The last Asura Sovereign

Punya sat in the clan leader's seat and started studying the scrolls. Although the reports about the major clans have become less, there were many things in the clan that he had to look after. He couldn’t just abandon the mundane things happening in the clan. Though there was nothing exciting happening in the management part of a clan, it was his duty to look after it, just like working in the office, you have to drag yourself there even if it is the most boring aspect of your life.

Punya had wanted to open the clan hall and invite the elders inside, but he knew they would only start making noises, and he didn’t want that in the morning. He reviewed the things happening inside the clan, there were some brawls, some favoritism and some misuse of funds, the usual but today Punya found this part somewhat peaceful. Most of the clan members had no idea what was going to happen. He sighed and started putting the affairs in order.

Punya also remembered his father’s order and sent one of his shadows to the outpost to ask Radha to send the clan members back and some of the Battle hall members. They had already decided the number of the clan members in the outpost to be about a hundred. They weren’t exploring these few days and there were only a few resources left in the outer region. As for the auxiliary members in the clan, they were busy utilizing the resources to the max.

Punya had previously asked them to produce everything they could. The clan had bought the finished products at high prices so everyone was excited. After sending the shadow Punya switched his focus on the shadows tailing the fifth elder. The fifth elder had now crossed the threshold and the shadow had erased their traces till now. And from now on it was no telling where the fifth elder would go. With the large number of children, there were bound to be some traces left but after a day or two, these traces would be erased by the forest themselves.

Then Punya asked the two shadows to fake the traces so that any spies would be running in the circle. ‘This is the last thing I can do for you fifth elder’ Punya thought. Moments passed and it was time to open the clan hall. The elders were still clamoring up outside the hall discussing about the things they had found out about. With a wave of his hand, Punya opened the door. The elders and deacons rushed into the hall like kids.

They were seated and one of the elders wanted to speak but Punya waved his hand and started speaking “I know what you are going to talk about but first we should discuss about the ongoing affairs of the clan. I have made the low-level resources from the outpost to be available to every auxiliary member in the clan and they could even use these resources on credit.” Punya knew these elders were anxious to speak about the information they had gained so this was also the best time for him to inform them about the changes he had made in the clan like giving raw materials on credit, buying back the finished products in high prices and allocating a lot of resources towards fifth elder for ‘training’ the children.

If the elders were not anxious and in a hurry, these things would take a whole day just for discussion. So without letting the elders and deacons interrupt, Punya told them about his plans and the changes he had made these days. The changes in the clan he made about the personnel change, allocation of resources, and the changes he had made in the outpost. As he was explaining these things to the elders, some of them began to oppose them.

Then Punya wasted their time explaining the process, progress, and benefits in detail making the other elders angry towards the one who questioned them. In reality, the things Punya had done were not excessive looking at the situation. From what the elders knew, Punya seemed to have already prepared for the possible future. Some of the elders became gratified for his actions. After discussing these things, it was already midday, and most of the mundane things about the clan and changes were concluded and now it was time for the real deal.

Punya looked at the elders and deacons and nodded, he knew it was time to talk about the real issue. Then the discussion began. The elders began to speak about their findings about the activities of the major clans in the recent week. Punya was surprised, they had gathered a lot of information. He even heard of the information he wasn’t privy to. He had expected they would only find a little bit of insignificant things. He had underestimated the network these old bastards had built for decades.

The thing that frustrates Punya most about underestimating these elders is that there is a mole among them and since the elders have gathered substantial information, this would leak to the major clans and the clans would surely find out that the Rijal clan was aware. This would push the war even more near. If he had known that the elders could find this much, he would have arranged to hear their reports privately. This was the result of arrogance on his part.

Ever since he had recovered and broken through to the ninth level of the foundation building realm and after the inheritances, he saw the future of the Rijal clan to be a grand one, everything went smoothly for him which was why he had developed arrogance unconsciously. He should have given the elders a chance to explain themselves privately. Now the cat was out of the bag, there was nothing he could do.

He could just hope the clan can get a few days of peace before the war. The elders were still presenting the things they found, some of them were refuting these things as baseless rumors and some were starting to quarrel because their information stated otherwise. Punya was making note of the elders and deacons when they were sharing information and calculating if anyone was likely to be a mole.

He knew this would be futile but he was grading them according to the value of their information. He needed to be wary of those who knew too much and those who chose to share a little. If they knew too much, the suspicion was natural and if they shared too little, if anyone withholds information at this point, they should be treated as traitor even if they are not the mole.