Setting the Wheels in Motion
Adapa sought out his brothers, who were scattered across every corner of Kienkingir.
Like him, they were all children of Enki—demigods—and so deeply versed in their respective fields that mortals called them sages.
"So you're saying you're going to build a city?"
His brothers, whom he had not seen in a long time, already had their faces scrunched up at what they took for nonsense.
"You come all this way after so long, and that's all you've got to say?"
"You think a city just pops up overnight?"
"I heard you stood trial in Dilmun last time—are you sure nothing's wrong with your head?"
They treated him like a fool, but Adapa was not the least bit discouraged. His mind was overflowing with the concept of a planned city that Sunya had recently shared with him.
"Do you know what a planned city is?"
"A planned city?"
Every one of them wore the face of someone hearing the phrase for the first time. Of course they did. The common wisdom of the age held that cities formed naturally. In this era, a city was a nation unto itself. Even if one could artificially create a city, no country in any age would be foolish enough to deliberately manufacture a rival.
"A planned city is exactly what it sounds like—a city built from the start with a purpose."
"And?"
"Let's build a city for educating people. We'll spread more knowledge among them."
"…"
His brothers thought Adapa had lost his mind. It was not merely the sudden proposal to raise a city—the very idea of building one for the purpose of educating people was hard to fully accept.
So Adapa pressed harder.
"Have you forgotten our duty? We're meant to spread knowledge to people and help them develop civilization. First of all—you agree that for civilization to advance, there need to be many people who possess knowledge, right?"
"That's true."
"So what's your point?"
Fortunately, this time all his brothers nodded. Focused purely on the advancement of civilization, there was nothing wrong with Adapa's reasoning.
"So we've been scattered across the world teaching people, but honestly, it's inefficient. How long are we supposed to grab them one by one and instruct them?"
"So? Do you have some kind of method?"
"I have a method—that's why I called you here. Including me, there are only seven of us spreading knowledge. No matter how hard we try, there's a limit. Put another way: if we increase the number of teachers, it's a problem we can solve."
"…That's what we're already doing."
"Right. But I'm saying we should do it more systematically. Through something called a school."
Adapa expounded to his brothers the concept of educational institutions that Sunya had shared with him. His brothers, sharp enough to be called sages themselves, grasped what a school was without difficulty.
"So what you're saying is, we should build a city centered not on a king, but on an educational institution called a school?"
"Not a city people live in—a city people come to."
"But then no one would take responsibility for it or try to protect it."
"We'll need a representative. And there will be people who live there permanently."
"But that way, the city's security could be vulnerable…"
The sages' debate continued. As expected, the greatest concerns were the city's security and its survival. A city that spread knowledge equally to other nations—not merely one's own—could never look good in the eyes of those in power. Moreover, since it was a place people merely visited, those residing there would hardly feel enough attachment to defend it.
"Don't worry, guys. This city is being built at Lord Sunya's request in the first place."
At Adapa's words, his brothers looked puzzled. They had heard of the god called Sunya, but the rumors were not particularly flattering. Frankly, some people even mocked him as a kept-man god.
"Lord Sunya—you mean the god of sculpture and painting?"
"I've heard he's Lady Inanna's husband, but trusting the word of such a lesser god unconditionally seems a bit much, doesn't it?"
Their suspicions were fair. How many times had temples or buildings raised and dedicated for gods collapsed or burned?
But Adapa had an answer this time as well.
"It's fine. Lord Sunya will build the city with his own hands. No matter how fearless someone is, there are hardly any idiots who'd dare lay hands on a city a god built himself. And if there are, we just send them straight to hell with divine punishment."
"What are you talking about?"
"A god is going to build a city himself?"
"Wasn't that god just dabbling in painting?"
"Surely he just means he'll supervise."
Adapa answered their questions. Recounting the spectacle he had witnessed not long ago, he praised Sunya's power and revealed that the concepts of the school and the educational city had come from him as well.
"Good heavens!"
"That's innovative!"
"At that level, isn't he almost on par with our father?"
Feasibility had been established. All that remained was to drive the point home. Adapa finally stirred the desire he and his brothers all shared.
"This is a chance for us to show off our talents. We can build a city with the most ideal structure we can imagine—from start to finish. And it's a city for us and our disciples!"
"…"
"…"
And so the construction of the educational city was decided.
"How about placing the temple on this edge and proceeding from there?"
"No. That looks wrong from every angle. Better to put the temple in the center—or at least close to it."
"Bathhouse here, granary here…"
"Let's also build a sewage system that can channel water away."
The design alone took more than three months. Even so, the capable sages finally succeeded in completing the plans for the educational city. Of course, since designing a city itself was a first for them, there would inevitably be trial and error in practice, and parts that would need revision along the way.
"Lord Sunya! We've finally finished it."
Adapa and his brothers brought a pile of clay tablets and set them before Sunya. Adapa's brothers found his appearance different from what they had expected, and were intrigued. First they were surprised that, even among the gods, Sunya was a remarkably handsome man—but the way he went about with his eyes closed like a blind man was also peculiar. To some it might seem sly; to others, it gave a mysterious impression.
"Thank you for your hard work, everyone. Now leave building the structures and digging the waterways entirely to me."
Thus began an unprecedented mega-construction project consisting of eight people in total, including Sunya.
First, Sunya created enormous hands and began leveling the ground by pounding the earth. At that sight, the mouths of all the brothers except Adapa fell wide open.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Even as an earthquake rumbled through the site, the temple standing in the midst of it showed not the slightest sign of collapsing.
"I infused part of my divinity into the temple. At least until construction is finished, it won't fall."
Once the foundation was prepared, he used the giant hands to create waterways. By driving his fingers into the ground and drawing a few lines, the channels they had wanted took shape in an instant—in less than half a day.
"From here on, we'll need to fire bricks in kilns and stack them one by one, so it'll take a bit longer. I'd appreciate it if you could check from time to time that everything is being done properly."
As he had done before, Sunya summoned a thousand hands to mold bricks and place them in kilns to harden. Unlike previous work, this was delicate—yet even so, he was abnormally fast. A quarter of the thousand hands molded bricks from clay; a quarter repeatedly loaded and unloaded the kilns; a quarter transported materials; and the remaining hands stacked the buildings. It was a perfect division of labor.
The process of hands flying through the air, instantly raising walls and erecting buildings, was wondrous even to the sages' eyes.
"I've known since long ago that the gods' power is great, but this is a first."
"Why has a god like this gone unknown until now?"
"So he didn't become Lady Inanna's husband for nothing, huh?"
"Indeed…"
The sages marveled at the might of Sunya, whom they had taken for a mere lesser god. But separate from that admiration, a city was still a city. No matter how much Sunya alone handled the workload of tens of thousands of people, building a vast city was not something that could be done overnight.
"This kind of work is something you just do steadily and diligently."
Sunya came every single day without rest to continue construction. True to his word, he was truly diligent. And yet he was never impatient; even when errors arose from mistakes on the sages' side, he smiled and corrected them.
"It's fine. That can happen."
"We have plenty of time. We can do it over as many times as needed."
"Heh heh heh."
Though Sunya truly said it was fine, for some reason the sages felt a chill run through them and a quiet sense of pressure. Thanks to that, every single day the city's completion became visibly, unmistakably clearer.