"Make it the most dazzling, the most obedient, and the most... value-creating of all my collectibles."
"Can you do that?"
Siduri's head snapped up.
She looked at the "demon" before her, a kindly smile on his face, yet whose every word brimmed with the most extreme contempt for humanity and the urge to use them.
Her heart was full of struggle.
But when her gaze swept over Gilgamesh, still slumped on the floor, the radiance of a "king" now utterly gone from him.
She knew she no longer had any other choice.
For Uruk.
For those people who were still alive.
She closed her eyes slowly and drew a deep breath.
Then opened them again.
In those purple eyes, all the sorrow and struggle vanished without a trace.
In their place was the absolute "reason" and "calm" of an "administrator."
"...Yes, my master."
To Seiji she offered her most complete, and final, "loyalty" as a "subject."
"Siduri will surely present you with... a perfect Uruk."
"Good." His hand settled on her shoulder before she could rise. "But a vizier of mine has one more duty."
She had known. She was not a fool. A man did not collect goddesses and call a woman a commodity of immense value and mean only her ledgers. She had weighed it on the climb up the tower, the way she weighed everything, and decided a city that kept breathing was worth the price.
So when he turned her and walked her back against the cold gold of the old king's throne, she did not struggle.
A few feet away on the floor sat the tray of bread and water she had brought for the fallen king, where she had left it. Gilgamesh himself said nothing. There was nothing left to say.
Seiji pushed the white priestess robes off her shoulders. Siduri kept her eyes forward and her breathing even, the way she did through every crisis, while a stranger bared her in her own temple in front of the king she had served her whole life. Composed. Professional. She could do this. It was just one more thing the city needed from her.
He was not quick about it. He took her in slowly with his eyes first, then his hands, learning her the way he learned everything he meant to own. He cupped her breasts from behind and rolled the nipples between his fingers until her even breathing caught, just once. He ran a palm down her stomach and between her thighs and found her, and the composed priestess stared straight ahead and pretended she could not feel him working her open with two unhurried fingers, pretended her hips were not starting to move, pretended she was still only a vizier receiving instructions. He kept at it until she was wet on his hand despite every ounce of her control.
Then he bent her over the throne and pushed his cock into her, and the even breathing broke.
"...Ah." Her hands gripped the gold. The composure she had held through a god's defeat and a kingdom's fall lasted exactly two strokes before it started slipping. She was wet. She did not want to be wet. A practical woman did not get wet being used like furniture on her first hour of a new post, and yet her body had its own opinion about a master who took what he wanted and did not pretend otherwise.
"You're a sensible woman, Siduri." He fucked her slow and deep, one hand fisted in her silver hair. "The most sensible thing in this whole city. You already know there's no point fighting what's efficient."
"...Yes." It came out shaking. She hated how easily she said it. "Yes. My lord."
He used her over the dead king's throne until the high priestess who never lost her head lost it completely, biting down on a cry, thighs trembling. When he was done she straightened her robes, smoothed her hair, and went to pick the tray back up. There was still a fallen king who needed feeding.
After successfully bringing the most powerful administrative official in the city of Uruk, Siduri, fully under his command.
Seiji turned his next target for "processing" to Kingu, the "time bomb" who had stood off to one side from start to finish, watching coldly, yet full of uncertainty.
He did not choose to meet his opponent in the oppressive atmosphere of the temple or the treasury.
Instead, he chose a place no one would have expected.
Outside the city of Uruk, that tranquil sea of flowers in every color, the field that had once belonged to Enkidu.
When Kingu received Seiji's "private invitation" and came here, his heart full of wariness and killing intent.
What he saw was not a "new king" who had set up his forces to pass judgment on him.
But a harmless-looking black-haired young man sitting at ease among the flowers, a small white wildflower in his hand, as if admiring the scenery.
"You came?"
Seiji did not turn around, only speaking in a relaxed tone, as if greeting an old friend.
"The view here isn't bad, is it?"
"They say this sea of flowers was his favorite place."
"..."
Kingu's body went stiff.
Through those green eyes of his, always tinged with a hint of gloom, flashed an extremely complicated emotion, mingling "nostalgia" and "hatred."
That was right.
This sea of flowers.
The "memory" of this body was telling him that this place was full of the most beautiful memories spent together with that golden one.
But the "will" in the depths of his own soul was roaring madly, urging him to destroy this place!
To destroy this filthy place steeped in the scent of "Enkidu"!
This violent conflict between "body" and "soul" filled him with immense pain and... irritation.
"Stop putting on this mysterious act!"
He could no longer endure the feeling of being toyed with in the palm of his opponent's hand, and shouted coldly at Seiji's back.
"What exactly do you want, calling me out here?!"
"Do you mean to humiliate me like you did that golden one, and then kill me?!"
"Then get on with it!"
He was prepared to unleash his full power at any moment and take his opponent down with him!
"Kill you?"
Seiji laughed at that.
He turned slowly and looked at this beautiful "doll," like a startled hedgehog bristling all over with spines.
"No, no, no, my dear Mr. Kingu, you've misunderstood."
"How could I ever bear to kill such an interesting, important tool?"
"Tool?" Kingu's brow furrowed deeper.
"That's right. A tool."
Seiji rose and walked over to stand before him.
Those pitch-black eyes, as if able to see through everything, gazed calmly at Kingu.
"You are the most important bridge through which I can communicate with your mother, the great creation mother goddess Tiamat, who still slumbers in the depths of the Persian Gulf."
The words struck Kingu's soul like a thunderbolt charged with millions of volts!
He... he actually...
He actually knew all about the existence of "mother" too?!
This man...
What else did this man know?!
Watching his opponent, so shocked he couldn't get out a single word.
The smile on Seiji's face grew ever more unfathomable.
"Let me take a guess."
He extended a finger and tapped it lightly against Kingu's smooth forehead, as if reading his "data."
"Your mother gave you two tasks."
"First, to destroy this present, false human civilization, created by the gods she hates."
"Second, to kill the wedge that inherited the will of the gods, the King of Heroes Gilgamesh."
"And then she will reign over this land once more, turning everything back into the most primordial sea of life, where only she and her children can live together in happiness and joy."
"Am I right?"
"..."
Kingu's lips trembled violently.
He looked at Seiji, and his eyes no longer held fear.
But the trembling, born from the deepest part of the soul, that comes when facing a "being" of a higher dimension, one completely beyond comprehension!
"Now, I've already completed your second task for you."
Seiji withdrew his finger and said with a smile.
"Gilgamesh is no longer a king, and can no longer pose any threat to your plans."
"So in a sense, I count as your ally, don't I?"
"Al... ally?" Kingu's mind was already a complete mess.
"That's right. An ally."
A cold, viper-like glint flashed through Seiji's eyes.
"Only, as an ally, I have one small suggestion regarding your mother's great plan, that plan full of love and creation."
"And that is..."
"...her children are simply too ugly, too weak, and too... inefficient."
"Those Lahmu, who only know how to use brute force for indiscriminate destruction, are in my view the most inferior, failed creations."
"So..."
He extended his hand toward Kingu, issuing an "invitation" full of demonic temptation, impossible to refuse.
"...how about making a deal with me?"
"You continue serving as your mother's commander."
"And I take charge of providing you with technical support."
"I'll help you optimize those cute little brothers and sisters of yours."
"I will grant them wisdom."
"I will grant them discipline."
"I will grant them more powerful strength, enough to tear apart the gods!"
"I will transform them from a horde of monsters that know only destruction into an army that wins every battle, conquers every foe, and answers only to your command and mine..."
"A perfect legion!"
"And you, Kingu."
His voice turned full of enchantment.
"You will no longer be the pitiful substitute living in Enkidu's shadow."
"You will lead this unprecedented perfect legion and accomplish the great feat that even he failed to accomplish!"
"You will surpass your prototype!"
"You will become the finest, most perfect, one and only son in your mother's eyes!"
"How about it?"
"This deal, for you, is it not... quite a bargain?"
Kingu fell utterly silent.
His body trembled violently.
Half of it was fear.
The other half was an extreme "excitement" that even he could not suppress!
Surpass... Enkidu?
Become... the one and only existence in mother's eyes?
This "future" painted by the demon was, for him, simply...
The sweetest, most irresistible "poison"!
Just as Seiji, like a brilliant chess player, step by step seized firm control over every important "piece" on the chessboard that was Uruk.
He had not forgotten the "promise" he had made to the sky goddess he had already thoroughly "conquered."
On the third day after he reigned over Uruk.
A "miracle" powerful enough to shake the entire Mesopotamian plain occurred.
That day, just as the first ray of morning sunlight spilled across the land.
Every early-rising citizen of Uruk stopped their work, mouths agape, and gazed with the eyes of someone witnessing a god's creation toward the area beside that pitch-black "false god's temple" outside the city.
There, upon that once-empty plain.
A grand, magnificent, supremely lavish golden palace, the kind that should exist only in mythical fantasy, rose up from the ground!
The entire palace was cast from the purest gold, without a trace of impurity!
Set into the dome of the palace were tens of thousands of enormous, dazzling gems, refracting rainbow halos in the sunlight, as if the rainbow had been plucked down from the heavens!
Around the palace flowed a slowly winding "river" of molten silver. In its waters floated countless beautiful lotus flowers carved from diamond!
At the palace gates stood two lifelike pegasus statues, each carved from a single massive, flawless block of lapis lazuli!
The degree of its luxury, the grandeur of its scale, the boldness of its presence...
All of it far, far surpassed the Ziggurat of the King of Heroes Gilgamesh, that symbol of supreme kingly authority!
This was no longer a mortal structure.
This was a god's "temporary palace" in the human world!
"My heavens... what... what is that?!"
"It's gold! All of it gold! It's blinding my eyes!"
"Gods! Is this... is this the divine power of our new king?! He built a golden city overnight?!"
"It's... it's magnificent! I've never seen such a... such a beautiful structure!"
The whole city of Uruk boiled over!
If before, their "submission" to Seiji had still carried a trace of compulsion born from fear.
Then now, after witnessing with their own eyes such a "creation"-level miracle, one fit to be recorded in epic poetry.
The last shred of doubt and reluctance in their hearts vanished without a trace!
In its place came the purest, most fervent worship, springing from the depths of the soul!
A king who could conjure such "wealth" with a casual wave of the hand, following him, would they ever have to worry about good days again?!
And the "mistress" of this golden palace, Ishtar, was at this moment like a little girl who had been given a beloved toy, dressed in "divine consort" attire even more gorgeous and revealing than before, her snow-white little feet bare, running about excitedly in this gleaming golden palace that was entirely her own.
One moment she sprawled like a kitten across those floors of pure gold, rubbing her cheek blissfully against their cold, solid touch.
The next she ran into those mountainous heaps of gemstones, burying herself deep inside like a little squirrel, letting out peals of satisfied, delighted "giggles."
She had even specially ordered Medea to use magecraft to build her an enormous "gemstone swimming pool," a hundred meters in length, width, and height!
It was filled not with water, but with top-grade gemstones of every color, polished smooth and round!
Her favorite thing to do each day was to dive headfirst, like a happy mermaid, into this one-of-a-kind "ocean of gems," swimming and frolicking to her heart's content.
She had sunk completely.
Sunk into this beautiful golden cage of "wealth" and "luxury," painstakingly crafted for her by Seiji.
She had forgotten that she was once a lofty "sky goddess" revered by all the people.
She had also forgotten that she once bore the duty of "guarding Uruk."
The only thought left in her head now was how to please that one "master" of hers who had given her all of this.
How to obtain more, and more, and more... beautiful gems from his hands!
"Master~"
When Seiji finished the matters at hand and walked into this "golden birdcage" he had built with his own hands.
A cloyingly sweet, coquettish cry full of charm and flattery rang out from that enormous "gemstone swimming pool."
The next second.
Ishtar, her whole body glittering with the light of gems in every color, leapt out from the gem pile like a lotus rising from water, and like a clingy kitten, flung herself straight into Seiji's arms.
"You're here~ I've been waiting so long for you~"
She pressed her soft, astonishingly supple body tightly against Seiji, nuzzling and acting spoiled.
Those ruby eyes, once full of pride and majesty, now held only a watery, "fawning," "pleading" light, like a puppy's.
"Master~ look~"
As if showing off a treasure, she held up before Seiji an enormous heart-shaped pink diamond she had just found in the "sea of gems."
"Doesn't this gem look just like my heart for you?"
"Isn't it beautiful?"
"So... so..."
A lovely blush rose on her face, and her voice dropped to a mosquito's whisper.
"...tonight, could you... give me a little more reward?"
Looking at this former sky goddess in his arms, whom he had thoroughly "tamed" into a beautiful "pet" that could only wag its tail and beg.
A satisfied smile appeared on Seiji's face.
He reached out and lightly pinched Ishtar's small, delicate chin, lifting her head to meet his gaze.
Then, in a tone full of "amusement" and "possession," he said slowly:
"Of course there's a reward."
"But before that."
His gaze swept over Ishtar's perfect body, grown ever more tender and ever more enticing from her long immersion in luxury.
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