The dark night sky was just starting to turn blue when the iron gates of the military camp opened wide.
Karna rode out at the very front of the army.
Next to him rode Jayavarman, the commander of the cavalry.
Behind them came a massive line of fifty thousand elite horsemen.
A few miles outside the tall stone walls of Champapuri, Karna raised his hand to stop the army.
The fifty thousand horses stopped instantly.
Karna turned his horse to face Jayavarman.
“We cannot enter the city with the whole army,” Karna said quietly.
“Fifty thousand horses marching down the stone streets will sound like an earthquake.
It will wake up the entire capital and cause a huge panic.
The corrupt ministers will find out we are coming for them before we even reach the palace.”
Jayavarman listened closely.
“What are your orders, Your Majesty?”
“Take forty-five thousand of your men,”
Karna said, pointing toward the edges of the city.
“Leave your horses in a safe, hidden place outside the walls.
Have your men enter the city on foot through the small side gates.
They must move quietly through the alleys without alerting any citizens.
I want the city surrounded and every escape route closed.”
Jayavarman smiled, liking the smart plan.
“And what about the remaining men, Sire?”
“They will ride with me and Satyajit through the main gates,” Karna said, looking toward the distant palace towers.
“The sound of five thousand horses is loud enough to show the city that their new king has arrived, but it is small enough to look like a normal royal escort.
We will march straight to the palace.
Once we secure the halls inside, we will make our move.”
Jayavarman bowed low from his horse.
“As you command my king”
The massive cavalry force split up quickly .
Forty-five thousand men moved into the shadows of the trees.
As the sun began to rise, the heavy sound of five thousand horse hooves echoed through the streets, waking up the city.
Champapuri was strictly divided into two areas based on wealth and caste.
First, Karna’s group passed through the outer city.
This was the area where the poor people, laborers, fishermen, and low-caste workers lived.
As the soldiers rode past, the people watched with fear and curiosity.
Adults stood by their doorways and bowed their heads carefully.
But even though they were poor, the area felt alive.
Groups of ragged children laughed with joy.
They ran along the side of the road to watch the horses
Karna watched them silently, with slight smile.
Then, the soldiers crossed under a heavy stone archway into the inner city.
Here, the buildings looked completely different.
The roads became polished white stone.
The mud houses were replaced by tall mansions with painted balconies.
This was where the wealthy merchants, high-caste elites, and powerful Brahmins lived.
As Karna rode through these clean streets, the air felt ice-cold.
The rich residents stood on their balconies.
They looked down at Karna with hatred and disgust.
To them, the man on the horse was still just a Suta putra a charioteer’s son playing at being a king.
They did not bow or cheer.
They only stared coldly.
Karna did not care at all.
In fact, seeing their angry faces made him happy.
Their bad attitude meant he did not owe them anything.
He could make big changes and reforms in the future without caring about hurting their feelings.
He knew that in this era, a Brahmin’s curse had real power and would always come true.
But his modern mind allowed him to see the truth not all Brahmins were good, and not all were bad.
The greedy, arrogant priests standing on these balconies had no real power over him.
He know that because he already got cursed by an Brahmin , when he left the parasuram asramam, he wanted to practice is archery skills ,but one of his arrow killed an scared cow of an Brahmin .
Watching the cow die ,karna fell into the feet of the brahmin begged for forgiveness, he even offered promises of 100000 cows, land and wealth, he will give him in future .
He even goes as far as to offer himself as a servant to the brahmin
But the Brahmin saw Karna’s offer of immense wealth as an expression of pride and arrogance.
To the ascetic Brahmin, Karna’s response sounded like: “I am a powerful warrior, and I can easily buy my way out of this sin with gold and cows.”
This arrogance is precisely what enraged the Brahmin further.
He wanted Karna to understand that material power and future wealth could not undo the spiritual sin of killing a sacred animal, which is why he rejected the riches and issued the devastating curse instead.
He cursed Karna that he would be killed by his mortal enemy in the exact same helpless manner as the cow.
If only he got his memory before it .he could have changed everything
Now he can only live with curses that will take his life anytime.
He come out of his thought as he looked past the grand mansions of the merchant guilds.
“They think this kingdom is their private garden,”Karna thought, tightening his grip on the reins.
“I will destroy their monopolies and end their greed.
They will learn that Anga belongs to its people.”
Passing through the silent, hostile inner city, the group finally reached the gates of the royal palace.
It was a massive building made of white stone, with large gardens.
It was a fortress built for a large royal family.
Looking up at the massive building, Karna thought it was funny.
“All of this luxury, just for me?
This is far too much for one person.”
He shook the thought away.
‘I will worry about the palace later.
First, I need to throw out some trash of anga .’
As his horse stopped at the grand entrance of the palace, the heavy doors opened.
Walking down the steps with fake smiles on their faces were the four corrupt ministers Prime Minister Mahasrin, Treasurer Vradha, Chief Revenue Officer Shanku, and Commander Viraj.
Viraj had no idea that his ten thousand rebel soldiers were currently asleep in the ground outside the camp.
They held their fake accounting ledgers tightly against their chests, stepping forward to welcome their naive new king.