Yugi sat solemnly in his father's chair, the chair of the pharaoh, and his new chair as he watched the servants ready the great hall for the party that would take place after the ceremony that appointed him as the king. He still didn't believe that his weak body would be able to serve his kingdom as his father had done, but he knew that in the absence of a king his land would perish. He sighed for the 18th time as he looked over the large hall. It looked so big compared to his small form. Even the chair that he sat in was much too big for him. When his father had sat in the very same chair, he had fit perfectly within its two armrests, but Yugi was so small that he could only put one arm up at a time to be sitting comfortably. He hated being so small and weak.
"Is there something troubling you my pharaoh?" asked Seto who stood next to him.
Yugi sighed again. He had been hoping that Seto would start calling him Yugi after they returned from the inn, but instead he had immediately started referring to him as the pharaoh. That didn't help Yugi at all since it reminded him that his father was dead every time Seto talked to him, but he was never able to ask Seto to stop because he knew that the man was just doing his job. "I don't think I'm ready for this," he said just loud enough that only Seto would be able to hear him.
"You have to be," said Seto.
That was right. Yugi had to be ready for the sake of his kingdom. He could no longer be the weak little prince that he once was. He had to be a strong pharaoh. The only problem was that he could not get his feeble body to become strong. No matter how hard he tried to will his body to get stronger, it always failed him. He hated it. If he had a body like Seto, then he would be able to be a great and powerful king, but he had a weak body and therefore he would be a weak pharaoh.
Seto watched Yugi carefully as he had been doing ever since he was young and as he watched he began to feel bad about what he had just said. It only seemed to make Yugi even more upset, but the words had to be said whether Yugi liked them or not. He wished that he could console Yugi like he once had when they were young, but he knew now that he should never treat the pharaoh so familiarly as he once had. He learned his lesson thoroughly when one of the nobles whipped him for treating Yugi as a friend. He had never told Yugi about it, but he still held the scars on his back.
"My pharaoh," said one of the advisers as he bowed before him. "It is time for you to get ready for the ceremony.
Yugi nodded quietly. He had wanted to get out of this big hall anyway. He just wanted to go back to his room even if it was only to get ready for the ceremony. He stood slowly and began to walk towards his room. When he looked behind him to see if Seto was following he found not only Seto, but also several other royal guards, many servants, and the advisors following him. It was strange and he didn't like having so many people following him around, but he supposed he would have to get used to it if he was going to be their pharaoh.
The whole walk to Yugi's room, Seto could see how uncomfortable all the people were making the boy so, when they finally got there and Yugi was already inside, Seto turned to all the servants and said, "You all can wait out here."
"But we have to help the pharaoh prepare himself for the ceremony," said one of the advisors.
"You can do that after he is dressed in his ceremonial outfit," Seto answered.
"Then the servants must go in to help him change," said another advisor.
"I will help him change," said Seto. "You all need to go and finish the preparations in the great hall for the party."
The servants and advisors stood shocked as Seto walked into the room before they finally allowed themselves to get over it. They would have gone into the room to help the pharaoh, but it was disrespectful for them to enter the pharaoh's chambers without being invited in so they simply turned and left.
"Thank you Seto," said Yugi after he heard all of the people outside his room leave except for a couple of the guards who stayed behind to protect him. That amount of people he was okay with because he had always had a small amount of people around him, but he never liked to be surrounded by big groups of people like he had been only a few moments ago.
"I only do as my pharaoh wishes," said Seto.
"I thank you anyway," sighed Yugi. He just wanted Seto to accept something that he said without turning it around and praising him with it. Sometimes he wished they were young again so that he would Seto would treat him like a friend again, but he knew that was a fruitless and selfish wish that he would never speak out loud.
It took longer than Yugi had expected to get changed into his ceremonial outfit, and the amount of gold that he wore was way heavier than he would have thought after seeing it on his father. He could barely walk right with all of the extra weight on top of him, but luckily most of the ceremony consisted of him sitting down and the rest he would have Seto with him to help him.
Right now he was participating in the first part of the ceremony. He was being carried in a golden box with four men carrying him. The cushion that he sat on was comfortable and the curtains that created three walls around him were see through enough that he could still see the people that stood on either side of the road as he was carried through. He tried his hardest to wave to wave to the people in front of him, but his golden clad hands were too heavy and his muscles soon grew too tired to continue so he just smiled and waved every now and again.
Seto remained in front of Yugi the whole time as he watched the crowd carefully. The ceremony was the best time for assassins to try and attack the pharaoh and he knew that Yugi would be no exception. If anything, there would be more people attacking the pharaoh this time around because he was so weak and none of them knew him because he had been kept from their sight all of his life. He promised himself that he would keep a close watch and he would not allow anyone to try to harm the young pharaoh.
As Seto watched, a man caught his eye. The man was wearing a dark cloak and was trying hard to remain unnoticed. He seemed to be ruffling inside of his jacket for something and Seto immediately moved into action. He didn't want to create an uproar so he just silently walked into the crowd and grabbed the man to pull him away, but when he yanked down the man's hood to see who would dare try to hurt Yugi his heart stopped. The man was smiling and that meant that he had not failed. Seto couldn't believe himself. How could he be so stupid as to not realize that this man was only a distraction to get him away from the pharaoh? He handed the man to another guard who had followed him and ran back into the crowd. Yugi was already too far away for him to get to before anything happened so instead he yelled. "Yugi get down!" He didn't even notice his slip of the tongue. The only thing he saw was a man jumping out of the crowd with a sword in hand ready to cut Yugi's head off.
The men, who were unable to carry the weight of both the pharaoh and another man dropped the box to the floor and the poles holding up the curtains snapped to cover both Yugi and the attacker. Seto ran as fast as he could to the box as some of the other guards and servants tried to get the curtains off, but other attackers joined in the fight and they were unable to move the curtains as they began to be stained with blood. Seto's heart stopped when he saw the blood. He needed to get to Yugi and fast, but the attackers just kept getting in his way.
When all of the attackers were subdued and they were finally able to remove the curtains, Yugi was nowhere to be seen. The only thing that was there was the attacker who looked like he fell on his own sword when the men dropped the box. So where was Yugi? Seto searched around frantically looking for the pharaoh. "Where is the pharaoh?" his booming voice yelled over all of the frantic voices of the crowd. Everyone stopped moving and Seto was able to see the only two people who were still moving amongst the crowd. He quickly jumped on the taller of the man and wrestled him to the ground while Yugi broke free of his grip and stood away from the man so that he couldn't catch hold of him again.
"Are you okay my pharaoh?" asked Seto when one of the other guards approached them and took his place on top of the attacker.
"I am fine," Yugi said. He was a little shaken, but he couldn't show that to his people. He had to seem strong even if he wasn't.
"What happened?" asked one of the advisers as Yugi made his way out of the crowd and back to the royal servants.
"I heard Seto tell me to get down so I moved out of the way of the attacker, but then the men dropped the box and I couldn't stop myself from rolling into the crowd. From there another attacker got hold of me and was trying to take me away when Seto caught him," answered Yugi.
"We must cut this part of the ceremony short," said the adviser.
"No!" gasped Yugi. He didn't want to seem weak by cutting the ceremony short after he had been attacked. He wanted his people to trust him even if he didn't trust himself. "I am fine. I can continue."
"We no longer have anything to carry you on," said Seto.
Yugi stopped at that. He hadn't thought about that and he knew that he couldn't walk the streets with all of the heavy items that he was wearing. He would collapse within half an hour.
"Excuse me sir," said one of the servants.
The adviser was just about to admonish the boy, but Yugi stopped him by saying, "What do you need?" very politely.
"We thought that we should bring with us one of the royal horses," said the boy. "You can ride on that."
"Are you mad?" asked the adviser. "The pharaoh can't ride on a horse during this ceremony."
"Thank you," said Yugi as he completely ignored what the adviser said. "Bring it to me and I will ride it for the rest of the walk of my city." The boy smiled and scurried off while some of the villagers cheered. They now knew that they had a kind pharaoh who loved them all and that was enough to make them happy.
"My dear pharaoh," said the adviser. "You cannot ride a horse during this ceremony. It just isn't done."
"I will ride a horse," said Yugi, "and I will finish the ceremony on top of a horse. I will not hear anymore of you trying to stop me."
Seto was actually proud of Yugi. He knew that Yugi thought that he would not make a good pharaoh, but he had already proven to him and some of the city that he was going to be one of the greatest pharaohs Egypt had ever seen without even trying to.
On top of the horse, Yugi looked even more regal than he had in the large box that had made him look so small. He looked like a king, and Seto was happy be able to see the boy in such a beautiful way. He almost didn't even notice as the servant boy who had brought Yugi a horse brought one to his side as well. "The pharaoh asked that I bring a horse for you to ride on too," said the boy.
Seto nodded and quickly mounted the horse to follow Yugi through the city. Yugi seemed truly happy to be able to see all of the people that he passed without it being distorted by the curtains and Seto couldn't help but allow a small smile to spread across his face at Yugi's happiness before he wiped it away and returned to looking at the crowd to make sure there was no more attempts on Yugi's life.
