Page 64 of Sumanika

"Oh," I said, impressed, but suddenly my mind was blown. "What is this? What caused the blast?" I tried to ask, and the head commander looked at me with a slightly fearful smile.

"It is gunpowder,"

And I tried to behave incognito.“Oh, what is that? I don’t know about it,”

I said, taking the gun from his hand and aiming at another apple, faking a wide, impressed, and happy smile.

“This is imported by Mehrangarh. We buy this powder from Songarh and use it in these guns. Our army is going to use it too. What do you think about it?” he said, and I didn’t understand why, suddenly, just a day after the brothel incident, he was telling me about gunpowder.

That only meant one thing. Either he was right or he was just covering up for something with this.

“Impressive! I love it, Rashmika. Thank you so much,” I said, smiling at her as she smiled back.

“Yes, I knew you would love it,” she said. I pulled its handle, and a strong thunder ran through my body, making me shake and fumble a little.

“Oh my goodness, it’s powerful,” I tried to say, making an effort to act normally, but inside I was freaking out. I knew that this ruthless commander was up to something and had grown suspicious of me. There was no way he would come with Rashmika. I mean, who would send a commander with the princess?

Well, Eklavya went too. However, we were three brothers, and we were capable of directing an army, while Mehrangarh clearly was not.

And suddenly, I remembered.

“Where’s Eklavya?” I asked, glancing at Rashmika as her smile slightly faded.

“He came with us too,” she said slowly, and I furrowed my brow.

“Oh, so my princess has protection from two commanders,” I tried to say as I returned to my seat. She laughed softly, then looked at her commander and said,“You can go.”

He walked away from there, and I watched as the attendees began serving us.

I spent the afternoon with her, having lunch and chatting a bit, trying hard not to give them any hints.

I didn’t know if Rashmika was stupid or just acting like it. I mean, the commander came here to teach me how to use the gun and make me believe they were using gunpowder for it, as if they were trying to propose a business deal here.

Smart.

Making money from both sides.

Suddenly, I turned to Rashmika and asked, "Did you hear there’s a rumor going around that scary noises come from the other side of the mountains?"

Her brows thinned in a line as she shook her head.“No, I do not think so. I mean, the mountains are closer to us. If anything came from the other side of the mountains, we would know first,” she said with a soft chuckle.

“That’s true,” I replied, standing up from the couch.“You should go rest now because I need to meet my Bhaisa and take care of the feast preparations.”

She nodded and left, leaving me alone. I immediately returned to my bedroom and sat down on the couch.

I needed to find out what that big thing was. There was no way this gun could kill our army since they couldn’t import it in large numbers without attracting attention, and they were no saints who would show me this gun before importing it.

That only meant that these guns were just a cover-up; their firepower had more uses. Suddenly, a thought came to mind.

If a three-foot gun could shoot gunpowder to kill one person, then there could be a big gun that could shoot gunpowder in enormous quantities, which could kill many people at once. Furthermore, it would not be imported because the fishermen near the sea fall under the territory of kingdoms, and if not us, then others must have known.

I felt restless and went to meet Eklavya. After talking to him, I realized he didn’t know about it, but he told me that there were frequent meetings happening at the back of the Kingdom where they store war weapons.

That meant I had to go to their weapon godown once. Unwantedly, I was feeling suspicious about Rashmika too, now.

After meeting him I went to meet Ranvijay Bhaisa to look after the preparations.

I did not meet her after noon, or my mind was too stuck on that gun thing to try searching.

---