James hurriedly replied, “Calm down! There will be an explanation for everything.”Riley tried to be patient and wait. He was very worried but he could do nothing. And sure enough, just as James had said, they got the answer from a young lady who was one of the palace staff and had a good relationship with Riley, Mary Kesley.“General Reece is still recovering from surgery so he will not be able to attend the inauguration ceremony.”People began to wonder at the delivery of this information. Some of them even began to conjecture about the outcome of the operation. A class three soldier who had not been promoted and happened to be standing at the same level as Riley commented, “Did the medical operation not go well?”“I don't know. If the operation had been successful, we would have seen General Reece here, right?” another friend of his said.“I think General Reece is in really bad condition. He's ... not someone who would give up his responsibilities like this unless there was somet
“How would I know about that?” Riley replied while shaking his head, surprised by James' question which he thought was not important to discuss.James clucked his tongue, “Are you okay with us not living in the same room anymore?”“I'm actually very grateful,” Riley replied casually.James raised an eyebrow and gave Riley a suspicious look.Riley grinned, “At least I won't hear your inconsequential babble like this.”The young man who was the only new soldier in the second year snorted in annoyance and punched Riley's arm although he didn't really mean it.“I'm going to be so bored,” James said listlessly.Riley turned his head and sighed, “Hey, we just live in different buildings, not different kingdoms. We're still in the same castle.”The handsome young man immediately turned to Riley, his eyes showing an expectant look. “That's right, so ... why don't we-”“Stop talking about something that hasn't changed! After all, you can play at my dorm building and I can play at your dorm bu
“Absolutely shameless,” Alex retorted with his emotions still evident.James put all his strength into getting away from Riley, but he couldn't do it. Riley was apparently much stronger than him.Looking at James who couldn't escape, Alex grinned widely, “You idiot! You can't even fight him.”James wasn't actually provoked by Alex's words, but he just didn't want to hear Alex babble anymore so he again tried to untangle himself from Riley.Riley bit his lip and yelled in annoyance, “Get out of here, Alex!”“Why should I?” Alex retorted, looking stubborn.“Alen!” Riley said, staring as if asking Alen for help.Alen of course understood the meaning of that look and immediately dragged one of the second-class soldiers with his considerable strength.“Let go of me!” Alex shouted.“Lowly soldier! How dare you do this to me!” Alex screeched angrily.Alen didn't care and kept dragging Alex until the man was pushed out of the room.After completing the task, Alen quickly closed the door to th
Alen sighed in frustration that he had to get involved in the fight.However, Riley didn't seem to mind that at all and instead hastily replied, “Everything James Gardner said is true, senior.”“Not only did James attack Senior Alex Hopskin, but he also attacked James,” Riley explained.The seniors and staff looked at Riley as if they were investigating. One of the staff immediately recognized Riley and said, “You ... aren't you also a war general candidate?”His friend whispered softly, “He's not just a candidate for war general. He's the king's future son-in-law.”The staff nodded and looked relaxed. However, one of the seniors clucked his tongue.He gave Riley a disapproving look, “That doesn't affect us in any way. If what you said was indeed a lie, then we have the right to teach you a lesson.”Riley wasn't upset at all and simply replied, “I'm telling the truth, senior.”Alex, who felt his position was being threatened, quickly said, “What the hell? They're both friends of Gardn
Alex's friends, who had come to defend their friend, turned to Alex, watching his response.Apparently, instead of looking confident, Alex looked hesitant. That expression clearly showed that in that case Alex had lied.One of Alex's friends clucked his tongue and said quietly to Alex, “Damn you, Alex! If you made a mistake, why drag us along?”Alex immediately turned to his friend and replied with a sardonic look, “What do you mean? Didn't you say you wanted to teach that Gardner a lesson?”“Then why are you blaming me now?” Alex added in a tone of voice so low that it could only be heard by his three friends.One of Alex's other friends spoke up, “Alex, did you really attack him?”Alex was taken aback, shocked that his friend seemed to have decided to turn on him.“If you did attack him, then you're just as guilty as he is,” the other friend continued.Alen and James looked at each other, seemingly confused by the actions of Alex's friends.However, Riley was not surprised at all. I
Alen and Diego were happy to see their enthusiasm. The two young men immediately embraced Riley and James.“Calm down guys! It doesn't matter if no one supports you two, there are still us,” Alen said sincerely.Diego also added, “James, Riley. You've got us to be the noisy audience.”Riley smiled happily, while James immediately grumbled, “What the hell are you doing? The palace staff can kick you out of the selection arena if you're loud.”Yet again, Diego took no offense to James' sometimes annoying words.The young man knew how James talked and knew that he wasn't as bad as people thought. He also considered James to be one of his best friends, just like Riley and Alen.After talking incoherently, the four young men set off towards the selection arena building where it turned out that there were already thousands of soldiers present inside the building.Alen stared in amazement at the uncountable number of soldiers as if all the soldiers of Ans De Lou Kingdom had come to witness t
“Of course he's coming. He couldn't have let the selection go by without him, right? What's more, there's you who ... has been personally selected to come along,” James replied lightly.The young man was honestly happy to see the arrival of the current Ans De Lou Kingdom's war general, but he didn't want to show it too much in front of Riley.Riley glanced at James. Riley's smile instantly expanded at the sight of Andrew, even from a long distance. “He looks healthy, doesn't look like he's had major surgery,” Riley said.James snorted softly, “Oh my goodness, Riley! He's been missing for a few days, I guess he used that time to recuperate.”“It would seem so,” Riley replied, agreeing with James' words.James immediately stopped talking when Mary Kelsey, as usual, started to speak. Oh, somehow he felt he had memorized Mary's voice and strangely he always shut up automatically.The event started after Keannu Wellington gave the signal and Mary began to explain some of the main rules
A roar of applause erupted inside the training ground that could hold thousands of spectators. The shouts of “Josh Cleve” were so loud that they made James Gardner frown.The young man even wanted to cover his ears altogether because they were starting to hurt. However, before he could raise his ears, the person whose name had been called out by Mary Kesley spoke into his ear in a rather loud voice, “Forgive my supporters! They just want to give me support.”James forced himself to smile and replied silently, “No problem.”Josh flashed a big smile at James and also at Riley who then said, “Good luck, senior. You'll make it.”“Thank you,” Josh replied and then waved at his supporters.This immediately excited the supporters of the senior class one soldier. Shortly afterwards Josh made his way to the arena where he would fire at the twenty targets. James didn't stop staring at the senior, while Riley was more interested in reading the rules on the monitor.Before they heard Josh fir
Lory Blackwell paused, trying to compose himself.According to what he knew, the forest located in the border area close to the Mecco Kingdom was an uninhabited forest. The dense forest was a wild forest inhabited only by animals. Although soldiers from the two kingdoms, Ans De Lou Kingdom and Mecco Kingdom, did check regularly, it was still very rare.So, it was no surprise that Lory thought he had misheard. "Probably just a hallucination." The young man said quietly and nodded, reassuring himself.However, after a few seconds he heard the same voice again, "Hey, I'm over here."Lory's eyes widened. He became very alert.On such a dark night, of course he couldn't see very clearly so he could only squint and hold his gun tightly. But, from the voice of the person, Lory guessed that the voice was coming from his right so he turned his head to his right. As he climbed up the large tree that he used as cover, he did notice that there were several other large trees in the vicinity.
Ben quickly racked his brain, thinking of the right way to put James at ease. But before he could come up with a good line, he heard James say again, "Or ... is he angry that I took his current position? But, ...."James shook his head weakly, "There's no way he's angry because of that right? Moreover ... he knows very well that I never wanted her position. He must be-""Stop thinking like that, James! Are you stupid?" Ben said in an annoyed tone.James was about to respond, but Ben raised his right hand as if asking James to be quiet for a few moments.James seemed to understand the meaning of Ben's gesture and he let out a long sigh.Ben swallowed before explaining, "James, you know Riley doesn't care about the title 'War General' either. Basically, both of you are not crazy about positions."James faltered. Ben was right. How could Riley be disappointed and angry with me over this damn title? That doesn't sound like 'Riley Mackenzie', James thought.The young man exhaled harshly.
Without looking away, Ben thought hard. James didn't just stand by, waiting for Ben's answer. He himself repeatedly touched the handkerchief to scrutinize it. Not only that, the war general of Ans De Lou Kingdom was also sniffing the gray handkerchief as if he was looking for something.Seeing what James was doing, Ben impatiently commented, "You're not a dog. How can you track someone's whereabouts from sniffing that thing?"James instantly gave Ben an exasperated look, "That's not it. I'm just trying to smell this handkerchief. Who knows ... it might turn out to be a clue.""Then ... did you get a clue after sniffing the cloth?" Ben asked with a casual look.With a look of disappointment, James replied, "No. I didn't. I just smelled the earth."Had they not been in a serious situation, Ben's laughter would have exploded. However, they were working on an important mission so Ben knew he had to restrain himself. He certainly didn't want to be seen as trivializing his friend's rescu
Foei Maccray turned around and looked sarcastically at the junior.When he saw Lory Blackwell's compliance, Foei Maccray smiled wryly as if satisfied that he had succeeded in making one of his juniors submit to his orders.Of course, that made him feel big-headed. Hence, Foei haughtily said again, "Keep standing here until we are out of your sight. After that ... then you can walk."Lory Blackwell did not reply. But Foei took his silence as obedience so he said, "Good! You should obey your seniors' orders."Lory just swallowed without daring to say a word. However, Foei did not need an answer so he just continued walking along with his good friend, Derrick Weybe who looked bored in Lory's neighborhood. The other soldiers followed the two senior soldiers with mixed feelings. Apparently there were some of them who were starting to feel sympathetic towards Lory. But due to their status and class being much lower than the two senior soldiers who were bullying Lory, they chose to be cowa
Derrick snorted in annoyance, while Foei immediately responded, "Oh, you seem to be very timid!" Foei cast his gaze at Derrick and then flashed a smile with a mocking expression. Derrick shook his head, also smiling mockingly."If you're scared, why would you want to participate in this important mission?" Foei said.Lory quickly shook her head, "I'm not afraid ... I’m just-""Huh? Not afraid? Then, why did you just say that?" Derrick cut Lory off, as if he deliberately didn't want to hear Lory speak."You're obviously a coward! Oh my! You should have stayed in the palace and not joined the search for General Mackenzie," Foei explained with a lopsided smile. "Coward!" Derrick taunted again. "A pathetic soldier like you who dares to tell us we're slow? Who do you think you are, my superior?" Foei said with a cold tone and a dismissive expression.Oh, he was really very satisfied seeing Lory's helpless expression.The two men deliberately wanted to humiliate Lory. Their intentions w
Seeing James' confident smile, Ben instantly realized that his best friend was unpredictable. But, when he recalled the relationship between James and Riley in the past, he felt that everything James said was true. Riley had always been completely open to James. The young man only hid one thing, which was the fact that he was William Mackenzie's son. Other than that, Riley had no other secrets from James. Meanwhile, Riley was also the only person who could understand James very well. Only Riley is able to understand every action taken by James and James only wants to talk about things with Riley.So, seeing all these facts, Ben finally nodded, "Okay, then. What should I do?"James snorted and immediately put on a sullen face, "Come on, Ben! I told you earlier."Ben rolled his eyes, "I still don't understand. Please explain in more detail!"With an annoyed expression James replied, "If I had the authority to downgrade soldiers, I would definitely downgrade you to class two."Ben's n
Although they seemed confused by the war general's order, they still unanimously replied, "Yes, General."It wasn't long before all the soldiers formed a line where they would prepare to search for Riley Mackenzie as ordered by James Gardner.Most of the first class soldiers did not hesitate to do the task, but there were some of the class two soldiers who seemed to be unsure of what they were going to do.Two of them were Foei Mccray and Derrick Weybe."I don't understand why General Gardner is searching the forest. How could General Mackenzie be here? This doesn't make sense," Derrick said, who had just lined up facing the front of the forest.The twenty-six year old young man was in the front row with his best friend so they could still talk in a fairly low tone of voice.Foei nodded in agreement, seemingly thinking the same as Derrick, "He's probably too frustrated to pick a spot."Derrick exhaled harshly then glanced towards the front where several class one soldiers seemed to be
Gary Davis shook his head with a super confused expression. He couldn't guess what might have happened. He himself did not know James Gardner very well. He entered the palace when James Gardner had just resigned from the post of deputy general of war. So basically he had only met James a few times. It was different with Riley Mackenzie. He had met Riley countless times. In fact, it could be said that he already knew how Riley behaved. However, he could not think of anything about James Gardner. He was just like a blind man when it came to James. "Even young General Mackenzie is not suspicious of you. He's been in the palace longer than that general. I don't understand," Elena said, who also hadn't found the answer to the question that was bothering her.She also still didn't understand. However, a thought occurred to Gary. "Maybe I was in too much of a hurry, Gran," Gary said suddenly.Elena frowned, "What do you mean, Gary? What kind of hurry?"Gary sighed softly, "Approaching
Elena Goldwin bit her lip, feeling she had done something wrong. The old woman said, "I'm sorry, Prince ... oh, I mean ... Gary."Seeing Elena's soulful face, Gary became uncomfortable. He looked at the old woman who had taken care of him since he was a child. That woman had done so much for her family. Not only did she devote herself as a household assistant, she also became a substitute mother figure for his brother. Indeed, her age was more appropriate to be called a "grandmother", but her role was more suitable as a mother to herself and Rowen.Oh my! What have I done? She sacrificed so much, but what have I done? The old woman who has helped me with all her time and energy, I almost made her cry, Gary thought in exasperation.The young man touched Elena's hand, startling the woman. She then heard Gary say, "You don't have to apologize, Gran. And I ... I'm the one who should be apologizing to you. Please, forgive me for getting angry just because you called me that."Elena ga