After finishing outlining the map he looked at his father and baldy.
"Alright, Phase 1 is called 'taking over' and..." He was going to continue but saw his father and Kautilya gazing at him.
Aariv got agitated "I know I am not good with names alright, so stop looking at me like that."
"Oh no no, it's a wonderful name, son, continue," Chandragupta said while trying to hide his laugh.
"Yes, yes, it's a good name," Kautilya said, trying to keep a plain face.
Aariv looked at them irritatingly. "you know, I am not against suggestions"
"Umm... maybe call it 'Uprising', because what we are doing is not something smaller than a revolution and you'll be overthrowing many monarchs so it fits the purpose," Kautilya said with a proud face.
Aariv came close to Kautilya with the purpose of patting his shoulders but miserably embarrassed himself when he tried but could not reach his shoulders. Aariv was 4.4 feet tall and Kautilya was 6 feet tall.
Trying to hide his embarrassment he went back to his seat and started to write something on the map.
"Very good name. Suggestion taken," he said with an uncomfortable face.
Chandragupta looked at the whole comedy scene unfold.
"hahaha...hahahaha" He started rolling on the floor laughing and holding his stomach.
"Come on guys am just 3 years old, I am still growing up you know," Aariv said trying to justify himself, but his words just made his father laugh even more.
[Puchi] Kautilya who was trying his hardest to hold his laugher finally couldn't hold himself and on top of that Chandragupta's laughter was very contagious.
"haha..haha, Your majesty you should not behave like that... it...it does not fit an emperor"
he tried to hold his laugh and started to scold Chandragupta as to not embarrass Aariv anymore.
Aariv was resting his head on the table with both hands supporting it. Why? because of none other than Juno.
"hahahahahahahaha... oh my god my... non-existent... stomach hurts, hahahahah... I will watch this memory every day from now on...ohhh...hahaha" Juno said while uncontrollably laughing.
"Oh please don't," Aariv pleaded because he knew that if she watched this everyday then he would be greeted with a jumpscare laughter every single day.
...
After another water break, everyone settled back in their seats. Chandragupta had to go and wash his face because when he was laughing his snot came out. Yeah, that was the so-called all-mighty emperor for you.
*cough* Aariv coughed and pulled their attention and started explaining, "so in the uprising phase, I will travel the world and peacefully take over the upper echelon of the kingdoms and empires. If in some areas there are only tribes existing, then I will join them up to form a kingdom.
Our main goal is to have 100% decision making power in our hands so when we start phase 2 which is not yet named, no one can create trouble."
"So what's our role?" Chandragupta asked.
"Your role is to do nothing, at least for the next 13 years," Aariv bluntly replied.
"What? but why?" Chandragupta retorted.
"You remember the future I showed you?, well I want my nephew to be born. He was able to become the emperor against all odds, then he conquered 99% of India, creating one of the largest empires to ever exist and not just that. He was kind and gentle enough to leave his way of bloody wars and become a monk.
Now imagine a man like him who is a strong leader but also a gentle monk becoming the emperor.
Also, India is going to be the capital of the world in the future so I want strong leadership at my home base.
And for him to be born, everything needs to happen as the timeline requires. This is also the reason why I didn't show you the recent future. Father, I want you to act like you normally do and if I don't come back in time, pass the throne to Bindusara in 297 BC."
Aariv finished speaking and then looked at Kautilya and said "Baldy, I have a very important task for you to complete"
"Anything you wish for will be done, your highness," Kautilya replied.
"I have left knowledge about 20 languages in your mind, you just need to think of them to access it. I want you to choose 100 intelligent, trustworthy men and teach them these languages. I want 5 men for each language.
And yeah one more thing, stop calling me your highness it feels so cringy, just call me Aariv or little Aariv like you used to."
Kautilya nodded with a smile.
Chandragupta was looking at his son with a questioning gaze which was noticed by Aariv.
"What is it father?" He asked.
His father questioned, "Where are you going to go for 13 years?"
he had guessed that Aariv was planning on going somewhere far.
Aariv went back near the map and pointed somewhere on it "here, I'll be going to this place. It's a place somewhere in the Himalayas. In my journey, I'll be passing through the Nepal region which is currently occupied by small tribes and kingdoms.
There is also a small tribe called Gurkha which is rumored to have the best fighters so I am going to recruit them and I will also take over any non-Mauryan kingdom I come in contact in my journey."
He explained with the help of the map, about his journey route and other things. "When I return, we will officially integrate into the Empire and send our representatives and don't worry father I am pretty strong, I will show you my strength in some days."
"When are you going to leave? and did you tell your mother?" Chandragupta asked as he was quite worried about Durdhara. She dotted her sons beyond belief.
Aariv looked a bit worried when he heard that question "No, not yet but you should not worry, before I go I am going to create some things, and one of them is a device that will let us talk to each other even if we are divided by thousands of miles. So don't tell her anything before I make it"
Chandragupta relaxed a bit, he was worried that Durdhara would go crazy thinking that she would not get to see her son for the next 13 years. He was happy that his son had a solution and he was also very curious about that device but there was someone who was even more excited than him.
Kautilya's brain was going overdrive when he heard that the device lets people talk with each other from far away distances. He was imagining the changes it could bring to the military. No lag between orders and requests would mean better military control...
"Baldy...Baldy..." He got so involved in imagining that he forgot where he was.
"Oh, I am sorry, I was thinking of something," he explained.
But Aariv understood, it was Kautilya's nature to be smart, cunning and always think a step ahead. "I will only be making 2 devices, one will be with me and one with Mom and I am sure that she will not let you touch it... for 13 years you need to act normal and when I come back I will make devices that will make the talking device look like a child's toy."
Hearing that, Kautilya felt excited thinking about the future and thought that it was worth the wait.
...
Chandragupta stood up from his seat "I think this is enough for today's meeting, I am getting hungry now. Let's go and eat."
He opened the door and walked out.
Aariv and Kautilya also stood up as they also felt hungry but then suddenly they heard noise from the outside.
They ran to see what happened and what they say made them speechless. Chandragupta was holding a man in the air by his neck.
Aariv asked hastily "What happened father, why are you holding him like that?"
Chandragupta who was laughing in pleasure because he felt his strength upgrade from Aariv's powers. He easily lifted this man and his reflexes also improved greatly so when the man tried to pierce him with a spear he dodged it and broke the metal spear in half with just a fist.
"Oh nothing, he tried to attack me with that spear. He's probably some assassin sent to kill me," Chandragupta said nonchalantly while pointing to the broken spear with his eyes.
Kautilya looked at the assassin's face closely and then felt shocked "Impossible, this man has been working here for the past 2 years and even before that he was a soldier in the common army."
Chandragupta looked at the suffocating man in his grasp "well, he must have a reason."
He loosened his grip to free the man so they could question him but the moment he was released he fell to the floor and shouted "For Saurashtra" and ate his locket hanging on his neck and 10 seconds later, his mouth started fuming.
Aariv, Chandragupta and Kautilya looked at the man as he died by poisoning himself.
"What a fool, he just told us who he worked for," Chandragupta said as he tested the assassins if he was really dead by kicking it.
Kautilya looked at the dead man. "I can't believe this, Saurashtra kingdom doesn't have enough guts to do something like this, there must be someone else behind this"
"Well, maybe we'll find something if we go there," Aariv suggested.
Aariv had already searched his memories to check whether this happened because of the butterfly effect or was it supposed to happen. In the end, he found some data about this assassination and after this, his father would go to Saurashtra kingdom(westernmost kingdom of India which was still not under Empire rule). There he would find his old partner turned enemy.
"Father, please take me with you when you go to siege Saurashtra kingdom. I want to visit Dwarka." Aariv was not interested in helping his father fight as things were already as they were supposed to but he wanted to go to the sea-side ancient city of Dwarka(literally meaning Gateway to heaven).
It was said that a god-king named Krishna ruled a city there but something happened and the city drowned under the sea.
In the books, it was said that the Kingdom had a lot of gold and valuables and that's what Aariv wanted to find. If he could find some of it then that would help him in phase 1 and other technological creations.
"Sure, it's going to be a good father and son bonding journey," Chandragupta patted Aariv's shoulder and excitedly accepted his request.