The name Stechhemberg belonged to an utterly ordinary man. He was born into an ordinary family, had an ordinary upbringing, and died of a chronic illness. Even the Ghost King who ruled his hometown and had ruled it throughout his life was an obscure nobody, serving as the local second mayor, managing the ghosts without interfering in the affairs of the living. After Stechhemberg died of illness, he continued living peacefully in his hometown as a ghost, even carrying on with his salesman's job from when he was alive.
It was a peaceful, tranquil place, utterly unlike the future world I knew.
It was more like the world the man in the video longed for. The living and the dead coexisted there. Death didn't separate people; it let them live together in another form.
Some were content with the peace there, while others grew restless and chose to venture out.
The place wasn't isolated, but in the future world ruled by the Ghost Kings, long-distance travel often meant danger.
Stechhemberg belonged to the first group. He'd never thought of adventuring elsewhere, but he also felt no particular gratitude toward the city where he lived. He took the peace of his hometown for granted. The harsh conditions he saw on television seemed too far away. Even when outsiders came, overflowing with gratitude for his hometown and sincerely in love with it, then told him about what they'd witnessed, those terrifying stories still felt too distant to Stechhemberg.
What shattered that ordinary, monotonous life was a monster from somewhere else.
Stechhemberg didn't know what the monster was called or where it came from. He only remembered that one day, the sun was suddenly blotted out by clouds. The monster was like a heavy storm cloud, covering the entire city. Its enormous body