Chapter 553: King Vritra, Indra's Enemy

The Kingdom of Vritra in the southern part of the Indus Plain consists of a royal city and ninety-nine villages of various sizes.

The population of the Kingdom of Vritra exceeds one hundred thousand, and the king who rules them is Vritra.

In the mythology of the Vedic era, Vritra is a demon with the head of a human and the body of a snake, neither human nor god.

The image of Vritra is very similar to the King of Athens in Greek mythology.

King Pandion and Erechtheus of Athens, as the adopted sons of the earth goddess who protected the city of Athens, also had the image of a human head and a snake body, but they were not real gods, so they were demigods who were neither human nor gods.

Vritra was probably like the king of Athens in ancient times, a priest who served the earth goddess as a king.

In Vedic mythology, Vritra is a powerful demon, and Indra was born to conquer him.

In the Vedic myth of Indra's battle with Vritra, Vritra once swallowed Indra into his belly, and Indra came out of his belly to save himself from danger.

The story of the Buddha of Buddhism being swallowed up by the Buddha's mother, the Peacock King, and then having his belly ripped open may have originated from the myth of Indra and Vritra.

In the myth of Lord Buddha, Lord Buddha worshiped the peacock King Ming who ate him as his mother.

In the story of Indra, Indra did not regard Vritra as his father, but made Vritra his father-in-law.

When Vritra's envoy brought Roy and 50,000 troops to Vritra's royal city, Vritra personally brought many of his subjects to the outside of the city to greet Roy.

Seeing the mighty army behind Roy, Vritra showed a worried expression on his face.

Because Roy brought too many troops.

The Vritra Kingdom's maximum conscription could only raise an army of 20,000.

Anyone in their right mind would definitely be worried that Roy would become a guest.

While Vritra was observing Roy's army, Roy was also observing Vritra.

Roy was surprised that Vritra and his family were not dark-skinned Dravidians, but fair-skinned West Asians.

In other words, they were a West Asian group that worshiped the earth goddess and migrated to India. They conquered the local Dravidians and became a royal family.

"No wonder the Vedic people dared to offer the local princess as a sacrifice to Indra after conquering the local ethnic group. It turned out that the royal princess of the local ethnic group was not the black princess of the Dravidian people, but one that conformed to the aesthetics of the Vedic people. Fair-skinned beautiful girl.”

Looking at the beautiful and innocent Princess Yueyi wearing white cotton priest robes next to Vritra, Roy couldn't help but think of the promise made by Vritra's envoy to him - as long as he joins hands with Vritra to deal with the Vedic people, Vritra will He will marry the beautiful Princess Yueyi to himself.

"Your Majesty, the great Emperor of Athens, thank you for aiding us and bringing your powerful army."

Coming to Roy, Vritra said respectfully.

"I have prepared a banquet in the palace and invite the distinguished guests to accept my hospitality."

"Dear King Vritra! As a guest, of course I will abide by the master's arrangements."

Arriving at Vritra's palace, Roy saw that not only the royal family, but also the nobles had few Dravidians with darker skin.

After the lively banquet began, the royal family and nobles of the Kingdom of Vritra happily expressed their gratitude to Roy.

Because the war with the Vedic people during this period did cause them great harm.

Facing the Vedic cavalry, they were unable to mount an effective counterattack.

After everyone had eaten and drank at the banquet, Roy took the initiative to stir up the topic.

"King Vritra! How are you going to proceed when we join forces to deal with the Vedic people? Your soldiers are not large in number, and they are mainly infantry. Do you want to leave the matter of dealing with the Vedic people entirely to my army? "

Vritra shook his head and said.

"Although I only have 20,000 soldiers, and they are all infantry, I have contacted my cousin Luohu to form an alliance. Luohu is a more powerful king than me. He can bring an army of 30,000, and I can join forces with him. Fifty thousand infantry can use some terrain to deal with the Vedic cavalry, so we locals will be the main force against the Vedic people. You Athenians are distinguished guests, and your task is to prevent the Vedic people from escaping from the battlefield."

It can be seen that Vritra is obviously on guard against Roy, so he does not want Roy to make huge contributions on the battlefield.

After all, in this era, spoils will be distributed according to merit on the battlefield.

Now the Vedic people had conquered the Harappan kingdom which was guarded by the water god Varuna.

If the Athenian army became the main contributor to the defeat of the Vedic people, then the territory of the Harappa Kingdom should belong to the Athenian Empire.

Although he could see Vritra's thoughts, Roy didn't care.

Because the history of another world has proved that these natives cannot defeat the Vedic people at all.

As if to make it up to Roy, Vritra continued.

"Young emperor, I will keep my promise and marry you my daughter Princess Yueyi. My daughter Yueyi is a priestess serving the goddess Kali, so she has not married until now. In order to thank you for your assistance , Yueyi will give up his lifelong goal of serving the goddess."

After Vritra finished speaking, the beautiful Princess Yueyi immediately walked to Roy and knelt on the ground, then bent down to touch Roy's right foot with her forehead.

This is a great gift to touch your feet——

Roy immediately reached out and grabbed Yueyi's shoulders, forcibly lifted her up and said.

"Princess Yueyi! Although guests should follow the local customs and respect the host, I don't like this kind of gift. No matter you regard me as a god or the most distinguished guest, you don't need to bow to me. Because in my Athenian Empire, people are very important. We are all equal, even a beggar can look into my eyes as an emperor."

Yueyi is only a girl of about eighteen years old, and she has always been a priestess living in the Kali Temple, so she has the innocence and ignorance consistent with her age and identity.

After hearing what Roy said, Yueyi said a little at a loss.

"Then don't you, the emperor, have no authority? Will your subjects really obey your orders?"

"I don't need anyone else to obey my orders."

Roy said confidently.

"In other places, kings and chiefs will instill loyalty in their subjects and let them serve them with loyalty. But in the Athenian Empire, my relationship with my subjects is more like an employment relationship. I will pay the officials and soldiers enough salary in exchange for They get the job done. My subjects don’t work for me, they work to provide for their families, so I don’t need anyone’s loyalty or authority to be feared.”

"Then aren't you worried about someone usurping the throne?"

"My soldiers rely on me to provide money for their families, so whoever wants to usurp the throne is an enemy of all soldiers and will be torn to pieces by the angry soldiers."

Roy explained patiently.

"In the Athenian Empire, wealth is concentrated in the hands of the royal family. No one has the financial resources to replace me and feed all the soldiers."

"I see……"

Yueyi suddenly nodded and said.

"I seem to understand. You exchanged money for the loyalty of soldiers, and concentrated all the wealth in your own hands. You really don't need to worry about someone usurping the throne. It is said that there are no nobles in the Athenian Empire. It seems that the reason why you eliminated the nobles is that you don't want anyone to control the huge empire. With wealth, he could buy soldiers and become a threat to the royal family."