In this room, filled with anxiety, in addition to the giant man from whose mouth lies constantly flowed, and of course us, there were also others, hidden, concealed, not visible to the bare eye. Guardians, watchers, protectors just who were they protecting?

They were invisible but I felt them nonetheless, I felt their glances on my bare skin, trying to penetrate into my body. I was different from the rest but others should also be different from the others, as strange as it may sound. According to what my mother had told me, each of us should be born with a gift, a special attribute, a characteristic just for him that flowed through our veins and supposedly originated from our ancestors. No one knew exactly who with what, maybe not exactly no one, this was regarded as such a kind of half secret. None of us wanted to give up the advantage and the element of surprise, so it was not talked about loudly.

Not loudly, all I had to do was listen quietly, and my hearing was good. One guard will say something to another, some maid will whisper a little something while quietly cleaning up in the corridor, rumors in this cursed place could quickly spread. All you had to do was to listen.

From what I was able to learn of myself, my gift, enhancement, improvement, planned or unplanned mutation were my senses. Sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch and most importantly in the current situation, the spatial location which I called myself, the mapping of the surroundings in my head. Because without the last it would have been difficult to observe the entire throne room without moving my head, everything had its limits, even the power of hearing.

In the meantime, while I was trying to calm down, the man in front of us finished his monologue and, as tradition dictates, he proceeded to closely observe each of us. Starting, obviously, with the "First" and ending with the last, the "Tenth." And then another row and again from the first one on the edge.

'The First', golden-haired, ideal, perfect, and one of the most important reasons why I was unlikely to compete properly, after all, it's a lot harder to compete with a weakling than with an equal. The first, a supposedly human... kind of, white skin, long yellow or gold color hair, depending on how you look at it, blue eyes, he was not the tallest but not the shortest either, in the average of our ten rather was in the upper half. His musculature... ahem... back on topic.

If I barely recognized most of the other bro... opponents, then everyone had heard of the 'The First', the perfect role model, the perfect brother, the perfect example who everyone told us to follow completely, as if he had been born to the role he was supposed to play. I was not greedy for the power and resources that supposedly came with throne, so this ritual did not appeal to me, although if I were to be honest.... completely honest.... I don't know if I would win it, and certainly not if I didn't put my whole self into it.

I didn't know what he specialized in other than physical strength.... I wasn't jealous at all.... or what gift he had, however, by looking at his muscular figure.... and also feeling the aura he radiated around him, I could guess.

All in all, it's was strange that after having such a reputation so little was known about him.

A lying man approached the First, looked at him from top to bottom, then smiled profoundly and after a short while approached the next one. Nothing more, no comment, no praise just a slight nod and he moved along. If I didn't know better at this point I would have felt like it was all a set up.

According to the order, it came down to 'The Second'. The second riddle man, short cropped black hair and equally deep black eyes and curiously also was mostly human, no protruding ears, no tail, no horns, scales or longer ears. No major changes so probably human, just that oddly pale skin like that of a newborn baby. He was a big surprise as in his place I expected someone else, someone completely different, but good for him. Yet I think everyone expected a different outcome and here he was came, a pleasant surprise, as if he jumped out as from the underground. I didn't really expect him so I didn't get a chance to learn more about him, from the palace rumors or elsewhere. What he was good at, what was his gift or how would he behave.... I didn't like it, I really didn't like it but what was I supposed to do. The only thing I could comfort myself with was his height.... he was the second lowest.... second.

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The liar approached him, looking and looking until I thought he might have jammed in place, but after a moment the expression on his face shifted. His eyebrows furrowed, his eyes narrowed and he momentarily held out his hand. I didn't even have time to grasp it as he grabbed the Other by the neck and raised it to his eyes, even I. But the room remained silent as if nothing had changed.

I impulsively tensed my body but at the last moment I recalled where I was, so I tried to stand still. I was fast, and probably to the untrained eye nothing changed for that second, but I was in a palace, in a place where our slightest muscle movement was being watched from all sides, so they saw, they saw everything.

They saw and did not react, listened but did not hear, as if nothing had happened, so neither I let it be known that something had happened. Maybe I took an overly vulnerable approach?

Nevertheless, the only visible adult male in the room continued to do his thing, communicated somehow without words, he moved his lips but I heard nothing. Perhaps he cast some kind of spell, communicated telepathically or simply limited our ears. He removed our sense of hearing or, better yet, removed it from everyone in the room. Such position as he holds was not granted to weak people, just what was the range and what limit?

My second adversary hehe... lay on the ground for a while, like a puppet stripped of its strings, and then with difficulty lifted off himself from the ground and got back in line. Perfect visualization... a prince of the empire treated like a mere rag doll. But this incident made me realize something, there was something wrong with the Second, not seriously enough to kill him on the spot yet still enough for the liar to show his displeasure.

"I have a feeling that these will be interesting years, or maybe millennia... brother."

Next in line as one might have guessed was 'Third' last on the theoretical podium, but what a podium when there was only one prize. Strangely enough a human again, what was the chance that in a group of top ten princes half would be human, of all possible races in the galaxy half of the best were human.... not that I was complaining about my own race, but previous cases were different. Maybe it was the sperm donor that was so genetically strong right now or maybe the mothers were too weak.... or maybe the other way around.

A smile imposed on my lips on its own.... just why I was making it difficult for myself?

'Third' was also strange, not in the sense of Second although that may soon become apparent, but further he seemed somehow unusual, he was calm, too calm. I remember that at some point, just a few years ago, he changed his behavior by a hundred and eighty degree. From a passive life to a super active one, as if his personality had completely changed, as if the whole person had changed. But what led to this I had no idea.

What came to mind was some kind of assassination attempt, bullying by another of the people here or maybe someone told him about something.... yet it was impossible... but certainly something happened. Apart from suddenly coming to a position he did not stand out in anything, medium height, also long black hair, brown eyes, nothing special. Maybe a slightly darker complexion and his ears were slightly out of the norm, but that's all.

The man stood in front of him and stared, his gaze focused on him as if he wanted to drill through his body and view his naked soul.... if we had one. He looked and looked at the 'Third' then after a long moment he smiled slightly and walked away as if nothing had ever happened. Standard.

Apparently nothing out of the ordinary happened however, he did not fool me, the man stood in place for too long, I counted the seconds. There was also something wrong with the 'Third', just why the man did not show it, or maybe I was delusional, or simply began to panic by now.

"Although what normal person would count the length of the visual inspection to each candidate and then calculate an average from that and create a book out of it. What tempted me to read it and memorize it.... wait a second."

"So, they are looking, looking and writing everything down though.... I don't even want to know what they will take notes on me."

When the liar finished watching the Third, he stopped mid-step and then looked again at the three best, most perfect, most brilliant, he looked and looked and then,as if he saw something again, he smiled slightly and moved towards the biggest loser.... he stood in front of the Fourth and his smile evaporated.

"Good for you my most b e l o v e d brother."