"Aariv, can't we at least do something for the kids?" Juno said in a sad voice.
"I am still too weak, not physically but politically. If I want to bring some real change, then I need to level-up more and bring the whole Indian subcontinent under my rule, only then will I be able to change the social order. But we can at least make sure that they get proper food." Aariv said, looking at the kids.
He took out a piece of parchment and wrote something on it.
"Father, come out and have a look at the slums outside the city gate no.1. Is this the world you wanted to make?
I can understand that you can't let them in because it would create uneasiness in the upper class, but still, you could at the minimum provide them the basic necessities like food and clothes.
I hope that you will rectify these problems or else I'll have to do things myself.
Respectfully,
Your Son.
Aariv Maurya"
Aariv was 90% sure that his father didn't know about this, but still, there was a 10% chance that he knew and didn't do anything.
He looked back at a person hiding behind a corner, he used his telepathic ability to tell the guy to come to him.
To the hiding guy, it felt like someone spoke in his ear. He was informed that the royal prince had god's blessing, so he didn't think much and came near Aariv's horse.
"So Baldy couldn't stop himself from sending guardian assassins after me, ha?." Aariv said to the guy in Gray clothes who looked just like any other ordinary guy.
He had sensed the guy following him the moment he left the stable but Ignored him as he was planning on losing him in the jungle. But plans had to be changed now.
"Take this letter to His majesty, it's very urgent" He handed him the letter.
"But your highness. I was ordered to protect you," the guy sternly replied.
"haha... That's got to be the joke of the week. Are you sure you are qualified to protect me?" Aariv said as he waved his hand a little and in response, the guardian's body started to levitate 1 centimeter above the ground. The people around didn't notice anything but the guy surely was.
He felt like his body had become weightless, he looked at Aariv's hand and understood, it was his doing. "Tell me, you still wanna follow me?"
~Damn it, why did I agree to do this? Here I was thinking that it would be an easy mission, following a 3-year-old kid~ the man thought to himself.
"I will deliver the letter to his majesty right away, your highness," he said.
Aariv let the guy's body touch the ground again and waved his hand, telling him to go away.
When the guardian was gone Aariv got off his horse and walked to the kids, the horse also followed behind him.
About 8 or so kids were standing by the road, waiting for merchant carts, and they all seemed to be smaller than 11 years of age. He knew that many kids older than 10 were sent to work in the fields for extra money.
The kids noticed Aariv coming towards them, they looked at his weird clothes and the big sword on his back, but they didn't feel afraid as he also looked like a kid.
The oldest of the lot came forward. It looked like he was the leader of the pack.
"Who are you? Haven't seen you around." He suspiciously asked.
It was normal for them to keep their guards up all the time, they had learned the lessons of reality the hard way, and that also at a very young age. They had seen their peers getting kidnapped and sold to slavery and other unspeakable horrors.
Aariv knew that, so he didn't get angry and stayed calm. He looked at the kids with a warm smile.
"No need to be afraid, my friend, I am just a passerby. I had some questions and if you answer truthfully, I'll pay," he asked while showing and shaking his money pouch.
They still had some suspicions due to the strange request so they gathered up in a circle to discuss their next steps.
In the end, they decided to agree as they could earn easy money and there were also 8 of them while the stranger was alone. So if he tried anything funny, then they could just beat him up.
Aariv had no idea what the kids were planning, he just wanted to help them.
He saw the leader coming up to him "Okay, ask whatever you want."
"Tell me your name, shake my hand and take your money one by one. That's all you have to do." He said while looking at all of them.
They all felt weird being asked to shake hands as people from upper castes would not even look at them and looking at Aariv's clean cloth and healthy face, they knew that he was of higher stature.
Still, under the temptation of money, the eldest of them stepped forward and cautiously came close to Aariv. He brought up his hand.
"My name is Dheeraj(boy 10yo), I am good at carving stones" He introduced himself and added some more words as he felt unnatural just telling names.
Aariv shook his hands with the boy and gave him a silver pana. Dheeraj was shocked when he saw the silver pana. He would usually make 20 bronze pana in a month. Not just him, but everyone else earned that much on average.
He happily took the money and went back. Other kids looked at Dheeraj with envy, they also wanted the money but were still afraid, then a little girl around 8 years old came out from the back of the crowd and calmly walked towards Aariv.
Aariv looked at the little girl, she was wearing a patched up brown rag. It was clearly not a dress but just a piece of cloth, on which space for putting neck and arm was cut out.
She held her hand up and said "My name is Gauri and I like swords"
Her words piqued Aariv's interest, but he didn't say anything and just gave her the silver pana. Which she happily took and went back to her friends. Soon their fear and suspicion faded and one by one they came up to Aariv.
"My name is Amar(boy 6yo) and I like to play flute"
"My name is Chitra( girl 8yo) and I like to sing"
"My name is Om(boy 10yo) and I am good at counting"
"My name is Karam(boy 9yo) and I like money."
"My name is Chanda(girl 9yo) and I can sew clothes."
"My name is Vasu(boy 5yo) and I love food"
After all of them had taken their rewards they crowded around Aariv. They seemed very interested in knowing who the kind stranger was.
"My name is Aariv and you all can call me big brother, I am just a son of some rich guy," he said as he took out an apple from the bag tied to his horse and gave it to the smallest kid Vasu, who had said that he loves food.
"All right, it's about time I leave. Make sure that you give the money to your parents, that is if they treat you good. You know your parents better than me so decide for yourself." After saying that Aariv got back on his horse, swung the bridle and it started moving.
Aariv looked back at the kids waving at him with faces full of smiles.
...
"Do you think giving them money will solve their problems?" Juno asked doubtfully.
*Sigh*
Aariv took a long breath and said "No, it won't, but at least now they know that there are some good people in the world who don't discriminate and I can just give them a small push, they would still have to run the full race on their own.
Father will do something to ease their problems to some extents and they are strong kids, so I believe that this was not our last meeting.
And there was one more reason why I shook their hands. I healed them of all physical injuries and diseases"
*sigh*
"I just hope that they will be alright," Juno said worryingly.
Juno was not a bad person, she just liked to mess around with Aariv, but that didn't mean that she did not have emotions. In fact, she was more emotional than Aariv.
...
After some hours of riding, Aariv finally reached the entrance of the jungle. He noticed that it was getting dark so he decided to camp there for the night and enter the jungle the next day.
He set up a campfire near a big boulder to protect it from heavy wind. The horse was left free to roam around and eat grass. Aariv was not worried about the horse running away since he saw it talking with that caretaker.
It was still not completely dark, so he decided to look around. Aariv went near a tree to try out Juno's powers.
"Juno, can you try to squeeze out water from this tree," Aariv asked politely.
"Oki Doki" Juno cheerfully replied.
~Woah... Since when did she become so docile, she must be planning something~ he thought.
"I heard that you ungrateful bastard, you were supposed to say 'Oh thank you beautiful Juno'. I am trying to become a better person and here you are being a little Bit*h" Juno said angrily.
"Woah...Woah, Language Juno. And yes, I am sorry and thank you. You are a big help," Aariv apologized before things escalated.
Satisfied with the apology, she focused on the tree and imagines water coming out of it. Soon Aariv saw a stream of water coming out of the tree's trunk. It was floating in the air as if controlled by his levitation ability.
But then he noticed that the tree started to wither as Juno sucked more water out.
"Juno, can you send the water back to it as well?" He asked.
"Yes, I can, " she then sent the water back to where it came from and the tree stopped withering.
Aariv looked relieved and also happy with the result of the experiment. He had confirmed that Juno could extract particular molecules from a pre-existing compound or material. This ability could save him a lot of time and money in the initial process of creating things.
After that, Aariv decided that he needed to test his own physical strength. He knew about the limits of his different skills but knew nothing about his physical strength. He was afraid of destroying the royal palace so he never tried his full strength.
The area just before the jungle was filled with big boulders everywhere, so he chose a big one at random and decided to try picking it up.
He warmed up his arms a little by doing air boxing and then went for it.
"1"
"2"
"3"
"Here goes nothing"
He put his arms under it and lifted it in one go. He was disappointed because he was expecting some exertion but nothing like that happened.
After easily picking up the boulder, he felt that it weighed around 14 tonnes(14,000 Kg). He then put it back and decided to find an even bigger boulder.
After a while of searching, he found a bigger boulder which he estimated to be 25 tonnes(25,000 kg). This time he decided to punch it with all his force, he also added some natural energy for seeing the effect of his peak strength.
"Max Punch" he shouted the name of his new move that he just came up with and punched the boulder with all his strength.
[BOOM]