Tyranny of Steel

While Berengar was negotiating with Emperor Vetranis and Princess Khorjin. Dharya was in a room alone with his sister. The beautiful young Indian woman had a healthy glow to her appearance, and a wide smile on her face as she was finally able to see her brother after what felt like a lifetime away from him.

For the early part of her life, Priya had been locked up in a small room, where the only person who ever bothered to care for her was her elder brother. However, the life she once knew had drastically changed when the boy emperor willingly went into exile, all for the sake of her health.

In the years Priya had spent in Kufstein, she had developed a love of the German culture, and the people who contributed it. She no longer dressed in the traditional Indian attire, and instead wore some of the finest silk dresses that the Reich had to offer. The only time she ever bothered to wear a saree was when Berengar was feeling in the mood for it.

The Indian Princess had even fallen in love with her foster father and was now carrying his child. Which was thanks in part to Linde's manipulation of the man. Though she wasn't an official wife, Priya felt content with her lot in life, as she lived in lavish luxury and was showered with love from her foster family.

It wasn't just Berengar who Priya had fallen in love with, but his entire family, especially his wife Yasmin, who was the mother which the girl had never known. Though she was still a bit na?ve and immature, the man she loved more than anything wholly protected her from the dangers of the world.

As for Dharya, since he had retaken his family's throne, his life had been harsh. He had no time to worry about taking a wife, or a lover, and spent nearly every waking hour of every day managing his realm.

Agriculture, plumbing, waste recycling, advancement of the military, and the sale of spices abroad. These were just a small list of the intense matters which required his constant management. If not for the brief education he had received in the Reich, he would surely have failed by now.

Restoring a collapsing state to its former glory was something that Dharya could not manage on his own. Instead, he had a long list of German advisors who assisted him with every step. He thought for most of his life that he wanted to be free of his uncle's tyranny and to reign as he saw fit. But in reality, the throne itself was a chain that he could never be free of.

Where his sister lived the fantasy life of a spoiled princess, he had been neck deep in the filth that only a ruler could properly understand. To top it all off, he did so not for the glory and prosperity of his own people, but for the sake of his foreign masters, who were themselves wolves in sheep's clothing.

While the Germans were the most powerful ally he could ask for, one who was willing to invest countless funds and effort into the construction of a prosperous client state, they were also the worst enemy one could make. If Dharya ever had any thoughts about liberating his people from the servitude of their German masters, his fate and that of his people would be worse than death.

Naturally, Dharya could not tell any of this to his beloved sister, as she had fallen in love with the Tyrant who presided over the Reich. He was certain that should his lips become loose, the girl would undoubtedly tell everything he had said to the man. Thus, the conversation he had with Priya was entirely superficial. However, the young woman's next words had completely caught the young Indian Emperor off guard.

"By the way... I'm pregnant."

Dharya stood there in silence, as if his head had just been hit by a baseball bat, and he was trying to recover his senses. What did his sister just say? She was pregnant? Then who was the father? Of course, he already knew the answer to this, but he could not help but question the words Priya had spoken to him.

"What? Who? Who dares lay their hands on my precious sister? I'll rip his intestines out and nail them to his body inch by inch!"

Before Priya could properly react to her brother's sudden rage, a slight knock resounded on the opened door behind the two of them. Berengar stood in the doorway with a smug smile on his face, before gloating at the young man.

"That would be me. Are you going to rip my intestines out and nail them to my body inch by inch? Though I don't know how such a thing would be possible, I'm pretty sure you would run out of torso long before you could accomplish such a feat." </>

Of course, it was Berengar. There was literally nobody else who could have impregnated the Indian Emperor's little sister. However, to see the man so boldly admit it in front of him caused Dharya to be filled with rage. He instantly turned around to Berengar and walked up to the man as if he intended to strike him.

Which Berengar found laughable, as he was substantially taller than his Indian counterpart. However, before he could make a comment about this, Dharya went off on him.

"You promised you wouldn't! As long as I obeyed your commands, you swore to me that you would not touch her!"

Berengar frowned when he heard this while looking down on Dharya. He was very quick to clear the air in front of Priya.

"I promised you that so long as you did not make my life difficult, I would not force myself on the girl. However, I do believe I made it abundantly clear that if she approached me of her own accord, I would not deny myself the pleasure of becoming intimate with her. I lived up to my promise, so don't go making me out to be the bad guy here."

Dharya had no words for this. Everything Berengar had said was accurate. Perhaps he was simply deluding himself, believing that his sister would never fall for the man. It was only now that he realized that Priya had developed feelings for Berengar long before he left to reclaim his birthright.

He could no longer stare at Berengar, whose expression became more smug with each passing second. Thus, Dharya simply turned away and walked out the door. Priya was about to run after her brother, but was caught by her lover before she could do so. With a cautious tone in his voice, he asked Priya the question that was most prevalent on his mind.

"Is what you said true? You're really pregnant?"

Priya nodded her head in silence before looking away. She thought that her brother would be happy for her, but in the end, he was just as childish as she remembered him to be. She could only sigh in defeat before expressing her thoughts to the man she loved.

"I'm sorry. I should have told you sooner. If I had, we could have avoided this mess. Had I known that Dharya would act this way, I would've come up with a better plan. If you will excuse me, I need to go console my brother."

Berengar pecked Priya on the cheek in a display of affection before sending her off to go find Dharya. He honestly did not expect such a situation to devolve into such a sorry state. With Priya's cute bottom exiting his vision, Berengar could only sigh and express his lament.

"That boy is way too overprotective of his sister. I believe we used to call guys like him a sis-con..."

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