Chapter 41
Back past the gardens, palaces, and the King’s meeting halls where he carried out the business of hosting local and foreign dignitaries with as much luxury as could be afforded anywhere in the world, the royal grounds housed a large field for the guard to use. The stated purpose was for the training of the newer of the guardsmen, sons and daughters of local lords, and even the occasional wayward princeling, but in actuality, the grounds housed mostly older men that needed the exercise to distract them from long monotonous days watching the stones of the palace age; too long staring would make those men see themselves aging faster than the castle grounds. It was never good for a man to come to such a realization. There was a tendency for such men to find their duty unfulfilling
