”Well, Amaze me!” the Royal Representative repeated
Governor Njowga:”...Ah, yes my lady.”
The Governor stood up and started signalling us to begin, hands clapping impatiently.
Governor Njowga” Come on! The Royal Representative can’t stay here all day!”
Despite the governor’s wishes, almost everyone was still shy. Everyone here was still young with no one here being much more than 20. To add to that, It was Her Majesty’s Hand picked Representative who was also her third (whatever that meant) that was judging us. Only someone stupidly brave or bravely stupid could step u-
“Lady Nya Diya. Let me, Hassian Onobanjo of the Opambwa, be the first to amaze you with my wondrous lighting storing device” The Opambwa so-called ‘Bastard’ cockily proclaimed.
“Of course, he would volunteer to be first,” Chuma thought.
With a strut, he marched to the front of the judging table with his presentation trailing behind him. He exuded confidence and arrogance with each step and even his slave had the air of wealth about him. It was clear to all, he thought he would be the sole recipient of the funding.
Representative Nya Looked surprised ”Opambwa? I haven’t heard of such a clan.”
The Opambwa Clan Head piped up: “We are a relatively new Rootless clan, My lady. I’m sure the governor can explain the details about us later.”
All Chuma can remember about Rootless is that they lacked a main patron and thus lacked any blessings. Chuma still couldn’t understand why anyone would become Rootless or make their clan Rootless but this explains that asshole's attitude earlier. His nothing but hot air with too much pesa to spend.
Representative Nya:” You may continue, Hassian.”
Hassian:” Yes my lady.”
The slave from earlier wheeled in a strange metallic device with a large spherical centre with 3 cylinders with glass faceplates jutting out from it at the top. The left and right most cylinders contained coloured rocks clearly supposed to represent Shtukoamba and Jotoadhi (if that wasn’t clear they were also labelled to contain such) while the centre contained water. In the centre of the device, revealed by a glass hatch, an odd-looking fan could be seen with its blades lined with copper rods.
Hassian then began his presentation on how he planned for it to work…
Gods He would not STOP!
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It took one of the royal guards passing out from boredom and his sister's loud smack. That both got Hassian to realise he was taking too long and woke up the clan heads and the governor.
His explanation boiled down to:
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Jotoadhi sucks the heat from the containment area of the core > this makes the Shtukoamba produce a lot of lighting within the chamber and freezes the water to the bottom > this continues till the Jotoadhi is full of heat > Jotoadhi starts feeding back the heat it just sucked up stopping the Shtukoamba’s electric production but boiling the water > the steam from the boiling water then drives the fan generator which then provides a electrical output > repeat.
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Chuma couldn’t help but be impressed by the idea (despite how needlessly long it took to explain it) and it seemed that Representative Nya thought so too as she was only of the few people who paid attention, let alone stayed awake the whole time,
However, When it came time to vote, She voted against Hassian. Disqualifying the vote despite the fact the 5 clans and the governor voted in favour.
Hassian was predictably crushed.
This, however, set the tone for the rest of the day.
Inventor after inventor failed to gain Nya’s approval despite the quality or popularity of the idea, device, or the creation. Slow Falling Bag, Self Hammering Hammer, Thundering Bike, Water Bed; Nya paid close attention to all of them but denied every single one!
Finally, when afternoon came. It was down to me and the Fisidamu woman from before. I thought she would eagerly brag about being the chosen one or something and walk up to present her invention. But when I looked at her, She was panicking.
Her hands clenched, her head was darting all over her Diagram and Chuma could swear he could hear her softly rambling “-is this good enough, will she understand what it does, what if I shame the clan-”. Some people were worrying more and more as people failed but no one was panicking like this. What happened to her earlier confidence? Unless… was that laugh before… her laughing curse? Chuma remembered hearing about how fisidamu had a sorta of ‘laughing curse’ that would force them to laugh at times, that’s what must have happened at the start of the day! She’s not callous, just socially awkward.
Chuma stepped up and looked back at the fisidamu woman and gave her a sympathetic nod.
“If someone going to fail, it might as well be someone used to failure”.
But as Chuma looked back towards the judges, he saw the Royal Guards standing alert and Royal Representative Nya Standing.
Representative Nya:” I’m afraid I can’t continue this charade any longer and I must quickly leave to…Attend to other duties. But before I go I will say what I can about today quickly: This is not what Her Majesty wanted to happen. Please try something else.”
And with that, she quickly walked outside with only her two Royal guards following behind her.
After all that.
It was all pointless.
The inventors were stunned, the Clan heads furious, and the Governor desperately trying to calm everyone down. Chuma? Chuma felt nothing. He just started dismantling his golem.
He knew today would be another trail, another failure.
Chuma: “What does that make it now? 28? *Sigh* At least nothing blew up”
Chuma then left the workshop, not even bothering to take his invention or diagrams. “It's time to find a good pub.”Chuma thought to himself “I can at least succeed in paying for a bar owner’s holiday, right?” completely demoralised, Chuma proceeded to wash the day’s failure with the cheapest alcohol he could buy while annoying the bartender with his drunken woes.