The Fifth Prince
Agu, the person who was still wearing the native clothes and had the white circle around his left eye did not fit with the name Agu.
Apart from when he berated the five of us for being insolent in front of his gods he had been calm, so maybe he was really like a lion. Just a slumbering one that hid power in his wiry frame.
"Follow me" he spoke in a mousy voice while trudging out of the palace with a staff taller than him being used as half a walking stick.
Amadi followed him, albeit warily at first but later turning back to look at the place where he first arrived and the room's present inhabitants giving them a short stare before facing forward again.
The rays of sunlight outside were a stark contrast to the dark interiors causing him to be blinded temporarily. When he regained his sight he noticed a myriad of people all walking busily across meandering paths extending from the palace, all the ways to rolling hills and tall forests in the distance.
Amadi first, of course took after his guide, who was now heading into the distance due to a moment of lack of focus.
As he was running he got strange looks from people who didn't know why he was running. That was until someone who attended the earlier event recognized him as the 'fifth prince' which caused a cascade of murmurs to pour down the stream of people who were headed to their places.
By the time Amadi had caught up to where Agu had stopped he could feel countless eyes on him
'What was going on?' he looked back, but not without paying close attention to the movements of the man.
But whether luckily, or not, he seemed to be absorbed in reading the sign posted on the closed wooden door of the house that they stopped before.
All of a sudden a little child of about seven years broke away from the arms of his older sister and ran over causing the crowd to gasp in shock and fear.
It was a boy wearing the normal fabric-sewn shirt and short of the place, but his was worn, faded and stitched many times making it look like rags compared to the others. His hands were also dirty as if he'd been playing in the mud.
Thankfully the boy seemed to aware of his situation and came just short of grabbing onto Amadi's jeans before stopping the impulse
"Fifth Prince, my name is Muna, and my big sister wants to be a part of your 'people', she said so herself" the boy said pointing to the girl he'd escaped from who stood there with the crowd.
"Entourage? What does that mean" he said confused, bending down to meet the boy who was still standing bravely under the watchful eyes of the crowd.
But before he could talk his sister had walked over and grabbed him with her head bent low, her face hidden with her long hair, and dragged him off with him resisting fiercely.
"Sorry about that, he likes to tell lies, this one, haha…" a soft crystal-clear voice spoke from beneath the bent face.
The wind blew a little, revealing ears that were considerably reddened, just before she took off with the boy, Muna in tow.
"Tonight don't choose another mmph-" he tried to talk more but was obstructed in the end.
'An entourage is what I heard. Does he mean the way a king has his diplomats a prince had followers? And tonight must be the event.' He felt like he had gotten a clue on the future,
So should he choose her? It didn't seem like she wanted to be chosen, she even dragged off her brother before he could spout any more lies. What a shame…
He had noticed that the clothes of the two siblings were more ragged than the others he'd seen earlier so they might be this place's version of poor people…
"The fifth prince is nice, he didn't chase Muna away for staining his clothes like the third prince"
'Were they afraid I would do something?' Amadi had always been an avid lover of kids, always spoiling them whenever he saw any. He'd even buy them things with his own money, much to the dismay of their overly cautious parents.
Apparently the third prince didn't share his ideals…
Suddenly remembering something, he turned back to look in front of the house and saw that the man he was supposed to be following was missing, causing his heart to start beating madly.
He was already like a dog chasing its tail, looking all around him before hearing a voice
"He went inside the Mbari* house!" a villager shouted, pointing towards the house he had been looking at.
"Thanks!" Amadi replied
"Dibia* Agu is a stiff old man, but he loves the village! Just don't give him a reason to dislike you as he also hates people who don't have any 'strength of movement'"
"Okay! Thank you" he replied gratefully, as he entered the house
The inside of the house appeared to be even more aged than the outside. The moldy smell of old, damp soil with a higher presence of dust gave the sense that the inside had been locked away for a long time.
Also it wasn't really a house. It turned out it was made up of only one room, and it was filled with small, figurine-sized clay sculptures that were similar to those on Easter island but much smaller.
They were littered across the floor in no particular sense or rhyme up to a hundred.
"These are Mbari" Agu, who had been standing patintly was looking at some without turning his back to him.
'It seems like he's paying no interest to me, but i knew better.
It was time to put his social skills to the test
"Wow! These are so beautiful. Did you make them?" Amadi said exaggeratedly, but he was only met with the silence and echo of the room.
Agu turned back to look at him seriously before stating "These are all previous generation's kings with the oldest dating back to 1000 years ago."
Amadi immediately felt like covering his face. Did he just indirectly call the man an ancient relic! He was facing the consequences of trying too hard to impress someone.
"Oh, but this one, I made. How is it?" the short middle aged man drew his attention downward towards one in the centre.
There he saw a very realistically made representation of a young man riding on an animated lion and wearing the same tribal headpiece as the man he met earlier.
But that wasn't all. There were two young ladies, a short kid with a staff and a man who made he rest of them look like kids.
"The one on the lion is King Okafor, and us, his 'people'"
What? this was that middle aged man that called himself my father?
But his mind was quickly drawn by another matter. The two women, he already saw them sitting next to him, were they his harem…?
And the short boy? He subconsciously looked towards Agu, who was also looking t him causing him to look back without saying what was on his mind
The only one he didn't recognize was the buff man, he didn't think he'd seen him before…
"You really made these, wow! They're beautiful!" Amadi gave his honest feelings on the carving but couldn't help but feel that statement familiar.
"Mhmm, you say that about everything don't you"
'Damn' he ended up being caught using the same compliment twice, today really wasn't his day.
"Do you know why I brought you here, to the sacred Mbari house, where the records of our past have been preserved, unlike normal Mbari that are smashed and recreated yearly?"
"No" he replied honestly.
"Well, you're the fifth prince, and coincidentally, the youngest. The present king was also the last born. You could say the youngest holds a special place in our culture.
Spiritually, the youngest is the closest to the most recent or final forms of their parents. It is often said that the last born is a mirror of their parents. Anyways, last-borns often have it easiest, as long as their parents are alive, they most often dote on them, and if they are blessed, receive love from their older siblings as well."
Then he stopped, looking at Amadi dead in the eye and asked;
"Are you following?"
'Am I following? Of course. It's an interesting story' Amadi had always enjoyed stories, whenever he was free recently he'd been reading the latest fad; Webnovels! It was actually from a forum that he learned about them and got hooked, that was where he learned about systems.
But apart from the story so far being good enough to win a contest (wink*) what did he miss.
"Ughh. People like this really…"If they're lucky" do you think you're in a position for your older siblings to cherish you and lovingly hold your hand?"
Come to think about it the girl that came \up to me seemed to be acting icy on purpose, I thought she was trying to up her attractiveness factor or something? It makes sense now.
I may not have felt any precursor to this but we're all competing to be the next ruler of this place. From there if you want to develop it into a place where tourists visit it would be great economy.
So they were now competing, and he didn't need to give anyone face and vice-versa.
"Later this evening, a combined celebration will be held in all your honour's. it will be an official welcome part for the others who arrived two days ago and you, combined with an 18th birthday, also for you and finally a ceremony where you pick the youngest and best among your age group to fill in as you royal 'people' just like everyone has being doing for years.
"Wait, they arrived two days ago?" his mind flashed back to their first encounter and found that they had indeed come before he came.
"Which brings us to the final matter." He said, suddenly lowering his voice at the last part
"Your father and I will first cause a toast to be held to you, then draw attention that it should be you who gets first pick since your siblings were summones days earlier.
Then we'll prepare a special means for you to pick the brightest and most talented among us, thereby balancing the odds for you.
You are not to tell anybody this, if word get's out the kin's opposers could use this to stir shit up.
Understood.
At that moment Amadi felt a formless pressure emanate from his black eyes, causing him to nod his head vibrantly.
"Good. Now remember, the odds were never fair to begin with, we're just balancing it out, right?"
"Yes sir" finally he regained clarity and understood what was just told to him.
He was going to cheat. But how were the odds not fair when he had a system? He\even felt tempted to see if he could somehow defeat his siblings with only a team of kids.
But the system that he was waiting for still showed the virtual loading screen all this while, except that the progress was increased slightly, to about 30%
'What's taking so long?'
It seemed they were done there because the man with a circle around one eye spoke up after a while "Okay, we should go back and eat breakfast, but let us continue the tour. We should make hay while the sun shines. The king will understand if we eat on the way."
It's a good idea for you to be familiar with the lives of your own subjects if you want to improve it sufficiently, we'll cover the entire Ugwulangu on foot." He said already walking out the door with his deceptively quick footsteps
'Wait! I haven't eaten since morning'
**
Mbari House- A traditional art exhibit made of clay figurines of people and things seen around them. An Mbari artist usually goes into seclusion to prepare these things, and no one is allowed to be present until it opens to the public.
Dibia- A medicine man/Shaman/Native Doctor/ etc