Just as Siduri was about to leave the palace to look for Annanu and Enkidu, she saw the two of them trotting back.
"Eh? Lord Annanu, Lord Enkidu, you've... returned?" she asked tentatively, somewhat bewildered.
"Who are you?" Annanu asked, looking at the woman who had stopped him with some confusion.
"...?"
In that instant, Siduri's eyes filled with bewilderment.
Hadn't she been the one arranging for people to care for Annanu and Enkidu over the past week? Sometimes she had even brought them meals herself.
Taking a deep breath, Siduri bowed slightly to the two of them, feeling somewhat aggrieved and helpless.
"Lord Annanu, Lord Enkidu, I am Siduri, the palace's newly appointed aide." She maintained a respectful, polite smile. Though Annanu and Enkidu could not see it clearly through her veil, she kept it in place nonetheless.
"Siduri is the aide?" Enkidu blinked.
"That's right. We want to try farming, or herding livestock. Shamhat said we only needed to find the aide. Is that you?"
As she watched the two of them speak one after the other, as though continuing the same sentence, Siduri found it... rather amusing?
Though they possessed power capable of causing terrifying disasters, their inner selves were unexpectedly interesting.
And their attitude toward the king...
A trace of hope involuntarily appeared in her eyes.
As a young aide who had watched the king for so long, Siduri understood.
The king was lonely. The king stood alone.
That was because no one could stand at the same height as the lofty king and speak with him. No one could think from the same perspective as the lofty king.
The king was the king of humanity, and also human, but... not purely human.
Siduri understood this. Every person of Uruk understood it.
Gilgamesh was the child