Jigano had enough control to keep the dismay from his face as Sunjata explained the trial, but not from his voice, though he waited until the other man finished speaking before he gave his tongue free rein. ”So every year, only one seventeen year old boy was allowed to live? How many noble families were there in Korofi?” That seemed like it could be a hell of a way to constrict the noble population to extinction awfully fast, though if the families were smart they’d time their births so only one boy turned seventeen each year, and therefore wouldn’t have to fight anyone. With the limits placed for only one son per family that didn’t seem like it would be too difficult to manage…
The alternative, of course, being to poison the sons of your rivals who might challenge your own offspring if they shared a birth-year.
It might have been a system designed to promote the strongest, but it certainly weeded out those that were mentally smart but not as physically blessed as other boys, not when the options were ‘knife’ and ‘shirt’ in a pit. Not exactly the ones who would be inclined towards writing clever laws, or even good ones. Not when it promoted brawn over brains. Jigano grimaced at his thoughts, sitting back on his heels as some of Sunjata’s strange words flowed over him, untranslatable he assumed. ‘Film’ was probably some sort of painting or art, for instance, but it was of negligible importance compared to everything else he had been told.
”So. You abandoned it… just like that?” Jigano asked softly, blue eyes sharp as he looked up at the other man. ”The Son of the Arbiter, winner of his trial, a man famous across his entire country… just walked away from being a noble? An heir? Your father’s only allowed son?”
The alternative, of course, being to poison the sons of your rivals who might challenge your own offspring if they shared a birth-year.
It might have been a system designed to promote the strongest, but it certainly weeded out those that were mentally smart but not as physically blessed as other boys, not when the options were ‘knife’ and ‘shirt’ in a pit. Not exactly the ones who would be inclined towards writing clever laws, or even good ones. Not when it promoted brawn over brains. Jigano grimaced at his thoughts, sitting back on his heels as some of Sunjata’s strange words flowed over him, untranslatable he assumed. ‘Film’ was probably some sort of painting or art, for instance, but it was of negligible importance compared to everything else he had been told.
”So. You abandoned it… just like that?” Jigano asked softly, blue eyes sharp as he looked up at the other man. ”The Son of the Arbiter, winner of his trial, a man famous across his entire country… just walked away from being a noble? An heir? Your father’s only allowed son?”
