Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

5th September 1671

Shaurya Royal Palace, Imperial Capital Bengaluru, Akhand Bharatiya Empire

"What!!" A loud shout of a woman reverberated throughout the Royal Palace, causing all the maids, servants, and guards to immediately become silent.

Their expressions became stiff as they looked at each other without any words.

Not every day will there be a quarrel in the Royal Palace.

"How could you send Agni to the battlefield? Vijay, how heartless you are."

*Slam*

Vijay's brows furrowed a little when the door was slammed shut by Kavya, as she barricaded herself into her studio. But still, the decision of Vijay did not change. If Agni had hesitated when he asked him the question, then maybe he would have listened to Kavya, but not right now. If his son wanted to take on his mantle, then he wouldn't accept anything less than perfect from him. And for that to happen, he was willing to take huge risks, even to the point of making his wife distance herself from him for a while.

Vijay let out a breath of turbulent air and got up. Agni had just bid farewell to his mother and siblings a few hours ago and left for the Middle Eastern battlefield after handing over some requests to Bhaskara Charya to look after his business.

"Prepare the carriage," Vijay uttered as he rubbed his temples in annoyance.

Despite making up his mind to train Agni into his future successor, Vijay still felt uncomfortable when he quarrelled with Kavya. From the moment they were married, they rarely quarrelled, and the last time they quarrelled to such an extent was a few years ago, which, coincidentally, was also related to Agni. It was about him skipping several grades in school and college, and directly entering the university so far away.

Thankfully, at that time, he still calmed his wife down by making her realise that Agni would stay in the southern part of the empire most of the time, as he was starting his own business. But he doesn't know how long Kavya will stay mad at him this time. Thinking about it, a wry smile appeared on his face. But unfortunately, there was nothing he could do, as it is his duty as the emperor to select the most suitable person to inherit his mantle, and he does not expect Kavya to understand his persistence, since she has her own considerations and ideas about her son. Which mother would want her son to go into such a dangerous battlefield?

In the end, Vijay could only hope that with time, she would return to normal.

For now, in order to take his mind away from the troubles, he finally decided to inspect Venkatapathy Scientific, a company under the Raya Machinery Group focused on producing professional, high-tolerance, precision machines.

Jeevan, the director of Venkatapathy Scientific, had been inviting him to come to the factory for the last few months, as apparently a very interesting machine had been developed by an engineer in the company. But since he was distracted by the war that was happening in the Middle East and Europe, he did not get the chance to visit.

Thinking that now is better than ever, he soon set off to the Kavery River Bank Industrial Zone.

---

Govardhan Yadav, a 38-year-old engineer working in Venkatpatti Scientific, is one of the senior engineers of the company who is responsible for the Iterative research for the Reddy-Pillai thermometer produced in the company.

However, taking advantage of his position for the last several years, he has been researching a machine in his off time. The machine he was inventing was a type of printer that is extremely small compared with traditional printers.

He had gone through 82 prototypes, investing over 4.5 million of his own money. Although he is not bankrupt, since he does earn on average one to two million varaha per year, he is not rich like his fellow colleagues in his position either. Recently, he made another prototype, which he, to be honest, was not very satisfied with. But to be fair, this is the only prototype that could be used as proof of concept to act as a working model that can be used to pitch to the investors for investment.

With the mindset of giving it a try, since there was nothing to lose, he directly brought his prototype to Director Jeevan. To his delight, the director was really interested in the machine, which anyone can use to print high-quality, uniform documents. But at the same time, the question he asked next completely stumped him: "If the machine you invented is slower than a person writing by hand and requires more money, what is the use of it?"

Unsurprisingly, his investment request was put on hold—not rejected or accepted, just put on hold—because apparently the director wanted to do some research before making the decision to invest.

Govardhan felt like the reason was acceptable, so he didn't take the machine to other manufacturers. In such a way, days passed, weeks ended, and it had almost reached the end of the month, and he still did not get the reply. Just when he was about to give up waiting and take his invention to other manufacturers to see if they were interested, he received the shock of his life when he was informed that His Majesty would be coming to the company and would inspect his invention personally.

He was overwhelmed with emotions, but at the same time, he was looking forward to it. He meticulously oiled up the machine, polished it until even a speck of dust could not be seen, and he even tested out the machine by typing a few lines himself so as to make sure that everything was working as it should.

Moments later, he was informed that His Majesty was in the building and he was coming to the laboratory.

Govardhan's heartbeat suddenly began to spiral out of control. His hands started shaking uncontrollably. He is a pretty unsociable person; apart from his direct family members, he has no social relations with others. Even while meeting Director Jeevan, he feels very nervous. His unsociable nature is one of the reasons why he was so patient in waiting for the response from the director, because if all his troubles could be solved in the company he was working in, then he could avoid a lot of hassle for himself. But now, he was going to meet the emperor of the Akhand Bharatiya Empire, His Majesty the Rajyapathi himself, Vijay Devaraya Maharaj.

He kept having Intrusive thoughts about wanting to run away immediately, but he kept suppressing it, walking around the laboratory restlessly. But the next moment, as he heard the click of the door, he knew that even if he wanted to, he could not go anywhere.

Govardhan was so overstimulated that as soon as he saw the silhouette behind the door, he immediately bowed down with a namaskar, his eyes closed, his voice loud, "Long live Your Majesty, long live, long live!"

Vijay was taken aback by the sudden shout of enthusiasm coming from within the laboratory, but looking at the middle-aged man whose entire aura screamed 'let me disappear', Vijay could understand what was going on.

Not responding to the clearly nervous man, Vijay's attention was soon attracted by the gigantic spectacle on the desk. When he finally learnt that the interesting invention was a type of printer that can be used by a single individual and had been researched by an engineer in Venkatapatti Scientific, the image of those classic typewriters came to his mind. But looking at the gigantic monster on the table, which was the size of a baby's cradle, he did not know how to respond.

He looked around the machine, peered through the gaps, looked at the mechanisms within, and also tried pressing a few keys. They were very stiff and not as satisfying as the ones he remembered, but still, he could tell that at least the core technologies required to make a typewriter were all in here, which made him look at the awkward middle-aged man in a new light. In his last life, proper typewriters were not invented until 1868 in the United States by three different inventors: Christopher Latham Sholes, Carlos Glidden, and Samuel Soulé. It was the famous US patent number 79,265.

But now, this person, although still rudimentary, had mastered all the core technologies of the typewriter.

"Mr. Govardhan, would you please demonstrate the machine for me?" Vijay requested as he gestured towards the machine and stepped back.

"Ah—yes, Your Majesty."

Govardhan was startled by the call, but as if he was responding instinctively, he came before the typewriter, did all the pre-checks almost unconsciously, and started clicking the keys.

'Ding!'

"H-Here you are, Your Majesty."

Vijay took over the paper, which was as big as a painting canvas, and read through the letters, which were not aligned properly.

"Hello, my name is Yadav Printer."

The words were very straightforward but effective.

"Why don't you call it a typewriter? This thing, which is bound to be focused on the civilian market, is completely different from a traditional printer. "

"Ah, y-yes, Your Majesty. I will correct it right away." Sweat was oozing on Govardhan's forehead as he went over to take another page. It was almost as if he had made a mistake in naming the invention and was correcting it. Vijay, noticing this, did not know how to correct the misunderstanding. He simply gave a suggestion, not an order. But looking at the man's sweaty appearance, who looked like he was about to collapse at any time, he stopped himself from talking anymore, which might very well lead to more misunderstandings. So, in the end, deciding to come to the point directly, he quickly stopped Govardhan.

To Be Continued...