章節 65: Elephant in the room (Part 1)
Nildiri Hills
Dushyant took in Agastya's sullen face and cursed silently under his breath. It seemed that his eldest brother had gotten to know the truth of the matter already. In fact, Dushyant had expected it to happen since the two subordinates ordered by his eldest brother remained within hearing distance of him and the princess.
It had only been a matter of time!
What he had miscalculated or rather not taken into account, was the dominating 'marriage proposal' from the young girl. Had Dushyant held even the slightest inkling regarding the girl's actions, he would have not met her in front of his brother's men.
But how was he to know that a royal princess he ran into a few hours ago, would express her affection for him?
As per his understanding of the situation, the royal princess had come here to check the groom which had been pre-selected by her mother for her. In that case, the intended groom was technically the eldest male in the Sirsa clan, Agastya.
How did the target change to him?
Were all girls so fickle-minded these days?
"Reporting to General, here are my findings on the matter regarding the Baneri Hills," saying so, Dushyant placed the papers in his hand on the desk in front of him.
Dushyant had been assigned to go to the border between Mandhaar and Adra a few months ago to investigate the origin of a new insurgent faction which was developing in Mandhaar.
Sometime ago, a group of people had been caught in and around Dima, who were maligning Mandhaar and claiming that when Mandhaar was a part of Adra many decades ago, it flourished a lot more and had been much more prosperous.
Irrespective of the authenticity of the claims, the main issue was the courage which these people seemed to possess while directly casting aspersions on the current monarch of Mandhaar.
Upon careful observation, it seemed that their aim was to recruit people in this 'newly formed insurgent outfit' with the purpose of causing civil unrest. After carrying out a hidden investigation, it was revealed that these people had come into Mandhaar via Adra.
On the face of it, it seemed that Adra was trying to create mischief with its neighbouring country except for a minor anomaly. None of the captured insurgents were found to be natives of Adra!
When the secret report reached Raja Indraneel, he chose to suppress the anomaly. In a public fit of anger, he ordered the killing of these captured people and demanded an answer from Adra's monarch.
It was a well-known fact that the two countries enjoyed unprecedented good diplomatic relations since the two currently ruling monarchs had taken over the reign respectively of their kingdoms.
Hence, this move was not well-received by Adra who protested and denied all charges vehemently through their diplomatic officer stationed in Mandhaar.
While publicly all this was being done, a covert operation was launched under the direct orders of Raja Indraneel to General Chandraveer. He wanted the general to find out who was trying to sow discord between Adra and Mandhaar and to what purpose.
"I will take a look at it tonight," said Agastya and threw the report on the desk in front of him.
Dushyant nodded and was ready to excuse himself when Agastya suddenly spoke up. "Third Younger Brother remains as popular and charming as ever. I heard you saved a damsel in distress today in the village and even brought her to the restricted army area!"
Dushyant raised his emotionless eyes and looked at the man in front of him. For years, he had heard everyone around say that the eldest son of General Chandraveer was a mature, sensible person.
But in his eyes, Agastya was someone who was addicted to playing the 'good guy'. He craved everyone's attention but pretended that he was the noble one. He always wanted to be praised but displayed modesty.
The worse, however, was his insecurity which seemed to only increase as they grew up.
"Eldest Brother, let your youngest brother be presumptuous and say this once. Marrying the princess will not only be detrimental to you and our family but also disturb the status-quo which the Sirsa clan has maintained for years as an apolitical family," said Dushyant with no inflection in his tone.
Looking at his arrogant, indifferent demeanour, Agastya couldn't take it anymore.
On what basis did everyone always praise Dushyant and deemed him as a genius?
Why did every and any girl remotely associated with him, chose Dushyant over him?
Agastya didn't particularly care about the princess who had come to presumably 'examine' her prospective groom. He wasn't someone who would be swayed by a girl's looks or her background.
But the fact that she had already developed a liking for his younger sibling in such a short period of time made Agastya's mind develop a dark haze.
To make matters worse, this supercilious prick dared to lecture him over it?!?
Agastya was unable to keep up the amiable facade at this moment and sneered. "It seems that Third Brother has matured a lot and is able to comment on matters regarding his seniors."
Dushyant saw that Agastya was on the verge of an outburst. He had always been aware that paper will not be able to hold the fire for too long. But he didn't want the relations between the two of them to tear apart the veneer of politeness, at least at this stage.
"I apologise if you feel that I overstepped my boundary. I won't disturb you any longer. See you around, Eldest Brother," with that, Dushyant walked away.
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