Empire of India: Rise of the Ruthless Prince

"Get up, you maggot," said the masked man with golden outlined clothes.

*SLAP*

The man beat Aziz in the back with a stick. "No rest for you."

"Ow! It hurts like hell." Aziz squirmed, gripping his back in excruciating pain. "Why can't you control your strength, you de-"

Aziz stopped quickly before the words left his mouth. He zipped his mouth shut.

"What did you say?" The man's smile was seeping through his mask.

"Nothing I said, nothing, Teacher." Aziz jumped out and stood straight.

"Hmm… good."

Aziz was travelling to meet the "Liege." During this time, the masked man and the leader of the strong soldiers from an unknown affiliation were training him. The training was literally hell on earth.

He was doing physical training like running laps and bodyweight exercises during the course of the journey.

"Pick up those sandbags and run another 10 laps." He ordered.

"Whaaaaaaaaaa."

His teacher picked up the stick again, prompting him to quickly run to the sandbags. He picked them and began running around the field.

"Leader, you might break him if you train him like this." Another masked man said.

"Break? No! He is too dumb to realize his own talent." Teacher said. "His recovery rate is also excellent, making him a perfect specimen of our corps."

"You are right. He is keeping up with this hellish routine. It would take less time to ascend to "that" position than the youngest."

"Youngest? Eh."

"Well, let's see. He would make a good rival and motivation for him." The teacher muttered with a satisfied look as he watched Aziz grunt and slog through the field. "He has been overconfident these days."

"He has a right to be, since he never failed a mission."

"That exactly is the problem." The teacher explained. "He needs to fail to improve himself. He is just stunting his growth now."

"I guess you are right." The masked man scratched his head. "We all reached here through failures after all before the Liege shaped us."

"Hmm..."
Your next read is at empire

After a while of training. Aziz was finally free. He was lying on the hard ground with no energy to spare. He couldn't move his arms and legs from the training. He was working more on his muscles than he had ever trained in his life.

He travelled through various towns and the cities in the Amir Sultanate. He was always too tired to focus on his surroundings after the training session. He rested during his travels but by conversing with his group and Aditya, his close confidant. He found out that none of them knew where they were headed. The masked people took obscure routes and paths to cover their traces. It was hard to discern the places.

'I wonder where we are headed to.'

He was going to meet someone that his teacher served. 'How strong will he be?'

Finally, after a few more days of grueling traveling through a treacherous path. They stumbled across a wide grass field. It was like a mat of green grass stretched across the horizon.

The evening sun's glow made the grass shine with a golden hue. It was a memorable scene of Aziz, who never traveled much outside the Sultanate.

"Set up, camp here," yelled a masked man.

They decided to set up the camp here for the night. Aziz's teacher and the leader of the masked men gathered some of the members of his group along with him.

He looked serious for some reason.

"You are to camp here till further notice." He declared coldly.

"What?" Aziz yelped out loud.

"We can only proceed after meeting with the liege." He said. "Everyone other Aziz Shah shall stay here."

"Aziz will follow me to meet with the "Liege."

Aditya gritted his teeth. "All alone? His Highness needs protection."

"Protection? You think you can protect him from us?" asked His Teacher.

"Stil—"

Aditya's sentence was cut short by Aziz.

"He is right; there is no use arguing. They are not hostile so you don't have to worry." He reassured Aditya.

'If they really wanted to kill me, he wouldn't have gone through the trouble of training me.' Aziz thought.

"We shall leave at dawn." His teacher declared. "I shall not entertain any delays."

"Yes, Teacher." Aziz said with a light bow.

"Take some rest ."

After he left, Aziz put a hand on Aditya's shoulder. "Don't worry. I will come back safe." He reassured him.

"Take care, Your Highness."

"Don't call me that. I am not a prince anymore."

As the bright sun rays of the morning sun cast on the field. Aziz Shah set out in a small carriage to meet the liege. The carriage was guarded heavily and more than a dozen masked men were following them along with his teacher.

His teacher looked at him and tossed him a blindfold. "Wear this."

"Don't try to peek. I will consider it a threat and cut you down." He threatened coldly with no hesitation.

Aziz shuddered at the cold gaze and obliged.

After a while of listening to grass rustle, there was rustling of leaves in the breeze. It was followed by a waterfall and a silent rumbling of a river.

The carriage finally stopped.

"You can take the blindfold off." His teacher said.

His eyes were blurry. He rubbed them to get a better view of the surroundings. By the feel of the ground, it seemed he was in an elevated place. The place was surrounded by tall trees with a thick canopy. There was barely any sunlight seeping through the gaps. A two-story wooden house stood before them. Vines and moss grew on the house, blending it with the lush forest.

"You and I are only allowed from this point onwards." His teacher said with a serious expression. "Be polite, I warn you."

"Yes…" He replied meekly as they entered the building.

There were guards inside the house as well. They went upstairs using the creaking wooden stairs.

Upon entering a room, Aziz found a figure sitting with his gaze focused at the window.

His teacher kneeled before the man. "Liege, I am back."

The pair of green eyes shifted its gaze to him. Aziz shook with fear and froze. The pressure was unlike anything he had faced before. Even his teacher didn't compare to the man before him.

He felt almost compelled to kneel at his presence.

"Kneel." The man ordered coldly.

Aziz instinctively kneeled down beside his teacher.

"So is this the kid?"

"Yes, Liege."

"Hmm…looks like you have trained him a bit."

"I have. He is a promising candidate."

Aziz couldn't utter a single word under the pressure. He looked at the wooden floor fully frozen.

"What about the task?"

"The Maratha king is dead from our interference." He declared. "Although we didn't get the best result due to lack of manpower."

'Huh? You were responsible for that?' Aziz looked down with widened eyes.

"I only wanted him out of the way for our plan." The man explained. "As long as that man is gone. Our plan will succeed."

"Yes, my liege."

The man got up and began walking around the room. Aziz didn't dare to lift his head out of fear.

"Any interferences?"

"In the war?"

"Yes."

"There were interferences, possible from the Empire."

"Are you sure?" The man asked.

"They annexed the Sultanate. So it is most likely them." His teacher explained. "We couldn't sniff out many traces but there were signs of interference."

"I see. So the young monarch is sharpening his fangs." The man muttered. "He was a tiger's cub after all."

"Anyway. It seems he has some potential."

The man grabbed his chin with his calloused, rough hands and yanked it to face him. Aziz was forced to meet the man's gaze.

The piercing green marble-like eyes stared into his soul. Aziz couldn't move and just froze in his grasp.

His focus was all on the eyes and he couldn't even discern any feature of the man. It was like he was hypnotized.

"Look closely. I am your master from now on." He said coldly. "I will not tolerate any disobedience."

Aziz nodded meekly.

The man let go of his chin with a satisfied look on his face.

"Anyway, I have a new mission for you." He said, turning to his teacher."

"Your wish is my command, Liege."

"I guess this new guy will like this mission."

"He will?"

"Yes, it is going to help that lazy guy."

"Yes, it will surely intrigue him as well." His teacher also agreed.

Aziz took deep breaths as he was let go from the grasp. He didn't understand anything they were saying.

"Mission? Lazy guy?"

The man put down a note and turned on his heel to leave.

"I expect good results," he declared as he left them both in the room.

His teacher shifted his gaze to him and patted his back.

Aziz was breathing heavily and trying to compose himself.

"You did well."

"Now you are a part of us."