7. Baron Rudra Pratap

"Your majesty, These are the gifts I specially prepared for your esteemed one. Only these items I could find that match your status. And this is the last item." Rudra said while handing the black leather bag to the guard.

The guard gave the bag to King Monis.

"This is a bag specially made from genuine leather, It is sewn with a strap to carry it easily. There is a zip built into the bag which helps in keeping the things from falling. The leather is very smooth and shiny, very comfortable to touch." Rudra started to describe the bag as if it was some divine item.

King's Monis started to touch the bag and then slightly rubbed the bag. He nodded in agreement. It was obvious that he liked it very much.

"I liked your gifts, From today you are Baron of Atrocosta Kingdom. As for your territory..." While King Monis was about to speak about the territory, His advisor got close to King and spoke in his ear.

"Your majesty, What do you think the value of the gifts he gave you?"

"Huh, well it must be over 200 gold coins. right." King Monis didn't get angry over the disruption of his advisor as he helped him many times before.

"No, It would be more than 500 gold coins."

"So much."

"Yes, from gifts he brought, he looks like son of a rich merchant and as we didn't see these items before, he has contacts in different regions."

"Yes, I noticed that. But what are you implying?"

"I am saying that, why don't we give him Monk Derrick's territory. That territory is thorn in our side."

"How, explain why that territory is so bad."

"Your majesty, there is only a mountain and not a single mine was found. There are only stones everywhere which are slightly useful but we have plenty of mountains in other areas.

The whole territory is surrounded by sea from one side, forest on the other and one side is with that slave kingdom.

The ocean is useless, we can not even drink the water from the sea.

The only things that are slightly useful are the area of the territory and that big forest.

But forests are everywhere. There is only wood and animals found in those forests.

And there is then that slave kingdom beside the forest. The population is slightly Big as the slaves of the slave kingdom run to the territory from the forest, but that is also a problem as it is difficult to maintain.

Then there are farms, as the area is large sure the number of farms is large but they didn't have much harvest for the past 20 years."

"Ok, I understood this, but why give this territory to him."

"Your majesty, as I said for the past 20 years there wasn't much harvest, and the population is vast and refugees from the slave kingdom also ran there in large amounts, so he has to buy the food and grains from us, and he is rich, we will make more money. On top of that we can say that due to his gifts, your majesty is satisfied, so we gave him a big territory."

"Hmm, Good suggestion. We will do that."

While the two of them whispering, Rudra was waiting for them looking at the two speaking while showing a lewd smile.

"OK, I am very satisfied with your gifts, So I will grant you the territory, which is bigger than other." After speaking with his advisor, King Monis follow his advisor's request.

Rudra slightly bowed. The guard gave him a copper token as the identity of Baron and a few parchments which shows his ownership of the territory. The territory became Rudra's and now even King can't snatch it from Rudra. This was the rule of the Atrocosta Kingdom from the start.

Rudra got the notification from the system. But Rudra didn't check it on the spot. 'Let's check when I returned to the Inn.'

Rudra came out of the courtroom, merchant Ram was waiting for him sitting on a bench.

"Brother Ram we became fellow Nobleman."

"You became Baron also Brother Rudra. Congratuations."

"Brother Ram, is there any map of Atrocosta Kingdom."

"Yes there is, but it is slightly expensive. It can be brought from the shop."

"Do you know about your territory?" Rudra asked Merchant Ram.

"No, There are more than 200 territories in Atrocosta Kingdom. How can I know all the territory."

"Then, let's go buy a map and see where our territories are."

"OK." They started to walk towards the gate of the palace.

Soon, They got out of the palace and entered the carriage. They went to the market and found a store. The store was made of stone and a few things were hung on the wall and some in wooden boxes.

Rudra and Merchant Ram entered the Store. A clerk was sitting behind the counter. He stood up upon seeing two customers entering his shop.

"Yes sir, what do you need?"

"We need a Map of Atrocosta Kingdom. Do you have one?" Rudra asked the clerk.

"Yes sir, we have. Let me get one." The clerk went towards one wooden box. He opened it and brought a rolled yellow parchment which was slightly bigger than average parchment and put it on the counter. He rolled out the parchment paper showing a crude map of the Atrocosta Kingdom.

"OK, how much is this?" Rudra asked.

"Sir, this is of 20 silvers." Rudra put his hand in his pocket, pretending to take 20 silvers from his pocket, but in reality, he picked it from his inventory.

He put 20 silvers on the counter. The clerk counted the silvers and then nodded to Rudra.

"Ok, sir. Thank you for coming. Please come again." The clerk said to Rudra when Merchant Ram, oh sorry now Baron Ram and Rudra got out of the shop.

Both Baron Ram and Rudra entered the carriage and started to move towards the Inn. Soon they reached the Inn, they entered Baron Ram's Room.

Rudra spread the Map on the table. Both Baron and Rudra surrounded the table and started to look at the map seriously.

There were a large number of territories shown on the map. First, they looked at Baron Ram's territory, and soon they found it. His territory was surrounded by three other territories and on the remaining side was a sea.

"Sigh, This is neither good nor bad, just a average territory." Baron Ram took a sigh of relief. Then they started to find Rudra's territory, but they soon found as there is only one territory between Baron's Ram and Rudra's.

"Brother Rudra, we are very near to each other, we can help each other."

"Of course, We can develop our territories together."

But soon Baron Ram's complexion changed. Rudra saw the change in his complexion.

"What happened? Is there anything wrong?" Rudra asked Baron Ram.

"Well, to be honest, your territory is said to be the worst of all the territories. Not for resources, there are as much resources as in other territories. The problem is that it is said that for the past 20 years the harvest was not good, but the real problem is that the population is very high and there is slave kingdom beside your territory."

"What slave kingdom?"

"You didn't hear of Slave Kingdom?" Rudra shook his head at Baron Ram's Question.

"Well, Slave kingdom is where the most population of civilians no almost all the civilians are slaves. The King of the kingdom is cruel, evil and ruthless. So to save themselves from the torture of the king, people ran from the kingdom. As the slave kingdom is surrounded by ocean from two sides and one side is mountain range, so only left side is your territory, so they ran to your territory."

Rudra was hearing very carefully as every piece of information about his territory is important for him to run his territory efficiently. He was nodding to Ram while listening.

Baron continued "That's why the king of Slave Kingdom waged several wars against former noble of your territory that was Monk Derrik, He was good lord and was kind to his people and even gave refuge to slaves. While bearing several clashes with Slave Kingdom, he lost many of his soldiers and knights in these skirmishes. As he didn't have many soldiers when King gathered his army for the battle with green beings, he couldn't do much. They said that he and his soldiers disappeared from the battlefield."

"Wait, didn't someone tried to find him, maybe he is still alive." Rudra asked his doubt.

"Does King cares whether Baron Monk is alive or not. He just wants to acquire the territories and sell them for money. As Baron Monik only had a daughter and no other heir, After the battle, King declared him dead and snatched the territory."

"What! then what happened to his daughter?"

"As you are now lord of that territory, she is your property now. This is tradition of this era." Baron Ram said in a slightly depressing mood.

"What the fuck! how can someone make such a fucking useless rule." Rudra said in a slightly agitated voice.

"This is nothing in front of the practice to burn the wife of the decease with him."

Rudra became silent suddenly, But if someone saw his face now, he will pee in his pants. His eyes became red, his face became black, and he clenched his fists subconsciously. He was holding one side of the table, and with a huge force of grip, the wood table started to make sounds of creaking, then directly broken in splinters.

Baron Ram took a step back. He was slightly startled at the agitation of Rudra. He was with Rudra for the past two days. He was a calm, jolly and kind person. He didn't look this agitated and angry even when he was fighting with wolves.

"Calm down brother calm down. You are now Baron and you can abolish the rules in your territory." Rudra took a few deep breaths to calm down. After a few seconds, he calmed down.

"Sorry brother, I was slightly agitated. sorry for breaking the table in your room. I will compensate for it." Rudra was slightly embarrassed and shocked as he didn't know that he could be so angry at hearing the description of sati practice. It's not that he didn't read in history and a few descriptions about the sati practice, but he came to the conclusion that he was now standing in a world where the sati practice is still in full flow.

"Don't worry. But it is possible to abolish such practices. This is just one of the few practices that I told you. There are far worse then this practice in this world."

"Yes, Don't worry, just wait a few years, I will take out the soul of the man who even thought of this practices."

Baron Ram nodded in agreement.

"Brother Ram, let's set off for our territories the day after tomorrow, I have to buy few things like carriages and horses with me to bring to my territory."

"Ok, then we will set off in the morning of the day after tomorrow."

Afterwards, Rudra and Baron went to their rooms respectively.