The success of SK Sheets snowballed. By the following winter, the mills—now seventeen strong—teetered under demand, threatening to trade quality for volume. Sharath summoned his leadership team: Konrad, Mira, Henrik, and six shift captains. They spread production logs across the tavern's back room, picked over shipments returned for excess wrinkling, blurred ink, weak corners, or unacceptable yellowing.
"Masterwork in every bale, or find another line," Konrad barked. "But how?"
Sharath proposed process control. Each batch now bore date, shift, and person responsible for every step: pulping, mixing, screening, pressing, drying, cutting, smoothing, counting. Error rates plummeted as accountability grew.
Next, they instituted standardized tests. Each shipment's first sheet underwent tear testing, drip tests (three drops of ink must not blur), and fold endurance (ten bends per axis). Failure pegged the culprit—helped, not punished—through retraining and mentorship.
With quality on track, quantity could climb. They tripled the number of drying racks and installed simple gears to automate rack rotation, air circulation, and sheet flipping. Mills pooled surplus laborers for peak demand, while apprentice supervisors learned to schedule rest breaks that maintained focus as fatigue set in.
Mira sent surveyors to every user: scribes, priests, students, even merchants wrapping dried fish. Their feedback informed further tweaks: grain direction for folding, sizing compounds for sharper print, watermarking for fraud prevention. Within a year, the prized "five-star SK Sheet" became currency among record-keepers and magistrates.
Word reached the capital. Royal inspectors toured every mill, then decreed that only certified SK Sheets could carry the king's seal. The guild ledger grew fat with steady orders, wages rose, and the kingdom's farmers—who now sold flax and rag at fair prices—enjoyed their first surpluses.
By the fifth spring, Riverbend hosted its first Paper Festival. Children competed to decorate and display the best handmade books. The town square filled with banners, scrolls, and staged readings; a printer from Eldridge set up a portable press and offered a free page to anyone who composed a poem or story. That day, fifty new authors were made, including three grandmothers who had never before written their own name.
"Quality draws respect," Sharath observed, watching merchants and scribes alike argue over the virtues of various mill colors. "Quantity spreads benefit—but never let quantity water down the worth of accomplishment."
The legacy was clear: every improvement multiplied the reach and meaning of knowledge, making the paper mill not just the beating heart of industry but the anchor of a literate, capable, hopeful kingdom.