Quickly he recognised the national anthem, except it was the beginning this time, starting with the seven notes that were a grand introduction, followed by the main melody, which Adler mouthed the first line of before the notes repeated themselves again.
“Long live the König!” one of the Aufseher shouted, sounding quite excited.
All the other Aufseher repeated the shout, with some throwing their hats in the air, and a couple even cracking their whips several times quickly.
Adler, however — and all the other slaves around him, by the looks of things — felt no joy in his heart as he surmised that Kronprinz Theoderich was now König Theoderich VI.
Just because there was a new König didn’t mean things would change for him, or for any of the others. If anything, it just meant that they had a new, somewhat younger face to envisage when they rued their plight.
After cheering and celebrating for a few moments, the Aufseher turned as quickly as an eye blinked back to bellowing abusive commands to work and snapping their whips so as to bite tender flesh.
Adler started into motion again quickly and continued with his work, his mind thinking back to when he had been in Odalrichsaal, and had seen then-Kronprinz Theoderich, as well as the late König Baldrich as they had listened to his case along with the judge, wanting to hear what had possibly forced two juries to come to an inconclusive decision.
König Baldrich had been grey-haired, wrinkled, fairly heavy-set, and undoubtedly ill, while also having a dour and serious face and a gaze that’d made Adler feel like a hated and significant inconvenience.
Kronprinz Theoderich, on the other hand, had greying brown hair, only a few more lines to his face than Adler’s own father and grandfather had, a stocky body that had looked like it belonged to a man who ate well, a reasonably healthy look to his face, and a more thoughtful, attentive expression, paired with a sympathetic gaze that had made Adler feel less hated and less significant of an inconvenience.
Overall, of the two, Adler had possessed a more favourable impression of the one who was now König, but he still didn’t hold out all that much hope that König Theoderich was going to make any significant changes to anything immediately — much less soon enough and swift enough to have any effects on Adler’s life and situation.
He hoped that König Theoderich would do something, and could do something, not only to get his name cleared and his freedom secured, but to help all the people who were still — and much more justifiably so — enslaved.
Grandfather had said many times that slavery was the biggest blight, the biggest failure, the biggest evil that existed in Zeig, and Adler had certainly agreed with him before, but even if he hadn’t, he would agree twice as heartily now that he had seen firsthand what slaves endured that it was all those things.
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