"Who wants to be next?"
When the 1,495 young people heard this simple question, they seemed to understand the true meaning of the word 'ecstasy', as they were all beside themselves as they felt elation, and anticipation at the same time.
When Makai accepted Wagner as his new Sworn Knight, the young 19 and 20-year-olds were never as anxious, and they feared not being chosen, but when they heard Makai's question, they seemed to understand its significance.
If Makai were only going to select a limited number, he would look at the Apprentice Knights registration list and look up the name of the most talented as is often the case in recruit selection at other military barracks, but Makai's question suggested that he would recruit anyone among them, and along with the others, they shouted, "Young Master Makai, please accept us."
Makai nodded, "Those who wish to swear allegiance to me, remain where you are. Those who do not, must go to the other side and wait."
The youths were excited and at the same time, they looked at the others wishing that there were many of them who would step out of their positions and refuse to swear loyalty to Makai as this would increase their own chances of being recruited.
Unfortunately, not a single one of them left their positions and they all intended to swear loyalty to Makai.
Such a mass oath scene is very rare to see happen, but when it comes to a Child of Fate, it's not unexpected.
Makai breathed a sigh of relief to see that none of the young men left their position, after all, he was still undecided on what to do if there were any of them who refused. Although he knew that sooner or later the world would know he was a supposed Child of Fate, The longer it could be kept secret, the better it will be, as he has many plans to develop his territory, and doesn't want to be bothered by attracting the attention of hostile forces.
Even though his predecessor had studied a lot about this world, there was still a lot of unexplored mystery and it was best to keep a low profile until he had enough strength.
Looking closely at the terrain of this pavilion, Its size and shape were not much different from a football field and the youths were divided into 15 rows where each row was supposed to have 100 youths.
Makai slowly walked towards the young man in the front row on the left.
Seeing Makai walk toward him, Skar was nervous and his heart had never been so fluttering before.
Skar is a commoner, his father works in an iron ore mine and his mother works on the farm growing grain. When he was still very young, since he came to understand the laws of this world, Skar always saw how his mother looked with dreamy eyes at the noble ladies dressed in colorful silk dresses, but that she lost the sparkle in her eyes as she looked into her own gray linen robes and continued to face the world with her daily chores with a dull face.
At the dinner table, her father would always talk about how amazing the Knights were and how successful they were.
With his own life experience, Skar swore to himself that he would become a great Knight and buy the most beautiful dresses in so many color choices that his mother would have a color for every day of the week.
At age 10, when he managed to pass the recruitment selection to be an Apprentice Knight serving the Collins family, he was never happier and believed that his dream was not far from being realized. Although his family's living conditions were improved, they were still commoners and all commoners cannot wear clothes with colors other than gray robes, after all, he was still an Apprentice Knight and not an official Knight.
Skar was not discouraged by this and continued to train hard for many years as he believed that as long as he trained harder than others he would still be a successful Knight and not just get stuck in the Bronze Knight realm like most Knights.
In the Kingdom of Starfall, it is common to see Bronze Knights, particularly in the left-wing party duchies that seem to be full of life with the Adventurers Guild and the bustling trading towns full of trade caravans coming in and out. However, Knights in the Silver Kingdom are not so easy to see, especially the Gold Knights.
Even harder to see that the Gold Knight is the Epic Knight and everyone who reaches that realm is a big figure in the Starfall Kingdom, otherwise it wouldn't have been so easy for Duke Marvin to be Titled Crimson Duke by the King after all.
For a Knight, advancing in their own vital energy was not the most difficult as they could absorb the vital energy contained in vital energy gems or with some rare vital energy potions. However, progressing in your mastery is very difficult, as it mainly depends on combat experience, and talent to understand yourself and the Knight's path.
In the world of Lazerorth, there are six realms of Knights accompanied by six levels of mastery, they are, Knight's Apprentice realm, Bronze Knight, Silver Knight, Gold Knight, Epic Knight, Legendary Knight.
The mastery that accompanies them are, respectively, Basic Mastery, Advanced, Expert, Master, Grand Master, Supreme Master.
When Skar reached 99% of his Basic Mastery and was just 1% away from advancing to Advanced Mastery at age 16, he felt very optimistic that he would soon break his bottleneck and officially become a Bronze Knight. Unfortunately, no matter how hard he trained over the next few years, he didn't know why, but he couldn't make progress with his mastery and got stuck with 99%.
At the dinner table, the glint of anticipation in his parents' eyes had already been extinguished, as Skar was now 20 years old and he was only two weeks away from turning 21, which means that, if he failed to advance to a Bronze Knight in two weeks, he would be discharged from the army, and most likely he would be a guard at the mine or the farm where his parents worked.
'A dream is just a dream after all...' These were his thoughts for the last few months.
Even when Makai came in and said he was recruiting, he had no hope, after all, his talent seemed to be the worst among all the young people present. However, when Makai became a Child of Fate, he began to have some hope. Now that Makai said he would be recruiting most of them, Skar couldn't control his emotions and his eyes started to turn red with every step Makai took toward him.
When Makai arrived before this young man who had a tall, thin body, and short red hair, he had already noticed his moist eyes and, he asked, "Are you willing to become my Sworn Knight?"
It was just a simple question for Makai, but for Skar it was like the light at the end of the tunnel and he couldn't control his emotions any longer as his tears fell in a torrent.
Seeing this young man crying, Makai didn't understand his emotions, but he didn't want to make the scene dramatic as he said with a small smile, "Then proceed with the swearing ceremony."
Skar still had tears in his eyes, but there was a wide smile on his face as he knelt on one knee and shouted, "I, Skar, willing to cross laminated mountains, follow the ancient holy oath of the Knights and I surrender my life to the young master Makai Collins with this blood pact."
Soon, Skar sat cross-legged with a surprised expression on his face.
There was a very faint gray aura covering the red uniform on his body, but it gradually thickened until it was a completely bronze color.
Seeing this scene, the other young people couldn't wait for their turn.
After receiving Skar as his new Sworn Knight, Makai took a step forward to get to the side of the person standing right behind Skar.
But when he saw her figure, he hesitated a bit, as this was just a little 10-year-old girl. Her hair is black and short that falls to her shoulders. She also has bangs covering her forehead and her black eyes are glowing.
Seeing her soft white skin, Makai felt like pinching her cheeks, she looked so cute and her small figure when holding a wooden spear measuring 2 meters in height was very funny.
Before Makai opened her mouth to speak, as if she was afraid that Makai would reject her, the little girl knelt down on one knee, her voice was pleasant and even a little childish as she screamed.
"I, Dahlia, willing to cross laminated mountains, I follow the ancient holy oath of the Knights, and surrender my life to the young master Makai Collins with this blood pact."
She intended to cut her hand with the spear, but realized it was wooden and not sharp enough to cut through her soft little hands. Her face stiffened as she realized she didn't have anything to cut her hand with and she looked around quickly with eyes filled with anxiety as if asking for help.
Seeing this scene, many young people who were already holding back not to laugh at how funny she was when she took the initiative to swear loyalty to Makai before he said anything, they couldn't contain themselves any longer and laughed out loud.
Makai was also feeling amused, he was about to borrow his pocket dagger, but was not needed, as another young woman who was right behind Dahlia came forward and lent her a small dagger.
Dahlia had eyes full of gratitude and quickly made a small cut on her right hand.
Makai still hadn't covered the wound on her hand and quickly shook her small, delicate hands as he accepted her as his new Sworn Knight.
Dahlia had a happy smile as she sat cross-legged and advanced to the Bronze Knight.
Scenes like this began to be repeated throughout this pavilion over the next few hours.
After accepting nearly a thousand Sworn Knights, Makai was surprised when he didn't feel any burdens and looked like he still underestimated his King Aura. At the same time, he was a little disappointed that there were no system rewards after accepting over 1,000 Sworn Knights.
However, he didn't finish and still had some expectations when he continued to accept the rest of the young men as his new Sworn Knights.