By the arrival of his seventh year, Prince Vikramaditya's intellectual extraordinary nature had become impossible to conceal. He possessed a terrifying grasp of statecraft, economics, and mathematics that left his tutors bewildered and his father, King Mahendra Deva, thoroughly convinced that his son was an avatar of a divine sage. Vikramaditya used this growing reverence to worm his way into the core administrative apparatus of the kingdom.
He deeply respected his father's achievements. To maintain the absolute sovereignty of a small kingdom like Khurda while surrounded by ravenous, continent-spanning empires was nothing short of a miracle. However, Vikramaditya knew that passive survival was a slow death sentence. The internal state of Khurda was a ticking time bomb. Fanatical slamic clerics, secretly funded by the Bengal Sultanate, were actively fanning communal fires within Khurda's borders, inciting the minority population to rebel against the 'Indu' crown with the ultimate goal of transforming Khurda into an Islamic autocracy.
Simultaneously, a cabal of treacherous, separatist Nobles and Zamindars were actively conspiring to dismantle the central authority of the king, attempting to carve out independent fiefdoms for their personal enrichment, even if it meant selling out their borders to the Mughals.
One quiet evening, inside the king's private chambers, Vikramaditya laid out his grand strategic vision. His father listened in rapt, stunned silence as a seven-year-old child outlined a flawless, cold-blooded plan for the total centralization of the state.
"Our first order of business, Father, is the absolute eradication of internal treason," Vikramaditya whispered, his dark eyes reflecting the flickering candlelight. "We must completely abolish the feudal power of the nobility and the Zamindari system. All administrative, judicial, and military authority must be stripped from the lords and concentrated solely within the crown. To manage the religious insurgency, we shall deploy a ruthless strategy of internal division—pitting competing factions against each other while we build an unstoppable, modernized military force."
The prince estimated that the initial administrative subversion would require at least two years of quiet, meticulous setup. "Once the nobles are neutralized and our borders are secured with a highly disciplined, technologically superior army that can look the Mughals and the Sultanates in the eye, we shall launch a total purge of the insurgent elements. For now, we play the sycophant to Vijayanagar, sending them lavish gifts and false tributes to keep their gaze fixed upon the Dutch." His ultimate, unyielding objective is the creation of a unified, industrial Indu Empire encompassing the entirety of Bharat—a civilization fortified by advanced science that will endure for a thousand years, providing a permanent safe haven against the darkness of the future."