Aariv returned to the city in his ripped clothes. One of the guards at the gate was going to shoo him away but luckily another one recognized him. Aariv was in a very good mood as he finally could start working on his plans.
He went back to his room and put the small fusion reactor aside. He was going to make another small fusion reactor and jump start it with the existing one but that would not be the end. His main goal was to make a medium-sized reactor that could power the city and its needs. He quickly started to make it.
He decided to create a new underground base to house the bigger reactor, as he knew that it was going to be one of the most important facilities in the city and it would require a very high level of security.
He spent another month being very busy. He wished that he had someone to help him build all that but people were dumb. He had so many things to worry about that he started to feel a bit down. He needed to also improve his own strength while doing all these things and what annoyed him was that he didn't know how to improve his strength. Continuously using his abilities was not helping much. He tried to get hit by lightning once again but this time nothing happened to him.
"Grrr"
Aariv suddenly heard a noise and felt something pulling the corner of his pants. He looked down and saw Aslan. Aariv felt guilty seeing him. Because he was so busy these days that he had no time to play with him.
"Come here little guy," he lovingly said and picked him up.
"Grrr groo"
"Yes yes... I am sorry, I will give you more attention from now on" He said and stroked Aslan's back.
Seeing that Aslan had calmed down, Aariv wore the baby carrier and put him in it.
"Let's go out for a walk, it will probably ease my mind"
...
He didn't want unwanted attention so he dressed in normal civilian clothes. While leaving the palace he saw Satya and brought him along and obviously, Black followed him. Black was his assistant after all.
He went into the city and saw many new changes happening. The city looked a bit more crowded as the people living in the slums outside were allowed to enter the city to work or buy stuff. But this also increased the cases of pickpocketing. Due to that, the guards patrolled more.
He decided to go to a nice place to have some lunch. He walked to the main city market. There were many shops that sold nearly everything. He walked along the streets but he felt that the streets were a bit empty. Not many people could be seen in the shops.
He quickly found a nice shop and headed to it. Just as he was about to enter, the shopkeeper loudly shouted and stopped him.
"Hay stop... tell me which caste you belong to" the shopkeeper rudely asked.
Aariv was shocked when he heard that question. He had abolished the caste system.
"Why are you asking me for my caste?" Aariv said.
"Did you come out of a cave or something?... except Brahmin, Kshatriya and Vaishya, no one is allowed to enter the shop," he said grumpily.
Aariv looked at Black's face and then looked at the shopkeeper.
"Who told you to do this?" He asked.
"If you are not going to buy anything then go away, I don't have time for your stupid answers" shopkeeper said and busied himself.
There were some more people sitting in the shop eating, they looked at Aariv with disgust. Aariv felt really angry, he went close to the shopkeeper and grabbed his collar.
"You don't have time to talk to me?" Aariv said while showing him his identity token.
shopkeeper's eyes nearly popped out when he noticed the token, he hurriedly fell down on his knees.
"I am sorry, your highness, please forgive me, I... I didn't know it was you"
"I don't need your pathetic apology... answer my question... who told you to do this?... don't you know that discrimination against someone is a criminal offense," Aariv said.
"I...I don't know who started this but every shop in the market only caters to the people from Brahmin, Kshatriya and Vaishya caste. If a shop sells to Shudra or untouchables then others will boycott it," the shopkeeper fearfully said.
He went back to the palace and also told Kautilya about everything.
"Baldy, tell me the truth... you knew that this was happening? after all, you run the goddamn spy network." Aariv asked angrily.
"Yes, your highness... I knew about this but we have already changed so many big things so I thought that this was not the right time to take action"
"You are wrong... these things should be dealt with in their initial stage. And who the hell is passing these orders, who is trying to control the public?"
"There are some rich people who have joined hands, we have also found that they are being funded by King Malayketu and his prime minister Amatya Rakshasa. We have started to intercept their spies." Kautilya said.
"damnit... How many things do I need to personally do?... You have 300 catapults and 50,000 longbow archers now. You can just send the whole army and take over the Himalayan kingdom yourself and kill those two fools," Aariv said.
"Now, to solve the current problem we just have to do a simple thing. Tell every shop that if they deny selling to anyone then their shop will be sealed. Then we will open our own shops and will only cater to the people of upper castes, but the price will be 5 times the normal. They will either have to buy from us at a high price or just buy from where everyone buys. With time, everyone will change," Aariv suggested.
...
Things went on as usual. Many problems arose and were dealt with. 1 year passed by, and most of the people had started to accept the constitution wholeheartedly. One of the reasons for this was the social advancements.
Aariv had invented new ways of agriculture that resulted in greater yield, better clothes making methods and machines. Due to the huge construction projects going on in the whole empire, many people had jobs. New buildings and roads were built. Buses were introduced. There were no personal vehicles though. Only the royal family had a personal vehicle.
The population of Patliputra increased to 3 million due to so many job opportunities. However, Patliputra was not the only city that had improved. Every city in the empire changed beyond belief. The public was happy and loved the Mauryan royal family. Aariv also created many big orphanages for homeless kids. 90% of the young population was now going to schools.
Electricity was introduced to everyone and now the whole city was lit up with lights. Not only that, plumbing was also introduced. Now people don't have to go out and fill water from wells or rivers.
He had also introduced the new currency called Rupee and paisa.
100 Rupee note = 1 gold pana
50 Rupee note = 50 silver pana
20 Rupee note = 20 silver pana
10 Rupee note = 10 silver pana
5 Rupee note = 5 silver pana
1 Rupee note = 1 silver pana
50 Paisa note = 50 bronze coins
20 Paisa note = 20 bronze coins
10 Paisa coin = 10 bronze coins
5 Paisa coin = 5 bronze coins
1 Paisa coin = 1 bronze coins
It took a while for people to get used to the new currency but with time it became normal.
Aariv was also working on trains, Maglevs to be precise. Although he knew that hyperloop was better but they didn't have high capacity. Only 20-40 people could travel in one car. On the other hand, Maglev was just like any other train. In the future trains didn't exist as everything was airborne but he understood that reaching that level would take a lot of time.
"Your highness, Acharya wants to see you." A guard came and notified him.
Aariv was surprised as Kautilya never called him, he would come himself whenever he needed to talk to Aariv. He went to Kautilya's office and saw some new faces. They all didn't look Indian.
"Come, Aariv. These are the men you asked us to kidnap," Kautilya said as if kidnapping wasn't a big deal.
Aariv looked at the men. They were all blindfolded. He recognized all of them, Anaximander, Democritus, Euclid, Archimedes, and Hippocrates.
"Black, remove the blindfold"
Black did as he was asked. One by one all of the old men started to look around left and right. They all had a very high IQ so they quickly realized that screaming was not the right thing to do.
Democritus. Also known as the laughing philosopher suddenly got up from his chair and went to a wall light. He was fascinated by the whitish glow. He touched the light and only felt a little warm, his hands didn't burn.
"What is this magical fire?" He asked in greek language.
"It is a light which runs on electricity. Electricity is a form of energy resulting from the existence of charged particles (such as electrons or protons). Electrons and Protons are very tiny particles that exist in everything around us," Aariv answered in Greek.
He expected that Democritus would understand him a little as he was the one who devised an atomic theory featuring tiny particles always in motion.
Soon everyone stood up and checked out the lights. Even Hippocrates, who was the father of Western medicine, checked it out with interest.
Hippocrates then turned and looked at Aariv.
"Why did you bring us all here? and we don't even know where we are," he asked.
His question brought everyone's attention back to Aariv.
"Before I answer you, let me ask you something... How far are you ready to go in pursuit of greater knowledge and what does your nationality means to you?"
Without waiting, Archimedes replied. "Knowledge is my salvation, I can do anything for knowledge and to me, my country is just a place where I was born."
"I can go to any lengths and bounds for a better understanding of this world. The world is so fascinating, there is so much to learn and understand but sadly we humans are very short-sighted and ignore our surroundings and chase temporary benefits. Even my own people think that I am crazy," Euclid sadly said.
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.
"Child, we all are just after knowledge, knowledge that can improve our world. To us, our birthplace is just a place from where we started our journey. I am sure the 4 others too would agree with me," Anaximander said.
Anaximander was 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 also proposed that the first humans had been produced from fish.
All others nodded at Anaximander's words.
"Thank you for your truthful answers. First of all, you all are currently in Ινδία, also known as India. I am the first son of the current emperor Chandragupta Maurya. My name is Aariv Maurya... The reason why I brought here is because I know that all of you are some of the brightest minds in the world and I want your help in making this world a better place by bringing social and technological advancements" He said and then took out a big world map.
"Let me tell you, I am far more knowledgeable than you can imagine, if I want I can make machines that can fly in the air with hundreds of people, I can make weapons that can destroy empires in seconds. I know you won't believe me but give me some time, I will make you understand. See this map, this is the Mauryan empire. It is currently the biggest empire in the world. Do you know how many people died in my conquest to conquer this?... Less than one thousand," he said proudly.
All the old men had a shocked expression when they heard Aariv. They all knew about the Mauryan empire in the east. They knew how big it was but knowing how efficiently it expanded blew their minds.
"How did you do this... and... and is this the world map?" Anaximander asked.
"Yes, this is the map of the world and I did all this with technology and my own powers. You see I was gifted by gods when I was born." Aariv said and showed them his power by controlling water in a steel glass and also crumbling it into a ball. He wasn't worried about revealing his powers as there wasn't much they could do to harm him. They were all just some old knowledge-hungry men.
"I only ask you to become a part of this empire and study. Help me make the world a better place. I will never ask you to make a weapon to kill others... Now, my assistant, Black will take you outside and give you a tour of the city. You can judge me after that, but before that"
Aariv used his telepathic ability and gave them knowledge about the common language spoken in the city.
With the sudden surge of new information in their brains, they all stood up from their seats.
"Can you understand me?" Aariv asked in his native language.
All of them nodded with surprised faces.
"This is just one of my powers. I gave you all, the ability to understand the local language," Aariv explained.
"Now, Black, take them for a trip"