『The Visitor from the Multiverse』
210 BC.
The emperor's imperial procession was traveling eastward.
The man who had unified the realm—the First Emperor of Qin—was traveling along the coast in search of the elixir of immortality.
It was night.
The temporary imperial palace was silent, with only the lamplight swaying beyond the curtains.
Having sent his attendants and guards away, the Emperor sat alone, reading a scroll.
Then it happened.
A presence appeared.
It was not footsteps.
It was not the wind.
The space itself simply seemed to warp ever so slightly.
The First Emperor slowly raised his head.
"Who are you?"
He carried no sword. His gaze alone was enough to intimidate.
The voice of the man who had destroyed the Six States made the night air tremble.
A human figure stood within the shadows cast by the lamplight.
His clothing was strange.
It was neither Qin attire nor the garments of the northern peoples. He looked as though he had stepped outside of time itself.
The man quietly bowed his head.
"It is an honor to stand before Your Majesty."
"State your name."
"I have no name. I am known as a wanderer."
The First Emperor narrowed his eyes.
"A fangshi? Or perhaps an immortal from beyond the sea?"
"Neither."
The man answered calmly.
"I have come from a 'multiverse.'"
At those words, the Emperor's eyebrow moved ever so slightly.
"What is a multiverse?"
"A world in which all times, all spaces, and all dimensions exist."
Silence descended.
An ordinary man who spoke such words would have been executed for madness.
But the First Emperor did not laugh.
He had spent a lifetime looking across the realm.
Mountains and rivers.
Different peoples.
Different languages.
The world was vast.
If so, perhaps it was not strange that things still existed beyond his knowledge.
"In that world, what has become of me?"
The observer thought for a moment.
"In many worlds, Your Majesty is recorded as the 'Emperor at the Beginning.'"
"The beginning?"
"Of the concept of empire."
The First Emperor slowly smiled.
It was a short, sharp laugh.
"I see. So I am already part of mythology."
"Yes. In some worlds, that is what you are called."
The lamplight flickered.
Outside, the guards continued their patrol. No one was there to hear their conversation.
"I seek immortality."
The Emperor spoke.
"Does your world possess such a thing?"
The observer shook his head.
"There is no immortality. But if one were no longer human, perhaps…"
The First Emperor fell silent.
After a while, he spoke quietly.
"What do you mean?"
"As long as you remain human, you are bound by the limits of humanity. But Your Majesty is not truly human. You have merely forgotten."
The Emperor exhaled slowly.
It was an answer stranger than any elixir of immortality.
"Then that is enough for me."
He fixed his gaze upon the wanderer.
"I have unified the realm. If countless worlds exist, can I transcend humanity in them?"
The wanderer quietly nodded.
"Yes. In many worlds."
The lamplight flickered.
And in the next instant, the man's figure had disappeared.
When the guards came running, no one was there.
The First Emperor opened his scroll once more.
If worlds could intersect—
If there existed a world where everything had become one—
then what was an empire?
What was human history?
At last, the Emperor spoke quietly.
"Interesting."
That was all.
The events of that night would never be recorded in the histories.
If a multiverse truly existed, then somewhere within it, Qin Shi Huang would have become another existence.
『The Visitor from the Multiverse』 — The End