PRESENT CONDITION
Adi stepped out of the carriage to take a look at his territory. As he looked around, he saw a group of people who were with him. Among them, Pratap was standing beside him, guarding him and his mother Laxmi, the Fifth Queen was just talking with her maids. The thousand men were standing at the back with many of them not even in proper postures. Well, that is to be expected of the worst knights present in the Capital city at that time. They cannot be even called knights. They were knights in training. His brothers, the other princes, went onto great lengths so as to make his difficult life worse. Adi and his mother had lost the King's favor so they couldn't put any objections to the injustice done to them. They never had any favor ever.
But the present Adi, Earth version, didn't have any problem with the men and their improper discipline. He thought, 'Its better they are not Knights as it would be difficult to remold all of them.' Yes, he was thinking of removing the Knights system and remolding it to be like modern day Soldiers.
Taking his eyes off them he looked at the carriages who didn't resemble Royalty from any angle. It was more like a merchant's or peasant's carriages. They had brought with them just enough food so that they could reach here at Rai, which was five months journey from the capital. Money was also one problem. They were just given a thousand gold coins, which was less than half year's expense for other queens. On top of that, they have to pay the men and the maids they brought along and also provide them food.
If not for his mother Laxmi being long sighted, because of which they had saved all their allowance since when he was born along with his own allowance, they would have been no better than a beggar in few months time. The Queens get two hundred gold coins as monthly allowance and every Prince and Princess get a hundred gold coins from the age of five. Together, they have saved around forty thousand gold coins in all these years.
Laxmi was a from a small noble family which were past their prime. King Rohit had done her while he was drunk in a party in the palace and then he had made her his queen as she too was a noble. From that time, she was never treated as a queen. As her family could not bring any benefits to him, King Rohit did not treat her very well. Because of King's indifference towards Laxmi, none of the other queens gave her any respect she deserved and was regularly bullied. After she gave birth to a son, the others treated her as a competitor and they never let them live in peace.
As Laxmi was a Noble too, she knew how dirty and dangerous the Palace politics can be, especially for her son, who can also lay his claim on Throne. She always had a hunch that this was just a start and she knew that things will take a turn for worse as her son grows up. So she restricted herself and Adi and tried to stay away from everything going on in the palace and outside it. She showed herself as uninterested in helping Adi to become a King, which allowed them to stay alive.
At his sixteenth birthday, he was "Awarded" the province/state of Rai with thousand gold coins and thousand men and banished from the Empire. Also to reduce any future complications, the King annulled his marriage and disowned Adi so that he can be "INDEPENDENT". It was all done under the incitement of other queens and their children. King Rohit knew all that was happening and was even happy with it as he got rid of the barren land and was even seen as a good Father among Nobles. But they too knew that He was fed up with the situation in Rai and put a stop on his future expenditures.
Shaking his head in dismay, Adi put all the memories and thoughts away and looked at the surrounding land. There was stretch of barren land on which a fifteen meter tall wall was standing. Its thickness was around four meters. It looked old but strong. This wall was built hundreds of years back by the ancestors of Kalinga Kingdom. At that time, Rai was in its glorious years. Over the years it lost its glory and was now like a sick body part to the present King, which he amputated and gave away 'generously'.
Adi looked back to see the start of barren stretch. A little distance away there was a small grassland and beyond it one could see the shrubs and then trees. One can imagine that about a couple of miles away there was forest with trees of great heights which kept on decreasing to shrubs, then to grasses and then the barren land.
There were no guards or knights on the tall walls. Adi signaled to Pratap and the group went through the gates into the state. On the other side of walls, there was a wholly barren land. There were a sparse amount of people present living in poverty. There was a whole lot of garbage and humans' and animals' dumps.
The group continued on until they reached the City Lord's Residence. Well there was no City Lord here anymore. All the officials and knights were called back a few months ago and those who were left were scared by the Royal edict. So they abandoned Rai and were transferred to other regions even before he reached here and took over.
Adi and his people stepped in the residence which was no less than a castle. Similar to the walls, the castle was made by the Ancestors many generations back. It was way past noon when they completed the survey of castle. Then, Laxmi called up her maids to prepare for dinner while the men tidied up the castle. Even Adi and Pratap were helping them to cleanup the place which will be the future palace of King Adi. After tidying up the place they had their dinner.
It was almost dusk, so Adi called it a day as he didn't want to roam in an unknown place in dark. He allocated one of the side buildings to the men. Pratap then positioned few guards all over the Palace and also on the gates so that there wont be any unexpected surprises. Adi took the main room in the castle and provided his mother Laxmi a room next to his. After all of the things were done, he lay on his bed and called, "System! Show me the details of my territory." Adi wanted to take a look at his land and the surrounding area so that he can plan further. Rai was in no way a small place.
"Host, Rai province's area is more than ten thousand square kilometers. But the habitable area is very less, around twenty five hundred square kilometers, which is only a fourth of total land. There are few mountain ranges on east side. Around the mountains, there is a large area consisting of swamps and marshes. It is the result of melting snow from the mountains which ran down to the forest without getting a good drainage. The swamps have made the mountains unreachable. Also, to south of Rai, there is a wide beach and it was even used for docking merchant ships in past. But as it was too far from the other regions, it was abandoned later and is in the same state at present. There are forests too in region near the swamps. The habitable land consists of plains and places where farming is done which currently gives small yields."
From his memories, he knew that Rai became like this in last five decades. Every year, the King had to send money here to improve the condition but to no avail. He have to look for the reason behind land becoming barren as there has to be something which they couldn't deal with. Tomorrow he ought to have a good chat with the locals. In the middle of thinking his eyelids grew heavy as all the physical activities, his reincarnation and the system did tire him out and he went to dreams.