Chapter 17: A United Egypt, 3150 BCE (2)
Chapter 17: A United Egypt, 3150 BCE (2)
[Thinis, 3150 BCE]
I am standing between a crowd of people, shouting at the podium in front of them. Some were cheering, some were throwing insults, while some just stood quietly in the corner.
The war has ended, and it is now time to crown the king of a unified Egypt, and now, they are waiting for Narmer to go out of the palace, to be crowned as King.
“A quite majestic crowning ceremony.” someone beside me stated, I looked at my side, and saw that it was Sersi, standing with a head scarf to hide her identity, as she was quite famous around here.
I hummed. “It’s good now that this place is united.”
“But it was built upon a war...” She murmured.
“You didn’t like it?” I asked, amused. “It is the only way though… one conquering the other, the two cultures of the two areas are too different to be united, the only similarities they have is that they lived near the Nile.”
She was quiet for a while, then she spoke. “Is it right though? to let them go to war like that...”
“Really?” I chuckled. “You asked that now?”
“I was just thinking.”
I sighed. “We may be Immortal Sersi… but we don’t get to choose on how Humanity would carry themselves, we’re only guiding them.”
“But so much death could be prevented...”
“At the cost of what? More death?” I questioned.
“What do you mean?” she asked, confused at my words.
“I already told Druig about this...” I murmured. “But this place must be united, otherwise they would just be bullied by their neighbours, and in term, cause more death. With this war, they would be united, their progress would escalate, and they could defend themselves from outside threats.”
She just hummed, and finally, Narmer walked out of the palace, all dressed in his royal clothing, and beside him was his new wife, Neithhotep.
A priest also walked to the podium, bringing two ‘crowns’. As Narmer stood in the middle of the podium, the priest bowed, and he kneeled before Narmer, presenting the two crowns.
One crown was white, it was Upper Egypt’s crown, and the other was red, it was Lower Egypt’s crown.
He then wore the white one first, then the rest. As he finished wearing the crown, thousands of people cheered, signalling the birth of a new dynasty.
“People of the Two lands!” Narmer announced as he wore his majestic crown. “Long have we been separated! Now, we are united as one! And I will lead you, as your chosen! As your leader! As your God-King!”
As soon as Sersi heard the phrase ‘God-King’, she frowned. But the crowd didn’t really have a problem with it, and continued to cheer even more loudly.
“The gods have chosen me as your leader!” Narmer continued. “I will bring these Two Lands to prosperity! I will defend our River from invaders! And I will bring the might of the gods upon our enemies!”
The crowd exploded in cheers, no one really throwing insults anymore, as they know that they will get killed if they did.
“Again with the word god...” Sersi murmured.
“Have a problem using your title?” I teased.
“No...” she shook her head lightly as we both walked through the crowds to leave the place. “It’s just… I have a bad feeling about it...”
“You’re right if you have a bad feeling about it.” I nodded. “A man shouldn’t have that much power, and the title ‘God-King’ is basically the highest power any man could wield against a group of people...”
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
“He’s the leader, and a god.” I said. “If these people just went along with it, the king basically held total control of the country, anything he said became absolute, if the king told you to live, you’ll live, if the king told you to die… then the rest of the people will follow the words, and kill you.”
“But it’ll be fine… right?”
“Power corrupts Sersi.” I stated. “And absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
“But we… we have power… but how come we’re not corrupted?”
“We’re not humans.” I said. “We’re eternals.”
She seemed to take that as an answer, and after that, we walked out of the crowd, intending to go back to the Domo.
[Back in the Domo]
Me and Sersi just got back, and now, we are gathering at our usual meeting spot, and we’re discussing something.
“He's calling himself ‘God-King’ now.” Sersi informed. “If he somehow uses that title to do something horrible...”
“We can’t interfere, Sersi.” Ikaris said. “Our work is finished here, we need to leave and move on.”
“We can’t just leave them if the king is corrupt!” Sersi shouted, making the others surprised. Sersi realized this and apologized.
“Boss is right, Sersi,” said Kingo. “We can’t interfere… it’s the humans’ business.”
“Isn’t it our mission to protect these humans?” she questioned.
“We protect them from deviants, not from themselves.” said Ikaris.
Sersi then turned to Ajak with a pleading look, and Ajak sighed. “Like I said before Sersi, you’re too attached.”
“Please Ajak...”
“If we stay, we can’t do anything about it… we can’t interfere… it’s a useless endeavour.”
Sersi clenched her fist and murmured. “Fine...”
“What?”
“It’s fine… I’ll stay… I won’t interfere… I’ll just observe and watch.”
“You can’t be serious, Sersi...” Ikaris said weakly. “You’re wasting our time here.”
“You don’t have to stay, I will stay here for a couple hundred years, while you can go to the next place.”
“Are you sure?” Ajak questioned.
“I’m sure...” she nodded.
“Then okay… but you need to have someone with you.”
“I’ll be with her.” said Ikaris hurriedly.
“No Ikaris, you’re going with us.” said Ajak. “We need you for scouting.”
“You have Pluto for that.” protested Ikaris.
“His power is a bit… flashy...” said Ajak. “You can fly among the clouds, we now can’t really show ourselves too much, so we need to be hidden.”
“But Ajak-”
“It’s final Ikaris,” said Ajak in a motherly way. “How about Pluto will stay here, and the rest of us will go to the next location.”
“Me?”
“Him?” questioned Sersi.
“Yes, him.” Ajak said.
Sersi sighed. “Fine...”
“No no no no, I didn’t agree with this.” I protested.
“If you follow us, you’ll just bring trouble, Pluto...” Ajak said. “We need to be careful on first contact, and you’re not exactly the type to be good at that...”
I sighed. Fuck me… “Fine.”
Ajak nodded. “Then it’s settled, we’re going to the next location, and you two will stay here for a while as per Sersi’s request.”
All of them nodded, albeit reluctantly, after that, we separated, with the main group crossing the Mediterranean, and me and Sersi staying in Egypt for a little while...
This chapter upload first at NovelBin.Com