On day 4 of their journey, they passed through the Ganga river which was considered a holy river and the ashes of the deceased were poured in the river for a safe journey of the soul to the afterlife.
After that they traveled in the direction of the river and reached the capital city by evening. Most people were going home from work at that time. He went straight to the main gate and this time guards recognized him and let him In, however, he had to register the names of Satya and Malini.
Heading into the city, it was calm as usual, he reached the royal palace and found Black waiting for him near the entrance with Aslan in his arms. Aariv stopped the carriage and jumped down and took Aslan in his arms.
He started rubbing his face on Aslan's face, who seemed to be enjoying the intimacy,
"My furball, my anti-depressant," He said to Aslan.
Satya also came and looked at Aslan with interest and adoration. Aariv noticed it and introduced them to each other.
"Aslan, this is Satya and Satya, this is Aslan," Aariv said as he held Aslan in front of Satya's face. Aslan patted Satya's forehead with his small paws, which was his way of telling that he liked the person.
Satya giggled and took Aslan from Aariv and held him in his arms. Aariv went to Black.
"So, how is everything?" He asked.
"Your highness, you had been missing for so long, His majesty and Acharya Kautilya were about to send a search party for you, and your mother might be worried and mad at you" Black reported, especially his last words gave Aariv a headache.
Aariv's body shivered at the thought of seeing his angered mother,
"Let's go and see Acarya first" He decided.
They started walking and Satya and Malini followed. Black saw them and asked.
"Who are they your highness"
"See, it yourself," He said and used telepathy.
Aariv didn't want to make them hear about that sad day again so he just showed Black what happened in his travels. He also showed him how he killed them, just to show him his stand on people like those and what he'd do to them.
Black was shocked seeing all that but he didn't lose his composure as he had seen things a lot gory and worse than that.
"They deserved that punishment," He said, approving of Aariv's methods of punishment.
"They are going to be staying in the palace from now on, let me make this clear, they are not slaves. She is a very knowledgable person so maybe make her my mother's assistant for official matters. Leave Satya to me, I'll train him" Aariv gave his orders.
"It will be done, your highness" Black said and took Malini with him to make her meet her majesty.
Satya stayed as he was going to learn everything possible from Aariv.
He reached the prime minister's office, but before entering he heard his father's laughing voice from inside. Aariv looked at the guards and asked.
"How many people are inside?"
"It's just his majesty and Acharya inside." The guard respectfully replied.
Aariv nodded, he didn't want to go in if any 3rd party was there. He entered the room and was bombarded by questions?
"Where were you, your highness?"
"Why did it take so long son?"
"Your mother was going to kill me for sending you alone"
Aariv just went in and sat down on a chair, Satya bowed to Chandragupta and sat down beside Aariv.
"Stop nagging will you. It's not easy to see gods" Aariv said, his words piqued their interests.
"You met God?" Kautilya asked instantly.
"Yes, I met god Krishna" He replied.
Chandragupta looked at Aariv's face, he grew impatient as Aariv wasn't telling them everything in one go.
"Just stop with the teasing and tell us everything," He said to Aariv impatiently.
Aariv grinned looking at their faces. Satya was also interested in hearing him.
"Well, I met lord Krishna in his magical city. He gave me some knowledge about my destiny and stuff. He told me that even gods were mortals once, but still not as lousy as us degraded humans. Most of the gods have abandoned us and left earth so it's stupid to pray to them anymore and ..." Aariv summarised his magical trip.
He told them about god abandoning earth because he wanted to decrease the superstitious thoughts from their minds.
…
After telling them everything he got ap and poured some water for himself. Chandragupta and Kautilya were silent for a while, they were digesting what they just heard. Although Aariv didn't tell them everything, but still, it was a lot to take in.
Aariv then looked at Kautilya and asked.
"What happened to the kidnapping plan?"
"Well, we've already got the guy who lived in India, and we have selected 50 people, divided into 5 teams of 10 men each to go to Greece. We just need funds now." Kautilya informed him.
"How much do you need?" Aariv asked as he took out his magical pouch from his pocket.
Kautilya looked at Aariv and his small pouch, he doubted that the amount he needed could be stored in a small pouch, still he answered.
"We need at least 500 gold panas to safely bring back the hostages."
Aariv heard that and put his whole arm inside the pouch. Kautilya, Chandragupta, and Satya jumped from their seats seeing that.
"What the fuc* is that?" Chandragupta asked with a frown.
"Calm down ladies, it's a magical pouch I received from Lord Krishna." He said.
He just told them about the pouch and not about the amount of money inside it.
He then took out 1500 gold panas from it.
"This should be enough, I preassume?" He said proudly.
"Why are you feeling proud of the money you practically stole" Juno mocked in Aariv's head.
"You are mistaken Juno, it's a gift" Aariv corrected.
"Humph, whatever"
…
Kautilya put all that money in a small chest.
"How much money do you have?" Chandragupta asked, interestingly.
"A lot" Aariv answered.
"Now I know where to go if I need a loan," Chandragupta said cheekily.
"And why would the emperor need a loan?" Aariv asked.
"Wars cost money, son. A lot of money and men" he said and started thinking about some stuff.
"I am going to meet my mother now. See you tomorrow" Aariv said and left.
…
He went to his mother's room and saw Malini and his mother talking. He entered the room thinking that he'd get yelled at but to his surprise he received a sudden hug from her.
She said something in his ear. "I am proud of you son"
Aariv was taken aback by her words. He concluded that Malini must have told his mother about how she met and what happened to her family. Aariv also reciprocated the hug. He then felt someone pulling his jacket.
He looked down and saw his little twin brother. Although they were of the same age but still so different.
"Big brother, hug me too," Bindusara said as he held his arms in the air.
Aariv smiled and picked Bindusara while hugging him.
"I promised to make you new clothes, let's make them," He said warmly.
While he was hugging Bindusara and hearing his cheerful laughter he looked at his smiling mother and suddenly realized something.
~What the hell was I about to do? I was going to separate a 3-year-old child from his mother, just because I wanted history to be the same. Fuc* history. I was supposed to bring smiles and happiness, not make a kid motherless for selfish reasons. I wanted Bindusara's son Ashoka to be born because he was a very good king but is that really worth doing all this. Taking away someone's happiness for someone that's not even born yet~ Aariv thought all this in his head, his mind's processing speed was a lot faster than others so all his thinking only took some seconds.
Juno heard Aariv's words and decided to help him,
"Aariv, you know, the Birth of Ashoka the great was a prophecy. His mother Dharma was born to give birth to the future emperor. I think that even if the history doesn't flow that same, the prophecy will still find a way to complete itself." Juno said.
"I don't know Juno, I'll have to think about it" Aariv replied.
…
Aariv left his mother's room and went to his room. Aslan was with him. He had told Satya to stay with his mother.
"Alright, now that baldy has chosen the men to go on the kidnaping trip, I will try to make it shorter and more efficient. To do that, I am going to build a constellation of 24 satellites and send them to the medium earth orbit, 20,200 km (12,550 miles).
I am also going to make GPS trackers with an SOS button, and give them to men. It would not just let Aariv know their location but also help them find the correct route." He thought loudly.
[GROWL]
Aslan made some noise, Aariv looked at him.
"Oh my furball is hungry, let's go and get something to eat," he said as he stroked Aslan's back, but then he felt something sticking out of his back. He looked at it carefully.
"What the hell is this"