May 11 – May 25, 2015
The estate had begun to resemble the shape he had once envisioned in the solitude of his hidden dimension. No longer just a stretch of cleared land and scattered saplings, it now bore the bones of something monumental.
The outer walls rose like a fortress, though designed with subtlety. Instead of gray concrete slabs, they were layered with living stone and embedded greenery, blending into the forest rather than scarring it. Creepers were already crawling along the edges, guided by Aarya's micro-controlled irrigation system, giving the sense that the walls had been standing for decades.
At dawn, mist often curled across the ground, clinging to the rising walls and gates. Birds perched upon bamboo scaffolds, unbothered by the quiet hum of hidden machines that worked faster than any human crew could explain.
The main gates, though minimalistic in form, were works of art—polished teak doors with iron inlays patterned in ancient Vedic symbols, each carrying subtle sensor grids invisible to the human eye. At night, they glowed faintly, disguised as decorative lighting but serving as part of the estate's advanced defense network.
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MC's POV
He stood on the hill slope overlooking the site, hands folded behind his back. Workers moved like ants below, some human, most machine. The local contractors thought the speed came from imported prefab materials. Only he knew the truth—that stealth drones delivered precision-engineered blocks straight out of his dimension's fabricators each night, slotted seamlessly into place by robotic arms that folded away with dawn.
Aarya's voice whispered into his earpiece.
> Aarya: "Outer perimeter is now 72% complete. Estimated completion: four days. Local perception rating: moderate curiosity, low suspicion."
He nodded, satisfied.
This was the balance he had to maintain—grand enough to awe, subtle enough not to provoke.
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Side POV – Village Gossip
At the small tea stall near the road junction, whispers had already begun.
"Have you seen those walls?" an elderly man asked, squinting into the steam of his cup. "Stone stacked like temple walls of old—but who builds like that in these times?"
The shopkeeper smirked. "Some rich NRI maybe. They say the trucks only come after midnight. Cement bags vanish by morning. No one sees the laborers leave."
A young man, home from college, leaned in. "Not an NRI. My cousin at the panchayat said the land records are sealed under special order. Government must be involved."
The conversation drifted toward rumor and conspiracy—secret army bases, hidden treasure, even ghosts—but one phrase kept circling in hushed tones:
"Mystery billionaire."
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MC's Private Thoughts
That word—billionaire—meant nothing to him anymore. His wealth wasn't a number but a flowing river of resources, invisible to the outside world. Yet he needed these rumors, just enough to mask the reality. A story of a wealthy recluse was far safer than the truth of an interdimensional mastermind.
He touched the stone of the new wall, still cool with the morning dew. For the first time since this second life began, he allowed himself a small smile.
The House of Dreams was no longer just in his head.
It was rising from the earth.
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