6. King's Palace

'Yawn'

Rudra woke up in the early morning before even sunrise. He went into the backyard of the inn. There was nothing except a well in the centre and a partition of wood beside the wall to bathe.

'At least there is privacy while bathing.'

Rudra came beside the well and threw the bucket in the well. When the bucket was filled with water, he pulled it with rope upwards and poured the water into another wooden bucket. Afterwards, Rudra carried the bucket to the wood partition.

He removed his clothes and put them into his inventory from getting them wet or dirty if they fell as the ground was not paved. He directly lifted the bucket above his head and poured it upon himself.

'How am I going to wipe the water from my body?' Rudra became depressed, as he forgot that he didn't have any towel.

So he just used his handkerchief as a small towel and tried to wipe his body.

'It is very uncomfortable to wipe my whole body with a small handkerchief, but there is no other option, Sigh.' Rudra sighed as the handkerchief became wet just after he wiped his face, and the rest of his body was wiped with a wet handkerchief.

Rudra wore his merchant clothes. He tried to adjust his hairstyle on the camera of his mobile phone. There was no signal, So for now it was useless. Then he washed his handkerchief and put it on the back of the chair to dry.

He took the packed lunchbox from the inventory, which he packed to eat at school. The food was still hot, as the time was still in the inventory. He ate it happily, after yesterday's food with only salt, the lunch prepared by Rudra seemed very tasty to him.

Afterwards, he went in front of the room of Merchant Ram and knocked on the door.

"Coming, just wait." Soon he opened the door. He was in the same clothes as yesterday, he was holding a wooden comb in his right hand, and his hair was slightly wet.

"Good morning brother Ram." Rudra greeted Merchant Ram.

"Good morning brother Rudra, I just need to comb my hair, It won't take long." Rudra nodded. Soon Ram combed his hair, and then the two of them went out of the inn.

Bertol was already standing with a horse and carriage ready. Rudra pinched his nose and walked with great vigilance, not to step on the landmine in the street. He entered the carriage with Merchant Ram.

The horse and carriage started to move. After a few minutes of running, they reached the King's palace. Rudra and Merchant Ram climbed out of the carriage, and Bertol brought his horse and carriage to some place.

Rudra and Merchant Ram started to move towards the gate of the King's palace. There were two guards were standing on the two sides of the gates while yawning as the sun has just risen.

"Wait a while, I will go to talk to the guards," Ram said to Rudra.

"We need to bribe them to enter the gate, right." Rudra said to Ram as he knew that they were just merchants and no one knows them, so either they had to have some contact or bribe them.

"Well, we have no other option. But as the say goes If the owner is stupid, his dog will be even more stupid. The king is also greedy along with stupidity, so it's natural for his stooges to be more greedy."

"Huh." Rudra was confused.

"Brother Rudra didn't you hear this say before." Merchant Ram asked Ram looking at his confused expression.

"Well, yes there was no such idiom in my hometown." Rudra nodded in agreement.

Merchant Ram was used to such behaviour of the guards, he spoke with them for a few seconds and then gave them a few silver coins. Merchant Ram gestured for Rudra to come and then both Rudra and Ram entered the King's palace.

'The palace is not as big as I imagined. But as it is the primitive world, it is expected, but with time they will make their palaces bigger as tools will become common.' Rudra was looking around while walking.

The palace was fully made up of stones. There was an outer wall around the palace, then with dozens of meters wide space around the palace. Soon Ram and Rudra went inside the main gate of the palace.

A man was sitting behind a counter, there was a yellow parchment placed on the table. A quill and iron bowl with red liquid was placed beside the parchment on the table. There were few names written on the parchment.

Both Ram and Rudra stood in front of the counter.

"Yes, Are you here to meet King?" The clerk asked Rudra and Ram

"Yes," Both of them nodded their heads.

"Why do you want to meet with the king?"

"We came here to talk about baronetcy with your majesty," Ram replied in a slightly polite manner.

"Did you bring gifts or money?" The clerk directly asked them.

Rudra was dumbfounded by the straight forwardness of the clerk. 'What the fuck, at least pretend to not sell the title and territory. The King is really a fool and doesn't care about his image in public.'

"Yes, we brought with us," Ram replied.

"OK, tell me your names."

"My name is Ram and this is Rudra."

The clerk wrote their names on the parchment with a quill. Then both Ram and Rudra went to the benches where already 2 people were sitting and sat on them.

"Brother Rudra, what is that you are holding in your hands?" Ram asked while pointing towards the thing wrapped in a linen cloth.

"This, This is the gift I have prepared for the King," Rudra told Ram.

They waited for an hour, then a person came from inside the court. They invited the first person, then after ten minutes, he went out. The second person was invited to go inside. After 6 or 7 minutes he also got out of the court.

Both Ram and Rudra stood from the bench. They adjusted their clothes and hair. Soon a man came from the gate.

"You two want to buy territory and title, right." At which both Ram and Rudra nodded their heads.

"OK, come together."

Merchant Ram and Rudra went inside the courtroom. Rudra slightly looked around while walking. The palace was cleaner than other things, there were not many decorative items. There were two pillars of stones in the middle of the courtroom.

There was a big wooden chair in the middle, where a man with a slight beard around 35 to 40 years old was sitting. He was not that fat or skinny, just his belly is slightly out of his chest. This was the king, he was called King Monis.

There was a person standing beside the king's chair, Rudra guessed that he was the king's advisor or prime minister or something like that.

Rudra and Ram stopped at a slight distance from the King's throne. Ram knelt on one knee and kept his head down. Rudra quickly followed Ram and knelt. Rudra didn't have any complex about not kneeling or something like that. In need, humans make even donkeys their father, then what is kneeling before getting a territory and a title which Rudra needed very urgently?

"Ram has seen your majesty." Ram greeted the king.

"Rudra has seen your majesty." Rudra imitated Ram.

"Stand up." King Monis said in a slightly hoarse voice.

"Yes, your majesty." Both of them stood up.

"What have you brought with you?"

Ram went forward and gave a pouch to a guard standing beside them. Guard picked up the pouch and gave it to the advisor of the king.

"Your majesty, I have brought 110 Gold coins as a gift for your esteemed."

King looked towards his advisor, after watching his advisor count gold coins and then nodding, King spoke.

"Good, I like your gift. You will be a baron of my Kingdom from today, the Huge's territory will be yours from now on."

"Ram, thanks, your majesty." Ram bowed. A Guard brought a copper insignia along with a few parchment papers which are papers of Ram's territory.

Ram bowed turned around and left the King's courtroom. He sat on the bench and started to wait for Rudra.

"What have you brought?" King asked Rudra.

"Your majesty I have brought a few gifts. I found these gifts with great effort. Allow me to show your majesty." Rudra spoke in a polite manner.

King nodded and allowed him to show his presents. Rudra removed the linen cloth and threw it down on the ground.

King Monis was watching Rudra's every movement. He saw him holding a black shiny thing and curiously asked. "What is this?"

"Your majesty, this is a thing made to hold things called bag. It is made of leather. This is specially brought from a master craftsman from a Kingdom in the East. It has a thing called Zip to open and close, which was made of Iron." He showed King by zipping and unzipping the bag.

King Monis's eyes lit up watching Rudra playing with the bag. But before King said something, Rudra put his hand in the bag. He brought a metallic silver shiny thing.

"Your majesty this thing is called Bottle. It is also made of Iron metal and a silver paint on its surface. It helps to contain water and helps it remain at the same temperature, at the time when poured into the bottle. Only someone of your status can use such a luxurious thing."

King Monis's breath became slightly fast watching the bottle. 'Such a craft, what a shape. This artifact can only be crafted by a renowned master craftsman Only I am capable to have this item.' King Monis started to think in his mind.