He was going to go underwater and will have to travel alone so he decided to not bring Aslan with him, he told Black to take care of him.
Jojo was still going to come with him, he changed his clothes and went to Kautilya's office.
Aariv had forgotten that he could take famous philosophers and scientists of this time and make them his people. They were all just running after knowledge and he had a lot of it.
He searched his memories for the names of famous philosophers and the places of their dwelling, he wrote everything on a parchment.
He was going to give the list to Kautilya, it would take a lot of time, as many of these people were from Greece. He knew that Kautilya must have some of his men in Greece too as he was a paranoid old man and Seluceid kingdom which was now encroaching on Mauryan territory had it's origin from Greece too.
Aariv wanted to kidnap these guys.
It would take about a year for them to go and bring them back so he wasn't expecting anything soon but he still needed to start his plans, he also needed to hurry because he knew that some of these philosophers were about to die.
He reached the office and entered without knocking. There were many people in the room discussing things. An army of 200,000 men was to be deployed for the siege and it needed a lot of coordination.
When they all saw Aariv they quieted down and bowed.
"You guys continue, I just have something to talk to Acharya Kautilya," he said.
Kautilya understood and went away from the crowd. He went near Aariv and asked.
"What can I do for you? your highness"
"Come with me," Aariv replied and went to a secluded corner.
He took out a parchment from his pocket and gave it to Kautilya.
"I want you to bring these people here by any means, though I doubt they would refuse if you showed them this book," he said and took out a small book from his jacket.
He had compiled a book in his free time, there was some vague information written on it about solar system, atomic theories, mathematical formulas and medicine that were advanced for the time but still understandable by people who had some bain.
Kautilya started to read the content carefully.
~1. Anaximander
Anaximander from the ancient Greek city of Miletus (now in Turkey) became the first person in recorded history to recognize that the earth exists as a solitary body which does not need to rest on top of anything else. Fascinated by the structure of the earth, he produced one of the first-ever maps of the world. He did not restrict his thinking to astronomy and geography. He also theorized about evolution, concluding that life had first arisen in wet rather than dry conditions. He proposed that the first humans had been produced from fish.
2. Democritus
Also known as the laughing philosopher, Devised an atomic theory featuring tiny particles always in motion interacting through collisions; advocated a universe containing an infinity of diverse inhabited worlds governed by natural, mechanistic laws rather than gods; deduced that the light of stars explains the Milky Way's appearance; discovered that a cone's volume is one-third that of the cylinder with the same base and height. From the ancient Greek city of Abdera
3. Euclid
Euclid authored the Elements, the most famous and most published mathematical work in history. The Elements is concerned mainly with geometry, proportion, and number theory. Enormously influential in mathematics teaching for over two thousand years, the Elements provided the spark that inspired many of the world's greatest mathematicians and scientists to embark on their remarkable intellectual journeys. Alexandria, Egypt.
4. Archimedes
Founded the sciences of mechanics and hydrostatics, calculated pi precisely, devised the law of exponents, created new geometrical proofs, invented numerous ingenious mechanical devices and more.
5. Hippocrates
The father of Western medicine: systematized medical treatments, disentangling them from religion and superstitions; trained physicians; produced a large body of medical textbooks. The famous Hippocratic Oath binds physicians to good ethical practices. Island of Kos in Ancient Greece
6. Charaka
Charaka was one of the principal contributors to Ayurveda, a system of medicine and lifestyle developed in Ancient India. He was known for authoring the medical treatise, the Charaka Samhita. Resident of Kapisthal (now known as Jalandhar, India)~
Kautilya read all the names, bringing the last one was easy as he lived in India but bringing others was hard.
"It's hard but not impossible, but I do not have funds for this venture, we are currently on a tight budget due to the war," Kautilya said with furrowed brows, he didn't want to refuse Aariv but he had no other choice.
"Don't worry about money, I'll take care of that. You just devise a plan and one more thing, you must have gotten an idea of what kind of people I am looking for, so if you know anyone with enough talent, then bring them to me," Aariv said calmly.
Aariv had searched all his memories but he couldn't find names of Indian philosophers, although he was sure that there must be many unknown gems in the empire. He just needed to find them.
"Yes, your highness, I understand what you need and I do have some names," Kautilya replies thoughtfully.
Aariv's eyes sparkled hearing that.
"That's amazing, bring them in," he said cheerfully.
Having achieved what he came for, he decided to leave and meet his father at the docks.
The siege army was divided into 50,000 war elephants, 75,000 horsemen and 75,000 foot soldiers plus help staff such as medics and cooks.
To increase the speed, the foot soldiers would be sent through ships and will meet the horsemen and war elephants midway.
...
Aariv reached the docs and boarded the biggest ship, it was the king's personal ship.
He went to his father.
"When will we leave?" he asked his father.
"Oh... you're here, we're about to start. The horse and elephant division has already left." Chandragupta said.
...
Aariv had to spend 3 days on the ship, the ships were very crude in the current period so it was very slow but still faster compared to walking.
He had nothing to do so he spent most of his time sitting in a corner with closed eyes. Everyone thought that he was meditating but in reality, he was exploring the sky with the help of Jojo and Juno.
Although Juno had a limit of 5 kilometers but still, that was to explore new things around the river. He was also marking the map in his mind, he knew the river map that the ship was taking.
...
After 3 days they reached the destination and set up the camp. Soon the animal division also rendezvoused.
They decided to replenish their strength and embark for the siege the next day. The whole camp looked very organized. The cooks were busy making meals, animals were being fed. Aariv was looking at such a scene for the first time, he felt different seeing all that. In the future, you had everything automatized so you didn't have to worry about anything.
~Man, these times are tough,~ he thought to himself.
...
The next day, they started early. Aariv and his father were seated on an elephant. He was interested in knowing if these animals talked so he spent the last night going to each of them and trying to talk but in the end he was disappointed. On the other hand, he also thought that if any of these were smart then they wouldn't be here getting used by humans as tools for war.
Till now he only knew 2 animals who could talk, his stupid horse and that wife loving wolf.
After marching for 5 hours they reached the border of Saurashtra, it was obvious that the enemy knew about such a big army marching towards them.
Aariv saw the enemy camp some distance away. He took out the short-range telescope out to look at the enemy army.
Making a telescope was easy, he just needed convex lenses.
He looked at the enemy flags and confirmed the enemy. It was Malayketu. According to history, Malayketu was the king of the Paurav kingdom(Himalayan region). He was the son of King Porus, King Porus was a renowned king who fought Alexander the Great, but he lost.
Most of the region of the present-day Punjab and Pakistan came under the rule of King Alexander by reinstalling Porus to the region as a subordinate ruler.
Soon after the death of Alexander, Porus was assassinated by Eudemus who was one of the generals of Alexander. Later, Malayketu, the son of Porus killed Eudemus as revenge.
King Porus had actually helped Chandragupta by lending him his army for defeating king Dhananda of the Nanda dynasty. In return, Chandragupta had to share 50% of the land he would win after defeating Dhananda. Chandragupta agreed to that deal.
King Porus died but left behind his dumbass son Malayketu, it was written that he was not a good king and his kingdom saw a huge downfall in his reign, but he was still a good army commander which would explain him still being the king as his kingdom was constantly under attack by the Seleucid kingdom.
The minister of the last Nanda empire, Amatya Rakshasa, fled after the death of king Dhananda and joined hands with Malayketu. He had an inferiority complex to Kautilya since the days of the Taxila university, he wanted to prove himself that he was better.
Amatya Rakshasa brainwashed Malayketu into believing that Chandragupta was his enemy and thus made a plan to kill Chandragupta.
Kautilya, the baldy later found out about it and sent his spies to destroy relations between Amatya Rakshasa and Malayketu with hoaxes.
In the end, Chandragupta took over the Paurav kingdom.
But all this was yet to happen. Aariv wasn't planning on intervening so he decided to leave for his exploration trip.