Imperial Year 8159.
The library—correction. This was an office where documents were piled up like a library.
What was found here were not old paper documents. All the data from a near-Earth planet, once collected, would ultimately condense into a card the size of an ordinary person's palm, barely one millimeter thick.
It was these very cards that filled the nearly one thousand square meter office. Aside from the desk and a "path" leading to the door, there was no space for anything else. The shelves, stacked with these "information mediums," were entirely full.
Amidst this, Shesha and his eight avatars were wholeheartedly immersed in their work.
"Phew."
Shesha, who had been hunched over his desk for an unknown amount of time, finally stretched his body toward the window after replying to the last report on his desk. As a large stack of cards was automatically transferred away by a mechanical assistant, a new stack of work immediately appeared on the left side of the desk, perfectly symmetrical to the vanished stack.
All of this was Shesha's work. Seven "Sacred Seats" were responsible for commanding the Empire's key functions, but Shesha, as the royal "Steward," handled all work related to the Monarch. It wasn't that Shesha didn't have subordinates, but due to the confidential and important nature of the work, and the fact that he had avatars he could use, Shesha basically monopolized the tasks himself.
However! This was Shesha's thinking 2,000 years ago.
"It's time to increase the number of [Sacred Seats]."
"Although the number of [Imperial Apostles] and mid-level cadres is sufficient, we definitely need to find some reliable newcomers to share the workload."
The [Imperial Apostle] seats had already expanded to 99, but the mere seven [Sacred Seats] clearly could not meet the organizational demands of the Empire's upper power structure.
Of course, Shesha, who was only just having this thought, wouldn't know that even among the new Sacred Seats later added... the only person who would actually be helpful in "governance," a task completely at odds with the Sacred Empire's "culture," would be Horaiji Kujou.
Just then, "Beep." A crisp notification sound came from Shesha's private communicator.
"Hmm?"
Messages received on this device were typically "private matters" unrelated to the Empire itself, the kind of things Shesha used for "entertainment" to distract himself from work.
"Your design draft has been approved. We will hold the 19,115th 'Galactic Trend Exhibition' in the 'Leysbo' Star System at the following time."
"If you recommend a model, we will prioritize their appearance on stage."
"..."
"Cough!" Shesha gave a tactical cough, which "shattered" the remaining sixteen sets of eyes. The avatars immediately bent back over their work. This method of "exploiting" his avatars was a valuable lesson Shesha had learned from the Monarch thousands of years ago.
Unfortunately, adding eight helpers was the limit of Shesha's abilities.
Shesha lowered his head, rereading the information from the "Galactic Trend Guide." In his "very few moments of true leisure," Shesha had submitted his latest clothing design sketches to the guide.
This shouldn't have been a big deal. After all, over the past three years, the number of "hobbies" Shesha had taken up to relieve work pressure exceeded five figures, most of which were casual, few lasting more than a year.
This so-called "clothing design sketch" was something Shesha had submitted on a whim, using an anonymous submission that only provided a return address. Along with the acceptance came a reward of 20K credits and a universal ticket from the "Interstellar Transportation Corporation" (a subsidiary of the Interastral Peace Corporation).
The IPC's "credits" were quite valuable. Although the Sacred Empire did not use this "credit" system due to its vast territory and semi-self-sufficient (semi-looting) supply methods, the universality of credits among the top forces in the star-sea could not be denied. Many mid-tier forces or newly established star-faring civilizations were even willing to pay hundreds of times the credit's actual value just to obtain enough of them.
20K might not seem like much, but it was enough to maintain a mid-tier civilization's resource consumption for a month.
"Exhibit? Model?" Shesha hesitated over these two words for a long time.
To be honest, he was starting to get slightly interested. Compared to his other "not-quite-successful" hobbies (those whose fame couldn't even leave the star system), being featured on the star-sea universe's most prestigious stage on his first attempt was a rather happy occasion, even for the indifferent Shesha.
Of course, there was another reason for his happiness: to Shesha's knowledge, Little Zi and Elysia were loyal customers of the "Galactic Trend Guide," and over twenty "female" Apostles in the [Imperial Apostles], led by Eden, had submitted numerous designs to the guide.
Take this "Galactic Trend Exhibition" as an example. According to Shesha's intelligence network, no one else in the Empire had yet successfully qualified for the event.
Except for himself.
"I need a different identity."
At this thought, Shesha was determined to participate. Forget everything else, the mere prospect of being able to "make Little Zi jealous enough to bite a handkerchief" sometime in the future was enough to keep Shesha in a good mood for a long time.
Shesha's usual emotional expression was placid. This demeanor led many subordinates and factions who interacted with him to believe that the esteemed [Sacred Engraving III: Abyss] had long since abandoned the shallow psychological satisfaction of "showing off." But only a very few knew how intense Shesha's desire to "reveal his greatness before others" truly was.
"Designer and model."
Shesha rubbed his chin and began detailed planning in deep thought.
"There might be someone from the Imperial upper echelons secretly participating already."
This wasn't a specific accusation. The probability of Little Zi participating under the guise of "job duties" was definitely over 99.99%.
"My avatars..." Shesha lifted his gaze, catching the avatar that was peeking at him in the act. "They are too familiar to them. No matter what disguise they use, they will be discovered."
After much deliberation, if he truly wanted to participate, he would have to adopt an appearance and identity that no one would recognize.
To achieve this—
"All my current work must be completed."
"Then I need to seize the time to cultivate. As long as I can break through one more level, I can create a ninth avatar."
"As for the appearance..." A brilliant, completely unexpected idea—one that would lead to "instant social death if exposed"—suddenly flashed through Shesha's mind.
"..."
After a long period of hesitation and indecision—
"It's decided!"