The people of Lion's Castle had all been put to work.
Under Evelyn's direction, the three hundred people living in Lion's Den, along with the residents of the four Military Forts, were tasked with felling trees and building the enormous framework for the waterwheel and the elevated aqueduct.
The smithy in Bryn's Lion's Den kept its forge burning day and night, turning out the connecting iron fittings and the vital central bearings.
Meanwhile, the bank of the Fork River's swiftest stretch had become a massive construction site, bustling with activity.
Suleiman merely wandered around, drawing on the scant, hazy knowledge of physics in his mind to offer a few constructive suggestions at key moments.
Nearly every resident witnessed and remembered this. It was as if nothing in the world could stump their lord. Whenever they ran into trouble, one word from him was enough to solve it. There was no doubt about it: their lord was a noble blessed by the Seven Gods' Smith.
Half a month later, a colossal structure, like a silent giant, finally stood on the banks of the Three Forks River.
It was too enormous. The people standing beneath it looked as tiny as children.
Word spread across the entire domain on the day the waterwheel was installed. Nearly every landowning resident flocked to the riverbank to watch, a dense crowd packing both banks until they were impassable. Even the residents who worked in coal mining and rabbit farming, as well as those from Crossroads Town, came to see the spectacle. They stopped working and set aside everything they were doing, just to witness this legendary blessing of the Seven Gods—the Smith's miracle.
The people held their breath. The only sound in the air was the rushing river.
Suleiman stood on high ground and addressed the