As the sun rose on the Oyo empire on this day, few people could be seen on the streets of the Capital, normally at this time, there would have been farmers preparing to go their farms for the day's work or hunters preparing to hunt and the women would be heading to one of the streams close to the capital to fetch water or preparing to go the market to display their wares but on this day, there was nothing of the sort, only a few guards could be seen on the road and even the beggars had made themselves scarce.
This was because today was the day of the sucession ceremony that was announced by the 'king' over a week ago, this was a ceremony that would decide the future of the empire and nothing could be allowed to go wrong, if someone made a stupid mistake as the ceremony was going on, it could mean death for the person and their entire family and no one knew what the petty guards of the capital would use to judge mistakes so it was simply better to hide themselves as much as possible.
Even in this early morning, there was already lines of people waiting to enter the capital's gates, this were the nobles that had arrived late to the sucession ceremony from across the empire, even some officials from the neighboring Ife empire could be seen amongst this people but unlike last time where the crown prince of the Ife empire personally came, the officials that came this time were simply disposable nobles that could be replaced at anytime, it was obvious that this was a provocation from the Ife empire but everyone simply ignored it, this wasn't because they didn't care about Ife's provocation, they just didn't have the energy to devote their attention to something else on this day.
Meanwhile in the palace at the center of the capital, Abeo stood in the throne room with Ira by his side as he stared intensely at the beautiful throne that stayed in the highest corner of the room as well as the horse whisk and crown that was on that throne, he opened his mouth and said "You know, as a child, my father used to regale me with stories of past kings especially the divine kings of this Yorubaland, he said that those kings ruled with wisdom and strength and under their leadership, the various kingdoms in Yorubaland prospered and as a symbol of their rule on this land, the god Ogun forged mighty thrones and crowns to symbolize their rule but as time passed and the kings of the different kingdoms became more and more useless, this thrones slowly lost their powers and became nothing more than a comfortable chair to sit on, most of this thrones and artifacts were eventually destroyed or lost and apparently only four of this things still remain today, the crown and throne of those bastards at Ife and the crown and throne that is right in front of me and you."
Ira listened slowly to Abeo's words and sneered as he thought "what a stupid childish story." But he hid his thoughts and said "The divine kings of the past were indeed great people, it is no surprise if the gods gifted them with artifacts that ensued their rule."
Abeo began laughing wildly as he heard Ira's words which left Ira greatly confused as he saw excitement as well as a tiny bit of madness and jealousy in Abeo's eyes as he said his next words "Great kings? Indeed they were great kings but i aim to be greater than them, Divine kings? They are just useless people that are a bit blessed by the gods, with my own hands i will destroy that pesky people from Ife and unite the Yorubalands once and for all, under my rule we shall defeat those people from Nupe, Benin and even the Ashanti, they will be reduced to nothing more than slaves to serve me, i will build an empire that exists to serve me and just me alone, then we shall see who is truly the greatest of all kings." Abeo calmed his emotions down a bit and turned to look at Ira and said "My legend will begin from today onwards and nothing must be allowed to interrupt this ceremony, keep my mother and her maids locked and away from the ceremony at all cost and make sure the guards are ready to move once i give the signal."
Ira snapped out of his daze and bowed his head as he replied "Yes your majesty, i live to serve you." Abeo smiled as he saw this, the feeling of dominating another person and holding the power of life and death of people was always one that intoxicated him and seeing Ira bow towards him pleased him greatly, without saying a word he began to walk towards the exit of the throne room but he suddenly paused and looked at Ira and he said "What about the pests, have they come out of their hiding spots yet?"
"No, your majesty, every effort to find your brother as well as get the Bashoruns to the capital have all failed, they haven't appeared for the sucession ceremony." Ira replied quickly
Abeo frowned deeply as he heard this but soon he regained his composure and said "It doesn't matter, after today the might of Oyo will be mine to command, wiping out a few pests should be easy by then." Saying this, Abeo left the throne room immediately leaving only Ira standing in the room with his head bowed.
As soon as he noticed Abeo was gone, Ira lifted up his gaze and brought out a small calabash gourd from his clothes, he looked at the bottle and then looked towards the throne with a greedy and covetous gaze and then said "Naive stupid prince, soon you will serve your purpose and by then you will be useless, at the very least, i will make sure you die quickly." Ira quickly put the calabash gourd back inside his clothes and with one final look at the throne, he also left the throne room.
By late afternoon, every noble had gathered in the former temple that was in the capital, the appointment of the next king was always viewed as a sacred thing and could only be done under the eyes of the gods of the land which was another reason why weapons and guards carrying weapons were not allowed on this day, bringing weapons into the temple of the gods was a challenge to the gods themselves.
But as the nobles gathered, there was sounds of grunts and complaints everywhere, they had been expecting for the sucession ceremony to start in the morning followed by celebration and banquets the whole day but it was late afternoon and nobody from the royal family could be seen, except for the five great chiefs who were on the scene, everyone else was frowning deeply.
"When is the ceremony going to start."
"Did they call us here just to waste our time."
"Seriously, i need food and palm wine in my belly, when is the damn ceremony going to sta..."
The voices around the hall complaining immediately quietened down as they noticed someone had arrived at this moment.
Abeo stepped into the hall confidently but there was doubt and horror at this moment on everyone's face as everyone stared at Abeo, the reason for this was because of what Abeo was wearing on his head, at first everyone doubted their eyes and assumed they were all dreaming but upon clearing their eyes and looking again, they realized that this was no dream, the prince Abeo was actually wearing the royal crown on his head.
Abeo ignored all the gazes and walked forward to the center of the gathering where three chairs stood, One of this chairs was bigger than the other two and it was obvious that whoever worked on this chair had spent a whole lot more time on it than the other two, this was the chair that was meant for the king during the sucession ceremony while the other two chairs were meant for the princes to sit on as the event of the sucession ceremony proceeded.
But Abeo glanced at the two chairs in disdain and scoffed and then immediately made his way to the chair made for the king and sat down comfortably, there was a smile on his face as he glanced at everyone at the venue who still had looks of shock on their faces.
Abeo had a smile on his face as he said "I know this must all be very confusing for all of you but i have something to announce. Unfortunately my father the king has passed away."
His words was like the fuse that lit the fire, the shock on everyone's face immediately became deeper, some people even stood up from the chairs and benches in surpise as they stared at Abeo, even the four great chiefs that were sitting next to Ira could no longer maintain their indifferent attitude, they were as shocked as the other people here.
Abeo simply ignored the shocked look on everyone's faces and continued his words "My father's death is unfortunate and his passing has taken such a heavy toll on my brother's mind that he has simply gone missing, with no other member of the royal family qualified to take the position of ruler of our glorious Oyo empire, i hereby annouce that from this day forward, I Abeo Aremo Oranyan will become the new king of this empire. Does anyone object to this?"
Everyone was silent for a moment because they were still processing everything Abeo had just said and no one could reply for a moment.
Abeo smiled and said "Good, i shall take your silence as agreement, from this day hencefo..."
"I object!"
A voice suddenly interrupted Abeo's words which made Abeo frown deeply, he looked towards the sound of the voice and immediately recognized the noble that was speaking, this particular noble wasn't noteworthy in any sense, he didn't have much power outside of his personal territory but what made Abeo recognize him was that this particular noble was fiercely loyal to his father and is therefore one of the most ardent supporter of Adetola being the king of the empire.
With a frown and a slight annoyance in his voice, Abeo said "lord Koro, can you tell me why you have decided to object to this decision."
Everyone on the venue immediately focused on the noble called Koro and he in return took a deep breath as if to gather his courage and replied Abeo "This is not the tradition of our empire, we all know the rules set forth by the great divine king Oranmiyan as well as the Divine king Sango, forgive me prince Abeo but you simply do not meet the requirements to be king besides even if the king is dead, the second prince is still alive, he should be allowed to participate in this ceremony and even the high priestess who represents the gods is not here to approve your position as king of our empire, everything you are doing goes against..."
Koro suddenly stopped his words and slowly looked down at his chest, and there he saw an arrow lodged into his chest right where his heart was, he looked up at the smiling Abeo as blood slowly came out and then slumped to the ground and slowly took his last breathe.
Abeo looked at Koro's dead body and said "Pity, if only you were loyal to me as you were loyal to my father." He then snapped his fingers, immediately dozens of guards rushed into the venue all carrying different weapons and they all pointed those weapons towards the nobles who were already panicking.
Abeo looked at everyone in the venue and said "I will now ask again, who objects to me being ruler of our empire."
Even the most stupid noble would have realized at this moment that this was all a conspiracy by Abeo and they had no choice but to accept this decision, the nobles who were planning to stand up and support Koro were secretly thankful that they had done nothing meanwhile the great chiefs except Ira watched all that was happening with shock and happiness, shock because they hadn't expected this at all coming here and happiness because they had supported Abeo from the very start.
Abeo looked at all the scared nobles and smiled saying "Then from today henceforth i shall be the new ruler of the Oyo..."
"Attack! The capital is on attack!" A guard suddenly burst into the venue breathing heavily and screaming loudly.
Abeo frowned deeply and was about to execute the guard until he heard the guard's words and then he said "What did you just say."
The guard immediately replied with fear in his voice "My lord, an army has arrived around the walls of the capital and they seem ready to siege the capital."
Abeo's frown became deeper as he shouted "Who in the world is so bold!"
Meanwhile on the hill outside the capital, Folarin rode on a horse beside his grandfather, father, uncle and Adetola. They were all dressed in heavy armor made from Wefari village and looked imposing. Mobo stared at the capital for a moment and then faced the army that was below the hill and shouted "Take back our glorious city!!!"