𝐆𝐎𝐃 𝐎𝐅 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐎𝐄𝐒 | genshin impact

| 03 |: As the Last King

Six months had passed since you became the new God of Heroes and king of Auruk. Auruk became your territory, and you've been defending the land from invasions whilst using it as a base to survive the flames of the Archon War. From what you had gathered, Auruk was established many years prior to your arrival; if Enu was transported to Teyvat two years ago according to your world's timeline, that must mean time moves much faster in Teyvat.

Two earth years must have felt like decades for Enu, who only had Elisha by his side.

As you tried to adapt to your new working environment as quickly as possible, you began to realise how important the king is in Auruk. The king reigns at the top of society and is considered a divine figure who represents the city's own god. The king makes law, heads the military and provides for building the city's infrastructure. They lay taxes upon the people to fund the city's defence and public works such as building temples, digging wells and maintaining the city walls.

Your daily life was filled with paperwork that involves more reading than you'd usually do as a university student. The amount of work you had to face every day made you sympathise with Enu; he most likely had to work ten times harder than you since he was building Auruk from scratch, and also had to search for a way to solidify its standing as an independent nation with its own god.

Fortunately, like Enu, you had Enki as your reliable assistant. He mostly deals with the affairs you're not familiar with, such as securing the salaries of the soldiers and managing the taxes and the bookkeeping of the city.

'Let's see what's on my agenda today...' you thought as you scanned the clay tablet that Semiramis had given you, 'Paper production and a meeting with the royal scribes in the afternoon...'

You planned to replace the clay tablets with paper. It'll be difficult seeing as Auruk is in a desert and doesn't have a source of hardwood and softwood, but once the Archon War ends, trade between countries should make paper production possible. It's still far in the future but there's no harm in preparing Auruk for global trade early. As for your meeting with the royal scribes, you wanted to form a group of archivists who will be specially trained in preserving the original material, such as written documents and hand-drawn maps. You wanted to record the history of Teyvat as it plays out to help your people solve any future crisis they may face in your possible absence.

"High King Ea, General Kingu presents himself before you," Semiramis announced.

Your attention shifted to the man kneeling before you in the throne room. When you had been introduced to the people as the new God of Heroes half a year ago, you decided to give yourself a different name, Ea, for protection. You didn't know if you were the only player transported to Teyvat and since the Archon War is the worst time to run into strong high-level players, you did this as a safety precaution.

"Do you have any news for me about the battlefront?" you asked. Four months ago, you had sent a small group of scouts with Kingu leading them to monitor Sumeru's activity at the border; you realised that the only way to ensure Auruk's safety is to keep tabs on your enemies and predict their next move from the information gathered.

"Yes. Gugalanna has been slain by Rukkhadevata," Kingu replied.

You frowned. "When did this happen?"

"Around a week ago, Your Highness."

Your eyes widened.

"YOU FOOL!"

The sound of a clay tablet smashing on the floor resonated across the throne room, startling everyone present. A bead of cold sweat rolled down Kingu's forehead as he glanced at the shattered pieces of the tablet next to him.