Empire of India: Rise of the Ruthless Prince

Mansion of the Reddy Family.

The mansion lay bare; the cobwebs encased the walls of the mansion. The sight of the maids and servants was nowhere to be seen. Dusty ceilings and a lack of proper maintenance were evident in the desolate mansion.

The once wealthy and rich family had been reduced to the state of poverty now. Reddy Family was famous for the businesses in the region. They controlled a lot of the wealth and have been ruling the region for a while now.

The long-lasting reign of the Reddy brought them opportunities in the forms of trade and agriculture. Their businesses were spread across the regions, spanning multiple industries like steel works, weaponry, ceramics, and agriculture.

The influence of the Reddy family went into a major downfall last year. The entry of an independent merchant group into their region. Although restricted, they managed to quickly gain ground in the region.

Raghav Reddy quickly took steps to get rid of the independent merchant group that eventually was driven out of the region. The collapse began after that; suddenly, many businesses of the Reddy family started failing.

The steelworks and weaponry industries orders were cut short by more than eighty percent, resulting in a major loss for the Reddies.

Eventually the downfall of the market share in the region caused big losses for the family. The patriarch of the Reddy family kept the industries up using the wealth of the family. But the expectation of profit quickly faded as he was bleeding money to maintain his industries.

In the end, Raghav was forced to take out a loan to bolster and take care of his industries. The loan was from a man named Aranya. The initial loan gave him some hope as the industries began performing well.

After a profitable month, Raghav's industries made it back to the old profitable state. This meant he could take out a new loan to expand the industries, profit off the boom, and pay back the interest fast.

This proved to be a fatal mistake by Raghav, as Aranya gave him a new loan with arable land of the family as collateral for the loan. The next month witnessed the worst downfall of the industries.

Raghav once again burned all his money and was unable to pay the interest on the loan and any amount for three months. The land he put up as collateral was taken away by Aranya.

Raghav was in a precarious situation. The wealth that his family was famous for hit rock bottom. The industries failed big time, and the market share of the Reddy family declined as the new competitors entered and took over the markets.

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He couldn't restrict them this time as the family lacked wealth to drive them away and no alternatives to provide otherwise.

The civil war looming ahead also made the situation very difficult for Raghav, as the lack of wealth meant he couldn't really fund the army and weaponry needed for the battle.

Opting out of the civil war meant a death sentence for his family, as it would count as betrayal of the first prince, and everyone would work to wipe him out as soon as possible. Raghav was at the crossroads of his journey; at first, the thought of betrayal and changing factions crossed his mind.

Raghav quickly dismissed the thoughts, as the second prince wouldn't let him in and save him at this point. He was initially planning to ask Balaji Mudialiar for help, but that's why the assassination of the old man happened, and he lost the moment to ask for financial help.

Balaji's death and his eldest son taking over the family meant that he couldn't really ask for the financial help he needed from them. He was forced to fork over to another person to help.

Raghav found a person named Vriha who was a very rich merchant in the empire. Raghav was desperate; his situation made him skip the investigation on the individual. The man called Vriha was scheduled to meet him to discuss the terms for the money today.

Raghav was seated in the courtyard, the tea and snacks assorted in a neat manner. A man entered the courtyard, a tall, burly man; his face had burn scars. The man was accompanied by many guards.

The guards looked through all possible threats before the man sat down at the table for the discussion.

Raghav broke the eerie silence with a cough and began.

"I hope your trip to the mansion has been good."

The man adjusted his posture a bit.

"Yes. It was fine, Lord Raghav. I have some business to attend to; can we make it quick?"

"Yes, yes, I need to borrow some money."

The man's eyebrows furrowed slightly.

"How much do you need?"

"500,000 Varaha!"

500,000 Varaha was a hefty amount. It could sustain a huge army annually. Raghav asking for this amount meant that his army men had unpaid wages, so this loan would need to cover all the war effort and wage cost.

"Hooo, that can be done soon, Lord Raghav."

The eyes of Raghav lit up with hope.

"But what would be the collateral?"

A collateral was needed to finalize the loan agreement between the two. Raghav, being stressed, didn't think about the collateral he wanted to offer to Vriha.

"Lord Raghav, how about putting the family assets as collateral for the loan?"

He had not much land collateral to cover such an amount, and the old last ditch effort would be to use the family assets as the collateral. His mind was racing with thoughts of anything useful to give as collateral, ending up with nothing.

He decided to put the family as collateral for the loan as he had no choice due to the situation and his mind was already working on the methods to track down and take all his money back as soon as the war ended.

"Ok, we can do that!"

Vriha got up with a wry grin and shook the hands of Raghav, and both of them signed the loan agreement.

"We have a deal, Lord Raghav."

Vriha was just Karna in disguise, and the men accompanying him were some of the regional leaders. Aranya and Vriha were aliases used by Karna to slowly siphon off the wealth of the reddies.

The incredible amount of wealth generated by Mithun helped immensely in baiting Raghav Reddy and putting his house as collateral in the end. The preparation of the plan was underway. The plan to bankrupt the Reddy family to the phase of no return