"Your ambition is too big to find the general's son," Alen Smith said. James grinned, "You would have done what I would have done if born without a father." Alen suddenly fell silent, while Riley gripped his glass of water. "Hey, it's appeared," Diego said, intending to cool the atmosphere. All the eyes of the prospective soldiers were immediately glued to the very large screen. "I don't care about my ranking, the important thing is to get the minimum score." "Is there really a minimum standard for assessment?" someone else said. "You idiot! Didn't you read all the rules before registering?" They started having fun throwing around words until finally they started to fall silent when their names started appearing. Riley saw that James was looking seriously at the screen, while he only glanced at their names. "Wow! You rank first in swordsmanship, Riley," Diego said. Alen clapped his hands, happy, "Amazing! Why didn't you tell us that your sword skills are good." Riley smiled
"I would love to say 'yes', but you know that 'Wood' is not a rare surname, it is too common a surname, Reece," Keannu said. Andrew's face, which originally looked bright, suddenly turned a bit gloomy again. Keannu immediately felt guilty. "I don't mean to destroy your hopes, Reece. I just don't want you to be too disappointed," Keannu said slowly. Andrew nodded, "You are right, Your Majesty. It would be too quick to guess that the child is General Mackenzie's son just by looking at some training results." "Yes. Just pay attention to him the same way you pay attention to that young Gardner. Oh, but ... I have a bad feeling about that kid," Keannu said. The king looked worried so Andrew said, "Don't worry, Your Majesty. I will monitor the child more closely. I won't let him mess up." "That's better," Keannu replied. After that, Andrew ordered several of his subordinates to always be on guard around James Gardner and Riley. Riley didn't realize it at all, but James was starting to
Without blinking his eyes, Riley replied, "Why should I play guessing games with you? Don't you claim to be the best?" "So, you can find General Mackenzie's son easily, right?" Riley added. James frowned irritably, "It wouldn't be fun if I looked for it myself." "Oh, you mean in other words you want to say that you need my help to find him?" Riley asked, raising his thick right eyebrow. Alen chuckled softly, while Diego openly said, "My roommate, you are determined to find and defeat him. So do it yourself." "Why invite Riley?" Alen said. James, who was initially annoyed, then smiled, "Even though I intended to give a lot of money for this game." Alen and Diego glanced at each other, looking shocked. But, Riley quickly said, "Who cares about money here?" James took a deep breath, "Wood, not everyone comes to this kingdom to purely serve, but most of them expect a high salary." Riley was silent, James continued, "You also know how much salary the king offers. You also know that
Mary Kesley who was standing in front of the building greeted them with a friendly smile, "Welcome to the ice building, gentlemen." Riley nodded and smiled back, as did Jason Hoult. But James Gardner said, "Why are we asked to come to this building? Why not in the silver, gold or titanium building?" Mary replied, "I don't know. I was just carrying out General Reece's orders." James didn't like that answer so he said again, "You do everything you're told without knowing why, Miss?" Mary intended to answer James' annoying question, but Riley said first, "This lady's job is only to convey orders from the general, not to investigate General Reece's reasons. After all, General Reece doesn't need to explain the actions he takes, except for King Keannu who asks for it." Jason, who didn't like James, immediately nodded in agreement, "Never mind, you've wasted General Reece's valuable time, Gardner." James snorted in annoyance, while Riley said, "We're ready to go inside, Miss Kesley." M
After Andrew Reece and Jason Hoult entered the special room that Andrew had mentioned earlier, James Gardner took a deep breath. Riley said impatiently, "You don't think that Jason Hoult is General Mackenzie's son, do you?" James, who was stretching his muscles, replied, "Why not? You can see for yourself, right?" "See what? What do you mean?" Riley didn't understand. James sighed, "Wood, you ranked first, but it turns out your thinking is really slow. How did you get that position?" Oh, it wasn't that James didn't recognize Riley's greatness, but he was just annoyed because his roommate didn't immediately understand the situation that was happening. "I don't want to play guessing games with you, James," Riley replied and the young man looked away in annoyance. James spoke again, "Hey, Wood. If you weren't my roommate, I would have ignored you." "I'd rather be ignored by you, thank you very much," Riley replied. James smiled instead, "Oh, I'm very happy to have a suitable inte
After the door was closed again by Andrew Reece, Jason Hoult immediately asked, "What did he say? Why do you look so upset?" Riley Mackenzie smiled half-forcedly, "It's nothing important." Jason didn't fully believe it so he asked again, "He didn't insult you or say annoying things to upset you, right?" "No, he did not. Hm, even if he says annoying things, I'm used to it," Riley said. Jason stared in surprise, "How do you get used to it?" "We share a dormitory and happen to share a room. So ... hm, you know what I mean, right?" Riley said. Jason looked surprised, "Oh, your luck is really bad. Sharing a dorm with that annoying person? He must be testing your patience." Jason shook his head and added, "If I were you, I'm not sure I could survive being in the same room with him for one night." Riley just chuckled. "Hm, okay, I have to go back to the dormitory. General Reece asked me to go back to the dormitory straight away," Jason said. Riley nodded and let Jason go. He was now
Andrew held his breath a little, waiting for Riley's answer, who he estimated was William Mackenzie's son after he saw the young man succeed in taking first place with a perfect score. However, he then saw Riley raise his face and smile at him, "Of course, General Reece. How could I not know about the strongest war general that has ever existed in the Ans De Lou Kingdom?" "I really idolize him, General. I even read all the books that discuss him." Riley took a moment to pause and continued, "And the reason I enlisted as a soldier here was also because of him. I also trained hard because I wanted to be one of the people who wore the same armor as General Mackenzie." Andrew was stunned and not long after he smiled at Riley. "You really seem to really idolize General Mackenzie," Andrew said. Riley nodded vigorously, "He is the number one person to follow in his footsteps, General." Of course it was. William Mackenzie was his father. He not only wanted to follow in his father's foot
"What? How is that possible?" Riley said in disbelief. Mary Kesley once again looked around her and after making sure that no one had actually seen them, the young girl immediately took Riley's hand and led him to an unguarded place. Riley, who was still very confused, couldn't help but immediately asked Mary, "So, how did you do it?" Mary sighed, "We can't be here for long, so I'll just get to the point." Riley also listened carefully. "My mother and your father used to be good friends. My mother was Amanda Clark, who used to be a palace secretary," Mary said. Mary then asked, "Have you ever heard my mother's name? Did your father ever mention my mother's name?" Riley nodded quickly, "When my father returned to the palace, the only people who knew him were Andrew Reece and Amanda Clark. She was also the one who gave my father the name 'Bill Stewart'." Mary smiled, "It's great that you have such a good memory, Young Master Mackenzie." Riley cleared his throat being called that