Stirring in the midst of unconsciousness, Gilgamesh's mind was suddenly alerted to exasperated voices in mid-argument.
"How many times have we told you to stop bringing these strangers to our home, Mariam!?"
"These are the sacred halls built by the Founding Ancestor! It is not a hospital!"
Blinking as he woke, Gilgamesh noticed that he was in a room built of sturdy, solid wood, with numerous decorative pieces and furniture. There were candles all round him, and no matter where he looked he could see some form of herb intermingled with the decor.
He was laying on a futon, with something soft under his head.
'Looks like a hospital to me,' he thought as he shifted, only then feeling the ache of his chest.
The wound was heavily dressed and wrapped in some kind of denim material, but not at all healed yet.
"How many times must I tell YOU that this is MY room and I will do whatever I want with it. You can preserve the 'sanctity' of your halls however you like, but you cannot tell me what to do with MY room!"
Following that, there was a sound of a door being slid open and then hastily slid shut. The soft sound of marching footsteps got louder as Gilgamesh looked to see a young woman in dirty, ripped overalls.
Noticing this, he realized that his wound was actually wrapped with her clothes, and he instantly came to better understand the situation. Gratitude was plain to see on his sweaty face, as well as some degree of respect.
Though she was inside, the aged voices from outside sounded, permeating the thin material of the walls.
"Ugh! This pampered brat! Why the Great Elders treat her this way, I will never understand!"
"It's bad enough that she was granted the Founding Ancestor's own room for her own personal ...whatever! But nowadays she thinks she has the right to act with some kind of authority. She's just a farmer!"
"Tch! Come on you two. There's no point in standing out here and shouting till our throats hurt. Let's go report this to the Great Elders."
"For what? They'll just tell us the same things they always do."
As their voices continuously got softer, Mariam stood and waited, looking outside as if she were following them with her eyes through the walls. When Gilgamesh could no longer hear them, she took a breath and straightened up.
He took a short moment to take in her sandy brown skin, how smooth it was, and how her bronze eyes were bursting with vitality.
He admired her black, puffy curls that exploded into a wild, long afro, and could tell from looking that running his hand through it would feel no different than touching piece of supple cotton.
"Thank you for helping me... though it seems like you shouldn't have."
Mariam giggled, "Don't mind them, they're just some old and stinky Family Heads. They don't get to tell me what to do. No one does."
She moved closer, and sat on the floor next to him.
"I'm Mariam- oh, and you're welcome."
Gilgamesh did his best to shift some of his weight off his arm, wincing as he freed it, and extended it to shake hers. "My name is Gilgamesh."
Mariam, looking amused, took his hand and gave it a firm shake.
"Well met, Gilgamesh."
In response to this, Gilgamesh winced in pain once again, and was forced to retract his arm ever so slowly.
"Do you remember what happened to you?" Mariam leaned in close when she asked, and seemed rather interested in knowing the answer.
But there was more to it than just curiosity. It was like she was waiting to see whether or not Gilgamesh could even provide an answer.
"I remember vividly," Gilgamesh started, and Mariam's eyes went wide for a split second. "Someone or something appeared in the sky and attacked me. Just like that. Can you believe it?"
"Out of the blue?" Mariam blinked. "You didn't do anything to upset them?"
Gilgamesh sighed as he shook his head and cleared his dry throat, "Not a damn thing."
Mariam realized something, and got up from her sitting position to move over to a nearby table. There was a metallic jar there, covered with a small lid, which she removed before taking up a wooden cup. Wafts of a steamy, herbal aroma emanated from the jar, filling the room almost immediately.
"I'd only just got where I was before that thing showed up and started talking about testing me. Then, it attacked and sent me here. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that test, would you?" Gilgamesh watched as Mariam poured a glass of tea, then brought it over for him.
Mariam sat at his side and brought the cup to his mouth, helping him take a few sips. "I don't know anything about a test, but I do know that this isn't the first time something like this has happened."
As he savored the strange flavor of the tea, Gilgamesh's head tilted slightly. "Not the first time?"
Mariam gave him some more once he swallowed, careful not to spill any. "I mean you aren't the first person to crash land in one of my corn fields. Dozens of people have come her like that, all with dreadful wounds and empty brains."
"You're the first to retain any memory of what happened. An exciting development, if you ask me."
"You mean," Gilgamesh nodded to show that he was finished drinking, and Mariam moved the cup. "People arrived in the same way that I did? Where are they now?"
Mariam put the cup down before hearing Gilgamesh's question and throwing her arms up. "No clue. They all disappeared on me. One moment they were out helping me fix the damage they did to my field, the next they just vanish into thin air."
"It's like they're ghosts or something, but I doubt it. Ghosts are scary, and none of them were scary. Also, my hands didn't go through any of them. Of course, that doesn't explain why they were able to up and vanish, which can suggest that everything we know about ghosts is wrong."
"That's arguably even more scary than if they were just standard, generic ghosts, isn't it? Oh dear." Mariam seemed to be making herself uneasy, and almost knocked over the cup of tea she had placed on the floor.
"Calm down there, Mariam. I think that was just Heaven's doing. They must have done something that Heaven considered to be either passing or failing the test," Gilgamesh surmised, still in thought.
"You think Heaven had something to do with this? Is that supposed to reassure me? If Heaven's meddling in mortal affairs again, then that means we're in grave danger." Mariam clutched her head, her breaths already becoming shorter.
Gilgamesh groaned as he raised himself up, at the same time trying to get Mariam's attention. However, she was now far too engrossed in her theorizing, making herself fall further into a fit of hysteria.
"Heaven must not want to honor the treaty with the last Demon King, the Demon King of Villainy! It's preparing to attack before the Demon Tribe can even select their new King! That's blatant cheating!"
Mariam got to her feet in a single motion, knocking over the remainder of the tea along with the leaves and petals that were in it. "We have to do something, Gilgamesh! We have to alert the University and the Ministry of Demonic Affairs. This is a threat to the entire Silver Sky World!"
SLAP!
Mariam fell back onto the floor, clutching her face and staring in wide-eyed shock at the weak, sweaty young man laying on the floor. He had overexerted himself in order to deliver that slap, and was now panting heavily as he tried to fight the pain and fatigue.
"Mariam. Calm down."
Swallowing hard, Mariam nodded rapidly and started to adjust her breathing. It did not take long at all for her to go back to normal, and she finally noticed the tea she spilt.
While making to clean it up, Mariam also apologized to Gilgamesh for going off the rails.
"Don't worry about it. I can understand being suspicious of Heaven- even the real one."
Mariam did not seem to catch the way he addressed Heaven, as she was busy looking for something to wipe the floor with.
"For now, let's just focus on what we know: That people have come here in pretty much the same way that I did, and that they all disappeared while helping you out in the corn fields."
Mariam furiously dabbed and rubbed the floor with an old cloth, then checked and double checked to make sure it was spotless. "That's right."
Gilgamesh nodded, and let himself fall back onto the soft pillow-like object beneath his head. "So, the first thing I need to do once I'm strong enough, is go help you fix the damage I did to your corn."
Mariam straightened up and wiped her face, then flung the cloth over her shoulder before giving him a small smile. "And here I was thinking I'd have to force you like all the others. I appreciate you offering."
Getting comfortable, Gilgamesh took several deep breaths as the pain of his action earlier finally subsided. Shutting his eyes and taking some time to readjust, he thought about his situation and felt the need to let out a forlorn sigh.
'Why can't I just go back to being a king. That was so... so simple...'
In a matter of seconds, Gilgamesh fell asleep.