Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

Bhubaneswar, Gangapuri, Akhand Bharatiya Empire

Vedant got out of the palace with his wife Janaki, a beautiful oval-faced woman wearing a maroon sari, holding her hand. She looked nonchalant as she corrected her makeup and made sure that she had brought all the files she was supposed to bring, while Vedant, on the other hand, had a light blush on his cheeks as if he was a high school boy molested by his English teacher.

Fortunately, his dignified appearance returned once he got on the carriage, and it set off. Thinking about the experiment he was going to conduct today, he was getting really excited. If today's experiment succeeded, then the Bhairavi engine, an engine capable of being housed within naval vessels, would be one step closer to completion.

However, just when he was about to review his documents, he felt a vague sense of threat. This feeling startled him; he had never experienced such a feeling before. But thinking about the stories of his father escaping from danger multiple times due to the animal-like intuition he had, and his brother constantly reminding him to follow his intuition, he decided to trust the feeling.

"Stop the carriage!" He raised his hand and signalled the driver.

Janaki was startled and looked at her husband with a look of enquiry.

"Is something wrong, your highness?"

Vedant's entourage was naturally filled with the royal guards providing him with the necessary security, so the captain immediately came forward once the carriage of the prince abruptly stopped.

Vedant didn't open the curtain just to be sure and spoke out to the Royal Guard, "Do a perimeter sweep, I feel like something is wrong."

The Royal Guard was confused; they had already done a routine check once, but then, remembering the legends of the royal family circulated within the Royal Guards about how the members of the royal family had supernatural instincts to predict when something was going to go wrong, the young royal guards' faces turned white from fright.

"Everyone, alert, do a clean sweep and assume defensive position."

The whole atmosphere and the demeanour of the royal guards changed; it was as if they transformed from old and dull blades to unsheathed, blood-drenched and sharpened kathis.

Some of the royal guards carrying the latest rifles ran forward with full alert, looking into every corner, every shrub and every bush as if there was an enemy hidden within, while the remaining immediately assumed a defensive posture and formed a solid metal perimeter around the carriage.

"2 o'clock, clear."

"11 o'clock, clear."

"5 o'clock, clear."

"8 o'clock, clear."

The Captain of the Royal Guards was confused, 'Could his highness have made a mistake? Was he simply being too careful?' It felt like that was mostly the case, but something told him the legends about the Royals and their instincts were not something to be taken lightly. He stroked his chin in thought, and suddenly an idea came to his mind.

"Uujval, come, come."

He called the only dog of the team over and let it smell the gunpowder.

The dog, after taking a quick whiff of the gunpowder, quickly ran towards the distance. It started to bark at the ground and tried to dig up the dirt.

The Royal Guard Captain's eyes were wide open. 'The rumours are really true.'

"Your Highness, it looks like there is an explosive buried ahead. I suggest we turn back and stay in the palace until everything is settled."

Vedant was a little reluctant considering the experiment he had planned, but he knew what his priorities were, so he nodded and comforted his wife, who was looking at him worried.

Apart from a few Royal Guards who were left behind to unearth the bomb, all the other guards left with the prince.

'Gasp!'

The Royal Guards took in a breath of cold air. The bomb was massive; it was over three feet tall and one and a half feet wide.

"This could not have been planted in a day or two; whoever did this had access to this road for a long time."

Far away in Satavahana, Agni's arms were drenched in blood, but it was not his; it was the blood of the European tourist who lunged at him during his visit to the railway station.

A group of fishermen were returning after a plentiful harvest, but just then they heard a loud explosion.

"Oh Matha!!"

"Vitarana Bridge exploded."

"Deva!"

They screamed with panic, all up on their feet, not even caring about the few fish that managed to escape as the boat rapidly shook.

The explosion of the large concrete bridge left large debris falling into the river, causing large waves to rock the boat even more. In the end, unable to withstand the turbulence, the small boat tipped over, but fortunately, all the fishermen were swimmers, and they safely swam to the shore; the horror on their faces did not decrease.

Vijay, who was embroiled in a mountain of documents, was startled when he got to know that there were several terrorist attacks throughout the empire, all aimed at important scientists and most of all his sons. Although fortunately they were safe and sound thanks to the royal guards, some of the scientists were not so lucky. Even though most of them did not sustain any harm, as the academicians and important scientists of the empire were being protected by the military. There were some slip-ups in the security, and there were some injuries and deaths.

But what angered him even more was the destruction of several railway bridges.

He immediately summoned Selvan, the director of Bharatiya Internal Pragya, and Roshan, the director of External Pragya, and ordered them to investigate the matters thoroughly.

Both Selvan and Roshan were scared out of their wits; they thought that they were called to be scolded, but his majesty was calm, too calm, and this was much more terrifying than simple scolding.

So they worked very fast, one internally and one externally, and by the end of the day, they got preliminary results from what intelligence they could collect.

"The assassination attempt on Prince Vedant has been planned for at least a week, your majesty, as we caught the road sweeper who sweeps the road every day and pours a few hundred grammes of gunpowder into the chamber and closes it right up in order to avoid suspicion."

"Interrogating the old man, we got to know that he did it because his son was kidnapped and he was left with no other choice but to cooperate."

"Unfortunately, the son of the old man seems to have been killed nearly two weeks ago, your majesty."

"As for the assassination attempt on Prince Agni, it was done by an undercover spy from London. The local railway station officer, who was bribed with over five hundred thousand Varaha, was his informant."

"Where were the royal guards?"

"The prince was undercover, your majesty. He visited the railway station to inspect how all the ordnance was being transported at the ground level. He does this every once in a while, and the railway station officers seem to have discovered his highness and passed the information."

"As for the explosions of the bridges in several places, we're not sure who did it, but the suspicion actually lies with the locals, because in order to get to these bridges you would have to go into remote parts of the empire, and if it was a foreigner then it would be easy for them to stand out."

"Where are the explosives coming from?"

"It's definitely from within the empire, your majesty. I'm sure that no gunpowder is coming into the empire; the customs are quite sure of that, but it is quite possible that a private laboratory or several private illegal warehouses are producing the gunpowder. According to me, this is most likely the case, because after sending the residue of the gunpowder to the laboratory, the mix of this gunpowder used in the explosive is much coarser, and the ratio is not the standard formula."

"So with this, we can rule out military factory involvement, and it will also narrow it down to several places which have the ability to manufacture the gunpowder in isolation without raising any concerns."

"Hmm."

"Why did we not get any alert from the external Pragya?"

'Gulp!'

"It's because we were not able to get any information about such assassinations, even planned, your majesty. No noble in Europe knows anything about it. It was as if all the terrorist attacks were orchestrated by a handful of individuals."

"The prime suspects currently are the various kings of Europe, since only they have access to all our intelligence at the highest levels, and they can expend large amounts of resources without having to report to anyone."

Vijay was silent, his face expressionless.

"You know, I heard a saying, an eye for an eye makes the world go blind."

Roshan's heart palpitated.

"But if the lion doesn't roar, even a dog thinks that it's a king."

"So let's play their game."