"What is happening here?", Polio stormed inside the police station demanding information from his underlings.
"Captain! You are finally back.", a punk-ish kid not more than 20 years of age came out and cleared the area for Polio and his team of policemen to enter.
"He's with me.", Polio said when the constable tried to prevent me from following behind him. "What is the situation? Why are so many people blockading Jan Sena's office."
"Captain! There has been an attack on the Royal court. The Yoddhas are already pursuing the ones that escaped."
"Then why is their commotion in the front?"
"That...", the constable's voice fainted into a whisper.
"Say it out loud cadet!"
"Yes Sir! Other than the attack on the Royal Court, there was another unit of Rakshasas lurking around the Kokila Street, and after they were found out, one of the Rakshasa self-destructed to let others escape. There has been a loss of civilian lives."
"How did they get past the checkpoint?"
"They impersonated as the members of 'Jan Sena' and even had fake IDs with them."
"What! How can somebody impersonate a 'Jan Sainik'? Are you sure there wasn't bribery involved?"
[ A.N - 'Jan' means 'Public'. 'Sainik' means 'Solider'. ]
"That... It seems that Devi was a spy, he forged some identities for the Rakshasa to enter the city. He has been absent from the job for a week now!"
"Devi?", Polio's ears perked up on the mention of Devi's name.
I noticed a strange expression on Polio's face as if he was contemplating the actions of the Devi person.
"Okay! I know now, let's first clear out the crowd.", Polio handed back the file to the same constable and turned around to address the crowd.
[...
Umm! (*cough*)
Please Listen To Me.
Jan Sena is already on this case. The damage will be reported to the Court and all those who lost their property will be duly compensated. I implore that you please go back to your families and take care of them. There is no need to panic and spread fear in society.
Jan Sena and the Court are already covering the areas, and soon start to patrol the streets.
If you see something out of the ordinary, report it to the police, but don't try to carry out social justice. The culprits are considered armed...
...]
Polio's voice was a little different from how he talked to me at the Hospital. There was confidence and an aura of a leader.
The situation died down quietly and Polio immediately created a team of Policemen to patrol the area around 'Kokila Street'.
Everything from shifts, uniforms, salutes, and office infrastructure was systematically designed. Even though it seemed chaotic from the outside, Jan Sena was even more disciplined than Bharat's Military from modern Earth.
"Will you take a long time to sort this out?", I asked Polio as he sat for a breather. I had been quietly observing and waiting for him before starting a conversation.
"Sorry boy, I made you wait.", he replied.
"That is fine. I can come later.", I wasn't in a hurry and it was even better to avoid dealing with him or any other officials until I had better clarity of my own situation.
"No that won't be necessary. It's just small official work. Please fill this paper and I can hand over the bounty reward of those 5 kuryu member you disposed off."
He handed me a small sheet, it was like a typical form with personal details and such. From the quality of paper and the written letters, it was evident that there was no machinery involved in the production of that form. However, still, each letter was identical.
'Is it even possible to have such machine-like percision?', I filled out the form and handed it back to him who was quietly observing my every move.
"Why didn't you fill-in your name?", he said after taking a look at the form.
'Isn't it optional?', I looked at the form again and it said 'optional' right in front of the name column.
"I prefer being nameless.", I replied.
"V for Vendetta much, hehehe?", he laughed dryly at his own joke, but I was completely blown away by the seemingly harmless little joke.
'V for Vendetta' was a book written in modern Earth which was later adapted into a movie of the same name.
"V for Vendetta?", I asked.
"Ohh, don't mind that. It's just a folk lore of certain Kingdom I visited when I was still in training for 'Jan sena'", Polio didn't look like he was lying.
"Can you tell me more about it?"
He explained the folk story about a vigilante in the Western Kingdoms who had taken upon himself to fight against the totalitarianism of the Kingdom by making an example out of corrupt Nobles and Officials.
Except for some minor details, every major part of the story that Polio told me was the same as the novel published in modern Earth.
'How can there exist a fictional character exactly as defined in the novel?', the more I found out about the world the less it seemed to make sense.
"Are their any other such popular stories you know of?", I asked.
A world where supernatural forces like [Prana] existed was already something out of the ordinary, and if other fictional stories were to become real on top of that, it will be total chaos.
'What if Godzilla or even Death note surfaces on this planet?', imagining the impact of such Godly creation, I felt the horror of the world that will be plunged into complete chaos.
"There are way too many to count. This is what Scholars do, they hunt the origins of these stories and sometimes even end up finding [artifacts] associated to those legends. ", Polio said.
"Ohh! Are their any artifacts with you? Can I maybe take a look?"
"Hahaha! How can I have such great things at my disposal. I'm merely a Captain in one of Jan Sena's units. Artifacts are a priceless treasure that can only be encountered through either luck or great wealth."
"That's a shame, I would have loved to study them.", I said rhetorically.
"If that's all you want, you can either join a Merchant or enroll into the Sage Academy. You are right age even, and based on what I've seen, you might even be able to aim for one of the top seven Sage academy on the continent."
According to Polio, Sage Academies were basically Universities that nurtured [Users], however, in this world they seemed to be referred to as [Sages].
[Sage] were similar to [Users] from modern Earth in all respect, except for the fact that the [Prana Science] of this world was much more complicated and advanced compared to Earth.
After gathering all the information about the academies admission procedure and other common knowledge about the world I turned to leave.
[*grabs shoulder*]
A hand reached out to me from behind, stopping me in my tracks.
"Are you really leaving without even telling me your name?", he said.
He looked expectant as if he was sure that I will reveal my name to him, something that I hadn't told my own father yet.
However, I could not say no to the middle-aged person in front of me. Despite all his shenanigans, he was one of the few friends I had made in my past life, and even in this world, his character was similarly upright and sweet.
But revealing my name wasn't an easy thing to do. As I looked at him, my mind went into deep thoughts about the name that I should be using in this world.
'Am I supposed to be the same person in this world?', I was wondering whether I wanted to carry the name from my previous life. I had no clue whether I had an identity in this world or I was simply an orphan.
Many things were different.
I looked different than the 14-year-old self I was once before, in fact, Kshitij, my stepbrother, looked more like me than my new body.
I could control [Prana] more smoothly as if all the adverse effects of having practised the [way] had disappeared.
My father only looked the same but had a different name and lived a different life.
The whereabouts of people I knew in the previous world weren't known, and even if I found them, it was clear after interacting with Bhondu and Father that they wouldn't recognize me.
'Karn', as if singing the name inside my head, I recited it multiple times.
Karn although literally meant 'ear', was the name of one of the greatest warriors. Upon his birth, Karn was wearing golden earrings and golden chest plates that were glued to his chest and remained with him his whole life.
The golden earring and the chest plate were part of Karn's body and were a boon given to him by the 'Sun God: Surya'. The name of the legendary Warrior 'Karn' was too big and attention-grabbing.
'But what other name can I take? Shall I take one of my teachers name?', I thought about each of my teacher's names: Kala, KT, and Mark but none of them felt like me.
"So?", Bhondu interjected again, still with the expectant look on his face.
(*cough...*)
"Vihaan. Call me Vihaan Puru.", I said with a little bit of embarrassment. I realized later on that I had unconsciously mimicked the legendary spy character from one of the early 20th-century novel series.
'What am I doing? For god's sake I'm 200 years old!!!', I scream inside my head.
The name I had come up with reflected my choice and determination. A name that was also reminiscent of my other life and forgotten history.
[ A.N: ]
[ 'V-hun' is a word of Sanskrit origin meaning 'Dawn/Morning/Start'.
The name 'Vihaan' represents the beginning of his new life. However, 'Puru' is the first half of his original family name, Purohit (chapter 1-3). So, our MC, Karn, is basically saying "Dawn of Puru". ]
[ Keep in mind "Dawn of the Purus", might be foreshadowing, who knows?.]
[〜(￣▽￣〜) ]