Chapter 123.

PART 1.

Hatori is carving the runes on a small object, which is a small black orb in the shape of an eye. He is really glad for the carver Zeko bought him, for it can carve on anything. From wood to even gold and silver. ‘Imagine the outrage if I carved some useless markings on some jewelry. That’ll teach them.’ grinning at this amusing thought, he continued to carve the symbols.

This is challenging, because the surface is small, and the symbols are even smaller. Ideally, he would have taken the help of a yantra, but traveling with Munshi does not give him any such luxuries. Therefore, he must test and carve these runes by himself. He learned the particulars of how the vision of yantras works from James, and his friend also shared his notes for creating the artificial eyes for Suraj.

The eyes created by James are affected by a curse in Hatori’s body, about which he still does not have a clue. So, he thinks that he might be able to get past that curse through artificial eyes, which are not made of flesh and blood.

‘I should be horrified by a curse in my body about which I don’t know a thing. But I just can’t bring myself to care about it.’ thinks Hatori. He should be unable to sleep, as long as that curse is in his body, given his well-trained paranoia.

But it hasn’t left any effects other than blindness on him. he is not willing to spend his time on something about which no one knows a thing. He is not going to offer himself as a lab rat either.

The car stops suddenly, and Hatori’s thoughts and his carving come to a halt.

Something floats from the bridge in front of them and orders Munshi to lower the windows. “You cannot cross this bridge!” said the floating thing.

PART 2.

Raven is trying to come up with tactics for some scenarios. According to General Sundar, this is part of his internship, and truth be told, Raven came here for this exact purpose. However, some of these scenarios sound ludicrous. There is one where the entire world is against the Subcontinent, which Raven finds hard to believe. The world does not turn against a country, united against it. a war with the non-magical humans from another dimension. And then there are conflicts with Dwarves, Goblins, and most important of all, Elves.

“Sir, what is the use of this exercise?” Raven asked the general.

“Simple really.” Said Sundar. “You see, it passes the time. soldiers have to spend their energy somewhere, otherwise they get nervous.” Raven thinks that some soldiers outside of the general’s office would like to deny that. “Then there is this possibility: any of them can come true. Believe it or not, we do have plans if a conflict with space races breaks out. especially the Elves. Ever since they landed here on this world, all the leaders are united in one thing: they cannot be trusted.”

“Makes sense.” Mutters Raven. “Though they have not made any moves towards our planet, and they have never returned here either.”

“That is true.” agreed Sundar. “But no one knows the future. So now, exercise that brain of yours, and prepare some plans, how bad they may be, and get used to the feeling that no general is ever prepared completely.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever have to worry about that,” said Raven seriously. “I’m not going to be a general.”

“That is not for you to decide.” Said Sundar with an iron tone, and Raven decided not to argue anymore.

PART 3.

A student shows up in Slaughter’s office. “Sir, can you help me?” he asked. Slaughter looked up from the newspaper and cringed inwardly after looking at his face. “Nothing seems to work.” Said the boy, the anguish clear in his tone.

‘I’m really glad that I’m past that age, and without suffering from this problem too much.’ not letting show his internal thoughts on his face, Slaughter nodded. he picks up his staff which is leaning to his chair, and casts a cooling spell to provide some relief to the boy. “James, come here.”

“Yes sir?” Slaughter was startled by the sudden appearance of James, but again, he did not let that show up.

“Tell me. what should be the treatment for this problem?” asked the healer, pointing to the pimples on the face of their patient.

“Hmm. I think the skin-cleaning potion to clear out the oil, and another potion to moisturize the skin.” Said James. “Also, something to repair the damage, though it is escaping my memory currently.”

“Right. The potion to clear out the marks.” Said Slaughter. “Here, use these daily, and keep your face clean. Alright? Do come here after a week, we would like to check the progress.”

“Thanks, sir.” Said the boy, breathing a sigh of relief.

“These potions are pretty standard, but everyone likes to brand them with their name,” grumbled Slaughter, closing his potion’s drawer. “As for you,” he turns to James. “You do need to learn why these small problems appear, and how to solve them. you won’t understand how the human body works otherwise. Do you understand?”

“Yes sir, I understand.” Said James.

“Good. now, I’ll give you the recipe for the potions which we’ve just assigned. Try to brew them.” said Slaughter.

PART 4.

Shin and Sangita are in the crowd, observing the other performances. After all, it is vital to pay attention to others, who knows, it might end up inspiring you. the author who does not pay me enough to narrate this approves of this attitude for some reason.

These jolly events have to be stopped, however, as a bell started to ring, and an announcement started to boom over the city. “Attention everyone, the water is approaching the city once more. Please evacuate peacefully. Repeat, the water is approaching the city. Please evacuate peacefully.”

People who do live here started to follow the instructions very calmly. Whereas outsiders are having trouble in keeping the control. “It is quite sad; an entire school will be caught in the flood this time.” said one man near Shin.

“Yeah, but those kids will survive… right?” said the other man. “That is what we can hope for.”

By the time Sangita looks for Shin, the boy seems to have disappeared in the chaos. She also learned that many people wouldn’t be able to evacuate, and would be caught in the fury of water approaching the city, but since Shin was missing, she could not bring herself to care about that. the water was at the edge of the city, but just then, people started to hear violin notes. They looked around for this mad person who was still playing music at this time and found Shin standing in the tallest building, playing violin, and to the amazement of the people, he halted the water right at their gate.

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However, he won’t be able to do that for too long. Already the water is forming a wall, and by every minute, the size of that wall is increasing, as more water is added to it from behind. but people inside of the city took advantage of this small window and evacuated everyone successfully. As the strain of holding the flood becomes too much, Shin plays some final notes and starts to run. Just in time, an airship dropped a rope ladder for him, and he made his escape.

On the deck of the ship, he found a furious Sangita. “Are you out of your mind boy?” she shook with the rage. Then she hugged him. “You did a good thing today. Don’t repeat it again. You hear me?”

“I won’t. sorry to worry you, professor.” He said to her.

PART 5.

“You have to pay me for crossing this bridge.” Said the spirit, floating outside of the car’s window. “Or else, I’ll drown you in the river below!”

“But I already pay taxes.” Protested Munshi.

“doesn’t matter. That money doesn’t reach me.” said the spirit.

“Why would a spirit need money?” asked Hatori.

“Shut up boy!” Hatori thinks judging from the voice, the spirit must be female.

‘Or maybe it does not recognize itself with a gender.’ He thinks.

“Wait a minute.” Said the spirit. “I smell that damned Yaksha on you boy.”

“Is that a problem?” asked Hatori.

“Yes, he spurned my love. I cannot let that insult be unanswered. Now, prepare to die!” said the spirit, and tried to enter the car.

but Munshi’s wards stop her (it?) from entering. Never backing down from a fight, Hatori goes out, despite the cautioning of Munshi, and starts to fight with the spirit. He used the lightning leash to restrain it, but the spirit broke through the electrified chain very easily.

“Hmm. I do need more practice.” He said to himself, as water started to approach him. “So, are you male, female, or something different?” asked Hatori, now hovering above the water.

“Female, you damned hairless ape!” she is getting frustrated since Hatori is dodging her in the air. “Stay still!”

“No,” he said and dropped a Blast spell on her. That sent her flying, but Hatori was sure that the spirit would return to attack him again.

Having more time on his hand allowed him to conjure up chains, which snared the spirit when she came out of the water to attack Hatori once more. He channeled lightning through the chain, shocking the spirit badly. “How? How can you damage me so much?” she asked, her ethereal body spasming from the shocks delivered by Hatori.

“Because I improve as I fight,” said Hatori.

“Boy, look behind!” came the warning of Munshi, and Hatori sensed a massive wave of water descending upon him.

Hatori just flew out of the range of that wave, but the bridge was destroyed by the water. ‘There’s no point in fighting now.’ thinks Hatori, and flies inside of the car, dripping water everywhere.

He may have avoided the crushing wave, but he still got splashed. “Let’s find another route.” Sighed Munshi. “And do change your clothes.”

“Fine.” Said Hatori. Once he comes out after changing his clothes, Munshi starts to lecture him.

“Maybe try to be more patient with spirits next time?” he said to Hatori. “Though I do acknowledge that there was no way to reason with that one.”

“Yeah,” said Hatori. “I just wanted to try myself against a spirit who is not holding back.” Said Hatori. “When I fought Yaksha, he just allowed me to hit him, and held back a lot.”

“True. And I do think you did well,” said Munshi. “I think you could have used some of your more damaging spells.”

“I tried, but I just couldn’t match the frequency in the middle of the battle.” Said Hatori. “I need more practice before I can do that in a fight.”

“Well, you will get good, just give it time. don’t rush into things.” Said Munshi.

“So, where are we going exactly?” asked Hatori.

“To Madras.” Said Munshi. “Some murders are happening there, and the police think those are not done by humans.”

PART 6.

As they leave the city, Shin gets a hero’s send-off. Everyone cheered his name and waved to him as he left with Professor Sangita. “I wasn’t lying when I said you did a good job.” She said to him.

“But I was also very serious when I said do not do something like this again.” Said Sangita. “That water wave could have crushed you.”

“I know.” Said Shin. “But I couldn’t let those kids end up in that either.”

“True, that is exactly why I say you did a good deed.” Said Sangita. “But you do not need to recklessly put yourself in the way of danger to do that. remember, there are more ways to help people.”

“Yes, professor.” Said Shin.

“Now, once we’re on the ship, we’ll practice the recital.”

“Yes, professor.” Nodded Shin.

‘I wonder whether Hatori feels the same way as if this is his duty to nod and say yes whenever Zeko tells him something.’ Thinks Shin, the bells in his hair jingling with each step.

PART 7. THE CURRENCY WARS.

After the first king took over the charge of the Subcontinent, he had a problem in his hand. Mainly, everyone seems to be using their own currencies in their own areas, and aside from gold and silver, none of them had any standard to it. not to mention, not accepting the currency of another area. Also, not everyone could afford the gold and silver to trade in, aside from rich families.

Therefore, the king proposed a standardized currency, backed by the throne, which would be accepted throughout the country. However, the noble families were not willing to accept this one currency, seeing this as a threat to their operations.

However, the king had massive forces on his side, and he sent military forces wherever the families did not obey this decree. This is when people learned what he meant by currency backed by the power of the throne. This was a long and arduous task, but the king completed it, and people are still reaping the benefits of his efforts to this day.

Initially, they used coins, but after seeing the revolution of paper money in the normal dimension, they switched to the notes. This actually made it easier for the country to create more notes, since they did not have to work with metals. However, the coins are still in use, but they are not manufactured.

Here are the notes in use today: copper, the lowest valued note, silver, higher than copper, and gold, the highest valued note.

Mages never developed a system to define which note is equivalent to which note in the non-magical dimension, because they never needed to do that. trade between these two dimensions rarely takes place. And whenever that happens, bars of gold are used instead of their own currencies.