“Mom, what are you doing?” James complained as he gave his mother a sullen look.Dorothy chuckled, still ignoring her son's words she said to Diego, “You must be very patient to be able to listen to my son's sometimes painful words.”Diego was stunned. He had never expected James' mother to be so open and honest. Shin, who was holding back his laughter, finally responded, “Auntie, you've described James' character very well.”“Of course, young man. I'm his mother, I know how my son is,” Dorothy replied while glancing at James who still looked annoyed.“Mom, just so you know. I now have many friends and they-”“Immune to your sharp tongue?” Dorothy cut off her son's words.Diego couldn't help but laugh and he ended up chuckling along with Shin.James chewed his food quickly then replied, “Trust me, Mom. In fact, I have one close friend who almost sacrificed his life for me.”The young man looked proud to show off to his mother, while Dorothy raised her left eyebrow and asked quickly,
If it had been someone else, he would have refused to answer. However, it was his own mother who asked, so there was no way he could refuse to answer.“Not much. He ... just said father isn't as bad as people think. After all, dad is a general of many who has also sacrificed a lot for the Ans De Lou Kingdom,” James explained.Hearing her son's explanation, a faint smile appeared on Dorothy's lips. She then responded, “He hasn't changed, still as wise as ever.”Diego was dumbfounded, while Shin frowned in astonishment at James' mother's words.James snorted and gave his mother a disapproving look, “Mom, come on!”Dorothy waved a hand, “Hey, don't stare at your mom like that. After all, what you said is true.”Suddenly, Dorothy got up from her chair, “Never mind, time has passed. By the way, why haven't you finished eating your food yet?”Shin hurriedly resumed his chewing, while Diego plucked a piece of cake. James sighed softly, not wanting to eat anymore.“When you're done eating, t
Riley was instantly speechless. Alen's words had shocked him. He had never realized that before.However, it wasn't long before he heard Ben say in a soothing tone, “There's no need to think about it. What you said is just an estimate. We still don't know what might happen.”“Remember, the future can easily change greatly. A prediction is neither a verdict nor a fact,” Ben added.Riley nodded with relief. Alen felt guilty, “Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you think so hard.”“Never mind, it doesn't matter. By the way, how long will it take us to arrive?” Riley asked intentionally to distract her friends.Meanwhile, Ben had apparently contacted his best friend and had gotten a message back.The man breathed a sigh of relief, “Shin and the others have also left. We'll arrive before them.”Riley nodded and immediately rested his body because when they arrived at the palace later, he knew he would be very busy.Meanwhile, inside the palace, the ground war commander, Reiner Anderson
However, Reiner, who was indeed ignorant and did not really want to know other people's secrets, immediately pushed that matter out of his head.Uh, why would I think about that? It's none of my business, Reiner thought to himself.After finishing the discussion, the war commanders hurriedly left the room along with Andrew Reece who walked towards the direction of the king's residence.“I didn't expect that General Reece would take such offense,” Joseph said.Seamus nodded with a grim expression on his face, “I should have known ....”He let out a long breath first as if gathering strength and only after gaining energy again did he speak, “General Reece has been a war general for more than twenty years and he ... is one of the senior soldiers who has gone to the battlefield thousands of times. He must be able to judge a person's ability well so ... he chose Riley.”Seamus wanted to hit himself on the head for his stupidity in doubting the soon-to-retire war general's choice. Reiner r
While Reiner was already looking rather irritated, the other two war commanders also shared Reiner's frustration.Meanwhile, James himself was still pensive as if he was confused. However, it was different with Riley. The young man still looked calm and Andrew just watched the son of the legend carefully without interfering in the slightest. “I'll try to discuss it with them,” Riley said suddenly.James immediately turned to his friend, “You mean you want to negotiate with them? Is there any way they'd be willing to do that?”“I don't know, but it's one of the better ways to go about it than starting an attack right away,” Riley explained.Joseph gulped, “Are you sure about it?”Riley looked at Joseph and then nodded, “It's not a matter of being sure or not, but it's more of a way to avoid war and ... even if this method fails, at least we still have time to prepare our troops.”Reiner suddenly winked, seemingly amazed by the strategy Riley had chosen, “Wow! That's good.”Riley nodde
Michael Hellfric waited for James' reply.Come on, hit me first and I swear I'll hit you back with more painful blows. This is for the sake of my uncle who was killed by your father! Michael thought to himself.However, Michael's hopes could not be realized. Instead of hitting Michael with an outburst of emotion, James gave him a casual smile.This left Michael dumbfounded.James sighed softly, “I know, the inauguration as deputy war general is curious. But ... you should know one thing, Mr. Hellfric.”Michael raised his right eyebrow, looking wary as James walked closer to him and then hunched his shoulders.The young man continued, “King Keannu knew from the beginning that I was the son of Jody Gardner, a war general who was labeled a traitor in this country.”“However, he still gave me the opportunity to prove my worth and this is the result ... I was chosen as deputy war general,” James said as he touched the label on his military uniform.Michael was silent, as if confused by Jam
James sighed softly, but still seemed reluctant to answer. Meanwhile, Shin apparently still had high curiosity so he asked again, “It's been three years. Have you given up on finding him?”Ben saw James' complicated expression. The young man quickly responded to his friend's words, “Shin, what's wrong with you? It's all in the past. How could a deputy war general have time to think about such matters?”He chuckled but apparently no one was laughing with him so he returned to shutting his mouth tightly as he began to realize that the tension around him was getting serious. Meanwhile, Reiner who was actually very curious but didn't want to make James dig into the past again said, “You've been here and achieved many things, James. You're ... not just an ordinary soldier, but you're a deputy war general who has helped win this kingdom several wars.”“Your service to this kingdom is great. You ... wouldn't possibly destroy all those efforts and achievements just because of that past, wou
Riley turned to James and said, “I'll go there alone.”Reiner and the other two war commanders gaped in shock, while James firmly said, “No. You're not. Are you out of your mind?”“This is one way we can find out what they really want,” Riley replied.James shook his head and got up from his chair with an angry expression. “We already know their purpose for invading our kingdom. It's clear that they want to take control of part of our kingdom. So, what else should we investigate? Isn't the most important thing to defeat them?” James said in exasperation.If James already looked emotional like that, almost no one would dare to oppose him. He was still very young and everyone in the room was older than him, except Riley.But, the fact was that they knew that whatever the young man who served as a deputy general of war said was mostly the truth.However, Riley was not like other people who just stayed silent when James was angry, so calmly the young man who was only one year older than
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
Gary Davis sighed softly. Guilt immediately rushed into his heart.He immediately positioned his seat towards his little brother and looked at him with a guilt-filled gaze.The boy's gaze was so innocent that it made Gary's feelings even more chaotic.Rowen, his little brother, was still very young, but he had to bear problems that he shouldn't have thought about at such a young age. In a very gentle tone Gary said, "Rowen, I'm sorry. I ... know you must feel very lonely. But ... believe me I'm doing all this for us. I-""You risked your life, Brother. I ... I ...."Gary shook his head, "Don't think about me! You just have to grow up healthy and safe. So that when we get what is rightfully ours, we can stand tall."Suddenly, Gary's words made Rowen look down sadly. "Gary, can't you just leave it all behind?"Rowen made Gary frown but he smiled a little before saying again, "What do you mean? Didn't you say you wanted to live in the palace with me? Why are you saying that now?"The 10
Actually it was not only Doris Tan who found it hard to believe what Xylan had decided. However, his three fellow bodyguards also felt the same way.In fact, the images of the three's expressions were very clear from just one look. Especially Jim Chesnut who looked so shocked at Xylan's words. His mouth even opened wide and he forgot to close it again. "Y-Your Majesty, I'm very confused. I ... I-""Doris Tan," Xylan cut Doris off with a stern tone.Doris fell silent, as if knowing that Xylan would soon explain the viceroy's reasoning. Sure enough, it wasn't long before Xylan said, "Hm, you ... did do the right thing by admitting your mistake."He paused for a few seconds, deliberately to give Doris time to calm down before he continued what he wanted to say.When Doris seemed much calmer, Xylan continued, "However, you did it in the wrong way."Ludos Flee frowned, looking confused. Meanwhile, Jim Chesnut looked thoughtful as he squinted slightly.What's wrong? Jim wondered to himsel