Empire of India: Rise of the Ruthless Prince

Rakhtasura was known to be like a shadow by his companions. His presence was barely felt in a room unless he made it known to others.

This skill of his had allowed him to be extremely covert in his missions and accomplish some astounding results.

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Everyone thought that it was a sort of magic, but it was far from that.

Rakhtasura was a studious individual. He spent a lot of time in his initial years studying various surroundings. He found out that he could disappear from the sight of humans pretty easily.

He was using the surroundings and refractions of light to place himself in a blind spot.

He practiced this routine in his everyday life till it became a habit for him and coupled with this, his training to step without a sound made him practically invisible.

Rakhtasura stayed loyal to the throne as he took an oath in front of the former emperor to be loyal to the throne for the rest of his life.

He was initially skeptical about Harsha. A child taking on the burden of leading an empire.

His worries were for nothing as he witnessed his ability. He found himself regaining the element of challenge to push himself further to achieve Harsha\'s goals.

Despite his calculating personality, sometimes he missed details. This flaw would be corrected as he gained more experience in politics.

Rakhtasura was on his way to report about the mission he was entrusted. He had done it flawlessly, as expected. He also leaked the information of the fuse grenade to the Marathas without the knowledge of Harsha.

He took the decision based on his experience. If he had been late in leaking the information, the Marathas wouldn\'t be able to hinder the Portuguese from taking the Surat port.

Walking into the study room of the Emperor. He made his presence known as he greeted Harsha in his deep and hoarse voice.

"Greetings, Your Majesty. I have come back from my mission."

Harsha was skimming through the reports about the new papermills, artillery workshops, and his reforms.

"So, how did the mission go?" Harsha asked, putting the papers down and glancing at him.

"It did go as planned."

"Planned? Eh…. Are you sure about that?" asked the Emperor with a bright grin.

"I did some adjustments according to the situations in the Sultanate."

"That\'s great work. You have to adapt according to the situation at hand."

Rakhtasura explained the situation in the Sultanate.

He revealed that instead of funding all three rebel groups,

He just funded two groups. The third rebel group was somewhat fishy and didn\'t heed to his commands or wanted funds to rebel in the Sultanate.

He also planted Yamaduts amidst the rebel groups to give information and war strategies.

"That\'s actually a great adjustment. What was the problem with the third group?" remarked Harsha.

"I think it is being controlled by someone in the Sultanate itself. It should be a high noble also, as they were well equipped and had an abundance of funds to recruit many people for their cause."

"I see. It is definitely irrelevant for us."

"The rebel groups have been supplied the weapons via a Yadava merchant. I have used aliases of different merchants and kingdoms to contact the rebel groups."

"So, we don\'t have to worry about the information backtracking to us."

"Yes, Your Majesty." He nodded.

Harsha pondered, rubbing his chin.

He was also worried about the Marathas situation, as leaving the Mughals unrestricted would make them strangers as they would begin swallowing smaller kingdoms.

It would be a headache for Harsha in the end, as he would have spent a lot of time and power to quell the situation.

Rakhtasura smiled behind his mask.

"We had some interesting situations from the Portuguese. They decided to send their second-rate and third-rate ships to take over the port of Surat."

That would spell a lot of trouble for Marathas even if they manage to win. Their trade would be blocked on all sides. The economy would be in shambles.

"So, what did you do about that situation?"

Rakhtasura gulped for a moment. He did leak a secret without the permission of the Emperor. He was prepared for the consequence but he felt like the fuse grenade could save Maratha\'s port from getting captured by the Portuguese.

"Your Majesty." He began. "I leaked the fuse grenade recipe to the Marathas."

The Emperor froze. The room became cold and the air was electric. He could feel the tension in the room.

The Emperor let out a hearty laugh. "Hahaha, you did great."

He figured that the Emperor would scold him for leaking a secret but in reality he didn\'t really care about the fuse grenade as it was a very easy thing to make.

"So how did you leak and did you ensure that they would use it in the best way?"

"Yes, I leaked it and also mentioned that loading them on a catapult could help them target long-distance targets."

Rakhtasura glanced at the papers in the room. He was surprised at the quality of the paper that the Emperor was using. It looked a lot smoother and cleaner than the paper that he was using to send letters.

He tilted his head in confusion as he was also using the same European paper.

"Oh…" The Emperor noticed his stare. "This paper is from our mill. You can take some as well. It is better than European paper and is highly durable as well."

The Emperor handed him a few sheets of paper. "You can ask Viswa to get you more of them." He said it with a smile.

The Emperor\'s expression turned serious.

"Anyway for the main topic. We have to prepare."

"Prepare?."

He handed him a plan with a wry smirk.

"Read this one. You will understand?"

Rakhtasura skimmed through the plan as his expression turned serious.

"Are you sure about this plan, Your Majesty?"

"Of course. This will mark the beginning of our journey."