Chapter 234.

PART 1.

Hatori barged into Avinash’s office as if he were the king, not him. “You should tone down that ego of yours. It can be quite dangerous to act cocky in my presence.”

“Whatever.” He brushed off his warning. Besides, he never dares to act like that when the king has an audience. “Do you know that I’ve been attacked multiple times in your empire? You should do something about that.”

“What? Again? When was it?” asked Avinash.

“Just when I crossed the portal yesterday. I had to inform my father that I would not be returning since a deadline was looming.” Said Hatori.

“Ah yes, the power project. They asked you to optimize the power-transferring runes.” Remembers Avinash.

“Exactly. I improved the old design by 30 percent, but I couldn’t do anything further since the time was up.” Said Hatori, disappointed.

“Wait. You improved the design by 30 percent, and you are sad that you did not get to improve it any further?” asked Avinash.

“I know. Professor Krodhatma will be so disappointed.” Said Hatori. “Anyway, I narrowed the problem. It is in the conversion process. But I need to test some ideas.”

“You know what? Give your notes to the researchers. Let them do that.” said Avinash. “Getting back to the point, what did you do to your assassins?”

“Why, murdered them in return of course.” Said Hatori with a smirk. “What else did they expect when they attacked me? I also sent their heads back, just like the previous times. Though this time, I added a little surprise.”

“What surprise?” asked Avinash, cursing himself a moment later for even asking such a question.

“Why, added some explosion spell on those heads. I would have thought five families would have come to complain to you by now,” said Hatori. “By the way, I do offer this service as well. If you want the same thing done to your assassins, I’ll do that for you. I won’t even charge you anything for it. How about it? Aren’t I a dutiful and loyal subject?”

“Yeah, sure. When I get any assassins reaching me, I’ll call for you,” said Avinash. “No one came to complain, probably because they don’t want to implicate themselves.”

“That is sad. I was hoping to use that chance to do a survey… raid… attack. Attack is what I mean.”

“See, this is why you suck at politics. When you lie, you should glare back into your opponent’s eyes with confidence, even if they look at you in disbelief.” Instructed Avinash.

“But I have you to do that,” said Hatori.

“Whatever. Just leave one of the killers alive next time, I am trying to clean such elements from the country anyway. No civilized country has paid killers. Unless the government and that means me, pay them.” said Avinash.

“At least you have some awareness. I would have called you out otherwise.” Said Hattori, getting up from the chair.

Avinash sighed, watching him go away. He feels that more than any general, Hatori is the one who will keep him on the line if he ever loses himself, and the power gets in his head. He counts himself lucky that Hatori never had any ambitions to become a king, or else he might not be sitting on the throne at all.

PART 2.

Due to the war, the dueling tournaments were suspended across the world. Many fighters could not travel or died in the war. But now, things are picking up again.

And Nandan is on top. Coming out of the ring, covered in blood, he lifts the trophy. He has fulfilled his dream. He is the dueling champion of the world. His opponent is being carried out of the arena, and the crowd is booing him. Apparently, the dislike of the Subcontinent by the Europeans is still strong after the destruction of the Londinium.

But Nandan does not care about that. He hugs his coach, gives him the trophy, and then allows the medics to take him away for the treatment of his injuries as well.

Later, Dimitri and Nandan are packing up their things in their shared hotel room. Once they were ready, they went back to the Subcontinent. Nandan shows off the trophy to his parents, and his father puts it in the middle of his house, along with the medals Bajrang has been awarded for his military service.

Then, Nandan goes to bid goodbye to his coach, as he is leaving for Scythia. “What will you do next?” asked Dimitri.

“Simple. I’ll rest for a while, then challenge Hatori. Let’s see Where he is comparing to me.” said Nandan.

“Be careful. That boy—man, is dangerous.” Said Dimitri. He had to correct himself in the middle, Hatori is not a boy anymore.

“Of course he is. he has been trained by the likes of you and Zeko.” Said Nandan.

“Indeed. I will come back in two months to whip you in shape for your title defense. Until then.” Said Dimitri.

“Until then.” Said Nandan, nodding back to him.

PART 3.

Hatori is on the ground of the castle, about to leave. But suddenly, two women blocked his path. “Oh. Hello Ravina, hello Daphne, did you need something from me?”

“Yes. we need to speak with you on a serious topic.” Said Daphne.

“What is it?” asked Hatori. “Do you need help on some project? Perhaps the urge to travel the world has struck you? I do have the funds for that, though I don’t think we should travel in the current environment. Maybe on the other side? I’ll ask Josh to arrange fake documents for us. There are a lot of those on the other side.”

Both women looked at each other and then looked at Hatori. “You or me?” asked Ravina.

“Go ahead. You are more direct than me anyway,” said Daphne.

“Yes,” said Ravina, and looked up to Hatori. It is good that she is taller than most women, otherwise, she would have gotten neck problems by constantly looking up at this guy in front of her. “Both of us have decided that it is the correct time to settle down.”

“And we have chosen you as the male partner.” Said Daphne, continuing where Ravina left off.

Hatori looks around and then turns around. “I think we should have this conversation somewhere else.” The women agreed and followed him inside the castle.

As soon as they get inside the room, Hatori locks the door behind them. “Wow. Complete ignorance at first, and now locking the door behind us. He moves quickly.” said Ravina sarcastically.

“Why me?” asked Hatori bluntly, ignoring the jibe of Ravina. “You do know what kind of reputation I have, right? I’ll always have enemies as long as I live, and you two will have to deal with them as well.”

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“We know.” Said Daphne. “You should know by now that we are not weaklings either, even though we did not participate in the war directly.”

Hatori shakes his head. Looks like Daphne is still bitter about that. “True. But what about your families? I doubt they would agree to such a relationship.”

“We are two adult women.” Reminds Ravina. “We are free to choose. They have no say in this.”

“Correct.” Said Daphne. “And besides, you are a strong mage, who has proven himself. I doubt they would mind.”

“This is so strange.” Muttered Hatori. “Since when have two women proposed to one guy at the same time?”

“When the guy is a clueless idiot.” Said Ravina. “Did you know that in the school, everyone thought that you swung the other way?”

“First my parents, and now you too?” grumbled Hatori.

“Well, when a man never shows any interest in the females around him, what else are people supposed to think?” said Daphne.

Hatori collapses on the chair. “Maybe he never had time?” he offered. “Remember that I was a pariah in the early days of the Academy, and by the time I grew strong enough to change that, I was on the trip with Munshi. And then the dueling tournament, and then that scary trip back to the Subcontinent…” Hatori trails off. This list could continue for a long time.

“Besides, I do think we went on a date, sort of?” said Hatori.

“Yeah, those don’t count. We were just enjoying the company of each other.” Said Daphne.

“True. That was a relaxing time,” said Hatori. “Doesn’t this anger you?” he asked Ravina.

“Do you think I would have come with her if it angered me?” asked Ravina. “Anyway, due to your odd friendship with Maria, a lot of us thought that you two might have something going on.”

“That was until she was caught with another boy,” said Daphne. “It was quite a scandal. The fiery yet proper Nihongan snogging with a boy among the trees.”

Hatori tries to remember, but he does not remember any such incident. Seeing his clueless face, Ravina tells him. “This was during your internship with Munshi.”

“That explains it,” he said with a snap of his finger, producing some sparks.

“Then we thought you might be having a quiet affair with James.” Said Daphne.

“Clearly, you two had a lot of free time,” said Hatori drily.

“Anyway, just be ready. I’ve met both of your parents and in a few days, I will take you with me to meet mine.” Said Hatori. he smirked when the women had unsettled faces.

“Sure.” Said Daphne, giving him a shaky nod.

“We will be ready.” Said Ravina, not sounding that confident.

As they leave, Hatori looks at the picture of Zeko in the room. “What have I gotten myself into, master?” he asked the picture. The photo failed to answer.

PART 4.

Amara looks at her father, the king. She is kneeling in embarrassment, though she has told him the entire incident without flinching. Embarrassed or not, she could not show any weakness in front of him.

“Your majesty,” said Orion, “Those primitive people need to learn a lesson.”

“Why?” asked Alarion Starleaf. “You challenged them and then lost. Why should I do anything in the response?”

“That human, I believe used some kind of trick to beat me. Our best fighters could not beat me,” said Amara confidently.

“Because they had my orders to lose to you.” said the king. His words drew the immediate reaction from Amara, as she looked at him in shock. “In reality, you are not good enough to beat even the worst of them.”

“But why?” she asked, hating herself for sounding like a whining child.

“Because I was tired of your tantrums.” Said Alarion bluntly. “Do not bother the humans. You have embarrassed our race enough as it is.”

Amara goes away in shame.

PART 5.

Hatori returns four days later, helping his father in taking his mother home. “I would have come earlier, but I was heled up.”

“I am sure that the king has important work for you,” said Karan.

“Well, I could ignore him if I wanted to. I don’t depend on him for my salary.” Said Hatori.

Coming inside the house, Hatori helps lay his mother in the hall. It is the best place to keep her since it is accessible from anywhere in the house. “Are you comfortable now?” he asked her.

“Very.” Said Rita. “If only you could enchant the hospital bed.”

“Sure.” Said Hatori with a grin. “Hold on, I have to bring your medicines here.”

While he collects everything, Hatori speaks with Karan. “Why is this area so decrepit? I don’t remember things being this bad in my childhood.”

“Just the result of the usual neglect.” Said Karan. “It also doesn’t help that most of the old folks have left, and the economy has turned to crap.”

“At least the pollution is still low here,” said Rita.

“That reminds me, I do need to install some filters.” Said Hatori. A small tiger appears in the room and then disappears. “Dammit.”

“What is it?” asked Karan.

“Probably Avinash wants to discuss something.” Said Hatori.

“You call him by name?” asked Karan.

“Given I bullied him in our younger days, I don’t think there is anything wrong with it,” said Hatori. “Anyway, I’ll go for now, and next time, I’ll bring two people to meet you.”

“Which two people?” asked Karan, glaring at Hatori.

“Two people.” Said Hatori. he then opened the door, and flew away before Karan could ask anything else.

“I am worried.” Said Karan. “I don’t think our blood pressure is going to stay low.”

“Don’t worry dear, I am sure he knows what he is doing.” Said Rita.

PART 6.

Hatori hears about how the news of the Elven ship visiting Earth has spread around the galaxy. Various races are now contacting Avinash and other monarchs, and the Dwarves and Goblins have offered new business deals for them.

“What do you think it is all about?” asked the king.

“Mostly observation.” Said Hatori. “The visit of the Elves is just an excuse. They wanted to see how are we doing after our latest war.”

“That is disconcerting, to be honest,” said Avinash. “They are also offering their advanced magic tech, but they are not willing to share how it is built.”

“I suggest you let them do the services like they have been so far.” Said Josh.

“Yes.” agreed Hatori. “And invest in the research and development on a large scale. That is the only way we can compete with these races.”

“We should adapt the other side’s model.” Said Raven. “Fund some large-scale projects, and then use the research for other things.”

“We will proceed with that plan.” Avinash agreed with Raven. “The next decade is going to be important for us, so I want all of you to be on your toes.”

“Don’t worry.” Said everyone. “We will make sure everything goes smoothly.” Said Hatori.