Warrior Princess; Her Quest to the throne

0"The rules of the game are as follows. The first round will contain a question to each team chronologically. If they get it wrong, it will pass to the next team and so on. The order will be decided by picking of chits. Round two will be a buzzer round. There is a bell kept in front of you. Ring it quickly and loudly but only if you are sure about the answer. This round carries negative marking. The winner would be the team with the highest score at the end of the two rounds. Any questions?" asked the moderator.     0

"What if two teams ring the bell at the same time?" a cultured voice asked him.     

All eyes turned towards the beautiful girl who had raised the query. Mriga stared at the girl whose body posture seemed completely at ease sitting next to Yash. Looking at them, no one would say that they were strangers. As if sensing her gaze, Yash raised his eyes and met hers across the dais. Some of her confused hurt must have reflected through that exchange which made him straighten up and avert his eyes.     

Mriga didn't hear the referee's response. At this moment, she couldn't care less about it.     

Round one began and thankfully between the four of them, Mriga's team knew all their answers. Unfortunately, though, due to the sequence order, the team before Yash's was particularly weak and that gave them the opportunity to gain extra points. Mriga's team was the first in chronological order and the team which was last in sequence, managed their answers well. As a result, Mriga's group didn't get any extra questions coming their way. By the end of round one, Yash's team stood second, while Mriga's was placed fourth along with the other team.     

The moderator wrote the final score on the board and declared a five minutes break before the next round.     

"C'mmon guys! This is our time to make up for the gap. We are good and between the four of us, we have most of the fields covered. Just make sure that no one rings the bell unless you are sure of the answer because we can't afford any negative marks," a pumped up Vandit addressed the team.     

Mriga smiled at his evident passion. She could hardly relate to his current demeanour when compared to that from his early days with the Admin team. And the most surprising part was that he had apparently become good friends with Abhirath. He teased and pulled the guy without any fear of a backlash and Abhirath treated him in an indulgent manner as well.     

She was concentrating on these people, trying to keep her mind off what was happening at the other end of the podium. Ishani's fingers covered her palm and gave her a reassuring squeeze. Mriga smiled at her indicating that she was fine.     

Round two started and the team placed first played aggressively for the first three questions and lost all three. Two of those answers were given by Mriga's team and one by the team placed third. With seven more questions to go, it was anyone's victory at this moment.     

The next question was regarding the Enemy Property Act of Chandragarh.     

Both Mriga and Abhirath looked at each other, as if their heads had been synced together. They had learnt about it during the early days of internship, when Prithvi used to hold a session for them post their daily chores. Pushing Ishani back, who was seated between them, they had an urgent whispered conversation but before they could ring the bell, Yash's group had beaten them to it.     

Vindhya's melodious, cultured voice rang out clearly in the hall as she listed down the provisions of the act. Mriga squeezed her eyes in frustration when that girl started speaking. But suddenly she opened her eyes and looked at Abhirath, who was already grinning ear to ear.     

He stood up and rang the bell loudly, proclaiming that the answer being given was wrong.     

Vindhya stopped mid-sentence and glared at him. The moderator looked at Abhirath in consternation.     

"I suggest that you sit down. The answer being provided by the contestant is the correct one," he said mildly.     

But Abhirath straightened up even further and used his condescending voice to address the moderator and the room.     

"Guruji, kindly pardon my imprudence in correcting you. The provisions of the act which the other team's participant is reciting, is the old version. Earlier this year, an amendment has been introduced which reverses the previous act's provisions. The most important out of them is the one where Chandragarh is now allowed to sell the properties which belong to the citizens of countries who went to war with us and have been declared our enemies," with that, he bowed and sat down.     

Few days ago, had someone told Mriga that she would find Abhirath's arrogance endearing one day, she would have called that the person crazy. But at this moment, she couldn't stop beaming at him.     

The moderator went back to consult a few professors who were present at the scene that time. As per the texts, the answer given by Vindhya was correct. After the consultation with the two senior law teachers, the moderator was about to come back to the podium when he was stopped by someone's walking stick.     

"The answer given by Abhirath is the correct one. If you need proof, go and check the law gazette which was sent out early this year by the Queen's office to all establishments, notifying them of the same," Prithvi's clear words took the moderator by surprise.     

"B…but Guruji, the law teachers have said that since the text books don't have the updated material, the previous answer should be marked correct," he replied, defensively.     

The moderator was vaguely aware about Prithvi being the head of some obscure department and this was his first time interacting with him, face-to-face. Did he really expect that his word would be taken over the opinion of the law faculty?