By noon the whole empire was in effervescence. The messengers of His Majesty Batang V were wandering across the crowded streets of Ekule, Okala, and Okunde while reading aloud the imperial command.

Like all other inhabitants of the land, Babida the lumberjack grasped the imperial message, which was in line with his day plan, except there was a gratification on top of it: public acknowledgment and money. He was not too much into fame but would not refute an incentive that increased his wealth.

He wore his traditional armor: a steel bracelet on the wrist of each of his hands, silk trousers, a tusk necklace, and a five-kilogram axe that...