him approaching in a leisurely manner. Then her eyes moved slightly behind him, but it was darker in the background, and aside from the shadows that seemed to beckon for her to go there, there was nothing else.

Emperor Nikulaus didn’t explain how he had gotten there so quickly while everyone had to deal with the explosion from earlier.

”They’re called Queen Nyxilotte,” Emperor said as he got closer to where she stood. ”They bloom at night and give off of a sweet smell. I got it as a gift from another star’s empire.”

”How do they grow?” Aisha asked, looking back at the flower below. She already had a guess, yet hearing it from the emperor helped her understand some things better.

The emperor stopped beside her. He was taller than her, almost looming, but compared to the two high-ranked sentinels she left behind in the hallway, he seemed shorter now.

He explained, ”By using pure energy stones as soil. We crush them into pieces and spread them around before burying the stems of these flowers, allowing them to grow roots. However, it takes a lot of care, and I had to order my servants to change the pure energy stones from time to time once they’re no longer emitting pure light energy.”

”It’s impressive, Your Majesty,” Aisha said, because there was no sense lying about something so obviously true.

And wasteful.

It dawned on Aisha that this was yet another bizarre and cruel way of living in this world. When other people beg on their knees until they bled just to get their hands on a husk of a pure energy stone, others get their hands on the stones and spend them on useless things such as this one.

”Sit.” He gestured toward the low bench near the flower bed. When Aisha didn’t immediately obey, he added, almost lazily, ”Be at ease, Lady Aisha. This isn’t a summons, but consider it an invitation.”

A distinction without much difference. Still, Aisha sat down, keeping a quiet distance from him.

His gaze flicked to her face, amused.

”You handled yourself well today,” he said. ”Better than well. I’ve sat through a hundred ceremonies exactly like that one. Never once has a bride managed to turn the entire room into her own playroom.”

”There was no pretense, Your Majesty. I only spoke the truth.”

”Mm.” His stare lingered a moment too long, the sort of look that made her skin feel like they’d rather crawl and get away from there. She held back as she heard him continue. ”Do you know why I called you here?”

Aisha pretended to ponder the question for a moment, then answered in a subdued tone. ”I assumed it concerned the money.” She paused before adding, ”If Your Majesty wished for it to be returned, I... I have no objection.”

His eyes widened for a moment, then he laughed—an honest, surprised bark of a sound. ”Keep it, child. Soren can afford whatever lesson it cost him.”

He rose and circled the pond’s edge, hands folded behind his back while watching the suspended stone’s reflection ripple faint with each step.

”I’ve seen many women pass through this palace.” His expression suggested he was remembering each one of them. ”A noble’s daughter, merchant’s daughter, and women groomed since birth to know precisely which words to speak and which shouldn’t be heard. Not one of them ever looked at me the way you did during that ceremony.”

Aisha frowned. She honestly didn’t remember how she had looked at him at that time.

”And how did I look at you?”

She hoped it wasn’t the same look she gave to someone she’d treated less than a bug under her foot.

”Like you weren’t afraid of me.”

Aisha regretted asking upon hearing his response. But the emperor didn’t notice the disgusted look she sent his way, fully attentive to his own reflection on the pond. ”That’s a rare thing, Lady Aisha. Rarer for someone of your age and for someone with you... circumstances.”

”I would very much like to keep that rarity close. Do you understand, Lady Aisha?”

Ah, there it was.