A Slave who became Emperor Chapter 33

Somewhere in the forest of Vindhyas, there was a clearing between the trees . . the whole area was lit with fire torches . . giving it a mysterious feel . There was a group of people wearing black robes and eye masks . . one of them looked like the leader standing apart from the others .

The leader was in deep thought . . . he was thinking about something . . he was looking towards a man . The man was bound under a tree . . he exuded the aura of an emperor,though he looked weak, he didn't look defeated . . his eyes held a fire . . it was as if they were lit ambers . . . .

He looked at the leader and smiled, it was a majestic smile . . the leader looked at him and said, 'what makes you smile emperor Surya Gupta? ' so the person who was bound was none other than emperor Surya Gupta, the emperor of Gupta empire . . father of Pinaka . .

The emperor said, 'who are you? why did you save me from those savages? ' . . . .

Few moments back, the emperor Surya Gupta was held captive by a group of savage tribals who were cannibals . . the man eaters ,trapped the emperor and held him captive for a week, they had a practice to offer human sacrifice to their evil deity on the day of Poornima (full moon) . . . . .

. then they ate the sacrificed person's meat . . .

No one knew how the emperor was caught by them, this bunch of black robed people were just in time, they fought against those savages, drew them away . . . they rescued the emperor . .

The leader said, 'what do I want? don't you know what we are fighting for? we are the group of warriors who were black marked as terrorists by you and your general Devadatta . . from then we were roaming in the vindyas(mountain range that divided Gupta and Magadha empire) . . cast away from our kin . . can you go back and erase that black mark and give us back all those years of our life? '

The emperor sighed, it was his mistake, he trusted Devadatta's judgement . . he never questioned his loyalty . . the serpent . . whom he treated as a bosom brother . . Devadatta . . that bastard . . he made him pass a wrong judgement . . what exactly happened was . .

There was a group of soldiers who were carrying out welfare activities in the empire . . they were led by two men . . Indra and Varuna . . both Indra and Varuna were majors who were leading two batallions of the Gupta army respectively . . they were reporting to General Devadatta . .

When the empress was pregnant, they noticed that Devadatta was trying to take over the power stealthily . . they wanted to notify the emperor . . but their group was falsely accused of stealing the money from army fund and spending it for people . . Devadatta created fake witnesses . . the emperor trusted Devadatta blindly . . he then declared them as rebels and casted them out of the empire . . they had to leave the empire . . away from their families . . their kith and kin were always targeted and insulted . .

Their once popular and loved group became a mockery . . in fact they always pooled their personal money and helped for good causes . . all their efforts were erased . . they were nothing but thieves in the eyes of the people . .

The emperor said, 'you are . . Varuna . . my army major . . , where is Indra? ' he looked at the emperor and said, 'Indra is in Indraprastha (capital city of Gupta empire) . . he will be back soon . . but tell me emperor . . how will you compensate our loss? '

The emperor said, 'you decide . . I deserve punishment . . being an emperor . . I must be able to see through lies and fake people . . I failed to do so . . just like you . . I too paid the price for trusting that serpent . . I lost my empire, my son . . I left my wife under the control of that serpent Devadatta . . I abandoned my people . . if you feel this is not punishment enough for my sin . . tell me how you want me to compensate you . . '

Varuna sighed, the emperor was right . . he too suffered . . at least they had a group of people but the emperor was all alone . . he asked all his loyals who followed him to flee with his son . . . he lured Devadatta's men away . .

Varuna said, 'emperor, I think it's time you know, the Prince has returned . . he killed Devadatta . . the empress is safe . . but . . 'the emperor was shocked .

his son . . he was alive . . he came back . . was it true . . he looked at Varuna and said, 'but? ' Varuna said, 'he is wounded . . ' the emperor said, 'wounded? Devadatta must have harmed him . . how is he now . . . ' Varuna shook his head and said, 'emperor, the Prince is recovering . . it's not Devadatta who harmed him . . . '

'then who harmed him? who is it that dared to harm the future emperor of the Gupta empire? ' . .

Chapter end