Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology - Chapter 870

Chapter 870: The Book of Pirates that took the nation by storm 4 (END)
Financial capital, Mangaluru, Vijayanagara State, Akhand Bharatiya Empire.

“Move out quickly, give way!!” the traffic police roared with a stern voice as he tried his best to halt the traffic at the 4 way intersection for the arrival of the emperor.

The citizens who were forcefully stopped in their tracks were annoyed, as most people in Mangaluru are busy, but when they heard the reason for their stoppage, no one let out a voice, and everyone became silent.

The traffic police were relieved that he was able to complete the task easily. He took out a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped all the sweat from his face, hands, and neck, as he took a pinch of vermilion from a nearby shop and wore it on his forehead. Before he left, he saw himself in the mirror, ran his hands over his clothes, and nodded in satisfaction, very satisfied that he was looking presentable.

Soon, a convoy appeared in the distance, moving at a fast speed, waving the emblems of the Ashoka Chakra and Shanku Chakra, the symbols of the Bharathiya Empire and the Devaraya Royal family.

The traffic police immediately stood alert as he saluted in the most standard posture.

‘Zoom!!’

The convoy zoomed past at a high speed, leaving behind a gust of wind that almost blew over the hat he was wearing.

Vijay sat silently in the moving carriage, not uttering a single word throughout the journey, but seeing how wet his clothes had become, one could tell how nervous and how much pressure he had been enduring.

“Phew!!!”

Vijay suddenly let out a breath of turbulent air, letting out a sigh of relief. The sense of heaviness he was feeling in his heart suddenly disappeared. An imperceptible smile appeared on his face, ‘This brat really succeeded,’ he thought, feeling relieved.

With the comfort that his son would be alright, Vijay slept soundly throughout the journey aboard the Surat-class Clipper.

—

Apart from the top government leaders and the military personnel, nobody in the empire knew that their beloved prince had almost died on the Middle Eastern battlefield. As for the question of whether they will ever know — that is for the emperor to deliberate.

Back in the empire, life went on as always. The majority of the empire was embroiled in the excitement brought by new inventions like better kerosene lamps, large wind-up alarm clocks, the discovery of several new large-scale iron veins in Suvarnadvipha, Ultimate Kho Kho Finals, the import of new and exotic goods from the ASEAN nations, and, more importantly, the contentment brought by the rise in living standards for everyone.

The situation in the state of Cheranadu was very similar to everywhere else in the empire, but what was odd was that a novel had been continuously making waves in the literature and fictional circles of the state.

The novel was slow to start, but after it gained traction, it was invincible with no visible competitors.

Local newspapers caught on to this phenomenon and wrote several articles about it.

The Cheranadu Chronicle

“A Storm in the Southeastern Seas – ‘Pirates of the Southeast’ Captures the Coastal Imagination”

Bhavanth’s daring debut breathes life into maritime fiction; readers across Cheranadu are hooked.

Malayali Weekly

“From Obscurity to Obsession: Black Pearl Sets Sail into Readers’ Hearts”

The Observer’s hidden gem emerges as the most talked-about tale in town.

The Times of Bharat (Cheranadu Edition)

“‘You Have Heard of Me’—Janardan Sparrow Becomes a Cultural Phenomenon”

European merchants and native youth alike rally behind the cheeky anti-hero of Cheranadu’s hottest new serial.

Thiruvananthapuram Gazette

“Pirates of the Southeast Surges—A Literary Tsunami Hits the Export Capital of the Empire”

From merchant reading clubs to midnight storytime mothers, the novel charms all demographics.

Kozhikode Daily Dispatch

“A Local Boy’s Tale Turns the Tide—Bhavanth’s ‘Pirates’ Lifts Observer’s Fortunes”

Despite rough beginnings, reader love propels a once-ignored story into statewide stardom.

The newspaper companies and media houses that had previously rejected Bhavanth’s draft saw several resignations and firings from the managerial teams in anger.

With the increasing exposure, the sales continued to increase, and it didn’t take long for a contract to be signed between Punith Kalyan, the current director of the Observer Media Group, and Bhavanth Xochipilli to serialise the story in the newspaper, not only in Cheranadu but all over the empire.

When the novel was first released, the resources allocated to it for publicity were next to nothing, so it was slow to sell in the start. But now, seeing this as an opportunity, Punith Kalyan founded a completely different newspaper as a subsidiary company to the Observer Media Group called *Journey Weekly*. Its goal was to benchmark against other top entertainment products currently available in the empire, like *Chitrakala* of the Raya Media Corporation and *Yodha* of Bakshi Media Corporation. In order to make it work, Punith Kalyan did not hesitate to invest over 500,000 Varaha on publicity alone, and his efforts paid off, as, Inadvertently, *Pirates of the Southeast* becoming famous all over Cheranadu had acted as hunger marketing, thereby making its word of mouth spread faster in the empire.

“Hey, have you heard? There is a new novel that is a massive hit in Cheranadu. I wonder when it will be serialised all over the empire.”

“You guys, my father just came back from Cheranadu from a business trip and managed to get the first serialised chapter of *Pirates of the Southeast. It’s awesome! Do you guys want to read?”

Such conversations started to appear all over the empire before the launch, whetting the appetite of people who were anticipating it and making its buzz even more, expanding its name with how much commotion it was causing. Overall, the return on investment for Punith Kalyan was unexpectedly fruitful.

*Pirates of the Southeast: Curse of the Black Pearl* became much anticipated, and it didn’t disappoint. Captain Janardhan Sparrow, with his charisma and antics, charmed the whole nation.

It sold over 2,300,000 Journey Weekly newspapers in a single day, catching up with the daily sales volume of the flagship, the Observer newspaper, in one fell swoop. The effect of releasing the serialised version of *Pirates of the Southeast* in Journey Weekly turned out to be the best thing Punith could have done. Initially, there was opposition within the management, showing the lack of entertainment intellectual properties held by Observer Media Group, but despite the objections, Punith Kalyan resolutely pushed forward the establishment, as in his opinion such novels appear once every decade, and if he missed it now, he would not be able to establish an entertainment-based newspaper in another five or six years. So he resolutely serialised only *Pirates of the Southeast* in the newspaper, filling up all its 15 pages with three chapters of the same novel.

The newspaper Journey Weekly, compared to its competitors, could be seen as very small and lacking in content, but the high quality and marvellous work of Bhavanth pulled Journey Weekly into the club of the top three entertainment newspapers and magazines of the empire, right alongside *Chitrakala* and *Yodha*.

A few weeks after its release, the one-liners of Janardhan Sparrow spread all over the empire, being heard in the mouths of youth everywhere. Its sales record did not beat any of the novels written by Her Majesty the Empress, currently the undisputed one of the greatest writers of all time, but the dialogues of the novel had magical powers that ingrained themselves into the language of the youth.

“You will always remember this as the day that you almost caught Captain Janardhan Sparrow!”

“Why is the rum gone?”

“I’m dishonest, and a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It’s the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they’re going to do something incredibly… stupid.”

“The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem.”

“Not all treasure is silver and gold, cheta.”

“Wherever we want to go, we go. That’s what a ship is, you know. It’s not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails. That’s what a ship needs. But what a ship is… what the Black Pearl really is… is freedom.”

“Stop blowing holes in my ship!”

Lines like these became famous all over the empire, and to a certain extent, the world. Although the Kalyan family didn’t have distribution channels like the royal family for them to publish the story all over the world, like the *Harish Puttar* series, the merchants of Europe proactively approached the Kalyan family to license them to sell the novel so that they could sell it back home.

Punith Kalyan was very excited, but a problem arose: they did not have the rights to publish the story as a book. They only had the right to publish it as a serialised story in a newspaper. But the offer was too lucrative. Leveraging the novel, they could become the second media company in the empire that is capable of distributing their works all over the world.

Hence, a meeting was held to once and for all obtain the complete copyright of *Pirates of the South East* series from its creator, Bhavanth Xochipilli.

Not being confident in his own negotiation skills, Bhavanth resolutely employed the big sister who was like his actual sister, Preethi Citlalmina, who coincidentally pursued law, to handle the negotiations.

The negotiation was hard, as the woman Preeti Citlalmina did not let go easily, but in the end, Punith Kalyan was willing to make the least amount of money from the novel if it meant that he could open up new distribution channels. So a deal was signed where Bhavanth would get 35% of all the earnings, no matter the medium, from the intellectual property rights he holds. In exchange, all the stories in the world of *Pirates of the Southeast* can only be published by The Observer Media Group and its subsidiaries.

There were some other details like the minimum number of volumes that should be in the novel, quality assurance, cooperating with publicity like signing the books, providing deluxe or special editions, and other things. But overall, Bhavanth came out of the negotiation with a huge profit, as apart from writing the novel and investing his creativity, he did not have to put in any resources. In exchange, he would get 35% of all earnings from the novel for the next 50 years, and even after he dies, his descendants or his family could get royalties of 2% of all earnings from the IP up to 70 years after his death.

When Mohit Kalyan, the grandson of Punith Kalyan, wanted to turn the story *Pirates of the Southeast* into a motion picture, he couldn’t help but curse all the profanities after seeing the contract signed by his grandfather. But this is a story for the future.

Art connoisseurs of the future placed *Pirates of the Southeast* on the same pedestal on which epic tales like *Bahubali*, *Harish Puttar*, and other works were placed.

P.S. Cheta = Malayali slang for bro, bruv, mate…