Excluding the time, he was injured or out of commission, this was the first real break Kush got in near 150 days. He felt weird not training, he was happy none the less, but felt weird his muscles were not under tension. They were on his father’s boat, it used mana to be powered, since he had not learned emission of mana, he was not driving the boat’s engine. He sat with his father looking at the ocean. Feeling the cool breeze hit his skin and drinking the fresh water of the sea directly, made him happy as well, he was sitting at his seat on the boat which was right at the front with his legs wrapped around the boat’s figurehead. The figurehead of this boat was that of a bearded man with a naked torso and cloth wrapped around his waist like a dhoti. The man had four hands and carried a different weapon in both hands. He had seen the figurehead multiple times but today he was curious because one of the weapons on this person was a broad-axe. “Dad” he asked “who is the person in our figurehead?”

Sagar replied “He is the strongest man this world has ever seen since the eons of its creation. A Brahmin who was well versed in all weapon usage, strength so much that even the ‘Mahabali’ hero himself called him Lord. He used his strength kill 21 dynasties of rulers who were oppressed their subjects, his strength was heralded as a deterrent to all evil doers”

Kush asked him “Hey dad, why did he have to kill the entire dynasty instead of just the rulers and other miscreants?”

Sagar relied “Heh… world may not be a land of fairy tales as you imagine them to be”

Kush did not understand what his father meant and tilted his head sideways scratching his head to show the same.

Sagar “The world is made by strong, but sometimes even the strong are helpless in front of circumstances, doesn’t mean they should change their ways or thinking. The decision he (the person represented by the figurehead) made at the time may seem right or wrong to you, but your opinion doesn’t matter cause you lack strength. Sometimes even if you have strength, you may not be able overcome the situation, it is then that the mental strength come into play. You have to have the mental fortitude to still be able to walk down the right path. Only then will you be able become like him”

Kush “Dad, do you want to become like him?”

Sagar “Heh… if only I could”

Kush “Heh… this could only wish he were as strong as my father”

The statement put a smile across Sagar’s face as he nestled the hair of the boy and said “Mom has cooked your favorite today puri and kheer laced with kesar (saffron)”

“Yaaayyy!!! And that’s how you nail a celebration!!”

They were headed to capital city of Bharat, Kashi. Said to be the cradle of human civilization and only reason why Bharat though in decline was a deterrence to all the new upcoming countries. The birth place of ancient on Bhoomi was Kashi, even now many jewels of science and technology prefer to go here for their education. Moreover, this also includes the paragons of cultivation, people who want to reach heights of cultivation and pursuers of ultimate dream of becoming the Hero. All these people gathered here because, situated in the city was the foundation of all forms of education and martial arts, science and technology, commerce and polity the Nalanda university. There is no quota system in the university for admissions. Even the king of Bharat can’t interfere in the examination process of Nalanda university. The sanctum-sanctorum of education was not setup by a human, it was setup by the 3rd Varun (title of strongest mermaid of the generation), the strongest ever mermaid before Alicia and the 2nd Aranyani (title of strongest dark elf of the generation), the strongest ever mermaid on record.

Situated on the confluence of the oceans Sarayu and Ganga, Kashi was the largest human city on Bhoomi with a population of more than 100,000,000. Human from all nations, mermaids, dark elves, burly dwarves, Nagas, fishfolk, Aghoris, Homoreptilus among other species gathered here for education. The city boasted the largest maritime trade center and had the largest market in the world because of being the most populous city. The mayor of the city had the ear of the king of Bharat himself though the mayor lived in a mansion and the king lived in a palace both at considerable distance from each other. So complex was the interconnectivity of economies that any attack on the city would not only impact the livelihood of people of Bharat, but also the other six nations and the 5 oceans, the forest and the tundra as well.

“Today a special person was coming to visit the city, the person who seemed ordinary but was far from it. Son of the great Sagar and Alicia Samudraputra, the kid who had the potential to become the strongest being in the worldaauu.. aauu.. aauu..” Sagar interrupted Kush’s monologue.

“Strongest being in the world, right now you are the weakest being on this ship” ‘SPLASH’ came the noise as he pushed Kush into the water.

He threw a mooring line to him and said “swim to that jetty and moor the vessel at that point”

“Phhuuu….” Spit out Kush the water which just entered his mouth and nose. Grumbling to himself he said “Not even letting me live my dream. You should be find yourself a job as a butcher, butcher of dreams”

“What did you say?” came a commanding voice from within the boat

“Nothing” came a meek answer from below the boat

After the boat was moored at the jetty. “Alright ladies thank you for using our services, do remember to leave a review behind when you alight” said Sagar acting like the captain of a ferry

Kush who was trying to pull himself out of the water using the jetty as a support suddenly felt a humongous pressure on his shoulder. When he looked up it was one of his father’s foot forcing him down while the other was on the gangway.

“EEEEgggg…” he screamed as tried to lift his father up

“Heh” nudging his feet just a little

Another huge SPLASH came as Kush found himself at the bottom of the 3 m deep sheltered waters of the port

“Butcher of dreams” he said derisively

Moving into the main area of the port they saw the port was crowded as fuck, packed to the brim so much so that, it was like a toothpaste in a tube, any more people would be squeezed of the port into the water.

“Fish for sale, fish for sale. Buy the freshest fish here”

“Buy the strongest magic beasts of the water here. Eat their meat and gain mana the fastest”

“World’s most premier designer of galley cannons at your service, I can make most efficient mana driven cannons for your boat. Indomitable in the marine warfare the strongest mana cannons”

“Hey bub, you wanna scam someone get in the back, we honest people are here to business here”

“Curses you wretched old man. Go sell your fake magic beasts at anchorage or something. You already have one feet in grave, don’t make me push you in”

“Swords, made by the descendants of Vishwakarma, swords where with one swing you would be able to cleave the boulders”

Just as the vendor was going to continue to shout the next line, a person came up to him to inspect a sword. He spoke in a loud voice “Hey shopkeeper, how much for the generic looking sword up there?” he said pointing to a generic 2 ft sword.

“Why my brave warrior, if you buy it now, I will give to you for the fair price of 300000 Swarna”

“What 300000?” said someone from the crowd

“I would rather take my family for all three meals to a top end restaurant for an entire month, than buy that crappy sword. Hmph… (derisively), cut apart a boulder”

“Hmm, that seems like a bargain my good sir for you claim. Why would you sell something this good so cheap?”

“Go home you idiot. Obviously he’s trying to fool you” said someone from the crowd

“Why, because I am an honest salesman my good sir (in a British accent :P)” said the shopkeeper

“Would you be comfortable if I test your claim?” said the warrior

Without saying anything the shopkeeper brought out a boulder himself from behind him. The boulder was 1.7 m in diameter and looked tough just from a glance.

The crowd went silent at the scene, waiting in anticipation but hoping the warrior would fail.

The warrior took a swing with the sword at the boulder screaming “Haaa” (like a Chinese action movie)

The boulder was cut in two clean halves. ‘Dhum’ came the sound when the two halves fell to the ground after that there was a pin drop silence in the crowd for a couple of seconds, after which a bunch of people crowded the shop to buy the sword.

“Shopkeeper, here take my money!! Give me a few of your generic swords” said one person

“Salesman, do you take a promissory note, instead of cash, I will return with the cash by tonight” said another

“I am a warrior who will be going on his first adventure, I must have your sword. Please give me the best one you have” said another in the crowd

The family of four moved in the crowd inconspicuously, showing no interest to the sword.

“Hey dad, why are people crowding at that one shop” asked a short man 5 ft in height. His torso was wrapped in a shawl like cloth entirely covering it with one of its end covering his head like a hoody. This was not an un-common thing here since not everyone was a white collar person in the city and often people liked to hide their identity and people did not interfere with them, because of the fear of consequence. But weird thing about this short statured person was the huge two headed battle axe fixed to his back. The axe was a monolith with no joints, everybody was intimidated by the immense presence of the axe.

“Cause they are dumb people who can’t identify a conman” answered a huge person intimidating in stature. Touching 7 ft in height, his body was half as wide as it was tall. People couldn’t make anything else out, because he was covered from head to toe in a grey cloak.

Their family was exiled from society forever, but the even the perpetrator of all Pruthu was aware, there was no force in the world who could stop Sagar if it came down to a confrontation. Out of respect for their past relationship Sagar accepted the sentence without any argument but he did visit the shore often with his son so that he doesn’t get out of touch of society. Even though Pruthu, without the help of his spies, knew Sagar and his family were coming ashore a lot of time, he did not interfere with him cause he knew not to push him into a corner too much.

Still Sagar too did not act too conspicuously and used a cloak to move around, less for him and Kush, the one armed father son duo, more for the country toppling beauties by his side who would definitely make people’s head turn, hearts beat louder, their briefs tighter and some noblemen who wouldn’t want to control themselves, would take action and then came issue of containing the incident if they reacted. He did not really need to react if they touched Alicia, cause excepting him there probably was nobody who could touch her and as for Rhodos, she was a lot stronger than most nobles and their guards.

The port area had a lot of stalls similar to the weapon vendor trying to con people, hence buying here was only advised if a person had the eyes of expert jeweler. They moved out of port area and into outer limits of the city. Here resided the daily wage workers of the port, street vendors and porters. The life here seemed visibly tough to Kush who had seem such poverty for the first time. They could have used a carriage and rushed out of here but seeing the world and all its facets is also a part of education one needs to have especially is a person wants to achieve greatness.

The streets were narrower than what Kush was generally used to and crowd of people going to and from work were in hordes. “Dad why don’t they cultivate instead to struggling to live everyday” asked Kush

“Just cause someone has strong characteristic and karmic power doesn’t make the person strong. Same reason you mother and Rhodos train so hard. There are a lot of circumstances surrounding a person resources, trainer, incompetence etc. which can hinder one growth. Not everyone can be a lion, some have to be the deer of the herd, rat of the ground and some have to be the tree of the forest as well”

“That is only true for humans, instead of concentrating on breeding all the time if they concentrated on cultivation their plight would have been better than what they have right now”

“There you go again with your hate speech”

“What? Do you think humans are any better than what I explained?”

“Alicia, I believe all organisms have their own benefits and limitations. Some may not be as apparent, though the plight of humans is worse cause of limited resources, but considering Rhodos’ circumstances, you think what I said is not valid for mermaids”

“…” she did not have a reply this time around

As they moved away from the port they reached the main city. There was a stark difference between the outer and the inner reaches of the city. The city was divided like modern day suburban neighborhood. Beautiful clean streets lined with flowers on both sides, underground drainage systems and individual houses with lawns sprawled across 500 sq. ft. of area. Populated with joint families and housing a few generations in each houses, the people here generally are large merchants, low end cultivators or small nobles who using familial ties managed to maintain a certain status.

Seeing the difference in life style of the two, struck Kush hard. He had seen it in the past, yet it did not register to him like this. Fate was not just unkind to him, it had the potential to give a man a comfortable life and on the flip side give him a life of endless servitude and hardship. He too thought he was a victim of fate, but was thankful now for his parents and his peaceful life, though painful at times it way better than being pressed under the thumb of a person and breaking one’s back day in and day out.

They reached their hotel where they got three rooms and settled in for the night.

Next day they decided to split up for their trip this time around, Sagar brought out braces weighing 200 kg for Kush to wear. Which he recently bought in the market along their way here. After wearing it he thought he could ditch Tanka in his room but his father denied it saying “You got all the rest you needed, your knees seems better and I would like it if you always carry your weapon on you, at all times, make it an extension of your body, so much that you feel incomplete without it as you do without your right hand”

It made no sense to Kush, but since his father had instructed him, he decided to do so, Sagar went with Alicia while Kush left the hotel with Rhodos. Rhodos was wearing a red colored thin top with no shoulder strap wrapped around her breast, which barely covered nipples, the left nipple just peeked out a little from her top. She was wearing a triangular sash around her waist which at its maximum length was just a little shorter than a short skirt. Again she did not wear anything underneath the sash. The view which every man and woman in the world perhaps desired from the bottom of hearts, the waist every man or woman wanted to hold, the breast which they wanted to bite/ grab/ suckle, the ass they wanted to kiss/bite and violate, was back out there for the world, but alas over all of this she wore a cloak which was so broad that you couldn’t even differentiate if she was man of a woman.

Kush’s torso and head too was covered in a piece of shawl like piece of cloth while his axe was in a custom made holder attached to his back. No one could make out he was a young boy or was one armed, all everybody thought that it was an intimidating short man and a six feet tall man. Due to the weight of the braces and other body weights, he was slow, really slow. Even walking was painful for him, this was pissing Rhodos off, cause she had to take care of him so she couldn’t leave him behind. Carrying Tanka too was not helping him at all, his thigh muscles were tearing every 100 m, even not screaming was an exercise for mental patience. As they walked exploring their surroundings around the suburban area he saw a man 6 ft in height with a piece of cloth around his face and wearing a vastram around his bottom like a traditional dhoti but black. On his torso he wore another black piece of cloth which covered his back and chest except for thin strip of his chest from the bottom of his neck down to his dhoti. Around his neck he wore another piece of black cloth which he tied around his neck like a muffler though it wasn’t cold. From what he could see the man was fair with black hair. Though not as common as the outer city, you could find people walking down the streets in various garbs trying to hide their identity, he was attracted to his eyes. Oval eyes deep brown at its periphery, containing an almost spherical yellow iris with another black circle at its center. The eyes which have the potential to send even the mightiest of platoons of an army on their way to after life and no one will be the wiser. The dream of every archer, but has almost never been seen in the eons the world has existed… well atleast before today.