Kissed By A Rose

Hours later, Gilgamesh got up and stretched.

"I can't believe even 100,000 cycles isn't enough. I'm getting tired of this second meridian."

Disheartened, Gilgamesh decided to take a bath and wash his clothes. The servants offered to do it for him, but he told them that he would do it himself this time.

After hanging them out to dry, he was now wearing some clothes one of the servant girls had found in his closet.

Donning a red sweatshirt and long black pants, Gilgamesh walked around his home with wet hair while eating a few apples.

He had already devoured the breakfast Little Feather and the others had left for him, and he admired how sparkly and clean the house looked.

When he entered his bedroom again, he finally noticed the letter on his pillow.

"From Hunter?"

He opened it and quickly perused its contents, and he smirked.

"So there's such a rule, huh? Sounds like fun."

After reading the letter, Gilgamesh learned that Outer Disciples were meant to receive monthly allowances of spirit stones, as well as a bonus depending on their contributions to the sect.

Gilgamesh had been gone for five years, so his allowance had been halted. In order for him to start receiving benefits, he had to accept a request from the notice board and carry out the mission.

If he so wished, he could perform various tasks and earn even more.

Gilgamesh thought about it a bit before changing into a clean Outer Disciple robe and announcing what was he going to do.

"See you later, Master Gilgamesh."

"Maybe now he can finally start paying us..." a servant meekly said, winning agreement and praise from the others.

Gilgamesh departed for the missions area. Looking around, he couldn't see any other disciples, but on the way there he saw a peculiar-looking young lady heading his way.

She wore Inner Disciple robes and had short, curly red hair. Her eyes glowed like fiery cinders, and as she gracefully walked toward him, he noticed her voluptuous thighs peeking at him through a slit in her clothing.

He knew he had seen her before after his second tribulation; she was standing with Big Brother Feral at that time.

When she saw him glance at her and look away, Sister Rose suddenly seemed downcast.

Eventually, they met up.

"Hello, Gil," she smiled.

"Hello. Forgive me, but I have no recollection of you. My memories are all gone."

Sister Rose nodded knowingly while rolling her eyes, "You once told me that even if you forgot everything and everyone, we would still end up being friends once again. I came here to test that."

Gilgamesh gave a slow nod.

'So we were friends?'

Suddenly, she frowned and her head drooped. "So, if that's really the case, how come I had to come looking for you instead this time."

Gilgamesh grimaced, "Are you retarded? If I don't remember you, how am I supposed to come looking for you?"

Sister Rose stiffened up as she listened to Gilgamesh. She already knew that, but did he have to say it so roughly?

Gilgamesh had no time for stupid games. He could sense that Sister Rose was putting on some kind of act with him, and he was not about to humor her.

"Cunt," he continued walking and did not look back.

Tears formed in Sister Rose's eyes and she made two fists at her sides. Then, she straightened up and followed behind him.

"You know, something similar happened when we first met five years or so ago. I was walking to go buy some elixir, and you were on your way somewhere."

Gilgamesh listened, but kept walking at a steady pace.

"I didn't know at the time, but you were actually on your way to beat up some people. When I asked you if you saw a disciple selling elixirs anywhere, you told me to 'go fuck myself in the ass with a barbed cudgel' or something like that."

Gilgamesh suddenly felt a bit let down. He felt like his past self could have done better.

"Then you just kept walking, so I followed you and kept asking where I could find a disciple that sells elixirs, until you stopped and told me to-"

Gilgamesh suddenly stopped and turned around.

"Fuck off, will you?"

Sister Rose suddenly smiled brightly, "Exactly! That's what you told me! Isn't fate weird?"

Gilgamesh chuckled a bit grimly as he turned around and kept walking. "Fate has nothing to do with it."

Sister Rose seemed a bit puzzled, but she shook her head and kept following him.

"You once took me to see the place where you were found as a baby. Do you remember?"

Gilgamesh shook his head, "No."

"Well, you didn't actually take me. You were with your little sister, Ateah, and I spied on you both from far away. Hehe!"

Gilgamesh came to realize that Sister Rose was either a lunatic or a stalker. Maybe both.

"I saw you poop once, you know. You took a trip to Outer Disciple Law's latrine this one time when you were still a servant. You didn't know it was his, and he was pissed when he came to poop and you were there instead."

Sister Rose suddenly burst out giggling as she covered her tiny mouth, "He actually cherished that latrine more than his own life. Apparently he had some of his best poops in there."

Gilgamesh soon came to realize that Sister Rose had actually stalked his past self almost every day. She would observe everything he said and did, as well as everyone he met or casually talked to.

She watched him obsessively.

Out of no where, Gilgamesh halted his footsteps and turned around.

"Would you say you were compelled to watch me as much as you did?"

Sister Rose hesitated at the abruptness of the question, but quickly nodded when she regained her bearings. "That's right."

Gilgamesh's expression suddenly darkened.

"Your inherent nature wouldn't happen to be 'Gilgamesh Obsession' would it? 'Cause that would be absurd."

Seeing that Gilgamesh was seriously asking such a question, Sister Rose burst into delighted laughter and clutched her stomach.

Gilgamesh stared at her and realized that he had really asked a dumb question, and a strange sensation washed over him as he blushed.

He had lost his composure for just a moment. Turning on his heel, he continued walking.

Suddenly, Sister Rose's voice softened and she spoke slowly, unlike before where she would blurt her words out excitedly.

"I was also able to fluster you before, and that was where our friendship truly began."

Hearing this, Gilgamesh shuddered as he turned to look at Sister Rose, and he saw a melancholic smile on her face as she reminisced on something.

"I know you don't remember me, and you also have no reason to want to remember me. Even so, I want to try to make you remember."

Gilgamesh was now utterly perplexed. The wistfulness on her face created a poignant and enrapturing air of bittersweet beauty, and Gilgamesh was temporarily unable to speak.

"I fell for you the moment I saw you, and have been obsessed with you ever since then. If you wanted me to, I would tear out the very foundations of my soul and impart all of my power unto you."

"That is the extent of my love for you, and it will never fade. No matter what."

Sister Rose leaned forward and planted a kiss on Gilgamesh's lips before he was even able to gather his thoughts.

For once, he was completely stumped in an exchange with another person.

"I should go now, before the Guardians notice."

Sister Rose's physical self shifted into an intangible, spiritual form, and that form then morphed into a white crane.

"Isn't that ...even more eye-catching?" Gilgamesh finally uttered words.

"Hehe! That's the idea. After all, in this form they already think I'm someone else."

Sister Rose flew away, leaving Gilgamesh to ponder the events that had just taken place.

He didn't even realize that disciples only started to appear once she was gone.

Despite the fact that she was a crazy stalker that had forced herself on him, Gilgamesh heart raced at the mere thought of her face in that moment.

And when he thought about the kiss she had thrust upon him.

In his own way, Gilgamesh was experiencing the feeling of butterflies in his stomach.

Or, perhaps what he was feeling wasn't even that at all.

'What's going on here?'

When he focused on that feeling- really, really focused- he realized that it was coming from his sea of energy.

A portion of his true energy appeared to be acting of its own volition, without him wanting it to.

'Shit! Is 100,000 cycles too much for my body to handle?'

Alerted to possible danger, Gilgamesh cast his consciousness into his sea of energy, ready to pour out his effort to avert some kind of crisis.

When he got there, his facial expression froze and his eyes and lips started twitching out of pure anger.

The Omniscient Author had took charge of some of Gilgamesh's true energy in order to craft a rope made of energy.

Using that rope, it tied a noose and placed it around the giant page, then tightened it.

What he had sensed was this taking place. His true energy was not out of control, it was just stolen from him and used in a suicide attempt.

The Omniscient Author was still trying to kill itself! It truly did not want to be alive any longer.

"This world is fake. It doesn't make sense..." The Omniscient Author spoke with distance in its voice, as though it were detached from the world.

"This is a nightmare. I'm not real. I should just kill myself and put an end to it. I want to understand things again."

Gilgamesh sighed and left his sea of energy.

"You've gotta be kidding."