The aroma of fresh jasmine still lingered in the palace halls, remnants of Sharath Virayan Darsha's grand wedding to Princess Elina. The kingdom had witnessed weeks of celebration, from torch-lit dances to golden fireworks painting the skies. Yet, beneath the smiles and festive echoes, Sharath's mind stirred restlessly.
A few days after the final rituals, Sharath rose before dawn and donned a simple cloak. Slipping past the palace guards and courtiers who still buzzed with post-celebratory lethargy, he mounted a humble steed and began a solitary journey across the land he had been granted.
His eyes, once accustomed to gleaming laboratories and parchment blueprints, now scanned the streets of villages and market towns. What he saw turned his stomach.
Children played barefoot near ditches overflowing with stagnant water. Sickly elders lay slumped in corners, flies buzzing over them like a shroud. Feces littered the cobblestone roads. The air reeked not just of poverty, but of abandonment.
In the town of Kartha, a frail boy tried dragging a broken cart through sludge while coughing violently. Nearby, a woman attempted to fetch drinking water from a muddy, shared trough swarming with insects.
Sharath dismounted and sank to his knees.
"This... This is *not* the kingdom I envisioned."
He returned to the palace before dusk, face shadowed with grim resolve.
---
By the next morning, messengers on royal horses galloped across the capital, summoning nobles, engineers, physicians, merchant lords, and even his father-in-law, the Emperor's most trusted advisors. That evening, the Grand Assembly Hall buzzed with murmurs.
The Lord of Innovation had called a *summit.*
Sharath stood in full formal attire, yet unlike a noble—he wore his engineer's gloves and carried with him an iron scroll case instead of a ceremonial sword.
The Emperor sat at the high dais beside Elina, visibly intrigued. The nobles leaned in. Sharath unrolled a thick parchment onto the presentation table, revealing a detailed infrastructural design unlike anything they had seen.
**A Vision for Tomorrow**
He began, voice steady but passionate:
> "Esteemed nobles, merchants, lords, and royals—what I witnessed across our lands is not poverty alone, but suffering born of *neglect*. Yet I bring not despair, but blueprints. Let us build a kingdom that shines from its streets to its spires."
Gasps and murmurs spread as he unveiled three interconnected plans:
**1. The Royal Sanitation & Hygiene Framework:**
* Drainage systems along every town and village road, built using a simple gravity-fed design.* Covered sewage tunnels to prevent contamination of water bodies.* Public latrines with composting systems to convert waste to usable fertilizer.
**2. The Stone Road Network (SRN):**
* Concrete roads linking every settlement within 5 leagues to a major road.* Cobblestone pathways in inner cities to maintain aesthetics.* Specialized drainage channels beside roads to prevent water stagnation.
**3. The Borewell and Clean Water Access Plan:**
* Installation of borewells powered by wind and hydro batteries.* Community hand pumps linked to filters designed by Princess Elina.* Clean water tanks elevated for gravity distribution to households.
Sharath paused and looked at the stunned assembly.
> "The cost is high, but the returns are *immeasurable*. Lower diseases, increased workforce, safer transport, trade expansion. And for every noble here—greater prosperity, larger markets, healthier laborers."
The Merchant Guildmaster whispered to a rival, "If this works, our profits could triple."
A rival noble scoffed, "And who will *build* these miracles, Lord of Innovation?"
Sharath was ready.
> "Local craftsmen will be trained. Every contract will require them to hire and pay local workers. The kingdom prospers together. I do not want dependency—I want empowerment."
Another noble barked, "Who decides the contractors? Who supervises the work?"
Sharath looked to the Emperor.
> "I request a new council—The Council of Reconstruction, including engineers, medics, and merchants. Every region will have a representative to oversee and report monthly. This won't be managed by power—it will be managed by *accountability*."
A tense silence followed.
Then, the Emperor slowly stood.
> "I gave you a title and land, Sharath Virayan Darsha. But what you give us today is a new age."
He raised his scepter.
> "Let it be known across all lands: this decree is sanctioned. The era of innovation has become the era of *reformation*."
Thunderous applause erupted. Even the coldest noble bowed slightly.
---
That night, as Sharath returned to his chambers, Elina waited with a warm lamp.
> "You went to see the truth," she said, taking his hand. "And now you've lit a path for all of us."
Sharath smiled faintly, the pain of what he had witnessed still etched in his heart.
> "The roads will be built with stone," he murmured. "But our future... with compassion."
As the stars twinkled over the imperial city, the kingdom of Eldara began its transformation—not by war or wealth, but by a young lord's daring vision, inked in soot and laid in stone.