"Safe journey, my king," Nnedi bid her son as he left the house. She looked up at the ceiling and prayed.
"Zeus and the gods of heaven, please heal me and my boy, Zack, so that we can stop being a burden to my eldest son, Niklas. I pray that when you do, you provide Niklas with a better life in the city so that he can find a good lady who has good intentions for him, and together they will settle down and have children just like myself and my late husband. Glory be to heaven. Amen."
Kernel Village had some good features to its credit. There was a shopping mall, a central market where almost anything could be sold and bought, a private clinic that offered high-quality medical service, an elementary school, and a junior high school. But the negatives outshone the positives. Getting the service of the clinic or a mere ambulance was so costly that the poorest of the poor, who mostly made up the population of the village, could not pay. The electricity situation was nothing to write home about; not only was its tariff rate costly, but its supply was unsteady to almost nonexistent. The water supply situation was similar to the electricity situation. School fees were costly, and the locals could barely afford them. Also, one had to leave the village to get an education past junior high school level. The jobs one could get in the village paid peanuts. The telecommunication system was garbage; one couldn't make a call or access the internet without being inside the village clinic or the village hall. On top of this, only the wealthy citizens of the village could afford a phone.
This low standard of living in the village made some of the citizens get employment in neighbouring towns and mini-cities because the pay was way better than that of the village.
The village was controlled by the village captain, who answered to the chief of Main-city-4's outside settlements. The village captain and a few others who could be regarded as accomplices were the wealthy citizens of Kernel village.
Niklas was heading to the mall. He stopped at a public sink and washed his bloody left hand before continuing his journey. He decided to know the exact amount of cash in his wallet. To his surprise, the amount was 300 EK [Earth Kredits]. This was the exact amount he consented to being paid for the expedition he embarked on earlier.
"If your deaths need to be avenged, I will find out and avenge you," Niklas whispered.
He soon got to the mall and walked to the restaurant in the building. There were a few familiar faces who were surprised to see him here. On a regular basis, Niklas couldn't afford to buy food here. He ignored the stares while he stood in the customers' queue. Almost ten minutes later, it was his turn to order. He ordered two bowls of balanced diet soup, a bowl of peppered tomato sauce filled with pieces of beef, and a fourth bowl of dumplings filled with mashed potatoes.
The people familiar with Niklas hung around the restaurant to watch him. They thought that he came to make a fool of himself. They didn't believe that he had the money to purchase food. In the end, they were disappointed as Niklas comfortably produced some notes from 'his' wallet, paid the bill of 80 EKs, and collected change.
'I'm no longer poor, idiots. Soon, I will leave this heaven-forsaken village,' Niklas thought as he walked out from the restaurant, pretending he didn't see the people spying on him.
****
Location: Fraser Town.
Kernel's village captain owned a luxurious bungalow situated on a spacious portion of land. The compound was surrounded by distinctively styled walls with special security features. Private guards in uniform—a black blazer over a white shirt with a black tie and black trousers below—were stationed both inside and outside the building.
Elias Joe, the village captain, was in his sitting room watching a football (American: soccer) game with four of his friends. The atmosphere in the room was festive; there were various types of delectable dishes on a large table, surrounded by a variety of wines. The four sat individually on couches that were positioned to form a crescent adjacent to the table. There was only one woman among the four friends. Joe and his male friends each had two undressed ladies either lying on their laps or erotically fondling them. Joe's lady friend instead had more than ten bottles of wine with her on the couch she sat on, keeping her company.
Four guards stood in the room, each standing at various spots in the wide sitting room. Every guard in the building had an earphone communication device. One of the guards received a message. After communication was severed, the guard went to Elias Joe and delivered the message.
The guard whispered to his boss, "Sir, the killers you sent after Agu Niklas didn't finish the job."
"Huh? What do you mean that they didn't finish the job?" Elias Joe whispered back.
"Niklas' friends are missing. But Niklas returned from the journey."
Elias said with a wry smile, "The lucky bastard must have gotten too scared to follow his friends, and so he ditched them.
"What about the killers?"
"We haven't heard a word from them," the guard said.
"I guess I will have to find another way to kill the bastard boy."
Elias Joe knew that Niklas had bedridden family members. He wanted to kill Niklas so that his family members would die from days of lack of care. Once the Agu family was all dead, their landed property would automatically be the village's property since the family had no next of kin. It would then be easier for Elias Joe to covet their properties.
Chief Idris Emmanuel seized the valuable properties owned by Niklas' family, but he did not become the legal owner; Niklas' family remained the legal owner. Chief Emmanuel couldn't make a move to manipulate the legal ownership of the properties, and he couldn't force the family to sell because he had a bunch of political rivals who were on the watch for any dirt on him so that they would use it to decapitate him. Chief Emmanuel had stolen the ownership documents for the Agu family's properties, but they weren't in his possession. He trusted it in the hands of Elias Joe.
Elias Joe knew the game he was playing. Chief Emmanuel's opponent couldn't do anything tangible if they couldn't prove that Chief Emmanuel had a hand in the demise of Niklas and his family. This was the reason he didn't want to murder Niklas in the village.
****
Niklas returned home 18 minutes later. The rich aroma of warm food attacked Nnedi's and Zack's olfactory nerves when Niklas entered the house. Zack had a big smile on his face. Niklas returned the gesture. Meanwhile, Nnedi was conflicted; she was happy to meet food but was confused about how Niklas got the money to buy this expensive meal.
Nnedi asked, "My king, where did you get the money to afford this meal? From the aroma, I know that this meal is expensive."
Niklas said, "My friends gave me the money."
"What do your friends do for a living for them to give you this sum in under a day?"
Niklas heart ached in grief. He wanted to share his grievances with someone, but he couldn't. The sad thing was that he couldn't report the deaths of his friends because they died outside Astro's jurisdiction. The grief overwhelmed him, and he revealed a bit too much.
"They are artefact hunters, and we went on a hunt."
"You what?!" Nnedi barked.
"Niklas, I think you should keep following your friends," Zack said innocently.
"Shut up, Zack," Nnedi said.
"What did I do?" Zack protested.
Nnedi said, "Niklas, do you want to die? For heaven's sake, artefact hunting is very risky. Anything could kill you on the way."
Niklas said, "I know."
Nnedi said, "You know? Then why did you embark on it?"
"We need money, mom," Niklas said. "You and Zack need good health care so that you will be good again. I want to see you guys walk and enjoy the world again."
"It doesn't mean you should risk your life. I'm faithful that one day a miracle from heaven will heal us," Nnedi said.
Niklas said, "I don't have the patience to wait for a miracle. I prefer to make it come faster."
"Niklas?"
"Mom."
"Don't you have faith in heaven?"
"I still do. And I believe that is why our fate has changed since today."
"Niklas, please don't go on another hunt," Nnedi pleaded.
"Don't worry, mom. I wasn't planning to. By the way, my friends are not available."
Niklas unveiled the two bowls of soup. The delicious smell made Zack restless.
Niklas said, "You see, mom. Better food is making Zack feel better."
Nnedi chuckled.
Niklas fed his brother and mother the soup until they exhausted it. Their belly was full after the meal.
Zack said, "Can you buy us this meal tomorrow?"
"Zack!" Nnedi said with a tone of ridicule.
Niklas said to Zack, "Sure."
Nnedi didn't believe Niklas.
Night fell, and within minutes, Nnedi and Zack fell asleep. Niklas couldn't sleep. He stayed up thinking about how he would recover his family's stolen properties.
'First of all, I need to get my hands on the documents. I just hope that the ownership hasn't been manipulated. God please, I hope that we are still the owners,' Niklas mused.
He was sure that Chief Idris Emmanuel was the culprit of the document theft. But he needed to know where the chief kept the documents. After a while of thought, he considered finding the documents impossible.
'Kernels documentation unit should have a copy of the proof of ownership,' Niklas thought.
He sighed in disappointment. 'The documents won't be handed to me if I demand them because the people there work for that pig, Idris.'
Niklas's family had a number of properties in various settlements outside of Main-City-4. His parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents worked hard to amass the properties. Niklas planned to recover all of them. But his target at the moment was here in Kernel village, where his family had the fewest properties. In the village, his family had two massive plots of land where wheat was cultivated and a portion of land that was way smaller in comparison to the others, which was used for rearing pigs.