THE RULERS OF RISHABHAPRIYA

14

Surabhi's POV

Jija ji attacked first as I had expected and Maharaj blocked his attack just at the right moment. He was fast enough to detach his sword from Maharaj's and attack from the other side of the sword but he blocked that too. This continued for a few times until Maharaj turned around once and with great force attacked Jija ji to disarm him. I sat in the back of the crowd making sure that Padmini couldn't see me and watched the fight. Their swords clashed loudly making sparks fly from it. I observed how well trained he was when it came to sword fighting and realized that I had underestimated his skills. 

The fight went on without either of them being disarmed. The first round came to an end and I saw him panting visibly as sweat dripped down his naked chest. Unknowingly my hands had fisted on my pants while looked at him. Suddenly, he turned his head to look at me and my eyes widened as all eyes were on me and him. My eyes sticked on his arms as he lifted the one with the sword and pointed it at me. I looked down and tried to hide myself away from all the attention I was getting. In one sharp look, I saw if Padmini was looking at me too. But I let out a sigh of relief when I saw her scolding Sourabh for making his clothes dirty in the mud. 

The second match was announced taking away all the attention away from me thankfully. Just like the previous round they fought for the whole time without disarming each other and it was a very tough fight for both of them. His moves and strength left Jija ji stunned a few times but he easily masked it away. The next round was also the same but the crowd hadn't lost the enthusiasm. I was bored by seeing that neither of them were winning or losing and decided to go back to the library. 

I had found the chapter I was looking for when an attendee informed me about the fight and I had no other option but to come down here to witness neither of them winning. I stood up and was about to turn around to leave when I saw the base of their swords collide and they circled around each other while saying something. Their swords swiped across each other making bright sparks erupt from the friction and in the next five seconds, Maharaj kicked Jija ji on his arm and his sword dropped to the ground making the crowd go crazy as their new king had just won. 

I stood still not being able to register the fact that he had won and would demand for his reward now. Guruji blessed them both and walked away but the very next second, Maharaj's eyes were on me. He had an evil smirk on his face as if he was trying to tell me something. I inhaled loudly as I felt unusually cold and goosebumps grew across my skin and I turned around to run away from there. He was not going to stop. He wasn't joking about the challenge and the reward. I only stopped running when the comfort of my chamber surrounded me and I laid on the bed to calm my racing heart. 

I had a few hours until he would retire for the day. He still had to have dinner and then a few drinks with Jija ji. I wondered if he really got intoxicated or he just sat there while Jija ji drank. As he was a brahmin, all the royals who had visited us until then, were kind enough to not demand meat or alcohol in the palace. I knew that Jija ji could stay away from meat but not alcohol. I did not want Maharaj to break his rules just because he was a king. I sat up and decided to concentrate on the book first for now and distance myself from him as much as possible for now. 

I sat down on the desk which was in the library of my chamber and opened the book I had borrowed from the royal library. I had bookmarked the chapter I had to read withy my dagger and soon, I started to read the content written on it. 

Maharani Sri Durga

She was one of the wisest and most beautiful queens our kingdom had ever seen. She was born to the ruler of a princely state named Pranahita. She was known for her skill in sword fighting and dancing which had made her famous in the whole country. She was believed to defending her state from enemies all alone when they were attacked with no prior invite for a fight. She met the king of Rishabhapriya, Maharaj Hara Varadha, during his visit to their kingdom in his disguised form. 

She fell in love with him even after thinking he was a commoner and talked to her parents about him. It was only a day before their wedding that she realized who she was actually getting married to. After her arrival to the kingdom, she took in charge of many important sectors of the kingdom and started to develop it so well the the sectors which weren't under her had started to protest demanding her involvement in their sectors too. She was a people's queen who never disappointed her subjects and always put them first. Her famous works are the construction of the pink palace in eastern Rishabhapriya which is so structurally well built that it is believed to stand strong even during earthquakes and tsunamis without a crack, the commencement of trading with people from different countries and also her very own school of performing arts, which was the first one to ever exist in this glorious kingdom. 

She suffered an injury from an enemy attack and died just days after the birth of her last son of her seven children. The kingdom suffered a huge loss that day and felt as if their mother had left them. Her memories lived on even after her death. 

I had written down a few things about the words I had just read. First of all, Pranahita. That was the name of the state she was from and concluded that Guruji had named me after that only after knowing about that. Secondly, Maharaj Hara Varadha. He was her husband who, according to Guruji, later cheated on her with the poisoned seductress. Thirdly, the pink palace. I don't know why but I knew that I had to see this palace and that I would find something more about her. 

But what made me believe that this book was written as per the wishes of the royal family of that time was the fact that the story written here was completely different from what I had heard about her from Guruji. And to back it, when compared to the other queens, who had many pages full of descriptions of their life and acheivements and images to prove those, she had only one page and two pictures under her name. One was her picture and the other one was of the pink palace. This was quite common. The book was found in the royal library. So there was a great chance it was written for the favor of the royal family. But when my mind worried about where else I could learn about her, it kept going back to the pink palace in the east of Rishabhapriya.

I had to go there. I knew it from my intuition and it would also be relaxing to take some time off for myself. And it would put a distance from him. I walked to the part of the library where different kinds of maps of our country and kingdom was placed. I took the physical map of Rishabhapriya and sat down to track down this palace. My eyes searched the eastern part of the map and saw a mark on it locating the palace. I took a map of only the eastern part of Rishabhapriya and I got the exact location of the palace. I rolled up the map after noting down necessary information for my journey to there and placed everything back to it's place. 

I walked out of the library while removing my weapons from their pockets and placed it on a desk while I removed my hair from the messy braid it was in. But my steps halted when I saw the sight in front of me. He was sitting on the bed, supporting his head by the base of one hand's palm while he leaned on a round pillow. His one leg was folded to lay on the bed while the other one rested vertically on the bed. His hair was dripping wet as I guessed he had just got out of a bath. I gulped looking at his half naked form and the way he was playing with a knife that was previously placed with the fruits on the table near the bed. 

His eyes slowly dragged up to me and he rasped," Oh, you came. Ready to reward me?"

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When should I publish the next chapter?

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