It was a day after the coronation ceremony when a skinny man with cheekbones poking out of skin was interacting with the newly crowned king in the courtyard of the palace.
"Let us prepare the carriage for you, your highness." The skinny man had his hands together in a polite gesture.
"No, leave it be. I'm just going out for a walk."
"You'd still need an entourage of bodyguards to accompany you."
"Is that so? I guess there's no avoiding that."
"If I may ask, your highness. Why are you leaving the palace to walk around in the city?"
"I'm observing the kingdom's state."
"Why do you think that is necessary?"
"Vijaya, as of right now, do you think the kingdom is perfect?"
"Yes, sir, by all means. This is the land of light. There possibly cannot be a defect in our kingdom. Just look at our palace. We have gold, money and ."
Nirpendra Malla shook his head, "No. As the Finance Minister, you ought to know that a kingdom's state is not determined by how wealthy its leaders are, rather you'd need to look at the subjects of the kingdom."
"I thank you for sharing your knowledge, your highness."
After their conversation, the skinny man walked away to get the entourage ready. Actually, he would probably get another servant to get it done for him. Meanwhile, Nirpendra was approached by a familiar face.
A man of similar height as himself but a bit bulkier in size spoke:
"Dear brother, are you really leaving the palace?"
"Yes, Mahipatendra. I must observe the kingdom's status."
"Are you sure? Your brother is worried if you might be assassinated or assaulted by the 'untouchables'."
Nirpendra flinched at this statement.
'I guess the caste system really exists in this world, too.'
According to the caste system, a portion of the people were 'untouchables' and were ruthlessly discriminated against. To a modern point of view, not only was this a severe violation of human rights but did more harm to the country than benefit.
Despite his morals, he couldn't lecture his brother for making fun of 'untouchables' since it's considered normal in this day and age.
"I'll make sure that doesn't happen."
"Then let me accompany you, dear brother."
Nirpendra nodded silently. At first, he was weary of his two younger brothers but turns out they were not a big problem as he'd made them out to be. The two of them solely relied on manipulation through words and women. Perhaps the previous Nirpendra Malla would be easily persuaded but he wouldn't be.
Now that he'd shown the two that he can stand up for his own by crowning himself in the coronation ceremony, he doubted that the two brothers would be up to anything more for the time being.
"Okay then let's go, brother."
Mahipatendra and Nirpendra both exited the courtyard before finding themselves at the front gate of the palace, where a number of people were gathered in an almost chaotic scene. A struggling lady was being detained by a guard and even the finance minister was present.
When Nripendra approached this commotion, the guards immediately respectfully bowed in a namaste.
"Vijaya, what is happening here?" Nirpendra asked the Finance Minister.
"The captain of the guards detained this lady for going mad. She claims that her husband was murdered but evidence shows that he committed suicide."
"No! He would never commit suicide! We were happily living together!" The woman cried. "Please, even after my sati, please find the culprit of his murder!"
"Shut your mouth! You can't speak in front of the king in this manner." A guard shut her up with a kick to the mouth.
Nirpendra was frightened at the brutality of these guards.
"What is her caste?"
The guards looked at each other at this question from the king and shouted at the lady.
"Woman, speak of your caste!"
"..."
The woman's bloodied mouth was silent while trembling in fear.
A guard kicked the lady from the back with the heels of his boots and yelled at her to say her caste.
"Ka…" She mumbled softly, "sai…"
Nirpendra facepalmed internally. 'Not only have you admitted that your married husband died, you've come to the palace as an untouchable?'
He was not facepalming due to feeling superior to this woman nor was he discriminating against her. Her actions were just not something a logical person would do.
During this time and age, not only is there a caste system, but the sati pratha still exists. The sati pratha states that whenever the husband dies, the woman has to burn alive in the fire of her husband's funeral.
So this woman admitted that her husband died instead of hiding that fact. And even coming near the palace as an untouchable, the guards would easily behead her right this instance. So in the end, she has two death sentences awaiting her.
But Nirpendra couldn't blame her. If her husband was truly unjustly killed, it would be hard for the wife to think logically and her actions would be desperate and illogical, purely driven by emotion.
"You! You dare dirty the front of the palace as a Kasai!?!"
One of the guards was enraged and swung his sword at the neck of the woman but a few inches from slicing her head off, Mahipatendra stopped the guard by grabbing his hand.
"Your highness…?" The guard looked dumbfounded while Mahipatendra shook his head with a condescending look.
"It would be better to let this creature burn in pain with her husband's corpse."
"Oh…! That's right, your highness. I apologize for my lack of competence to recognize that fact!" He bowed respectfully.
"No worries, young guard. It's only logical to kill any untouchable that comes near the palace. This one is just a special case."
Nirpendra was observing all of this happening silently, his moral sensors already having gone off over a hundred times. But he couldn't really do anything, even as his authority as the king.
This was the state of the kingdom. The people were barbaric, unreasonable and were uneducated. If he were to go against this norm, he would be incredibly unpopular by the mass and he would most likely be assassinated.
But he couldn't just sit still and let this all go down.
Sighing deeply, he said to the woman, "Woman, lead us to where your husband died."
***
Following a ragged and bloodied woman was a group of guards and the king along with his finance minister and his younger brother. When they passed through the neighborhood of the higher castes, nobody really cared.
But as the woman led them through several turns, they entered the neighborhood of the lower castes. The houses were crude and simple as compared to the beautiful ornate houses of the higher castes.
And unlike the higher caste neighborhood, people in this area gave the king's entourage gazes, their faces full of disguised aggressiveness and their expression was soft when looking at the poor woman. Nobody would dare act upon their emotions, fearing the punishment.
When the entourage finally reached a particular house, inside it was a dead body sprawled on the floor. His face was still, unmoving ever since his death and his expression of fear was frozen in place.
A ton of flies were gathered and the smell was unbearable. Nirpendra almost gagged when the guards raised the curtains for him to see.
'Atleast cover a dead body. Goddamnit! It's contaminating the area!' His modern senses kicked in.
"You see, your highness. There is a bloodied knife clearly present on his hands. He must've stabbed himself to death."
"No! Pawant would never do that!"
"Nobody granted you permission to speak, Woman!" The overly abusive guard kicked her once again.
This was frustrating Nirpendra very much. He was using this situation as an excuse to unleash his anger from god-knows-where.
"Alright, that's enough. If this is indeed truly a suicide case, I will make sure to reward you with 10 Mohar and special permission to personally beat this untouchable to death." Nripendra said, much to the dismay on the woman's face. "But… If there is evidence to prove that this was a murder, you will be executed."
The guard was silent for a few moments, unable to speak.
"What's wrong, will you accept this proposal from your king or not?"
"Well… uhmm…" He stammered.
"Haha! What an interesting game!" Mahipatendra laughed from behind. "Such an interesting game, you must accept this! It's personally from the king himself too!"
The guard hesitated heavily, "Well… yeah…" He was finally able to say.