Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology - Chapter 1124

Chapter 1124: Bogdan Volkov and Ludmila Ivanova

16th July 1694

It was the middle of the monsoon, and the entire western coast for the last three weeks had been experiencing heavy rain intermittently. Due to the weather, some smaller ports had completely closed down, and travel of smaller vessels had been banned. A similar situation was seen in Mumbai. All the smaller ships were permanently tied to the harbour, bobbing up and down at the mercy of the waves, while the rains were still unrelenting, making even visibility over a few kilometres difficult.

There was one small advantage to all this, though. The footfall at the port had dropped sharply. Usually, many common people and small-time merchants travelled by sea, and due to this, the platforms were always crowded, but now they looked almost empty. Only a handful of passengers who used the larger ships that still sailed through the rough waters remained. For the small-time vendors that depended on the business of the port, this was obviously not the best time of the year, but the poor port staff were fully enjoying themselves; finally, they could rest for a while. Even though they could not completely slack off, compared to the busyness they experienced before, now they were practically lazing around.

“Dong!” “Dong!”

“Dong!” “Dong!”

The bells on the platform rang out consistently, and it attracted the attention of everyone present. After all, it was rare for a ship to be coming towards the port, especially in this weather.

Despite the rain, the port workers rushed to their stations, ready to jump into work and provide the stairs as soon as possible.

A big silhouette under the barrage of the rain vaguely appeared on the horizon, and this silhouette got bigger and bigger, finally turning into a ginormous ship, the biggest in the world, the 4500-tonne behemoth.

“No wonder the captain of the ship dared to sail even in such weather,” a merchant who was waiting for the weather to clear out so that he could load up his wares onto the ship muttered in awe.

As a ship that was reinforced by steel in its build, and being a ship that was constructed to travel the Pacific, the Kathmandu class was the undisputed king of the seas, the ship that dared to go against the storms.

Moments later, the gigantic vessel, like a monster resting after a long journey, dropped its port anchor and brought down its sails.

The port workers, like a swarm of ants rushing towards a grain of rice, rushed towards the ship and installed the rolling stairs on all 4 of its exit doors.

People slowly started to disembark; most of them were Bhartiya’s who had gone to the Mediterranean for business and tourism. There were still some Jews, Arabs, Persians, and Assyrians within the crowd. The Bharatiya Empire had already become a melting pot where all ancient cultures were welcomed, so the people at the port were not too surprised by their arrival, but it was the Egyptians who caught their attention. Although Egyptians were welcome in the Bharatiya Empire, and those who still practised their indigenous faith were even allowed to apply for citizenship and naturalisation, not a lot of Egyptians could be seen in the empire. So the attention was attracted by the four Egyptians who got down from the ship, completely ignoring the couple of Europeans who disembarked with a restless look on their faces.

It was a man and a woman in their late 20s or maybe even in their early 30s. The woman was holding the man, while the man hung a large sack on his back and walked forward in a hurry, trying to get away from the rain. His goal was the sheltered platform under which all the people stood.

Getting to the platform, he and his wife immediately removed the leather clothes on their body and dropped them to the ground. The clothes fell to the ground with a heavy thud. The couple finally let out a sigh of relief, looking at each other, they smiled, they finally made it.

The man finally paid attention to his surroundings, and he immediately felt awe. The entire platform stretched as far as his eye could see, with signal flags, bells, and a lot of symbols placed all over the platform. Even at the place he stood, there were chairs for people sitting and waiting. There were also markings on the floor, which he understood were to guide the people.

But he could not admire for too long, as the cold wind from the Arabian Sea brought shivers down his spine, he knew he immediately had to find a warm place to settle down.

He looked around to see if he could find anyone to talk to, and his eyes landed on an old man dressed in a coat not too dissimilar to his, but the one the old man wore was much more exquisite. Next to the old man sat a lovely little girl, dressed up like a fur doll.

The old man looked knowledgeable, so he decided to ask him.

“Sit down for a while, I’ll come back,” he said to his wife and approached the old man.

Jayachandra was taken aback when a pale-skinned European approached him. He furrowed his brows and showed a look of interest.

The man spoke out in a language he did not understand, so he shook his head, “Bharati, Marathi, Kannada, or Hindi?”

The man looked troubled, but suddenly his face lit up, and he started gesturing with his hands. Jayachandra immediately understood that the man was probably using sign language to communicate, but he felt troubled; he did not know sign language. Suddenly, he looked towards his granddaughter. “Chinnu, can you understand what the man is saying?” Since sign language was a compulsory course in all schools, his granddaughter probably knew.

His granddaughter nodded obediently and responded, “He said he wants to become a citizen. He is asking how?”

Jayachandra’s brows cleared, and he nodded in understanding. “Chinnu, can you ask him if it is the first time he is coming to the empire?”

His granddaughter did some hand gestures at the man, and he immediately nodded.

“In that case, go 200 metres down the lane and take a left at the large red board.” He pointed and spoke out while his granddaughter translated it into sign language.

The man showed a smile then he joined his hands in the namaskar and slightly bowed.

Jayachandra became happy, “Haha, no problem, and good luck.”

The man took his wife and walked down the platform as instructed. In fact, the man, being a peasant farmer in Slavic Byzantium, did not know sign language, but on his two-month-long journey, his companion or rather his family’s companion, was a pair of Bharatiya men, one of whom was deaf. Everything had to be communicated through the sign language for him, so after becoming friends with this pair and asking a lot about the Bharatiya Empire, since he had decided to settle there, he had learnt the language.

Sadly, they got down at the port of Gwadar, and he had to continue his journey with his wife. In fact, he wanted to get down at Gwadar as well, since that was already the Bharatiya Empire they wanted to live in, but the pair suggested they move to the mainland, where there were more opportunities, where the possibility of becoming naturalised was much more standardised, solving a bunch of problems in the future.

The man found the red board, as the old man had instructed, and he also saw the arrow pointing towards the left and a lot of words which he could not understand, but to his delight, there were also words in Russian, but unfortunately he was illiterate, he could only barely write his own name, and the same went for his wife.

Walking in, they found themselves inside a large palace-like room, with a red carpet draped on the ground and warm air radiating from the fireplace. The sudden warmth immediately sent a shiver throughout his body and made him feel comfortable all over.

“Russian?” Suddenly, he heard a voice to his right, and to his surprise, a lady was sitting at the desk, which he seemed to have completely ignored.

The man realised that he was asked a question, so he nodded.

The woman got up and waved at him, so taking his wife, he followed the woman, where she showed them to a room with a smile and a polite gesture.

To his surprise, entering the room, there was another woman around her 40s, maybe, she politely asked them to sit down, and when she talked, the man was surprised because she spoke fluent Russian with a northern accent.

“I assume this is your first time visiting the empire?”

The man nodded, “Yes, madam.”

The woman nodded, “What is your purpose?”

“It is to become citizens.”

“Hmm,” the woman frowned and asked, “Which ship did you arrive in?”

“It’s BNV Kedarnath.”

The woman quickly went through a list of documents and finally took out a ledger. She wore some sort of glasses and perused through them in quick succession.

“Bogdan Volkov and Ludmila Ivanova, a couple from Slavic Byzantium, travelled to Greece, took a European ship to Haifa, Kingdom of Israel, and once again took BNV Kedarnath from Israel, travelled to the island of Sokotra, and then to Mumbai.”

“Is this you?”

Bogdan was surprised that his travel was recorded in such detail, but he nodded, “Yes ma’am, that is me, and Ludmilla is my wife.” Ludmilla nodded and awkwardly did a namaskara.

The woman reciprocated, but her expression was a little stiff, “I will be upfront, Mr Bogdan, it is written here that you are a farmer without any other skill and on top of that, you are a practising Christian.”

“Your chance of naturalisation is extremely small.”

“What!” Bogdan’s heart almost stopped. “Is there… no other way?” he asked with a quiver. He could even feel the tug of his wife; he had left everything back home. There was nothing to go back to, not even family.

The woman shook her head, “Of course, there are other ways; in fact, to become a citizen of the empire is not impossible, but you have to do a lot of things that I don’t know if it is acceptable to you.”

Seeing a hint of hope, Bogdan became excited, “Please tell me, madam.”

“Are you aware of Russian shamanism?”

Bogdan did not understand why this question was asked, but he still nodded.

“If you revert back to Russian shamanism or any other indigenous belief, your chances of naturalisation and getting citizenship increase by at least 50%.”

Here is a more formal, oath-like version of the dialogue:

“But if you do not wish to change your faith, there remains another path. You may present yourself before the court and swear an oath in the following manner:”

“My deity is not the sole deity.”

“Others may worship different gods and still attain their rightful aspirations, even without devotion to my own.”

“I shall neither compel nor coerce any person to adopt my faith, in any manner, form, or means.”

“There are additional declarations as well, which shall be explained at the court itself.”

Bogdan felt a little troubled since, from birth he was taught that Jesus was the only one and everyone who did not believe in Jesus would go to hell, but he was not so devout either, he simply attended the church in order to keep up with others, so it did not matter as long as his chances to be naturalised while staying Christian increased.

“By doing this, can I get naturalised?” he asked with hope, but unfortunately, the lady shook her head.

“No, it only increases the chances slightly, since normally labour is not lacking in our empire.”

“So if you want to stay Christian, you can take the oath in the court as I said, but I warn you, if you break the oath, you will be kicked out of the empire and deported to Europe, and you should also learn some valuable skills.”

“Choose a skill that you think you can prosper in and join a skill enhancement class, which the immigration department will direct you to, but it will cost you money. Fortunately, you can learn on a loan, and once you get the job, you can pay it back.”

“But even with all this, you will not be a full citizen, you will be on a temporary citizenship basis, which will be given for five years, in this five years if you prove to be a valuable asset to the society, your citizenship will be approved, if not, you can only stay with visa and leave after it expires.”

“So I still suggest you revert to your indigenous faith where the chances of naturalisation are the highest.”

Bogdan was troubled; reverting to other faiths felt like losing an important part of himself, but staying Christian meant the chances of naturalisation were extremely small.

The lady seemed to understand the man’s troubles, so she let out a sigh and responded, “In fact, there is also another way.”

“What way?”

“You could take the skill enhancement route after taking the oath, but if you are not able to be naturalised after the review, you can actually move to a vassal kingdom of the Bharatiya Empire.”

“Conditions there are not as good as in the empire, but they are developing at a fast pace, and there are a lot more opportunities. If you learn a good skill, you might immediately find a job there, and the naturalisation conditions are much less stringent over there.”

Bogdan let out a sigh of relief. As long as he was not kicked back to Europe, anything was a plus, so he decided he would take the oath, join a skill enhancement class, and see if he could get naturalised, but if not, he would settle in some vassal kingdom.

After making the decision, his heart became much lighter, and thankfully, he was allowed to stay in an inn managed by the immigration department for a few days until he could get enrolled in the skill enhancement class.