Things Get Rough

Aditya chatted with Anupama as he prepared to make the dessert. She helped him grate the dark chocolate bar, get the cream and the other ingredients while Aditya prepared other things. Even Anupama was quite surprised at Aditya's skill. They chatted about a few past events where they spent time together in the eleventh grade.

Aditya was actively pursuing Anupama at that time, and Anupama also enjoyed Aditya's company. Anupama's seventeenth birthday, last year, was also planned by Aditya. On that day, Anupama was a little down. Her parents had forgotten her birthday and did not even call her to wish. It was Aditya who cheered her up as they took a long walk in the moonlight in the school campus.

Aditya's humour always cracked her up, almost causing her eyes to tear. That was the first time that Anupama accepted Aditya into her heart and entertained the notion of spending her life with him. But later, Anupama rejected that idea due to other reasons but that she always cherished her memories with Aditya. Even now, Anupama stood by her choice, but the thought of spending her life with Aditya also survived.

V.V. Acharya's eyes flashed when he saw Anupama and Aditya who were laughing and conversing with each other. They seemed to have forgotten the place and the people around them. V.V. Acharya beckoned towards his secretary and said a few words. He looked at Aditya for a bit before concentrating on the discussion with Mahendra.

As surprising as Aditya's cooking skill was, it did not come close to the speed of Kumari's consumption. Aditya's cooking skill was no less than any other professional. So, unless one had strange tastes or unique preferences, his food would be widely accepted as delicious. As Aditya knew much of Kumari's choices, it was not hard to get her happy. Before Aditya could complete the dessert, Kumari had already finished the potatoes and the chicken dish.

Kumari did not seem to care about the place she was in as she ate with gusto. Aditya had a smile on his face when he saw this scene. It was the best compliment to the chef if the opposite party was mesmerised by his preparation. But again, it was not a particularly hard task to satisfy Kumari's taste buds as she was not a professional gourmet critic or a taste tester. Her request was too low in Aditya's opinion.

As for the dessert, Aditya was sure that Kumari would fall in love with the French desserts present here. But still, as he was already here, Aditya planned to get Kumari to taste a French dessert variety called 'Chocolate Merveilleux'. It was quite simple as the meringue (a type of dessert or candy, often associated with Italian, Swiss, and French cuisine), along with other ingredients, was already available.

Aditya took a dry, crispy meringue and placed a spoonful of chocolate cream on it. He then put another meringue on top of it and spread the chocolate cream around so that the meringue was hidden. Aditya took the grated dark chocolate powder from Anupama and rolled the chocolate cream covered meringue over the powder. He added many choco chips on the top. Aditya knew that even though Kumari disliked sweets, she loved chocolate flavour since she was a kid. He was not stingy in his preparation.

Kumari's physical constitution, like Aditya's, did not seem to absorb any of the food that she ate. Thus both of them were quite fearless when it came to eating foods as they would anyway remain thin. As for other metabolic disorders associated with irresponsible eating, both Aditya and Kumari were not in the age to care about them.*

* - There is a general perception in the public that one should only start caring for their diet when they reach their late thirties or forties. Until then, you are pretty much allowed to eat whatever you want

Because of the 'Sensifull' ability, Aditya was able to multitask efficiently. He cooked, gossiped, joked, heard his friends talk and at the same time, Aditya knew what Mahendra and the others were discussing. Apart from all these, Aditya was even able to concentrate on other people of the Raipath family.

Aditya slightly narrowed his eyes as he laid his eyes on Divit's security. There were a total of eight men. Each exuded a brutal, murderous aura. They were similar to those people that Aditya had dealt with, on the highway. Aditya was sure that these people were not the complete set; they were bound to be others who protected him from the shadows.

Unless all these men stood motionless without defending themselves, it would not be possible for Aditya to kill them. Let alone, Aditya did not take the strength of Divit into consideration, which was bound to be one of the strongest.

Aditya had thought of kidnapping or even killing a key person of the Raipath family as a welcome gift of 'Rudra'. But it looked like he had to improvise. Aditya was not alone this time; his groupies had already developed a new prototype weapon for coping with the bulletproofing of the goons of 'Organisation'. The weapon was highly praised, and a set of equipment was distributed for free to all members.

Aditya did not know if these guards were equipped with the bulletproof clothes that he had seen before. Aditya heard quite a few interesting theories on the true nature of this bulletproof clothes which he wanted to test for himself.

As Aditya had already mentioned, his group contained a few stinking rich members. For example, 'name_not_important' was the sole heir of a Russian Oil Baron. Aditya knew this person on a personal level and could attest to his character. 'name_not_important' was the sponsor of Aditya's race team, in his dreamworld. He was a hardcore fan of the game and later turned into a good friend of Aditya.

Even if one does not take 'name_not_important' moral character into consideration, the introduction of the new fuel was going to hit the oil barons the hardest. Even on a relationship solely based on interests, 'name_not_important' would love to throw his money if Aditya's group showed enough potential.

There was a thing about this oil baron that Aditya profoundly remembered. 'name_not_important' had this habit of pouring his oil profits into the world's most extensive collection of Fabergé eggs: he owned 15 (a total of 52 of which 46 survived) at an estimated cost of $100 million. Aditya was not sure if the younger 'name_not_important' had started collecting Fabergé eggs yet.

"Sir, could you ask your bodyguards to keep their guns pointed in a safe direction. Some of the guests are starting to panic," a middle-aged man came forward and requested Divit. This person, who seemed to be the part of the chief minister's security detail, had a dignified professional aura around him. It was clear that he was experienced in his job.

First of all, carrying guns into a party hosted by the Chief Minister was equal to breaking many rules and safety protocols. If the Chief Minister had not overruled these rules and ordered in clear terms for Divit to have his way, the security guards would have already treated these people as hostile forces.

The security detail of Vandana Sharma was currently in the middle of a professional nightmare as they had to focus 80% of their energies on Divit's bodyguards who were clearly in possession of some dangerous firearms. But their nerves further tightened when they noticed these people exposing these guns in the open. Some had even unlocked the safety pin.

Many people had already started to leave as they felt jittery when they saw these 'dangerous' people. So, one of the Chief Minister's security team came forward to request Divit to get his people to take back these guns.

Divit possessed a kind of a degenerated feudalistic mentality where he looked down all ordinary people. He experienced a sort of sadistic pleasure when he saw people being terrified of him. Divit had a thing for having people's lives in his hand, and when others had to live or die was based on his mood.

Divit did not care much about the place as in his mind, Vandana Sharma was just a new servant that was employed by his family. He did not see any difference between those maids in his home and Vandana Sharma except for the way that they served his family. In a way, even though Mahendra could control Divit up to an extent, the position of Divit as a descendant of the main lineage was not a joke. So Divit enjoyed quite an ample space to do as he wished. According to Divit's estimation, as long as Raipath family's interests were not endangered, anyone else was a plaything for him.

Divit's bodyguards were also a bunch of wolves with no mind of their own. Divit handpicked this kind of people who would do anything to satisfy his wishes, regardless of morality and ethics. So any action made by these people was done on Divit's orders. Divit was venting his frustration by scaring these people a little. He liked to see these people escaping when they saw the guns.

Divit's eyes flashed when he heard the request of the Vandana Sharma's security personnel. His temper was already on the edge since he saw Anupama. He couldn't wait to vent his anger and let off some steam. A small smile appeared on Divit's face as he asked, "repeat what you just said."

The middle-aged man took a deep breath and said, "your guards are endangering people's lives by..."

SLAP! CRACK!! BANG!!!

Before the middle-aged man could complete his words, he was sent crashing into the neighbouring tables. The middle-aged man did not even have the time to react. The speed and the strength of Divit was not something a typical security guard could handle. It was clear that even though Divit was not an active member of the Organisation, he benefitted from his position in the family. His physical constitution had been 'enhanced'.

The hot, sizzling food items on those tables sprayed all over the middle-aged man. But he did not make a sound of pain as he slowly got up, which showed his sound mind. But his hands were trembling, and his breath became rapid. It was apparent that this person was not so calm in his heart as he appeared to be. But no one knew for sure whether the restlessness was because of the pain or the humiliation or just plain anger.

Divit's bodyguards and his sidekick, Kala, jeered when they saw this beaten figure. This middle-aged man was asking for it when he came to Divit with this request.

"tch, tch..." Divit clicked his tongue as he regrettably looked at his shoes. A few drops of soup had spilt onto them when the neighbouring table was destroyed. Kala, who's job was to keep Divit happy, grinned as he went forward and tapped the shoulder of the middle-aged man.

"Why are you standing there like a dumb mule? Don't you realise that because of having to teach you a valuable lesson, my boss's expensive shoes have become dirty? Come and clean it," Kala said in a matter-of-fact tone.

Vandana Sharma's brow slightly pressed in displeasure when she saw this scene play out. As the Chinese saying 'when you are hitting the dog, see who is the master', beating the Chief Minister's guard was equal to dishonouring her.

But Vandana Sharma remained calm when she saw that Mahendra had not reacted and had an uninterested expression on his face. It looked like Mahendra was not going to intervene, and so she could only suppress her anger. V.V. Acharya had a small look of relish when he saw his ex-wife and then turned to look at the happenings.

Aditya and others also turned their heads to see what was happening. A cold gaze flashed through Aditya's eyes, but he quickly regained his normal look. When Aditya saw that Anupama was about to intervene, Aditya held her hand and stopped her. He shook his head at Kumari, who was about to play the good person.

No one, who was present, knew the kind of depth that the Raipath family possessed. Let alone Kumari, who came from a middle-class family, even Anupama could not handle the consequences. It was apparent from the way Vandana Sharma was helplessly sitting knowing full well that her honour was going to be damaged by doing so.

Kumari instinctively listened to Aditya's meaning and stopped. Bhadra, Jatin and Kavya had not even moved as they knew that the Raipath family was not be provoked. Anupama struggled a little in her heart as this was her party, and it was her moral responsibility to intervene. But when she saw the firm grip that Aditya had on her hand, she could only relinquish, but a feeling of frustration built up in her heart. Anupama would have appreciated if Aditya stood with her and supported her. But this action of Aditya made her think less of him, which Anupama did not like for some reason.