Empire of India: Rise of the Ruthless Prince

Hampi, Vijayanagara Empire.

Harsha was heading towards the palace. He was heading to the palace; that was most likely where Lakshmi was there to put an end to this mess.

He entered the city of Hampi to see Bhairava speeding towards the gate of the royal palace. Harsha slowly reached the gate after a few minutes.

The palace was practically empty. All the servants were dismissed to their quarters till the battle ended and one faction took control of the Empire. He heard some screams as he walked down the hallway to the royal court.

He could guess what was happening. It was Bhairava killing Chandra and his bodyguards.

He saw footsteps leading to the royal court. It was likely the man in command for Chandra's army. The man was likely to be a pawn of Lakshmi.

Alfonso had mentioned Nakul in the letter and his close connection to Lakshmi and her plan. Harsha also remembered Nakul from the independent merchant group that took a road contract.

He found it odd at first that a young man was leading such a wealthy merchant group. He did think it was luck coupled with skill. Merchants require a wealth of experience to function and maintain their standing.

It all started to make sense now. Lakshmi had used him to invest her wealth to generate more wealth to make a network across the Empire. It was very similar to his plan.

He reached in front of the doors of the royal court. The huge doors had a small gap, as if someone had entered the place.

He pushed open the doors with ease. The doors made a slight sound and opened into the big royal court. It was mostly empty compared to the usual energetic atmosphere.

Right on the platform of the Royal Court. Lakshmi sat on a chair, dressed in an elegant red saree, her hair tied neatly. She wore minimal jewelry. Her eyes were like obsidians looking straight at him.

Nakul stood beside her with a sad expression.

He walked towards Lakshmi and scanned his surroundings for potential threats. To his surprise, he didn't find any threats or assassins. He thought he would meet at least some assassins.

"I can finally meet the mastermind." He said with a smirk, while his hand rested on the hilt of the sword.

Lakshmi looked down from the platform at him and smiled sweetly like usual.

"Brother, let's have a chat."

"Hoo, you are inviting me for a chat instead of a fight?"

Lakshmi chucked lightly.

"I am a feeble woman. How can I fight and win against you of all people?"

"Feeble? Your plans weren't feeble at all, and your rough hands speak of your skill in swords arts." He declared.

"I don't wish to fight you, Harsha. I just wanted to talk for a while." She gestured towards the seat on the other side of the table.

He climbed up the stairs into the platform and sat down. He felt no hostility from Lakshmi. So he obliged to her request to chat.

"Brother, do you know how to play Chaturanga?"

"Is it like chess?" he muttered aloud.

"Chess?" Lakshmi tilted her head in confusion.

Chess wasn't the name for the game in this timeline. The modern chess that we know was just in the making at this time. In India, chess was known at Chaturanga. The rules were very different from modern chess also.

"it's nothing." He dismissed her with a wave.

"I never played it before. I am not adept at it." He admitted.

"Oh!! I see. I wanted to play while we had a chat."

"If you tell me the rules, I can try to dabble in it." He leaned back into the chair with a smirk.

"Oh! I knew you wouldn't back down from a challenge."

She looked at Nakul, who took a small book out of his pouch.

"This is the rule book."

Harsha grabbed the book and began to read it quickly, taking in the information quickly.

The game rules were quite similar to the ones in chess. The goal of the game was to capture the enemy king. They were divided into four parts: infantry chariots, elephants, and cavalry.

The foot soldiers moved like the regular pawn, but it couldn't jump two squares at the start, whereas the horse moved as usual in an L shape. Chariots were similar to rooks. The queen just moved one place diagonally, unlike her stronger counterpart in chess.

King moved, same as the present king.

Checks weren't part of the rules, and there were no stalemates for the game. It seems like the game went on till one of them eventually captured the king and won.

He got a basic idea of the rules. He liked the pawn rule the most. The Pawn turned into the piece that initially occupied the file of promotion. So they couldn't choose what the pawn could be promoted.

They had to work around saving the pawns to promote to a certain piece. This added a bit of intrigue in Harsha's mind. This was way different from the chess he was trained on in the research facilities.

Lakshmi sipped on some tea served by Nakul amidst this. Her expression was soft and nonchalant, having no care in the world about what was happening outside.

She patiently waited for Harsha to finish reading the rule book before they could start the game.

Lakshmi liked Chaturanga because this was the ultimate battle of the mind. The gender didn't really matter in this place. There were no physical advantages or disadvantages to battling in Chaturanga. Everything came down to the battle of mind.

It was the ideal battlefield to fight Harsha.

She knew she held an advantage since Harsha didn't play Chaturange. But her instincts were saying not to underestimate Harsha. So she vowed to give her all while playing against him.

Harsha finally closed the rule book with a soft thud and kept it aside on the table.

He glanced up at Lakshmi with a smile.

"Let's play."

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