Chapter 352 - 350: Stone Carved Statue... Kauravas Unique Gift...

(A/N):

Drop a meme here that you find funny. Or reflects your mood.

Guys I hope you put more comments and power stones... Which will encourage me...

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Devara stared at statue for several moments.

Then he looked at the five boys.

He did not need anyone to explain how much work they had put into it.

He could see it.

He could imagine the five brothers sitting together somewhere, arguing over how Devara’s face should look, deciding which details needed to be carved, correcting each other’s mistakes and perhaps even starting portions over when they were unhappy with the result.

He could imagine Arjuna carefully working on the finer details, Nakula and Sahadeva trying to perfect the ornaments and clothing,

Bhima struggling with the heavier work involved in shaping the stone, while Yudhishthira likely kept the entire effort organized.

It was not the most perfect statue Devara had ever seen.

But it might have been one of the most meaningful.

Bhima suddenly spoke, unable to contain himself.

"We tried to make you look exactly like you."

Arjuna immediately added,

"We couldn’t make some of the details because the stone kept breaking."

Nakula nodded.

"So we had to start again."

"And Bhima almost broke the entire statue twice,"

Sahadeva added.

Bhima turned toward him.

"That happened only once!"

"Twice,"

Nakula corrected Bhima.

"It was one statue!"

The brothers began arguing quietly among themselves.

Devara laughed.

Yami smiled as she looked at the statue, while Indhumati leaned slightly closer to examine the craftsmanship.

Devara reached out and carefully lifted the statue from the plate.

He held it with both hands, examining every little detail once again.

Then he looked at the five brothers.

"Thank you."

The boys immediately became quiet.

Devara’s voice carried genuine warmth.

"This is a beautiful gift."

Yudhishthira smiled.

"Do you really like it?"

Devara looked down at the statue once more.

"I do. Very much."

He crouched slightly so that he could look directly at all five of them.

"You could have given me something made by the finest craftsman in any kingdom. You could have given me gold, jewels or weapons. But none of those things would tell me how much effort the five of you were willing to put into making something for me."

The brothers listened carefully.

Devara gently tapped the statue with one finger.

"This may not be perfect."

The five brothers’ expressions fell slightly.

Devara immediately smiled.

"But that is precisely why I like it."

Their faces brightened again.

"It shows your hands were the ones that made it. Every uneven line, every small mistake and every detail you struggled to carve tells me that you did not simply purchase a gift and place my name on it. You spent your time making something for me."

Yudhishthira’s smile became wider.

Devara then placed the statue carefully back onto the plate.

"I will keep this."

Bhima’s face immediately lit up.

"Really? And you won’t give it away?"

Devara laughed loudly hearing the question.

"Bhima, I am the king of this kingdom. I have entire treasuries filled with things I could give away. This statue is not one of them."

The five brothers smiled proudly.

Devara then placed his hand gently upon Yudhishthira’s head before doing the same with Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva.

"You have given me something made with your own hands. That is worth more to me than you realize."

The five brothers stood together, their faces filled with happiness.

And as Devara looked at the little stone statue once again, surrounded by priceless jewellery, royal garments, weapons and treasures from across the realms, he found himself thinking that perhaps the most valuable gifts were never the ones that glittered beneath the wedding lamps.

Sometimes, they were simply the ones that carried the fingerprints of the people who loved you.

Just as the five Pandavas began carrying their little stone statue away from the gathering, a familiar burst of laughter came from behind them.

"Hahaha!"

Devara turned toward the sound and immediately saw Suyodhana approaching with his brothers and their younger sister, Dushala.

Unlike the Pandavas, who had approached with a carefully composed seriousness, the Kaurava children looked far more openly excited.

Dushala was practically bouncing with anticipation, while several of her brothers whispered among themselves, clearly eager to see Devara’s reaction to whatever they had brought.

Suyodhana stepped forward with a proud smile and bowed respectfully.

"Great-Uncle, we have brought a gift for you as well. And I believe ours is something truly suitable for a king."

Devara chuckled.

"Is that so?"

"Yes!"

Suyodhana declared confidently.

"We made sure it was something worthy of you."

Devara laughed softly and reached forward, affectionately ruffling Suyodhana’s hair.

"Then I am already curious."

Suyodhana’s carefully maintained royal composure immediately disappeared beneath a delighted smile.

He clearly enjoyed moments like this with Devara more than he would ever admit in front of the elders.

The relationship between the two was noticeably different from the one Suyodhana experienced in Hastinapura.

There, despite being the eldest son of Dhritarashtra and the crown prince, he had often sensed the cautious glances of the nobles around him.

They rarely said anything openly, especially in the presence of the king, but children were far better at noticing things adults believed they had hidden.

Suyodhana and his brothers had seen those looks.

They had noticed the hesitation whenever they entered certain halls, the quiet conversations that stopped when they approached, and the way some nobles watched them as though they were already expecting trouble from the Kuru princes.

The arrival of the Pandavas had only made that atmosphere worse.

The comparisons had multiplied.

Every achievement of the Pandavas became another subject of discussion among the nobles, and every mistake made by one of the Kauravas seemed to receive twice the attention.

Even when the adults attempted to hide their opinions behind polite words, the children could feel the difference.

Suyodhana especially had begun to notice it.

But whenever he came to Trivenivrata, that feeling disappeared.

Here, when he stood beside Devara, nobody dared look at him as though he had done something wrong merely by being born a Kaurava.

Nobody whispered about what he might become.

Nobody looked at him with suspicion.

And perhaps that was one of the reasons Suyodhana held Devara in such extraordinary regard.

To him, Devara was more than his great-uncle.

He was an idol.

Suyodhana had heard countless stories about Devara’s battles, his strength, his kindness toward his people and the way he treated even those beneath him with respect.

But what impressed the young prince most was not simply Devara’s power.

It was the fact that Devara never seemed to judge him because of his family name.

Whenever Suyodhana stood beside his great-uncle, he felt as though he was simply Suyodhana.

Not the Kuru prince.

Not Dhritarashtra’s son.

Not one of the Kauravas.

Just Suyodhana.

And there was something else the young prince had learned.

Whenever he stood beside Devara, the people who usually looked at him with caution suddenly became very careful about where they directed their eyes.

Devara might not even notice it.

But Suyodhana did.

If someone gave him a suspicious glance while he was standing beside his great-uncle, that glance vanished almost immediately.

If someone spoke about him carelessly, they suddenly remembered that the king himself was listening.

And if anyone dared to treat Suyodhana disrespectfully, Devara did not need to raise his voice.

His mere presence was enough to make the situation change.

Suyodhana had never forgotten those moments.

It was one of the reasons his admiration for Devara had grown into something almost reverential.

Devara, meanwhile, simply saw a young boy who happened to be his great-nephew and whom he cared about.

He looked at the group of Kauravas gathered before him.

"Very well," he said. "Show me what you have prepared."

Suyodhana’s face brightened immediately.

"Of course!"

Dushala stepped forward alongside him, her excitement impossible to hide, while the other Kaurava brothers gathered around their gift.

Devara watched them with an amused smile.

After the Pandavas’ handmade statue, he had no idea what the Kauravas had decided to bring.

But judging from the pride written across Suyodhana’s face, it was clear that whatever lay behind their covering had been prepared with the same determination.

And perhaps even more importantly, the young prince desperately wanted his great-uncle to like it.

Dushala stepped forward with a bright smile, clearly unable to contain her excitement any longer.

She carefully grasped the corner of the cloth covering the gift while her brothers gathered around her.

Suyodhana stood at the front with his arms folded across his chest, wearing an expression of barely concealed pride, while the younger Kauravas watched Devara closely, waiting to see his reaction.

Dushala finally pulled the cloth away.

The gift revealed beneath it was surprisingly simple.

It was an iron blade, curved along its length, with a shape that immediately distinguished it from the straight swords and ornate weapons that had already been presented.

There were no jewels embedded in its body, no elaborate golden decorations and no royal inscriptions.

It looked almost plain compared to the magnificent weapons surrounding it.

For a moment, Devara simply stared at it.

Then his eyes widened.

He immediately stepped forward and picked it up.

The moment the weapon settled into his hand, Devara’s expression changed completely.

He turned it slightly, examining the edge, the curvature and the unusual balance of the weapon.

His fingers moved across its surface as though he were trying to understand the craftsmanship hidden beneath its apparently ordinary appearance.

"This isn’t ordinary iron," he murmured.

Suyodhana’s proud smile grew wider.

Devara examined it again.

The blade had been forged by combining different metals in carefully controlled proportions.

The composition gave it an unusual combination of strength, flexibility and weight. Whoever had crafted it had clearly understood the properties of each metal and knew exactly how much of each had to be incorporated into the weapon.

But the material itself was not what had truly surprised Devara.

He recognized the weapon.

"This is a Valari."

The Kaurava brothers immediately looked pleased that their great-uncle had identified it.

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(Author note:)

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