"Our family lived in the kingdom of Kailash. The Kingdom of Kailash was rich, powerful and had enough resources for it's people. The king was kind and a wise person. But after his death the kingdom needed a new king, but as the king had no successor the new king was decided from the royal court of the previous king. But that was the biggest mistake performed by the court. That was the first and only one wrong step made by the members of the court that made the kingdom fall towards the paths of destruction.
There was a person who was newly assigned for the economic department of the kingdom. But he was greedy and his hunger for power and wealth was incomparable. But as he was selected to become the King of the Kingdom Kailash, his greed was fulfilled. But after he ascended the throne he became unruly and made the kingdom hell for the people who were living in it. The new king made different rules for the people. The discrimination between the people increased in his ruling period. The taxes were increased, the rich got more richer and the poor got more poorer. The king established a rule that the Kshatriyas could not acquire the knowledge about the laws and the Brahmins could not acquire the knowledge of weapons nor could hold a weapon. He feared that if a person had acquired might as well as enough knowledge then he could be a threat to him in future. So he made the rule strictly and prohibited Kshatriyas to learn about laws and prohibited Brahmins to learn about the weapons. Anybody that could be a threat to his throne must be eradicated. His way of rule made the whole Kingdom went towards the path of destruction."
.....
"My father was one the the most knowledgeable person in our kingdom. He was respected by the people of our village. He had acquired all the knowledge about laws and literature as well as was a master of weapons. He taught me about the weapons when I was a child and also made me learn the literature. But when the new king implement the new rules my father was the first one in our village to face the consequences. Although our family was a respectable one but was not wealthy. My father had to face the criticism from the men of the king. He was captured by the soldiers and presented in front of the king as a guilty. The king punished my father and fined him five thousand gold coins. As my father had not possessed that much money he was stripped of from the first rank of the society and made the social rank of my father to third rank of the society. Our family was also stripped of from the first rank and placed in the third rank in the society. The village chief banished our family from the village and made us live in the outside of the village. The honour and dignity of my father as well as our family was fallen."
Vasusena was looking at his master without blinking his both eyes. The emotions and expression of Ramabhadra was changing like a tide in the sea. Ramabhadra took a breath and began to continue the story of his past once again.
"You know a drop of poison can make a jar full of elixir turned into a jar full of poison. It also applies on human society. After the cruel king the society also became more cruel. The good and kind people were suppressed, the evil and cruel people had their hands on the authority and power. The evildoers started to abuse their power on the weak. Those who supported those evil bastards and their evil deeds became more dominant in the society and those who opposed them had eradicated from the society or lost their life. Those evildoers started to kill anyone who opposed them. The society had became hell for the people. Theft, rape, humiliation, killing became a regular thing in the rule of the king."
"My father taught me the uses of the weapons only but he didn't made me learn the literature and laws. But when the new rules were imposed we were to act in accordance with the rule. The king gave an order to chose the men who can wield any weapon and get them into the army of the kingdom. I was also chosen as a soldier and had to left my family. In that year I had married a girl named Dharani. She was shy, kind, polite towards the children and respectful towards the elders. She was beautiful. But because of that rule I had to left my wife after a couple of months after the wedding. My father gave me his blessings and told me to take care of myself. I left my home with a pain in my heart but I could not do anything at all."
Ramabhadra stopped the story once again. He was in full of anger. His expression was fearful. His eyes were filled with rage.
Vasusena looked at his master. He was speechless. He could not utter a single word from his mouth. The room filled with a complete silence for a brief moment.
Ramabhadra controlled his emotions. He took a deep breath and calmed himself a bit. Then he glanced at Vasusena and saw his face filled with worries and questions. He started talking again.
" You know when I saw you I saw my past self in you. You are just like me when I was suffering from the grieves of my own destiny. When I left my home I was sure that this will not be good to leave my family behind. But I was hopeless and powerless. I was powerless that did not mean that I did not have enough power but I could not afford to anger any Nobel. The king divided the kingdom into twenty-one parts. Each part had a ruler of it's own. The rulers are the directly underlings of the king. They stated harassing and exploiting the best villegers of the kingdom. The kingdom became skeletal without any rules and justice. The ruler of our state (one part of the twenty-one parts of the kingdom) was a scum. He had a bottomless greed. Money, land, woman, slave he needed these all and wanted to have everything in our state. He started to collect money as taxes. He increased the taxes by tenfold. Those who could not afford to pay the taxes had to become his slaves and the women had to become his mistress. "
Ramabhadra took a deep breath. He started to tremble with anger. Vasusena was looking at his master without blinking his eyes.
Ramabhadra composed himself once again.
" My family was poor and we did not have any specific reason to pay taxes except the land tax. So even the taxes had risen it did not affect our family. It would be a lie that it would not affected our family but my father was managed to pay the taxes. But one day the cruel fate fall upon our family once again. "
"I was on the duty to deliver an axe to the King. I was assigned to this duty with another soldier. We visited the best master craftsman of the kingdom to ask him to make an axe for the king. But he refused to make one. The soldier that came with me was evil. He did not care about anyone and also had a bad temper. He had too many connections with different types of persons with high authority. Because of that he was arrogant and was a scum who did not listen or respect anyone under him."
"Do you know who the hell we are? If you don't listen to us and do what we tell you to do, you sure to be ready for bearing the consequences of opposing us."
"I am not a dog or a slave of anyone. I am not a foot licking pathetic person like you." The old man shouted.
After a brief time of argument he shouted at the old man and pushed him back. I tried to stop him but he pushed me and started to beat the old craftsman. Then he pulled him into his workplace and told him to craft the axe for the king. The old man did not agreed even after beaten by him. I was just standing and watching everything there without saying or doing anything. He pushed the old man on towards his desk. The old man fell down heavily. There was a big box on the table that fell down on the ground. The old craftsman finally lost his temper and opened the wooden box and then pull out a majestic one handed axe. The axe was twice bigger than any ordinary axe. The blade was coated with gold. The handle was long and had a green gem at the last end of it. The old craftsman swung the axe at him. He unsheathed his sword and tried to block the axe but the axe was too heavy. It broke the sword into two pieces and sliced him apart with one swing. The old craftsman killed the evil soldier with one move. I was surprised and terrified. But after that move he started to vomit blood. I rushed towards him to help him, but he shouted at me.
"I am fine. I did not need any help from a worthless person like you. You did not prevent or tried to stop your companion and just kept standing and watching my miserable state. You are a worthless piece of shit that only know how to lick the foot of the higher authorities. You have neither pride of a man nor any kindness of a human being."
The old craftsman scolded me by my pride as a man also a human being. I was furious but I knew that I could have stopped everything but I had neither authority nor confidence to provoke him. And I was afraid that I could also make trouble for my family by doing anything that will offend him.
I begged for the forgiveness from the old craftsman. But he did not listen to me a bit.
He criticised me and said, "You are a brave man, are not you? I can feel uneasiness from you. You have enough power to defend yourself as well as prevent all the evildoers from doing anything to anyone. But you are someone who did not do anything to prevent the evil and injustice, even you have unfathomable strength. Even having this much of power you let the injustice happen before you. You are a coward that has been blessed by the strength but it is like a gift for an incompetent person."
I was angry with myself. I knew that whatever had happened can be stopped by me. But because of my cowardice I let it all happen in front of my eyes.
The old man started to faint his consciousness. His face became pale. His breath got heavy. His feet began to become unsteady.
The old man cursed me, "Because of you did not use your power to prevent injustice I am going to die. As today you also have been silent in such situations in many times. Because of people like you did not uphold your responsibility injustice happens every where. If there were a God may he punish you and let you know the fear and sorrow of losing someone who is dear to you."
Thud....
The whole room was echoed with the falling sound of the old man. He took his last breath while cursing me. I was ashamed. I was filled in regrets and thinking what to do from now.
I picked up the axe and placed it into the wooden box. I put a cover on the dead body of the old craftsman and paid respect to the dead. I informed the nearby neighborhood to prepare a proper farewell for him. The people of the neighborhood did a funeral of the old craftsman man. They cursed me and the soldiers of the kingdom. They put on the blame on me. They said that the kingdom is responsible for their misfortunes and we soldiers are the ones who are fuelling it all. They made me leave the funeral of the old man.
I returned to his workplace and picked up the wooden box which contained the axe and took it with me and prepared to leave that place. I began my journey to return to my family.
But the uneasiness from my heart began to tear apart my flesh and heart. The final moments of the old craftsman was visible infront of my eyes. The final curse and the words were echoing in my head. My heart and body both became heavy with the feeling of guilt. I knew that even I did not do anything in that matter, I was responsible for today's situation. With the guilty heart and the heavy body I left the village behind me and entered the forest and started to follow the road that leads to my village.