Mary Kesley smiled regretfully, "I apologize. I couldn't interfere with the placement of the room at all. If I interfered, I was afraid people would get suspicious."Riley Mackenzie replied, "It's not your fault. I understand about it."Mary let out a long sigh, "But, don't worry. Even though you share a room with him, when it comes to practice and test schedules, it's unlikely that you'll be in the same group.""Unless you're really unlucky," Mary added.Riley only smiled faintly in response.About a week later, or rather in their third week at the Ans De Lou Royal palace, Riley was stunned to see his name listed in a group with James Gardner one row above his name.They had not yet reached the public building where they ate their meals. They were still in the vicinity of the park not far from Rowena Wellington's residence."It turns out I'm really unlucky," Riley muttered quietly.Alen and Diego who also read the announcement immediately looked at each other."Take it easy, you'll be
Looking at Riley who was just silent, James smiled wryly and then he bumped part of his body with Riley's body and then said, "You're just like the others. Only seeing things from one side."After that, James walked away from Riley."Where are you going?"James did not answer him. Riley yelled out to him, "James.""Where are you going?" Riley repeated."None of your business, Wood." James replied without stopping walking or even looking at Riley.Riley didn't give up so easily and started walking at a half run after James. "Stop walking, James Gardner!"James was still ignoring Riley, so Riley said quickly, "Practice starts soon.""I don't care," James still refused to stop walking and continued to stride with wide steps."We're in a group." Riley said hurriedly.It made James stop walking and turn around. "What did you say, we're in a group?"It worked. Riley wanted to cheer inwardly."Yes. How did it go? Do you still want to go?" Riley asked.James was silent."Are you sure you're g
Riley didn't say any more words, but he heard Diego quip, "Isn't it fun cleaning up after the man who killed your father?"James just gripped the side of the table, not wanting to get punished again if he hit Diego. Riley then responded, "Diego, I don't think this is something worth discussing."Diego just shrugged his shoulders, still not really caring and instead smiled annoyingly at James.Alen, who now wanted to be more of a neutral party, who didn't want to side with either James or Diego, simply mediated by saying, "Alright, we better get ready. We'll be entering the training building soon."That interested James so much that he turned to Riley, "Wood, what are we training for?""Unarmed physical training," Riley replied.Hearing Riley's answer, James smiled, "Then you have to be careful with me, Wood."Riley rolled his eyes, but he didn't reply to James.James said, "I'm pretty good at fighting without weapons, just so you know. I even won a few awards in the championship in th
Riley separated himself from James and chose the southern area to train. Meanwhile, James chose the northern area as if the two people were on opposite sides.When practicing, the prospective soldiers wear short-sleeved shirts and lightweight pants that allow them to move freely. However, when the fight began, they would change costumes according to their branch. For unarmed free martial arts, they would wear additional armor.Riley had already started stretching his muscles and started doing less extreme movements to maintain his energy.When he had been practicing for about thirty minutes, someone approached, "Hey, you're Riley Wood, right?"Riley, who was doing a headstand, slowly returned his position and turned to the person asking him, "Yeah. What's up?""I'm Warren Clay," the young man said as he stretched his hand.Riley welcomed his hand and then asked, "Which dorm are you from?""3. Can I come and train here?" Warren asked back.Riley nodded, "Go ahead. Anyone can train here
"If it wasn't for you being ranked number one, I wouldn't say that," Warren retorted.He spat before leaving Riley who could only let out a long sigh. Some people were watching him, but Riley chose not to care about their responses.The young man continued practicing.Meanwhile, Warren Clay, who did not get his wish, walked towards his friends."I heard your scream. Is there a problem?" Simon asked with a furrowed brow.Warren replied in an exasperated tone, "That snob said he didn't need money. Huh, what the hell? I've never even heard of his family name. 'Wood', what businessman with that name? I don't think there's any businessman with that surname.""That's true. But, seeing how he behaves, he's probably an idealistic person who's hard to work with, Warren," Leonard said after he took off his sweat-soaked shirt.Warren sighed in exasperation, then looked at his two friends. "Never mind, I don't want to talk about that jerk."The man looked depressed until Leonard said, "Calm down,
"Blimey, Wood. You're here, of course, to make us both more eager to compete," James retorted with his deadly grin.However, Riley Mackenzie did not seem to be affected. With a lazy expression, the young man said, "I'm not interested at all."James instantly put on a disappointed face, "Why is that? I haven't even mentioned the prize if you win from me Wood. You hurt me.""Don't talk so much! I don't need a prize anyway. Never mind, let's get it over with, James." Riley said as he turned to the match referee.James snorted in annoyance, but he still replied, "Fine. But, you lose. Just so you know."Riley ignored his words and instead nodded at the referee, indicating he was ready."James Gardner, are you ready?" the referee asked.James quickly adjusted his position and turned his head, "Yes, I'm ready."The unnamed referee said, "Okay. The rules remain the same, whoever manages to make their opponent cross the line and can't fight back wins."Riley and James nodded, understanding the
James did not reply to Riley's words and instead grinned widely. The next second, the young man who had hair slightly covering his eyes turned the tables by slamming Riley with unexpected speed.Riley was wide-eyed in shock but when James intended to use his right elbow to hold Riley, Riley managed to roll over and get up quickly.James stared with a surprised expression. "You're ...."James' words could not be finished because he saw Riley jump slightly and then lunged at him, knocking him down. Riley was breathing heavily looking at the young man who had confused him earlier.Blood dripped from James' nose as he looked at Riley, still with an expression that was hard to explain.There was shock, astonishment, awe and confusion all mixed together in James' eyes.But, he was even more surprised when Riley didn't attack him anymore. However, he chuckled, understanding why Riley had stopped attacking him."You beat me," James said in a strange tone while observing the floor where he had
Riley could feel that the bitter tone was also suffused with a deep sense of loneliness. Riley couldn't imagine not having a friend to chat with. He would definitely be very bored."Oh, don't show that pity face! I hate to see it," James said irritably when he saw Riley's expression.Riley shook his head, "But, it's also good that no one wants to be friends with you.""What do you mean?" James replied with a raised right eyebrow."That way of speaking of yours sometimes makes people's ears hurt, so it would be much better if you didn't have any friends around you, right?" Riley said casually.James snorted, but he smiled. He knew Riley was just trying to cheer him up. Uh, how was this? Because of Riley Wood's presence, he felt like having a friend. However, he didn't want to act rashly by asking Riley as his friend openly. He did not want to be seen as needing him too much.After about five minutes of walking, they had reached the palace medical centre. Riley nodded at a few prospec
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