Reborn in The Princess Diaries: My Multiverse Empire
Chapter 16 – Attention
Winning recognition in the National Student Innovation Challenge brought more changes to Anshul's life than he expected.
At first, the news spread slowly within the school.
One teacher mentioned it during a staff meeting.
Another teacher congratulated him after class.
Within a few days, almost everyone in the school knew about it.
One morning, as Anshul entered the classroom, Rahul leaned back in his chair and grinned.
"Celebrity has arrived."
Anshul rolled his eyes.
"Stop exaggerating."
"I'm not exaggerating," Rahul said dramatically. "Our school finally produced someone famous."
Several students nearby laughed.
Another classmate turned around and asked, "Hey Anshul, is it true your software is being used by hundreds of students now?"
Anshul shrugged slightly.
"Something like that."
Rahul quickly added, "More than three hundred users."
"Four hundred now," Anshul corrected quietly.
The room fell silent for a moment.
"Four hundred?" someone repeated.
For a school project in the early 2000s, that number sounded impressive.
But Anshul didn't feel proud yet.
Because he understood something important.
Four hundred users was only the beginning.
If he truly wanted to build something meaningful, the scale had to grow much larger.
---
That afternoon, the principal called him to the office.
Anshul knocked on the door.
"Come in."
The principal sat behind his desk with two teachers standing nearby.
"Anshul," the principal said with a warm smile, "we heard about your project."
"Yes, sir."
The principal leaned back slightly.
"Your achievement has brought positive attention to the school."
One of the teachers added, "The education department even mentioned the competition results in their newsletter."
Anshul hadn't expected that.
"That's good to hear," he said politely.
The principal nodded.
"We'd like you to demonstrate your software to a few teachers next week."
"Of course."
Another teacher asked curiously, "Have you thought about expanding it further?"
Anshul paused.
"A little."
The principal folded his hands thoughtfully.
"You should consider turning it into something bigger."
That sentence stayed in Anshul's mind long after he left the office.
Something bigger.
Until now, StudyFlow had been a project.
But what if it could become something more?
---
Later that evening, Anshul sat in front of the family computer again.
The slow dial-up internet connected after several seconds of static noise.
He opened the statistics page for StudyFlow.
The numbers had grown again.
Users: 418
Most of them were students from nearby schools.
Some were from cities he had never visited.
All of them were using something he had created.
Anshul leaned back in his chair.
The idea slowly formed in his mind.
A real startup.
The thought was both exciting and intimidating.
Running a company required far more than programming skills.
Business planning.
Funding.
Marketing.
Legal work.
He glanced toward the bookshelf where his father kept legal documents and case files.
Perhaps learning business would be the next step.
---
That night during dinner, his father noticed him unusually quiet.
"What's on your mind?"
Anshul hesitated before answering.
"I've been thinking about StudyFlow."
His father raised an eyebrow.
"What about it?"
"What if it becomes a real company someday?"
His grandfather chuckled softly.
"That's a big ambition."
His father didn't laugh.
Instead, he asked seriously, "Do you believe it has that potential?"
Anshul considered the question carefully.
"Yes."
His father nodded slowly.
"Then you should treat it seriously."
He paused before adding something important.
"But remember something."
"What?"
"Building a company takes patience."
"Years of patience."
Anshul nodded.
"I understand."
His father smiled slightly.
"Good."
---
Later that night, Anshul returned to his room and opened a fresh notebook.
At the top of the page he wrote:
StudyFlow Future Plan
Below it he began listing ideas.
Improve software stability.
Expand to more schools.
Develop teacher management tools.
Create institutional versions.
The list continued growing.
The project that had started as a simple competition entry was slowly transforming into something much larger.
Anshul stared at the notebook for a moment.
Then he closed it.
Because one thing was certain.
The journey had only just begun.
And the future was becoming more interesting with every step forward.