September 1538, Capital City, Dharanikota.
Kasthuri Street.
In a gunsmith workshop in Kasthuri Street, the king of Dharanikota Kingdom, watched as his prospective employee lost consciousness, after learning that he was the king.
"Why do they always do that?!" he questioned, expecting no one to answer that.
"Perhaps, if Your Majesty had followed proper security protocol, you would not be in a place where people would be surprised that you are the king. " answered Bhairava, as he entered the workshop.
"Oh please! I can see you and Bashir tailing me from a mile away. It is not like I escaped without notifying you. I just like visiting my people, sometimes as a king, and sometimes not." Rudra exclaimed to his head of security.
Bharava was the commander of the Royal guards, but his job also entailed maintaining Rudra's security when he ventured outside of the Royal palace.
He and Bashir were following Rudra, to guard him in case anything happened. Rudra knew what they were doing, and the security also knew that Rudra was aware of their presence. It was the mutual trust in each other that allowed them to keep this facade.
"*This man tried to grab you. You should not put yourself in situations like that.*" Bashir who entered the workshop after Bhairava, signed using sign language, "* He could attack you, and we would be too far away to respond.*"
"You know me better than that Bashir," Rudra spoke, as well as signed to his trusted bodyguard and friend. " I train with you guys, every day."
*cough*
"Perhaps we should wake up the poor man," said Selvappan, after he gained everyone's attention with that fake cough. "You did leave him in quite a shock, Your Majesty."
"It is alright." Rudra rolled the man, Jagapathi to his side, " That should do it. Now he will not choke on his vomit."
Everyone just stared at him silently, partly out of respect, and partly out of fear. No one wants to be the one, who tells the king, who is known for his mercilessness, that he can be weird sometimes.
"What?! I don't want to get news that, someone I am trying to recruit had died from choking on his vomit after he passed out from the shock of learning that I am the king." Rudra explained with an exasperated voice.
"Speaking of the interview, while I don't understand the necessity for it to be done this way, how did it go, Your Majesty?" asked Chief Smith Ramana, "I was the one who recommended him after all."
After the Military exercises a few days ago, Rudra realized that, while the musket production and equipment were on the right track, the kingdom was severely lacking in artillery, i.e. field cannons.
After consulting with the military and other experts, they concluded that starting from a blank slate and completely abandoning the previous methods of cannon production was the right way. And for that, he needed the help of Ramana.
A replacement is needed here, as Ramana was the one who was overseeing the musket production. Jagapathi was recommended by Ramana when asked for a suitable candidate.
"Well, Jagapathi did not know it was an interview, so he was more honest in showing his true behaviour," Rudra answered, "As you informed me previously, he knows his stuff. He has good knowledge of the workings of things around here and a good work ethic."
"Why was he apologizing to me earlier?" inquired Selvappan, who was curious to know the reason for such a response from Jagapathi. He did pass out after knowing that Rudra was the king.
"Oh, it's nothing really," Rudra explained, trying to hold back a chuckle. "I purposefully ignored him and tried to rile him up. He finally snapped, and told me what I was doing was bad manners and asked whether my parents failed to teach me anything good."
A stunned silence filled the workshop. Selvappan's jaw hung slack, while Ramana's bushy eyebrows shot up in surprise. Bhairava and Bashir exchanged a wary glance.
Nobody knew how to react to that situation. While Ramana and Selvappan did laugh when Jagapathi tried to drag Rudra out of the room, this new revelation did put a perspective on the thing that happened after that,
"Ah. So he thought he insulted me, mistakenly thinking of you as my kid," concluded Selvappan, his face bearing a conflicted expression, " I take it, he is now disqualified for the position he was being interviewed for?"
"Hey! What is that expression? Do you think so badly of me that, you feel conflicted that somebody thought of me as your son?" Rudra questioned with mock outrage, and when Selvappan tried to answer back, "Don't answer that. And your question, no. He is not disqualified, just because he lectured some kid on manners. He impressed me with it even. Not everyone would do that, especially to someone they don't know."
Ramana wanted to ask another question, but at the same moment, a yawning was heard. Jagapathi who went unconscious from the sudden shock, was waking up again.
He slowly sat down rubbed his eyes, and was once again shocked to see the people in front of him.
"Welcome back to the world!" Rudra cheerfully greeted, "Would you like some coffee?"
While Jagapathi was confused because he did not know what coffee was, he once again felt dizzy when he realized that the person standing in front of him was real, and what happened earlier was not some fever dream he was having.
"No, you don't! You don't get to go unconscious again!" Rudra exclaimed as he pulled him up. Jagapathi was once again falling unconscious," What is up with you, man? Get yourself checked by a doctor. Getting unconscious this frequently is not normal!"
"Wha-what is happening?" Jagapathi questioned, still confused from the whole ordeal.
"What is happening is that His Majesty personally came all the way here to meet with you and interview you for a job opportunity, and you are messing it up," explained Ramana with a strict voice. He could project the strict boss persona really well.
"Oh." said Jagapathi, then realizing what he heard. "oH! OH! YOUR MAJESTY!"
Jagapathi fell onto his knees and clung to Rudra's legs. Both Bashir and Bhairava were ready to move forward to defend him, but he shooed them away. " Get up, Jagapathi. It is alright, get up."
"FORGIVE ME, YOUR MAJESTY! I DID NOT MEAN WHAT I SAID. I HAVE A FAMILY TO LOOK AFTER!!" Jagapathi, still clinging to Rudra's Legs, begged to be forgiven.
Rudra gripped the man's shoulders and manhandled to him stand up straight. "You work for me now. Next time, I do not want to see a repeat of what just happened," he ordered with a cold voice. Seeing a self-respecting man begging for something was not something he wished to see again, "Consider this a warning!"
It was not Jagapathi's fault really. It was Rudra who was to blame. He was the one who waltzed in here with that tour idea of his. While he had seen the regular operations of Kasthuri Street, not clouded by his official visit, it also meant that Jagapathi did not know who he was.
It was reasonable to expect that, Jagapathi was fearing for his life after it became clear that, he told the king he had bad manners. Considering Rudra's past actions, it was not too far of a leap from what he could do.
"Jagapathi. The King wants you to lead the operations here. That means in the future you will be responsible for the musket production." Chief Smith Ramana instructed Jagapathi after he finally calmed down.
"What? But Chief, it is your job. How can I take your Job? Besides I am not a Gunsmith."
" While what you said was true, I need Ramana's expertise elsewhere. Besides a few changes, everything here is running smoothly. I need someone to manage the whole thing and ensure smooth operation. That is your Role." Rudra explained to the man.
"Are you sure, Your Majesty? Chief did play an important role in designing the whole thing."
"So did I, but do you see me running around here, making muskets? I need you to step up, and take the role. I am sure, one of your colleagues would be happy to take it if you refuse." Rudra explained.
"I will follow your will to the last word, Your Majesty." Jagapathi saluted with his fist to the chest. The salute was a bit wrong, but it was not the right moment to correct it.
"Now that you came around, I have some suggestions for increasing the production volume of the plant." Rudra gave a notebook to Jagapathi, while he was saying that.
"Now the factory is producing somewhere between 100 and 150 muskets per month. If you follow these instructions, that number can be increased to at least 200 to 250 muskets, at the least. This is not taking into account the increase in Manpower, which should also happen."
That was one of the reasons, Rudra chose to tour Kasthuri Street, instead of trusting the numbers on paper. While setting up the whole thing a few months ago, he had chosen to add some concepts such as production line and Just-in-time production.
While they could not be fully implemented, because of the lack of required infrastructure, he was able to adapt them enough to fit his required needs.
If a normal gunsmith was making a musket, it would be at most 2 or 3 people, working for at least a week, to produce one musket. Using the distributed production method he set up, the average time to make a musket was reduced from a week to 3 days.
But that did not mean all was cherry. People always fall back on the old habits when doing something they don't understand. The same thing happened here. In some areas, people were using some older methods, and it was slowing down production.
Such as the fact that experienced blacksmiths were making the entire trigger mechanism by themselves, or the fact that time was being wasted in annealing the metal during daylight.
The trigger mechanism production was a more pressing issue, because, by doing the entire thing by themselves, they make the parts unique to their production models, and that will make repairs difficult.
The entire reason, Rudra worked hard to ensure only a single unified model was in production was to simplify logistics. Logistics win wars after all. But what blacksmiths are doing meant that, that spare parts advantage would be lost.
So in the instructions he gave, the suggestion was to break up each part of the trigger mechanism to separate blacksmiths, so that they would produce that part only. That will mean parts consistency and an additional bonus in logistics.
"You are in charge now, Jagapathi. I expect an increase in production by the end of next month." He gave the final order to the man. " Ramana will help you ease into your new job. At least until he joins me in Cannon research."