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Chapter 3 - Dark Age: Rise Of Java Chapter 3. Chess

The sun is shining from the east and the atmosphere today is very bright, for the mulberry problem Hayam will not be in a hurry because it takes time, maybe up to several months because of the underdeveloped transportation factor. In this era land transportation was still very rough although there were already several roads connecting between cities but they were still dirt roads and the forests were still very dense.

The population on the island of Java at this time does not seem to be too much according to Hayam's prediction it will not reach 20 million maybe even only 10 million but he does not know the exact number, it seems that the government in this era did not conduct a population census.

And Hayam also only left the palace for a few times according to his memory and for the nonsense he talked about with his mother it was a lie even though he also got punished for leaving the palace without permission but Hayam was very happy which meant his mother believed him.

Although it was ancient times but why was the leader of this country a woman? Hayam was not surprised because he had read history before.

The previous king was Hayam's uncle or his mother's half-brother, but he died without having descendants and the throne fell to his grandmother Gayatri but because his grandmother decided to become a priest so the throne was given to his mother, of course not his father because his father did not have the lineage of Raden Wijaya, his grandfather the founder of the majapahit kingdom, his mother's reign would end when his grandmother died well actually he was just a substitute leader.

For his father Hayam hasn't met him yet, even though he has been here for a few months, according to his memory it seems that his father led the troops to clean up some rebellions.

Hayam also does not have much experience in politics but because he has future memories and has watched many movies about conspiracies so he has a little picture, but it is just a picture not a real situation so he needs to be careful. Even Gajah Mada was such a great person that Hayam had to be careful, according to the future records Gajah Mada was a very loyal person but that was just a record to find out the real situation Hayam had to test and keep an eye on him, Hayam did not want to be a puppet king who was only controlled by others so he needed to gather his own strength and confidants.

But all these plans could not be realized overnight, first he did not have money, even though he was a prince but he was not rich, according to his pocket money which amounted to 2 gobog gold coins. Money in this era is called gobog and there are only copper and gold gobogs, on the island of Java there are no silver mines and only gold and copper. For the exchange rate, 1 gold gobog is worth 1000 copper gobogs and the average cost of living per day for commoners is only 15 gobogs.

Hehe it seems that when talking about gold Hayam has read online news that gold reserves in Wonogiri reach 1.5 million tons but that is not a surprising figure when compared to those in Papua because there have reserves of more than 100 million tons but in the future the gold will not be enjoyed by the Papuan people. Well it's all because of corrupt politicians and some stupid statesmen so Hayam doesn't really care because in this era it hasn't all been developed.

All of that is just a shadow of Hayam's future, because at this time the situation in the palace made him very surprised because chess was very popular in the palace some servants even played it.

Entertainment in this era was still very limited, maybe if the children's games were many but for adults there was only gambling, namely cockfighting or playing dice and chess is very different, this requires intelligence.

It seems that Hayam underestimated the impact of chess because in his mother's view chess is like a battlefield, we have to choose moves and apply strategies to defeat the enemy, and even the prime minister Gajah Mada was also interested after several times seeing this game, actually Gajah Mada has the title Amengkubumi, well his job is the same as the prime minister, for the political system and the division of positions Hayam is also still a bit confused that he only knows the king mahapatih or amangkubumi and senopati and even then he is still unclear about their duties.

Therefore Hayam also planned to find information about the Majapahit political system, but he was very dizzy now because many people challenged him to play chess and of course they were defeated easily, before he entered this body he often played chess online using his computer even though he was not a Granmaster but to defeat some beginners Hayam did not need much strategy even with just a few moves he could defeat them.

Because many servants and bodyguards were playing chess this made the queen angry because they neglected their work so the queen issued a rule that was prohibited from playing chess while on duty and this made Hayam happy because finally he could escape this mess.

...

Today Hayam went to the pendopo on the side of the palace (pendopo is a wide hall found in traditional houses in Java), his goal was to go to study actually the same as school.

Education in this era is actually still a bit behind because there are only two, namely religious education and undergraduate education, undergraduate education only contains ethics and politics, this politics includes state governance and military strategy, and also philosophy.

When he got there Hayam already saw many students who had gathered in the hall, they were all sitting on the floor and in front of him was an old man wearing white clothes like a priest. He was a teacher, he was a Resi, Resi is the name for a priest in Hinduism but even though he was a priest because he was felt to have knowledge so he was chosen as a teacher here.

Of course the old man was a very educated person because he could be a teacher in the kingdom, the students here were also not ordinary children they were the children of officials and some children of the rich.

After all the students gathered the Resi began to provide learning material even though Hayam was actually very bored but he still listened carefully, the current situation he needed to gather a lot of knowledge to know the situation of this kingdom and plan his future.