Knowing full well what the consequence could be of interacting with such a person, Kush and Rhodos did not make eye contact and moved on. The person too moved on without paying attention to them.

“Phew… dodged that one”

“Yup, good thing we did not call him out”

Moving on they came to the end of the inner city and the entrance of outer city. It was Kush’s wish to explore the region a bit more, listening to what Sagar had said yesterday, both of them were interested in broadening their horizons. Along the way they saw fast food stalls and tried to enjoy their food, Kush loosened up the wrist braces when he ate.

As they were moving along they saw a crowd gathered outside a group home for poor people staggered together, they were some 100 to 200 houses built together with some of them having shared courtyards. These were govt. allotments given to people on a first come first serve basis but the primary criterion for allotment is to not have a criminal record and even after allotment of the house, committing a crime meant to forsake the place. The dark secret about the whole project was that the allotment officers took bribes modifying lists to allot houses to people who are willing pay them. Since the poor and destitute cannot couldn’t afford these houses and the rich and well off preferred the inner or central city, only criminals would pay the bribe to the allotment officer. This made these areas into hub for criminal activities and the poor without criminal records were bullied to sign off on behalf of criminals to accept houses. The allotment officers were mostly low tier nobles whose families had branched from main noble houses a few generations before. They did not really have any power, had a small modicum of wealth amassed during previous generations and a remote familial tie with some major noble which no one paid any heed to.

The aforementioned crowd was in the shape of a semicircle around few of the residents, a few personal guards, a person who looked like the captain of the guards and a handsome young man, dressed in gold and jewelries. It might have been enough to intimidate the poor, but they were nothing in front of the strong. The residents of the allotment were all criminals save a young girl in her twenties. The girl worked as a maid in the office of a noble who was higher in rank than the allotment officer. Pleased with her service, he instructed the officer (low tier noble) to provide the girl and her weak mother with a house, unable to oppose the noble of higher rank, he agreed to give her the house, making him lose money, this rubbed him the wrong way and he tried to dig into her life to pin some or the other crime on her, but since she lived a simple straightforward life as a maid, he couldn’t find anything to pin on her.

Out in front of the group of houses, a crowd of nearly 300 to 400 hundred people were gathered, all except the noble were and guards were poor and destitute.

The guard captain shouted “Every resident of the society, listen to what my lord has to say. This is an important announcement concerning the life of every citizen”

There was a pin drop silence, everywhere.

The nobleman Harsh, Kush came to now about this from the crowd, continued “As you all are aware, you were given protection from the harsh truth of your life that is homelessness, by my grace. I am the one who gave you the roof over your head, a decent life, where your women could bathe within closed doors. Gave you a life different from cattle and dogs”

Cringe in his words was evident, so much that one of the guards almost scoffed the noble’s claim, though to the people of outer district this was they thought was the truth. To them allotment officers were messiahs who saved them from homelessness, most of them did not even know who the king, prince, queen or the princess was. Even if dynasties changed, even if there was a military coup, nobody change would occur in the outer district, all that would happen is the people in the central district would switch houses, the nobles, barons, counts and viscounts would switch positions depending on who was in power. Seldom was anybody killed because of the heinous (air quotes) crime against the public, corruption or the situation of destitute in the outer district (air quotes) (air quotes are for sarcasm). People exiled or in house arrest would lead the next rebellion and overthrow the next king. It was like shuffling a deck of cards, the cards remained the same, only the one which came on top changed. So to the people of outer district low level nobles employed in positions such as the allotment officers were like deciders of their fate. But even they knew the dark secret behind the allotment process, cause some of them were the people who were forced to sign off for the criminals or knew people who were forced to do so.

The noble then continued “I have commanded your presence here and because of an important issue which concerns me”

One of criminals said residing in the housing area of questioned “Oh great lord, please do tell what it is that concerns you. Your generosity is what has given me a respectable life, I am willing give my life or take any life for you” said a known criminal in area in an exaggerated manner.

Another one went “Yes my lord, please tell me what you need. I will crush boulders and climb mountains for you”

Just as another was about to say something the noble raised his hand in a gesture to ask them to stop “I don’t need these things from you” assuming a more regal posture holding his head high, he continued “I have lost my bracelet while doing my rounds around the housing complex today and I believe one of you has stolen it”

“But it is impossible, my lord. Who in their right minds, would perform this dastardly act and that too to our very benefactor no less. Do they not know that, this is a society for decent people, who are trying their hardest to raise themselves from their plight, toiling away day and night…?”

“Shut up” said the noble. The act had gone overboard now. Even he was cringing from their lines and the people around had gotten suspicious and understood someone was going to get the axe. But they were rejoicing, because it meant they will have chance to fill up the house, so no one from the crowd complained. The people’s greed was within the noble’s plan so he was not too worried of someone calling him out on this.

“The bracelet was especially important to me because it was meant for my fiancé. I will give all standing here one chance, who has my…”

He paused mid-sentence because in his view he saw two cloaked figures and on one their back was and intimidating looking black axe. “who the heck are these two?” he wouldn’t have minded them if not for the intimidating dark axe. But he chose to ignore them, cause he his guards back him up if he they interfered with the matter here.

He continued “Sorry about that. So as I was saying I will give all standing here one chance, who has my bracelet, confess and no criminal charges will be put against you or be ready to kicked out of my allotment area and be put in a government holding facility”

No one came forward. Then one of the first residents who talked above then said “Oh my god!! any of you nincompoops who took my lords diamond bracelet return it back to him right now!!”

“Shut up” shouted the noble “This is my first and last warning, if you do not take it now, hmph… don’t say later that the noble Harsh Vardhan is not generous”

“Thank you for your generosity my lord” says the second resident from above “Remember this folks, that if caught you will be charged with robbery level 3. That is a long time in prison, atleast 7 to 10 years.”

After waiting for a few minutes the noble just went “Alright you think you are so smart for stealing my bracelet, alright Chatur” he looked to his guard captain.

“As you order my lord” he saluted and made way towards the housing complex. He came back in a few minutes with a shiny jewelry in his hand.

“ahh…!!” came a few exclamations from the society residents

“I found it in house no. 136” said the guard captain

“Ahhh….” Came scream from among the residents of the society. It was that of the young maid of the noble family, because it was here house where it was found

“Well, well looks like we don’t need to ask who this house no. belongs to now, do we?” said Harsh

“But my lord please believe me, I have not stolen the bracelet from you” said the woman. Dressed in a saree, such that it was wrapped around her thighs like dhoti, they ended right below the knee when she stood. The other end of the saree was then pleated over twice and draped across her bosom. She as, most human women, was dressed modestly (for the society in this story). Her back was entirely visible above her hips, so was the bottom of left breast. Half her waist was visible cause the saree end went diagonally from the top of her hips on the right to her left shoulder from where it was draped around her neck and tied to saree end using a pin. She was prettier than most women and had a thin waist and good firm breasts as well. In heat a few drops of sweat were trickling down her waist, her fair skin and sunlight were at such an angle to the noble eyes, that they glistened. He had seen her before, but for some reason he was feeling surprisingly aroused today, he wanted her physically and wouldn’t mind her being his concubine. While he used his lecherous gaze to examine her, she said “My lord, please trust me, I did not steal your bracelet. I have an old mother I need to take care of. We barely make ends meet with medication taking most of my earning. Please believe me, my lord”

“Huh. The same sob story everywhere I go. All people here have it difficult, who standing here is not poor and destitute. You poor people are like a disease, who keep on spreading, there is no end to you. Had I been in your place, I would have committed suicide already, instead of living in these shanties or sleeping and shitting in the streets”

“Please lord have mercy, I have been working hard. There is no one to look after my mother if I am sent to the prison” she said as she bowed down on the ground sitting on her knees and bowing her head as if talking to god

From the place he was standing, he could see down the drape end the saree. Her cleavage was visible for him to enjoy to his hearts fill. If bends a bit more than he would be able to peek at her nipples as well, but alas he couldn’t. His had goosebumps all over his body because of the blood rush of her position so he moved forward a few steps, such that he standing right in front of her. She felt a shadow cast on her and realized he just standing in front of her, but she did not move.

“Ok I can forgive you (and here comes the generic villain line), considering no crimes in your past records and your good karma for taking care of your mother I will do you one better, I will put you in an even better house”

The unbelievably good offer shook her heart. To the extent that she couldn’t believe what she just heard and also to the extent that such impossibly good turn of events is never possible in life. Her head jerked up while she was still sitting on her knees, she saw that noble’s waist was right in front of her at perfect position for her to pleasure him, scared by the view she fell back and supported herself on her hands and slowly stood up. In a few seconds she already had an anticipation of what was about to happen.

The noble laughed and said “Oh my fair lady, you need not be afraid, I am not going to touch you...” after a short pause “here”

Her were eyes wide open, he proclaimed “Become my concubine and I will let this pass”

Tears fell down her eyes, as she couldn’t see the light at the end of tunnel. Her father was a compulsive gambler and an alcoholic, who threw whatever her mother earned down the drain, every chance he got. Eventually he was killed by the loan sharks who sold their house and raped her mother repeatedly every day. Her mother protected her by never revealing her in front of the loan sharks who came for her (the mother). Eventually she ran with her in hand and stole a boat to Kashi. Later she fell ill frequently, her wounds did not heal and even small colds if not medicated would become pneumonia. Coming here at the age of 13 they survived on the streets eating from trash for a few weeks, when eventually she happened to find work at an elderly noble’s house as a maid. Early in her life, she learned balancing money making with house hold work since her mother by now had become bedridden. The only solace she had in these circumstances was growing flowers at the noble’s courtyard. She tended to them meticulously, used proper fertilizer to take care of them and watered them. Over the period it had grown into a beautiful meadow. They stayed in the noble’s stable house for a few years. Seeing her mother’s plight she had long decided to never be a common woman, despite what limited time she had, at the age to 16 she started cultivating and to fight against fate. The old did not have any descendants so when he realized she cultivated, he gave her tips. Surprisingly, he once said, that he had never seen aptitude like her’s even in the royal families. She was really happy and thought that all her life of fighting would be over if she cultivated, but out of loyalty never skimped out on her job. In his twilight years the old used the king’s recent plan to re-habilitate the poor to get her a house with a small individual lawn, doing her one last favor before he passed away. She was forever grateful to him and took care of him even more, but the increased work load and travel to and fro on foot meant she had even less time for cultivation, but she did not mind because, her comfortable life right now was a gift of the old man and she had plenty of time later once he died to cultivate since cultivation was not a hundred-meter dash but a long marathon. She was 24 years old now and her cultivation achievements were limited so she could not fight against them. Just as she was about to nod her head to agree and old voice came from the crowd.

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“Please wait, it was not my daughter who did this, it was me” it was her mother. An old and decrypt frame, barely able to stand, even one glance at her would show that she had a foot in the grave already.

Annoyed by the interruption he shouted “Shut up you old woman!! Who are you anyway? Why the fuck should we listen to you? The jewelry was found in her house anyway”

“I am her mother, I stole the jewelry, my daughter is innocent” replied the old woman

In his mind the daughter was already his woman, angered by the chance of having his woman slipping away, he grits his teeth, fists closing, he was about to kill the old lady, but calmed himself down.

“Ok old bag” he said “…” before he could continue the daughter shouted “No, my mother is innocent, she is just saying this to protect me, please my lo…”

“Shut up, how dare a mere wretch have the right to interrupt me, a noble of Bharat!!” he sounded a bit annoyed.

Turning back to the old woman he said “As I was saying old bag, tell me where you hid the bracelet”

The old woman started thinking and at once understood the folly in her plan to save her child, but she still tried hoping for a miracle “Under the kitchen sink she said”

The noble thought “Gotcha!!” and looked towards his guard captain “Chatur, now reveal to the audience here where you found the bracelet”

The guard captain said “In the buried in their individual lawn behind their house”, it was common knowledge that the houses 130 through 140 had individual lawns which were generally used to hide contraband items in case of (air quotes) inspection (air quotes). Hence they were the houses which earned the allotment officers the most.

This dashed the mother’s hopes of saving her child, she cried and fell on her knees, the daughter ran to her and hugged her, if she had cultivated enough she could have murdered every last one of the noble’s men, but this was plight of the weak.

“So let us concluded these shenanigans here and now. I am a kind and generous person; do you accept your punishment or do you agree to be my concubine? You have only to options”

His arrogance made him continue still as he said “And you lot, he said referring to the residents and crowd of homeless people, does any of you dis-agree with my verdict and generosity speak now or forever hold your wretched tongues”

No standing there was dumb everybody here could see the noble had set the girl up, but no one had courage to speak up. Some 300 m away, in the darkness of the alleyway, where even the light of Surya could not reach, opened a couple of eyes which seemed to be visible in the dark for some reason, though they were not glowing or emitting any light. In the dark only the yellow of the iris was visible and but if seen in light one would see brown in the periphery, killing intent was palpable around the eyes, the air around the eyes was as if frozen in fear as well. The hands of the owner of the eyes were moving slowly in the darkness picking something up and loading it. Then they pulled on to something and stood still but they did not proceed because the owner heard someone on the other side.

At the crowd gathering, a gruffy voice came from one of the short cloaked man “I dis-agree with your judgement”

“Who is it n…” the noble stopped mid-sentence on realizing who it was, generally people who hid their identity were major criminal who wouldn’t bat an eye in finishing off a small time noble like him and this guy had that monstrous axe on his back he was not to be messed with, but he would not back off now, not when such an awesome pleasure tool was within his grasp. He already had planned a few ways to violate the woman.

“Who are you and what is your interest in all?” asked the noble

Kush thought for a moment, thinking what to reply and said gruffly “The weight of my identity, is not something you can handle” saying so he started a slow pace towards the mother daughter duo and caressed them and bent down talking to them.

“What are you doing? She is going to be mine, don’t touch my woman”

“A person is nobody’s possession, the system of slavery has long since been abolished in the all countries” Kush said

The noble was tongue-tied unable to retort in public. The kid was legally right but nobles still employed slaves to attack as their meat shields and cum dumpsters.

Kush asked a few questions to daughter and stood up again. Then started his line of questing, “You noble, tell me since this is for your fiancé, when did you buy this?”

Annoyed by his disrespectful tone, he wanted to command his guards to kill the guy but again reeled his anger in and said “yesterday”

Kush then turned to the resident who first sucked up to the noble and asked “You, do you work at his mansion and serve him in some way”

The man knew the noble could not be linked to him and said “I do not have the qualification to work for my lord here”

“Hmph” said the noble

“The noble when describing the case, did not say that what type of bracelet it was, then how did you know that it was a diamond bracelet” he said

The noble’s eyes went wide, he glared digging in to the skull of the resident to made the mistake.

The first resident when hearing the question was flabbergasted and stunned for a moment and was unable to reply “I… I… I… thought….” He was stuck for a minute and then replied “Yes!!!” excited he said “Our great lord, is so great, he would give her anything less than a diamond bracelet to his fiancé”

“Nice save” the resident thought to himself

“Is that all you have in your line of questioning?” asked the noble “it is very flimsy”

Kush ignored the noble, this pissed him off. Never in his 60 years of life had he ever had to face such humiliation, but he had already driven home. He just needed to be patient.

Kush then turned to second resident who sucked up to the noble and asked “You, my first question is the same. Do you work at his mansion and serve him in some way?”

The second one was trying to remember if he messed up at someplace in his acting so he was a bit late in answering.

“Did cat catch your tongue” said the noble “reply to him immediately”

“no no… I too don’t have the qualification to work for my lord” said the second resident

“Then tell me, the noble when describing the case, did not say that what type of bracelet it was, then how did you know that it was a costly enough to have you sentenced to robbery level 2… you said if I remember correctly?” he said

“No I said level 3” blurted the second resident, blocking his only path of retreat by denying it.

The crowd already had an inkling of suspicious thing going on, but now that they were seeing things unravel they started murmuring among themselves. The flow had started to reverse.

Pissed off by the sudden change of events the noble replied “So what if he said that, all your evidences against these wretches are circumstantial, fact is that the bracelet was found in the girl’s house, buried in her lawn. You cannot accuse someone just because they were lucky enough to guess correctly” this squashed any line of questioning in this direction he thought. “These dumbasses!! I should have them killed for these mistakes”

To this Kush replied “Oi noble, when did I say I was accusing these dumbasses”

“Then why are you wasting our time here?” the noble asked “I have other important tasks to do”

“Be patient, noble, my next question to your guard captain” said Kush

Harsh was confident in his guard captain so he did not interrupt.

“You idiot (idiot is opposite of Chatur in Hindi) …” “hold your tongue plebian” screamed the captain

The cloaked figure gave a 10 second pause and said with a bit more gruffly and with a bit of gravity in his voice “The fuck did you call plebian to fucking cockroach”

He brought out his axe and banged the end rear of it on the ground “BOOM…” came the sound when it hit the cemented floor of the house. Cracked occurred on the floor when a close to hundred kilo weight concentrated on a 3 cm circular area dropped on it with momentum. The people had an inkling of the how dangerous the axe was just from how it looked, but now they were scared shitless. They also saw how swiftly he could move the axe making them more vary. “huhu…” came a beautiful voice from the taller cloaked figure as she was enjoying the con.

“Sorry” uttered the guard captain involuntarily out of fear. This pissed the noble off more, but he too stayed silent, this was not an exceptional feat for him, for he too could probably do this, but barely.

Kush continued “Now fucking idiot” this irked the guard captain but he grit his teeth but stayed silent “tell me this society has more than 180 houses, how the fuck did you fucking idiot come back with the bracelet barely 5 cm in diameter find the it so fast”

All the murmuring died down, even the girl jerked her head up cause in all the mess she too missed this simple event too. She too was getting angry at the guard captain, so much that she wanted to kill him. She closed her fist, tightening it in anger, but reeled all her feelings and regretting her weakness.

The noble too understood that tables had turned and he could not be confident any longer. The guard captain was silent for too long, but the noble still did not want to relent and continued “Again your questioning is circumstantial and as things stand the mother has confessed to crime, indicating it was in their house. You cannot accuse Chatur…”

Cutting him short Kush said “I am not accusing the fucking idiot as well, noble”

This perturbed the noble’s confidence and he said “This discussion is moot. There is no saving them now.”

“My last question has put your only evidence useless absolving them of their crime” said Kush

This put the noble in a spot, he wanted to kill the cloaked fellow, but knew it was unwise so he replied “You do not have the authority, to make that decision, only a person of nobility can preside over a case. All you did was muddy the waters by your ridiculous questioning. Now if that all…”

“No, that is not all” he interrupted the noble again “Now fucking idiot” he started asking the guard captain questions without noble him to do so “Tell me if the house no. 136 was this way” he said pointing to the right behind him “Then why did you run off in that direction and then cross the entire width of the society to go to house no. 136” he said pointing to the left behind him. The resident 1 and 2 were surprised by the question but were too scared of the axe wielder to help the noble. The guard captain opened his mouth but couldn’t explain why he did so. Kush smirked in his hood, cause his gamble worked. The noble replied “Quit with your circumstantial and confusing questioning. He doesn’t to answer any of your question now anyway”

“Hahahahaha” laughed Kush which scared the noble now so he asked “what happened?”

“The question did not need an answer” by now tears on the mother daughter pair had dried up, cause they knew they had now been saved

“Their house is that way” he said pointing to the left behind him “Hee hee hahahahaha he doesn’t know where the house is” laughed Kush uncontrollably.

The tides had turned, he knew that he could no longer just shrug, but now was the time to stick to your positions and he said “Just cause you confused him with your twisted questioning, doesn’t prove anything”

“Get lost”, said someone from the crowd. Enjoying the show. A lot of them wanted their revenge against him and they got it for the first time. They were really happy. “who said that? Who the fuck said that? Come forward or I will murder all of you”

“Oi noble, I am not done yet” a cold sweat dropped down his back as he turned around. He had coiled his palm in the shape of a hook and had started conjuring something. Rhodos noticed this and was ready to defend Kush whenever he needed it.

“So fucking idiot, you found the bracelet buried in the lawn, did you not?”

The guard captain nodded slowly, fear all over his face, he forgot that he was responding to fucking idiot

“I see from the diamond bracelet in your hand that the diamonds are set on a gold band with thick silver lining. The woman there is an avid gardener”

“What does that have to do with anything?” asked the Noble cause now his interest was piqued as well

“She uses nitrogenous fertilizers, to grow her flower garden”

Now even the noble was at a loss

“It is a type of fertilizer, anyway it has a chemical abundant in it, it is called ammonium hydroxide”

“So?” asked the noble getting more and more interested

“If you bring it in contact with silver, it will produce silver nitrate which is black in color. Which means, if your bracelet was in her flower garden then all of the silver on it would have turned black. If you can bring an alchemist, he will confirm it for you, or we could do the shorter thing and actually bury the bracelet in her garden”

Pin drop silence in the courtyard

“So which option you want choose, don’t tell I was not generous enough to you later on”