Strength

Suddenly the silence broke and everybody in the court got into whispering with each other. King Chanukya fell into deep thought.

"Silence!" King ordered, making everyone quiet.

"How reliable is your information? Did they announce war against us? Is this all true, you say?" King Chanukya enquired the messenger with a cold tone.

"Yes..Yes Your Majesty. I heard from a trusted source that we are being accused of capturing someone important who belongs to their kingdom and the reason that we have not informed them back about capturing that person. So they are assuming that we are planning a great threat. Also it is informed to us that the king has awakened the most powerful army in their kingdom", The messenger said whatever information he held.

"What is the meaning of this, Your Majesty? We didn't capture anyone against them. Then, how come they declare war against us?" One of the ministers raised his voice.

"Yes Your Majesty. These are false accusations. We need to clear ourselves by sending them the message", another minister raised his concern.

"Exactly. At this point of time, we can't win against Rose Kingdom. We all know how powerful that kingdom's military is and also your Son-In-Law also lost against them. So we have to send a compromise letter to them by accepting our Def.." Before the minister completed his sentence someone shouted.

"Enough.. Enough.. Don't speak another word!" Ashmita rose from her seat with her eyes turning red in anger.

"How can you speak low of another person and how can you degrade our kingdom's strength?" Ashmita asked while balling her hand into a fist.

"Princess Ashmita. Your father could be a great warrior but he lost against them and also we know our kingdom's strength, we are no match to them. I am just stating the facts here but not degrading anyone nor our kingdom", the minister snapped back and he showed annoyance in his face while replying to Ashmita.

"It seems the ministers in the court are forgetting their manners. It is basic courtesy to respect the Royal Family but what is happening here. Do we need to teach everyone here some basic respect or what?" Pratap said with annoyance.

"Um.. Apologies Princess. Forgive me, Your Majesty", the Minister said with a bow to Ashmita and the King.

"Seems we need to remind you every time but anyways your apologies are accepted and back to your point, Yes my father may have lost to him but at least he is not a coward like you to give up even if the challenge is not yet set in order", Ashmita replied with a smirk.

Before that minister spoke, Ashmita added, "Your Majesty, it seems our ministers are not aware of our strength. So I want to clear some things for all of them who are present in this court".

When King nodded his head in approval, Ashmita turned around and faced everyone before starting, "My beloved.. Ministers and people of the court I want to add some points today. First thing, I am the one who captured that important person and I don't want to reveal anything about this for now because of security reasons", Ashmita said by looking at the dumbfounded expression of the minister who looked down on her father.

Everyone started murmuring and gasps were heard in the court hall. "Silence please. I still want to reveal some things. And regarding our kingdom's strength I think you people forgot about the Devil Team is present in this court and they all are watching you and listening to your so called defame about our kingdom. One more important thing, this team is the one who is giving training to the most elite persons in the army and under their guidance only our army strength increased tremendously", Ashmita said, looking at everyone proudly.

"Our kingdom is way different from all the other kingdoms out there in terms of employing women. One-fourth of our army is powered by women. It is to be noted that they are trained alongside the men in the army. Some of them even outshined the most elite army leaders and are leading a significant number of troops", Ashmita said, holding her head high.

"At present, one third of our kingdom's population has been trained for the army. But our ministers are having some doubts regarding the strength of our kingdom. So I have a proposal to make, Your Majesty. My proposal is, if we exclude aged people and children from our kingdom's population, we can have another one third left worthy of getting trained. So I want to start training those people and make our army stronger than before. It includes most of the ministers and their family members", Ashmita concluded her speech with a proposal.

Everyone dumbfounded after listening Ashmita's words and no one raised any questions again regarding the strength of their army. King Chanukya thought for some time and replied.

"Whatever Ashmita said is true, we are no less to them. I thought about the proposal and I think that it is the only right thing to do now. Time has come for us to stand and protect our kingdom. I am giving all rights to Ashmita's team to strengthen our army and get it ready for the upcoming war. Everyone should obey Ashmita's orders, also one should remember his place in this court", King Chanukya said firmly and ended the court by leaving the ministers shocked and dumbfounded.

Rishi came back to his room, from a meeting with agriculture ministers who explained to him about the quantities and qualities of the food the Kingdom makes a year and the ways they are adopting to improve them. He gets freshened up and about to take a nap when someone knocks on his door and one of his guards enters the room.

"Greetings to the Prince! Prince you got a message from our kingdom" Guard reported politely.

Rishi frowned and asked him to hand him the message while thinking about all the possibilities of the message.

Guard handed a scroll to Rishi and excused himself from the room. Rishi opened the scroll and his brows creased and he pressed his lips in a thin line.

In the letter it is mentioned that, "Return Home. Internal Conflicts. King of IRIS" .

Rishi folded the scroll and closed his eyes to control his frustration by pressing the scroll tightly making it break into two parts.

He doesn't want to go back and if he goes back he doesn't know when he will be back and he has so many things to settle down here.

At King's Chamber

Everyone is present but the room is filled with awful silence. No one utters a single word after entering the room. Everyone is in deep thought.

"What should we need to do now? What is our plan?" Karthik broke the silence.

"I think we need to increase our army strength as Ashmita suggested and prepare for the war against the Rose Kingdom", Shilpa responded, looking at Ashmita.

"What Ashmita said in the court is correct, we have great army strength but what about Rose kingdom's army strength?" King Chanukya asked.

"Don't know grandfather. I just wanted to fill some strength and hope in our people's hearts. I know our army can defeat some small kingdoms within seconds but Rose Kingdom is vast and powerful. I too have a feeling that it could be way more powerful than in our thoughts" Ashmita said while analyzing the situation.

"They are not only strong and powerful." Abhi, who is silently listening to them said.

"What do you mean?" Vijay asked with confusion.

"They are dangerous. No one knows their army strength. I heard from officials that the only war that happened was with the Jasmine Kingdom. After that they never fought a battle but all the kingdoms feared the King Surya. Have you ever thought about this?" Abhi asked everyone.

"Maybe he is not interested in all the kingdoms or probably he has become old", Pratap said.

"Huh.. Do you think he is that kind of man? Do you know what he wants from everyone?" Abhi again asked but no one replied.

"His only aim is to plant fear in everyone's hearts. He succeeded in doing that by defeating the Jasmine Kingdom", Abhi said every word slowly and carefully.

"What do you mean?" Ashmita frowned.