A gilded throne room with gold furniture. The interior model is quite bizarre, as if all the furniture is a throne room from different eras rolled into one.
One of the chairs looked like a chair from the Victorian era with elegant and classy style, one of the tables looked like a modern table with minimalist style, and there was even a golden vase with futuristic carving pattern.
In the center of the large room, a man sat in a golden throne.
Golden armor, but not like the armor normally used by medieval knights. The motifs were too futuristic with smooth and flexible model. Perhaps it could be categorized as a prosthetic outer layer rather than armor.
The man did not wear a combat helmet and revealed a rather middle-aged face with neatly trimmed white hair and white beard.
His bright blue eyes stared at the person standing right in front of him.
A teenage boy who was only 16 years old.
His skin was dark brown in color, looking different from the light brown-skinned man who was almost close to white.
The teenage boy wore only shorts and showed off his well-proportioned body. A little muscular but not muscular enough to enter a bodybuilder competition.
His disheveled buzz-cut black hair indicated he was not prepared for the encounter.
But behind those black eyes, there was neither panic nor surprise, but confusion.
But why?
Of course it was because this was not his first time.
"Why do you always show up?" said the teenage boy who wasn't even interested in noticing the splendor of the golden room.
The man in golden armor smiled instead. "You should be grateful, I, Gilgamesh, have chosen you as the one who will rule the new world."
"Huh?"
Before Gilgamesh could continue his sentence, a call could be heard, a female voice calling out someone's name.
"Mholi! Get up! You're in school today!"
Both eyes opened wide and the teenage boy found himself lying on the bed wearing only a shorts.
The teenage boy named Mholi sighed heavily. "That dream again."
He woke up and immediately turned on his smartphone. This was the umpteenth time he had such a dream and now he decided to open YouTube and see the phenomenon that other people had also experienced.
The phenomenon had been happening since the beginning of January 2025 and it was now 2 weeks since the new year had passed.
Mholi is not the only one who has had this dream, many people around the world have had the same dream. Too odd to be called a coincidence, but too bizarre not to be talked about.
Many people speculate, and many people theorize, but for Mholi, it is something that has nothing to do with him even though he is one of the people who had the dream of meeting Gilgamesh.
If he could choose, he wouldn't want to have that dream, he just wants to go to school as usual and live his day like any normal person.
Even when Mholi arrived at school, everyone was busy talking about the dream.
"Mholi! You can't believe it! I had that dream too!" shouted one of the boys sitting at the very back of the classroom.
A teenage boy with white shirt and green vest on top of the uniform. Unlike Mholi and the other students with hair, his head was bald. His name was Muzi.
Mholi, who had just passed through the classroom door, was immediately greeted by his friend's enthusiasm.
There were only 10 students in the classroom at the moment. Everyone was busy with their own business and talking to their friends while waiting for the time for the ceremony.
All the students wore white shirts with green ties and gray pants or green skirts for the girls, including Mholi who wore a white shirt and green pants complete with a green tie. Majority of them wearing green vest for it's the school's rule.
There's a few more school's rule, including the length of the hair. All students couldn't have long hair, including girls, making them basically had the same hairstyle.
The majority of the students in the class had dark brown skin tones, and some even had skin tones close to black. There were only a few students who had a bit fair skin, but even so, everyone acted so normal.
It can be said that Mholi's generation is a generation that is more tolerant of differences in their skin color. If the clock had been turned back at least 50 years ago, such tolerance might have been rather difficult to find in South African country.
Tolerance towards skin color has become commonplace, but there is one thing that is still unacceptable...
*Tap...
A footstep suddenly stopped all activity in the classroom.
A teenage girl walked into the classroom with her gaze straight ahead. Her eyes was so blank like a soulless robot and all the other students whispered while glancing at the girl.
On her cheek, there was a scratch that was slightly covered by a band-aid. But even so, her light brown skin did not look different from her other friends. Like a typical teenage girl.
But that didn't change the cynical stares of the surrounding students.
The girl sat on the front and leftmost bench. She didn't look at anyone as if she didn't want to interact with anybody.
"Good morning, Nolu," greeted Mholi who approached the lone girl.
It was as if she had gotten some good news. The girl named Noluvo immediately changed her expression when she heard Mholi's voice.
Her eyes sparkled with hope and she smiled with such friendly smile. "Morning too, Mholi."
It was a sudden and unnatural change of emotion. But somehow everyone seemed to be used to it, even Mholi who was chatting directly with the girl.
After a few minutes of chatting, Mholi went to his seat at the back.
The conversation between the two was just everyday small talk, but Noluvo's smile seemed to confirm that it was the best thing the girl had ever experienced that day.
As Mholi sat on his bench, Muzi approached Mholi and whispered softly.
"Aren't you scared?" asked Muzi who seemed very wary of Noluvo.
"Why?" asked Mholi innocently.
"What do you mean why? His mother is an Igqwirha, a witch."
"So? That doesn't change the fact that Nolu is my friend."
Muzi squinted his eyes while looking at Mholi. "You're weird, don't blame me if you get hit by a car later. She's a witch's child. That means she's also a witch, she's a bad and dangerous person, she-"
*BHUK!
A punch was thrown that left the boy lying on the floor.
Mholi's spontaneous action immediately got the attention of the whole class. He looked around and found the other students now staring fearfully at him.
Unable to bear the uncomfortable stares, Mholi immediately ran out of the classroom and hid in one of the empty rooms that served as a school warehouse.
Mholi sat against the wall and let out a long sigh. "What did I do?"
The teenage boy began to reminisce about a time when things were simpler, when Noluvo's mother was still alive, before being found by the villagers for practicing witchcraft.
Someone suddenly came and startled Mholi.
The ragged breathing that indicated that the person had just run with all her might.
It was Noluvo who was worried about Mholi.
"Mholi... why... Are you running? What... happened?" asked Noluvo whose breathing was still a little labored.
"It's nothing. He just called you an evil witch and I..."
Noluvo suddenly looked down sadly as if she was about to cry. "Am I... Can't be your friend anymore?"
The girl's tears were now flowing and although she tried to hold them back, her cheeks were soaked with tears.
Mholi spontaneously stood up and approached the girl. "No, no one said that. I will still be your friend. Don't cry."
"You still want to be my friend?" asked Noluvo, who was still crying.
Mholi gently rubbed the girl's head while smiling. "Yes, I promise."