The proclamation echoed across the realm:
"Let it be known: Sharath of Navaleon is hereby titled Baron of Gearrest, for innovations in the service of crown and citizen alike."
The nobles raged.
"Baron of what? A village? A workshop?"
But the King, old and calculating, saw deeper.
He approved the pact: shared investments in infrastructure, decentralized machinery access, non-hereditary stewardship.
It was unprecedented.
And for the first time in Navaleon's history, a baron rose from the masses, not from blood.