Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

5th October 1671

Cultural capital Kozhikode, Cheranadu state, Akhand Bharatiya Empire

A young man, barely 16 years old, walked out of a small publishing company with a dejected look on his face. The streets were lively, people passing by with joyful expressions and kids running around everywhere, showcasing the vitality of youth. But the young man, as if isolated from the whole world, stood alone on the footpath, heartbroken. It was as if the whole world was leaving him behind as he alone stood stagnant.

It wasn't until drops of water started to pour down that the young man finally woke up from his daze and quickly took cover under a carriage stop.

"Sigh!!"

The young man was none other than Bhavanth Xochipilli, the Native American student who is studying in the Bharatiya Empire with a scholarship from the Raya University.

He had already spent over one and a half years on the mainland of the Empire. Bhavanth loved the atmosphere of schooling in the mainland of the Bharatiya Empire, especially in the Murugan College, which was not only located in the educational capital of Cheranadu in a coastal region, but it also had a cultural club which he was looking forward to joining.

The first year, everything went well. He excelled in his studies and passed the first year of pre-university with flying colours. But starting from the second year, he decided to finally pursue his dream of wanting to become a writer. He already had a layout for his story in his mind ever since he travelled to the Bharatiya Empire in BNV Purushotham.

But when he wanted to write down the story, most of his friends, even the close ones who were very supportive of him finally writing a story, finally dissuaded him from doing so. Because when he mentioned to them his story was about a Native American pirate who robs from the rich, gives to the poor, and goes on adventures throughout the world and challenges the authority everywhere, some directly said that such a story has never been written in the Empire, while others told him to change his layout, as given that the main character of the story is not a good person but a thief, no one will be willing to read his story.

He was disappointed, discouraged even, because when he searched for some comfort and reached out to Sister Preethi Citlalmina, surprisingly she was also not too confident in his novel, with her point being that although the main character is Native American and good in character, his profession as a pirate ultimately gives a bad name to the Native American community in the Bharatiya Empire.

When he heard the reason, Bhavanth was stunned, because what she said was indeed true. If his novel is taken well, then naturally it will not have any negative effect on his fellow brothers and sisters, but if it is not taken well, then he could permanently place a stigma on them. Although the probability of that happening is extremely low, since for that to happen, his novel has to become extremely popular, in the end, which aspiring author would write his novel thinking that it would be mediocre? So he knew that he couldn't take any chances. So he rewrote the book, this time the character being Janardan Sparrow, a Dutch Bharatiya Gypsy, and the main theme staying the same.

Despite not getting any approval from his friends, Bhavanth wrote the first volume of the novel after three months of hard struggle, after a continuous cycle of rewriting, research, correcting, refining, and repeating.

Just when he prepared the final draft and submitted it to the local newspaper companies through the connections of the college Literature Club, thinking that he would become a well-known writer in one fell swoop, as he was always aware that he was a good writer—he compared his writing with other writers who are published—but to his surprise, all the five newspaper companies rejected his draft, stating the reason that the main character is too negative.

He was disappointed and heartbroken. He didn't come out of his dormitory room for two whole days when that happened, and the only reason he came out of his dormitory was because he couldn't take any more leaves from the college. However, Bhavanth did not give up. He kept trying and applied to multiple other newspaper companies in surrounding cities. That did not work either. Then he started to contact publishing houses that had the capabilities of printing the whole novel, but to his misfortune, apparently the chances of publishing houses accepting novel submissions from unknown writers is less than the chances of newspapers accepting story drafts from unknown writers.

Every step of his way was thorny and not easy, especially a month ago when he almost wanted to give up on the novel and write something else more traditional due to two massive hurdles: one being his financial situation, because if he is being honest he is short of money for tuition fees for the university. In essence, since he was sponsored by Raya University for his studies in college, they should be willing to cover him for the university costs as well, but Bhavanth knows clearly that that will only work if he had made some achievements in his college. If he has not made any achievements, then, not to mention joining Raya University, he won't even get the scholarship to join other universities.

The other reason is the publishing of the last volume of the Harish Puthar novel two months ago, taking the empire by storm. On the first day alone, the book had worldwide sales of over 1.5 million copies, and within a week, it sold 2.2 million copies; by the end of the month, it had already reached 8.63 million copies.

What's more, last week, the whole six to seven volumes of Harish Puthar novels written by her majesty were bundled into a single package and sold together as a Deluxe version, which brought in a lot of new readers and grossed a mind-boggling sales of 900,000 in a day. Now, keep in mind the bundle is more than five times costlier than the individual versions.

The whole of the empire was occupied by the storm of mystics and the mystical world, as Her Majesty Kavya's mystic world novel series grossed a profit of over 100 million Varaha. There was no publishing house, studio, or media company willing to release any new novels or books in the same or similar genre competing with it.

It was Bhavanth's bad luck. Although his novel is mostly naval adventures and the life of pirates, it had quite a few fantasy elements in it, very weird and different fantasy elements that had never been seen before in the first place, so it was no surprise that he was continuously rejected.

His "Pirates of the Southeast" Novel was written to be his ticket to the university, but unfortunately, he wasn't even allowed to get on the starting line, much less given a chance to win.

The Publishing house Bhavanth came out today was the sixth one in the week, the thirty-fifth one in the month, and the sixty-second one in the last three to four months.

Saying that he was disappointed is speaking lightly. In the end, life must go on, so with dejection, after the rain slowed down, he walked to the dormitory in small steps.

He came across a few classmates who recognised him; they greeted him, and he greeted them back with a smile. Everyone could tell that he was not in a good mood, so they did not try to talk to him any longer. In such a way, he opened the door of his dormitory, wanting to lie down and go to sleep; he wanted to forget all his troubles; he didn't even have the heart to go out for dinner.

"Eh?"

However, what was surprising was that as soon as he opened the door, he saw a young woman sitting inside, looking at his wall, which he used to map out the elements of his novel.

"Sister Preethi!!" he exclaimed, not expecting her to be here.

Preethi Citlalmina, hearing the sound of the door opening, turned her head to see Bhavanth.

"Here you go," she said as she handed Bhavanth an agreement.

"This is?" Bhavanth took over the agreement, and he still couldn't understand what it was for.

Looking at his messy hair that had been blown up by the wind and his confused expression like that of a puppy, Preeti laughed in amusement. She felt that her little brother looked very cute.

"This is an agreement from *The Observer* newspaper. They are willing to air your story in the newspaper."

"Wha– How?" He definitely didn't think that the people at *The Observer* suddenly discovered the awesomeness of his novel. Something else must have happened, and as he expected, Preethi's next words confirmed his guess.

"It's nothing complicated, really. The Khalyan family, the famous business family behind *The Observer* newspaper, seems to want to expand the newspaper to the overseas territories of the Bharatiya Empire."

"Your hometown is one of the locations where they seem to want to expand. They require a lot of local help to expand the newspaper, and naturally, they require the help of local people, among whom we Native Americans are also present."

"In such a way, the elders among our people decided to ask a favour on your behalf. But remember, your story will only be published in Cheranadu, and it will only be for a week. If your story gets good ratings in the week, then it will be continued. If not, then there is nothing anyone can do about it."

Bhavanth was overwhelmed with emotions. He didn't expect that for him to get a chance, the elders had to use a favour from *The Observer*, which is extremely valuable. Tears started to glisten in his eyes.

"Don't think too much. The people back in the frontier are already being paid very well for their services in opening up the market. And as for the favour the Kalyan family has granted, there is no one in the community apart from you who can use it. So don't feel pressured and bravely move forward. Work hard, the elders of our community are very confident about your growth."

"If you want to thank the elders for this offer or anything, then you can simply write more stories about our people and their struggle."

"Yes, Sister," his voice choked.

To be continued...