The plaza before dawn was silent and still. The ashen sky was a deep indigo, with the eastern ridge just beginning to pale. A cold wind swept the sand thinly across the stone pavement, drawing fine lines. The city of Akatsuki was still asleep—or rather, those who couldn't sleep were quietly moving in their respective places. Koichi stood in the center of the plaza, checking the blueprints in his hand. Last night, he'd placed a single foundation stone. That was all. What had been just a lump of rock now seemed faintly warm in the plaza's center. Gazing at it in the pale morning light, Koichi repeated his calculations. The magical essence consumption needed to complete the Tower of Bonds—forty percent for the three foundation layers, the remaining sixty percent for the upper structure. His current magical essence reserves. The numbers didn't add up. To be precise, one person wasn't enough. That fact lay quietly but certainly on the paper before him. Koichi traced his finger along the blank margins of the blueprint. The spaces left intentionally empty from the start—places he'd deliberately left unfilled to receive the voices of Serika and Ren and the residents. His former self would have thought only of filling those blanks. But now was different. Knowing he was short, he'd learned how to move forward anyway. He folded the blueprint and placed his hand on the first piece of scrap material. The Building Master responded. A faint vibration and warmth returned to his palm. The sensation of magical essence flowing—the circuit that had gone completely silent on that ladder was moving quietly tonight. Still not perfect. But it was moving. That was enough. "...The phrase 'mathematically speaking' is the scariest part." A voice came. He turned to see long water-colored hair glowing faintly in the dawn light. It was Serika. Her pale purple eyes were still half-asleep, but she came to sit beside Koichi without hesitation. Not the usual energetic run—there were traces of stifled yawns on her face, and her tied-back hair was coming slightly undone. She looked sleepy, yet oddly well-timed. "You're building the tower now, on a morning when we have defense preparations?" Serika asked. "I need to stack up to the three foundation layers before sunrise. Mathematically speaking," Koichi replied. "That's exactly why I said that phrase is scary," Serika said. As she spoke, Serika settled completely beside Koichi. Despite having defense preparations. Despite being sleepy. She was simply there—and that fact, with her sleepy expression, weighed more than words. Koichi glanced at her profile for a moment, then returned his gaze to the scrap material. "Tell me if there's anything I can help with," Serika said. Right on schedule, Ren appeared. His short black hair with red streaks looked dark in the pre-dawn sky. His golden eyes swept across the plaza once, checking the direction of the defensive wall, the watchtower, and Koichi's work. He held the defense schedule in his hand. "Beginning final inspection of the defensive wall. Three personnel stationed on the south side," Ren reported. "Understood," Koichi replied. Three people gathered in the plaza before dawn. There were few words. But they faced the same direction. That was enough for Koichi. Keeping his hand on the scrap material, he confirmed the sensation of the first foundation layer stacking up. The sound of stone fitting against stone dissolved into the quiet pre-dawn air. --- The sun rose. When the southern horizon of the ashen plain began to turn orange, Ren, standing on the defensive wall, raised his voice. "They're coming from the south," Ren announced. The Steel Fang Corps—an armed faction controlling the southern mining districts under their leader Garza Heaven, commanding twelve hundred combat personnel—their vanguard unit was approaching. Dozens of fighters trampled the ashen sand, pressing toward Akatsuki's defensive wall. Their footsteps shattered the morning silence. Ren stood on the wall, issuing instructions to the residents' self-defense force. His voice was emotionless and precise. "Secure the east side with two people. Don't lower the ladder on the west side. If fire arrows come, we have water prepared," Ren instructed. Meticulous and without excess. The residents moved according to Ren's words. Beside him, Tobias Rune, a traveling merchant who made his base in the Sunlit Plaza—the trading facility Koichi had first built—appeared on top of the wall. A thin man with a scar on his nose, usually shouting "Today's stock is premium goods!" in his merchant's voice, suddenly began yelling as he surveyed the battle situation. "The vanguard coming from the south is too densely packed! They're clustered in the center! The spacing on the sides is too wide!" Tobias called out. Ren glanced at Tobias for a moment. "...You're absolutely right. Thank you," Ren said, offering thanks with proper courtesy but a subtly complex expression. Tobias blushed and raised his voice even louder. "Leave it to me! I never thought I'd use the observation skills I honed in the market here!" Tobias exclaimed. "I-I see. Please continue," Ren replied. An odd rhythm developed where Ren thanked Tobias each time, and Tobias blushed and continued his commentary even louder, creating small gaps in the serious tension of the defense. One of the residents below the wall was laughing quietly. Even on a morning like this, there were people who could laugh. Serika moved along the outer edge of the defensive wall, deploying a wide-area suppression spell using water magic. She wrapped thin light around her fingertips, gathering the magical essence particles—invisible particles in the air—to maintain the spell. A fire arrow flew. Serika flipped her hand. A water membrane swallowed the flame and extinguished it. The Serika of before could barely handle extinguishing a single flame pillar alone. Now she was constructing spells on a scale that covered the entire city. No one explained the difference—her actions explained everything. While maintaining the spell, Serika glanced toward the plaza. Confirming that Koichi was continuing his work. What had initially been a tactical check became something different on the second and third glances. Less a confirmation, less a worry—more like she simply wanted to look, a gaze that Serika herself might not have noticed. Koichi continued working in the plaza. The roar of the battlefield reached even here. The sound of stone stacking and distant shouts mixed with the sound of metal. There was no reason to stop. All he could do now was complete the tower. It wasn't that he felt no fear. But this certainty weighed more than fear. The second layer was complete. He moved to the third. The sensation of the foundation solidifying transmitted through his palm. --- Just before the final layer, his hand stopped. He touched the scrap material. Nothing came back. He pressed his palm again. Concentrated his consciousness. Searched for the flow of magical essence. Nothing. The Building Master wasn't responding. A sensation like something sinking to the bottom of a river. Only the weight of the stone in the scrap material remained in his palm, nothing else. Magical essence intoxication—the symptom that occurred when magical essence was consumed excessively—came quietly this time before he could collapse. The memory from that ladder overlapped. But there was a difference. This time, before his knees buckled, the blank margins of the blueprint floated in his mind. Places still unfilled. Spaces left empty from the start for someone. Koichi knelt. The cold of the stone pavement transmitted through his knees. Only the rough surface texture of the scrap material remained in his palm. Nothing flowed. A presence approached. The first to draw near was a mother and child staying at the Traveling Crane Inn—the thirty-room wooden lodging Koichi had built, which held a blessing effect promoting fatigue recovery. A mother and child from the ashen plain's displaced persons, who had slept under a roof for the first time the night they came to this city. The mother knelt beside Koichi and placed her hand over his. Something flowed. The blessing effect of the Traveling Crane Inn—which enhanced magical essence affinity, not just promoting fatigue recovery but connecting residents' magical essence circuits to the city's blessings—created a faint flow from the mother's hand to Koichi's magical essence circuit. It was only a little. But it was definitely there. Seeing this, another resident approached. A merchant who conducted business every day in the Sunlit Plaza placed his hand on Koichi's shoulder. A boy who had first learned to write his own name at the Tsuzuri Fire Academy—the small learning hall where Serika taught—came and sat beside Koichi without saying anything. An elderly man who had helped repair the defensive wall placed his hand on Koichi's back. One by one. Koichi's vision blurred. Not crying exactly—his body couldn't bear the weight that the things he'd built were returning to him. The trust the market had created, the recovery the lodging had nurtured, the joy the academy had delivered. Now, as the warmth of residents' hands, it returned to Koichi's palm. Multiple temperatures mixed, touching the Building Master's circuit— "Can I do something too?!" A shout flew from the direction of the defensive wall. Tobias came running from the wall. He stopped at the edge of the crowd, breathing hard, both arms spread wide. One resident called back, "Push with spirit rather than magical essence!" "With spirit!! Ohhhhh!!" Tobias shouted, beginning to support one of the tower's pillars with both arms. It made no sense. But that figure was laughable, yet he couldn't laugh. The earnestness came before laughter. While narrowing the wall's spell to focus on the retreating enemy direction, Serika turned her gaze to the plaza. The moment she saw Koichi surrounded by residents, she returned her consciousness to maintaining the spell—and the corner of her lips moved just slightly. Not words. Just an expression that reached him. Multiple temperatures mixed in Koichi's palm, gathering their weight. The Building Master responded. A sensation like something rising from the river's bottom—the feeling of construction being approved. Koichi placed his hand on the final layer of scrap material. Magical essence flowed. Stone fitted against stone. Wood fixed at precise angles. The premonition of blessing effects settling spread from his palm throughout the entire tower. The Tower of Bonds was complete. --- Light spread. Not a wall. A membrane of light. A barrier with dual effects of defense and blessing slowly enveloped all of Akatsuki. The carefully measured roof angles, the walls of the learning hall carved with vine patterns, the tower born from the blueprint's blank margins—as if wrapping each building from within, it deployed mixed with the dawn light. The Steel Fang Corps' vanguard unit was caught between the barrier's pressure and the wall's defense. They gradually began to retreat, eventually shifting to a withdrawal. It wasn't military force. The accumulated blessings protected this city. Far away, a spy from the Curtain Institute—an intelligence organization that ostensibly conducted trade mediation while maintaining sleeper agents across regions, preserving its value through maintaining balance—recorded what had happened today. A new rising city had succeeded in independent defense, disrupting the balance. The spy's withdrawal order came down. Before a city that had succeeded in disrupting balance, the guardian of balance had lost its options—an irony no one voiced aloud. --- The battle ended. Morning light filled the plaza. Orange and white mixed light illuminated the stone pavement. Residents gathered in the plaza. No one shouted with joy. They were simply here. Ren came to Koichi's side. "Defensive