Chapter 231.
PART 1.
Hatori is going to Zeko’s house. ‘Though I suppose I can call it my house now.’ He thinks since the old man has left the massive property to him.
On the way, he encounters some people who are tied up, while a shadow keeps a watch over them. “What happened with them? They look injured.”
A yantra comes forward. “They tried to invade the property master.” Explains the magic machine. “We apprehended them.”
“Good. I’m in a good mood. Send them to the authorities.” Said Hatori.
“At once master.” Said the yantra, and then the shadow and the yantra left with the prisoners. They are gagged to make sure they remain silent and do not cause any inconvenience.
‘It’ll take me a while to get used to this.’ Thought Hatori, as he was addressed as “The young master” by the yantras of the house previously.
When he opens the door and does not sense Zeko’s signature, the loss hits him even harder. “Dammit.” He cursed. He is not here to feel sappy. He can feel that in his sleep during his nightmares.
After putting his stuff down, and taking a bath, Hatori decides to go to sleep. he will decide what to do next tomorrow. He feels tired after arriving here, even though the journey was a comfortable one. As he sinks into a deeper sleep, once more he starts to see the destruction he caused in the Londinium city.
PART 2.
Akshit does not want to remain a minister for too long, so Josh is given the responsibility of handling the economy. Avinash is certain given his mathematical background; he will do fine in this position. He will find someone else to play the foreign minister.
However, the positions at the court have yet to be filled. The war has ravaged the families just as it did the rest of the country. But there is a hot debate going on right now, about denying the seats of the rebellious families.
“I do not think they deserve to be in this court,” Said Henry Fernandes, the oldest surviving member of the court, “Given how easily they struck at us, they are worse than the poisonous snakes.”
“Is that so?” said a man from the Banerjee family. “What about Joshis then? They also rebelled, long before the civil war even started!”
“They reaffirmed their Loyalty!” replied Surendra Junior, who had taken over the seat after his uncle died. Though he might have to leave, as his father is about to give the position of the head to him. “Which is exactly why they are here, sitting with us.”
The representative of the Joshi family remained quiet, as the argument raged on. Dhanraj has specifically told him that he should remain quiet. Though they have managed to earn the trust of the previous and current king, what they did before can still come back to haunt them, especially since Hatori has become a prominent mage, as well as a trustee of the new king.
After hours of arguing, Avinash dismisses the court at lunchtime. “We will meet tomorrow, and speak about this issue again. Hopefully, you will have your heads cooled off by then.” With that cutting remark, he leaves the court, and others follow behind him.
PART 3.
Lavanya has left, but Shin is still tracking the information about his past. He is currently talking with some people at a tea stall, who are remarkably open with what they do know.
“In short,” one woman is saying, “We do think we have seen someone with different-colored eyes just like you, but we are not certain when or where.”
“You should stop asking such questions.” Said a man from a corner, trying to act menacing. “Too many questions can be dangerous in this country.”
Shin is not affected. He has grown up with Hatori, a guy who is ten times more menacing than this man in his sleep. “Is that so? Why don’t you come here and make me shut up then?” he said with a smile.
The man gets up from his chair and brings out his foci. But Shin tapped the table in front of him in a rhythm, and the man was slammed to the ground with a large thud, feeling as if the wind itself punched him.
Other locals watch, as Shin moves to the fallen man, and grabbing his flailing arms, effortlessly breaks it. He might not be as good as Hatori when it comes to fighting physically, but he has picked up some tricks from him over the years.
“Are you willing to talk now?” asked Shin, once the man stopped howling in pain. “I can break the other one if you are not.”
“I’ll talk! I’ll talk! Please don’t hurt me!” he sobbed.
“Pathetic. Just one arm is broken, and you are crying like a bitch. In the war, we took so much damage, and not one of us cried even for once.” Said Shin. “Now, speak.” he yanked on the broken arm for the good measure.
“There is a lab in the mountain, it belonged to a musical mage just like you. His name was Narayan, and I used to work with him. When his career was done, he opened that lab and kidnapped some women who were pregnant. He did some experiments with the fetus, but none of them gave birth to a living child. But it turns out, that one woman managed to run away, and she jumped in a well when we found her. But when we brought her corpse to the lab, she already gave birth to the child, but we never found what happened to the child and where he or she went.” Explained the man.
“Where is this lab?” asked Shin, ignoring the whispering locals.
“Here, it is just near the hill.” The man points to a map that is hanging on the door of the stall.
“Very well. I’ll let you live for telling me this.” With a savage blow to his head, Shin knocked the man out and left the stall after paying his bill.
The lab was not that difficult to find. It was dusty, and not much was there. But he did find some pictures of Narayan, and the women he kidnapped. One of them has similar features as Shin, but there is no name to go with the photo.
He leaves the lab and finds the well in which she jumped inside. Shin goes back to the lab, and takes the photos with him. he still has no name for his mother, but at least he has an idea of how he was born. Though finding out the horrific circumstances in which his mother died leaves him with a depressive feeling.
‘Nothing you can do about it boy,’ he councils himself as he leaves. ‘Use this sadness to create the best compositions the likes of which will not be forgotten for the generations to come.’
PART 4.
Hatori returns to the capital. He decides that to get out of his depressive funk, he has to leave the house. His 29th birthday just passed recently, though, unlike his younger days, he does not feel any joy when his day of birth arrives. It is like any other day, not any different.
A line of floating yantras trails after him. These yantras have different shapes instead of being humanoid. He is delivering them to a construction site, where the process of rebuilding is still going on. After the civil war, and the fifth world war, the entire world seems to be in the process of repairing itself.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
His yantras are in large demand, as well as his runes to convert solar power to electricity. The power infrastructure is more than five hundred years old at this point, and since there is reconstruction going on in the country, Avinash decided this is a good time to update it as well.
Though Hatori is not involved in that directly, even though he does supply the runes to acquire the power and convert the power to electricity. Other people have a larger responsibility to handle the runes for supplying the power, and storing the power when it is not in use.
Done with his latest delivery, Hatori walks inside the castle. He is thinking of creating a delivery yantra to handle the deliveries for him since doing it by himself all the time is boring. ‘It will need security as well; I cannot let the expensive equipment out in the public unprotected.’
No one dared to bar his walk to the king’s personal office. By now, they are familiar with his face, and the magic sensors have already confirmed that it is him, not some shape-shifted bastard who is out to assassinate the king. After the last one, the security has been beefed up. They need to protect the castle from blood and other bodily fluids. The king is not merciful to those who try to kill him.
Hatori opens the door and sees Avinash holding his head in his hands. “Wow. Was not expecting to see that.”
“Great. Another headache.” Grumbled the king.
“What? And here I thought I should check up on you like any friend should.” Harrumphed Hatori.
“Sorry. The process of constructing the new court is giving me a headache. I don’t want to let the rebellious families in once again, but I also don’t want the allied families to have too much power. if I let them have that kind of power they held previously, it will invite another disaster.” Explained Avinash.
“So? Take your time,” said Hatori. “Why are you worried so much?”
“Because they refuse to accept any solutions I offer them!” yelled the king out of frustration.
Hatori sneered, while anyone else would have been shaking or running out of the room. “You are the king, aren’t you? They should listen to you. Not the other way around.”
“But shouldn’t I operate on the principals of give and take? I don’t think I should rule with an iron fist all the time.” counters Avinash.
“Nor should you,” said Hatori. “But they are not going to listen to you unless you assert yourself. Besides, you can’t do an exchange when the other side is not willing to do so. It is the same thing as that siege in the Londinium.”
“You’re right,” said Avinash after a moment of thinking. “They are still arguing. Tell you what, come with me, and let me prove that I am an assertive king.”
“Sure.” Said Hatori, following Avinash to the courtroom.
They arrive unnoticed, as everyone is still busy arguing. Sagar saw Avinash, and the looming form of Hatori right behind him. he realized nothing good was about to happen. He tries to ward off whatever Avinash is about to do, but Avinash puts his finger to his lips, telling him to remain quiet through that sign.
Without using a focus, Avinash creates a huge explosion of fire in the middle of the room, causing alarm and panic in the arguing nobles. “Listen you blue-blooded babies. Daddy is here to control you.”
They are horrified by such wording used by a king. “I have decided that I have enough of this argument. I still have to pick out the ministers for various regions, as well as diplomats to various allied countries. We can decide on your issues afterward. Make no mistake. I will be changing the current system, to make sure that a family cannot cause a civil war again. If you don’t like it? You are free to find your fortunes elsewhere. The court is adjourned.” Spinning on his heel, he walked out of the court, where Sagar ran up to catch up with him and a laughing Hatori.
“You. you are a bad influence on him.” he chastised Hatori.
“Maybe. But you can’t deny that was a wonderful display.” Said Hatori. “‘Daddy is here to control you.’ what the hell made you say that?” asked Hatori, still chuckling.
“If they act like children, then they will be treated as such.” Said Avinash.
By now, even Sagar is laughing. “Can’t argue with that.”
PART 5.
Nandan and Dimitri are preparing to leave for the latest league tournament. After the war ended, the dueling tournaments began once more. Nandan served as a guard for Porus after the former king lost to Avinash, and now, he is ready to take the dueling world by storm.
“I thought your fire would be lost by now,” said Dimitri.
“Never!” declared Nandan. “Besides, you only retired in your late 60s. I have a lot of time on my hands.”
“What will you do after you become the champion?” asked Dimitri.
“I’ll challenge Hatori and others,” said Nandan. “They should prove to be a great challenge for me.”
“Really?” asked Dimitri. “Though given I trained those boys, I have no doubt on their skills.”
“The war has taught me that there is a lot of talent that never reaches the ring.” Said Nandan. “Fighting them will give me practice, and I should be able to beat any contender to my title.”
“Good plan.” Said the coach. “Well, let’s go. The ship might fly without us if we got any later.”
“What? Nooooo!” Nandan and Dimitri run as if their life depends upon it.
PART 6.
Hatori is going back to his house. “In a few days, I would like to go back and see how things are at my home,” he said to Avinash. “The first thing I have to check is whether my parents are still alive or not.”
“Yeah,” said Avinash, remembering something. “The effect which blocked you from crossing the dimensional burier has worn off.”
“Yes. I actually checked it for myself.” Said Hatori. “It must have been a powerful summoning ritual to have left an effect on me in its aftermath, which lasted for so long.”
“Do you think you proved the prophecy correct?” asked Avinash in curiosity.
“I don’t like to think about it much,” said Hatori. “Let other people decide. As far as I’m concerned, whoever is trying to predict the future is a fool.”
“Agree with you there,” said Avinash. “None of us could have thought that the spats between the king and the families would turn into such a large mess.”
“Speaking of our younger days, I can’t help but notice that for all our fights, we do spend a lot of time together as adults.” Said Hatori.
“Probably because you’ve matured. It was difficult to have a conversation with you back then.” Said Avinash.
“Look who’s saying that.” countered Hatori. he was about to say something more, but he sensed something.
Avinash and Hatori get up together to investigate, coming out of the castle. A ship has landed on the outskirts of the city, but they can sense the magical wards present on that ship in the castle. The people aboard that ship also have an impressive magical presence, though nothing special by their standards.
“Sir,” said one of the soldiers. “There is a ship on the outskirts of the city. It appears to be alien in design, and it resembles the Elven ship that landed on that same spot about a hundred years ago.”
“Dammit!” cursed Avinash. “What new trouble is this?”