24th December 1657
Akhand Bharatiya Empire, Uttar Pradesh, Kannauj
"Ahhh!"
A heart-wrenching scream was heard in a forest on the outskirts of Kannauj. A few dozen masked n, equipped with swords and old Mughal muskets, were trying their best to break through a defensive line of the royal guards as they aid for the tent where they would find their enemy dead or injured.
Although the masked n were outnumbered many tis, they were extrely brave, their morale was high; their actions were ferocious and ruthless.
Suddenly a man stepped out of the tent, which caused the battle situation to drastically change.
Upon seeing the man who ca out of the tent, the eagerness and expectation in the hearts of the masked n quickly disappeared. Their morale, which had been high when they heard the scream, imdiately collapsed; their hair stood on end, and their blood ran cold.
Looking at their enemy—their target—holding the head of their companion in his hand and walking out of the tent, the masked n felt as if they were in an ice cellar, their bodies left to freeze alive bit by bit.
It was none other than Vijay who ca out of the tent. A few monts ago, he had been signing so official docunts, but suddenly, out of nowhere, he felt a sense of danger. Vijay imdiately knew that it was an assassin, but he did not act imdiately since the sense of danger he felt was not too intense; hence, he decided to let the assassin act first.
Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, a man ran out wearing black clothes at an extrely fast speed and imdiately swung his sword. But just as the sword was about to reach Vijay’s throat, Vijay moved lightning fast. His beloved sword, Raktha Astra, was by his side.
The assassin was stunned; he montarily hesitated in his action and changed the trajectory of his swing, but it was too late.
"Unsheathe!!"
A red line ran across the neck of the assassin; the next mont, *Pzzzz, * his head slipped down.
Vijay quietly looked at the head that fell down with an emotionless face.
anwhile, The guards, noticing the distracted masked n, imdiately acted. They lunged forward and swung their swords. The masked n, feeling the threat of death, imdiately tried to block the swing, but unfortunately, the next mont they knew they had made a mistake.
" Swish! "
It was a faint, and Before they could recover, it was too late, their guts were ripped open, and their intestines spilled out, leaving them dead on the ground, becoming fertilizer for the trees.
Vijay, Looking at the disembowelled Assassins outside the tent, did not have any expression on his face. "Pack up. We leave now."
Travelling through the carriage, Vijay’s thoughts were very complicated. Over the whole stretch of his trip, there had been 33 assassination attempts on him, among which 4 were almost successful, as the assassins managed to reach him after passing through the defence of the Royal Guards by exploiting their familiarity with the environnt.
After interrogation, Vijay learned that most of these assassins were remnants of the Mughals who were unwilling to see the Mughal Empire fall and wanted to take revenge on him. That left him with a dilemma: Was he to really change his approach and completely weed out even the distant family mbers of the nobles and the illegitimate children of the nobles?
Honestly speaking, Vijay still did not know. Even though there had been 33 assassination attempts on him, the total number of people involved in the assassinations was less than a few hundred. Now, if he made the decision to eliminate all the illegitimate children and distant family mbers of the Mughal nobles, then the people affected would be in the tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands.
Even if he conservatively estimated that there were 10,000 people who dared to kill him among the remnants and illegitimate children of the Mughal nobles, he still couldn’t make up his mind to punish the remaining 90% of innocent people for the sins committed by the 10%.
*Sigh!*
’If only there was a better way to weed out all these people without hurting the rest.’ Having no clue, Vijay decided to go back ho and discuss the matter with the intelligence directors to see if they had any ideas.
---
The Sarpanch (Mayor) of Kannauj city, Vihar Joshi, was nervously pacing around in anticipation. Today is the day he was inford that His Majesty would co to visit.
For this reason, he adorned his best silk clothes, which he only wore for special occasions, along with putting on the best perfu he could find. Along with him was his wife, Bhagya Laxmi Joshi, and so of the civil servants working in the panchayat (from now on, panchayat will be the town/city hall).
"Sir Sarpanch, I see the carriage of His Majesty approaching!" An officer who is normally responsible for patrolling the outskirts of the city cried out in excitent.
Vihar Joshi’s eyes lit up. He rearranged his clothes one final ti as he quickly snatched the shawl from his assistant.
---
"We have arrived, Your Majesty."
Vijay was awakened from his stupor. He pulled aside the curtains and saw a large group of people eagerly waiting for him. Vijay, who had been sombre until now, regained so cheerfulness.
"Long live His Majesty, Rajyapathi Vijay Devaraya!"
"Long live His Majesty, Rajyapathi Vijay Devaraya!"
"Long live His Majesty, Rajyapathi Vijay Devaraya!"
Continuous shouts rang out from the people as Vijay was showered with flowers and welcod with a shawl around his back.
Vijay got to know that the man who welcod him was the sarpanch of the city. He also got to know the top leaders of the city.
"Your Majesty, would you like to take so rest? I have arranged a small banquet for you," Vihar Joshi was very careful in his suggestion, knowing that His Majesty had not stopped anywhere for socialising throughout his trip and had left imdiately after completing his inspections.
But Vihar Joshi still tried, hoping to use His Majesty’s presence to increase his popularity and reputation within the city.
Vihar Joshi was aware that the only reason he was still the sarpanch of Kannauj city was because the northern part of the empire was still governed by the old system the Mughal Empire ruled with. Otherwise, he was sure that he would be replaced in the blink of an eye if an election were held according to the system followed in the southern part of the empire.
The system of the southern part of the empire was especially disadvantageous to Vihar Joshi because he had once been a lackey under a Mughal noble when the Mughal Empire existed. The only reason he was not included in the purge was because, even though he had served a Mughal noble, he had not done anything to harm the people of the city.
Vihar Joshi rembered hearing from most of his subordinates that soone had interrogated them about him. Vihar Joshi quickly realized that if it weren’t for his lack of greed, he would already be dead. He was thankful for the decisions he had made during his ti under the Nawab.
Hence, even though he was able to keep his position as sarpanch, he wasn’t so sure that would still be the case if elections were held, as people who had worked under the Mughal nobles had beco very unpopular in the empire in recent days.
If elections happened, he could trust the people of his town to vote for him since they knew him well enough, but he couldn’t be sure if the people of other towns and regions, who were eligible to participate in the election, would vote for him after knowing his history.
Thus, Vihar Joshi wanted to see if he could invite His Majesty to a banquet and publicize his achievents to the elites who would be gathered there. Consecutively, this should increase his popularity and reputation within the city.
Vijay did not know all the thoughts running through Vihar Joshi’s mind, but feeling a little tired from the travel and the prior battle, he considered that a banquet wouldn’t be too bad.
"Alright, I will go."
Vihar Joshi was overjoyed and enthusiastically directed Vijay to the location.
Vijay drank so beverages, ate so local snacks, and listened to so music. He was imdiately brought into a good mood.
Vihar Joshi did not lose his enthusiasm, even though His Majesty declined to et with the elites of the city. His Majesty’s presence at the banquet was enough for Vihar Joshi to use His Majesty’s identity to shift his title from a forr lackey of a Mughal nawab to a promising civil servant under the empire.
Vijay fully understood Vihar Joshi’s intentions as soon as he was requested to et with the elites of the city. These sorts of things happened in every place he visited, including so small villages, where the village elders flattered him to no end in order to use his identity to win in the elections.
Although Vijay dislikes being used for soone’s political agendas no matter how small, there was nothing he could do about it given his current position, where his every move could be interpreted in many ways for the benefit of the politicians.
The best he could do was ignore any large social events, quickly finish his work, and as long as the local politicians did not take their crooked ideas too far, he does not mind.
---
Resting for a while, Vijay imdiately got to his work. The reason Vijay specifically ca to Kannauj was because of its rich history of producing traditional perfus known as atthars. The art of making atthar in Kannauj dates back a few hundred years, its origin linked to the royal courts of the Mughal Empire.
The Mughals were known for their fondness for luxury and opulence; hence, they were quite fond of fragrances. For this reason, Kannauj beca a hub for perfu production during Mughal rule.
Vijay knows that Kannauj, even in the 21st century, plays a great role in the perfu production of India. It was often called the perfu capital of the nation due to its rich historical heritage.
So he wants to see if the perfu industry could be made into the main economic growth model for Uttar Pradesh.
Vijay was currently visiting a family-owned distillery to see how the perfus were made. Vihar Joshi naturally acted as his guide throughout the process.
Vihar Joshi, even if he was only acting as a guide, could now be 100% sure that winning the election was as good as a fact. But for the best effect, he had to satisfy His Majesty, so he did not slack off and seriously introduced the basic format in which the fragrance was produced in their city.
Vijay saw large quantities of fragrant flowers like rose, jasmine, and herbs such as vetiver being sent to the distillation workshops, run in a small-scale, family-owned manner.
Vijay then saw so sort of oil being brought into the process. He was curious. "What is this?" Rubbing his finger with the oil, the texture was unique, as it was not sothing he could rember.
"It’s sandalwood oil, Your Majesty. The oil is used as a base for attars. It is actually purchased from Vijayanagara."
Vijay nodded in realization. Even though he had seen many things, he had never co into contact with sandalwood oil in his past life due to it being too expensive.
The sounds of workers could be heard all around as they moved according to the jobs assigned by the workshop supervisor. Steam was accumulating in the workshop, and a pleasant, highly intense fragrance filled the air.
Vijay curiously approached an apparatus, which he concluded was a steam distillation setup. He looked all over the setup, trying to figure it out.
Vihar Joshi saw the curious expression in His Majesty’s eyes, so he imdiately seized the opportunity and grasped it tightly.
"Your Majesty, these copper stills are called deg and bhapka. These are the main components of producing the perfu."
The workers were ordered to start the process, and Vihar Joshi continued to explain step by step.
Vijay saw large quantities of flowers being packed into a deg, which was then sealed tightly. Steam from the boiler was passed through the deg, where it absorbed the fragrance from the flowers.
"This steam, now filled with essential oils, is passed through a cooling system where it turns into a liquid. This liquid is collected in the bhakta’s."(receiving vessels)
Vihar Joshi quickly took out essential oil-filled up bhapka from the roses and showed it to Vijay.
Vijay took the small copper container and slled the fragrance. There was a pleasant aroma, but it was still far from being a finished attar.
As he observed the rest of the process, he saw that the fragrance distillate was mixed with sandalwood oil, which acts as a fixative and carrier.
"The profile of the scent is determined by the amount of ti it is aged. attar is often stored in large earthen or steel containers to allow the fragrance to mature." Vihar Joshi took Vijay over to a storage room and showed it to him.
Vijay received the finest four-month-aged atthar and slled it. His eyes lit up. Although the fragrance was still incomparable to the perfus of the future, he preferred the attar he was currently slling since it was eco-friendly and contained no artificial chemicals.
Vijay was never a person who used perfus in his past life since he was allergic to the chemical sll they gave off. However, the perfu he was currently slling, although not as strong and deep as those in the future, did not cause any adverse reactions. This could be due to his improved body constitution, but Vijay preferred to think it was because the perfus were entirely natural.
Later, Vijay inspected so of the other distillation workshops where different types of fragrances were produced. He had to admit he was quite impressed. A plan was forming in his mind; he was thinking about a way to have the workshops engage in mass production instead of producing perfus in small batches like they were doing now.
He wrote down his plan in his notebook, thinking of implenting it after returning to the capital.
Looking at the beautiful night sky adorned with countless stars, he knew that his journey had co to an end.
"Finally, it’s ti to go back."
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