Image Source: SeaArt
Within the confinement of the bustling province of The New Empire, there lived a girl named Nike. Her beautiful aunt, a scribe in the Imperial Archives, promised her a leather-bound diary with details about the beautiful empire. On Nike’s twelfth birthday, the gift finally arrived: a diary stamped with the Crest of the Western Wing, a symbol of honor among scholars.
Image Source: SeaArt
Nike brought the diary to the Imperial Academy, where students trained in both sword and scroll. But Taye, a envious apprentice from the rival Eastern Barony, coveted it. "Such a prize belongs in the East," he muttered, plotting his theft.
One morning, as Nike prepared to show her friend Bolanle the diary’s hidden sketches of the Imperial Gardens, she gasped—her satchel was empty! Tears welled in her eyes. "The Empire’s laws punish thieves with exile!" Bolanle whispered before sprinting to report the crime to Magistrate Oba, their steel-eyed teacher.
The Magistrate ordered the Imperial Inspection: every student’s bag was searched under the watch of the Lion Guard. When the diary was found in Kehinde’s possession, the boy shouted, "By the Emperor’s grace, I’m innocent! Taye of the East planted it here!"
Taye was dragged before the Magistrate. "You violate the New Empire’s first virtue: Honor," she boomed. Kehinde, with a voice sharp as a dagger, said "I saw Taye slip the diary into my bag. Hmmm! This occurred when the Lion Guard approached—a coward’s trick!"
The courtroom erupted. "Two months in the Stockades for you, Taye," decreed the Magistrate. "Let the East learn: the New Empire tolerates no treachery."
As Nike clutched her recovered diary, the Dawn Bell tolled across the province—a reminder that in The New Empire, truth always prevailed.
THE END
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