This is my work depicting Raven in his interval time between after he was adopted and before he enrolled into Velder's Military Academy. Hope you enjoy it.
Note:
*The title was inspired by a quote of Augustus Caesar (born as Gaius Octavius Thurinus) - Julius Caesar's adopted son - "Two Caesars is one too many", said upon ordering the execution of Caesarion (a.k.a Ptolemy XV Caesar) - son of Julius Caesar and pharaoh Cleopatra VII.
_ This is your family now, Raven. Everyone, please introduce yourself.
General Cronwell was standing behind Raven while putting his hands on two sides of Raven's shoulders and introducing the child to his family members. They stated their names while introducing and Raven shook hands with all of them.
_ Good, I expect Raven would be fully intergrated into our family and we will treat each other kindly and equally. Anthony, you're in charge of instructing your new brother Raven until he's used to the norms of our family.
It had been a while since Raven was adopted into House Cronwell. Raven tried his best to blend in with his new family, but it took time for him to get used to this new environment and the new family members. The general , who was head of the house, was kind to him and always helping Raven with his problems. The same thing could not be said about other members of the family though. When general wasn't around, they would discriminate against him, mocking him because of his behaviors which originated from his commoner background.
Anthony Cronwell was the name of general Cronwell's son. He was supposed to help Raven to adapt to the family, but he did so half-heartedly and with a haughty attitude. Anthony was quick to criticize whenever he found Raven couldn't behave in according to the norms of an aristocrat, and was enjoying when Raven was confused and trying to fix his behaviors to fit the expected standards.
_ Thou couldn't keep behaving as if thou art still a commoner. Hadn't thou heard of what they always sayeth, 'noblesse oblige' **, thou would embarass us all if thou couldn't act like the rest of us.
Anthony preached while Raven was listening but deep inside he was already somewhat sick of the standards of the aristocrats - the "sangre azul" ***, but kept those thoughts close to his chest.
Raven felt everyday they wasted too much time doing their aristocrat stuffs. He expected to be able to sort it out as quickly as possible when he moved to Cronwell estate, and then he would plunge into training the Kinaz technique, but after having moved to his new family, everyday there was so much daily routine… stuffs he had to go through, so that the aristocrats could assure themselves they were ways more superior compared to the commoners, or something.
The lunch time for example, the meal could last several hours and Raven had to patiently sitting on the chair the whole time, compared to before he could finish the meal in less than thirty minutes. House Cronwell was also sure love to play tennis, croquet and riding horses.
Overall he had a much higher standard of living compared to before, when he lived with his father, and he couldn't deny the merits provided by it, even though he already had some prejudices regarding the aristocrats. But Raven would rather prefer that he could be free to choose to devote to the martial arts and building the Kinaz from the ground up. Then again he also secretly disagreed with the views of the nobles and their values, some of which he rejected as hypocritical and pretentious, which through living with them only consolidated his own prejudices regarding the typical "blue blood" nobles.
When having free time, Raven practiced the Kinaz technique. It was hard when without a teacher, he had to self-educate most of it. At times like those, Anthony would sometimes watch him practice and his presence made Raven nervous and harder to concentrate...
Occasionally some guests would be invited to House Cronwell . They were mostly aristocrats, rich gentlemen or military officers who were peers, friends, vassals or surbodinates of general Cronwell, who were invited by the general to his place when they had businesses to discuss, or simply as a courtesy to keep good relations between each other.
Often Raven would be told by general Cronwell to attend the meetings with him and the guests. General wanted to introduce him to the ones who were basically the elites of the society.
_ Apologize me, my excellency, may I ask thou about one thing, I wonder who's that lad over there?
_ He's my son.
When the guest was still wondering why he had never known of that child of Cronwell of all the times he had been to his estate, Anthony explained:
_ He was adopted.
Raven confirmed by slightly nodding when the guest turned to him, who also nodded to him in acknowledgement.
Through those meetings, Raven knew of many important persons in the society or government, his mind was broadened when hearing about news and businesses discussed by the adults. Raven found those were valuable opportunities and experiences, although he couldn't hope to understand all of the dialogues he encountered because he was still young, and not necessarily agreeing with all of their sentiments or actions.
One day, general found Raven practicing swordplay, he smiled in approval of Raven diligence. Raven spotted general Cronwell and greeted him:
_ Hi… general, how are you today?
Raven was still too shy to call general Cronwell as his father, like what the general suggested Raven to call him.
_ Very well, son, what about you? Are you tired?
General said with a smiling face and passed Raven a handkerchief to wipe the sweats.
_ I don't, no, I don't feel tired at all, general. It's been rare for me to have free time and I decided to practice.
_ I see, so be it… I completely understand that training is important with us who took the path of soldiers. Even I have many times feeling that I should reconsider my priorities. I think training like this can be more beneficial than meeting with the fuddy-duddies who came to our estate this morning, dealing with them making me felt we were just wasting time. So I can completely understand why you refused to attend the meeting…
General Cronwell said.
_ Actually general, I didn't refuse your invitation to the meeting this morning. This is the first time I have heard of it.
Raven replied, completely surprised by that detail.
_ Huh, that's strange. I told Anthony to tell you about that but he returned and said you declined… I have to make this clear. Raven, if you don't mind, follow me.
General mumbled and going to find Anthony, with Raven tailing him, had little idea regarding what happended. They met Anthony at the estate's library. Anthony looked up from the book he was reading to meet the eyes of general and greeted him while standing up:
_ Papa.
_ My boy. Are you busy?
_ How may I help thou?
_ I'm not going to bother you for long, I would like to confirm with you one thing. Didn't this morning I told you to invite your brother Raven to attend the meeting with the guests arrived three hours ago?
_ Yes thou did.
_ And you answered me that Raven declined that invitation?
_ Yes I did.
_But Raven said he hadn't met you since yesterday or acknowledging the invitation.
General turned to his side and used two of his hands to point by waving from Anthony to Raven, who until that was standing behind his back and looking through the shoulders of general by standing on tiptoes.
Anthony seemed to be confused:
_ How could it be? Alfred answered me that Raven didn't want to. Hey, find Alfred and telling him to come here, quickly.
Anthony told a maid to find Alfred.
Minutes later Alfred – the old butler of the family - arrived.
_ Young master, what did thou need me for?
Alfred politely adressing Anthony.
_ Did this morning I told thou to find Raven and telling him to come to the meeting. Is that true?
Alfred was confused, he looked back and forth between Anthony , Raven and general Cronwell. After a long period he answered:
_ I can't recall thou assigning me that task previously, young master.
_What?
Anthony asked with a raised voice.
_ Yes, this morning when thou met me, thou ordered me to perform many tasks beside fulfilling my daily tasks, such as finding someone to fix the large clock at the third floor of the house, overseeing the process of cleansing the carpets at the second living room, examining the detailed budget of the house last week, checking the quality of the stored wine bottles and…and…
_ And paying the blackmiths who will come to wear the new horsehoes for our horses…
_ Oh yes, that's too. I'm still in the middle of doing what thou told me to complete and was told to come here.
_ But about the task of telling Raven…
_ No, thou ordered me to perform many different tasks, but not that.
Alfred looked confused for a while, until general Cronwell answered on his behalf:
_ It's your fault Anthony, you told Alfred too many things at once, maybe he couldn't remember all of them. Urgent tasks such as telling Raven should be mentioned and performed first.
_Papa, maybe because he grew old and senile so he couldn't remember all of what was told.
Anthony sneered when commenting upon Alfred. The butler felt his self-esteem was shattered because of Anthony's remark, he was pretty sure his memory was still good and couldn't recall Anthony mentioned Raven even once that morning. But he just kept silent, looking down at the floor, eyes closed, forehead full of wrinkles when he tried to concentrate to remember.
_ Anyway, I think I have understand now. Alfred, next time if you think you can't remember all of what was told, you should as least taking notes by writing them down.
General kindly instructing Alfred.
_ I have understood, yer excellency.
_ Now dismiss, you're free to go.
_ Yer servant humbly beg yer leave.
The butler then saluted to everyone in the room and then left.
Raven could barely find time to practice his swordplay techniques. He felt he was falling back and hardly making any progress compared to before.
To add insult to the injury, lately for some reasons Anthony kept asking Raven to help him when Raven finally had time to practice. Raven felt hesitated to decline his requests, he wanted to be in good terms with everyone in the family in hope that they would finally accept him.
However after so many times like that, Raven couldn't help but having doubts about Anthony. Raven felt that Anthony did that on purposes, and the times he asked Raven to run errands for him were on purpose and not simply coincidental.
Finally Raven felt enough was enough. He realized that staying at his adopting father's house was, at the end of the day, not beneficial for perfecting his craft. He could hardly stomach the… high society life, and the people in it. He was well fed and living in luxury, but day after day he realized the nature of it as a golden cage, and it ultimately only served to hinder his advancements.
At the end of the day, only general Cronwell was good and wanting to help him advancing. However the man was busy with his own occupation, occasionally he had to go out to solve the tasks the state gave him. Raven appreciated the instructions and lessons general gave him when they had a chance. But even then those were few and far between…
Raven was already fed up with all of that. He had to find a way out. One day he went to general Cronwell and requested to be sent to a military school . He figured that at school he could devote more time and maybe even encouraged to practice.
General was delighted upon hearing his request. He wanted to fulfill his responsibility as an adopting parent to replace Raven's deceased father, helping to nurture and furthering the career of Raven in his stead. He did have considered sending Raven to a military academy he used to enroll when he was young, just that he wasn't sure what exactly Raven aspired to become in the future.
At the last day before Raven was about to attend the academy, general held a feast to commemorate that. Raven felt satisfied when he could finally be free to pursuit his career. He looked from the face of one family member to another, feeling he could forgive all of the mistreatments he had received from them before.
However Raven was too optimistic. After the feast was over, Anthony requested Raven to go with him. Raven felt he could endure Anthony's last request before leaving.
They went to the practice room, and Anthony requested to sparr with Raven. Raven was surprised, but accepted, took the wooden sword handed to him by Anthony.
They saluted, then took the fighting stances.
_ Today I will see by myself if the Kinaz technique can really live up to its reputation.
Anthony taunted.
Raven struck first. He swung his sword downward and Anthony sidestepped to dodge it. Anthony then countered by aiming at Raven's side and then slashed. Raven parried that strike, and partly dodging, partly parrying Anthony's barrage of attacks that came after. Raven then exploited an opening in Anthony's stance and stabbed forward, making Anthony having to take long steps when going backwards to dodge it.
They then advanced at nearly the same timimg, they slashed and locking each other swords. Raven used his left hand to aid when pushing the back of the blade of his sword and Anthony was pressed back and momentarily losing balance, leaving enough time for Raven to draw his sword next to Anthony's neck.
_ Darn it.
Anthony angrily cursed when Raven just kept silent. They rested for a bit and agreed to continue with a new sparring match.
This time Anthony attacked first. He charged forward, stabbed and when the attack missed, he stepped backward and then maintaining that distance. They tried to stab at each other when maintaining a distance, occasionally parrying their opponent's trike. After a long period of stalemate like that Raven increased the frequency of his attacks, he slowly advanced while Anthony was steadily forcing backward.
Then after parrying another attack of Anthony, which Raven used more strength than usual to hit Anthomy's sword, exploiting the moment his opponent's sword-holding hand was still recovering from the numb feelings, Raven quickly dashed forward and in a split second he was pointing his sword right before his opponent's chest.
At this point Anthony should have quit, but he demanded a rematch. Raven felt he wanted to teach Anthony a lesson because of the mistreatments he had received in the past so he quickly agreed.
_ How could a commoner like thou won?
Anthony inadvertedly uttered what he thought in the middle of a fight. Raven broke off and simply answered.
_ I spent more time honing my sword skill.
_ But the nobles are inherently superior!
_ That's merely what you want to believe.
At this point Anthony didn't bother fighting anymore, and Raven did the same. They quarreled between each other, the pent-up angers building up for a long time had finally erupted.
_ Thou embarassed us with yer commoner behaviors. Even though I tried to make thou adopting our family norms but thou still held on to yer previous background, what made thou so attached to yer past allegiance?
_ It's simply because I was just a Cronwell for a short amount of time, much shorter than when I was a commoner. Beside I think I have the liberty to act the way I want, for example I saw general Cronwell also spoke differently compared to aristocrat language, such as using "you, your, are…" instead of "thou, yer, art…". Yet he is perfectly respected by everyone.
Anthony flinched for a few seconds, then he switched the subject:
_ Thou art lucky to be adopted by our great and prosperous House Cronwell. Thanks to thou my share of inheritance would be smaller.
Raven got riled up even more. He hadn't thought about inheritance issue when he was adopted. He felt disappointed because of the greedy nature of the nobles.
_ Speaking as if I wanted my share of this House's properties. Fine, I will find a lawyer and write a paper to disown my share of inheritance in regard to general Cronwell's properties after he...passed away. You, your siblings and mother can just divide my share, I don't care!
Raven angrily stormed out of the room after having shot Anthony the last time with a fierce glare. He wished he wouldn't run into Anthony or any of his sister or brother until he departed to the academy the day after.
Notes:
** Noblesse oblige: French phrase, meaning the ones with nobility are required to live up to the standards of their social status.
*** Sangre azul: Spanish, literally meaning "blue blood", a slang for aristocrats.
Translation of archaic English: "thou" means you, "yer" means your, "art" means are, "sayeth" means "say".