Year 20, Day 1
Caer Veldris – The Hill of Memory
One hundred thousand people filled the slopes below the newly completed House of Continuing Knowledge.
Its three wings of white stone and red tile gleamed in the spring sun.
Above the central gate, a single bronze Empty Circle the height of three men caught the light like a silent proclamation.
Harlan Calder was sixty-one now.
He walked with a cane carved from the first oak felled in Oakrest twenty years ago.
His voice, when the pressure came, was still strong enough to reach the back rows without effort.
The decree began.
"Thus commands the Faceless One, whom some now call Father of Nations, Keeper of the Empty Circle, and Architect of the Long Tomorrow.
Hear the Decree of the Open Hand and the Iron Spine.
From this twentieth year forward:
1. The House of Continuing Knowledge is declared sanctuary.
Any scholar from any land who reaches our border with knowledge in their head and peace in their heart will be granted food, shelter, and the right to teach or learn for as long as they remain.
Their Wooden Circle will bear a silver band beside the bronze.
2. Every foreign child who completes ten years in our teaching houses may claim full citizenship on their seventeenth winter, regardless of birth.
The circle widens again.
3. The Great Fleet will be built.
Twenty deep-keel ships of the new design (gifted by our brothers on the Coral Isle) will sail every year.
Their purpose is not war, but memory.
They will carry grain to the hungry, scholars to the ignorant, and the Empty Circle to every shore that will accept it.
4. The Iron Road begins.
From Caer Veldris to the northern amber fields, from Westgate to the southern sapphire mines, a single road of stone and gravel will one day ring the continent.
No army will ever march faster than our merchants.
5. The First Code is written.
One law for every citizen, from the lowliest farmer to the First Speaker himself:
'What strengthens the circle strengthens the soul.
What weakens the circle weakens us all.'
This Code will be carved above every gate, read in every teaching house, and spoken at every oath-taking.
6. And finally, to every ruler—mortal or divine—who hears these words beyond our borders:
Send us your tired, your hungry, your curious.
We will feed them, teach them, and—if they choose—make them ours.
But know this:
The day any hand is raised against the Empty Circle, that hand will meet iron forged by children who once starved under other gods.
The Faceless One has spoken.
He offers bread with one hand and a sword with the other.
Choose wisely."
Harlan fell silent.
For a long moment, no one moved.
Then a sound rose from the back of the crowd (quiet at first, then swelling until it shook the stones).
A hundred thousand voices, speaking in perfect unison:
"We choose the circle."
Elyse, thirty, now First Scholar of the House of Continuing Knowledge, felt tears on her cheeks she could not explain.
She looked at the foreign delegations standing at the edge of the crowd:
a dwarf scholar from Thane Ironvein's realm,
a thin girl from KaiserDrache's border who had escaped with nothing but the clothes on her back,
and Caelan Valdria (twenty-two, gray-eyed, already legendary), captain of the Coral Fleet.
All of them were staring at the bronze circle above the gate like it was the sun.
Global voice chat broke for the first time in twenty years.
#044 (Thane Ironvein):
"...I'm sending my best smith.
Tell me the oath."
#004 (weeb, voice shaking):
"My literacy just hit 18 %.
His is 89 %.
I'm disbanding my army.
I'm coming to learn."
#008 (KaiserDrache):
"......"
#189 (Park Min-jae, from the Coral Isle):
"My son just took the oath in Caer Veldris.
He wears the silver band.
Fourteen became three thousand.
Thank you, Father."
Hyun-woo watched the counters do something impossible.
Belief Strength: 287 % → 301 % → 349 % (system limit exceeded)
Foreign Scholars Arriving: 87 and rising
New Resource Unlocked: "Reputation: The Nation That Teaches"
A single line appeared in gold, visible to every player on the continent.
[Player Valdria1 has achieved:
"Civilizational Beacon"
Effect: Any nation that maintains war with Valdria for more than one turn suffers –50 % recruitment and –30 % tax income due to desertion and emigration.
Duration: permanent]
For the first time in twenty years, KaiserDrache left global chat and did not return.
Turn 6 locked.
Five more years began to race past:
ships sailing under black sails and open hands,
children from a hundred tribes learning side by side in the House of Continuing Knowledge,
roads of stone stretching toward every horizon like the spokes of a vast, unbreakable wheel.
And on the highest tower of Caer Veldris, a new banner was raised for the first time:
Black field.
Empty Circle in bronze.
Below it, in letters every child could now read:
"We were hungry once.
Never again."