Empire of India: Rise of the Ruthless Prince

The gates of the capital city of the Qutb sultanate fell to the invading Vijayanagara army with little to no resistance on the part of the demoralized Qutb soldiers. They lost their king and their crown prince had already fled the Sultanate. The other nobility were clearly useless, including the half-siblings of the Crown prince.

Commander Dhruv led the charge into the capital. The guards waved their flags and surrendered even before the fight started. The Qutb commander saw the army of Vijayanagara and thought it was going to be a one-sided massacre and decided not to fight them.

Most of the big nobles were dead from the rebels. The only ones alive were some of the half-siblings of the Crown prince. All of their crimes were reported to the commanders and they were all ordered not to leave any of the half-siblings alive.

Dhruv ordered his troops to capture the soldiers as prisoners of war. There were a few of them in the capital city. He heard they tried to reinforce the garrison with the reserve from the capital and ended with little troops.

The reinforcements were just mercilessly killed by the rebels and the Vijayanagara army.

The citizens of the capital peek through their homes at the large army entering the city. They had specific orders not to harm any citizens. Dhruv could guess the reasoning behind it, as they would want to sow the seeds of integration as soon as possible. The Sultanate's regime was violent and predatory. The Empire's soldiers didn't harm citizens; rumors have been already spreading a lot, giving hope for the people in the Sultanate of a good rule in the future.

The royal palace of the Qutbs was breached and all the nobles hiding in the palace were captured as prisoners of war and their execution dates were yet to be decided. He read each one of the nobles crimes. They were insufferable vermin in his eyes. He didn't have an ounce of compassion towards these scum. Exploitation of people, rape, murders, and whatnot.

A soldier came towards and saluted. "Commander, we have locked up all the prisoners in the underground prison."

"What about the Patrols?"

"Yes, we have put soldiers on guard around the city and the palace."

"Good! What about the pesky nobles?"

The soldiers reluctantly nodded. "There was a small problem, Commander."

"What problem?" Dhruv asked with a confused stare.

"Two of them tried to run away in an attempt to catch them. They were killed." He said it with a nervous look.

Dhruv chuckled and asked. "Were those nobles on the list?"

"Yes, Commander. We only found the listed nobles in the capital." The soldier replied, taken aback by the chuckle.

"That's all good. Give those soldiers a 4 day pay cut and let them off." He began. "Those nobles were going to be executed either way."

"Pay cut? Ok." The soldiers agreed with a relieved expression. He thought the soldiers would be punished severely for this but the commander was lenient with it. He docked the pay of the soldiers to show some consequences of their actions.

"Although. Next time, they disobey orders. The punishment shall be harsher. Do tell them." Dhruv said coldly.

Later in the day, all the places were thoroughly checked by the army and a curfew was strictly imposed as they took full control of the capital. Dhruv was sitting in the small chamber in the Royal Palace of the Sultanate.

He got the first-hand taste of royalty in the palace. Plush sofas, chairs, and other things to admire for a while till he was recalled back.

The wooden table had two unopened letters. He didn't want to open the letters right now but he had no choice. One was from his senior Venkata, while the other was from the commander Raghu.

He unfurled the letter from Commander Venkata. It was about their arrival to the capital city in a few days. The last region was being annexed at this current moment in time. With that, it would mark the end of the Empire's campaigns in the Sultanate.

'So he is headed here. The battles are ending. I can finally take some rest back in the Empire.'

He grinned, reading the letter with an enthusiastic smile.

Dhruv unfurled the other letter from commander Raghu, the talented idiot. That was the first name that came to Dhruv's mind when he wanted to remember him. He skimmed through the letter. It wasn't from Raghu but it was from Varun and it had details about the things that happened when Raghu was in charge.

Raghu was a talented man in his eyes but Dhruv knew he had a fatal flaw of arrogance and his own thinking of lower castes. These two flaws held him back a lot. If he worked harder, the man could have become even stronger than him pretty easily.

'What did he do now?'

'He lost a duel to Akash.'

Dhruv laughed aloud.

'He then got wrecked in two punches from Narayana.'

He clutched his stomach and laughed. Raghu's arrogance had brought this on himself. Dhruv knew about Narayana and Varun as they trained with Viswa, the monster that scared each of the Emperor's secret force members, including leaders like Mithun and Karna.

Dhruv wiped his tears after laughing for a while.

"I just hope this teaches him a lesson not to be arrogant." He muttered. "He is wasting his own potential with prejudices."

He made him lead the lower castes to blend and understand them. It was nice to know that there was someone to knock some sense into him. He just hoped that this defeat would set him straight.

If it didn't, Dhruv had to go along with his plan to reform his behaviour once and for all. He would knock some sense in to him in the most painful manner possible.

'I don't want to do that. I hope he changes his behaviour.'

He leaned back into the chair and sighed.

"I have to prepare to go back soon."