Magnifico

The Almond

“ Recruits, I want to let you all know that the day you decided to join the army, you have really signed up that your life doesn’t belong to you and you alone any longer. Your lives now belong to the services of Quinax, your lives now belong to the protection of your country and serving her with all your strength and might. There is no turning back, there’s no withdrawing, no fear; you only need to match against the enemy and s*******r them before you are slaughtered. When a ship wants to capsize, it doesn’t sink alone, it sinks with things and people inside it. Slay before you are slain, kill before you get killed, at least if you are going to die, let the enemy die with you. The journey is blinked and narrow in the military and I must tell you all the truth, we are in a perilous time and surely most of us will smell death while some will be permanently or temporarily wounded in this period of our lives. You will know the smell of blood on the sand, it may be the blood of your enemy, it might also be the blood of your brother. The last time we fought a war was two decades ago but I regrettably say that there is a bigger war coming, a war we can’t possibly fathom how the outcome would be or look like. Today, I want to thank you all new recruits for joining the army to the services of your country, I really appreciate the kind and hard decision you took. We are each other brother's keepers now and we must watch each other’s backs. Do you understand?’’

“Aye Sir!” the whole new trained soldiers shouted as they responded to the General's motivation speech.

General Sun said this while addressing the new recruits and finally integrating and commissioning them into the military.

General Sun went to the Regent’s office after he was done talking to the recruits. When he got to Lucas's office, he saw him leaving.

“Oh! General! I wasn’t expecting you”

“My greetings sir! Yeah I know you weren’t expecting me, it’s been a while so I thought seeing you will be a nice idea” Sun said.

“Thanks for coming though, I have been alone in the office since morning and I was planning to leave. Let us get inside, I have something I must tell you. I have been thinking about it lately.” Lucas said as he opened his office door.

“Come in please and have a seat”

Sun came inside and sat down. He wanted to tell Lucas about his progress so far as regards the military but since Lucas told him that there was something he wanted to say, he had to hear it first.

“You know, I have been thinking about something. I kept wondering what people will be saying about my position in the palace as the regent to Quinax. This position was bestowed upon me by Zulu's father because he wanted me to take care of Zulu until he grows up into a man Quinax deserves. Now that Zulu is already a King, I don’t think it’s necessary to still hold unto this position as a Regent. I wanted to discuss this with you before I tell the king myself because if I had told him, he would want to dissuade me from this decision. I hope this is right?” Lucas asked Sun; expecting a conformational answer from him. Sun knew that from what Lucas had told him, he wasn’t expecting a negative reply. It didn’t go down so well with him and he didn’t like the idea.

“But sir, if you leave the position now, the King will find it difficult to fill up the vacuum. King Zulu needs all the energy he could get and it is now he needs it the most. You are like a candle that lights our way, we have learned and still learning many things from you. Please I urge you to reconsider your decision.”

“I’m flattered by your kind words General, but it’s not like I am leaving Quinax forever. I’m still around but I’m afraid because people might talk and they have started talking. The last thing we need at this time is internal conflict. Our enemies can use this as our weakness against us simply because we can not pay a simple sacrifice that would have avoided it all. That is why I took this decision, besides the position of a regent is not necessary when we already have a king who is old enough to lead us. I don’t want our king to be seen as a stooge and a weak king. It may give room for insults, ridicules, and a possible coup”

“Oh, you are wise. I didn’t think of it this and I didn’t see it the way you saw it. I believe your reasons are far from my angle of judgement. I respect your decision Sir” Sun says as he bows down with respect for Lucas.

“Thank you very much... How’s the training going so far?” Lucas asked.

“Oh, I’m happy to announce that all the new recruits have been duly commissioned. I thought you will come around but I didn’t see you nor the king.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t come around, I was in between my thoughts earlier,” Lucas said apologetically.

“No problem Sir. I will have to go to the King’s quarters. I must see him now.”

“Alright; no problem. Let us go together. I was planning to retire to my home before you came around anyway.”

Both of them left the office and Lucas went to his quarters while Sun went to the King’s quarters. While he was about to enter the King’s quarters, he saw Viruz, an elite palace guard, a senior brother to the slain soldier killed by Seth.

“Have you been released?” Sun asked intriguingly.

“Yes, I have General.”

“On who’s orders?”

“On the orders of the King General.”

“Nobody told me about this.” General Sun said disappointedly as he enters into the King’s chambers. The Eunuchs saw him and greeted him and they announced his arrival to the King; he was granted passage.

“Greetings my King” Sun greeted King Zulu as he bowed down before him to pay his respect.

“General Sun, I’m flattered to see you. It’s been a while. Come have some tea.”

“No my King. I’m okay. I don’t want anything for now.”

“Sure?” King Zulu asked.

“Yeah. Ehm, on my way to your chambers, I saw the elite palace guard, Viruz. He said he was released on your orders, is that true my King?”

“Yes General! I released him myself. You know there’s something remarkable about this Viruz. Someone that had the courage to hack down someone that killed his brother right behind my own chambers is no easy gunner. The matter needed to be treated and handled with the utmost care in order not to cause or give rise to sentiments as regards to our way of judging our soldiers. Seth had his younger brother murdered in cold blood and it only takes a sibling full of love to revenge the life of his brother killed. These are the kinds of men I need by my side, these are the kinds of men Quinax needs to succeed. It would have been the best thing and absolutely the right thing to do if I told you but you have been scarce for a while.” King Zulu says he heads back to his seat.

“Now, I understand where you are coming from. You are full of wisdom my king.” Sun said abruptly. “ I’ve come to also tell you about our training so far. we have passed the final stage of the training. The new recruits have been fully integrated into the military. I was expecting you or Regent to be present when they were commissioned but none of you came around. I don’t know if you received my letters.”

“I'm sorry General. I received your letters but I have been busy all these while, I didn’t remember to come around though. The Kingdom of Azmak sent me a letter through their King. They were soliciting for our help to defeat an unnamed encroaching enemy. I had my suspicions though; that it is the kingdom of Alaphas. The Azmakian King didn’t want to mention their(Alaphas) names on purpose because he believes that if he had mentioned it in the letter, I wouldn’t agree to send reinforcement to them.” King Zulu said.

“That’s not good news. Jonas and his beast are silently taking over kingdoms after kingdoms and it’s a matter of time before it gets to us.” General Sun said regrettably.

“Exactly” Zulu added.

“ There was something I noticed about Magnifico the first time I fought him in Zuix. I wanted to say this to someone but I don’t know if my assertions were totally correct so I had to keep it to myself since then.” Sun said while looking directly into the King's eyes.

“What is that? I want to hear it please” King Zulu pleaded.

“When I was fighting Magnifico, there was something I noticed that happened to him that scared him away. He hurriedly left when an almond nut, hit him on his forehead. The splash from the nut seemed like it drained energy away from him. Maybe the smell from the seed wasn’t comfortable to him or maybe… I don’t really understand” General Sun was explaining as though he was confused...

King Zulu was confused and at the same time thinking about how this information can be used to their own advantage. He would have disbelieved the story but he knew quite well that General Sun isn’t someone that says something he doesn’t mean or have witnessed firsthand.

“Are you sure about this?”

“Yes, I am sure. I’m not sure what it is or what it means but if not because of the seed, I would have died in that ambush. Magnifico was just too strong for me when I faced him and probably he would have killed me so, surviving that fight was not just by luck, something really happened .” Sun said as he tightened his face.

“I believe you. We are going to use this information to our own advantage if possible. Now, we can confidently wage war against Alaphas undeterred” King Zulu said as he smiles.

“It is too early to make rash decisions as regards to this matter. We can’t really hope on it as a key to survival but at least we can make more research to know more about it.” General Sun advised the King.

“Yeah, that’s true... But we need to keep our hopes high.” Zulu added.

General Sun left the King's chambers and headed home to see Amara and his new child while King Zulu decided to go hunting in the woods with some soldiers and he also took Viruz with him.