UNBOUNDED LOVE

I'm Irresistible

Dheeransh's POV

Our swords clashed as the crowd cheered for me. I swung it up high in the air and tried to attack him, but he was fast enough to block the attack. I swung it again but this time with a technique he would not predict and as I had guessed, he missed it and his sword went flying in the air. I left no chance for him to see where the sword flew to as I placed my sword on his neck and looked at him while panting heavily. He was getting better. He could be defeated but not easily. I removed my sword from his neck and pat his shoulders as I said, "You can start the next lesson tomorrow. Tell your trainer I said so", he nodded and bowed. 

I walked towards Adi who was looking at me but was surely thinking about something else. I sat beside him and said, "What are you thinking about, dear groom?", he looked at me annoyed while I just laughed and drank water. Adi's wedding had been decided to be held in a month with the princess of Simhashwasa and he looked nothing like a groom. And everybody knew why. I tried to cheer him up but I knew that it didn't matter how much he laughed with me, once he went back to his chamber, he would sulk in silence. Maybe the arrival of the princess would change him, we all thought.

I laid back on the backrest of the bench and looked to my right and saw the group of girls staring at us, laugh and hide behind pillars which barely covered any of them. I looked away and ran my fingers through my open hair and crossed one leg on another as I sat in a more relaxed position. The giggles grew louder making Adi smirk and look at me with an are-you-serious look. I shrugged and said," What can I say? I'm that irresistible". I looked back at the platform where two other young men were sword fighting. 

"What is the news with the dam construction in the south? I got busy with the wedding stuff and completely forgot about it", he asked. I sighed at his overthinking and replied, "Everything is just fine, Adi. Do me a favor and enjoy your days before the wedding and a few after that. Leave all that to me for sometime", I looked back at the platform to see the same two fighting but they looked tired and out of breath. I walked up to them and corrected them. 

The whole day continued like any other until I reached our palace. It was not very far from the main palace but it would take a good 15 minutes walk. I tied my horse in the stable and walked in as the guards bowed at me. I walked to my sister's room first and knocked on the door. I walked in after she asked me to go in and saw her sitting in the balcony reading something. "It is getting cold, Hari. Get back here-", she shushed me and continued with her reading. I looked at her as she joined her palms and mumbled something and stood up to walk in. "When do learn to keep your mouth shut, Dheer? Couldn't you see I was chanting the holy mantra?", she scolded. "Yeah, I saw that. I also saw how cold it was outside", I held her shoulders and made her sit on the bed after I touched her feet, "And that cold is not good for this little one", I said pointing at her stomach.

"It has only been two months. And your 'little one' is just a ball of meat now", she said as she caressed my hair as I kept my head on her lap and just closed my eyes for a second. "How ever he is, I love him already". With the wedding, the training and the rumors of war, I was tired and needed something to distract me. I said the same to her and she being herself asked me to try chanting those prayers with her every evening. I face palmed myself and decided to keep quiet. 

I heard my mother enter the chamber as she called Haripriya's name and came in with an attendee carrying a plate behind her. When she saw me, her expressions changed to an angry face as she said, "How dare you forget to eat the prashad from the morning prayers, Dheer?", I asked, "You're seeing me now since morning and that is all you have? Scolding??", I said acting like tears leaked through my eyes. She playfully slapped me on my head and sat on the bed beside Haripriya and started feeding her, "I pray for your safety everyday, son. All you have to do is eat it. And you can't even do it for your mother", I opened my mouth widely making her roll her eyes and feed me, "Everyday when you go out I live the whole day with the fear of what would happen to you. With all these rumors about war and Maharaj not responding to any of it, I just-", I cut her off, "Ma! What are you talking about? You are the strongest woman I know and I can't believe my ears today."

She tried to shake her head and say something but I spoke, "Do one thing from tomorrow. Every time I leave the house, think which girl my handsome self is going to see that day. Maybe then you will-", both the ladies yelled my name and I ran away from them laughing, to my own room. I ordered the attendees to leave me alone and took a long relaxing bath. I wore a white, thin kurta and dhoti after having my dinner and walked to the library while my hair was still wet from the bath. I took out the book I was reading from the draw and started reading from where I had left off. It was an important book to Ratnagarbha as it had mentions of how and why the laws that this great kingdom was based on and was changed by whom. 

After his wedding, Adi would be crowned as the king of Ratnagarbha and after mine, I would become his head minister just how my father was to his father. And when you take up a role like that you have to be ready for that. I read through each line of the page in which the law where punishment for raping a woman was changed by our king three generations from now. I could say that he was merciless to those rapists. In the world we lived in, crimes like that were not very common but when it happened, it would leave a huge impact on the society. The punishment was to be publicly hanged before he changed it to making them immovable by using some herbs and making them lay down on a bed of red hot nails until they bleed out to death. It wasn't too quick or too slow. It wasn't too harsh or too kind. Just the right amount of mercilessness and cruelty. I read through the whole chapter dedicated to such crimes and decided to go to bed. 

Sleep didn't find me quickly that night. I worried about the times we were living in and how unsafe it would be for Hari's child with a possibility of a war involving almost all the kingdoms of Akhandadesh. The hair on my hands stood up as I thought about how big this war would be and how much we would lose from it. The warrior in me was excited to see and taste blood but the other side of my mind feared who and how much we had to lose in the war. With these thoughts in my mind, the cool breeze flowing into the chamber slowly lulled my to sleep.

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Our Katha Nayak, ladies and gentlemen!

 What do think about this chapter? 

And do you think rapists should be treated like that everywhere? I think whatever punishments we have for those bastards are too kind and merciful for the monsters in them.

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Lots of love💗