"No, you are not going to go with them", Bheeshm Pitamah told Karn, while everyone was ready to go. "Pitamah, I need my friend to be with me to win this war. And he is also a King. Please don't disrespect him", Duryodhan defended him. "I'm not out here disrespecting anyone. You will be disrespecting yourself if you rely on someone else. This war will decide the future crown prince of this kingdom. He is not a Prince, is he?", Pitamah replied back.

Karn felt bad at hearing that. He felt like time by time his talent was being put under a rug. Duryodhan couldn't say anything to Pitamah and turned to his friend with an apologetic face, "I'm sorry, Mitr. I won't be taking you with me". "It's totally fine, Mitr. The victory should be yours, not mine", Karn said smiling.

Kunti and Vaishnavi were watching all this from the balcony of their chamber. The mother of that warrior's face went down with regret. Tears were brimming in her eyes looking at her son. "What? This is not done!! I'll ask Pitamah to let him go with them", she said and started to go but was stopped by Kunti, " Putri no!!".

"Why not? He is also your son right? He has every right to go with them", she said back. With that, Kunti froze at her place. What she was dreading since past few days turned out to be true. The future girl knows that he is her son. Vaishnavi immediately regretted what she said. She didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable by knowing that she knew her truth.

Kunti fell down on her knees, crying. "Mata!!!", she too sat on her knees holding her. "Putri, I- I am- ", she hiccuped. She couldn't say anything further and looked up at Vaishnavi with a scared expression. The future girl immediately understood what was going on in her head. She wiped Kunti's tears and said, "Mata, don't worry. I won't tell anything to anyone. Please don't cry", she reassured her.

Kunti immediately went, "What I did was unforgivable! I didn't - i didn't know what to do at that time. I was just a teenager. I've kept this secret for a long time. Putri, please promise me that you would not tell anyone. Please!", she cried her heart out.

"I Promise".

***

It's been a few days since they left for the war. In the evening hours of spring, Karn and Vaishnavi were in the practice arena where he was honing his weapons and her doing something with her musical instruments. Bheeshm gifted them to her as he was pleased by her song. She was explaining a song to the people who are there to play them.

The news of Pandavas winning the war reached the kingdom. Ashwathama became the king of Half of Panchal, Ahichchhatra being it's capital now. Everyone was celebrating the win of Pandavas and it's crystal clear now to who will become the crown prince.

The king was very much displeased by the fact that his sons were defeated in the war. And his son won't be the crown prince now. Well, the Queen was not like that, she felt proud of Pandavas as much as Kunti did.

"Vaishnavi, what are you thinking?", Karn asked her, noticing that she was lost thinking about something. "Uh! Nothing. I just have a small doubt", she told him. "What is it?", Karn asked her, examining his arrow. "Why are the sons of King Dhritarastra called Kauravas, While the sons of Pandu are called Pandavas? Technically, both would be Kauravas right? Or the "Kauravas" should be called As Dhritarastras, that would make sense", she told within a single breath. That made sense to every musician present there.

"No, that's just- Oh!", Karn opened his mouth to say something, but the question made sense to him as well. "Actually, you are right", he agreed with her. "I know right!!", she said and they both high-fived. Soon enough, the sound of trumpets could be heard. "I think they came back", Karn said. "Then let's go meet them!", she excitedly said.

He would have been a part of this war, if not for Pitamah. She felt really bad for him as he was not allowed to go with them. She wanted to fight for him, but her promise to Kunti stopped her from confronting Pitamah and revealing Karn's true identity.

The Pandavas were in forefront and were being welcomed by the queen. "I'm so happy for you Putr Yudisthir. You have won this war", Pitamah Bheeshm said hugging him. He came out of the hug and said, "No, it's not just me Pitamah. It's everyone's effort. If not for my 100 brothers to march first, if not for my own brothers to help me out, if not for Arjun to break the Chakravyuh, and most importantly, if not for Vaishnavi's plan of infiltrating enemies, we would have gotten defeated", he said proudly.

"You have every characteristics to become a Crown prince, my son. Proud of you", Pitamah said. Duryodhan was fuming in anger, and was unable to accept the fact that the Pandavas not only saved him and his brothers from the enemy, but also won the war. That too with the help of that head weighted woman, or he thought so. Karn went towards him to console the Kaurava Brothers, which was not helping at all.

Meanwhile, Arjun was searching for that one person, whom he wanted to hear praise from. Bheem was saying something to him, but he was not paying attention to that at all and just agreeing with everything was being told to him. "Huh? What's wrong with him Nakul?", Bheem asked confused. Nakul knowingly nodded at Bheem and went to Arjun and said, "Bhrata Arjun! The sun is so hot today, right?", "Yes", Arjun replied without looking at him.

Bheem looked up only to find Moon in clouds. "You are less attractive than me, Right?", Nakul asked.

"Yes".

Nakul looked at Bheem with a smirk and raised his eyebrows. Bheem let out an 'oh', and started smirking. He also joined the game by now and asked Arjun, "Arjun, you are gonna give your part of food to me today, right?".

"Yes".

"Thank you my dear Anuj!", Bheem squealed and hugged his brother. "Uh, ouch, Bharata Bheem?!!? What are you doing?!", Arjun struggled to come out of his hold. Bheem left him and said, "you just agreed to give me your portion of food to me, right?". "Ye- What? No no, I never said that". Bheem and Nakul were just 'Ayy'ing at him.

"Why were you so lost then", Bheem asked. "Maybe he was searching for something. Or SOMEONE!", Nakul said Mischievously. Arjun just hit him from the side and told Bheem, "I was not searching for any girl. I was just looking for Mata". "But Arjun, Nakul didn't mention ANY GIRL", Bheem said and looked at him, while smirking. He wanted to say something but stopped hearing a sweet voice. A voice that could even rival that of a Nightingale.

"Hey guyss!!", Vaishnavi went towards the Pandava brothers excitedly and said, "Congratulations guys, you guys won at last. I told you right?". "How did you know that we are gonna win?", Yudisthir asked smilingly, while they entered the palace. "Oh! I know everything. Trust me, if I don't know, no one knows", she said proudly. All this while, Arjun was just looking at her and was smiling like an idiot.

He accidentally stomped on Bheem's feet while looking at her. "Ouch, Arjun can't you see? Did your eyes get taken away by a crow or what?", Bheem shrieked.

"Yes". He said smilingly, not even looking at him. Bheem looked at him perplexed and told Sahadev, "What has happened to this guy?" "I don't know either Bharat Bheem. These days he seems lost. I wonder what's the reason", Sahadev replied as confused as him.

Nakul gave them a bored expression and pointed towards the girl who was talking with their eldest one and their sweet little Archer boy, who were at a distance.

Bheem and Sahadev looked at each other and went, "Oh! OOHHHH!! REALLY?".

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hey guys, sorry for the late update 😭, this draft got accidentally deleted and I had to retype everything and this was one of the longest chapter. That's the reason I took time to upload 😭.

Anyways, how was the chapter guys? Please do vote and comment!

PS: Arjun everytime he hears Vaishu's Voice: