As the carriage got closer and closer to home, Vijay grew more and more nervous. He felt tense just thinking about how Kavya would react upon learning the news of her father's and hometown's demise. When he informed his brother-in-law that he had yet to break the bad news to Kavya, his brother-in-law looked at him strangely, but nonetheless, he agreed to help deliver the news.
Upon the carriage's arrival, Kavya rushed out of the house with a radiant smile on her face, carrying a plate full of Pooja items to welcome the guests. As soon as she saw her beloved brother and sister-in-law, Kavya rushed over to embrace them both.
After completing the Pooja process, Kavya finally got to meet her little nephew. Without saying a word, she quickly snatched him from her sister-in-law and started playing with him, appearing very joyful and content.
However, her happiness was tinged with a sense of worry. She glanced back at the carriage, expecting to see her father and younger brother. While Vijay had informed her that her family would come to live in the Vijayanagara Empire, she hadn't taken it seriously and had assumed it was just a short visit.
She couldn't fathom in her wildest dreams that her homeland had been destroyed and that her father and brother were no more.
Not finding her father and second brother, Kavya finally asked, "Where is Father and Bunty?" (Bunty is a nickname Kavya gave to her second brother).
Before Aditya could answer, Vijay, who was sitting beside him, began to sweat profusely upon hearing Kavya's question. He knew that this question would come up sooner or later, and now that the moment had arrived, his heart raced. He glanced at his brother-in-law, silently seeking his assistance.
With a sigh, Aditya stepped forward and hugged Kavya without saying anything. Kavya, confused by her brother's actions, couldn't understand why he was behaving this way.
Slowly, she got a bad feeling, remembering the unusual circumstances, Vijay's odd behaviour, and her family coming to stay with them. Suspicion began to creep in.
"Did something happen to Maratha?" she thought to herself but quickly dismissed the idea, saying, "No, no, no, how could that be possible? Never." Despite her denials, the uneasy feeling lingered, and her eyes welled up with tears.
Her brother gently cradled her head, trying to comfort her as he delivered the devastating news that plunged her into the depths of despair. "Father and Bunty are both dead. The Mughal Empire suddenly attacked us with a large army and wiped out the Maratha Kingdom. Now, the Maratha Kingdom is no more."
Kavya couldn't believe what she was hearing. She desperately wanted to deny the harsh reality. "No, no, you're lying. How could Father die? No, no, uhhhh," she sobbed uncontrollably in her brother's arms for at least 30 minutes, her voice hoarse, and her face slightly swollen and red from crying.
Vijay's heart ached at the sight of Kavya in such distress. When she finally regained control of her emotions, her teary eyes turned to him, and she asked with a hint of resentment in her voice, "Why didn't you help him?" It was the first question that came to her mind, and Vijay, overwhelmed by guilt, found it difficult to articulate an explanation.
It was the first time he had seen Kavya so angry, and he felt like his hands were on a hot stove, unsure of where to place them or how to respond to his wife's question.
Thankfully, his brother-in-law came to his rescue. "Kavya, don't blame Vijay. He did his best, and without him, we could have suffered even more casualties. Fortunately, thanks to his information, we were able to evacuate a large number of people before the Mughals attacked. Right now, Vijayanagar is also facing threats from external enemies.
He didn't tell you all this because he didn't want to burden you. So, don't blame him. If there's anyone to blame, it's the weakness of the Maratha Kingdom and the unruliness of the Mughal Emperor."
Influenced by her brother's persuasion, Kavya reluctantly accepted Vijay's explanations and decided to let go of her anger towards him. Although she didn't readily display her forgiveness on her face, she quietly departed to make arrangements for her father and brother's funeral ceremony.
Watching her walk away, Vijay let out a sigh of relief that a heavy burden had been lifted.
On a brighter note, due to the destruction of the Maratha Empire, many merchants and nobles from Maratha chose to migrate to the Vijayanagar Empire. The cultures of both kingdoms were quite similar, and their long-term friendship made Vijayanagara a natural choice for many.
Since only the more affluent people could leave the Maratha Kingdom, they brought with them a significant amount of wealth and manpower.
In the last month alone, at least a million people had immigrated from the Maratha Kingdom to Vijayanagara. Among them were professionals like blacksmiths, scholars, and doctors who helped fill the job shortages in Vijayanagara. The merchants also brought a substantial amount of trade, and with the newly paved roads across the Vijayanagar Empire, travel became more convenient.
The nobles transformed themselves into merchants and settled in various parts of the Empire, further boosting Vijayanagara's fiscal revenue for the year.
Initially, the nobles were uneasy about the Vijayanagara Empire's rules, which seemed heavily biased against them and deprived them of their basic rights. However, they soon abandoned these thoughts when they learned that the entire noble class had suffered nearly mass extermination in their quest for these very rights.
Consequently, learning this news, they chose to live in the Vijayanagara Empire with peace of mind, recognizing that even the long-standing nobles couldn't change their fate, let alone those who came in today.
However, among them, there were still some people who didn't follow the rules and flaunted their nobility status, behaving like the stuck-up nobles in the Chinese novels from the future. But soon, they learned how to be human when they were severely beaten by the police, in addition to receiving hefty fines.
There was even a rumour in the police division that, with the fines collected from the new nobles arriving in the empire recently, the police department was able to afford better food and clothing for a whole month until they all eventually learned their lesson and stopped their shenanigans. This caused the various police officers to sigh in pity.