The next morning, Kaoru stood where the village gate used to be.
What was left of it, anyway.
Burnt wood. Twisted hinges. Ash and dust.
Rina approached, her cloak newly washed and draped loosely around her shoulders. She looked a little stronger today. Her posture was straighter. Her glow a little steadier.
"Morning," she said.
Kaoru gave a nod. "Sleep well?"
"As well as anyone can after sharing their soul with someone who wakes up grumbling about architectural layout at sunrise."
"I was optimizing the perimeter." He paused. "And… I snore, don't I?"
"Like someone casting Wind Slash in their throat."
Soup chirped in agreement from atop a half-rebuilt fence.
Kaoru sighed. "Betrayed by my own slime."
They spent the early hours clearing rubble. Rina channeled her healing into regrowth spells—still weak, still flickering—but enough to coax grass through the scorched soil.
Kaoru, meanwhile, was sketching.
With chalk, magic, and scraps of salvaged parchment, he designed village layouts. Not just functional, but defensive. He remembered one of his lives—a failed architect from a realm where cities were made inside sentient trees.
[Legacy Triggered – Life #34: Echo Architect of Thalis Prime]
— Builder of communities designed to withstand time and magic decay
— [Blueprint Unlocked]: Ward-Stitch Village Core
— [Passive Gained]: Builder's Sight – See optimal paths for structure and magic flow.
With his staff, Kaoru etched a glowing circle into the center of the town ruins.
"What's that?" Rina asked.
"The heart," Kaoru said. "A new village ward. Not just to keep monsters out—but to keep magic stable inside. So it doesn't fracture when people start remembering who they were."
He placed a piece of the fractured cathedral crystal into the center. It pulsed once, blue and gold.
[Village Ward Core Initialized]
[Current Territory Claimed: 0.3 km radius]
[Name Required for Registry]
Rina tilted her head. "You get to name it."
Kaoru thought for a moment. His eyes wandered over the ruins. The place was broken. But it remembered. And now, it had people trying to fix it.
He looked up at the HUD screen and whispered:
"Echo's Reach."
[Territory Registered: Echo's Reach]
[Village Type: Outpost – Experimental Class]
[Permanent Buff: Memory Anchoring (Level 1)]
— All soul-linked characters gain +10% memory retention and legacy clarity while within Echo's Reach.
Later that day, while Kaoru was setting up makeshift rune wards around a newly repaired hut, he heard a whistle from the outer path.
Rina stood near the tree line, brow furrowed.
"What is it?" he asked.
She pointed.
Figures. Moving slowly through the trees.
Kaoru stepped up beside her, watching the shapes approach. Two adults. One limping. A child trailing behind, hugging a small wooden relic.
Refugees.
[Unknown Entities Detected]
[Status: Wounded | Malnourished | Non-hostile]
[Soul Signatures Detected – Partially fractured.]
Rina looked at him. "Do we trust them?"
Kaoru didn't answer right away.
Then he stepped forward.
"We don't trust them. Not yet," he said. "But we give them a chance to remember who they are."
He raised a hand and called out. "Welcome to Echo's Reach. If you're tired, stay. If you're lost, we'll help you find your name again."
The figures paused. Then slowly—cautiously—they walked forward.
And in that moment, Kaoru felt something shift in the ground beneath his feet.
Not physically.
Spiritually.
As if the world noticed what he just chose to do.
[Fate Thread Altered.]
[World System Response: Pending.]
[You are now watched.]
Kaoru narrowed his eyes.
"We'll see who's watching who."