CHAPTER 1- THE MYSTERIOUS LETTER

Year 1965, Himachal pradesh- the home of mountains;where the city is as clean as it is calm.Red apples are adorning apple orchards, and chilling wind gusts are announcing winter's arrival.The sun's light is glaring through the windows of the houses.At lane number 42 of Lalganj (This is also referred to as the place of the rich, and from which some of the city's most well-known wealthy residents can view the city from high-rise structures as they want) is considerably quieter than the rest of the city.Looking at the mansions built there, it seems as if many secrets are hidden in their basements.The people living in these are also quite reserved.

House no. 1 (Rai Nivas) where Miss Monika Rai, a beautiful but haughty woman who has inherited immense wealth and beauty from her family,which is also known as textile queen;was speaking to her secretary, Miss Sunita, while standing outside her mansion wearing a dark blue sari and holding a mug of coffee in her hand. Right on the other side, House no. 2 which was a stunning heritage bungalow, owned by Colonel Vikram Bhatt who had served the British Indian Army and had also participated in World War 2;he makes an effort to live an adventurous senior life, but at the moment he was polishing his black Hindustan ambassador.House no. 3 which was a very well-maintained mansion and was right next to House No. 1 where the Mehta family who own Himachal's most famous bakery company 'The Mehta's' creations' lives, In which there are only 2 members, Mrs Jayanti Mehta wife of founder Vivek Mehta and Miss Radhika Mehta his granddaughter who has recently returned from US after completing her Masters in Business analytics. House no. 4 (Roy Mansion) which was located a short distance from these three residences, the garden was very dirty, 1 post box, in which it is difficult to put even a small piece of paper, probably no post has been removed from the post box for many days.Three automobiles were present, two of which were dust-covered Rolls-Royce 17 EXs and one was a Mercedes Benz SS.

That's when,a 50-year-old man enters that lane.With a small smile, he is leading the way on the path. He is Jaydev, the Roy family's longtime devoted servant.

"Did you take a vacation, Jaydev?"Mr.Bhatt said loudly.Miss Monika was also casting a glance in that direction, so Miss Sunita's reprimanding ceased.

"Good morning sir Bhatt.No, I had gone to Assam for some tea estate work instead of Master Roy"Jaydev said.

"You won't likely obtain positive feedback because no industry functions properly without the owner's oversight"In a disdainful tone, Miss Monika Rai said.

"Good morning ma'am, yes...the reports aren't great, but we haven't suffered any losses and now I should leave Master Roy will be waiting for me" He said.

"Is Rudra here, I haven't seen him for days"Mr.Bhatt said in a confused manner.

"I saw Mr.Roy narrating the story of his new book at National Library...about a week back"Miss Sunita said.

"Which book?"Miss Monika asked Miss Sunita.Her eyes were filled with rage.

"The.. the mysteries of Ajmer, ma'am" She said in a hesitating voice.

"That book was quite nice.Reading it gave the impression that Rudra had truly experienced the atrocities"Mr.Bhatt said.

"Hmm..you'd better pay attention to the world outside the books... "And once more Miss Sunita began to receive reprimands.But Jaydev does not waste his time on these things and moves towards Roy mansion.As he arrives, he discovers that the post box is overflowing with letters, some of which have also dropped beyond the post box.Looking at the condition of the mansion, it seems that all the servants are on leave, which Jaydev hardly ever got.The smile on his face has disappeared, he slowly picks up the letters lying on the ground, the dates on those letters prompt him to begin opening them because they are recent letters.Maybe one of those letters is from Master Roy. The condition of the first letter was not good, it was written on very thin paper.Jaidev opens it carefully and seeing the handwriting written on it, Jaidev understands that it is not Master Roy's letter because the writing was excellent and it was written that:-

𝘞𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦, 𝘙𝘶𝘥𝘳𝘢 𝘳𝘰𝘺. 𝘐 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘢 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘢𝘸𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘤𝘪𝘳𝘤𝘶𝘮𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴..."Jaydev's expression changed after reading this, he read further that:-

𝘖𝘶𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘥𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘷𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳,𝘸𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶...

"Huh... another mysterious letter"He sighed as he read the letter, then he opened another letter that had something scrawled in sloppy handwriting that Jaydev immediately recognised.It was master roy's letter. It was written that:-

𝘑𝘢𝘺𝘥𝘦𝘷, 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘧𝘦𝘸 𝘥𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬. 𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘭𝘺...

"Huh...I'm not sure when Master Roy will get better"

*

In the final first-class compartment of a train that was travelling through the jungles of West Bengal, a handsome young man in a white shirt and black full-length pants was admiring the scenery outside the window.That's when the ticket collector comes inside that compartment and,"Ticket.. ticket"

That young man slowly turns towards the ticket collector and takes out a small piece of paper from his pocket and gives it to the ticket collector.The ticket collector takes a few moments to study the ticket and says,"Mr.Roy", The young man agrees by nodding his head.