Vijayanagara Empire, Hampi Palace.
A beautiful woman sat on a luxurious sofa in the palace. The only flaw in the image was the sad expression on her face, which ruined the picturesque scenery. She was knitting a dress that appeared to be for a guy.
The lady is none other than the new Queen of the Vijayanagara Empire, Kavya Deva Raya.
"Sigh," she let out an audible sigh, remembering that her husband had not spent any time with her for a whole month after their Honeymoon.
She had tried asking Vinod multiple times about Vijay's whereabouts, on different occasions, but every time she received the same apologetic answer: that the king was in a secret meeting and it was prohibited to contact him.
Sometimes, while having dark thoughts, she even thought that Vijay might be spending his time with a mistress because they hadn't done the deed after their marriage. When she was crying, thinking that she wasn't liked, Vijay stated that they had to wait two years. Apparently, some sadhu foretold him about his Jataka (fortune-telling, kinda). She is still skeptical about his reason.
However, thinking about his silly face, she quickly rejected the possibility, from the limited time she had spent with him, she figured out that he had no experience with talking to women. He couldn't even take the initiative to hold her hand until she finally got over her nervousness and took his hand, which made him blush like a ripe tomato, he was even more shy than her at that time.
Kavya always knew that being a monarch of a country is a demanding and exhausting job.
She was not unfamiliar with being left alone by herself, as her father had also done the same thing. Like Vijay, her father also barely had enough time to spend with her. However, being left alone for a whole month was just an overwhelming burden for the sheltered princess.
With her chaotic mind going berserk, she began to think of various conspiracy theories about where Vijay is again. As she got deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole, her beautiful eyes started to get wet, and eventually, the waterworks started.
"Knock knock."
Suddenly, Kavya heard a knock coming from the door, She got up preparing to let the person in, while quickly wiping all the tears and dressing herself up neatly.
All the chaotic thoughts in her head disappeared as she was sure that it was Vijay knocking on the door.
No one other than her husband would dare to come to her at this late hour.
Although she was happy on the inside, she opened the door with a pouting face to show Vijay that she was mad at him.
But that all disappeared when she opened the door and a zombie that looked like her husband showed up.
The zombie, seeing her, opened his arms wide as if he wanted to hug her and fell forward.
"So tired" were all the words that she heard from the smelly and dirty zombie, as she sidestepped, And the zombie fell head-first to the ground.
"Thud."
Kavya "..."
The Palace maids "..."
The palace maids desperately turned their heads sideways, as if holding back their laughs.
Kavya, who noticed their actions, glared at them, as if warning them to behave themselves, and turned her attention to the body.
She quickly turned over the body with difficulty and confirmed that it was Vijay, a smelly and dirty Vijay.
Seeing him like this made her feel bad about her complaint earlier; she had an unbearable pain seeing him in this state.
Kavya quickly closed the door and tried to lift him up.
As Vijay had put on some muscle after his recent days of exercise, he had a sturdy build which was very hard for a 16-year-old little girl to lift.
Seeing that it was impossible to lift him up, she dragged him with difficulty to the sofa, cursing,
"Dumma (Fat) Vijay, smelly Vijay, stupid Vijay."
Kavya first wanted to let him take a bath because he smelled like a pig, but seeing him so tired and herself tired from pulling him, she decided to dump him on the sofa and put a blanket over him.
Seeing him dead asleep, Kavya's eyes softened as she also stopped her knitting work and went to sleep herself, after taking a long bath to get rid of the bad odour, of course.
Next morning,
Vijay woke up feeling hungry. He had not been eating properly for a month because making reform plans for the empire had made him lose all his appetite.
He had been restless the whole month, consulting different professionals on the reform bill, thinking about various aspects numerous times, sometimes even overthinking things. All the mental work had made him very tired, more than when he was physically exhausted.
"Thank God it's over,"
he thought to himself, relieved.
To Be Continued...