Dhruva Nakshathra - The Game of Alliance ✔

FIFTY

Heading to Kavish

The city was a cacophony of mixed reaction. The city dwellers of Mahina were quick to retort and while some supported their king's announcement on returning the long imprisoned Kavishians back to their country. Those unaffected by the seventeen-year-old event, backed the initiation by hailing praises. Yet some people chose to rebuke the decision especially the families who had lost their family members in the fight.

The cries of the long dead's families wailed loud, they overpowered everyone else. They screamed their disappointment on the king's unfair order. They blamed Kavish for their lost. They cursed the kingdom of Kavish to be burnt to ashes with so much of hatred. They threaten to kill all those imprisoned people right there and threw rocks and slippers to the crowd marching behind the small royal parade.

Dhruva and Prithvi immediately dismounted their horses and sprinted to the front of the crowd. The citizens stopped but ended hurting the princes as well.

Prithvi ordered a guard to get something for him to stand high up. His face was red from the dripping blood gushing out from his forehead and nose and he was evidently angry.

Dhruva witnessed his brother's other side for first time and it took him by storm when Prithvi addressed the crowd in loud and harsh tone, silencing them with his tough persona.

"Are you happy now?" He yelled, the veins on his temple, forehead and neck protruded. "This is what you had warned, didn't you?" Prithvi pointed at the cuts on his forehead. "To express your anger not on these innocent people but on us. Am I right?" his voice bellowed.

The number of masses gathered may not be visible from Dhruva's point of view but the wave of silence followed after Prithvi's question helped him guess—close to an entire city. He shuddered to think of their reactions when he returns with Nakshathra in next few weeks to come.

The young prince called out one representative to speak but promised to answer them all under the scorching heat. A man of his words, Dhruva remembered when he worried of the people rebuking his marriage alliance with Kavish and Prithvi had promised to take care of it. There he was, standing up for what truly was right for everyone regardless of their origin.

"Rajakumar, these people were the reason our families are dead now. How can we simply let them go?" Spoke the representative. A man in his seventies, tanned from the hours of work under the sun with silver hair and wrinkled skin, he appeared to be a wise man of his age but proved otherwise.

"They are responsible for your grief? These people?" He asked, loud enough to be heard to an extent. "How are they responsible?"

"Their king killed our minister back then. We as the citizen fought for the minister who was murdered in the name of friendly game." Even as the old man spoke, his tone wavered.

"Number one, did it happen with your own eyes? Number two, who are you to fight for justice or for the minister?"

The old man stumble for an answer has he searched the ground with his bulging eyes. "Everyone talked about it and we are from the same country. That makes us all the more rightful people to fight."

"You are being delusional! If we need you to fight for us then why do we even need all these trained armies? We can simply send you to a battle ground, right?" The seventeen-year-old prince asked with more clarity than most of the aged people rebuking the king's order present in the crowd.

"Listen to me, ayya. You did not fight for the man who lost his life in a game. In truth, all of you and those long dead found this kind of event exhilarating. An event where you can go wild and so, you went out of control. Targeted them first and when they strike back, you blame them for the misery path you have chosen?"