Chapter 126.

PART 1.

It has been two days since the violent case that Hatori had to handle in Madras. Now, he is on the road once more with Munshi, going somewhere else. The scream of Prasad has not left his mind yet, he suspects that he will be haunted by the memory for a long while. ‘Unless I collect even more traumatizing memories.’ he thought cynically.

During the breakfast, he asked Munshi a question. “So, what were those chains which came out of your sleeves?”

“It is just a personalized spell,” said Munshi. “You will notice that while there are general spells which students like you learn early in their magical journey, how you personalize the magic, and make it your own reveals how much potential you have.”

Hatori nods after hearing that. “Where are we going?” he asked next.

“To Flooded Plains.” Said Munshi. “There is a spirit causing problems there, agitating the animals, and disrupting the research going on there.”

“That is remarkably clear. Usually, we have to find out whether the problem is caused by a spirit, soul, or not related to necromancy after getting there, judging from the two cases I have seen.” Said Hatori.

“Yeah, that is unfortunate.” Munshi agreed. “But in this case, the mages who did call us there are quite smart themselves. They likely asked a local necromancer before calling us. the spirit must be quite strong for them.”

“Now, time for your daily lecture.” Said Munshi. “Today, we’ll talk about souls becoming spirits. That can happen, but it is rare, and the soul loses human memories and personality entirely. It is essentially reborn, and it naturally gains new powers and properties as a result.”

“Is there anything special about them?” asked Hatori.

“No. aside from being reborn into a spirit from a soul, they have nothing special.” Said Munshi.

PART 2.

Shakuntala has called this meeting. She represents the Mathis family, and some other powerful clans and families have shown up, but Surendra, Praduman, and George are missing. This does not surprise her. What surprises her is the absence of Joshis. She thought they would be chomping at the bits to get at the king, but apparently, not.

They all are getting frustrated. no mercenary is willing to work for them, to kidnap or kill Hatori. They are not willing to go against Munshi, the mere mention of his name is enough to make them refuse. No amount of money and threats have worked, and they couldn’t even tell them half-info. They tried that, and it didn’t work.

Now, the mercenaries have started to avoid them entirely.

“Does anyone have anything new to share?” asked Shakuntala. She is tired from not getting the results she wants, and the battle with her brother-in-law. ‘Curse you sister and your offspring!’ she raged in her head.

The silence was the answer enough. However, it is broken by someone who has been ignored in these meetings so far. “May I suggest something?” asked the man.

Shakuntala takes the notice of him. She remembers that his name is Manoj, and he is of the Sharma clan, and in charge of one of the 36 branches. However, she could not remember anything about him beyond that. but given the lack of ideas, she is willing to hear him out. so, she nods at him to continue.

“I have an idea.” He spoke. “I will perform a ritual next year. it’ll give us a weapon so powerful, that not even the king would be able to stand up to it.” this caused a buzz among them. “A mere disabled boy won’t be a challenge for us then.”

“Do you even listen to what you say?” asked the Shukla representative. Shakuntala privately agreed with the woman, but she refrained from commenting. She wanted to hear how Manoj responded.

“Not at all.” He spoke. “You see, I’ve found something wonderful near Sindapur.” Said Manoj with a smile. “The time is approaching to wake it up. besides, whether you help me or not, I do plan to go ahead with this plan.”

Shakuntala is intrigued. She knows that this man is a necromancer, who once competed with Munshi. ‘If he can compete with Munshi, then he must have something worthwhile in his sleeves, right?’ she thought, trying to convince herself.

PART 3.

Daphne is running in the morning. She has been doing this for weeks, ever since she started this year. ignoring the looks of other girls, who consider her a madwoman, she continues to run.

Running is not the only thing she does. She also swims weekly and does some strength exercises as well. She has seen Hatori do the same things, and the results can be easily seen in his magic.

‘Let them mock me.’ she thinks. ‘Once I win that dueling trophy, none of them will dare to raise their voices against me.’ bolstered by that thought, she goes for a shower, and breakfast. After all, Professor Bali tests their endurance every day. She needs to eat properly if she wishes to survive his classes. Meaning, no dieting for her. Not that she needs it.

PART 4.

Arriving on the Flooded Plains, Hatori once more plays his role of being an observer, as Munshi talks with the mages who called them here.

“The animals have been disrupting our projects, the rune work, the rituals, the shapes for those rituals, they just come in, and cause havoc everywhere.” Explained the man.

“And I presume this is all done by a spirit, as you told me when you called me to come here?” asked Munshi.

“Exactly. We have a retired necromancer living here, he confirmed that for us. but he is not strong enough in his own words, to actually make this spirit run away.” Said the man.

“Very well,” said Munshi. “I’ll track this spirit for you,” said Munshi, and walked to his car. Hatori follows him there.

“Let’s have a race boy,” said Munshi. “I’ve covered how to track the spirits in the previous lessons. Time to practice that. I’ll go slow, just for your sake.”

“Sure, whatever.” Said Hatori. ‘Why do these old people feel the need to challenge young ones like me?’

As Hatori goes to the forest, he feels the air resistance, which he activated once more after the previous case was concluded. ‘I should be ready to deactivate it again if the situation turns violent.’

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Though he does not get any feeling of danger from the area, Hatori reserves his judgment until he encounters the spirit.

PART 5.

Shin is hearing some music from Hatori’s world. Sangita managed to bring this in, but Shin did not want to ask how. Everyone has their secrets, and as an orphan, you learn to not ask questions. “That is just hilarious.” Said Shin.

The music didn’t make sense to him. The lyrics are nonsensical, the drum beat sounds like they are beaten with a hammer. “Why there is so much filler in it?” asked Shin, as if filler is a dirty word.

“Well, this is what happens when you let money corrupt the music.” Said Sangita.

Shin just sighed. ‘Here we go again.’ He thinks. the professor just loves to rant about how money corrupts the art, and how people never express themselves as best as they could through their art, just because of money.

“You see, music is seen as a way to get popular, and of course, make lots of money. There are some truly shady practices going on, exploiting the artists and all, which actually helped me in avoiding that happening to me here,” said Sangita. “And yes, money corrupts the art.”

“But isn’t everything about money?” asked Shin.

“Not everything,” said Sangita. “I can make tons of money, if I compromise with my art. But I won’t, because that won’t let me sleep at night. let me tell you, sleeping peacefully in the night is much better than any money you could get.”

Shin disagrees. The one who has money is the one who gets to sleep in peace at night, for they actually have a warm place. Unlike him, who has to find a job, and room and board every summer. Luckily, Zeko is kind enough to provide him both, but he has learned to not rely on other’s generosity. Sooner or later, his kindness will run out, and where will he be?

‘Therefore, I must find a way to make enough money to buy my own property.’ He thinks.

PART 6.

Hatori has never seen so much water in one place before. Not to mention, experienced the humidness. He is currently deep within the forest, and he is seeing the tall trees. ‘So, this is the sort of place Bear Grylls went to.’ Thinks Hatori, remembering how much he enjoyed the show at first, and how pissed he got with the reruns.

He hears some telepathic conversation taking place nearby. Looks like the creatures have not learned to hide their thoughts yet. He sneaks closer and decides to announce himself. ‘I can hear you; you know.’

Cats are startled, glaring at him after pausing their conversation. ‘Why are you here, human?’ asked the one to Hatori’s left.

‘I’m here to find that spirit which is causing the agitation among the animals.’ Said Hatori.

‘As if. We are not agitated just because some wispy ball of energy tells us to!’ said the cat to Hatori’s right. ‘We’re furious because you humans are flooding our nests and dens!’

Hatori takes a moment to think of the best reply. ‘Well, that is upsetting.’ Said Hatori. ‘Would you stop attacking the humans who live here, if I ask them to stop flooding your homes?’

Hatori knows it is not exactly the home, but the cats understand the meaning all the same. ‘We might think about that.’

‘Indeed. Though I doubt that a young cub like you can do that.’ said the cat to Hatori’s left.

‘No harm in trying, right?’ asked Hatori.

“What are you doing here?” screamed a voice from the trees.

the owner of the voice comes out, hovering in the air. ‘They weren’t lying. He does look like a wispy ball of energy.’ Thinks Hatori, being careful to not broadcast his thoughts to everyone.

“Trying to play a diplomat.” Said Hatori.

“Oh yeah? we don’t want your diplomacy. We want to kick you humans out, and we will do it!” declared the spirit.

‘He does not speak for us.’ said the cats together.

“We will burn your settlements down if we have to, to cure the infection of the hairless two-legged apes!” said the spirit, rising higher and higher with his words.

‘Seriously, we’re not with him.’ said twittered some birds from the trees, without using any hashtags. The cats nodded in agreement.

Hatori breathed. “What a childish spirit.” Said Hatori. “When I met Yaksha, I thought spirits were awesome. But there has been one letdown after another recently.” He said, steadily moving his feet.

“I’ll show you childish!” the spirit rushed at him, and Hatori channeled his magic in the circle drawn in front of him. The spirit wanted to stop, but could not help but fly right into Hatori’s trap.

Now it is trapped there, unable to fly any higher than Hatori’s head, and unable to move beyond the circle. “What, what have you done to me, human?” it screamed.

“Just restricted you,” said Hatori with a yawn. He is getting tired of this humidity. ‘Will you keep an eye on him?’ he asked the cats.

‘Sure.’ They spoke.

‘I’ll get my master, make sure that nothing breaks that circle.’ He tells them and leaves to bring Munshi here.

After bringing the older mage to the location, Munshi smiled widely. “What a beautifully drawn circle.” He spoke.

The spirit was threatened by Munshi, and it didn’t want any piece of the necromancer. So, it decides not to cause any trouble. Hatori told them about the floods, and the mages decided that they would take their project somewhere else.

“I see you have learned to restrain with a circle. Now, I’ll teach you other shapes to attack and defend.” Said Munshi.

Hatori groaned. He never liked geometry, even the addition of magic is not enough to make him change his opinion.

PART 7. HOW THE THRONE WAS INHERITED ONCE.

Unlike most of the rulers in the world, if anyone wishes to become the king in the Subcontinent, they must beat the previous king in a duel. This means that inheritance is not possible, and dynasties cannot be created. You cannot game the system.

If you try to duel your father, and he gives up for you, and then you sit on the throne, nasty things can happen to you. That device is known to take vengeance.

However, there was a case when the throne of the Subcontinent was inherited. 1500 years ago, King Vishala was approaching the end of his reign, having ruled for fifty years already. His youngest son challenged him for the throne, and beat him, and became the king.

And this is how King Rehan became the only king to ever inherit the throne. He did not suffer any consequences, for their duel was not a fake one. you can hardly fake the death of your father, after all.