Chapter 232.

PART 1.

Sunil, one of the ambassadors of the Subcontinent is sent to welcome the guests from the stars. “Welcome, esteemed guests, we are fortunate that you chose this land for your arrival. May I know who you are?” he asked.

“This is Princess Amara of the Starleaf family, her father rules the Elven empire. I am her guard, Orion Swiftblade. The purpose of our visit is to see how much this planet has changed since we found it.” said the larger Elf.

The ambassador was terrified. The last time, there were only common Elves, according to the records. But this time, there is a royal visitor. There is only one thing he could do in this situation. That is to stroke their egos, faun over them, and then lead them to the king.

He sent one aid with a message to Avinash, who was waiting in the castle for the Elves to arrive. He does not let any annoyance show on his face for this schedule disruption. The message of the aid, however, breaks his stoic façade.

“Your majesty, Ambassador Sunil has told me that you have to be respectful to the visitors, as this time, a royal princess is among them.” said the aid.

“Who does he think he is?” the unfortunate aid trembles from the sudden wrath of the king. “I am a leader of this land. I might treat a visitor equally, but I will not bow to anyone.”

“Easy their tiger.” Said Hatori. “Leave the poor messenger. Besides, the long-eared visitors are here.”

“Fine. I suggest you escape, there might be fireworks.” Said Avinash to the aid.

The young man, grateful for this advice from the king, quickly scampers away from the throne room. While Avinash reclines on his throne, while a fire burns on his left. Of course, that fire is usually not present. But when a visitor arrives, the kings often pull off such theatrics.

Hatori wonders what other elements could be used for this purpose. ‘Lightning can be used to give off some sparks, there could be a fountain for the water, and the air movement in the room could change depending on the king's mood, but I am not sure how the earth element could be used for this.’

“Welcome, Princess Amara, her guard Orion. I am king of the Subcontinent, Avinash. I do hope you have rested well after your journey.” He said, while inclining his head to show respect, but not bowing before them.

“Greetings from the Elven kingdom, young king.” said the princess. “I see you are working hard on your land.”

“There was a war recently.” Said Sunil. Avinash glared at him for revealing that info, but the man continued. “We have to repair our infrastructure after the conclusion of that war.”

“That is a hard thing to do I hear.” Said Orion. “We wouldn’t know, since we have not gotten in a war for over 2000 years.”

“Impressive.” Said Avinash, not believing this to be the truth for a moment. “Unfortunately, we cannot live without killing each other.”

“Such a shame. We thought your species had potential, despite your short lives.” Said the princess. “Who is this man? He almost matches us in the height.”

The princess is 213 centimeters tall, or seven feet tall for those plebians who don’t use the metric system. Hatori is just three or so inches shorter than her, while Orion is even taller than Amara.

Avinash opens his mouth, but Sunil jumps in before the king can speak. “He is Hatori Eagle. He is the man the Elves who landed here last time prophesized.” Now, Avinash is glaring at him openly, but still, he continues to speak. “He proved himself in the last war, which means that the Elven prophecy all those years ago was true.”

Sunil turns around and blanched in fear after seeing a furious king. He goes quiet afterward. “But that prophecy was not true.” Said the princess, looking at her nails.

“What do you mean?” asked Avinash with a frosty tone.

How could he keep himself under control after hearing that? Hatori was summoned, and for years the family politics revolved around this prophecy. In fact, the rebellion and the civil war have their roots in that damn prophecy. But now, Avinash is hearing that the entire thing was false.

“It is beneath us to take assistance from the lower races. The Elves who crashed on your planet had nothing to repay you, so they gave you some false words about the future. Lower races always take them so seriously after all. Didn’t you realize it?” asked the princess, looking at the king.

“My predecessor did. Unfortunately, his subjects did not,” said Avinash, not letting his anger show up in his tone.

“Whatever. I am not here to see who believed the lies and who did not. I am here for one purpose only.” Said Amara. “Your total submission.”

There was silence in the throne room, but everyone felt the pressure build-up, and suddenly, Avinash exploded. “Yeah right. Some long-eared bitch is going to demand my submission. I treat you with respect as my guest, and this is how you behave? Maybe Elves are lower than us, for all your talk about being a superior race.”

“How dare you, you impudent little worm!” retorted the princess. “Just one ship. One ship is enough to destroy your entire planet, and no one will even remember your civilization. You should know your place. If you surrender to me, I will protect you from other races and Elves. That is to your advantage.”

“No, it is not,” said Avinash. “We already have good relations with Dwarves, and unlike you, they came here to work with us, rather than dominate us. So, your entire argument is false. No race will come here to fight us either, for we have nothing to offer them. The only reason why you want our submission is so you can use us for your own purposes. Perhaps grunts in a possible coup?” Avinash counters her claims.

“I think we should all calm down, and listen to the proposal.” Said Sunil. “It is worth considering, I am certain that the princess will help us in uplifting ourselves.”

“I cannot believe this,” Hatori speaks finally, having remained quiet so far. “An outsider tells your king that he should submit to her, and your first response is to tell him he should consider it? I do not think any monarch will bow to you here princess, no matter how tantalizing your offers are.”

“You should remain quiet boy,” said Orion. “You have no standing to speak. We Elves live for thousands of years, and even a kid is enough to take you out with one spell. Don’t think so highly of yourself just because you have done well in some war of a backwater world.”

“I like to see you try.” Said Hatori, not scared in the slightest. He hears Zeko cheering him, but that is probably in his head.

“Tell you what.” Said the princess. “I will prove to you that we Elves are superior to you not in just magic, but in physical strength as well. What do you say to a little competition? Hand-to-hand fight, but no magic allowed.”

“This is not necessary princess. He is just a young man, full of confidence. He is no match for you—” Sunil is interrupted in the middle.

“Shut up already.” Said Avinash, tired of his constant pandering. How did this guy become an ambassador is a mystery to Avinash.

“The competition will take place.” Said Avinash. “Prepare the ring. You might need to wait for an hour or two,” said Avinash to the princess and she shook her head in reply.

“No need.” Said Orion. “We have our own custom ring. Let us go outside, the entire thing will be set in a moment.”

“And it will not offer any of us an advantage either.” Added Amara.

“Fine. Let’s go to the grounds.” Said Avinash, getting up from the throne. The flames fold into his body before disappearing entirely.

Hatori walks with them, not feeling any tension. He is certain that he will be the winner of this competition. There is no way this princess is going to beat him. He won't allow it. Not after her attitude, and certainly not after learning the truth about that damned prophecy.

Part 2.

The ring is set. There is not much of a crowd to see this fight. Avinash is here to watch from Hatori’s side, with a nervous Sunil by his side, while Orion watches from the other side.

“Whoever gives up, or gets their shoulders pinned to the ground loses. Is that acceptable to you?” asked Hatori.

“Sure.” Nodded Amara.

Hatori waited for her to come at him, and she did with full confidence that she would be able to dominate him. But Amara finds after locking up with Hatori that despite his shorter height, he is not weaker than her.

For Hatori, it is time to assess his opponent. When he first saw the Elves, he thought that their big and gangly limbs were not very powerful. As the princess locks up with him, he is proven right. he takes advantage of his strength and overpowers her to the ground. She was surprised when she was thrown to the ground. She scrambled quickly, to make sure that Hatori could not pin her, but Hatori was on top of her shortly, making her carry his weight. Hatori is certain that not even Orion will be able to fight with him, he is well trained while these Elves do not have the necessary power in their bodies to challenge him.

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Hatori goes for her neck, trying to grab it and crank it. But the princess manages to evade his grip. He shifts his focus and tries to get her leg. He gets a grip of her ankle, and he tries to twist her ankle, but she kicks him away.

Taking this breathing room to get up from the ground, Amara looks at Hatori with some fear. She has never been dominated so severely by someone in wrestling so badly. And why is that human so heavy? Why is his grip so strong? She does not have much time to answer these questions, as Hatori comes at her once again.

This time, he easily controls her. He is not assessing or playing with her anymore. Grabbing her flailing arms, Hatori turns her around, he grabs her left hand with his right one. Grasping at his right hand’s wrist, he stretches Amara’s arm, and her arm is broken with a loud crack.

Having not felt such pain before, the princess screams. “You!” Orion has his face red with anger, and he is about to cast a spell.

But Hatori slams Amara on her face and then cranks her neck from her back. “You should be careful there. One jerk and her neck will snap. My grip is shaky as it is.” the princes try to dislodge Hatori from her back, but due to his weight and his grip on her neck, she is not able to move, let alone breathe. The pain in her broken arm is not doing her any favors either.

“Release her, now!” ordered Orion.

“I will. But only if you promise to leave this planet, and never come back. Also, stop charging that spell. It is making me nervous. My hands start to shake when I get nervous.” Said Hatori, yanking on Amara’s neck for good measure.

“Fine. We will leave your filthy world. I won’t cast any spell upon you either. Now get off her!” roared Orion.

“Very well.” biting his lip, Hatori gets a drop of blood. Using that drop, he draws a symbol over Amara’s forehead. He has memorized this symbol, so he does not have to look at it to draw it, as a result, he was able to draw it even when her forehead was not visible to him.

With a final channel of magic, the symbol disappears, and Hatori gets off Amara’s back. Orion enters the ring to lift her. “What was that? What did you do?” he shook from his fury, but he remembered that he could not cast a spell.

“Oh, nothing much. If any Elf kills me, she’ll die. That is all.” Said Hatori.

Giving a wordless snarl of rage, Orion stomps back to the ship, carrying the injured princess. Avinash keeps an eye on them until they fly away, and disappear in the sky.

PART 3.

After the Elves leave, Avinash returns to his throne room. Only to get his peace disrupted once again, as Sunil explodes on Hatori. “You silly boy. You nearly got us all killed! You have no idea what you’ve just done, they are going to return, and destroy us all!”

“So what?” Asked Hatori. “Will you let any advanced Alien species rule this planet just because they are stronger than us? We might as well abolish all the systems we’ve built to govern ourselves and lick the boots of the Elves!”

“Fine then. At least that way, we can survive!” argued Sunil.

“You don’t get it, do you? Once you submit to someone, you will always find that you will go from one master to another, and no improvements occur for you. therefore, bowing and submitting is not an option.” Said Hatori.

“I agree with him,” said Avinash. “Besides, who do you work for. This nation or the Elves?”

Sunil leaps in rage and attacks Avinash. “Curse you two. Ever since you two have grown up, you’ve always caused trouble. You don’t deserve to be the king!” he casts a spell to explode the head of Avinash.

But Avinash turns him into ash with a wordless snarl of rage. “I can’t believe I have such simpering fools in my government.” He kicks the ashes of the former ambassador.

“You should not have anyone working for you who would bow before someone, just because they think they are stronger.” Said Hatori.

“Correct. Looks like a vetting process in order.” Said Avinash. “You know what? Let’s implement the changes I have in mind for the court as well. I had enough of stalling for time.”

“Excellent.” Said Hatori. “Now you are behaving like a king.”

PART 4.

Shin returns from his long trip. He thought of speaking with his friends, but they were distracted. They did not even see him entering the room, though from Hatori’s twitch, he realizes that he at least took notice.

Suresh, Raven, Josh, Avinash, Hatori, and Suraj who is a newcomer to this table are discussing. Careful listening to the points made by Avinash makes him realize that Shin is witnessing the change in the court. On the side, Prime Minister Akshit is taking notes of the good ideas.

“In short, let them elect their representative, let them come to the court, and this is where they can put the matters of their respective areas.” Said Avinash.

“But you won’t be able to get everyone, and I doubt these representatives will be able to pay attention to the city or town level.” Pointed out Josh.

“We can use the governors for that,” said Suresh. “It’s not like they have to come to the king for every small issue.”

“Yes, but then they should be chosen as well,” said Josh.

“That is fine. But you will also have to make rules about the elections. How long their term is going to be, and rules for barring someone from fighting in the election as well.” said Hatori. “You wouldn’t want the local goons fighting in your election, now, would you?”

“That is true. We will also have to make sure that the people who have strong financial backing don’t dominate completely.” Said Raven. “Something tells me that implementing all of this is not going to be easy. Especially when you abolish the private forces.”

“But I support that idea.” Said Akshit. “If these families are so afraid of each other, then maybe they should shift from their current residence.”

“Correct. This will also crush any possibilities of rebellion in the future.” Said Avinash. “Of course, I’m not worried about a mad king taking over and causing problems, I expect that the generals will take care of that problem like they did in the past.”

Shin has had enough of listening to this. He sneaks out and decides to go to his house. He will rest there for a while, prepare for his concert, and then leave for the said concert.

Let his friends handle the politics.

PART 5.

Daphne is in the City of Throne. She comes here to meet Hatori, but he is still busy arguing with the clique of the king. She never took him to be a political type. Ravina also came with her, since both of them needed a break from their usual life.

Daphne remained confined in her home for most of the war since her father did not want her to participate in it. Though this kept her protected, it did not do her any favor when it came to her state of mind. If it weren’t for Ravina’s support and the gradual loosening of the controls by her father, she would have never been able to travel, let alone come to a thriving city.

“So. How should we corner him?” asked Daphne.

“Well, he likes to pretend that he is clueless. But he is not. I do think we have to be straightforward with him all the same.” Said Ravina. “He doesn’t like to talk in riddles anyway.”

“True. If only he were to be as smart as us,” said Daphne.

Both of them have come here to speak with Hatori and corner him in some matter. What matters is unknown to this narrator, as the author is not revealing it despite repeated prodding.

PART 6.

Hatori sighed. That planning session got long. But at least it got done. He will not participate in this any further. Let others take care of the implementations. His job of pointing out the mistakes as an outsider is now done.

‘First, let’s go to the other side, and see how things are there. Second, find a reclusive lab, and spend the remainder of my life conducting horrific experiments that would appall anyone who has the slightest bit of humanity remaining.’

He has not been to the other side ever since he was brought here. For 22 years, he has remained in this world. But now, he is returning home for the first time. Hatori can only hope that everything will go well when he gets there.

It is not like reports of war and destruction have trickled to this dimension. ‘I’m sure everything is fine. I won’t find the world on fire when I get there.’

But before he could do any of that, he had to go through two women. “Hey there handsome.” Said Daphne.

“Going somewhere?” Said Ravina, already charging a spell.

“Dammit.” Hatori cursed his luck.

“Oh well, nothing like two-on-one dueling to relieve some stress.” He decides.