Although Sobek-Saef was a slave, dressed quite plainly, worlds apart from the man before him,
the unfamiliar man showed not the slightest arrogance because of his lowly status.
Even toward him, the man wore a smile.
"Since we all find ourselves in this vast desert, meeting here must be fate.
And since your master has extended an invitation, I shall go and meet him. I'll trouble you to lead the way."
Though Sobek-Saef was a slave, he had been entrusted with important responsibilities thanks to his sharp mind and quick wit.
In his capacity as a slave, he had learned quite a bit of reading, writing, and arithmetic, knowledge that, in Egypt, only a small number of nobles were entitled to learn.
Even so, Sobek-Saef still found the man's words difficult to fully understand.
He did not know what "fate" meant, nor what "vast" meant.
Many of the auxiliary words and descriptive terms the man used were beyond his comprehension, yet this only strengthened Sobek-Saef's belief in the man's nobility.
Only true nobles, after mastering basic literacy, would go on to learn so much rhetoric.
However, what earned Sobek-Saef's heartfelt respect most was not this, but the man's attitude.
A person of such high status, yet still treating a slave like him with warmth and courtesy, among the nobles Sobek-Saef had known, this was exceedingly rare.
Especially on the way back to the caravan, when the man actually asked him his name, asked about his life.
By the gods, someone so noble taking an interest in a slave like him was something Sobek-Saef had never experienced before.
He felt a warm current flow through his heart.
Perhaps this was a quality possessed only by the descendants of the gods, after all, in the eyes of the gods, all mortals were equal.
Even mortal nobles were no different from slaves in the eyes of the gods, nothing more than ants. That was why they treated all mortals with the same attitude.
Soon enough, when the man met with his master, Sobek-Saef's belief was further confirmed.
Before his master, the man did not change his demeanor in the slightest.
"Greetings, honored traveler." Upon seeing the man brought by Sobek-Saef, the merchant immediately sensed his extraordinariness.
Instinctively, he placed himself in a lower position.
"I am Neht, a merchant from Avaris. It is an honor to encounter you in the desert. Seeing you traveling alone, I wondered if there was anything we might do to assist you."
"Ah, thank you for your concern, Mr. Neht."
Alaric nodded to the man before him and said with a smile, "My name is Thoth. I am a traveler from a distant land, currently journeying with the goal of traversing all of Egypt."
As he spoke, he extended his hand toward the merchant.
"So you are Mr. Thoth. It is an honor to meet you," Neht replied, somewhat puzzled by the gesture. "May I ask what it means when you extend your hand like that?"
"It is a handshake," the man named Thoth explained. "When two people meet and clasp hands, it signifies the initial establishment of friendship. It is a custom from my homeland."
"I see. That truly is an honor."
Neht excitedly reached out and shook Thoth's hand.
This etiquette appeared to be one of equality and even involved physical contact, didn't that mean this extraordinary man before him was willing to associate with him?
Although merchants in Egypt could be considered a form of nobility, compared to aristocrats and priests they were still a tier lower, merely above commoners.
Now, the man before him was clearly someone of exceptionally high status. Given such an opportunity to form a friendship, how could Neht possibly let it slip away?
"You are truly admirable," Neht promptly began to flatter the man named Thoth.
"Someone as noble as you, willing to personally travel throughout all of Egypt, this is something many people of high position simply cannot accomplish."
"Not at all. I merely love traveling and wish to see the scenery of different lands," Thoth shook his head.
"To be honest, I have only visited one city in Egypt so far, Rosetta. It was where my journey here began.
I wished to see Egypt's capital, Memphis, but I lost my sense of direction in the desert."
"Oh, so that's the case."
Thoth's words made Neht's eyes light up. "Perfect timing. My caravan's destination is Memphis. If you don't mind, would you be willing to travel with us?"
"I would be delighted."
Thoth readily accepted Neht's proposal.
"Your choice of words is truly elegant," Neht said with a smile, offering a bit more flattery.
Thus, the traveler named Thoth joined the caravan and proceeded together with them. To accommodate him, Neht even freed up a camel for him to ride…
This foreign man named Thoth was, in truth, Alaric. "Thoth" was merely the alias he used in Egypt.
After passing through the barrier of the divine realm, he arrived in the Egyptian divine domain.
However, the barrier he crossed lay over the sea.
As such, upon entering the Egyptian divine domain, he traveled by sea for quite some distance, finally landing in Egypt at Rosetta, a city at the mouth of the Nile.
Egypt at this time was in the Sixth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom, also the late period of the Old Kingdom.
Unlike the Greek divine domain, although the Egyptian divine domain was smaller in scale, its humans were unified under a single kingdom.
Their king was called Pharaoh, believed to be a descendant of the Egyptian gods.
At present, Egypt was ruled by the Heliopolitan pantheon.
The primordial god Ra gave birth to a pair of twins: Shu, the god of air, and Tefnut, the goddess of moisture.
These two, in turn, gave birth to another pair of twins: Geb, the god of earth, and Nut, the goddess of the sky. This brother and sister then united and produced the fourth generation of gods…
Originally, the Ennead, nine pillar gods, each generation had served as Pharaohs themselves, personally ruling Egypt.
But after the final generation, the god Horus, the gods all returned to the heavens, and Egypt came to be ruled by Pharaohs descended from the gods.
Generation after generation, the Pharaohs' rule continued, passing down to the present day.
However, according to Alaric's observations, the Heliopolitan pantheon had grown rather indifferent toward mortal governance in recent times.
Perhaps this stemmed from the traditions of the Heliopolitan gods.
Each generation of gods would, for a period, assume control of the divine domain, during which they governed with extreme diligence.
But after that, much like mortals, they would hand over all responsibility to the next generation, retaining only their most basic divine duties.
Such a laid-back style of rule was indeed quite abnormal compared to the Olympian pantheon.
By now, the gods' control over Egypt was relatively loose, far looser than that of the Greek pantheon, whose gods frequently walked the earth.
Because of this, the power of "humans" within Egypt had become comparatively stronger, which in turn sustained the long-standing unity of this great empire.
As for the actions of the Heliopolitan pantheon, Alaric actually admired them quite a bit.
But perhaps it was precisely for this reason that, in the future, the Heliopolitan pantheon would gradually be replaced by the Hermopolitan pantheon, with the god Amun rising as the chief deity and supplanting the rule of the sun god Ra.