New Delhi, 1918
A year after the Union of India's birth, the fledgling republic stood tall but uneasy. The scars of colonialism had not faded, and the world beyond its borders watched with both curiosity and suspicion. Arjun Sen, now recognized as the architect of India's unity and its Foreign Minister, became the face that carried India's voice into the turbulent realm of global politics.The Great War still raged, its fires gnawing at the heart of Europe. Britain, weakened but unbroken, viewed Arjun's India with veiled hostility. Officially, London called it "a regional ally," yet in back rooms and intelligence reports, they whispered another term—the Rebel Republic. Across the seas, Western diplomats questioned how a colony had slipped so cleanly from imperial chains, and rumors of British officers dying mysteriously had only fueled suspicion.Arjun understood this delicate balance. Publicly, he preached peace, trade, and cooperation, projecting India as a stabilizing force amid the chaos of war. Secretly, his influence stretched far beyond speeches and treaties. Through coded correspondence and trusted emissaries, he forged informal alliances with rising nationalist movements in Asia and Africa, planting seeds for a future where no empire would stand unchallenged.In his quiet office, beneath stacks of diplomatic communiqués, the Death Note remained ready—a silent observer of history in the making. Arjun's shinigami eyes saw highways of fate intersecting across nations, threads of corruption and ambition linking thrones and parliaments alike. Political enemies plotting to isolate India found their schemes collapse overnight, their leaders struck by fate's "natural" hand.At home, his aura of calm command grew legendary. Ministers deferred to his judgment; the armed forces hailed him as a visionary. Yet, behind the mask, the immortal felt the slow wear of endless vigilance. His ideal India—prosperous, united, and sovereign—required constant defense from both intrigue and complacency.That winter, Arjun received his first foreign envoy from France—a symbolic moment marking India's international legitimacy. As he stood beneath the tricolor flag outside the Foreign Ministry, the wind tugging at his coat, he allowed himself a rare, small smile. The boy who once vowed vengeance had become a statesman shaping destiny itself.But in the shadows behind celebration and diplomacy, new adversaries were stirring—agents of old empires and unseen powers who feared not India's freedom, but the immortal architect who had made it possible.And Arjun Sen knew, as always, that the true battles were fought in silence, long before history ever recorded them.