Princess Fighter: Search for the Throne

Chapter 82: Obscene Mind and Second Stage–First Day

"I have rejected the suitor that mom and dad chose for you recently," Vidyut's choice of topic surprised Vindhya.

He did not expect this conversation to happen now.

With raised eyebrows, he looked at her to ask further.

"Do you believe me?" he asked her very seriously.

Vindhya nodded her head without hesitation.

At her response, her lips curved upwards in an affectionate smile and she patted her head, saying,

"I want the best for you. I know you were hurt by that jerk, but he belongs to your past now. I won't let anything like that happen again. When the time is right, I will help you choose the right man. You just concentrate on the competition for now."

Vindhya found herself crying despite trying hard to maintain her composure. He nodded and lowered his eyes, not expecting him to see the pain that appeared in his eyes due to Yash's reference.

He was so happy that he said no to his parents. Although he had talked about the fact that he had forgotten about Yash and wanted to continue, he knew that he was not ready yet.

Pounding after a while, he tried to change the topic and told about what had happened in the competition the previous day.

Vidyut was thinking hard for some time before he said,

"Don't think about it too much. You should not refuse if help is offered voluntarily at such a crucial time, but do not let your guard down for even a second, no matter how. You trust that man."

He nodded his head. As expected, her brother's mind was completely in sync with his own. She was glad that she came to see him today.

.

.

The night before Day 3

Mriga felt her head was covered in wool. For the past thirty-six hours, he had only seen maps, numbers, names, and more. But at this moment, he was sure that he did not even know his own name, forget about the others.

Is this him?

Is he going to fail?

Yash looked at her miserable face and held back *******.

This woman!

"Can you stop feeling sorry for yourself? You know that there are forty-four other girls who are working hard, if not harder at the moment" he said.

He gave her a death look and replied,

"It's easier to preach than practice, isn't it? You have ruled me for these past two days and feel quite satisfied about it. I don't expect sympathy but at least you can accept it either against me or it's too hard?"

Yash did not know how he stopped himself at that moment to go and hug her. But he knows that he cannot do it at the moment.

Sitting in the shade of a large lamp, half of his face was in shadow, accentuating his lips and the frown that was above him at this moment.

Her hairline was stuck under her chin, making her bend her fingers in her palm, lest she reach out to feel it.

"Let's go" he said, suddenly standing up.

He realized that he had reached his level of saturation and it was futile to do any further.

Mriga looked at him as if he had lost his mind and did not bother moving his butt from the cross-legged position he was sitting on the floor.

"I thought if you continued to sit here, it would be difficult to immediately distinguish between the floor and you. Just because the physical assessment is complete, does that mean you will behave like a snail for the next time?" he pushed it intentionally.

"We're going to take a walk to remove the cobwebs from your skull," saying so, he stretched out his hand.

But he brushed it off and got up with a hmph.he was not sure but he could feel him cursing it slowly.

They have been preparing on the outer outskirts of the Admin building until now. Due to security concerns, Yash was never invited into the place and the boys used the excuse that they only got permission to use the page for practice purposes.

As soon as they took a few steps down the road towards another building, Abhirath reached them.

He brought two glasses of Mriga's favorite milk.

"Is it finished?" he frowned and directed the question towards Yash after Mriga took the glass from his hand and moved away.

"He has reached his limit. Whatever we do now will only be counterproductive," Yash shrugged.

He felt annoyed because he thought that he might get these precious few minutes with him where they would not discuss strategies and quizzes. But now with the presence of Abhirath, it was impossible.

Abhirath looked at Mriga who was wandering around with a puzzled expression on his face.

"What do you think the chances are?" he continued to talk to Yash in a low tone.

Although he dislikes the man, he cannot change the fact that Yash knows Mriga better than him and also that he has gone to great lengths in preparing materials and information for him to learn.

When it came to the second stage, what Abhirath feared was the lack of preparation time Mriga had gained over the others.

Even during the holidays, he was an apprentice and although it helped him in improving his physical skills, he was left behind in the theoretical field. Currently, his lack of knowledge of some things did not make him uneasy. But they're running out of time.

Yash studied the man in front of him carefully.

Looking at her expression that was truly concerned, she suppressed the uneasiness inside and replied neutrally,

"We can't change the facts. His only hope is that he gets what he knows right. Things he hasn't learned are out of our reach, really."

.

Gurukul, the night before the exam

While Abhirath and Yash were talking, Mriga walked back towards them. His mood was slightly better after the warm drink reached his internal organs.

"What's next?" he asked, his eyes moving between the two of them.

Abhirath spoke with his now familiar demeanor,

"I'm taking you back to the dorm. Go to sleep immediately when you go up. DON'T have long, nonsensical conversation sessions with Ishani. You can't do it tonight."

Mriga gritted her teeth in frustration and spat out,

"You ... What's wrong with all of you? Talk to me like this. Just hang. Regardless of the outcome, once this damn matter is over, I'll have you guys wander around and wander around like my slaves."

Abhirath crossed his arms across his chest, letting his milk glass dangle to the side and asked in an amused voice,

"And what makes you think that we'll let you do it? You should thank us for our help at this time and not make it sound as if you were the one who helped us. In fact, looking at your current attitude, I wonder about your suitability as a QIT if you miraculously happen to get there."

He stomped his feet in frustration and walked away from there, regardless of whether he followed her or not.

Yash looked at the pampering expression on the other man's face and for a moment, it was deja vu for him. He could remember himself with the exact same emotions on his face many times. How did he let her get away from him?

Why would he take it for granted?

He no longer fought the fact that it was his fault that this man could sneak between him and his girlfriend.

With bloody eyes, he saw Abhirath walking close behind Mriga, and then leaned over to mutter something in her ear so he pushed her back and she laughed out loud.

Yash is desperate to push the man away and reclaim his place - tease him, spoil him, fight with him, love him!

.

"Bela asked me about your response to her proposal again today. I think he's a bit impatient already" Gayatri reported obediently to Ahilya.

Over the past few days, their relationship was friendly on the surface but a strained undercurrent was flowing far below.

"I will seek an appointment with my father soon" Ahilya said.

"There's movement from another camp?" he further asked.

"Strategic Minister Rudradev was summoned by the king tonight to his private room. None of the servers were allowed to stay for the meeting, so I haven't had any details of their conversations and I'm still waiting for word from the minister's residence if there's any unusual movement after that. But as it turned out, he did not return to his room after this late-night meeting, "he said, maintaining a mask of modesty.

Had it been as usual, right now, they would have speculated about the various reasons for this late-night visit. But the princess did not move to share her thoughts.

Gayatri waited for a while but then when she saw there was no attempt by the princess to restrain her, she hid her disappointment and bowed, excused herself.

As his steps receded, he hoped in his heart that Ahilya would call him to stay the night. But when his feet reached the door, there was still no sound behind him.

Ahilya was aware that Gayatri was expecting something to return to its original place. But even though she knows, she doesn't really understand the impact of the fact that Ahilya grew up in a very fractured environment where even her mother didn't look for her for no reason behind it.

When he finds out that Gayatri has sacrificed and changed his whole life course just to follow him, his initial thought is - WHY?

Gayatri didn't even know him well enough at the time. Then why did he make such a severe change in his life without any purpose?

Moreover, during the years they had been together, not once did he bring it up. Had Ahilya done something so big, she would have wanted her partner to know about it.

With all the thoughts spinning in his head, he found it hard to return to his comfort zone with Gayatri.

And then there's a burning attraction to the man, Veer!

By the time Ahilya turned sixteen, she was already in a relationship with Gayatri. During that summer, a cute man from one of the affluent Himprayag states accompanied his father to the capital. He had seen Ahilya and fallen in love, or so he claimed at the time.

Over the next two months, he pursues her with all his might and Ahilya, who believes herself to be immune to male charm, finds herself pulled towards him. At that moment, Gayatri's teary face made her feel guilty and restrained.

But at that moment, the two girls realize the true orientation of Ahilya, her ability to feel attraction to both sexes.

The topic has never been raised between the two since Gayatri mentioned it when Ahilya's mother proposed a marriage alliance.

In Veer's case, it was Ahilya who found herself swaying towards him from the first moment she stared at his delicious body. The man's rude attitude made him want to master it. The more indifferent he was to her, the more he wanted to enslave her!

"The King has requested your presence, Princess Ahilya," his servant came and told him, out of a slightly indecent mind.

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

The next morning, Gurukul

A multiple-choice question was scheduled to be held this morning and Mriga entered the large auditorium along with other participants half an hour before the scheduled time. It was a one-hour test and would contain forty questions and each question would have three options to choose from.

Abhirath was pacing inside a small reception area in the Admin building. Neither Prithvi nor Saraswati were in the predetermined place and as a result, the apprentices were free to run to that place.

"Can you stop pacing the floor. Your movements make me dizzy" complained Vandit.

"Look at him, it felt as if he was the one performing for the QIT competition," teased Nirbhay and banged his fists with Vandit.

Vandit laughed out loud and replied,

"Well, you're not completely off the mark. The pain or gain is related to 'almost her boyfriend', right."

Yash did not accompany this boy to the Admin building.

He had mentioned that he would go for some urgent work.

"I have a way to free you all from boredom and nervousness" Chiranjeev suddenly spoke up.

Abhirath stopped his steps and looked at him.

All this time, Chiranjeev was in Prithvi's room and had just come out. In his hand, he held several large parchments and Abhirath realized his intentions.

But Vandit is slow to understand it and asks Chiranjev to share his idea.

"Because your recent pet training suffered because you helped Mriga in her duties, I want to use this free time to examine your current knowledge. Please take each parchment and start detailing the respective parts you have learned," he said with a poker face.

Nirbhay stood up in protest and said,

"Uh.really, we are too nervous at the moment on behalf of Mriga and will not be able to do our duty fairly."

Chiranjeev shook his head and replied with an innocent expression,

"I'm aware of your 'concern' against Mriga and hence this is the perfect antidote to your anxiety. Take a sheet and start. You have forty-five minutes. It was more than enough time to complete this and reach the auditorium to wait for Mriga before she finished her exam and came out."

.

Inside the exam room

Mriga was very nervous from the moment she woke up and until she did not receive the question paper. However, as soon as he saw a thick pile of parchment, a smile slowly appeared on his face. His fear of lack of preparation vanished.

Unlike questions raised directly from a textbook, the format of the question on the scroll in front of it is all in the form of sections.

A situation has been presented and participants are asked to choose a solution from the choices about what action is appropriate to take in the situation.

There are questions related to hunger, war, policy changes, etc., but the good part is that data is provided and all they have to do is understand it rather than rely on their rote learning skills.

Mriga soon realized that the problem paper was not as simple as it seemed at first glance. After surveying a few questions back and forth, he returned to the instruction sheet to read the fine print again.

Uh! Therehewas. Under the main instruction set regarding their names, badge numbers, and other directions, a line is written in lowercase letters that reads

Contestants must tick the correct answer, regardless of the number.

"So, a question can have many correct answers but not all questions have many answers. Ahhh, I know that. How could the paper made by Guruji Prithvi be so simple?" Mriga muttered softly and re-examined his tried question.

Thankfully, he had come across such a question from the start where he could see more than one answer, making it back to the beginning of the newspaper.

Paying attention to the clock, he chewed on one end of his feather pen to dissipate his nervous energy, while contemplating the options given.

In many questions, it feels like all the options given are the right ones at first glance. The paper made the contestants think critically instead of just matching what they knew in their heads with what was in front of them.

The second stage was a complicated phase as the number of girls who qualified for the next round would instantly be reduced to ten from forty-five, making the elimination percentage much higher than before.

Somewhere away from Mriga, Vindhya is angry secretly as she tries her second-true question. He was shocked when he first saw the paper format. This multiple choice is unlike its predecessor.

He certainly knew, because his parents had spent a lot of money to find the person who designed this test twenty-two years ago. Vindhya has been training under women who have been part of the queen's previous reign and are now retired.

Rani Samyukta is again trying to play smart. What's problem?

Why couldn't he stick to a format that was successfully prevalent in the past?

He himself was a product of such a selection process.

By changing it so much, was he trying to prove that the previous system had been flawed and he was the wrong choice?

Vindhya ended up wasting a lot of energy at the beginning of the exam, angry at this thought.

After that, she became so busy trying to adapt to the changing format that she skipped reading the small print until a crumpled little leaf landed next to her foot.

Vindhya did not dare look up to see who threw it, but pulled it closer towards her after realizing that the supervisor had passed her.