Daughter of the Gods (Gilgamesh x Reader)

Chapter Twenty-One: An Equal

"Your only job here is to compose the ziggurat's announcements and you can't even do it properly," Gilgamesh said. He looked back at the stone tablet in his hand and read it aloud. "'The king had finally found himself an equal—a woman worthy of the throne beside him,'  Whoever said that she is equal to me? How pathetic."

Gilgamesh threw the tablet harshly on the floor together with the several other tablets stacked beside him. The cruel sound of stone hitting the floor resonated through the entirety of the throne room. Even Siduri flinched at such a gesture. "Begone, mongrel!" He commanded.

The poor scribbler scrambled to clean up after the mess that came up after Gilgamesh threw the tablets to the ground. The scribbler's heart, fragile and hurt from the king's harsh words, were like the stone tablets—broken into several pieces. He knew he did his best and he had always done so aligned with the king's standards yet it never was enough at all.

The king clicked his tongue at the roof of his mouth. "Can't you clean up any faster, mongrel?" He asked. "The sight of you makes me sick." The poor man whimpered as he had a hard time picking up the pieces of broken stone by himself. He only had two hands, after all.

Due to the king's short patience, the Gates of Babylon slowly opened from behind him. The lights that come from each portal overpowered the sunlight peeking through the ziggurat making it less bright and allowing the gates to be the center of attention. Normally, Gilgamesh wouldn't use his treasures to kill a man unworthy of being killed by it but at this moment, he just wanted to end things quickly.

"N-no!" The man plead. "Please have mercy, my king!" He bowed down as low as he can, knees and elbows on the floor. On one of the portals, a knife slowly protrudes out, aiming for its target of a poor man. The king smiled at the sight in front of him. Although less entertaining, he still finds the sounds of mongrel's pleas to be an effective alternative in dealing with his boredom.

With its target locked in place, it took less than a second for the small weapon to be sent flying directly towards the man's head. For a moment, Gilgamesh was about to yawn at the fact that his servants would once again clean up after a mess that isn't new to them. The king closed his eyes, waiting for the impact of the knife upon the scribbler's head. To his surprise, he didn't hear the sound of metal piercing through flesh and bone but rather the sound of metal deflecting another.

"That's enough, Gilgamesh!" Soon after, your voice resonated across the hall. The king's ruby eyes looked straight into yours in dismay. You gave him a short glare before turning around to face the man trembling in fear before you. Without dropping your scythe, your palm slid down its handle as you knelt down to level with the man.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt?" You asked in the most gentle way possible. Still embraced by the fear and unable to speak, the man only gave a nod. Despite his nod of affirmation, you weren't blind to not see the bloodstains from his hands. He must've accidentally cut himself while frantically picking up the broken shards of stone.

You placed a hand upon his shoulder while the other upon his arm. You carefully stood, bringing him up with you. "Leave the mess to be cleaned up by the ziggurat's servants," you said. "For now, I want you to head home to your family and stay in for the day. Once you've recovered, you can write another entry and show it to me. Have one of the servants assist you to the queen's chamber."

The man gave another nod before stumbling his way out of the Royal Hall. You had your eyes watching his back the entire time until he disappeared from your sight. Suddenly, you felt the hairs at the back of your neck stood up. Using your quick reflex you turned around just in time to deflect another weapon thrown your way.

Furious, you turned around to face Gilgamesh. "What is wrong with you?!" You exclaimed. "What kind of a poor excuse of a king are you?!" The king, bored and just as furious, "Watch your words," said in a low growl. You scoffed, "Really? Why don't you do that, instead?" 

That was it for Gilgamesh. He stood, his temper getting the best of him, and made his way towards you, his shoes thumping heavily on the floor. Everyone could sense that the king was enraged yet no one dared made a move to stop him.

You could feel pieces of your courage disappear with every step that brought him closer and closer yet you stood your ground and remained in place. In this kingdom, you stand not only for the citizens of Al-Simr but also for the people of Uruk, your soon-to-be subjects. You stood tall, hands gripping tight at the handle of your scythe.

By the time Gilgamesh was standing in front of you, he wasted no time in holding your face rather harshly. His thumb was on one side of your cheeks and the rest of his fingers on the other giving your face a harsh squish. He brought his face closer, his nose almost touching yours. 

"Mongrel," he said in a low voice. "You should be punished for speaking that way to me."

"I see no wrong in what I did compared to how you treat your people," you replied. "I can't stand to see the way you rule over your subjects. You disgust me. If someone is to be punished between us, it's you." That said, you shook your head off his grasp as you swirled your scythe around and placed the blade upon his neck.

By such an action, Enkidu was surprised by the fact that Gilgamesh, despite predicting your next move, didn't bother dodging nor opening his Gate of Babylon to fight back. Instead, he let you have your way and this is the first time Enkidu saw Gilgamesh give way to an opponent. Had he done so, Enkidu would've taken the chance to stand in between.

Gilgamesh was surprised, too, at the fact that his patience extended by itself. Had it been another person talking to him that way, he would've killed them already but when it came to you, he didn't know why he couldn't open his Gates of Babylon and send you dancing upon his blades. For some reason, the anger that boiled within him earlier dissipated when he was mere inches from your face.

"You think too little of me," you said. "And in my opinion, what the scribbler wrote was just correct and I will prove it so."

You retracted your scythe and stepped back. "Uruk is one a great nation but a nation without smiles is a nation dead," you said, your eyes never leaving his. It's time for change and in this change, it isn't just your life that's going to be turned upside down but also that of an arrogant king.

Earlier today when you were headed to the throne room, you watched in silence at the way Gilgamesh would treat his subjects, and there you saw it, right before your very eyes, the tyrannic rule of a greedy king. You stood behind the pillars for a moment, simply observing what is to unfold and keeping yourself from interfering too early though it broke your heart to see the scribbler being treated like a lowly being.

You have to thank your quick reflexes for jumping in just in time to deflect the knife. Gilgamesh also wields whatever type of magecraft it is that Enkidu uses too. The only thing different, though, was that Enkidu's have chains while Gilgamesh had blades. 

As you still stood in front of the king, you glanced back into the line of people waiting by the entrance to the Royal Hall, each peeking to see what stopped the death sentence of an innocent man. You've passed by them earlier and you saw how they were frightened to just make their presence known to the king. 

Afraid that any more of what happened earlier would happen again, you walked past Gilgamesh towards the throne. You run a hand over the golden bench that extends on either side of the king's chair before sitting down on it. As you turned to face the entirety of the Royal Hall, you saw Gilgamesh facing you, staring at you as you sat beside his throne.

Gilgamesh was speechless. You looked majestic as you sat at your place beside the throne as the future queen of his kingdom. You sat there in all your glory and it made the king hold his breath for a moment. Before he knew it, his feet were taking him up to the throne to sit beside you. The moment he sat there, he placed an elbow on one of the armrests and rested his chin upon his hand in the usual bored way he does, hiding the feelings that are stirring within him. Somehow, he felt calm like your presence was divine enough to drag heaven down to earth.

As silence filled the hall and as all the new eyes were looking at you, Siduri took this as a cue to carry on with the usual morning routine for the king wherein reports arrive from all around Uruk. She signaled for the next person in line to come forth and stand in front of the throne. The next man, although afraid, made his way. From his place in the line towards the throne, his eyes never left you and although the man means no harm, it made Gilgamesh a bit unpleased.

Somehow, your mere presence beside the king brought a sense of calm and peace to the entirety of the ziggurat and that's when Enkidu knew: you were the best lady for this role.