14. Just Surrender

"Please forgive me, Your Majesty." A prospective soldier ran towards his king with a frightened face, and then he prostrated himself in front of his king with his body shaking. "I will accept your punishment."

Tristan gazed at General Hudgon's bloodied hand, and the sword of the prospective soldier who had flown towards Tristan was still tightly gripped by General Hudgon.

"What did you do to make your sword leave your hand?" General Hudgon snapped at the prospective soldier.

The other prospective soldiers who were warming up and practicing their fighting skills with swords were shocked and turned to look at them, wondering what was going on. General Hudgon scolded them and told them to focus on themselves.

"Why don't you hold your sword tightly?" Tristan asked. Even though the sword flying towards him was one of the bad lucks given by the system, he was still angry at the prospective soldier.

"You can't hold your sword properly?" Tristan became emotional. He tried hard not to kick the prospective soldier. The sword didn't hurt him, he was spared bad luck thanks to General Hudgon.

Tristan glared at the prospective soldier who chose not to answer his and General Hudgon's questions, he also only begged for forgiveness once. The man was ready to receive punishment from him.

"General Hudgon." Tristan turned to General Hudgon, who appeared impatient to punish the future soldier who had nearly injured his king. "I'll leave him to you. You know best what punishment he deserves."

"I understand, Your Majesty." General Hudgon nodded. Then he called two soldiers who were watching the prospective soldiers' sword dueling practice. He ordered the two soldiers to take the prospective soldier to his tent.

Tristan thanked General Hudgon, and he didn't forget to remind the general that his hand was hurt and needed to be treated immediately.

General Hudgon ran to the tent where the paramedics were and asked them to rush to treat his hand.

"Are we standing before you, Your Majesty?" asked Knight Aiden, who was standing behind his king. "Just in case something like that happens to you again, Your Majesty."

"No need." Tristan shook his head. "I want to see them."

Tristan's gaze returned to the hundreds of prospective soldiers. Next week, they will take the selection test to become palace soldiers and knights. Two of them would become knights who escorted him when he was on a long journey.

"They're cool." Tristan expressed his admiration.

In his previous life, he was also always amazed whenever he saw soldiers. They were tall, and their bodies were muscular, but strangely, Tristan never had the desire to become a soldier.

***

Lunch had arrived, and all the prospective soldiers were resting. They ate by sitting cross-legged on the ground after they took the food and drinks that were available in an orderly queue.

The ground was not brown, and the texture was not dense. Nobody knows why generals in ancient times chose this dry and somewhat sandy, barren land to be used as a training camp for prospective soldiers.

The training camp for prospective soldiers was far from the king's palace and far from the training camp for soldiers and palace soldiers.

This country still has a lot of empty land. Tristan could even build a palace for his concubines if he had the desire to collect concubines.

Tristan, his two knights, general Hudgon, and other soldiers were eating lunch not far from the prospective soldiers, but they were sitting on rocks or tree trunks.

Tristan refused to eat in the tent. He wanted to experience the atmosphere of eating outdoors and feel the sun on his skin. Not only that, but sweat was pouring down his face and back.

"No women." Tristan muttered as he was about to put the potato in his mouth.

He had already circled the prospective soldier training camp, and he didn't see a woman! Those in the kitchen were palace soldiers.

"Aren't there any women who want to be soldiers?" Tristan's question shocked everyone, and they were also surprised because their king asked them to talk while they were eating.

"Every year the number of women enlisting in the army decreases, Your Majesty," answered knight Aiden, who was sitting on his king's right.

"Why?" Tristan forgot that not talking while eating was one of the royal regulations that he had to obey as a king. This made his two knights, General Hudgon, and all the soldiers confused about whether to answer his question or obey the rules.

"We don't know, Your Majesty," answered General Hudgon.

Tristan digs into Tristan Madigan's memories of women's work in this country. Most of the women were traders and worked as waitresses and prostitutes. Many also get married at the age of 12.

Tristan almost forgot that the world was not yet modern. Men are highly esteemed. Meanwhile, discrimination against women is really serious.

He was confident that the system would not issue him an order to inform his people that women and men have the same position. Women are required to attend school and may work in good professions.

Tristan wanted to equalize the genders so that they were no longer masculine and feminine, but that was a difficult task.

All the ministers were men. Tristan was sure that the ministers would oppose him, no one would listen to him, even though he was a king.

Tristan didn't know who was on his side yet.

"Damn it!" Tristan threw his bowl to the ground as a white bird passing overhead threw its feces onto his food. The two potatoes he had not eaten lay helplessly on the ground.

"Damn bird!" Tristan shouted at the flock of birds flying away.

The two knights, General Hudgon, and the soldiers immediately placed their bowls on the ground. When their king decided to stop eating, they did the same.

Tristan closed his eyes, suppressing the anger in his chest and stomach, which was churning as if he were about to vomit all the food he had eaten. He almost slurped the soup, which contained bird droppings!

"Oh God." Tristan surrendered himself to God.

Knight Aiden, Knight Ajax, and General Hudgon stared at each other. They wondered why their king had successively had bad luck.

The penalty had only been going on for about two hours, and Tristan had already faced various things that tested his patience.

If Tristan was a person who gave up easily and was afraid to face anything that came his way, he would have decided to lie in bed for two days.

"Be careful on the road, Your Majesty," said General Hudgon when Tristan and his entourage were ready to return to the palace.

"I believe in you that you can create great soldiers, palace soldiers and knights," said Tristan.

"Thank you for trusting me, Your Majesty." General Hudgon blushed.

Tristan and his light brown horse led the way to his palace. They spurred their horses to a fast gallop so they would arrive before sunset. They passed through forests and riverbanks.

Tristan didn't remember the route clearly because all the forests looked the same. He felt calm because the light brown horse he was riding had memorized the road well. Tristan Madigan really likes taking his horse around the kingdom.

Max, what's wrong with you?" Tristan was taken aback as the light brown horse abruptly stopped and then quickly moved to the right and left, causing Tristan to sway violently and nearly fall to the ground if he didn't hug his horse's neck securely.

"Max." Knight Aiden and Knight Ajax got off their horses and tried to calm their king's horse, which looked restless and panicked.

"Your Majesty." They screamed as Tristan fell to the ground. The light brown horse that suddenly went berserk ran fast after Tristan was no longer on its back.

"Damn horse." Tristan looked up at the orange sky while feeling the pain in his body.