Fate/Heaven's Fall

The Epic of Gilgamesh

It's been two hours since Kekirie arrived, and we've done little more than look at our assignments and play bad pop music just to annoy Archer - or Gil, as he claims his name is, although I'm well aware that it's just a cover. He still has no intention of telling me what his true name is.

"So, do I call you Archer or Gil now?" I ask, breaking the tense silence between us while Kekirie is in the bathroom. Gil has been sitting on my couch ever since I got home, drinking some of his own red wine, as the cardboard wine I had apparently wasn't good enough for him - I'm a student, I can't afford expensive, amazing wines!

It turns out that the attack that Gil has - his Noble Phantasm, as the priest called it - consists of the fact that he can extract all the "treasures" from his treasury, including the sword that he used to behead the magician in the library. In this treasury he also stores incredible quantities of good wine, and since Gil himself believes that the whole world is his possession, I highly doubt that his treasury has any limits.

"You have my permission to call me Gil," he says just before taking another sip of his red wine, which he even has in a golden wine glass - also one of his own, "But as soon as the war starts and we go into battle, I would just advise you to call me Archer, at least in front of other magicians."

"Oh," I mutter quietly, adjusting the book in my lap as I sit on the floor in the middle of the living room, "It's true... We are going to fight others..."

The thought that I have to kill, or neutralize, other people leaves a bad taste in my mouth. That's definitely not what's at the top of my list of things I'm going to do in the year 2016.

"Gil, the last war was ten years ago, wasn't it?" I ask, looking over my shoulder to let my eyes meet Gils. "Well, the year 2006 in your era," he says with a wry smile on his lips, "It has never happened before that a Holy Grail War comes so soon after the last. Usually it takes about 60 years before the next war begins."

"Huh, that's weird," I mumble low, frowning, but immediately stop thinking about it for now as Kekirie comes back.

"Oh? Am I disturbing something?" asks Kekirie when she realizes that me and Gil may have been talking for a while, but I just shake my head and roll my eyes a little.

"Not at all, Keki," I assure her, flipping through my thick book with a tug on my brows.

"Who are you wasting your time reading about, mortals?" asks Gil as he leans back on my couch and lets the red wine circulate in his golden cup before taking another sip.

"Alexander the Great," I say shortly, "He is one of the greatest leaders of all there has been." I smile wryly at Gil, who just frowns at me, but then immediately looks away from me again.

"Oh, Iskandar is magnificent, he has my respect," Gil says, "but mostly because he could see my greatness for himself, and showed mutual respect for me."

"Eh?" I murmur low, pulling away from Kekirie, who is currently planting herself on my floor again and pulling out her books from before she left the room.

"Have you met Iskandar?" I whisper quietly, leaning against Gil so Kekirie doesn't hear our conversation. "Of course, at the previous Holy Grail War," Gil says, placing his now empty wine glass on my coffee table, among the many books and notes, "I even had a fight against him, a magnificent man who has my deepest respect."

"Are you joking?" I ask in a low voice, to which Gil just laughs, as if I'm the one joking.

"Oh, no, not at all, mortals," he then says, "I remember it just as clearly, we even toasted in wine before our fight, respecting each other."