6th July 1659


    Akhand Bharatiya Empire, Cheranadu state, Thiruvananthapuramn/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    Being the main trading hub of the Bharatiya Empire with the West, the port of Thiruvananthapuram was bustling with activity. In fact, being established as a special economic zone and the first city of Bharat for the West to trade with, there had never been a dull day. If it wasn''t for theck of political power, Thiruvananthapuram would resemble the cultural atmosphere of New York, which has been called the capital of the world.


    Within the city, the business district of Thiruvananthapuram is the most lively and rowdy. Due to the constant trade between the West and the Bharatiya Empire, the prosperity of the city has also increased geometrically, and its GDP has caught up with first-tier economic cities in the empire like Mumbai, Colombo, Visakhapatnam, Chabahar Bay, Mangaluru, Kochi, and Chennai.


    The most amazing thing is that while all the other first-tier economic cities in the empire mainly rely on internal trade and monopoly of trade routes, Thiruvananthapuram almost entirely relies on foreign exports alone. Given that more than 70% of the Bharatiya Empire''s export earningse from Thiruvananthapuram alone, the city holds great importance to the Bharatiya Empire.


    Ezekiel Oppenheimer and Moshe Goldstein had arrived at Thiruvananthapuram with great expectations.


    Today is the day Ezekiel is going to receive the reply from his father. He was quite looking forward to it since he really wanted to know how the Bharatiya Empire was nning to help them in building their own nation, and more importantly, he wanted to desperately know the target the Bharatiya Empire had in mind.


    Coming to the port, Ezekiel and Moshe were not surprised by the prosperous and lively streets, but instead, they were surprised as there was amotion going on in the new construction area of the port.


    "Excuse me, sir, could you please enlighten us on what is happening there?" Ezekiel Oppenheimer gestured towards the area where the crowd was gathering and asked a Bharatiya in Bharatinguage, albeit with a little German ent.


    The shop owner was a little taken aback by hearing thenguage spoken by the foreigner, but his surprise was not for too long since he had obviously seen a lot of people like this. However, he still had a little appreciation for the man who went through the hard work of learning hisnguage. "Oh, that? The Navy is testing its new Guwahati-ss armed merchant ship."


    "It is said that this is a container variant of the Guwahati-ss armed merchant ship. That means it would carry standardized containers filled with cargo instead of loose cargo."


    "The rumour is that the military is currently testing out the cranes, docking, undocking, loading, and unloading utilizing the new system that had just been built in Thiruvananthapuram''s new dock area."


    Ezekiel Oppenheimer and Moshe Goldstein nodded their heads in understanding.


    Ezekiel quickly thanked the shopkeeper and continued to move towards the immigrant arrival area. Your journey continues on empire


    Moshe Goldstein looked at the crowd for a few minutes longer until he eventually followed the young master of the Oppenheimer family.


    Obviously, both Ezekiel and Moshe Goldstein wanted to go over and see this new type of ship and its supporting infrastructure facility for themselves, but unfortunately, receiving the reply from the Holy Roman Empire was more important.


    Arriving at the immigrant arrival area in Thiruvananthapuram, Ezekiel Oppenheimer and Moshe Goldstein simply sat down on a bench, which had been ced all over the tform.


    There were a lot of people sitting on the benches and a lot more restlessly moving around. All of them seemed to be waiting for someone, with concerned expressions on their faces. Something simr in all these was that they constantly checked the time that was written with chalk and hung on the wall.


    Looking at these people, neither Ezekiel nor Moshe were surprised because they were the first batch of immigrants who had immigrated to the Bharatiya Empire. When they emigrated, they had to leave their families in Europe, but now that these people had stable jobs and a good standing in society, along with a stable ie, they had naturally arranged for the immigration of their families.


    It is for this reason that so many Jews and Romanies were gathered on the immigration arrival tform in the port of Thiruvananthapuram, waiting restlessly.


    ---


    The time written on the chalkboard was changed every 10 minutes by a dedicated person, and as Ezekiel Oppenheimer and Moshe Goldstein waited, the time was changed three times and 30 minutes eventually passed. The next moment, arge 1500-gallon ship, which looked to be Portuguese, slowly arrived into the port of Thiruvananthapuram and eventually docked at the dockyard.


    "Finally!" Ezekiel Oppenheimer stood up from the bench with a sigh of relief and took out a napkin which contained the emblem of his family and spread it open like a banner.


    His napkin acted as a form of identification for whomever the messenger was this time around. Normally, the messenger sent by Ezekiel''s father was an immigrant who was looking to immigrate somewhere in order to escape troubles, and these immigrants were not literate on rare asions, so the form of showing the emblem had be the way of identification between the messenger and himself.


    Looking at all the people who had disembarked the ship, Ezekiel had no reaction on his face as he waited on the tform. He knew that a ship of this size could easily carry hundreds, if not thousands of people in it, so he was patient. However, his nonchnt expression soon became stiff because all the immigrants who had boarded the ship had already disembarked, and the immigrants had stoppeding out.


    Ezekiel was confused. He looked at Moshe Goldstein in doubt.


    "Why do you think the messenger hasn''t shown up, uncle?"


    "Do you think he had an ident on the way?" he asked, worried.


    Moshe Goldstein was confused. His expression was simrly clueless. However, hearing the conjecture of Ezekiel, he shook his head.


    "That should not be the case. Don''t you remember thest time such a thing happened? The messenger had actually passed on the message to another person, like he had been instructed by your father. It should have been the same this time around. And more importantly, look..."


    Ezekiel was confused about what his uncle wanted him to look at, but once he saw the ship once more, he was surprised because the normal stairs of the ship, which were mostly vertical stairs made up of ropes, had been taken back and much sturdier triangr stairs were being added. Although triangr stairs were an inbuilt feature in all Bharatiya ships, it was not the same in the European ones.


    Ezekiel''s eyebrows were immediately raised. "Uncle, these are the same type of stairs that I disembarked on. It is a privilege only given to the first-ss passengers travelling in the ship."


    He was surprised.


    "Uncle, do you think a noble from the Holy Roman Empire has arrived in the Bharatiya Empire?" he asked.


    Moshe Goldstein did not respond since he couldn''t guess, so he stayed silent and looked forward to the mysterious person.


    Not getting a response, Ezekiel turned his attention toward the boat and did the same.


    Eventually, two old men appeared on the deck of the ship. One old man looked noble and regal, the other like a butler, both wearing yarmulkes. They slowly descended from the ship. Both old men looked haggard and tired, but there was a light of determination radiating from both of their eyes.


    "Joseph!" Moshe Goldstein was immediately shocked; his mouth was agape.


    "Edmond!" Ezekiel Oppenheimer eximed, his eyes wide open like saucers.


    Moshe and Ezekiel were speechless and dumbfounded. They stood still in their spot like a couple of hyper-realistic statues. Their shouts drew curious nces from the onlookers on the tform; however, it was not for long since they were busy either celebrating the safe arrival of their family or grieving over the loss of a family member.


    Joseph Oppenheimer finally got on the tform, and looking at his son and his close friend staring at him with surprised and dumbfounded expressions on their faces, he immediately put away his tired expression andughed happily.


    "Hahaha."


    Edmund''s condition was far worse than Patriarch Joseph''s due to his higher age, but he still smiled after looking at the second young master.


    Recovering from his shock, Ezekiel immediately rushed forward and gave his father a warm hug. Later, he did the same with Edmond.


    Moshe Goldstein was no exception; he hugged Joseph with a warm smile on his face and cheerfully greeted the butler.


    "Joseph, this is a big surprise. I had never expected that you would show up personally," Moshe Goldstein said with a smile on his face.


    Ezekiel Oppenheimer had the same question, so he stared at his father.


    "Haha, why wouldn''t Ie? You might not know, but my business has encountered a bottleneck that cannot be cleared no matter what. So when His Majesty put forward his conditions, I thought about it, and considering the situation ofmerce here, which was more beneficial to us Jews, I immediately made the decision toe here."


    Ezekiel immediately reacted, "That is all right, father, but you do know the risk involved in ocean travel, don''t you? Why did you have to put your life on the line? And moreover, why did you have to bring Edmond with you? His condition is more serious than yours," Ezekiel said, his tone a little usatory.


    Joseph immediately smiled. "That may be so, but I cannot let go of this opportunity to be a founding father of our own Jewish nation. This opportunity, even putting my life on the line, is worth it. As for Edmond, I did warn him not toe, but unfortunately, he adamantly insisted that he did not want to stay back in the Holy Roman Empire now that he knew our family would put most of our attention on the Bharatiya Empire. Moreover, he does not want to die without holding your child," he teased as he eyed Edmund out of the corner of his eye.


    Edmund, instead of being embarrassed, owned up to it. He hade such a long way, and his mentality had already changed a lot. "That''s right, young master. I don''t n on dying in Europe without holding your child, so please find a good Jewish girl for yourself."


    Ezekiel was immediately touched but also a little embarrassed. He bent his neck in shame.


    "Hahaha!" Seeing this, everyoneughed out loud.


    "Joseph, if you''re here, then who is taking care of the Oppenheimer and Co. Bank?" Moshe Goldstein asked with a curious expression on his face.


    "Reuben is currently taking care of it. Before I left, I had already abdicated from my position as the chairman. He now chairs the Oppenheimer and Co. Bank and all of its businesses."


    Ezekiel suddenly lost his embarrassment and felt a little sad that he wouldn''t be seeing his brother for a long time, but he was cheerful by nature, so he recovered fairly quickly.


    "Father, Edmond, let''s go. Let''s get you registered as soon as possible. Then I will show you around the city. There are a lot of things for you both to experience."


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