It is the last month of the year, the month of the Encircling carps. (In chapter 2: it was actually the eleventh month of the year, the month of the pitcher. For more information, check the comments of chapter two: custom umbrellas.).
Infact it is the last day of the last month of the year and as you would expect, today is indeed an important festivity. Asides from the fact that it is the last day of the year: the end of the year, it is also the crossover night. A special night because the year ends in spring and the new year begins in spring.
Crossover night is a special day, celebrated all over the Wazobiadere kingdom, from the ghettos to the monopolises to the aristopolises to the four capitals, even the entire Ubuntuhuru continent celebrates this day. Anywhere using the Renewal calendar celebrates crossover night as an annual event.
Today my dear readers we are going to the very crème de la crème of residences, to the four capitals, where the rulers of the kingdom live, to see something quite interesting. The blue bloods: the royals and the peers of the realm.
In the four capitals and the aristopolises, betrothal engagements are standard! Alliances are everything in the dynamic world of the treacherous court. That being said, as they say: there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies... and actually hear now: there are no permanent interests, because in Wazobiadere, all politics is about stomach infrastructure.
Which of the four capitals do we go to? The Arewa capital, the Biafra capital, the Oduduwa capital or the Xwéda capital? Oh that's right I never told you why there are four capitals? Long story short, the Wazobiadere kingdom is a multinational state!
Multinational because there are tons of nations living upon the land. Amongst the nations there are four major powers and naturally majority rule... Well naturally they should rule. These four national groups each have powerful royal lineages, and in order to end the Tetragon war a new constitution was fashioned.
A constitution in which hereditary monarchy is abolished. 'Wazobiadere kingdom'? Yes. Still a monarchy. Why? A unique system was installed, all the four bloodlines will remain but now only one throne will stand. How does one inherit the throne then?
Rulership is by rotation, one tribe ascends the state throne and another tribe succeeds them until all four of them have ruled, this in a continuous cycle. Who then can ascend the throne? And when does a tribe's reign end?
The oldest royal by coronation within a tribe ascends the throne when and only when it is his tribe's turn to succeed. And succession is open after the death of the previous king, or after his deposition as rarely as it may occur, and even rarer still after the king retires.
Dear readers, let us cast lots. See there I've thrown mine, throw yours!
Hmm! To the Biafra capital it is.
Oh that's right! The current king rules and reigns from the Arewa capital, should we just have gone to the current royal capital? *Sigh* well we have cast the lots already, haven't we?
...
Dear readers the setting of the scene has been decided. Welcome to Biafra!
The timing is the eve before midnight i.e just a few hours before the crossover event wherein there is a countdown to the moment it transitions into a new year. The scene is set in Arrangement park, so called because every crossover couples betrothed even before their births gather together here to celebrate the dawn of a new year and to renew their commitment to remain faithful to their engagements.
Come look at the fruitage of the blue bloods and their ministers who reside in the Biafra capital, at all the smiling young people, these bachelors and their maidens holding hands and laughing as the floodlights recalls the sunset painting the park with a mix of red, orange, yellow, and pink lights.
Look over there though, the couple under the Flamboyant tree at the parks centre. The bachelor is the 'crown prince' of the Mazigweze royal family, one of the four royal lineages. And the maiden with him: his fiancée, is a daughter of a 'peer of the realm' family: the Idibiaguyi family.
While most couples are renewing their commitment to their engagements before the crossover countdown, they are already sure of their marriage, a conviction flowing from within, let's call it an 'inner calling'. So why are they so engrossed in their conversation? What are they even talking about with such passion!?
It is not their fantastical picture perfect power-couple marriage. They are actually arguing! What are they arguing about? Reality, of the rotting innards of the golden sarcophagus that is their kingdom! Clashing swords to sharpen eachothers' edge, they debate how they would end the evils plaguing their kingdom if they were already in power.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no! You can't solve the problem of corruption with more restraining laws! You only create more room for bribery through lobbying" the maiden corrects her bachelor's haste.
"The merchant class are too rich! Certain families are even wealthier than the State's royal treasury! This should not ever happen!
"And many of our ministers are funded by them so that they no longer look to the royal families for support and sustenance." The bachelor contemns decaying monarchical structure!
"Asuzu calm down, in my opinion if you want to reform the merchants and cut down their power, you need to shift your focus to controlling the labour force." the maiden inputs.
"Indeed the youth are indeed eager for a new breath, the employment crisis is on the nose, either stay in the slums and join the army or run to a monopolis where you have to become a wage slave.
"If you are brilliant you have a chance to gain scholarship to the professional strata of society" Asuzu garrules.
"But Amara here is the elephant in the room, if you want to reform and usurp the employment process, you need to change the entire territorial landscape!" Asuzu continues...
"Yes I understand, with the warlords stationed in the boarders of our kingdom, encircling us as a shield, we have been kept safe from marauding agents and terrorists." Amara chimes in.
Amara quickly continues "However you don't need to change the current residential setup, you only need to bring development into the ghettos."
"Definitely! However the mighty men may even rebel but surely they will resist so as not to lose their ease of conscription, and the merchants would resist in fear that those mighty men do not eventually rival them in monetary power" Asuzu conjectures.
"The problem is money." Asuzu concludes.
"All our nobles love money, they could care less about the kingdom, the same can be said even of the royal families.
"And of the nobles, the merchantry class have and love money the most. The political will is dead..." Asuzu exasperates.
"You are complaining again." Amara interjects, "Solutions, we need solutions. We well know our ailments now let us seek remedies" she says in an encouraging tone pumping her fist in the air just before her face.
"I am afraid this ailment is terminal, this kingdom must be flipped entirely and no I'm not talking about violence." Asuzu replies using his fingers to soothe his furrowed brows.
"Then the probl..." Amara begins to say when suddenly:
*Whiiizz* *Booom* *Siizzzle*
Screams envelope the park as the fireworks go off in the night sky!
Asuzu and Amara turn their attention to the array of sparks dancing in the sky, it is now midnight! The new year has begun. Their passionate talk completely captured them, they missed the countdown to twelve O' clock.
As the fireworks go off in the sky casting rainbow showers of light over the excited squealing couples, Amara still fixated with the attraction opines to Asuzu:
"When all the nobles love money, then the problem is not money. What do all the nobles have in common? The problem is the Patrician Academy."
Asuzu now lifts his attention from the brilliant fireworks to his fiancée. Pondering her surmision. Wondering if The Academy they would soon attend would corrupt them.