2nd May 1658
Akhand Bharatiya Empire, Imperial Capital Bengaluru, Shaurya Royal Palace
Kavya was pacing around in her studio with a worried expression on her face. Vijay, who was also in the room, was nonchalantly reading a book, not caring about Kavya, who was obviously panicked.
It wasn’t that Vijay didn’t want to console his wife and calm her down, but it was just that no matter what he tried, he couldn’t get her to relax her restless mood.
In the end, empathizing with her worries, he gave up consoling her, and let her calm down on her own after the matters were settled.
Instead, he was reading the summary and draft Kavya had written for the second volu of the novel, "The Epic of Bahubali."
The reason why Kavya was so panicked had sothing to do with the novel, as today was the day "Bahubali: The Rise of Shiva," the first volu in the trilogy, was being released into the market.
There had been so delay in the release of the book because there was no production capacity left to print these books. Especially now that the amount of newspapers printed had been increasing by magnitude every month. So it wasn’t until a new production line had been established at the Raya Printing Services, dedicated to printing Kavya’s book, that the books were able to be printed.
Additionally, 100,000 copies of the first volu had been printed, as the sales of the book were guaranteed.
Not because Vijay advertised the book and the people respected him enough to buy it, but because Kavya was already a very famous author within the Bharatiya Empire and in Europe for her previous works. So, even without advertising, 100,000 copies were bound to disappear within a month.
Vijay had this confidence, especially since he loved the first volu of the trilogy and the way it was written, which was highly influenced by Tolkien’s "Lord of the Rings." Unfortunately, Kavya, who had invested nearly half a year into the first volu, was worried about how people would react to her new work, which had drastically changed in style and storytelling.
Even though Vijay told her that her writing was excellent, she couldn’t calm down.
Putting the worries of the Empress aside, most of the people in the imperial capital and the surrounding cities already knew about Her Majesty the Empress releasing her new book today, as an article was written about it in the newspaper.
Although it wasn’t an advertisent, the article’s effect was better than an advertisent, as it provided a lot of context about the situation, which made people understand the general summary of the novel and generated much interest.
---
Cheranadu State
Uday was a civil servant of the Bharatiya Standards Organisation. His job was to randomly visit industrial companies and check their goods for quality control. He had just finished assessing a Naval sail-manufacturing company in the city of Kollam and was about to return to his temporary lodge when he saw sothing very surprising.
A long queue stood in front of the local bookstore on the main street where his lodge was located. The people in the queue looked anxious as if sothing bad would happen if they didn’t move forward imdiately.
"Are people so eager to learn knowledge now?" Uday couldn’t help but mutter to himself in disbelief.
Not thinking much of it, he went to his lodge and rested for the night. Waking up before dawn, he left to inspect another factory in the nearby city of Kochi. His job was normal as always, with no surprises, but what surprised him again was the local bookstore, which was once again packed to the brim, with the queue stretching dozens of ters from the actual bookstore.
Uday did not understand what the fuss was about. If he hadn’t seen the queue in Kollam, he would have thought nothing of the unusual sight, but after witnessing the queue in Kollam and again in Kochi, he knew sothing was happening.
Uday, due to his job, spent most of his ti travelling, so he had picked up the habit of reading. He was not a newcor to bookstores. "The history book I bought has already been read. Let’s see if I can find another interesting book like the one before, and also figure out what this fuss is about," he thought to himself as he barged into the bookstore, which angered a lot of people.
"Who is this uncivilized man? How can you cut the line?"
"Sir, please follow etiquette and wait at the back of the queue."
"Shopkeeper, do not sell the novel to this man; he is cutting the queue."
Uday was imdiately confused as to what novel these people were talking about. "Is there so sort of novel that has been released?" "Is this the reason for so much fuss?" "Which novel is so good?" Uday was not convinced. In his opinion, there was no need to waste so much ti just to read a novel.
He was about to go back, ready to reread his book once again, but just as he was about to leave, a custor who had purchased the book had a srized expression on his face as he delicately opened the book and walked out of the bookstore, bumping into several people along the way.
The man was completely drawn into the book, unable to take his eyes off it, similar to a teenager in the 21st century when it ca to TikTok.
Uday was shocked after inadvertently looking at the first page of the book. It depicted a majestic waterfall that touched the heavens. Although the image was only an illustration, Uday could feel the heaviness, majesty, and strength of the water falling down.
The perspective of the image, from below the waterfall, emphasized just how gigantic this marvel of Mother Nature was, this is definitely not sothing on Earth.
Also, most importantly, "Is this a **** novel?" "Who the **** writes novels like this?" "How rich can they be? Moreover, what printer was used to print these images? Definitely not the improved Gutenberg printer. What the **** is happening?"
Multiple questions ran through his mind, but he had no answers. As an inspector and a civil servant from the Bharatiya Standards Organisation under the Ministry of Standards, although he was not specialized in any one thing, he had a wide range of knowledge when it ca to manufacturing and production.
So, he imdiately knew that the image was printed using the sa technology that was used to print their currency, which completely baffled him.
Uday numbly went back to his lodge. He was so confused that he couldn’t sleep all night. No matter how much he tried, the image of the waterfall appeared right in front of his eyes like a seductive apsara.
Early in the morning, he made up his mind to buy the so-called novel for himself and see what the mystery was about.
Uday was lucky because he had developed the habit of waking up early and sleeping early, and by the ti he reached the vicinity of the bookstore, there wasn’t the long queue that would have been visible from the next street.
But when he arrived at the street where the bookstore was, it still left him surprised. Even though the shop was closed, there were actually 10 to 20 people waiting in front of the bookstore, tightly covering their bodies to protect themselves from the cold. Uday was speechless. "Just how attractive is this novel, anyway?" He couldn’t tell.
Since his next job was in Mysore and he had a few days to rest in between, he didn’t mind wasting so ti, so he decisively stood in the queue.
Talking with the people in the queue, he realized that it was a new novel written by Her Majesty the Empress, and apparently, it was the greatest novel anyone had ever read.
Uday was skeptical about this, but he chose to believe the words of the young man who was passionately speaking about the book.
Suddenly he realized sothing, the reason why he hadn’t heard about the novel was because "Bharatham Daily" hadn’t yet expanded to Kollam or the surrounding region where he had been doing his job for the last few weeks. ’ No wonder I didn’t hear the news of this novel,’ he thought, stroking his chin.
’Maybe if I had stayed in Kollam a few days longer, I would have heard about it, as it’s obviously being spread by word of mouth.’
The shopkeeper, with a gleaming smile, entered the shop, swept the floor clean, perford the morning pooja, arranged all the books in their positions, and finally started the sales.
By the ti this happened, Uday was surprised to find that the queue had increased to more than 40 people and was still growing. He felt fortunate to have co early enough.
Even though he wasn’t too invested in the novel, his anticipation grew, if not for anything else, at least for his own effort.
He finally got to the counter. "Bahubali: The Rise of Shiva, one book, please."
The shopkeeper wasn’t surprised as he simply took out a fresh copy of the book from the jute bag that hadn’t even been fully unpacked and gave it to Uday directly.
"Na, occupation, and 10 varaha, please."
Uday took out the 10 Varaha note he had prepared in his pocket and gave it to the shopkeeper, but he was surprised that the shopkeeper needed his na and occupation. "Why do you need these details?"
The shopkeeper’s expression didn’t change as he replied, "This is a rule made by the publisher, Raya dia Corporation. Na and occupation are recorded to ensure that you don’t buy this book and sell it at a higher price to soone else."
"The novel is currently in high demand, and the quantity of purchase is limited to one book per person. We have received orders from the publisher not to sell more than one book to a single person, which is why we are collecting your information to ensure you don’t return to buy another copy."
Although the reason was surprising, Uday did not find it unacceptable. "My na is Uday, and my occupation... um, I work for the Ministry of Standards."
There was finally a change of expression on the face of the shopkeeper. He looked up in surprise, as he had never co into contact with a person working for this new ministry, which all industry bosses feared.
He wanted to get to know Uday better, but unfortunately, Uday, seeing his na and occupation being written down in the ledger, decisively left the bookstore, eager to reach his lodge and finally read the book.
P.S. Thank you, Lucifer_6671, for the Massage chair, and sorry Webnovel is not letting comnt to you in the gift section
P.S Thank you, Siddhesh, for the IceCola
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