After that Shisthanand said, "I have to take this boy for a walk but I don't have time so go out with him for walk.
On the other hand shanti thinks He's the one who gives me the most trouble. I don't like this person at all. He neither says anything nor does anything, but today for the first time he smirked like that, even if it was just for 0.1.
Then the system says, "Listen to me, this is real. And anyway, the work Shisthanand gave you is your task. You have to go and take the main character for a walk. And for this I've kept nice charts and all for you.
Chat — the kind you eat? Shanti said.
no, I've kept charts, in which… in which however much mental… mental attack or physical attack you do on the main character, meaning Naveen, it'll be counted and you'll get coins accordingly."
Then, then Shaati says, "What will I do with those coins now?
With those coins you can watch entertainment stuff from the system."
"So why don't you just give me everything for free?"
System replied "I made this like a game, so it's my choice and I don't want to give it for free, that's it."
"Well, yours— this thing is actually good because I need entertainment the most. I always get bored watching things. I'll get entertained.
Then, Naveen says, "What did you start thinking about now?"
"Nothing. I have to take you for a walk today, right? Shisthanand said so."
"Yeah yeah."
"Yeah, what nonsense is this? What kind of person do I have to take for a walk? I keep thinking so much."
"So you'll walk with me on foot, right, Naveen?"
"Okay."
"Yeah, as always, this boy is completely half-dead."
She thinks, "I finally made it to the market. I was told to take him for a walk, so I figured the market would be the best place." When they reach the market, she asks him, "Do you want anything?"
Naveen replied "No."
In her head she's thinking, "Ugh, we'll be here a while. What am I supposed to do with this guy?" Out loud she says, "Anyway, do you want to go somewhere? Like a fair or something?"
He replies, "A fair? Why?"
"No reason, just… you're coming for a walk, right? I'm showing you around."
"No, it's fine."
He just keeps walking, holding her hand.
She asks again, "Well, do you need anything else?"
"I don't need anything. No means no."
"Okay, fine."
After that she just drags him along, and the thing is — Naveen doesn't resist at all.
Then she thinks, "It's Diwali here, so the fair will have lots of stuff to buy. I'll have to buy things for him, not just for myself. I've got 25 silver coins, 5 gold coins, and 2 bronze coin— that's pretty good. I can buy a lot in ancient India. I'm going to have so much fun today. I just hope he has fun too.
Suddenly she sees a comment pop up. She thinks, "Where did that come from? I don't remember seeing it before. Should I click it? No — if I click it in front of everyone at the divali, they'll think I'm crazy. Better not to." She decides to just keep shopping.
Then another comment shows up, and this one isn't hidden. It says, "oh my god they are so cute I really ship them." Reading that ruins Shaanti's mood. She thinks, "God, stop shipping us. I'm the villain."
Naveen suddenly asks, "What are you looking up at?"
"Nothing."
"You're zoning out too. I'm hungry."
She thinks, "His condition really is better now. Before, he wouldn't even notice if he was hungry or thirsty. Now he does, and he says it. That's good."
She tells him, "Your condition has gotten a lot better."
"Ah, I'm hungry."
She replies, "Wow, so sweet for you."
She takes him to a street food stall that sells poori and sabzi. At his gurukul, they aren't allowed to eat that because they have to practice renunciation. She knows Shishta Nand won't mind for naveen, so she says, "Okay, I'll eat traditional poori and sabzi with you. Come on."
She goes to the shopkeeper and says, "Here, take these two silver coins. Can you give us some poori sabzi?"
The shopkeeper says, "Sure, why not? It's Diwali season, everything's good." He tells them to sit on the mat.
They sit down.
While they wait, she turns to Naveen and says, "I wanted to ask you something."
He doesn't reply.
Have you been to the market before?"
He asks, "Why do you want to know?"
"It's not bad to ask, right?"
"Yeah."
She asks, "Who did you come with? Alone? With friends?"
"What will you get out of knowing?
An awkward silence is between them.
He says, "With mom, then with that Ankit, then with mom again.
Even in the original story he came with his mom. Poor guy probably doesn't have many memories. I feel a bit bad for him."
She says, "It's okay. I don't want to say too much, because everyone has bad memories. And yeah, whenever there's something bad, there's also something good. So don't worry, Naveen."
Then he says, "I never asked you to give me a lecture.
She says, "Then just hit me."
Right then the shopkeeper says, "Ah, come here. You guys take your food."
"The food looks so good." She takes a bite of it and notices Naveen isn't eating.
She gets angry and says, "When you're not hungry, why do you even order food?
Naveen says, "Wait, I'm eating."
But he's clearly uncomfortable inside.
She thinks, "Wait, did I mess up? Did I really make a mistake? Nothing's wrong… or did I actually hurt him? I didn't want to hurt him. I don't know what he's thinking.
While she's thinking all this, she tells Naveen, "Don't touch your roti."
Then Naveen doesn't touch it.
She thinks, "Maybe he's hungry. I'll feed him." So with her own hands, she breaks the roti in a traditional style, puts some sabzi on it, holds it up to Naveen's mouth, and says, "Eat."
"I'm not a kid."
"But you don't look well either. Fine. And if you don't eat, I won't eat either."
"You just took one bite."
"Then I won't eat either."
Naveen says, "Fine, don't eat."
"How can you really be this difficult?"
"When did I say I was good?"
"Please, your health is really important. You already go two days without eating. Shishta Nand has a hard time getting you to eat."
She thinks, "Poor MC. I feel like cursing the author. What now?"
Out loud she said, "If you eat, I'll get you lots of things."
"
." He repeats, "I don't want anything at all."
"Listen, at least eat." She says it hesitantly. Then she added, "I know you're hurting a lot. But life is full of sadness, not happiness. God gives us pain so we can become stronger from it, okay?"
He thinks about it and says, "Fine." Then he finally eats the bite from her hand.
The shopkeeper says, "Are you guys brothers?"
She says, "Yeah no "
Then the shopkeeper says, "You two look like siblings to me."
"We're not blood related."
"Oh, so like a 'brother from another mother' thing?"
"Not even that, because if he was a brother from another mother, the father would still be the same. No, we're not blood related."
The shopkeeper laughs and says, "You guys are really cute.
But then after that…"
Suddenly, a few people about 2 to 5show up there and say, "Don't you have any sense?" They say, "What happened? What happened?" Then those people say, "Your daughter broke the glass's neck again over there and ran away. Do you even know where glass comes from?"
Then after that they get a little scared. They say, "What happened?" Those people say, "You know, right? Glass comes from under the balconies. Aren't you ashamed? Your daughter committed such a big crime?"
Then after that Shaanti gets angry and says, "Wait a second, a scene like this… maybe a scene like this… wait, I think I saw this in normal. Yeah, I remember. These people are scammers, and they even scammed Naveen.
Shaanti's eyes narrow the second she realizes it's a scam. She remembers this exact trick from "normal" — fake outrage, fake accusations, just to extort money or guilt people. And they tried it on Naveen before.
She stands up straight and steps in front of Naveen. "Enough," she says, loud enough that the whole crowd hears. Her voice doesn't shake. "You think I don't know this scam?"
The group of people blinks. One of them, the loudest guy, points at her. "What scam? His daughter broke our glass! He have to pay for damages!"
Shaanti laughs, sharp and cold. "Oh yeah? Which glass? Show me the pieces. Show me where exactly she broke it." She crosses her arms. "And since when does glass come from 'under the balconies'? You're not even trying to make it believable."
The crowd around them starts murmuring. A few people who were watching lean in, curious now. The scammers didn't expect pushback.
The loud guy stutters, "Y-you… you're disrespecting us. We're elders!"
"Elders don't scam kids," Shaanti snaps back. "I saw you pull this on other people in the market.
You target quiet ones who won't argue. You picked the wrong person today."
Naveen is just standing behind her, watching. His expression hasn't changed, but he's not looking down anymore. He's looking at her.
Shaanti turns to the shopkeeper, who's gone pale. "Uncle, did you see any girl break anything?" The shopkeeper hesitates, then shakes his head. "No… no one came near any glass. We don't even keep glass here."
That does it. The crowd's mood shifts. Two other stall owners step forward. "Yeah, we've seen these guys before. They always claim something broke and demand money."
The scammers realize they've lost the crowd. The loud guy mutters, "This is a misunderstanding," and starts backing away. The rest follow, disappearing fast into the Diwali crowd.
Silence for a beat. Then the shopkeeper lets out a breath. "Thank you, son. They harass everyone. No one stands up to them."
Shaanti finally turns to Naveen.
"You okay?"
He blinks at her, then looks away. "Yeah." Pause. "You didn't have to do that."
"I know," she says, sitting back down on the mat. "But I wanted to." She picks up the poori she fed him earlier. "Now eat. Before it gets cold. Or I'll start another scam and say you owe me for emotional damage."
For the first time, the corner of Naveen's mouth twitches. Not quite a smile, but close. He picks up the poori.
Shaanti leans back and thinks, "One point for mental attack? No. This was defense. The system better not count this against me. But… whatever. He's eating."