"Can't you see His Majesty is injured?" Knight Aiden snapped at the nine bandits after he helped his king sit up and pressed the bleeding part of his head with a handkerchief to stop the bleeding.
Of course, Knight Aiden was panicked and worried, but he had been trained not to show his feelings.
The five palace soldiers stood in front of their king and Knight Aiden. The nine bandits faced them.
Tristan's head was spinning and throbbing like it was going to burst. His eyes were blurry. His sleepiness had disappeared entirely, replaced by excruciating pain.
"Damn it." Tristan knew he couldn't blame anyone, let alone be angry at the system.
It was Tristan's fault that he wouldn't sleep, and now his head was bleeding from a rock after he fell off his horse. Then, a group of bandits approached them with an unknown purpose.
"Do I have a concussion?" Tristan closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. His head hurt so bad. He had to stay calm and believe that he would be okay.
Tristan remembered the pain he felt when a robber stabbed him in his friend's house, killing him, and somehow, he lived in Tristan Madigan's body.
"We are sorry for the misfortune that befell Your Majesty," said one of the bandits. He could not see his king because the five soldiers' tall, muscular bodies blocked him.
"Ask them what they want," Tristan said to Knight Aiden. He was not thinking straight. His head felt like it was being crushed, and he made sure blood was not coming out of his ears and nose.
"But no one is guarding you closely, Your Majesty," Knight Aiden said, disagreeing with his king.
Knight Aiden turned back, expecting that Knight Ajax would soon arrive with their king's horse or that one of the three palace warriors would arrive with a physician.
"They will not come near me. They will not have the courage to kill me," Tristan said confidently. If he were destined to die at the hands of the bandits, he would accept it with an open heart.
For some reason, Tristan has lately wanted to meet the angel of death.
Knight Aiden clenched his fists and stared at his king, who lowered his head while holding a handkerchief to absorb the blood from his head. He had to deal with the bandits so his king's headache wouldn't worsen.
"What brings you to us?" Knight Aiden stood behind the palace soldier who was shorter than him. He stared sharply at the nine bandits, and his hand tightly gripped the hilt of his sword.
"His Majesty King Tristan needs to know what his father did when he was king before he became immobile and could only lie in bed," said the leader of the bandit group.
Tristan frowned. He tried to hear the bandit's words through his dizziness.
"What do you want to tell His Majesty?" asked Knight Aiden.
"Lord Carlos caused us to lose our employment. We used to work at Diamond Hill. He erected the empress' palace nearby about fifteen years ago. Many workers were laid off since the king did not want the operations on the hill to disrupt the empress and his son." The bandit exclaimed angrily.
"That incident happened 15 years ago. Why are you only protesting now? And you guys haven't been able to find a job in 15 years? Or did you choose to become bandits?" asked Knight Aiden with a calm intonation and a straight face, even though what he said had made the nine bandits angry.
"You have no idea how hard it is to find a job!"
"We used to get a big salary when we worked there!"
"We tried to apply for jobs at other mining companies, but they rejected us. They thought we were laid off because we were incompetent. They didn't care and wouldn't listen to our explanations about why we were laid off."
"We and other workers have complained about it to Lord Carlos, but he wouldn't listen to us."
"The late queen also did not care about us even though she saw us leaving the office with gloomy and sad faces after we received the notice of termination of employment and severance pay."
The nine bandits spoke passionately. They let out all the grievances they had held back for decades.
"At that time, His Majesty King Tristan was only 2 or 3 years old. We don't know if he knew about this, but he pretended not to know, or the palace hid the fact from him."
"We just want to remind His Majesty King Tristan not to do the same thing as his father. His father has made dozens of people lose their jobs."
Tristan opened his eyes. The pain in his head slowly faded, and his eyes could see clearly. He dug into Tristan Madigan's memories.
"He doesn't know. The palace hid it from him, and there wasn't even any such news in the newspaper," Tristan murmured. He was shocked that Carlos Madigan wasn't as good as he and everyone else thought.
"The bandits are gone, Your Majesty," Knight Aiden said, crouching next to his king and looking at the blood on his king's head that had stopped flowing. "Would you like to arrest them? They've been troubling many people."
"Find information about them," Tristan said to Knight Aiden. The knight nodded.
Then, a palace soldier arrived with a physician who sat behind him. Not long after, Knight Ajax returned with the king's horse.
While the physician was treating Tristan, two palace soldiers arrived in a horse carriage.
Knight Aiden gave them a thumbs up because they rented the horse carriage without his order first.
***
Tristan opened his eyes when he felt cold, and his body was thrown in all directions, making him sick.
His eyes widened when he saw dozens of crocodiles surrounding him, trying to break the iron cage that locked Tristan.
"Damn it. Fucking dream." Tristan immediately realized that he was dreaming because he had had two nightmares, and tonight was the last day he would serve the nightmare penalty.
Tristan was in an iron cage above a lake. Who would dare put him in this place? Of course, only the system would do it because it was part of the penalty he got.
"Shit. Fuck." Tristan struggled to stand up, but the crocodiles kept slamming their snouts against the iron cage.
Tristan sat down and hugged his body, which was shaking in fear. His eyes darted in all directions restlessly, and his heart beat erratically.
He screamed in panic every time the iron cage tilted. There was nothing he could hold onto to keep him from moving.
The crocodiles were so ferocious, as if they hadn't eaten for days. Tristan would be a delicious meal for them.
Tristan shivered in fear. He was dreaming, but somehow, all the nightmares he had experienced felt real.
He really felt it; his heart was even beating like a drum.
"Please, please, someone wake me up!" Tristan couldn't wake up. Someone had to wake him up. For two days, his two knights were the ones who woke him up.
"Bastard crocodiles," Tristan shouted as the iron cage trapping him slanted to the right. His hand instinctively grasped the iron on his left side to prevent falling, but he forgot about the dozens of crocodiles surrounding him.
A crocodile bit his left hand, causing Tristan to winche in anguish and release his grip. His heart stopped pounding as he sagged to the right, and his right leg came out of the iron cage.
"I will kill you all, you bastard crocodiles!" Tristan screamed as he kicked a crocodile's snout, which bit his right leg.
This dream felt so real. What if he actually lost his leg?