Border provinces noticed.
So did rival kings.
The Queen's spymaster reported foreign agents posing as masons, scribes, and engineers, sneaking into Gearrest just to watch the mills.
Sharath responded by publishing open schematics. "Let them build," he said. "We win when the world runs on our ideas."
In unstable territories, bandits-turned-guards protected distribution routes in exchange for water pumps and road wages. Hungry villages stabilized under industrial guidance.
Even the King of Enthera requested a tour.
Gearrest had become not just a village—but a diplomatic lever.