Astonishmet 3

She thought of a possibility and her heart started to race. When they reached the cave and saw the inner area of it, Sandhya's thought came true. She was surprised.

Adi also teased her again, "This, Princess, is our newly discovered iron mine."

Sandhya looked at Adi when she heard him, then at the surroundings and then again at Adi. She was surprised and astonished. She could not believe what she was seeing.

As the situation of Rai's barren land was known to all public, it was also known that the area had no minerals. For centuries, people had searched through Rai but could not find any minerals. So it was declared an area devoid of minerals.

This was also one of the reasons that King Rohit had given up on Rai. Also no other major player from the Kingdom had put any importance to Rai. An area which has barren lands and no minerals is seemingly dead area for the nobles.

It was because of these reasons that many had conspired against Adi and Laxmi awarded them this seemingly dead area with no merits. But now there seems to be a mine in here which according to Adi has iron.

Sandhya had too many thoughts in her head and she showed it with a variety of emotions on her face. She could not understand how a place which had been declared as mineral-less area, suddenly has an iron mine.

She calmed herself down after taking a moment or two. She then asked Adi, "Pardon me Your Majesty, but may I be bold enough to ask how any days have been since you arrived here?"

Adi looked at her changing face with amusement and was intrigued by her question. He nevertheless answered, "It has been a week since I am here, but why do you ask this?"

Sandhya was again surprised by the information. She could not keep her thoughts with herself and said it aloud, "So you mean you have made the land fertile, started a literacy drive and now discovered a mine, which has not been found in centuries, in a span of only seven days. Are you really human?"

Adi laughed a little and replied while smiling lightly, "Of course, I am definitely a human."

Sandhya continued asking, "Then how will you explain all these?'

Adi said, "Why should I explain anything to anyone? And it's just the result of knowledge and a little luck, nothing special."

Sandhya muttered under her breath, "More like a Son of God of Luck."

Adi laughed hard when he heard her. He said, "I can assure you that I am son of my mother whom you met and King Rohit, not some God's son."

Sandhya regained her senses and bearings after Adi's loud laugh. She then analyzed what it means to have an exclusive Iron mine for the new Kingdom. With the discovery of mine Adi can have enough weapons to fully arm the people. With this, they will be self sufficient. In the future, they may even export ores to others.

Thinking upto this point, she suddenly had an idea what Adi was trying to do. Generally, a newly made kingdom would not show these assets to outsiders, unless they want to give them confidence or want something. Here, Sandhya began to think what Adi may be aiming for from her or Magadh.

After confirming that Sandhya is back to normal, Adi said to her, "Now that you have seen the mine, lets go. Follow me Princess."

Sandhya followed him with a thoughtful look on her face. Adi took her back through the farm to the village area. Here, Sandhya saw another amazing scene.

Sandhya was not new to huts as she had visited many villages and towns in her kingdom. She would always see them made in haphazard way with no order. The streets were narrow, filled with dirt and filthy droppings.

If the visit happen to be arranged, then the streets were cleaned, but the air could not be cleaned just so easily. So there was always a pungent smell in surroundings like these.

But here, it was a different seen. She saw huts arranged in an order. She saw the wide streets. She saw the clean area free of any dirt and filth. The air too had no pungent rotten smell.

Sandhya had a weird expression on her face. She looked towards Adi as if waiting for him to explain. And she was right. Adi looked at her face which had an expression as if saying 'Explain'.

He said, "You are thinking right Princess. These huts are newly made. We have educated people about keeping their surroundings clean and how it affects their health. So you will see not a single dump besides the street area now. But as its only been seven days, it will take some time to repair and make roads."

Sandhya kept nodding her head as Adi explained. She could understand all the things Adi was speaking and was thinking why these ideas never came to her or any other King's mind.

As if Adi could understand her inner thoughts, he said, "It is not that no King could think of it. For doing these things, you cannot just make some laws and apply it. The King needs to educate the people and make them aware of the merits and demerits of these things.

If the common people understand the meaning and intent of cleanliness, they will change themselves. But no King wants to make the common people educated as they have to keep the Nobles happy and they do not think it is okay to educate the populace.

Because of all these reasons, it is now people's habit to defecate anywhere and make them no different from a wild animal. The upper class just ignores the issues of commoners as they think the lower class people are animals with two legs."

Sandhya could hear anger in Adi's words. She also felt a hint of disgust when he speaks about Nobles and upper class. She could understand the anger as it may be related to his personal experiences in the capital of Kalinga, but she did not understand the disgust.

She imagined what could be the reason of his disgust, but she could never imagine that the person who felt it was Adi, the college student, who was from modern Earth. He hated the nobles as they treated others like animals or even worse than animals.

As they talked, they had reached the gates. Adi lead her towards the ladder and up to the wall. Here, they could see most of the area of Rai and outside area around the wall. Sandhya saw the massive wall. It had great height and was very thick. It looked very solid, likely built for war.

She could see the hills and the mountain ranges, the forest outside and soft sound of the crashing of waves could be heard here. It was a picturesque scene.

It was already noon now. So after seeing enough of the scenery, they went back to the castle. They soon had their lunch and then everyone retired to their rooms.

Sandhya had seen enough of Rai and was astonished so many times that she lost her counting. She soon called for her bodyguard, who was also her advisor. Whenever she needed some advice, she discussed with him.

As Harman came to the guest room's study, Sandhya narrated all what she has seen. Harman was also surprised by what he heard. After telling him everything, she asked him about his views.

Harman thought for some time, and then said, "Your Highness, I think King Adi wants something from us. And that is why he is showing the assets and the good points of his Kingdom. We should be careful before agreeing anything to him."

Sandhya nodded and said, "I too have similar thoughts. Seems like this Young King is not as what we had heard about him. Or maybe he has changed after becoming a King and being discarded from Kalinga. Now, let us see what his true motive is."

Harman agreed with the princess' words. Then Sandhya asked about her ship and the people, "What I the situation of our ship? I had requested the King for some supplies, have we received them?"

Harman said, "Princess, our people are currently repairing the ship. The Kingdom of Rai has provided some supplies and other supplies will be received soon. We have also got some people from here that are helping in repairing the ship. But our people are watched by King Adi's men and they cannot move anywhere else."

Sandhya said, "King Adi had already ordered that they will not be able to move around freely, so no need to think more about it. Just focus all energy on repairing the ship and getting some rest. It has been many days since we left home, they would be worrying about us. We need to get back as soon as possible."

Harman assented, "We will do as you command Your Highness."

On the other side, Adi was smiling while gazing blankly in space.