Adi could see the roller coaster of emotions on Sandhya's face. He wanted to laugh but held back so as to maintain his image. He decided to shock her a little more so he composed himself and said, "We will not just teach them the basics. We will also teach them special skills of Blacksmithing and Healing."
Sandhya was so shocked and it looked like her eyes will pop out. One must know that in this world, skills were a very private thing which was not shared to anyone except the apprentices.
Even then, the masters of the trade chose wisely and after thorough consideration whether to teach the core secrets or not.
Now hearing that here common people will be taught these skills, she could not accept it. She caught the smile on Adi's face and then thought, 'This is not possible. Maybe Adi is just joking. Right, this had to be it. He is just teasing me.'
Convinced with her reasoning, she calmed herself. She said in a complaining tone, "That was very bad joke Your Majesty. It shocked me. Please don't joke like this."
Adi was amused when he heard her and thought, 'Does she think I am just kidding her?'
He then clarified, "Princess, it's not a joke. This is our program and we will start with it after everyone learns the basic things."
Sandhya was again astonished. She wanted to deny it but since the King himself was saying it as truth, she could no longer keep her calm.
Her breath became rapid as she asked, "Won't those masters mind if you force them to share their skills with public? What if they do faulty work?"
Adi again clarified the misunderstanding, "Princess, I am not forcing people. Our kingdom is now poor and have a lack of skilled people. To take it to the right path we need skilled masters. So it's a decision taken after proper consultation with them. No one can force their rules on others here."
Sandhya was now speechless. She could not utter a word. If what Adi said was true and he discussed it with the masters before finalizing it, then the masters are no less than saints. To be so selfless so as to share their skills was only something saints could do.
She thought about the implications and result of the program. After educating the populace and then training skilled people, he is building a strong foundation for his kingdom. She could imagine that the future of this kingdom will be very bright.
It will be a good deal for Magadh to ally with a growing kingdom like Rai which has a high chance of being a great future ahead.
After she collected herself, she breathed deeply for a moment. Then she complimented Adi, "You have a great foresight Your Majesty. And it seems people have placed all their trust in you as they selflessly share their knowledge and skills. It is very impressive."
Adi said, "People trust in me and I will prove them that they were not wrong in doing so. But one has to remember, for a kingdom to be prosperous, efforts of every individual is needed.
The king can only point the kingdom in right direction with the policies and laws. The knights have to protect people. The nobles have to do their duty towards the kingdom and not misuse their power on commoners.
The skilled masters need use their skills for the people and not hoard it selfishly. The traders and merchants need to do business properly and pay taxes to the treasury honestly. And the commoners need to do their work properly.
Without the joint efforts of every individual and every part of the society, it will be very tough for a kingdom to prosper."
Sandhya was mesmerized by Adi's point of view. She was so engrossed in his speech that she took a moment to recover from it.
She had never heard or read about the effects the society had on a kingdom as clearly as Adi had explained. He has clearly summed up the topic in few lines with clear cut duties and responsibilities.
This was a wide vision and foresight that Great Kings or Emperors have. She vaguely had a feeling that there might be an Empire rising in Gandhar in coming years. It was been more than a millennium since the last Empire disintegrated.
Sandhya hurriedly denied her thoughts. She could not believe that she would think of Adi forming an Empire when what he had now could hardly be called a kingdom. Even if he had the ability and vision, it had still a long way to go. He will need ample resources and most importantly population.
Also, he needs time for it. She stopped her thoughts from going astray and just looked at the children studying in the classroom.
After a few minutes of looking at the children, Adi lead Sandhya out of the estate. They checked a couple of estates more, but Sandhya soon got bored with them as they were just estates with no proper decoration.
So Adi took her out of the Noble district and then to the farms. Here they could see many farmers tending to the land. Sandhya saw that they were sowing the seeds and could not help but ask,
"Your Majesty, from what I know, the land here is barren right? So how would the seeds grow? Wouldn't it be a waste of seeds and efforts to farm in barren land?"
Adi looked at her and a smile crept on his face. Sandhya saw the smile and thought that he might say something outrageous again. But Adi did not say anything this time.
Instead, he took her deep into the farms where Kali was supervising the farmers. Kali noticed Adi coming with the Princess so he quickly came up to him. Adi asked him as soon as Kali reached, "Minister Kali, how is the farming going?"
Kali replied, "Reporting to Your Majesty, we are currently sowing the seeds. After we followed your remedy for the soil, we also brought some worms from the swamps and spread it all around. We will probably finish the sowing in less than a week. If all goes good, then we may expect a good harvest at the end of season."
Sandhya heard Kali's report and got curious about the remedy thing mentioned. She wanted to ask Adi about the remedy, but stopped herself from asking. This can be said to be a strategic information which no kingdom will share with another.
But the premise is that the remedy is useful. If it is not useful and does not gets the desired results, then it will be a wasted effort.
Adi also did not explain anything. This knowledge was not something unique in modern times, but in this world where technology and science is still backward, it can be regarded as a valuable information.
He can trade this knowledge for other useful things when the time comes. And because of this reason, he had brought Sandhya with her. This will make her curious and she will look forward at the results.
Adi replied to Kali, "I got your report minister. I have to applaud you for thinking of getting earthworms from the swamps. The earthworms are said to be the farmer's best friend. With our remedy and the worms, the result will be better. Now go focus on your work."
Kali was ecstatic when he heard the King praise him. He said, "That's all because of your guidance My Lord. I will get going."
Adi waved his hand and Kali went back. Then, Adi and Sandhya roamed a bit in the farms. When she had enough of it, Adi took her to the new possession of Rai, the Iron mine. Well, it was always there but since it was not discovered, it could not be of any use before.
Sandhya was puzzled when she saw where Adi was taking her. The farms came to an end and ahead was hilly region. She could not think of anything but just followed Adi. As she followed Adi for a couple of minutes, they came to a place where the knights, or soldiers, were guarding an area. All the men saluted Adi and he nodded in reply.
Sandhya's curiosity got deep when she saw people stationed here. What could be here that needs to be protected by knights? She could not think of anything in a short moment so she did not think about it and asked, "What is here that needs protection, Your Majesty?"
Adi smiled and replied, "You will see in a moment Princess."
Not getting any answer annoyed Sandhya but she could do nothing except following him. Soon she saw a cave opening from which sounds of metal hitting could be heard.
She thought of a possibility and her heart started to race. When they reached the cave and saw the inner area of it, Sandhya's thought came true. She was surprised.
Adi also teased her again, "This, Princess, is our newly discovered iron mine."