Aariv didn't kill the head guard because he didn't commit that big of a mistake, people in that era were just racist as hell, they were taught to be like that by their parents and they were taught by their parents.
After entering the city he was greeted with the so-called perfect city of the empire. The last time when he was coming out of the city he didn't notice the small things which showed the bad side of the city but now his viewpoint had changed.
He decided to take a different route this time and he also needed to go to the prison to check up on Neer's parents. He put his bag on the dumb horse and told one guard to take it to the royal stables. He still kept the cub with him as it had woken up and Aariv wasn't sure if anyone else could handle it. For now, it was calmly looking at the surroundings from the baby carrier.
Aariv still needed to travel a lot, so he borrowed another horse. The guardian was still following him on his own horse. The prison was built underground. It was located near the middle and lower class residential district. (It's class, not caste. People of different castes lived in that district many were decent earners and many were extremely poor).
He looked at the guardian and asked. "What should I call you?"
"You can call me Black your highness, we assassins and spies aren't allowed to have names," Black replied.
"I need to go to prison, I have some important stuff to do there," Aariv said firmly.
Black was confused as to why he would want to go to the prison but still complied.
"Please follow me, your highness," he said, respectfully.
They headed left after entering the city gate, After moving for a while he started seeing the less prosperous side of the city. The place was just a little better than the slums. The houses were divided into lanes. Each lane was divided into castes. People of lower caste weren't allowed to enter or touch the houses of the high caste.
Aariv then saw an open school in session under a huge peepal tree(Ficus religiosa). Kids were seated on a jute mat on the ground and the teacher was teaching them with the help of a black slate. The kids also had small black slates to write, paper cost too much so this was the only option.
He then noticed 2 more kids looking at the ongoing class, hiding behind a nearby tree. He got interested and dismounted the horse. He slowly went a bit closer to them to hear what they were talking about.
The kids didn't know that someone was eavesdropping.
"Big brother, why can't we also study? It looks so fun "The smaller kid about 5-6 yo said.
"I've told you, they don't welcome us because we belong to a lower caste" The bigger kid about 10-11 replied.
"haha... But that's so stupid, don't we all have the same red water in our bodies?" the small kid said with a dissatisfied look.
The other kid didn't know what to say to that.
"That... They still think that our blood is dirtier," he said.
Aariv smiled, looking at the small kid and said to Juno "Children are truly the purest beings"
"Yeah... Oh look something's happening" Juno pointed.
Both the kids had forgotten that they were hiding when they started arguing with each other, resulting in their cover getting blown. The teacher who was teaching the class saw them and ran towards them angrily.
"YOU!... You came here again. How dare you step your dirty feet here. I'll have to purify this place now. Last time I only whipped you once, but this is too much, you will pay for this" The teacher started crazily yelling at the kids.
Both of the kids were scared out of their wits. The teacher slapped the bigger kids with full strength, as a result, he fell on the ground, the smaller one started asking for forgiveness.
"Sorry Acharya, we will never come here again, please let us go." the kid pleaded.
But that only made the teacher more angrier and went forward to slap the little kid.
[WOOSH]
Suddenly the teacher felt a gust of wind pass through and then he looked at his hand.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAA" He started screaming.
Aariv had cut the hand of the teacher, he also didn't want the kids to be traumatized by the scene so he used Biokineses to block the hand's blood veins. He still didn't heal the wound, though. The Teacher was continuously screaming, looking at the missing hand.
He then looked at Aariv and said in pain, "How... how dare you?"
Aariv just smiled and calmly said. "Now, now... don't get angry Acharya, I just saved you from spoiling your religion. You know you are from brahman caste and these kids are shudra and you just touched one of them. Here, take this for your treatment"
Aariv took out 5 golden panas from his pocket and gave it to the teacher. After he had forced the money into the teacher's other hand, he started shouting.
"Oh my god, bribery... You committed a crime in front of a royal prince. Now he'll have to punish you." Aariv said with the perfect mimicry of a random civilian.
The Teacher and the people around were shocked when they heard that Aariv was the prince. They all knelt in front of him. Even the teacher who was in pain knelt.
"Do you know what was your mistake?" Aariv asked, looking at the kneeling teacher.
The teacher thought that Aariv was one of those mad people who wanted to bring equality and remove castes.
"I... I didn't let them study here," the teacher said while stuttering.
"Wrong, although I would have appreciated if you had let them study here. But the biggest wrongdoing you committed was that you hurt the child. You had already mentally tortured them and then you proceeded to beat them. In my book that is the biggest crime. Even the state law prohibits harming kids, though this law is never enforced properly." Aariv said with a sad face.
The teacher just bowed his head and listened, he was probably not even feeling guilty.
"Now, follow me to that hut," Aariv said as he pointed to a nearby hut.
"And bring your hand with you"
The teacher was confused when he heard Aariv's command, he then noticed that he was not feeling pain anymore. He didn't want to offend the prince more so he picked up his hand and followed.
Inside the hut
"I can heal your hand, but you'll have to teach kids from low castes too and if you still discriminated against them then you'll be executed. Tell me, do you accept this deal?" Aariv said with a serious expression.
"Your Highness, how can you heal a detached hand? Please don't joke. What's done is done, so please don't humiliate me anymore. " The teacher said with a little anger in his voice.
"Do you accept?" Aariv repeated.
"You... I accept," he said with hopelessness.
Just then the detached hand started levitating and came near the wound. The golden light shrouded the wound and 1 minute later he felt like his arm was back. He tried to move it and it responded. He was shocked beyond belief, he looked at Aariv with eyes full of frenzy.
He jumped on Aariv's feet and started kissing them.
"Thank you God for showing me the path...I..I will never discriminate from now on... I will be your most loyal worshipper" He started talking crazy.
Aariv was dumbfounded and then disgusted with the man's saliva on his shoes.
"Get away, I am no god," Aariv said loudly.
~which god would ever accept that he's a god, and look at that cute lion cub, that must be my god's steed which he is personally bringing up~ the guy thought and kept on kissing Aariv's feet.
Aariv saw the guy still not getting up, he caught his ponytail on his head and lifted him off the ground, but instead of crying in pain the teacher said something even more retarded.
"What godly strength, you are the all-mighty god... Please accept me as your worshipper"
Aariv released the man and facepalmed himself,
~This is why I didn't want to show these people my powers~ he said to himself.
"Okay, but you must accept my command. Your first duty is to accept all children into the school with love and kindness, teach them to the best of your ability." Aariv said.
"Yes, yes, I accept your command," he rushedly said.
"What is your name?" Aariv asked.
"My name is Aditya, my God," Aditya replied.
Aariv was feeling a headache staying there, so he went out. People were shocked when they saw the reattached hand of Aditya but dismissed it as some kind of illusion trick performed by Aariv. It was too hard to imagine that someone could heal something like that.
The two kids were still there, but not in a very good condition. They were in despair, but to their surprise, the teacher who usually beats them and hushed them away was stroking their heads with a smile.
"Come into school, kids, you'll be studying here from now on," Aditya said warmly.
Aariv just wanted to get out of the place, so he mounted his horse and rushed to the prison with Black, Oblivious of what his crazy worshipper was going to do in the future.
```
After a few minutes they reached the prison. Aariv went in to check on Neer's parents. He searched the whole prison, but couldn't find them. He then went to ask the old warden.
"What can I do for you, your highness," The old warden said.
Aariv looked at the rough-looking, white-haired warden. "How many years have you been working here?"
"I've been here for all I can remember, I started from a small guard here and reached this position. To be precise, 35 years," he said.
"Okay, I want your help in finding someone," Aariv said and then explained about the faces and the background of the couple he was looking for and finally got something to hold on to.
"Oh, yes, I remember that case. They were here until your father made this his capital city. Due to almost full prisons, all the old prisoners were sent to the mines. I don't think they would have survived that harsh work in the mines for this long But there is still hope, I remember that the man was very good with calculation, so he could have been given some other duty besides hard labor." The warden said.
Aariv felt sad for them, they didn't do anything wrong but still had to face so many hardships. He looked at Black and ordered.
"Send your men to the mines to check up on them, you have already heard about their names and how they look so get a painter to make their paintings. I want them here as soon as possible."
"It will be done, your highness," Black confidently replied.
Aariv came out of the underground prison and stood alone looking at the sky.
*Sigh*
~I Should go back and start making the communication devices, I just hope Neer's parents are okay~ Aariv thought to himself.