The new year dawned on an empire that was no longer a collection of separate entities, but a single, interconnected organism. The "ground war" of diversification had been brutal, but it was forging unexpected and powerful synergies that began to pay dividends no one could have predicted.
The first sign came from Patel Agri-Sciences. Sanjay's team, working with local farmers in Maharashtra, identified a critical problem: a lack of reliable, real-time market price information. Farmers were at the mercy of middlemen who often low-balled them.
Harsh saw the solution not in agriculture, but in technology. He tasked a small, dedicated team at Bharat Labs with a new, urgent project: a simple, rugged, battery-powered electronic device. It would have a small screen and a single function—to connect to a central server via a nascent cellular data network and display live commodity prices from major markets. They called it the "Krishi Mitra" (Farmer's Friend).
It was a perfect fusion of Bharat Electronics' hardware prowess and Patel Agri-Sciences' on-the-ground needs. The device was an instant, revolutionary success. It empowered farmers, cemented their loyalty to the Patel brand, and provided a tangible, socially beneficial use-case for the technology being developed in the secretive "Sanskrit" project.
The second synergy was even more profound. Patel Infrastructure's ongoing highway project in Gujarat ran into a problem: a crucial bridge design required a specific grade of high-tensile steel that was too expensive to import. The project was facing delays and cost overruns.
Vikram brought the problem to Harsh. Instead of looking for a new supplier, Harsh looked inward. He instructed the materials science division of Bharat Labs—a team originally assembled to research better heat sinks for microchips—to analyze the problem. Using their expertise in metallurgy and material stress analysis, they devised a modified, locally-sourced steel alloy and a revised structural design that met the specifications at a fraction of the cost.
The solution not only saved the project but also resulted in a new patent for the Patel Group. The knowledge gained from building microchips had just been used to build a bridge. The lines between "high-tech" and "infrastructure" were blurring.
The third synergy was strategic. The success of the "Bharat Mega-Store" provided Harsh with something invaluable: direct, unfiltered consumer data. He saw which products sold, how customers interacted with them, and what features they desired. This data, once the domain of Sanjay's marketing team, was now fed directly back to Deepak's engineers at Bharat Labs.
It was this feedback loop that sparked the idea for the "Bharat SmartOne," a budget-friendly calculator with a revolutionary feature for its price point: a built-in unit converter for currency, weights, and measures. It was a direct response to what the retail team observed—small shopkeepers and students struggling with manual calculations. The product flew off the shelves, a testament to the power of a vertically integrated, data-driven empire.
Harsh presided over a monthly review meeting where the heads of all divisions were present. Sanjay presented the soaring sales of the "Krishi Mitra." Vikram showcased the now-on-schedule bridge, praising the Labs' "miracle alloy." Deepak unveiled the prototype for the "SmartOne," crediting the retail team's insights.
For the first time, they weren't just reporting to a CEO; they were talking to each other, discovering how their pieces fit into a larger, more powerful whole. The initial skepticism about diversification had vanished, replaced by a sense of being part of something revolutionary.
Harsh leaned back, watching his team collaborate. The Aethelred Trust had given him financial omnipotence, but it was a solitary power. This—this organic, synergistic growth—was a different kind of power. It was collective, resilient, and self-reinforcing.
The sovereign had returned to the ground, not as a retreat, but to forge his separate kingdoms into a single, unified continent. The Patel Group was no longer a portfolio of companies; it was a single, breathing entity, its strength derived from the interconnectedness of its parts. The ground war was over. The era of synergistic empire had begun.