Lugal Gigam:Chapter 1

Chapter 1

       "No matter how many times Souya see's a nightmare, I will always be there to wake you up." 

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Amagi Souya. Amagi Souya. Amagi Souya.

Though, I’ve already forgotten how to write it, that’s my name.

An ordinary Japanese high school student…Or was one, until a year ago.

I don’t know what cuased it but when I was coming back home from school, I suddenly ran across these ‘Monsters’ and before I even realize it, I was thrown into a totally outrageous place.

An ancient world so far back in history that you’d get dizzy just trying to think about it, the realm of <Kiengi>.

It seems to be around the Arab region, maybe around Mesopotamia or the Middle East.

At first I thought it was a dream. I thought I was inside a game.

But reality is heartless.

No matter how much I cried, and how much I shouted, I didn’t wake up. No guide NPC appeared, nor could I log out on my own violation.

Being thrown into this strange place, I literally suffered hell and finally arrived at the town of Kagushila.

Kagushila is a city state. It’s near the abolished capital of Babylon and outside its city walls lay a vast wasteland filled with ruins.

And it seems the way back to Japan, the <Star Gate> lies somewhere in those ruins. I heard that rumor somewhere and entrusted myself to the wish to return home. Mixing in with the ruin-raiders, I headed for the city of rubbles to survey it.

I didn’t know what to do. And even now, I don’t.

But even so, in this land with the scorching sun and muddy grounds-- <Kiengi> don’t grant anything to those who wait. If you have a wish, then you have to go after it even if you hate it.

Even if you are just a normal High school boy standing tiptoed in a dangerous place.

For example, let’s talk about the situation I’m currently in.

Right now, I’m lying down on the roof top of an abandoned brick building right in the middle of the ruined capital, trying to hide myself.

There were many other buildings with flat roofs around. They expanded in all directions creating a ghost town.

It was midnight.

I was just watching. At the job no different from talking a walk in the park, I immediately jumped in and right now, I’m here in the old, abandoned sanctuary as a member of the investigation team.

However, our party of 14 people suddenly ran into a monster (Because of those fools who wear stupid greed as skin) and were completely scattered. As a result, we’re currently trembling and hiding like this in the ruins while staying awake.

With me is Kenie-san, an <Outsider> like me and an old man with a serious wound.

We want to escape but can’t. It’s that ‘desperate situation’ thingy.

Thanks to the full moon, the surroundings are as bright as noon.

“Keep on watch till its dawn without getting noticed……”

I half stood up to see if there’s anything strange going on and peeked through the fence.

“Nothing out of the ordinary…I guess?”

The plain brick-made buildings which are narrowly packed together in this old city ruins are mostly short in height. Most of them are single storied, with a few double and triple storied ones.

And there were some strange mist, like smokes from dry ice sticking to the roads that twisted narrowly through between the intervals those buildings.

The <Miasma> that gushes out from the earth when it becomes night.

The rows of houses looked half submerged in clouds of the soot like <Miasma> as only their tops could be seen.

The monotone world under the moonlight was illusionary, almost enough to make me forget about the dangers that loomed there.

Being startled by another noise from inside the ruins, I felt remorse for the millionth time.

If possible, I’d like to leave this place even a second earlier.

But a forced march in the middle of the night would be no better than suicide, we would just fall prey to those GhoulsFlesh Eating Demons immediately.

I sighed. No, I know. It’s just a simple ‘getting one’s just desert’.

I had the chance. If I had just refused, then I wouldn’t have needed to join the investigation team for this Zarins temple ruins in the first place.

Shit. I was too indecisive.

But hey, no matter how small the group, there’s this thing called a hierarchy system within teams. The one under had no choice but to follow the superior’s, seems to be a worldly wisdom.

There’s no way a normal Japanese high school kid would be able to refuse the commands of a warrior.

“Good grief, this turned out rather pathetic.”

Sitting with my back against the roof fence, I looked up at the moon of this foreign world.

Next to the moon, with the starry night as the background, a humongous tower rose from the ground wearing half of its height with brilliant silver light.

Even the lower blocks of the tower was so high it looked hazy, and the uneven surface which looked like terraces and spires were decorating the outer wall. There was nothing to compare it to so my measuring-senses were going haywire; it was definitely much taller than the sky tree.

When I think of the tower of Babel, I remember that famous legend.

It was built by a king who tried to resist the gods and thus buying their wrath and was destroyed. Till then the people all talked in the same language but following the tower’s collapse, they started speaking in different tongues.

For some reason, <Kiengi> is just like that tale; there isn’t any gap in communication. The words spoken might be from a different language but the moment it reaches my mind, it gets translated and I can understand it. The locals claim this to be the work of that tower, just like in the legends.

Though I thought it was stupid and was rather uncertain, I still haven’t found another explanation.

The grand tower that tries to reach the heavens, it’s as if it was the grave stone of the fallen city.

Babylon seems to be a metropolis in the old Mesopotamia and the current Middle East.

It’s said in the scriptures and remaining artifacts that it was once the center of the world and was a decaying land filled with pagans.

But actually, before this town suffered the calamity from the unknown enemy and became a ghost town a decade ago, there were a huge number of peoples living here.

Now, there’s none.

The only thing that loiters here are monsters that quit being human.

Various dangers are lying in wait in order to kill the greedy, the one’s called ‘Ruin-raiders’ who try to wake this city up from its slumber.

The evil souls that haunt Babylon, the past citizens who were turned into ghouls after failing to escape, the various sorts of beasts that got caught up in the miasma, and the miasma itself……

That’s why taking refuge in the rooftops on the ruins after sunset when the <Miasma>’s effect turns serious became the principle for the ruin-raiders who couldn’t return to the safety zone in time.

Rather than loitering about in the night, even leaving your fate up to luck and staying hidden was a better option.

While killing off the unease, the sought after a silhouette with a structure similar to a small hill that lay beyond the rows of houses.

Though the tower of Babel was overwhelming, that was also exceedingly large.

We were attacked while conducting an investigation there.

A staircase shaped structure what looked like a distant relative of the Pyramids’, reflecting the moonlight with a blackish gloss. The locals call it Unil<Saint Tower>. The structures are called Jigrad’s as a whole, which are built by pilling up tens of thousands of bricks.

<Saint Tower> is the center of sacred precincts. The dwelling places of the gods. They each have a sacred name. For example, that one which is built with those black bricks is called <Ebadonigul>. It means something like, ‘The wall that crushes all with fear’.

It took three hours to get here from there carrying the wounded old man. This was our limit before sunset. It took our all just to get here.

We’ve escaped far enough. That’s what I’d like to say……

By the time I noticed, I was already gripping my cellphone in my right hand hard. My usual habit.

Since it’s the only thing that can remind me who I really am, and where I belong.

This touch of shinning plastic that’s impossible to find in this age calms down my unease of having nowhere to go, and reminds me of my priorities.

My goal is simple.

Live, and return home.

It’s okay if I aim for only that……

“You’re carrying that around as usual. Don’t blame me if you drop it~”

I heard a joking voice from the back and turned around.

Kenie-san, who was also sitting cross legged and back resting, had a grin on her face.

She, who looked like a tough heroine wearing a leather vest from one of those action movies, was also in the same situation as me. We are called <Oursiders>, people who lost their way and drifted here in <Kiengi> from a different age.

She had a cheerful onee-san type personality and was in her 20s. Even a head taller than the 170cm me, and had blonde wolf-hair.

She was originally a police officer in New-York. After I got to know her, she helped me, who didn’t know which way was left and which was right in this unknown era, a lot. In other words, something like my savior.

“Don’t you also have those pistols strapped with you all the time?”

“Well, yeah.”

Kenie-san shrugged her shoulders. Just when I thought she was going to背に腕を回した , she drew those automatics and aimed them at towards the darkness. As expected of a police officer from New York city. She’s totally an expert.

“Out of bullets though. Just a lucky charm now.”

This person’s real partner was the crossbow leaned against the fence beside her. But she still never let go of neither the pistols nor the holsters.

“If I let it go, I feel like I might actually forget. It’s the same for your cell phone right?”

“….Yeah.”

Everything I had equipped was from <Kiengi>.

From the top, I had a T-shirt type coat along with the misshapen trousers. In addition, right now I had a sleeveless leaver vest for ventilation and exercise, leather gaurds on my arms and legs, and leather boots; in complete search mode.

No matter how hot the climate might be, even I can’t start from a nude loincloth fashion though it’s completely OK here. So got no choice but to put up with the itchy feeling of leather and wool fabrics.

The problem is, I’ve completely gotten used to that itchy feeling.

The taste of the food in this foreign land.

The mystery of the Tower of Babel that lets us understand each other without any problems even though we are speaking different language.

The scorching sun that burns the skin, the smell of the dry wind and the desert.

The black magic that controls truth Me<Reason> ,and the phantom beasts that should only exist in fairy tales.

The town of Kagushila where greed, passion and ambition whirls non-stop, and its people.

And finally, the <Saint Tower> that stands still in the middle of all there.

Somewhere, somewhen, I had grown completely used to the lifestyle here, and have accepted it as the ‘real’.

I somewhat understand.

Just like this, I’ll forget all my incompatibility and there’ll be a time where the only place I can remember my homeland, the faces of my family is in my dreams. No, it’s already close to that point.

Waking up in the middle of the night, clutching my chest hard because of my narrow mind that can’t look forward, it’s already unbearable.

I want to return to Japan.

“I’ll definitely get back. Like hell I’ll die in this country of swords and magics!”

As if cutting off my unease, Kenie-san strongly vouched,

“Yeah, me too. And you too. Cause we have luck on our side. We cut through that today too didn’t we? So don’t worry.”

She said that. And I finally realized I shouted out that I had in my. Was I making such an anxious face?....Guess I’m still half a man.

“It’s okay. The sky’s starting to clear up. And I don’t think those dangerous guys will follow us this close to Kagushila. And in case of emergency, we can just run all the way to Anzu First Gate.”

Our headquarters, Kagushila was surrounded by high walls and was built to be able to perform the task of a fortress. As long as it’s situated at the outskirts of Babylon, firm guarding is an absolute must. Even the Anzu gate that faces the ruins isn’t open between sunsets to sunrise unless there’s an unavoidable reason.

So even if we forced our way through, we wouldn’t be able to enter. But nevertheless, the closer we get, the safer it gets.

“….So, how’s the Subandachief doing? Is he alright?”

There was an old man lying down in front of the cross legged Kenie-san. He was wearing a fabulous reel vestment with embroidery all over the place and a cluster of decorations. All the while he’s totally blacked out.

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