Warrior Princess; Her Quest to the throne

Rudradev bowed his head and replied to the king respectfully, "I am afraid that Prince Mithilesh seems to have hit a roadblock as far as negotiation with Rani Samyukta is concerned. That is why he has decided to stay back in Chandragarh with the hope of changing her mind. But according to my sources, she is unlikely to do so even under extreme circumstances. Her position on allowing another country to set up their financial base in her queendom is really firm. Since their domestic commerce system is flourishing, the temptation which the prince may be offering currently won't be enough to sway the queen. My apologies."     

"Wasn't this supposed to be your proposition? You were the one who thought of it initially. Shouldn't you take more responsibility and find a solution in such a situation?" the king growled in displeasure.     

Rudradev kept his countenance subservient and said, "Since the king has asked me to speak without colouring the facts, I will do so. Please excuse my bluntness. The original draft drawn by me wanted to target only a select few monarchies at a time, the ones which I knew I could influence by incentivising the deal. Once the model became successful in these, it would have been much easier to convince the bigger countries like Chandragarh. Bu… but Prince Mithilesh…"     

He let his voice trail deliberately.     

"My ambition-fuelled son treated it as his personal shortcut to the throne without paying heed to the probable pitfalls," the king seemed to be wheezing now.     

"What do you propose we should do now?" he asked the minister.     

Even though the question seemed simple on the surface, Rudradev knew that the king was looking for a way out. For the first time in so many years, he finally realised that the king actually wanted his son to take the throne instead of his daughter, despite his feigned indifference towards both of them.     

"I believe that in order to maintain fairness, the king should offer a similar but equally improbably opportunity to the Princess," he said quietly.     

The king didn't react and closed his eyes in exhaustion before saying, "You may leave now."     

Rudradev bowed his head and stepped out of the chamber. Then he turned around and walked off in quick steps.     

Eastern Zilla, Chandragarh     

Ramanujam groaned in pain and blinked open his eyes. But he couldn't see anything. Was it because his eyesight was affected or was he in a really dark place? Though a calm man, he found his heart pumping at a much faster pace while his fingers took stock of the surroundings.     

"This is not the first time that I have woken up here," he realised slowly.     

Apparently, he had floated in and out of consciousness a few times already which meant that… he had been discovered and captured. He tried hard to recall the last thing which he had done before coming to this place.     

Ahhhh, he had been following Sharada, that Eastern zilla head as she stepped out of the Suraksha Chakra office. He had been extremely cautious and she seemed to not be aware or worried about being tailed.     

"Because she knew about my presence from early on! When did I give away my presence? I should have paid heed to Guruji's instructions," this was his last thought before fainting again.     

Footsteps arrived outside the dungeon door and the person waited for the effect of the sleeping gas to recede before entering inside. The perpetrator's lips curved up in a smile. Everything was moving perfectly, just as it should.     

Gurukul, Chandragarh     

Prithvi received the report from the messenger with a cold face. The poor guy was looking nervous even though he hadn't done anything wrong.     

"You can leave now," with that Prithvi dismissed the man.     

Saraswati looked up curiously as her boss walked out of his room and stood by her desk. She stood up in enquiry but did not have to wait for long.     

"You will be taking over Ramanujam's duties temporarily. Contact the Queen's aide and inform her that I am seeking an audience with Rani Samyukta urgently," his voice held no inflection and Saraswati didn't say anything except nodding her head in agreement.     

"Maybe that idiot's project is taking longer. No wonder Guruji has been in a bad mood recently," she told herself, squashing the uneasy feeling which had risen inside her.     

The meeting between the Suraksha Chakra head and the queen would be held as usual at Devyani's brothel room. But they needed to be cautious even while sending a message for it. Thankfully, the eagle was a common resource used between the three of them alongwith Shaurya. So she quickly encrypted the message and sent the bird soaring towards the royal palace.     

3AM, Brothel     

Prithvi had just finished debriefing Rani Samyukta on both the progress and the roadblocks for all the operations which were currently running. The queen pinched the space between her eyebrows to fight the exhaustion which seemed overwhelming at the moment.     

"Please do not take this lightly. I strongly urge you to reconsider this decision. At least, look at the options which we had discarded earlier," he implored the queen.     

In a never before used harsh tone, she told him, "It has been months since you started looking into this matter. Neither have you managed to find the moles nor the plan. If we do not draw the enemy out, won't we just be prolonging the inevitable? And don't tell me that you need more time or that you have another plan. The bait is dangling, the trap is ready. Nothing will change at this moment. Things will go ahead as per the current plan.     

Prithvi knew that he was in no position to argue but he couldn't let the meeting end without saying, "At least, we should consider postponing the competition by a few weeks and increasing the security in the capital."