Serialized Novel Prologue [To those who keep the fire burning]

The Kofu Basin at night was quiet, with stars twinkling crisply.
However, beneath the city lights—deep within the workshop—a faint fire flickered.

The old artisan, alone, picked up a gem and continued to polish it carefully.
His dozens of apprentices, his comrades—all were gone, leaving only him to tend this flame.
The former bustle of the workshop now existed only in distant memory.

Days when cheap imitations from China G seized the market, and the shadow of X disrupted advertising.
The dreams of his comrades were crushed time and again, and workshops disappeared one after another.

Yet—.
The cold weight of the gem on his fingertips pulled the old artisan back to reality.

"It's not over yet. The light is here."

The faint hum of the polishing machine blended with the red glow of the furnace.
Eventually, that light merged with a gigantic pulse echoing from a secret underground factory, known to no one.
Sparks flew like stars, and the polished gems reflected light like fragments of a ship's armor.

The old artisan suddenly looked up at the night sky.
There, countless stars—and the illusion of a future battleship, yet unseen by anyone—floated.

Its name: "Musashi."
Bearing the soul of jewelry and the pride of artisans, it would surely re-emerge from this very land.

As long as the fire is kept alive, hope will not die.
And that flame would be the signal to usher in the era of space warfare.

To be continued—