Chapter 21: In Kingswood
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Before she could leave the room to ask her husband where her son went, Robert entered the room with Eddard, who had a reluctant face.
"Why are you looking like that, Eddard? How many times did I say that without the lord, you would have died that day?" Said Cassana when she saw her son look like that. She did not understand why he would behave in this way when he was the one that benefited the most.
"Whatever..." Said Eddard as he looked at his mother. Would his mother believe him if he said that the author was only tricking her? Eddard bet that the author would have done the same even if Cassana did not ask for that.
In the end, he got forced to pray to the author...
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[Ninth month of the year 267 AC]
[In Kingswood]
After one year of getting to know Edric and Loras, Edward started his training a year ago with his uncle Heldon Estermont. The three young ones would train together with Robert in the training yard.
Although that was the case, the three did not like Robert, who was close to them in age. But they preferred to stay and train with Eddard instead. The reason was so simple. Robert was a fighting maniac and did not like anything more than bullying anyone he was fighting. Because they were not his brothers, he would get hard on them, making them want to cry after every hit.
That was why the two were getting much closer to Eddard, who was four years younger than them. Not only that, but Eddard was the one trying to get close to them, instead, so why would they refuse him? Eddard was weaker than Robert, who started using iron swords when he was Edward's age. But Eddard could only use wooden swords for training for the moment.
After another year of training together, the group came close to each other. Even Wilyam Arc started to like his job of being just an escort to the young lord. He was the one who was responsible for Eddard's training starting that year since Eddard needed a partner in his training, and he could not find his two friends Loras and Edric, all the time.
At the moment, Steffon was taking his sons to hunt in Kingswood. He did that listening to Robert's request since he wanted to get something himself with his gyrfalcon, Thunderclap. In the end, Steffon listened to his son and decided to take his other two sons as well. Of course, that did not go easy since he had to convince Cassana that he would keep an eye on Eddard himself.
"Wanna see who would hunt faster!!!" Said Robert as he looked at his brothers with disdain in his eyes. He was proud of his gyrfalcon that did not miss a strike once. Robert had gone with his father more than once to hunt, so he was sure that he would win.
Eddard, who thought that this situation was familiar but did not remember the reason behind his feelings, did not try to argue with Robert since Robert would only increase his bullying if he won. So he decided not to speak and get as far away as Robert. He had tried to get close to Robert and did everything he could to make this work since he knew that the boy would have a great future, but Eddard could not get along with Robert and could not wait to stay as far as he could from him.
Although that was the case, Eddard still considered him a brother and would not try to kill him to take the throne or something since he knew that the author was watching over him, and he would kill him if he had such thought any longer. He was sure about that since he tried to kill Robert in his sleep after Robert almost killed him five months ago in their training.
When Robert was training with Eddard and the group and saw that the other two preferred to stay with Eddard rather than him, he became angry and jealous. He went to Eddard and initiated single combat with Eddard, who did not doubt anything at that time. They did that more than once in the past, and nothing happened, so why would Eddard doubt Robert when Eddard did not remember something like that about Robert?
Not only did Robert humiliate Eddard in that fight, but he also broke some bones, making Eddard cry from pain. He did not let Eddard go easy as he continued to kick him without giving him a chance to defend himself.
Of course, Robert got punished for doing something like that to Eddard, especially from Cassana. But what could Cassana do? Even if she loved Eddard greatly and tried to get him out of any harm, could she hurt her other son for doing that? Could she kill her other son? No, so Robert got out of this mess with some beating, a light punishment if you could say it like that.
Eddard's old personality took over him that night and decided to bear with his pain as he went to Robert's chamber at night. He intended to kill him with his own hands and save himself much trouble by doing that. Before he could do that, though, the author who did not show up in front of Eddard for more than two years decided to make his appearance.
'What do you think you are doing right now?' Asked the author with an angry tone. Although he liked this side of Eddard and how ruthless he was, even to his family, he promised that he would change this personality. But look at it right now. Not only did he not listen to the author's words, but he was holding a knife and intended to kill his brother after six years of getting here.
'What do you think?' Said Eddard, who was clearly enraged after what happened that day and did not realize that he was talking to the author or he did but did not care at all.
'If you do that, I will not need you here anymore. You will only die with Robert right here. I am not trying to control everything in your life, but you need to change a little. That is why I did not appear to control anything you did in the past two years.' Said the author since he thought about it and decided against interfering in Eddard's life in every small thing. Although he would interfere in this world, he would leave Eddard to develop himself.