Princess Fighter: Search for the Throne

XLVI

While Mriga struggled to understand his words, Shaurya asked quietly, "Have you guys broken up?"

Tonight is a night of surprises. The man who would not say more than ten words to her throughout the training night, not only exchanged his saliva with her but also investigated her deepest secrets.

More importantly, what about his own behavior? Why didn't he panic after such a big incident?

He had never exchanged kisses like this even with Yash and Shaurya was none other than... Who is he to her?

He shies away from exploring the answer to that for now.

"I.. we don't match," his tone hinted that he didn't want to talk about the topic any further.

Even Shaurya was reluctant to bring it up again, but he just wanted to make sure that what he understood a while ago was the correct interpretation of the situation.

His heart sank back thinking he was no longer bound to the stinking man.

"Why do you always walk so slowly?" saying so, he grabbed his hand and started running down the hill.

Mriga's screams were heard echoing that night, long after they had come down from the hill.

...****************...

East Zila

It was time for him to return. He had gathered whatever information he could in this span of time. Prithvi went up to the rooftop of the brothel.

Relieved! She finally managed to shower after five days covered in dirt. But even now, he had put on another identity and intended to spend the night as a customer, with no one but his link knowing the truth.

He scanned the surroundings carefully for the umpteenth time before taking out the eagle that was barely hidden from the dark end of the terrace. He gave the eagle a punch, gesturing it to fly with the message he had tied to his feet.

Unfortunately, his trip, though informative, has raised a new set of problems before him. However, no solution may seem promising enough to solve it.

Did mother earth ask for a lot of sacrifices this time?

Sighing, he descended to go towards the room assigned to him but stopped in his tracks.

Thankfully, he was still in the shadows and the people in front of him had yet to register his presence. His heart was racing, but he had no time to ponder. The implications of this new development are starting to hit him little by little.

After the corridor became empty again, he walked into the room as the woman waited for him and his orders.

"I want you to stay awake tonight. It's important for you to do it. I want you to take a good look at the two men who entered the two-door cabin from the one on the right. I don't know when they'll step out but when they do, they'll have to cross your room to get off. That's when you'll put their faces in your memories and next time you see one of them, alone or with someone else, send me a message right away. Do this every time you see them, even if it's ten days in a row. However, use a different pigeon courier each time. I left enough money for you for the next quarter, "he spoke in a soft tone standing at the door, lest those people come out now.

"Does this mean you'll be back tonight?" the woman asked.

With a nod, he gathered his sparse belongings from the room and left quickly after reminding him once again of his instructions.

Prithvi replaced the three carriages before finally reaching North Zilla, the next morning. Her eagle had been sent to the capital the night before and she did not want to risk sending a message to Charulata through any other means.

She was tired, hungry, and a little cold, but she waited in the public bathroom near her home. This was the safest place to get his attention since he had come without telling him.

"Guruji, what are you doing here?" Shaurya's hesitant voice came from nearby.

Worried about him, he seemed to be asleep while standing on the wall of the restroom. Good thing Shaurya found it here.

"Go and call your teacher. Tell him I'm waiting for him. Make sure you don't wake the others. Bela is a light sleeper but I don't know about her husband. Tell her to decide on a place where all three of us can have a conversation but not in the same place as last time. I will follow you there," he instructed without bothering to answer Shaurya's question.

The student knows better than to ask him about obvious questions like the last time or why he looks so tired or how he knows about the sleep behavior of others so confidently…

All he could feel was that it was urgent for him to risk his disguise and search for them here, without planning it in advance.

When Shaurya first came to Mriga's house, he had conducted a thorough survey of the place as his ingrained habit. He knew there was a rickety door that opened into the farm's backyard from home. He decided to go inside from there.

Despite only finishing training with Bela a few hours ago, Shaurya was unable to sleep. His mind was filled with Mriga's taste and bad breath until now. It was as if he had been addicted at first and had coveted it again, desperately.

...----------------...

Shaurya has decided to take a walk to take his mind off Mriga and her lure when he meets his boss outside the bathroom.

Standing outside Mriga's house, she put away all those distracting thoughts, and focused on her task ahead. He climbed up the barbed wire of the farm and reached the back door. As Prithvi predicted, it was not difficult to attract his attention. Bela probably woke up with a creak at the door and waited for her to enter the room.

Her curious eyes met her eyes in a dimly lit room. The rising sun had yet to penetrate well inside the room. They stepped out of the house through the same door.

After listening to his story, he ransacked his head, thinking of a suitable meeting point at this hour.

"Take a pair of bows and enough arrows. We're going back to the training hill" he told Shaurya.

Not only was the area usually deserted, it also had enough gaps in it for them to sit in without any visible danger. He did not turn around to see if Prithvi was already here or not. He trusted enough of his ability to know that he would be able to follow them undetected.

When he finally entered, Bela was surprised to see Prithvi's appearance. He saw her just a few days ago. The thinness of his cheekbones and the gloom in his eyes were a striking addition to his face. But he recovered quickly and gestured for her to sit on the cold floor.

Unfortunately, there was no furniture or comfort whatsoever in this place.

Thankfully, ever since Mriga started training here, she insisted on keeping food for herself.

"Go look in the basement. There should have been some dried fruit and maybe something left behind by Mriga, since the last time," he told Shaurya.

While they were waiting for him to return, Prithvi told him about what was happening around him.

After this trip, he realized that the situation was much worse than he had thought before and he currently needed a person he could trust more than before.

"I'm afraid I'm gonna have to ask you to be active in the field. In addition, our original plan required radical change. I'll go to the capital from here and won't be able to get out again, anytime soon. So, the execution will depend entirely on the two of you, ” he said.

Bela nodded in confusion while thinking hard.

When Shaurya returned, he saw the two old men sitting pensively. Placing the food in front of them, he knelt down and waited. Until now, Bela had only given him a rough idea of what he should do.

For him, it seemed like the best solution to his current situation because in this way, he would be able to serve his country more effectively.

"Shaurya and Charulata didi, our goals and hence the target have changed," in his intense concentration on the details of the mission, he did not even realize that he had mentioned Bela's real name.

But none of them showed it to him. Bela encourages him to eat something while she explains the new plan.

Over the next two hours, both Bela and Prithvi discussed the various permutations and combinations of problems before them. Shaurya found himself amazed at those two thoughts.

It suddenly flashed across his mind that he had not even managed to explore his thoughts while the two teachers before him had reached dizzying heights in terms of game plan. At the end of the meeting, the three turned serious.

...----------------...

Prithvi goes straight to the almost empty Gurukul and meets Ramanujam, who has been waiting for him since morning.

"I was delayed because of an unexpected problem. Send this letter to the palace, immediately. After that, bring Saraswati here and start cleaning up the place. See you later tonight after my meeting with the Queen," before Ramanujam could ask or say anything, Prithvi had left again.

He got home and closed the door behind him.

With a small groan, he slid onto the ground and covered his face with his hands.

"Am I ready for this?" he asked himself, sitting on the dusty floor of his quiet house.

He sat there for a long time before forcing his tired body to wake up. There are many things to do and time is important again.

Thinking back on the conversation with Bela and Shaurya, he smiled wryly. The way his senior controlled the meeting, it felt like time had spun back. His ability to read situations and offer radical solutions was not affected by his dismissal from the spy team. If anything, he's sharper than ever.

He held on for a while after the meeting to observe the 'hill' he had changed. It was an understatement that he left impressed.

Soon her time came and she went to a brothel that had served the country for over a century.

Rani Samyukta wore a muslin saree and stood still in the dark room, but her mind was muddled, even, since the last meeting with Prithvi.

...----------------...

Rani Samyukta directed her gaze across the room and sought inspiration from the sparkling energy there. As he had been told to her and the queens before, this was the place where Chandragarh's current blueprint was developed by a visionary and charismatic woman.

Devyani Bai is a legend who only lives in whispers and rumors. But those who know the truth realize its unparalleled vision and wisdom. That's what Samyukta is looking for right now to deal with the problem at hand.

He only wished he had it to be able to continue steering the country forward until it passed on to his successor.

...****************...

Northern Zilla

In accordance with the new action plan, Bela has started teaching Shaurya and Mriga aside from physical and mental training. They spend the whole day with him now, and then again.

Prithvi has confirmed that an obscure letter arrived that morning from police headquarters in the Northern zilla stating that Bela has been allowed to take time off to help her daughter prepare for the upcoming Queen's competition. His junior has been asked to take over responsibility over the next few weeks.

On the same morning, Mriga was also given a similar version by her mother. Bela takes her aside and tells her that she thinks Mriga does have the nature to be a good queen and she has to fill out an application for the competition.

To put it simply, Mriga was surprised by her mother's enthusiasm. In all previous occasions, including when he suggested joining the Administration department, Bela had never been so firm with her opinion. Although she was unsure whether she wanted to enter the competition or not, Mriga believed in her mother the most and did not hesitate to nod in agreement with the suggestion.

Actually, Bela was indifferent to Mriga's participation in the competition. He believes that there are many ways to serve the country and that is just one way to do it.

To be honest, this was something that should have been Mriga's sole decision, but for the next ten days, it was, Bela needs to teach Shaurya everything under the sun about their kingdom and the region around them without attracting the curiosity of anyone, including his own family. That would be a crash course in geopolitics, economics, and strategic warfare.

For Bela, there was no one who exceeded her people and hence she did not hesitate to push her daughter in such a way. He also felt that Mriga was not too affected by him, in one way or another and also, that education would not harm him.

The three of them were in the living room of his house. Bela had drawn a rough map and given them extensive lessons about the countries around them.

Chandragarh is surrounded by three main neighboring countries. Two of these can be reached by land and the last by sea.

Sapsindhu is the largest of these and also the person who shares the worst diplomatic relations with Chandragarh, not to mention that it is also the largest and fiercest of Chandragarh's neighbors. Unfortunately, geographically, it was the closest to the queen Kingdom.

Despite the extensive trade, cultural, and diplomatic relations between the two countries, there were enough spies and moles on each side to fill the entire army.

King Amrendra was a ruthless ruler who believed that dictatorship was the best way to control his people.

Although their country follows the principles of communism, rampant corruption has been rampant even at the molecular level of the country, making it a capitalist state.

The king's son Mahendra was a close imitation of his father and his ideals were in line with his father's ideals. The king had two daughters, Kritika and Avantika.

The girls imitate their mother and are beautiful but empty-headed and without their own aspirations. They have been trained since childhood to be the perfect commodity of exchange through marriage as is the norm in the royal world.

But Kritika falls in love with one of the male escorts. The couple fled before their affection was found and punished by the king.

Until now, they keep moving, from one place to another. No one knows their whereabouts. The king barely acknowledged it and placed his hopes on his son and his remaining daughter.

As a gesture of goodwill on his part, he has sent a proposal on behalf of Mahendra for the next queen waiting for Chandragarh, who will be elected in a few months. But, the queen's current pettiness left her disappointed again.

Why could the foolish woman not see that the alliance between the two countries would make them the strongest in the region?

It would also allow them to conquer other small countries. King Amrendra dreams of ruling a large consolidated kingdom in this lifetime!

It was a dream that his ancestors had. But the stubborn women who rule Chandragarh have been roadblocks for the past hundred years and have prevented the pinnacle of Sapsindhu's longstanding aspirations.

But Amrendra was determined that he would not allow a woman of narrow and foolish sight to stand in the way of glory.

Unfortunately, Sapsindhu relies heavily on Chandragarh for commodities and services and has even managed to accumulate trade deficits over the past few years. Chandragarh's fiscal policies are laudable and dynamically changing, according to the needs of their entrepreneurs and traders.

Therefore, their export-import ratio is very healthy.

"I have to find a way to bring Chandragarh under my control. That was the only obstacle in my path to writing the history of gold!!" King Amrendra thought seriously.