Chapter 6 6: The Other Captain

Na im didn t give them the impression that they could talk to him about what had just happened. He knew they didn t want him to let her stay there but that was the only choice he had. And it wasn t as if this marriage was going to last, he was going to divorce her when things became clear and she got accustomed to the new life she was going to start living. He made all his reports before he took off his clothes in his office and changed into his kaftan, and that was the only time he remembered that it was supposed to be Eid today. He would ve been thankful if he had the excuse to spend the stressful day of Eid at the palace, if it were a different circumstance. But Na im knew he would choose the stress and tiring day he would have spent in the palace than got himself meddled into the mess of getting himself married to that weird girl. He locked his office before he walked out, walking towards the parking space. "Captain Bolori!" Someone called out his name and he turned, please, let it not be any of his subordinates, he really was in no mood of answering to any of their questions nor did he also want to fight. Because if it was Hafiz, they might fight if he tried to challenge him over what he had done. The person that had just called his name ran towards him with a smile and when he came to light, Na im saw that it was his brother; Abubakar Sadeeq, but they all referred to him as Sadeeq or Babagana, but Na im found it hard to call him the latter, so he always sticked with the former. "Sadeeq," he casually mentioned as he walked towards his car, unlocking it from there. He was just so tired that the only thing he needed was a very good night s sleep to relieve himself from the stress he had went through and the emotional trauma he had embroiled himself into. Sadeeq walked beside him, "I heard that the wedding has been called off, yet again." He said in a normal tone but Na im knew him better than anyone to know that he meant to mock him. He turned to look at him with a hard expression on his face before he got into his car wordlessly, and to his dismay, his step brother entered the car as well. "A friend dropped me off after we were called for the operation, I don't have a ride back to the palace." He mentioned as he buckled his seatbelt and Na im wanted to smack his head. "I almost thought you weren t among the ones that had gone to the operation. You seem too energetic for someone that has gone through something like that. Unless like every other time, you slackened behind and had your subordinates did all the work." Instead of his words to anger him like Na im wanted, a smile appeared on Sadeeq s face. He had always known that his brother was an expert at hiding his emotions, but it always irked him whenever something like this happened. He drove out of the barracks. "It s Eid after all, no matter how tired I am, I still have to be happy, don't you think?" He ignored him, and Sadeeq pulled out his phone that rang from his breast pocket. "Hello, Ya Gumsu." He called out to his mother as everyone called her, and from his peripheral view, Na im stared at how he was smiling widely. This time he didn t hide any of his emotions, it was real and pure joy that Na im wondered what it felt like to have a mother. "No, we re fine. I'm even together with him too, we re driving back to the palace, safe, Ya Gumsu." He added with a gentle tone and waited to hear what she had to say before he smiled widely, "Okay, I'll let him know. Bye, I'll take care." He ended the call before he turned to look at him and Na im hardened his expression. "She s glad that we re both fine." He said, but Na im knew better than to believe this lie. She was glad that her son was, but never him. She would throw a party, if she could, if he died at the war field. "That was nice of her." He muttered through gritted teeth and he drove in silence, as Sadeeq checked his phone for whatever messages he had and then he heard him speaking lovingly, he knew it was definitely one of his series of girlfriends that seemed to have no end. That was why he said that he wasn't ready to get married now whenever Abba said that they had to look for a wife, sometimes he lied that the one he loved was abroad studying medicine and he had to wait until she was done-the lies continued until Abba got tired and kept him aside whenever he spoke about marriage. They had entered the palace and when the royal guards had seen them, they kept on hailing them that Na im had to bring out a bundle of cash from his pocket and he handed it to them. Sadeeq burst out laughing when they drove past them. That was when he realized he was done with the phone call. "What s so funny? Are you sure we won t have you taken to a psychiatric, Sadeeq?" He knew his brother acted sometimes that he was stupid but it was only so he could hide the grievous sins he was committing inside and outside of the palace. So that even if things were out in the light, no one would suspect he were the culprit and even if it was confirmed he was, many people would doubt if it was him. "No, it has just occurred to me that you seem to be the tough one between us but yet, you re the one with the softest heart. Why give them money when it s Eid today and you know that all those aristocratic visitors Abba got today have surely given some huge amount of money to be distributed to every worker in the palace? You re just too nice and it s actually not good for a soldier to have a heart like yours, Captain Bolori." Na im tightened his jaw before he parked in front of Sadeeq s chamber. If not that he wanted so bad to get away from this bumptious guy he had as a brother, he would ve drove ahead to his own chamber and had him trek back to his. But he wanted some time to think and Sadeeq would never let it happen. "Get out," he said and unlocked the door for him. Sadeeq chuckled as he lifted his hands, palms out before he spoke, "Woah, what s with the anger, Captain? I only said what was right but I didn t expect you to blast this way." When he saw that Na im wasn't interested in what he was saying, he spoke again, "How about I ask my maids to make dinner for us and we ll eat? Since we ve missed the royal dinner today?" "Captain Bolori, I asked you to get out of my car, now. And that s an order." He knew that they held the same position in the army with his brother, both being referred to as Captain Bolori, but Na im was still superior to him. As for Sadeeq, if not for Ya Gumsu that had bought the position for him because she couldn t handle the fact that Na im was superior to her son in the army, he wouldn t have been a Captain today. Mockingly, Sadeeq hopped out of the car and before he closed the door, he leaned inside and whispered, "I heard that you got attached to a girl and her dying father at the field today. Again, a Captain should have an even stronger heart than you, Na im. Goodnight, Sir!" He saluted him and closed the door while Na im drove off as fast as he could. He angrily parked his car in his chamber and came out fuming in rage he didn't like how all that Sadeeq had said today was right, a soldier shouldn t have a heart like his. Each time he had said it, Na im had never agreed with him until today, because he felt that having a sympathetic heart only made him human and nothing more. But today, that heart had gotten him into the trouble he had never imagined he would fall into. And getting himself out seemed to be the hardest thing he would ever have to do. The royal guards in his chamber greeted him but he only managed to nod his head at them before he turned to one of them, "Call the royal kitchen and ask them to prepare dinner for me. It should be done in thirty minutes." He had to eat something before he slept, even though his eyes were even closing by the time he walked out of the bathroom as he took a long and comforting shower. He allowed no maids into his chamber if he was around, and they only cleaned the chamber whenever he went to the barrack. He had the voice of the royal guard as he said, "The meal has arrived, Your Highness!" And for a moment, Na im wondered how his brain was able to shift between his two roles in life. In a moment, he was the Captain of a team in the army, being saluted to and referred to at Sir, but the next time he would breath, he was the Prince of the Kingdom of Maiduguri and everyone here bowed and referred to him as Your Highness. He often wondered how he was able not to mix up the two, or to expect something he couldn t get in either of the two roles he lead. He got ready briskly and walked out of the room, he found the meal he had asked for, set for him in his dining table and he sighed before he brought out his phone and sat down. It was such a lonely night that required too much of his attention that he wished he could just sleep because of how tired his body was, but he knew his mind would never be able to rest tonight. He would just have to pretend like he would. He ate the dinner as he went through his phone, the messages he had gotten and wondered what all these girls meant when they had sent him Eid messages. He didn t even know their names, but he had saved their numbers as the dates that he would have gotten married to them. He stared at '25th April and saw that hers had even an image attached, he grunted in annoyance before he tapped into it and behold! It was an image of her in a garden that looked so beautiful and Na im could remember clearly going to the garden but not with her. Yet, her caption was 'I remembered how happy we were when we visited this garden, Your Highness. Here s a picture to remind you of our happy days. They all believed he only claimed not to remember anything about him, none of them had actually believed that he had truly forgotten even the tiniest bit of information pertaining them.