"If not a hero, you can at least pass for a prince.", Polio (nicknamed Bhondu) was judging and making remarks about my character.
"..."
"But you did great! I'll make sure that you are not ill treated in Mahismati", he said.
"Will there be an investigation regarding the hospital incident?", I asked him.
"Investigation?", he looked at me dumbfounded. As if I asked an obvious question.
"Of course not! Why would the court spend so much time on investigating criminals."
'Then What the hell does a court do?'
"...Okay!"
----------
** A FEW MINUTES AGO
"Bhaiya!", Kshitij came out just before I was about to take my leave.
We were both still dressed like patients, however, his dress looked more like a gown which was haphazardly altered using threads to fit his body.
'Are all these cloths manufactured manually?', the poor stitching on the clothes was reminiscent of an era before the satanic mills of Victorian England.
I bent down to greet goodbye and he came near and grabbed my hand.
He was smaller than me when I was 10-year-old. His hands smoother than mine, maybe because he didn't live a rough life.
"Bhaiya! Don't leave", the yearning in his honest and pure pearl-ish eyes made me want to not move a single inch from the place.
Children had always been my weak spots, and he was one of the deadliest ones I had ever seen.
'No wonder his parents are crazy over him.' He was a treat to the eyes suffering from daily life.
>> "I want to go to a mountain range, marry a village girl, and settle down.", Bhondu said after the morning training.
>> "May God Rudra help you!", I replied in a passive-aggressive tone, uncaring of the dreams of a mortal who was physically the same age as me.
A quick scene flashed in my mind and disappeared. Bhondu, My parents, and even people who didn't exist on the previous Earth. I was still short of ideas about what this world might be.
"Kshitij! I'll definitely come back to check up on you, for now, I've to go with the Police." I told him. Even if he had what I could never achieve in my last life, there was no way I could dislike a child as cute as him.
Kshitij turned to look at Bhondu standing beside me and blurted out these next words while pouting. "Bad Police, do not take my brother away!"
[*chuckles*]
Both me and dad chuckled listening to Kshitij, but his mother had a different expression.
"Kshitij! apologize now.", she remanded him.
"It's fine Madam!" Bhondu interjected.
Such trivialities were normal in a Policeman's life.
"Don't worry boy. I'm only taking him to reward him for helping so many people."
"Reward?", he looked at Bhondu with doubt. Even if he was 10 years old, he wasn't gullible.
"Yes. He helped all the people in the Hospital, as well as countless others in Mahismati."
"Wow!!", Kshitij exclaimed with surprise. "I knew brother was a Yoddha when he fought all those beasts with his closed eyes."
Everybody was surprised and turned to look at me. Even Bhondu looked at my indifferent expression and smiled.
"Yes, he is definitely a Yoddha, and he is even better than the most Yoddhas I know."
As I left the hospital, I could sense a feeling of uneasiness in dad. He looked at me in a sense which was different than before.
I knew he was thankful and had shown it by gifting me the [Space Bead], but I could still not discard the thought that he was hiding something, just like the time when the Kuryu Gang Leader started attacking.
---------
** PRESENT
"Sir Polio, What is a Yoddha?" I asked Bhondu as we entered the main street just outside the Hospital.
He stared at me for a second and I realized my mistake.
'Shit! He hasn't introduced himself yet. Moreover, is his name even Polio in this world?'
He seemed to have not noticed and started to answer my questions in earnest.
"What do you mean who is a Yoddha, they are the peak that all of the Warriors aspire to reach one day. Only by becoming a Yoddha can we help humanity reach even greater heights."
"What heights?"
Bhondu looked as if he was offended by my questions.
"You really don't know?"
"...", I just nodded in response.
"How is that even possible?"
"I've never been in public and society. I live alone and it was only because of Kshitij that I met his family and ended up in the Hospital." I lied.
I had not been able to recall any information of this world, so it was possible that I had somehow ended up in the forest directly, and didn't belong here from the beginning.
'There must be some supernatural force that pushed me in this Dimesion. What is their purpose?'
I looked at the blank sky with patches of white cloud.
'Natraja, are you still there?'
~...~, there was no response like always.
"Aah! That explains why you didn't snatch the White Dove token Mr. Mayur offered you. Hahaha!", within Bhondu's dry life I could sense a tinge of sadness. As if not taking the token was his loss somehow.
"Was that token really that valuable? Who are Duckkan Merchants anyway, and why was the Kuryu Gang scared of them?"
"Asking whether Merchants are important is like asking whether the sky is important. Of course it is, just as the stars would fall on Earth without the sky, the Humanity will collapse without the Merchants!!"
"...", I couldn't really fathom the analogy he was trying to make, but I asked him few more questions before coming to a conclusion about the new world.
In Akhanda Bharat or simply Bharat, the society was divided into four main classes: Workers, Warriors, Merchants, and Scholars.
However, according to Bhondu, there was no widespread class-based discrimination yet. Instead, the professions associated with each class were united under multiple [Temples] and the Royal Court issued policies according to the suggestions of these [Temples].
"Temples should be in conflict with the Royals then?", I asked. The appearance of any Unions, even in the modern era, was bound to raise conflicts with the ruling authority.
"That might have been true if the Temples were united. However, each temple has their own interests and none of them really want to govern the people as long as their own interests are met."
"Ohh, but how does that relate to my fath.., I mean Mr. Mayur?"
"Yes, the Duckkan Merchant Group isn't just a simple Merchant Union, instead its real identity is 'The Maurya Temple of Prayag'. It is one of the top 10 Temple in Prayag, although they have been in decline in recent years, they are still beyond the reach of people like you and me."
"What is that to do with Mr. Mayur?"
"What do you think? A person that can hand out White Dove Token of the Duckkan Group so easily isn't someone we are capable of talking about. He must have a hight position in Duckkan or even a part of the Maurya Temple."
Bhondu was serious. His tone held within a sense of warning as well as admiration.
"Is Duckkan really such a big deal?"
"You wouldn't know this because you never lived in a society, but every raw material and refined goods are sold and managed by Merchants. There is a saying in Mahismati that, if Royals are the heart, Merchants are the blood pumping through them."
"Pfft! Then are Scholars the Brain, Warriors the Arms, and Workers the Legs?", I joked.
In ancient Bharat of modern Earth, there was a school of thought which divided people into classes that were similar to 'Akhanda Bharat'.
"Not bad for a barbarian!", Bhondu looked genuinely surprised that a barbarian knew so much about the four class.
'What the fuck, is this real?', I couldn't believe my ears.
"(*cough*)... Anyway, so you are telling me that Mr. Mayur is too high profile."
"Yes! It wouldn't be disadvantageous for you to have contact with them. You saved his son's life so he must be really grateful."
--------
After chatting with Bhondu for a while I got a clear picture of the world I was in.
Akhanda Bharat was a continent comparable to the size of Asia and divided into many Empires ruled internally by different Kingdoms.
There were also multiple races such as,
[Vaanars] - The animal-like humanoid beings that had one or other animal feature but had human-like physique.
[Vaamans] - They were small humans with unparalleled arm strength and lived in roughest and barren lands.
[Yakshas] - They are spirit-beings that originate from various elemental powers of nature, heaven, and hell.
[Rakshasa] - The man-eater demonic beings, also known as the brother-race of Yakshas. They are a common enemy to every other race of Akhanda Bharat.
Before I could divulge more details with Bhondu about the world, our journey had come to a stop due to a sudden crowd that had appeared in front of us.
As we neared the commotion, I could hear a frenzied crowd shouting at the Police guarding the station.
[ WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? ]
[ WHERE IS THE HELP!! ]
[ WHO WILL PROTECT US NOW!! WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE ]
[ PLEASE SAVE US!! ]
[ RAKSHASA(S) HAVE APPEARED!! ]