It had been 3 years since the day Aariv was born. because his body was different, he grew up abnormally fast. He started walking and speaking at the age of 1, He wanted to venture out of the palace and see the capital city but his father did not allow him.
Chandragupta said that Aariv was still very small and that he didn't know about the world, culture and the people. Aariv's mother, father, and Kautilya had already accepted that he was not a normal child and hence should not be treated like a normal child. They told Aariv that he will have to study about the world under Acharya Kautilya and when he completes studying and passes the exam he would be allowed to go out.
Chandragupta and Durdhara thought that It would at least take Aariv 6 years to study everything but boy they were wrong. Aariv completed all the studies in two and a half years.
Aariv studied all about religions, statesmanship, the art of war and Science of this era. To him, studying all this was like damaging his own brain cells. Aariv was not into religion as they were very biased toward the welfare of the upper class and when it came to Science it was like a joke to him, after all, he came from the god damn 36th century.
But statesmanship and the art of war was very intriguing to him so he deeply studied it which is why it took him 2 and a half years. Aariv not just studied from this area but also looked into the memories he received from integrating with those aliens.
He was very excited seeing that those telepathic aliens never had anything like religion. They only believed in science and their world was run by the Council of elders. Racism and discrimination never existed there. They only lost in the war because of the lack of fighting instincts.
Aariv compiled all these things in his studies and made a new book titled 'How to run an empire' but he decided that it was not the right time for this book to surface.
In the past three years, Aariv had grown 4.4 feet(134 cm) tall. Normally a 3-year-old kid should be 3 feet(94 cm) tall. He looked 10-year-old and behaved like a teenager. As to not change the timeline, he never interfered with his father's work. The only thing that he changed was to make his loved ones healthier, using biokinesis he did everything he could to remove any defect from their bodies.
He was happy that Chandragupta, Durdhara, and Kautilya could now live for 120 years healthily without any problems.
Kautilya already knew that Aariv was much smarter and knowledgable than any other mortal he knew so he never tried to teach Aariv seriously. Instead, he got to learn many new things from Aariv. He learned about Gravitational force which kept everything stuck to the ground. He didn't understand where this force came from but he was very excited knowing something new.
...
Aariv was walking in the hallway, going to the Royal court which was currently in session.
Today he had passed his exams and wanted to inform his father. Aariv wanted to leave India for a while, He was afraid that his existence near his family could very well change the future. The biggest problem he was facing right now was how to tell his father that he didn't want the throne. After all, he seriously didn't have time to sit at one place and rule. There were 7 continents that he needed to unite and conquer. India was just a small part of one of those 7 continents and conquering the 7 continents could not be done in one day. He needed to do things slowly and systematically.
He could not use force because then the world would see him as the public enemy number one. He needed to make monarchs of all kingdoms surrender to him and then bring social and economic reforms on his behalf.
Aariv wanted to bring Industrial, Agricultural, Social and Technological revolution at the same time all over the world and this would not be possible if he did not have the whole world in his control.
Deep in thoughts, he didn't notice that he had reached the Royal Court and was standing in front of the entrance. The guards saw him and saluted.
"What's going on in there? Tamas." He asked one of the guards.
In the past two and half years, Aariv had learned the names of every single person working in the Royal Palace, no matter who it was, the soldiers, cooks, servants or even cleaners whom everyone treated like they didn't see them. This little act made everyone like Aariv even more.
"Your Highness, His majesty is judging a civilian case right now. Do you want me to announce your arrival?" the guard named Tamas replied.
Any person of reputation was required to be announced before entering the royal court.
"Yeah, that would be good"
The guard went inside the Royal court and announced Aariv's entry "His highness, Aariv Maurya is entering the Royal court"
Aariv entered court. For court officials and people living in the palace, the sight of Aariv was a normal occurrence.
Because a civilian case was being judged there were many commoners present in the side stands. They all gawked when they saw Aariv.
They all knew that Aariv was 3 years old but whom they saw was a much older looking, fair-skinned handsome boy with ear-length hair and deep black eyes. There were some muscles here and there on his arms and shoulders but still looked like a normal 10-year-old.
One of the commoners even commented stupidly, "Is this the work of the legendary Mauryan blood?"
Aariv was able to hear the man and he facepalmed himself in the reply.
The people also noticed his strange clothes and started chattering.
Aariv hated the clothes of these times, men had most of their upper body naked at all times, sometimes wealthy men would put a scarf over their shoulder to chest but the ordinary middle and lower class only covered their lower body, leaving everything else naked.
Aariv designed pants and shirts for himself and made the royal tailor make them. The stupidest thing Aariv noticed was that buttons had been invented in 1300BC at the time of Indus Valley Civilization but people still used them as ornaments.
Aariv designed a white full shirt with a collar, it had 5 buttons made of gold. For the lower body, he had designed a plain Khaki colored pants, Aariv didn't want to waste time making zips so he didn't add them. He also ordered a pair of ankle-high brown leather boots to be made. These clothes made him stand out even more but he was still not comparable to his father.
Even Aariv's father liked his clothes, they were easy to wear and comfortable. so he also ordered a set, but his choice was a bit more lavish.
Aariv saw that his father wanted to wear those in the Royal court so he made his father a full set or royal suite, fit for an emperor.
A white colored shirt with a golden collar and buttons made of gold. He also made a white blazer covered with gold ornaments for winter, and pants were kept simple for comfort plus black ankle-high boots. The last thing that completed the dress was a thick Red-colored cape, it's boundaries were made of sheep's white wool, on the backside of the cape a lion face was embroidered with gold threads. The cape was supposed to go over the shoulder. He also told his father not to wear a turban because it would spoil the style.
But a crown was still necessary so he designed a simple crown made of pure gold, it had many colorful gems embedded in it and a small emblem made of 4 golden lions, each facing in 4 different directions was put up on the front side of the crown.
The emblem signified the strength of the emperor and the 4 lions signified that the emperor was watching over every citizen and enemy in all 4 directions.
...
Back in court.
Aariv looked at his father sitting on the throne looking badass and majestic at the same time. Even the NEET Juno gave her compliments.
"Damn, he looks good. Aariv, tell your mom to keep an eye on him, you don't want a new mama now do you?.. haha" as always trying to pull his leg.
"Agh, Go back to your cave my loli, Juno" He gave her a nice comeback.
"I HATE YOUUUU" she went back to watching movies, she hated being called loli and Aariv always used this to make her shut up.
Chandragupta looked at his handsome son proudly, he knew why Aariv was here, his subordinate had already told him that his son had passed the exams with flying colors. Now Chandragupta had no reason left to keep him closed inside the palace walls and he knew how strong Aariv was so he didn't care much that he wanted to go outside the empire.
He actually pitied the people who would make his son their enemy in the future.
"Very good timing son, we were about to hear the next case, come and sit." he smiled and signaled Aariv with his eyes to sit.
Aariv understood that it was not the right time to talk so he went near the Prime minister baldy to sit. 2 servants quickly brought a big cushioned chair for him.
"thank you, Raju and Shiv" He thanked them smilingly and sat down.
Both servants froze for a second before leaving, it was rare for anyone to know their names. But none the less it brought a smile to their faces.
Aariv looked at baldy sitting beside him and spoke in a low voice. "That exam was too easy baldy, are you sure you set it up?"
He mocked jokingly.
Kautilya was used to being called baldy by now so he didn't even notice that word.
"Haha... your highness, that was all that I learned in my 54 years of life. It's you who knows too much" He praised Aariv.
"I know that you crave for knowledge, But for some reason, I can not teach it to you yet, wait 12 more years after that I will teach you everything," Aariv replied while looking at baldy's face.
Aariv considered Kautilya his first follower so it was natural that he wanted to teach him everything but it was not the time yet. He needed to wait for Ashoka to be born first.
"12 years is nothing. I can even wait 100 years if that would grant me knowledge"
After saying that Kautilya stood up from his seat and went to the center of the hall. He started reading from the parchment in his hand.
"The next case is..."