The Iron Nail and the King
Kingu didn't think about it for too long.
Mainly because there were so few outsiders in Mesopotamia that they could be counted on one hand.
So that person's identity was already obvious.
The person who saved Tomoe Gozen.
Not only did they save Tomoe Gozen, but they also killed several of his Children of Tiamat.
It almost broke his heart from the loss.
Uruk.
"King, were you looking for us?"
Fujimaru Ritsuka and the others arrived inside the Ziggurat, where they saw Gilgamesh handling government affairs.
"This King remembered something, so I called you here," Gilgamesh said, sporting massive dark circles under his eyes. "Go and retrieve the Tablet of Destinies."
Hearing this, Fujimaru Ritsuka looked up. Seeing his slightly exhausted appearance, she suddenly remembered what Kiana had said yesterday.
Gilgamesh would drop dead from overwork one day.
Well, by the looks of it... that day shouldn't be far off.
It was a good thing Gilgamesh didn't look up and see her expression, otherwise he would have definitely thrown out a few venomous remarks.
"The Tablet of Destinies?" Mash was a bit curious upon hearing this.
"That's right," Gilgamesh explained. "The clay tablet records the future This King saw while meditating in the past."
Hearing this, Fujimaru Ritsuka asked in confusion, "But since it's something the King wrote, shouldn't you remember its contents?"
"The precognition from Clairvoyance recorded while half-asleep and half-awake, why should This King bother remembering it?" Gilgamesh said with a matter-of-fact expression. "The King's mind needs to hold too many things; such trivial matters are not worthy of remaining inside."
"Then have you remembered where the clay tablet was left?" Merlin raised his hand and asked from the side.
"That was when This King was returning to Uruk from the Underworld," Gilgamesh propped his chin on his hand in thought. "The clay tablet was recorded on the way in Kutha. Yes, it's definitely there."
"That's not in the western forest at all!" Merlin couldn't help but retort upon hearing this.
Why was he harboring such deep resentment?
Because from the very beginning, Gilgamesh had been using the excuse of having him find this tablet to order him to run all over the place. That time in the western forest was merely to make him find Fujimaru Ritsuka and her companion.
What was this? The King of Uruk's petty revenge?
As one of the three strong candidates for Grand Caster, the relationship between the two of them was truly somewhat delicate.
Combined with the Doctor working overtime in Chaldea, the three of them were completely gathered.
"To be able to return from the Underworld..." Mash whispered to Ritsuka upon hearing this. "Even though I know this is the Age of Gods, it still makes it feel so surreal."
"To This King, your world is the peculiar one," Gilgamesh looked at the clay tablet in his hand. "To think that neither the Underworld nor the gods exist there."
"Kutha is currently within the territory of the goddess Ishtar," Siduri spoke up to explain at that moment. "So please be prepared, everyone."
"Ishtar..." Fujimaru Ritsuka felt a headache coming on. "Then can we go find Big Sister Kiana..."
"I advise you not to," Merlin directly interrupted her. "I know you hold a certain amount of trust in the individual named Kiana, but what you don't know is... her existence to this world..."
"Whether it's a blessing or a curse is still unknown."
"Ignore that woman," Gilgamesh said with a darkened expression. "Your objective is the Tablet of Destinies. The only obstacle you'll encounter is Ishtar."
Don't think he hadn't heard what that woman said when he was fighting that imposter yesterday... If it weren't for the fact that that Sword God's power was truly great enough, he would have wanted to turn hostile right then and there.
Gilgamesh lowered his head.
To be able to face off against that monster, right now in Mesopotamia, only a beast could do it.
He looked up at Merlin.
Tiamat...
Since things had already progressed to this point, they could only sprint down this single path now.
No matter your origins, since you're here... just properly contribute your strength.
"We're going to end up fighting that woman sooner or later anyway," the woman he spoke of was naturally Ishtar. "Consider it saving a lot of trouble."
"As for Kiana... you don't need to worry about her."
That person wouldn't make a move against them at this time.
"This is a royal decree! Head to Kutha immediately and bring back the clay tablet!"
"Kutha was wiped out without any warning after the appearance of the Three Goddess Alliance," outside the Ziggurat, everyone listened to Merlin's explanation as they walked.
"Wiped out?" Fujimaru Ritsuka didn't quite understand this description.
"One day, communications with Kutha suddenly broke off," Merlin explained. "When Leonidas led a team and rushed to the scene, they saw nothing but dead silence."
"There were no bloodstains, nor any traces of a struggle. All the citizens had stopped breathing as if they had suddenly fallen asleep."
Merlin's expression was grave. "It was like that for everyone in the entire city."
"Why would such a thing happen?" Fujimaru Ritsuka furrowed her brows tightly. This kind of situation where you couldn't grasp the enemy was what she hated the most.
"The cause remains unknown to this day," Merlin sighed. "Since then, Kutha has been regarded as a cursed land, becoming ruins that no one dares to approach."
Talking as they walked, the group returned to their base.
"We're back!" Fujimaru Ritsuka walked through the door carrying the supplies they had bought on the way.
"These things are..." Anna looked at the various bags of items in their hands.
"Preparations for a new mission," Mash turned her head and explained. "We're going to Kutha to find the Tablet of Destinies."
"The reward is an astonishing 20 pieces of Priestess Silver!"
In Uruk, where Gilgamesh's Clairvoyance had advanced technology, metal currency had already been forged and had become the basic currency for people's daily use.
"20 pieces?" Anna's eyes widened upon hearing this. "With that much money, we could fill the base with flowers!"
At this thought, her small face tensed up as she made a decision. "I'll go prepare right away, please wait a moment!"
Then she sprinted directly up to the second floor.
"Uh..." Seeing this, the group exchanged glances.
"Anna really likes flowers," Merlin said with a smile.
"She's so impatient," Fujimaru Ritsuka sighed, then looked around the otherwise empty base.
"Sigh, I don't know what's gotten into the demonic beasts these past few days, but everyone is basically on the bulwark engaged in defensive combat," she complained. "We haven't been able to have a proper get-together like before."
"It can't be helped, Senpai," Mash consoled her. "The situation is like this, it doesn't allow for optimism."
"But this mission is really good; we can even go on a trip along the way."
"I say, is that really necessary..."
Xia Yu looked at Ishtar, who was joyfully counting her gems, and said speechlessly, "It's only three gems..."
"Hey, don't look down on three gems!" Hearing this, Ishtar said fiercely. "This is enough for me to cast jewel magecraft three times!"
"With the blessing of my goddess divine core, my jewel magecraft, which was already incredibly powerful, can now directly blow up a whole horde of demonic beasts!"
It's much better than magic bullets made of pure magical energy; it's just a bit expensive.
'...But those herdsmen on the ground...' Xia Yu looked speechlessly at the large craters on the ground below.
Just now, demonic beasts had attacked the herd. Ishtar directly fired off a magic bullet; she dealt with the demonic beasts and managed to avoid most of the sheep...
And then she took gems from their hands as payment.
Sounds perfect, right? Ishtar gets paid to do a job and protects the safety of the grazing areas?
But as long as you stood in the sky and looked down, you could see that the originally fertile plains were now full of craters and potholes.
They were all massive craters that Ishtar had blasted out one by one!
She, Ishtar, didn't just come to do security on a whim; she came very frequently!
So over the years, even the nomadic herdsmen had learned to always keep gems at home, just in case the esteemed goddess helped kill demonic beasts for you, but you couldn't produce any payment.
Even though Ishtar, mixed with Tohsaka Rin's nature, wouldn't directly retaliate against the herdsmen if she didn't receive payment, at most she just wouldn't save them next time.
But the old farmers of the Age of Gods knew what was good for them. These weren't giant babies raised by modern peaceful lives who would push their luck just because she was soft-hearted. The herdsmen very consciously kept gems at home.
The main thing was that these Age of Gods herdsmen had truly been beaten by the gods, and they had grown up listening to Ishtar's grand infamous reputation.
Who would dare to truly disrespect her? She even dared to blow up Mount Ebih and barge into the Underworld. They weren't Gilgamesh; how could they dare defy a goddess?
Therefore, as a result, because the herdsmen had the extra expense of gems, their grazing profits gradually decreased, and the pastures they relied on for survival were gradually destroyed by those massive craters Ishtar blasted out without cleaning up the mess...
In this vicious cycle, Uruk's agriculture and animal husbandry were getting worse and worse.
The fact that these herdsmen could hold on until now was basically entirely thanks to the discounted gems specially approved by Gilgamesh, which offset this expense and barely allowed them to break even.
What? You ask why Gilgamesh didn't just solve this problem entirely?
Because in his heart, compared to getting into a fight over pastures with Ishtar, who possessed the Bull of Heaven, spending some gems was more cost-effective.
After all, there were still two other goddesses glaring like tigers watching their prey. He couldn't possibly fight Ishtar to the death for real. Being able to win back then was all thanks to Enkidu's desperate support, and now he didn't even have Enkidu anymore, yet his enemies were increasing...
While he could only watch Mesopotamia gradually sink into ruin...
At this moment, Gilgamesh's heart was incredibly desolate.
As for the pasture? Forget it, it's just a patch of grazing land.
Let her bomb it if she wants. Gilgamesh had calculated that this world might not even hold out until Ishtar completely destroyed the pasture's ecosystem.
So let it be. If it means being a bit cowardly, then so be it.
This was the decision Gilgamesh made without knowing that the Bull of Heaven had been lost.
If he had known... then he would probably have rallied his troops the next day, personally led the expedition to Mount Ebih, and sworn to take Ishtar's dog head to sacrifice to his old friend.
"Just leave them a way to survive," Xia Yu truly couldn't bear to watch anymore. "Even a goddess shouldn't be this capricious."
"Ishtar is exactly this capricious of a goddess." The latter, however, wasn't ashamed at all, but rather said smugly, "I've always been like this!"
"So you still haven't given up on your plan to destroy Uruk, have you?" Hearing this, Xia Yu thought for a moment before speaking up. "It's just that planning it so subtly... doesn't seem like you~~~"
"What destroying Uruk?" Hearing this, Ishtar asked with a completely bewildered face. "When did I ever want to destroy Uruk?"
She figured she had never said she wanted to do such a thing.
"Aren't you destroying Uruk right now?" Xia Yu pointed at the pasture below and said, "Humans will die if they don't consume protein. Eighty percent of Uruk's meat supply comes from this pasture down here."
Even though Xia Yu ate demonic beast meat every day, there wasn't nearly enough demonic beast meat to feed all the people of Uruk. The proper source of meat for the commoners was these sheep.
That demonic beast meat was also basically only supplied to the army to feed the soldiers.
"By destroying this pasture bit by bit under the guise of driving away demonic beasts, it probably won't take a few years before there's not a single patch of green left here."
Xia Yu crossed her arms and said, "When that time comes, more than half of Uruk will have its meat supply cut off. Forced to eat only a vegetarian diet, the people of Uruk will only grow weaker and weaker."
"There isn't enough demonic beast meat for all of Uruk. If the common people become weak, the soldiers selected from them will naturally grow weaker too. One linked to another like this, it won't be long before Uruk can no longer hold off the attacks of the demonic beasts."
Xia Yu said with absolute seriousness, "You're really something, Ishtar, to actually come up with such a venomous scheme. You're dismantling Uruk almost without shedding a single drop of blood, and you even get to earn some gems on the side."
"I'm not, I didn't!" Ishtar was dumbfounded upon hearing this. "Don't slander me!"
Heaven be her witness! She genuinely didn't have that intention!
"Then why are you blowing up so many giant craters and destroying the pasture all day long?" Xia Yu asked in response.
She knew, of course, that she was just being unreasonable. After all, this argument was invalid from the start, because Uruk wouldn't even survive to see the day the pasture collapsed.
Gilgamesh knew this point as well, which was why he chose to slack off and leave it unhandled.
But Ishtar didn't know that.
"Isn't it just a few big craters?" She looked down, her beautiful face turning pale with fright. "Could it really cause that huge of an impact?"
"For want of a nail, the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe, the horse was lost; for want of a horse, the rider was lost; for want of a rider, the battle was lost; for want of a battle, the kingdom was lost."
Xia Yu patted her on the shoulder and said, "This isn't just alarmist talk, you know."
This is something that actually happened in history.
In 1485 AD, the final battle of England's Wars of the Roses—the Battle of Bosworth Field—broke out. King Richard III of the House of York and Henry Tudor of the House of Lancaster (the later Henry VII) engaged in a decisive battle for the throne.
On the eve of the decisive battle, King Richard III's groom urged the blacksmith to shoe the warhorse. Due to a lack of time, when nailing the final horseshoe, the blacksmith found he was short of nails. At the groom's insistence, the blacksmith had to hastily make do, resulting in an iron nail failing to be firmly driven in.
During the battle, Richard III spurred his horse to charge. At a critical moment, the unsecure horseshoe fell off, the warhorse stumbled, and the King fell to the ground.
His officers and soldiers mistakenly thought the commander was killed in action, and the army's morale collapsed instantly. Henry Tudor took advantage of the situation to counterattack. Richard III was defeated and killed, the House of York came to an end, and the Tudor dynasty was subsequently established.
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