Hero of Altear
Chapter 9:Prince Olivier led the young men to the country's library located near the palace, stating they could come anytime they wanted to study up on Military History and Tactics. The walls had the necessary manning without Marine aid and the cadets were just extras. The Prince had no issue with having them use the lull of the siege to study instead of staring at ships while occasionally severing ropes.
Dragon and Lance ran into Helgram as the Prince led them away. Lance eagerly explained to the mildly curious gray-haired youth where they were going. The Prince even extended the invitation to him but Helgram waived them away. He did not become a Marine to waste his time perusing dusty old tomes of bygone battles. Dragon felt slightly irked at his fellow cadet's dismissive attitude, but the Prince shrugged it off and continued on toward the library.
Prince Oliver's attitude toward Helgram's rudeness was just another odd trait for an aristocrat. Every royal Dragon had encountered before, and he had the misfortune of encountering quite a few, would have been offended over someone refusing an invitation they had extended, no matter what reason was given nor how politely it was conveyed. The Goldenrei Barony was, unfortunately, old, large and of great influence in the world. The presence of the head of house and his immediate family at Reverie was always demanded. Dragon's aunts had married out of the family and thus were spared having to participate in the Festival of Entitlement and Egos.
Bernardino always managed to roll in with Garp and family in tow, the joy of living at headquarters and there being elevators next door. They didn't actually participate in the discussions of the nations; however, many credited the lack of war these past few decades between the allied nations due to his presence. No one wanted to draw the ire of the Iron Fist of Basarol who possessed the ability to strike paralysis of the lungs to any who fell beneath his disapproving gaze. On top of that, there was so much tension between father and son that the royals could never muster the will to raise their voice above a strangled whisper. Dragon was convinced his family was being used as peace enforcers.
Helgram's brazen refusal of the Prince's invitation, especially in such a dismissive and insulting manner, could resulted in a massive disciplinary hearing at best, an execution at worst with anyone else. He was a cadet in the Marines and a member of a younger barony that didn't have a quarter of the influence of the Goldenrei's. Something Helgram should have been aware of given his upbringing, or had the Prince's lax attitude emboldened the cadet? Dragon didn't know, he hadn't seen Helgram interact with aristocrats before, perhaps he hadn't been raised to be respectful of their ranks because baronies typically married nobles once they reached a certain stature. Sometimes members of baron clans got it in their heads that they were equal to other nobles and weren't as careful as commoners needed to be. Gods knew he had run across a few amongst his cousins that were full of themselves.
However, the royalty of this country did seem prone to not acting like the royalty of other countries, particularly Goa, his father and his homeland. There the royals of Goa would treat even the nobles as if they were commoners. No way would they have put up with Helgram's disrespectful attitude. Dragon found he liked Altear's easy going, one-of-the-people attitude. It was a pity more were not like them.
Dragon's family had an estate in West Blue but he, like his father, had been born and raised in distant Goa. While his father, Garp, was understandable, that was the home of Garp's mother, the only reason Dragon had been born and raised in Goa was because his father was trying to stay as far away as possible from his father, Dragon's grandfather. This was the closest Dragon had been to his patriarchal homeland since joining the Marines. Despite his earlier comment regarding their library, he wasn't at all interested in returning.
The island may have held his entire extended family but the main household itself only had servants present to run it and keep the oversized mansion and property maintained. His grandfather was too ill to travel and stayed in Marine Headquarters to better monitor the military he controlled, refusing to retire until his chosen heir was in a position to take his place.
Bernardino had declared his son could not live in the family estate until he had at least achieved the rank of Fleet Admiral. The aging Commander-in-Chief desperately wanted his son to hurry up and take control of the military and thought forcing Garp to live elsewhere would motivate the man.
Hah!
Dragon's father wanted nothing to do with the Barony and was content to live in his rather posh place in Goa Kingdom. His status as a Vice-Admiral alone could have qualified him for a place in High Town, but just getting the large house and handful of employees to help run it in the commoner's part of town was as high as he wanted to go. High Town was full of self-centered scumbags anyway according to his father and he wanted nothing to do with them. Then there were the egotistical royals that made life hell for their nobles. They were still in a wealthy area, but it was just the regular town, safely outside the reach of Goa's elite.
Considering how much Garp didn't care about wealth or social status, there was only one reason the man didn't purchase something less flashy than a manor. Not that his home was flashy by any stretch of the imagination. It was as humble as could be while remaining respectable within that section of wealth. Garp still would have chosen something more modest and probably away from town if he were just concerned with his wants. No, there was just one reason, one very important reason, that forced him to acquire a manor in the wealthy neighborhoods of Goa.
His wife.
Bernardino had made Garp marry a woman of his choosing before setting him loose in the Marines and Dragon's mother was a nobleman's daughter. A minor noble and younger daughter but a noble none the less. Dragon forgot what country she initially came from if he had ever been told. He didn't even know the family she was born to, never mind met any of his maternal relatives. However, due to her status, there was no way Garp could get anything humbler than that wealthy merchant mansion for his wife.
One of Garp's virtues that Bernardino took full advantage of was that Garp had been raised to respect woman by his mother, a woman Garp loved, respected, and missed even to this day. She would not approve of her son abandoning his wife no matter the circumstances. If Dragon's father had been planning to run out to sea when Bernardino finally let him loose in the Marines, they were abandoned the moment he found himself before the alter making his vows.
From what Dragon understood, their wedding day was the first day his parents had ever met, and the wedding had been a surprise to his father. Still thoroughly under Bernardino's thumb, Garp had no way to refuse then. With that, his shackles were welded into place around his ankles. Dragon was born nine months later finishing the job. Garp would never abandon his wife, much less abandon the mother of his child as well as his child. With all the risk of Garp fleeing gone, Bernardino finally eased up his stranglehold on his son, allowing Garp to recover enough daring to defy the man. Even if all his defiance amounted to no more than him refusing to be promoted higher than Vice-Admiral. Or living half a world away from his family's estate.
His mother never said anything about having to live among commoners instead of in Hightown with the other nobles. She didn't laze about demanding the servants tend to her every whim while bemoaning her fate. She didn't run off to socialize and gossip with the other ladies of leisure, participating in the cutthroat politics that only the female elite could execute. No, she stayed home and ran the manor like a business. Her social circle included merchant wives and daughters, and all their discussions were on the trade surrounding the harbor. She even invested in some of the others' ships, earning them a little extra protection from the Marines and a little less attention from the customs officers.
Now that he thought about it, she was a rather strange noble herself. Maybe it was the younger daughter of a lesser noble part that made her reasonable. She never made demands but never expressed her emotions either. It seemed she had been schooled to remain stern and serious or coldly serene at all times. Perfect for all those social games that women of politics engaged in, a bit off putting until you got to know her anywhere else.
However, his father had occasionally tickled a small half smile from her from time to time with his antics. In turn, Garp's wild behavior would vanish when she was in his presence and he was the model Marine, behavior wise. He actually remembered how to speak with discretion and refinement. Growing up, that was the only way he knew his father to speak when he wasn't barking orders. So, when Dragon entered the Marines, it had been a bit of shock when he finally got to meet the loud, obnoxious, no filter man that everyone else was familiar with.
It had taken a while for Dragon to reconcile the night and day difference in behavior. He could only conclude that the fates had smiled on his father and blessed him with a wife that found him charming and that he at least liked and very much respected in return. Their language of love was subtle rather than flamboyant. Her small smiles, the only emotion she had ever allowed herself to show to anyone. His quiet and thoughtful words, a nod to her gentler upbringing. Considering their first meeting was at the alter it probably wasn't a surprise that his parents were quiet when it came to each other. They never got to experience the passion of courting and were making the best of a not-so-great situation.
His mother supported her husband from day one and absorbed the Barony's code of honor and justice views like she had been born to it, tossing aside her birth family, never mentioning them even once. She had networked with the scattered family, contacting his twenty-one aunts and numerous cousins. Installing herself into the family dynamics of a divided clan and helping them to communicate with one another once more. This was especially important with Bernardino's three surviving legitimate daughters, whom had been married and with children before several of their younger siblings, including Garp, had even been born. They were especially bitter about how their sister and mother had been treated by their father and while they had tried to contain their anger toward just Bernardino, their half-siblings had still felt their chill.
Bernardino had made twenty-three children in his quest to create a son and Garp was the youngest and only boy. He had legitimized his bastard daughters rather than abandon them when they turned out to be girls. However, that meant he also trained them to be refined ladies of status, able to navigate high society, then arranged to have them married off to numerous influential families around the world. He didn't keep a single one of them in house to marry second or third cousins. That man did not waste opportunities even if it wasn't ones he was initially seeking. Supposedly there had been some drama with that but no one could defy him.
Reuniting the family was a monumental task but one his mother, Griselda, had thrown herself into with great energy, and succeeded when no one thought she could, even though it meant baby Dragon being dragged hither and yon during these first few years. She had impressed the extended family, and some had even begun to affectionately refer to her as the Baroness, but only when Bernardino was not in earshot. Garp was nearly bursting with pride over his wife's success and Dragon's sister was born not too long after.
Her next task had been to buy the run-down tavern that his mother had once owned before she disappeared and Garp had spent his first ten years living in. She then hired people to run it, got it supplied and now it was a lively business that had sailors flocking to it when in port. It may not have been the same without his mother running it, there was no way it could be, but Garp's wife had done her best to restore it to how it had been, atmosphere and all. This meant rowdy music, wily barmaids that took no nonsense from anyone and, above all, not a constable in sight. A gift and an expression of her deep affection for her husband. It had not gone unappreciated. Dragon's little brother had appeared not long after Griselda had shown Garp the restored establishment.
Dragon had visited the place a few times, incognito, and it was a rough place with foul mouthed sailors from trade ships and even low-key pirates that were avoiding the attention of the local authorities by keeping trouble to a minimum. If it were anything like what it had been when his father was a child, he could easily see why his father could be so carefree when he wasn't under Bernardino's microscope.
Garp's calm and good behavior around his wife was probably to show his profound respect for the mother of his children and for putting up with him. It was an odd thing, because to strangers they seemed indifferent and even cold to one another, but the warmth was there if anyone bothered to pay attention.
Then there was Dragon's younger sister, Driselda.
Their mother was raising her to be just as capable as her and just as inexpressive. However, probably because their mother wasn't nearly as harsh nor strict as her family must have been, Driselda was still capable of showing emotions when she desired. She just had more control over her expressions. She kept a fan handy because she did fail to control them on an occasion if something that either really burned her or delighted her occurred.
The fan allowed her to mask herself better than breaking her face trying to stay expressionless. It also gave her an appearance of airs that she often failed to create on her own merits. She was just too nice to people regardless of rank to ever successfully look down her nose at them. Dragon thought that a plus. His mother must have agreed because she happily supplied her daughter with a fan for every occasion and outfit. She even got herself some which oddly had the reverse effect of softening her expression and making her more approachable. His mother liked that even more, if the glitter of approval in her emerald eyes when she gazed in the mirror to admire her new accessories had been any indication.
His wretch of a grandfather was already talking about appropriate husbands. The man planned to marry his sister off as soon as she turned eighteen. Driselda was twelve now. It had been the cause of many heated battles between Garp and Bernardino in the last year. Bernardino had plans for Dragon too, but he was early in his career and not fighting him on it as Garp had.
Since Dragon was cooperative, resigned really, Bernardino planned to wait until his grandson was at least five years more before distracting him with a wife and family. His sister, in his grandfather's opinion served no purpose but to forge alliances with marriage. Best to get that done sooner rather than later when she was young and pretty and would be a prize for numerous bachelors. He would not allow her to be wasted by joining the Marines. His sister had been vocal about wanting to join Dragon and even worked on her combat skills along with studying politics and culture.
Bernardino had been against this combat training, thinking it would make her too aggressive for the tastes of the families he was looking over. Dragon's mother declared it was always good for a woman to know how to defend her honor from men of ill intent. This did not sway Bernardino but Garp had put his foot down and sided with his wife. His sister's combat training continued when she wasn't studying house and intrigue, but it didn't look like she would be joining the Marines, though. Not as long as their hateful grandfather was still alive.
Die already, crusty old man!
Then there was his younger brother, Atticus. The boy was ten years Dragon's junior and miserable. It had become clear early in his training that Atticus was not the combat type. Instead, he had an overabundance of talent for the fine arts. He could play piano like a master and he wasn't even nine years old yet. He also was working on the violin. Dragon loved listening to his little brother practice. Even when the boy hit the wrong notes it somehow didn't sound awful, or maybe Dragon was just tone-deaf. Who cared, his little brother was amazing.
However, their grandfather had scoffed and insisted he put down such frivolous non-sense and get back to training. Part of Dragon's cooperation was that he hoped to get Bernardino off his little brother's back and free him to be the talented musician he was born to be. If Dragon became everything the old geezer wanted, then maybe his grandfather wouldn't care what anyone else in the family was doing.
It wouldn't solve his sister's dilemma, but it might save his brother.
As he thought of his sister's grim fate to be married off for political gain, Dragon contemplated his own future. He didn't know if he ever would marry. This family was nothing but problems, and he didn't want to place that burden onto another generation. His father had gotten lucky. He wasn't sure he would and having to spend the rest of his life stuck with someone he absolutely loathed and who would raise his children to be just as loathsome as other nobles and royals made his stomach turn.
However, he didn't think he would have a choice. To free Atticus from all demands and expectations by their grandfather, Dragon would have to become the perfect heir. That meant producing children of his own and that meant marriage. He sighed in defeat. While he mulled over his family drama, they trio arrived at their destination.
Prince Oliver opened the door to Altear's grand library and Dragon shook his dark reminiscence from his head as he returned to the present. He gasped as he caught sight of the interior. When the Prince had mentioned the Royal Library, Dragon hadn't expected anything like what was spreading out before him. He didn't think anyone outside the Goldenrei Barony, or Marine Headquarters kept extensive records of anything except Ohara, which housed the Tree of Knowledge a legendary library contained within a massive tree said to contain at least one of every document ever published.
The Royal Library was larger than a ballroom with five stories filled with shelves and books. It wasn't as impressive as Ohara, but this place could easily hold second place, as far as Dragon was concerned. At the Prince's urgings, the two followed him up a spiral staircase to the third floor that housed all of their military records. The whole floor was devoted to military history, tactics and battle strategies. The chronicles covered West Blue as well as historical events and major campaigns from around the world. West Blue, however, held the majority of the floor and probably contained smaller, less well-known battles and even pirate versus Marine fights that would not have been covered by more than the local newspapers.
The Prince smiled at the two young men gaped at the wealth of knowledge presented to them.
"If you're interested in anything else just ask but this floor is the one that contains the records you were interested in exploring," Oliver said. "The records on the Kriegans are here," he continued as he pulled out two thick hardbacks and a pair of slimmer books with softer covers. "This follows them up to ten years ago. I'm afraid anything more recent will be in a more active file and not present."
"I wonder if there is anything on the architectural history of Altear," said Lance, appearing to have recovered from his initial awe. Dragon belatedly remembered that Lance's homeland probably had nothing like this for a library. While Dragon had visited Ohara, at his grandfather's insistence during his three years of preparatory training at the estate, Lance would not have seen anything bigger than a base's archives. No status meant no access to Headquarters' archive and this was ten times bigger than Headquarters'. Actually, how did he not faint from the overwhelming weight of history pressing down on them? There was only so much one could mentally prepare for.
Dragon took the books with a word of thanks and went to a nearby reading chair. This was exactly what he wanted but it seemed so surreal almost as if he were dreaming. He sat down and Lance joined him soon after with his own pile. Dragon then buried his face in his book in embarrassment after he caught a glimpse of the Prince smiling at them in soft manner usually reserved for young children doing something cute.
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Sorry for the delay, the holidays and the move are all working against me. Things are quieting down but it's hard to work on my workdays. Really, Part One is actually fully written, what's happening is I'm going back through and editing and adding to it. Massive expansions or additions to the story require another edit run through and put at least a couple of days between edit sweeps to make finding the errors easier. This chapter kept getting expanded on as I focused on Dragon family drama some more, allowing us to learn a little more about his mother, sister and brother. Part of all this is to flesh out the unique history of my One Piece-verse so we know where everyone stands.
Some may recall Garp's wife writing a letter to Garp that got read aloud with a bunch of high-ranking officers and Akainu present near the end of Coby's Confusion. So we are learning more about Dragon's family, whom we meet in Part Two.
Chapter 10 is going to be a bit delayed. I realized that I need to flesh him out some more and we're getting his perspective in the next chapter, so the perfect place to get more of Oliver's view, his family's view and the Altear's stance in the world. Which is really important later.
I know this is all tedious and not fun to read. No action, no comedy, we're getting there. Maryanne will return in Chapter 11… and then we don't really get rid of her despite how much Dragon wishes we would. Things should liven up then.
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All of the history is my head cannon. I reuse that head cannon between all my One Piece fics if it doesn't argue with the story I'm writing. The mentioning of Kaguya is much more important for the Fire Prince series than Dark Sea Chronicles, and I don't think it will even be mentioned in Storm Warning.
Just a reminder, I do reuse characters, as well as history, across the three series but they could wind up with slightly different personalities depending on what the story calls for. But these three series, Dark Sea Chonicles, Fire Prince and Storm Warning are not interlinked. In Fire Prince, Ace wasn't even at Marineford so he was never even in danger of being killed. In Storm Warning, Ace survives being hit by Akainu's lava fist. In Dark Sea Chronicles it follows the cannon storyline until chapter 900 of the manga, so Ace is very dead and does not come back.