Amazed, I walked forward expecting the kingdom's military to reflect the same greatness.
What I saw next made me question whether I had entered the correct place.
Soldiers lay sleeping on the steps. Others lounged around aimlessly. Most were slacking off. Criminals performed nearly every chore. They scrubbed the floors, cooked food for both themselves and the soldiers, washed uniforms, polished shoes. Some even patrolled the grounds while others massaged lazy soldiers. Many sat around playing games.
Then I saw a soldier kicking a criminal for not polishing his boots well enough. And beyond him, on the steps, sat Henry, the commander in chief at that time. He was staring at the morning sky as if counting invisible stars.
The soldiers who escorted me sensed the anger growing inside me. They rushed toward Henry and whispered frantically in his ear. That was when he looked at me.
He leapt to his feet and hurried toward me.
He stood before me with eyes full of admiration. He saluted sharply, introduced himself, and announced his rank. Then he turned to the soldiers and shouted, so loudly that the whole base seemed to vibrate, 'The new commander in general has been sent directly by the king's palace. The general is the highest order, the Beetle ranked officer that has been vacant for centuries.'
Until that moment, I had no true understanding of how powerful the Beetle rank was. But seeing the once relaxed soldiers shudder at Henry's words, watching them sprint into formation, their backs straight, hands raised in perfect salute, their faces filled with awe and terror, I began to understand.
Thousands of soldiers and hundreds of officers, the entire military force, stood before me with cold sweat sliding down their temples and necks. Nearly everyone trembled as they faced me. Not one dared to meet my eyes.
Only then did I truly feel the weight of the Beetle rank.
Hercules stopped speaking. He turned toward the cot with regret softening the corners of his eyes. After a breath, he said quietly, "Power is a curse to man. It is a feeling that makes you believe you can achieve everything while blinding you to the consequences that follow."
He faced Obero again and continued.
"According to the world laws, criminals are sent to the base and imprisoned inside the wall according to the severity of their punishment. Those with the highest charges, criminals like me, are placed on the upper floors, and those with smaller charges on the lower floors. The ones on the lower floors are called the lower military. According to The Book of Sun, the lower military should maintain and clean the wall, only the wall, not the base. Their duty is sacred and limited, no more and no less. But the soldiers were misusing their power. They broke the laws with ease.
They treated the lower military like slaves. They forced them to do the tasks the soldiers themselves should have done. Not only chores, but humiliating work, meaningless work. At first I felt a heat rising inside me that I had not felt in years. I wanted to punish them thoroughly, all of them. But at that time, I still carried the wisdom taught by the king and my father, so I held myself back. Instead, I scolded them severely and set strict rules to restrict their power.
Whenever these rules were broken, I punished them without hesitation. Eventually, within two months of my arrival, order returned. The base became the place I had imagined before coming here. It became what The Book of Sun described it to be.
I felt proud watching the lower military being treated as members of the kingdom's defense rather than burdens. That pride, along with the power of my rank, blinded me. I failed to notice the hatred quietly growing in the hearts of the soldiers.
Every autumn, I returned to the kingdom for my vacation. During my absence, Henry served in my position. He was the only one I trusted in the entire base. Leaving the wall in his hands made me feel secure. So I went home happily, without worries.
Those two months at home felt like paradise. I spent every moment with my family. We took long trips together, watched movies, visited parks, and I even took them shopping despite never understanding why a person needs so many clothes. Hannah's birthday always fell during my vacation, and on that day, June would let me have her all to myself. I took Hannah somewhere special each year and spent the whole day just with her. June never complained. I think she pitied how much I missed them.
Time… it behaves strangely. When I was at the base, I hoped it would fly so I could return to autumn, but instead it crawled like a half-dead snail. When I was home, I prayed for time to slow down or freeze, but instead it raced past like an arrow shot from a stretched bow.
Still, the hardest day each year was always the last day of vacation. The farewell. Leaving Hannah and June felt like tearing something vital out of my chest. Even after returning to the base, I would carry that ache inside me.
During those early days back, when I was trying to adjust again, I sensed small changes in the atmosphere of the base. I could not explain them. Sometimes the feeling was so strong it made me pause midstep, but it always disappeared before I understood it. This repeated year after year.
In the fourth year, when I returned from vacation, the changes were no longer small. They were obvious. More than a few lower military prisoners had bruises all over their bodies. But no one stepped forward to tell me the truth. Whenever I questioned them, they lied. All of them.
A heaviness settled on me. Something was wrong. Very wrong.
I went to Henry to find answers, but he seemed completely oblivious to the situation. Or perhaps he acted oblivious. I still do not know.
Unable to rely on him, I wrote a letter to the king. He responded immediately and sent an inspection team made of royal knights, royal guards, and even a minister from the House of Ministry. They inspected every corner of the base.
Their conclusion was that the prisoners had fought among themselves. That the bruises were caused by infighting. Because of their negligence, the House of Ministry punished everyone in the military… except me, since I had been on vacation when the fight supposedly occurred.
The effects were immediate. The entire base suddenly became disciplined. More obedient. More efficient. For a moment, I believed the storm had passed. And for two years, things remained peaceful.