Inside the private meeting chamber.
General Karamveer Khatri, Revenue minister Acharya Shiras Dara, Trade and Commerce Minister Acharya Subanu Lal, Agriculture Minister Acharya Drishnu Palin, Prime minister Acharya Kautilya and Aariv were seated at the 2 longer sides of a rectangular table with Emperor Chandragupta seated at the shorter side. Aariv and Kautilya were sitting closest to the emperor.
(Acharya is a prefix used to address a very knowledgable person)
Aariv looked at his father: "Your majesty, I am deeply saddened to inform you that the justice system has not been working properly and instead of helping them we are looting them"
People except Kautilya and Chandragupta looked at Aariv with a ridiculing gaze, They thought that Aariv was just a 3-year-old kid, what does he know about the justice system.
"What are you trying to say Aariv, get to the point," Chandragupta said.
"Do any of you know a person named Vibhuti Narayan?" Aariv asked the group.
"No," everyone replied in unison.
Aariv then told them about the corrupt civil court official: "I have reason to believe that he is forcing people to pay money to register cases in the Royal court and the saddest thing is that he is the Judge.
What I don't understand now is how could a man working in the most monitored department take bribes. I personally think that someone with higher authority is involved in this."
He looked at the 4 ministers with a smile.
Hearing Aariv's last words, the revenue minister, Acharya Shiras Dara, stood up from his seat and started arguing "What proof do you have. Are you blaming us?"
Aariv looked at the fool who just took the bait. Acharya Shiras was a 40-year-old man with a big belly. Whenever he shouted his belly would show vibrations.
~Sigh... I guess we'll need a new Revenue minister soon~ Aariv thought in his mind.
He then looked at Acharya Siras and said: "I never blamed anyone, you took the blame yourself and why do you fear when you did nothing wrong."
Acharya Siras tried to look away from Aariv's gaze, he felt like he was being looked down like a predator looking at its prey
Then Aariv looked at Acharya Kautilya. "Bald... I mean Acharya, can you please send your agents to investigate this matter, I am sure that there are some people who don't like their heads attached to their bodies anymore."
when he said the last words Acharya Siras's fat body trembled, he tried not to show any reaction but failed miserably.
Chandragupta also noticed that. He wanted to behead his Revenue minister with his own sword but restrained himself as he needed proof. Even though he was the highest decision making power in the empire and if he wanted he could kill anyone he wants and no one would say anything but that would also create mistrust between him and his ministers.
At that point, everyone in the room knew that it was highly likely that Acharya Siras was involved in the corruption in some way. Fearing that Acharya Siras would try to run away Kautilya passed the orders to his men to follow him all the time.
With that, the meeting came to an end and the council of ministers left, leaving only Aariv, Chandragupta and Kautilya in the room. The real meeting was just getting started.
...
Chandragupta looked at Aariv with a complicated face, "What do you want to talk about, son?" He thought that Aariv just wanted to tell him that he wanted to go out and that he had passed the exam.
"Father, What do you think about me? I mean my abilities," Aariv asked. He was trying to assess what his father thought of him.
Chandragupta was surprised to hear this question but he still truly answered.
"I think that you are the most powerful and smart person I have ever met. I am really lucky that you were born as my son and I also think that you are supposed to do much bigger things than I did but why are you asking all this son?"
Aariv looked at his father's face and then Kautilya's. "I don't want the throne father"
Chandragupta looked extremely shocked, he could not imagine why his son rejected the throne, he still tried to persuade. "But why?... this whole empire is yours already and after what happened in court today I am sure that even the people would want you to be their ruler."
Unlike his father, Kautilya was still silent.
"Father, do you know how big the world is?" Aariv asked.
Chandragupta looked complicated. Thinking, why was his son asking this question?
"Well, there is sea in the south, in the west there is Yavanas(Greeks), in the east is Mahācīna(Greater China) and beyond that is more sea and in the north is Himalaya. That's all we know." Chandragupta answered while scratching his beard.
"You are right father but that's just 40% of the whole world, there is a much bigger world out there." as Aariv was speaking, he brought out a 30cm X 30cm piece of paper from his pocket which he had made and drawn on. It was a world map.
He laid the map on the table and asked. "This is the map of our whole world. Father, baldy, can you point to India on this map?"
Both Chandragupta and Chanakya looked at the map interestingly, they could not point out India and neither could they fathom how big the world was as they didn't know how big the Mauryan empire would look on the map, they needed a reference to compare size.
Aariv looked at them and smiled "Let me show you India first"
He then took out his ink pen which he made a year ago. Ink was already available in the current but he still needed to work on the pen. Aariv then marked the boundaries of India.
Chandragupta and Kautilya looked at the map, India looked very small compared to the world and they knew that the Mauryan empire only stretched to some parts of India. They started thinking that Mauryan was so small.
"Now I will show you the Mauryan empire." Aariv marked the boundaries which covered about 48% of India.
Chandragupta could not accept that what he spent so much time and strength on conquering was so small when compared to the world. Kautilya went numb, he had traveled a lot and he thought that India was huge but he was wrong.
Chandragupta looked at his son and asked in a troubled voice "How do you know all this son?"
"I know many things, father. Past, future and many other great things. Do you want to know how big Sikandar's (Alexander) empire was?" Aariv looked at his father's surprised face.
"Wait what do you mean by 'was', is he dead?" Chandragupta stood up from his seat, he knew about how strong Alexander was and considered him his biggest rival. He truly wanted to fight him.
"Yes father, he died 6 years ago due to Typhoid fever, a disease caused by consuming dirty food and water. That's how one of the greatest conquerors of our time died."
Chandragupta's face turned pale, not because Alexander died but because of the way he died. A simple mistake of eating dirty food could cause someone to lose their life.
Aariv understood his father's worries, after all, who wouldn't be afraid of dying. "You don't have to worry about any disease in the world father. I have used my powers to make you stronger, not just strength-wise but also health-wise. No disease or poison can kill you anymore. It's not just you, I have made mother and baldy stronger too.
You will be able to live healthily until the age of 130. And father, you're just 23 years old so you still have 107 more years to explore the world. Baldy, you have 76 more years to gain more knowledge. I was able to prolong your life for so many years by just being this powerful, maybe someday I'll be able to make you immortal too.
Both Chandragupta's and Kautilya's jaws dropped to the floor. What was the concept of being immortal? Immortality was just a mythical thing and this little kid was saying that he could make them immortal and the craziest thing was they truly believed in Aariv's words.
Kautilya calmed himself down and started examining his hands, feeling the strength rushing through. "No wonder I was feeling so powerful these days"
"Me too, I feel like I can even lift an elephant if I tried seriously" Chandragupta made a fist with his hands.
Aariv let them enjoy the moment of knowing that they were unkillable by old age and weakness for a long time, now they just had to make sure that someone doesn't slit their throats while in sleep.
"But father, baldy, I want you to promise me that you will not use your powers for conquering India," he said with full seriousness.
"What! Why not, I feel great, I feel like I can conquer the whole world," Chandragupta said, still playing with his fist.
"No thanks father, I will do that myself. I just want you to act the way you normally would for the next 13 years." Aariv made his sound a bit louder.
Finally, Chandragupta focused on what his son was saying and asked: "What do you want us to do?"
Aariv was about to speak but stopped because he had a better way of conveying his thoughts effectively by showing them the bits and pieces of his thoughts and the future.
"Alright, I'll show you what I want you to do. Please close your eyes and prepare yourself to see the future" He said with a smile.
"What?" Chandragupt exclaimed.
Kautilya understood what was about to happen so he sat tightly on his seat and closed his eyes, he didn't want to fall like the last time. Chandragupta looked at his prime minister and sat down, closing his eyes.
Aariv looked at both of them and tried to focus on their minds and established a connection. He then started to transmit information. The birth of Chandragupta's grandson Ashoka, Chandragupta's death by self-starvation (A Jain tradition of leaving the physical body and becoming one with the world, Basically a suicide but without any pain and regrets).
He then showed how Ashoka became the greatest Emperor of India and then how the Mauryan empire declined and vanished. Fast forward he showed them how some religions were made, how they fought each other. How India was invaded and ruled by invaders, how it was enslaved by the British East Indian company, how humans discriminated against each other on the basis of caste, color, race, and religion even 2300 hundred years later. He then showed them the world wars and in the end how humans were destroyed by enemies from the sky.
Aariv looked at the frowned faces of his father, baldy and decided to stop.
They slowly opened their eyes, feeling tired and angry with humanity. They stayed silent. Aariv stood up and poured a glass of water for them.
"Humans wasted their time fighting over land, religion, and gold for 3000 years and when they finally united, it was too late. Now you know what we need to do right?" Aariv calmly asked as he sat back in his seat.
*Sigh*
Kautilya took a long breath before speaking with seriousness: "We need to integrate the world into one entity, remove the dividing factors such as caste and color-based discrimination and start preparing for doomsday."
"Yes, that's the big plan," Aariv answered.
"And I assume you have a plan ready, right?" Chandragupta asked.
"Yes, and it is called the Great unification plan, but I'll need trustable people for it." He looked at both his father and Kautilya.
Hearing this both of them looked at Aariv and said at the same time. "You can trust us son/your highness"
"hahaha... Of course I do, otherwise, why would I tell you so many secrets" Aariv laughed and started marking the map to teach them about his phase 1 of the great unification plan.
Both Chandragupta and Kautilya embarrassingly looked at the 3-year-old overgrown boy who was laughing at them. Laughing at the emperor and the prime minister of one of the biggest empires of their time.