Last night, the fact that I'd been summoned by the Warrior Commander kept spinning around in my head. I'd lain down on my bunk after finishing a day in the archives, but my eyes wouldn't close at all. I counted the wood grain on the ceiling, stared at the scorch marks on the wall, listened to Lina shifting in the room next door. Still couldn't sleep. The sensation was exactly the same as that night when the convenience store manager called out to me with "Got a minute?" A gravity pooling slowly in the pit of my stomach without any clear reason. Eventually, when the sky began to pale, I gave up and got out of bed. Breakfast at Suikaku-tei was early. I slipped into the dining hall before the bell rang, but Hana had already lit the fire in the stove. "You're up early," she said curtly, and when I honestly answered "Couldn't sleep," she simply said "Here you go" and gave me an extra slice of black bread. That was surprisingly appreciated. Akourou—the twenty-two-meter stone tower standi