I’m Going to Add a Few More Things to the Gate of Babylon! [5]

After the three Lesser Grails radiating immense magical energy appeared, Gilgamesh visibly relaxed.

Now this was reassuring.

There was no way he could burn through all that mana, no matter how wildly he swung Ea.

After storing the three Lesser Grails in the Gate of Babylon, he took out the first one he had redeemed. Feeling the connection between himself and the golden cup, he slowly let it merge into his body.

In an instant, all the mana he had spent earlier while testing Noble Phantasms was completely restored. Feeling the Grail settle inside him in spiritual form, Gilgamesh slowly began to laugh.

“Bwahaha…HAHAHAHAHAHA!”

It was as if his mana was no longer limited at all. Gilgamesh could feel that, with a single thought, he could freely draw on the vast reserves stored within the Grail.

An uncapped mana bar really did feel incredible.

With all the protective and resurrection-type Noble Phantasms currently layered over his body, Gilgamesh felt invincible.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

At this rate, he had a feeling he could casually crush even an ordinary god.

Feeling at least somewhat safer, he finally decided to go see what kind of creatures these foreigners really were.

The Great Tang of the Eastern Lands, my ass. That doesn’t even exist in this era!

He walked out of the room where he had been resting and saw Siduri again.

At that moment, watching Siduri carry out her duties with such dedication, he actually felt a faint twinge of guilt.

To hell with 996 and 007.

“Siduri, you’ve been at my side for quite a few years now, haven’t you?” Gilgamesh said.

“Yes, my king. I have served Your Majesty since you were a child.”

Siduri was a little puzzled. She had no idea why the king had suddenly asked that.

“Right. You’re a demigod too, Siduri. No wonder you still haven’t aged.”

Gilgamesh and Siduri walked toward the hall together, chatting along the way about the things that had happened in the city over the past few days.

“It seems Kiie’s household has had a son as well. Another demigod. Honestly, these gods… whenever the mood strikes them, they descend by possession and cuckold someone.”

“Kiie himself considers it an honor. And also, my king, you have offended the gods again with your words.”

“Have I…? I see.”

In this age, when a god took a fancy to some beautiful woman or man among humanity, they simply acted on it.

Sometimes they came in their true bodies. Sometimes they descended by possession. Either way, restraint was not something they practiced.

But to the people of this era, that did not necessarily count as a bad thing.

If someone could seize that chance and bear a god’s child, their standing in the city would rise with it. And when that divine child later had children with ordinary humans, those descendants would possess Divinity as well.

Perhaps, in Gilgamesh’s original world, trying to improve bloodlines this way would only produce children riddled with congenital defects. But in this world, inheriting Divinity—and spreading it farther from generation to generation through that process—was seen as the proper path.

This was not the result of any artificial intervention. It was simply the choice people made for themselves, because those of the Age of Gods naturally gravitated toward the strong.

And demigods were the strongest people they could realistically come into contact with.

As for actual gods, that was simply a matter of luck.

That was why the people of the Age of Gods were so physically powerful. It was not only because they had adapted to the True Ether in the atmosphere, but also because of the Divinity they had inherited.

Even if that Divinity gradually thinned as it spread, a considerable portion of humanity still carried at least some measure of “divine power” within their bodies.

And with those damned gods dropping in every so often to plant horns on somebody’s husband or wife and inject fresh blood into humanity’s divine bloodline, Gilgamesh genuinely felt this practically counted as an industry by now.

On the surface, it looked as though the gods merely had their fun and left. But everyone knew the ones really getting something for free were the humans, who, once the gods were out of earshot, would secretly mutter things like, Maybe next time it’ll be me.

No, wait. That was far too disrespectful to the gods. One ought to bow one’s head and give thanks for being favored by them.

Even after three months in this world, Gilgamesh still could not tell whether that apparently pious faith was genuine.

Or whether they had simply fooled even themselves.

If it was the latter, then the complete separation of gods and men later on felt perfectly understandable.

If so many people were already entertaining such “blasphemous” thoughts now, while the gods still walked the earth, then what would it be like later, once the gods could no longer manifest in their true bodies?

The departure of the gods was the choice of the World and the Counter Force, but it was humanity’s choice as well.

That said, humanity hardly came out of it the loser. If anything, they profited. The gods had ruled over mankind for who knew how many years. How many humans had died, directly or indirectly, for the sake of the gods’ “amusement” and “glory”?

You could even say that what people thought of as freeloading off the gods was merely another fleeting pleasure for the gods themselves.

Gilgamesh pulled his thoughts back. This was not the time to be pondering the relationship between gods and men.

“Come, Siduri. Accompany me to the audience hall.”

“My king, are you not taking dinner?”

“That’s right, I’m not. Believe it or not—”

Gilgamesh turned around, and Siduri saw flames burning in his eyes, as though they might reduce the whole world to ash.

“I am no longer as I was before. All of a sudden, I find myself in the mood to do something.”

Hearing that, the priestess who had served Gilgamesh since long ago let out a sigh.

Whether it was relief or reproach, even she herself did not know.

Smiling, Siduri said to her king, “Following you is my duty to begin with. I had thought my king might remain at rest a while longer, but now it seems…”

“Bwahahahaha!”

Gilgamesh laughed loudly. He had known all along that Siduri had already noticed something was off with him.

Thinking about it, that only made sense. Someone who had served the original Gilgamesh since he was a child could not possibly have failed to notice the changes of the past three months.

She simply had never imagined something like transmigration. She had only assumed that her king had suddenly been troubled by something, and had now finally worked it through.

Though Siduri’s workload had been lighter during these three months, she had in truth been worried the whole time.

How could Siduri, the person closest to Gilgamesh in all of Uruk, not worry when the king had changed so drastically overnight?

Now, at least, Siduri could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

“Come, Siduri.”

Gilgamesh fixed his gaze on the audience hall.

“Bring those monks… those people before me.”

Though he had no idea why that group of scripture-seekers had appeared at this point in time, or why they had passed through Uruk of all places, he knew one thing for certain.

This was likely the strongest group he had faced since transmigrating here.

If that bunch really were the pilgrims seeking the scriptures…

T/N: btw its a reference to sun wukong obv tghe whole great tang thing 😀 thats why blah blah blah anyway………………… VOTE? GRTRR GILGAJMESH!

This is a fan translation of 我要往王之财宝里再加点东西 by 海绵宝宝宝宝 Rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!