Argh! A mind-numbing silence that given enough moments would have driven me mad. A void in total isolation, floating around in sensory deprivation in eternity, and after a second of eternity passed, I was here.
I had not traveled a lot in my short and uneventful life, I remember how I heard my older brother scolding me, saying that those web novels isn't the same as lived experience, but then I did not care.
But this place before my eyes, seemed like a whole different country. An overwhelming and humid hot spell covered the world around me, and as my eyes tried to acquaint themselves to the scene before me, I stood up from a sudden kneeling position.
"Where am I?" I asked aloud in a daze, knowing surely that in my memories, I was in a torpid void, and before that in my awkward classroom.
As my eyes peered around, I saw a large room; white and beige corridors and pillars that stretched ten men tall to the ceilings, with pearly white decorations. It looked like what ancient Arabic buildings looked like in textbooks, but there was far too little gold.
My first impression was that it looked Egyptian.
Anubis, I thought of these gods of mythos, but having heard nothing else, I dissolved my inquiry.
I did not expect to hear a response, but a strong and calm voice talked back: "Ah, you are the last of them...? Rest assured, this is not death. You are in the Kingdom of Horus."--I looked up to see the man, clad in a long beige robe with inscriptions running down his cloth. "Not to be prideful... but it is my Kingdom, and I am proud of it."
"You are a king?" I asked, with sincerity.
"I am the king."
...the kingdom of Horus...? What would that mean...? And King...? Is this a world of royalty? No; it can't just be another world... It's too simple... And death...? Why would I think this was death...? I feel my fingers, as they squeeze the air... Surely, I am not dead. But then again, this man...?
"...Ah," spoke the king suddenly and awkwardly. "I had a speech prepared and all, but it seems like you woke up later than expected."
"Woke up later than expected?"
"You were supposed to wake up half an hour ago... But no matter! I will say the most important thing to you now..."
"..." I interrupted him, but struggled to produce any words. "W-what... is this... p-place?"
"This is the royal hall."
He waved around his arms in a very theatrical manner. To me it felt like looking at an old film with bad actors.
Continuing to speak about mundane decorations, architecture and everything else, that to a person who just entered another world, seemed wholly irrelevant, I listened to the king.
...
The "king" did not seem like a king at all.
It was far too silent, the whole palace. I was confused at first, but then, I found in my pocket a letter, signed by Kaori, a classmate.
'You would not wake. Sleep well. We'll see you soon at the Inn.'
Ha... I don't understand why she's still not angry at me. She tried befriending me several times through the years, but I always pushed her away. I didn't need any friends, especially not out of pity, which I assumed it was.
So the rest of them is at an Inn.
The king walked slowly, and other than his character and frame, his voice was royal-like, with a commanding, almost vexing, tone of voice. It sounded both like a command and an ovation, which reminded me of an older teacher.
I followed after the king as he went through the palace walls.
On either side more large beige pillars with pearl white decorations followed. Through the corridors, I saw red and orange cloth, mats hanging on walls, and more of the material I assumed to be sandstone.
The heat was the second thing I noticed. It was unbelievably warm.
"I assume you can feel it by now."
"The heat?" I asked.
"No, from what I heard, your world was an unconscious one."
"Unconscious?"
"The human being, is not so different from those of us who live here, the only difference is that we are awakened."
"You...? I'm confused."
"I think your little companions compared it to your concept of magic."
"Magic?"--as I tried to put one and one together, I understood one fatal flaw. "Wait, why can I understand you?"
"We have little power in the gods, you know. The gods took you here and our wish, but very well, the gods might have taken you here at your own wish. We are servants of the sun."
"Servants of the sun?"
"Do you not worship your sun?"
"No; we do not."
"Well, eventually you will."
"Maybe..."
"This world is one of magic. The reason you can understand us is the same reason we can understand you. It is because it is most necessary for you to enact your reasoning. But that reason is the will of the gods."
"You... I can't understand you."
"Don't ask questions then, the best thing to do is have faith. In this world, magic and faith are one and the same. Do not pry into the reason."
...
Magic exists in this world. When I think back to my life on earth, I can't comprehend how excited I am. But now that I am here, it feels foreboding. Why is there magic here? Gods that seem eerily similar to mythos. Praying to the sun...? I don't understand any of it.
What I have gathered yet is that, for some reason, I woke up later than everyone else. And, the king of this kingdom was waiting for me, and is now giving me a lesson on the world.
I don't see a reason for it... Why would any of this be happening?
'The ritual!'
It must have had to do with the ritual... but what about it?
...it was just something I found in the library...
It still feels unreal, no, maybe this is a dream.
But whether it's a dream or not, I still continue to walk after him.
"Most people are gathered in the city square to welcome them."
"They are?"
That clears up why no-one is here.
"..."
"So am I going to meet up with them now?"
"See, that's the thing. What's your name?"
"Hirone."
"You have a very particular ability."
"I do?"
"Yes, one that will be immensely useful."
"So...?"
"We can't let you meet them. Not yet."
"B-..." before I could protest, I felt a weakness. It was something between a dreary unconsciousness and hunger.
"An assassin is one of the most honourable jobs in the kingdom... Why, the assassin is the one that keeps the king safe, he protects and makes sure that no enemy of the kingdom walks free."
"M-..."
Then the king stopped just outside the palace gates. I could see as it opened how a large sandstone staircase reached down a hundred feet below.
The brown skies that seemed to remind me of a sandstorm.
"Rest assured, Hirone, you are a hero."
"A hero?"
"Of course."
He smiled gently towards me, and I let myself be assured of his claim.
Well, it doesn't really matter. I'm in a world of sorcery now, of magic. But I don't really understand what any of it means.
I'm a hero though...
A smug sat comfortably on my face.
...
As I took a step on outside the palace and looked around as far as my sight could reach, I understood that there was something wrong with this world.
The warmth seemed to stretch as far as the skies. A desert-like climate between the colors of sand, beige and dirt. A myriad of buildings, all built out of the same materials. But still, rivers of water running through artificial aqueducts.
"W-why does it look like a desert?"
"A desert? Do you mean why there's sand?"
"Yes...?"
"Ah, once all of this was an oasis."
"W-what h... what happened?"
He stopped midway, and held out his hand towards the sun. His tenor seemed intimidating, and I could not speak or look at him directly.
It was a world of powers that I had no idea of.
A world of mystery that I could only turn my eyes at.
And there, was a sun, much larger than our own.
"The sun," said the king. "Began to grow."
"The sun grew...?"
"Ahem..." the king began to speak, his language that I could understand perfectly as if it were my mother's tongue, but it had a different style of language, of rhythm, of meter, so that when he spoke, it sounded like something profound, like out a holy book. "A thousand years ago land was covered in ice. A hundred years ago it was covered in grass and governed by mighty men. In ten years it will be engulfed in flame. The ever-growing sun, the God of our World."
"W-what?"
"You need not worry, our God is Merciful."
"I-it..." Without being able to say it, I just thought it, and in my mind I repeated: was he really?
To me, it did not seem so.
"I will worry."
"That's too bad."
...
Eventually, the King left me by a carriage, which shouldn't have surprised me, since all these stories that I have read rarely uses cars or trains. But reality and fiction seemed to be one, and in the moment I started to doubt it, the 'reality' of the situation, grabbed me back like a cold fever.
"Will I return?"
"Yes," said the King, "You'll return soon, and you'll be a hero."
It's such an ominous tale. All these stories go the same. I'll go to someplace else to level up. Then, when I get strong enough, I'll ride into the city, flowers and donkeys.
Eventually, I will rid the world of this evil... blah, blah. All kind of boring, isn't it?
But I wasn't going to make this anything it wasn't.
God... I'm kind of excited, aren't I?
I look forward to it.
...
I arrived at dawn the next day, having taken longer than I expected. A long chain of islands by the outskirts of the city, that took two hours by boat to get to.
Then the escort turned back and said, "We'll leave you alone in the meantime..."
"Okay!" I said, but then my mind raced... What the hell does that mean? Am I supposed to survive here...? On my own? What am I even supposed to do....?
As doubt clung to my heart, I got off the boat. The escort did not wait.
'Eh?'