As soon as Rudra stepped into the backyard he heard a little girl screamed and ran towards the girl in front of him. That little girl suddenly jumped and clung onto her. The little girl's lips curled up into wholesome, cute smile as she hug her very intently.
"Sister Isha! You are finally here."
That little girl exclaimed in Isha's embrace. Rudra looked around to find a few unknown people sneaking out from behind the huge debris in the backyard with a hint of suspicion on their faces as they glared Rudra, trying to examine every bit of him. But before he could even react, he felt a cold substance lingering near his neck.
Looking from the corner of his eyes, he caught a glimpse of what looked like a cold blade with cutting sharp edges. The blade was held by a man draped in a wrinkled black coat that was wrapped around his face as well. Due to this the man's face was covered, and with only his cold eyes visible with a glint of ruthlessness, making him look even more menacing.
"Why don't you tell us who you are?" that man asked.
Rudra didn't say anything and stood there calmly. Looking at Rudra's composed demeanor and behavior in such a situation, that man frowned and pressed his blade on Rudra's neck and said.
"I won't ask again."
"Enough! I brought him here!" Isha said as she indicated that man to lower his blade.
"That doesn't matter at all."
"Still, you need to lower your blade." Isha pushed that man's blade down as she said "He is here to look for his family."
Thinking that the situation was back to normal, Rudra turned back and took a glance at the man in front of him. The man was flabbergasted and stunned incorporated with a look of confusion in his eyes as soon as he saw Rudra. That man unfurled his coat, revealing his face.
The same reactions surfaced on Rudra's face as he was completely dumbfounded upon looking at the guy who stood in front of him.
"Sohajan!" Rudra exclaimed.
"You bastard!" Sohajan gritted his teeth. "Where were you this entire time?" He lunged at Rudra and grabbed his clothes. But before he could ask any further, another voice chimed in, asking them to stop.
"Would you guys mind putting your to rivalry to the side in such peril!"
Both of them turned, their eyes met with Vedna's face, but her eyes reflected a killer hint within them. Such a look intrigued both Rudra and Sohajan as they let go of each other. Sohajan kept his sword to the side as he took a deep breath and calmed himself down. Whereas Rudra was just staring both of them.
Seriously, right now, Vedna was the only person in the room except of Isha who looked so calm and composed even in such a situation.
"Thank god, You are here in time. Or they won't even listen to me!" Isha said as she stared at Sohajan.
"Calm down. Rudra looks injured."
"He should have some rest." Vedna said as she walked away and sat down leaning against a pillar that somehow stood intact at its spot.
Sohajan walked away as well: "I am going to get some air."
"You knew it ever since I told you my name! Didn't you?" Rudra turned to Isha and asked her.
"About what?"
"That I am a member of the Skambha clan!" Rudra retorted.
"Its pretty obvious, I am one of their old friends, how I won't know about you?" Isha said as she walked away, trying to evade any other questions.
Rudra sighed as he sat on a broken stone blocks nearby Vedna. He grunted as a pain flashwd in right thigh. This caught Vedna's attention as she turned her gaze and stared on to the leaves wrapped around Rudra's right thigh.
"That's a severe injury, how did you get it? How did you get it?"
"A sword pierced through my right thigh, leaving behind a wide opening, I treated it on my own." Rudra said as he looked at Vedna.
"You can't even fight properly with such an injury if not treated completely!" Vedna said in amazement.
"I need to find a saint who could treat it properly!
"Although till now, it must have been filled a little bit! But excess movement could compromise the healing," Rudra explained.
Vedna just nodded her head. "Do you have any regeneration pills and some herbal ingredients?" Rudra asked.
"I don't have any ingredients, but maybe Sohajan has some regeneration pills!" Vedna said as she looked at Sohajan who was walking towards them.
"What happened?" Sohajan asked.
"He needs some regeneration pills," Vedna said while pointing at Rudra's wound.
Sohajan thought for a moment before pulling out his spatial sackbag. He inserted his hands into the sackbag and began to search for something. A few moments later his hand came out with a small bottle held very tightly in it. Sohajan opened the bottle and gave it to Rudra. Rudra looked at the bottle carefully, and found a few white colored pills inside it. Rudra looked at his wound, took out three pills and immediately gulped them down his throat.
After a moment of silence, Sohajan finally spoke up, "Now, give me a proper reason to stop myself from cutting you." he asked straight forward without bringing in any other topic.
"Were you off into forest for training?" Vedna asked.
"Umm, I was kidnapped the night after the clan tournament!" Said Rudra.
"What? How?" both of them exclaimed in unison as their eyes widened with shock.
"It was a black mercenary!" Rudra replied.
"Then he must have been pretty powerful to be able to kidnap who had awakened his first chakra at that time!" Vedna said.
"No, he was nearly the same power level as me! But he used a special potion to knock me unconscious." Rudra explained.
"Then it must have been a high level potion! Which could not be afforded by any ordinary person…." Vedna was interrupted in midst by Sohajan: "But it could be afforded by powerful clans!"
"Which simply means, that mercenary was hired by someone powerful only to abduct me!"
"Most probably, the Masaan clan could have hired him, also that after Grandpa left the city. So that there isn't any obstacle in their objective."
"My guess is, perhaps they were planning to use me as a collateral for negotiations," Rudra kept his point."
"The hell, who knew they had schemed to such depths, only if I strong enough…." Sohajan sopped mid sentence.
"Anyways, What happened after you were kidnapped?" asked Vedna.
"I will give you a short explanation,
"My eyes opened in an unknown place, I heard that mercenary talking to himself about someone who was arriving to see me. With not much time, I somehow tricked that mercenary, and ran in to the forest. Somehow, I got rid of him. Later, I stumbled upon the nearby town and got some treatment from the physicians over there.
Coincidentally, I also stumbled upon one of our clan's allies, Dhaara clan, who were heading to Kashvyagiri city upon hearing the bad news. He gave me a lift. Later in the ruined city, we stumbled upon a beast. While confronting it, I got this injury." Rudra took a pause.
"The Dhaara clan members asked me to go and find you guys. I somehow treated my wound and found the tunnel that led here. Later, I came here and fortunately met you guys!"
Rudra took a deep breath after the explanation was finally complete. Vedna and Sohajan stared at him with blank eyes, taking some time to process whatever they had heard. The silence remained consistent between them for a few minutes until,
"You told that mercenary was waiting for someone to come. That someone must be very powerful from the Masaan clan," Vedna frowned as she said.
"So, they have really gotten so much guts in them these days." Sohajan clenched his fists.
"The Masaan clan really seemes to have grown very powerful recently, there must be some reason behind it!" Rudra said.
"To get such a potion to knock a first chakra saint like you knocked out, it must have cost them a lot! Even our clan wasn't enough eligible to afford something like that!" Vedna said.
"Really?!" Rudra asked in astonishment.
"Yeah!"
All of them got lost in thoughts once again. Rudra sat silently as he analyzed the entire situation in his mind. Rudra was thinking about the Masaan clan, about how it had grown so much in terms of power throughout the entire state of Mahak suddenly.
According to him there were only two ways. Either a powerful force had joined hands with the Masaan clan for some reason and was backing it, or the individuals of Masaan clan had gotten their hands on some kind of treasure which helped them become powerful. None of the possibilities seemed compatible but they had chances.
Whatever force would like to help a clan lower than them in terms of power and influence without any solid reason or relation. Even if there was a relation, that powerful force backing the Masaan clan must be beyond this state, cause there is no such clan that exists in the Mahak state.
As Rudra thought about it, his mind got stuck onto one question. 'The leader of the Masaan clan only feared my Grandpa, he only dared to take action in Grandpa's absence.
'If only Grandpa had been here! This all would t have happened!'
Why does he a always disappear on trips once in a while?'
Thinking about it, Rudra realized that all these questions had no answers right now as they only led him to dead ends. He calmed himself down, in search of clues, he tried to figure out the events that unfolded recently involving Masaan clan. Out of them, the only one he didn't knew about was it's attack on Kashvyagiri.
Rudra frowned as he asked: "Tell me!"
"After that day! What really happened?"