Chapter 5.

PART 1.

Raven walks out of his room, and in half an hour or so; it’ll be breakfast time. He walks to Hatori’s room, Josh nowhere to be seen.

Every once in weekend, Josh leaves to visit his family, at the seat of his family’s power. Raven has seen the effects of these visits for as long as he has known Josh. After all, it is very telling that a kid is happier at the giant office of the king than at his home.

While he might lament his rather upcoming bland life, since he is just the son of a common soldier, Raven does not envy Josh. All those demands, ridicules, and mocking, his friend tolerates every time he meets his family. ‘At least my father treats me with love, not pretending that he loves me.’

Since Josh is not here today, Raven must spend time with Hatori. Both of them noticed how he tends to stay in his room depressed unless he is distracted.

Nearby, he hears the laughter of the other kids of his age. After a while, he started to walk once more. ‘Why bother with something which you can’t have?’

It hasn’t escaped the attention of Josh’s uncle, and his father, that both their boys are exceptionally intelligent, and it has also not escaped their attention the trouble they have as a result, in connecting with the kids of their age.

PART 2.

The boy walks out of the bathroom, combing his hair. They have started to grow long, and soon enough, they would start to tangle. Hopefully, he can get a haircut soon.

Hatori woke up late this morning, and since Zeko would be training him from tomorrow; he wanted to take full advantage of the remaining time he has. ‘Something tells me that I’ll be wishing for rest once he starts to train me.’ He thought to himself.

He also woke up late, because, at least in his sleep, he can’t think about the things he could have been doing at his home. By this point, school would have ended; he would have been in the middle of a nice and enjoyable summer, even though he would have stayed cooped up in his room in his home.

Hatori doesn’t prefer to go out in the castle; people are running around in a hurry everywhere. He can get used to the layout of the castle (or at least a few parts of it; the castle seems to be huge) but he can never deal with all those people running around.

It also doesn’t help that most people are still rather cold to him here. Not that it is something new to him, but at least people used to have a conversation with him back in his world; here, he just gets ignored by everyone, until the king himself calls to see him.

And of course, can’t forget all that stuff lying every which way. He prefers the order of this room (or his home) rather than the chaotic world outside.

Hatori might have thought of at least talking to kids of his age, besides Raven and Josh. But considering the attitude of the adults, he doesn’t expect any better from the kids either.

His contemplation is interrupted by the door opening, and Raven’s greeting. “Good morning!”

“Good morning. I only heard one set of footsteps…” Hatori trailed off, cursing at such a foolish statement.

People don’t talk about footsteps.

“Josh is actually at his home, visiting his family with his uncle,” Raven confirmed, secretly impressed by the perception of his new friend. Seeing the gloom virtually descending on this room, Raven suddenly grabbed Hatori. “Let’s go outside; you should get some sunlight before breakfast. It is not good for you to stay inside all the time…”

And thus, a very confused Hatori is led to the outside of the castle, while Raven lists the effects of depriving oneself of sunlight.

in the early afternoon, just when they were done with their lunch, a familiar voice called to Hatori. “You’re done eating? Good, good. You must come with me, boy, we have to leave.”

Raven looked at the silver-haired man, who appears to be harmless but gives the aura of danger. He turned to Hatori, but his new friend already anticipated his question. “He’s Zeko.” Hatori gives a simple introduction, “And he’s Raven.” There. Now his mother can’t call him rude, or socially inept.

“Nice to meet you.” Zeko extended his hand, which Raven received with some hesitation. However, Zeko did not squeeze his hand in domination, like his reputation made him believe.

“Where are we going?” asked Hatori.

“We need to check your physical health.” Replied the silver head. “See whether there’s an underlying problem, or not.”

PART 3.

The city of Fernandes is the seat of power for the Fernandes family. It is located in the Sapta Sindhu in the Subcontinent. Of course, the city has previous names, since anyone who captures it and uses it as their seat of power likes to rename it after themselves. The Fernandes family has managed to hold on to this city for close to five hundred years, making it the longest time in the history of this city when it has gone without getting conquered and renamed.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

The Fernandes family were having a lavish dinner at their castle, which despite trying to be impressive as the King’s castle, fails to match it in impressiveness. It still doesn’t stop the sprawling complex from showing off the wealth and power of the family.

After a few minutes of spoons clinking at their plates (because the current head, Jorge Fernandes, believes that eating with your hands is a sign of low class; and he has forbidden any dishes which are eaten by hands in his kitchen) Jorge finally spoke to his son.

“So, I hear that the ritually summoned child is enthralled by you?” he asked with a questioning tone, but Josh knew what kind of answer he expected.

For a moment, he considers protesting at the description of his father about his newly made friendship. (Which he hopes is a real friendship, and will last for the rest of his life… hopefully), but he tamped down on his instincts. “Yes.” And gave the expected answer.

“Good.” Jorge purred satisfyingly. “Finally, from this position, you can bring prestige to our family.”

‘Why?’ Josh thinks, ‘It’s not like we’re in urgent need of it.’ But showing off his growing wisdom, he does not react to the praise of his father.

“Just make sure that soldier’s son doesn’t feel jealous; managing these things can be so hard.” Josh considers listening to his father hard. “But I’m sure you’ll manage.”

Right now, Josh wished that he was anywhere but at his house. (He refuses to call it his home.)

Seeing that the conversation was done, and his father’s attention was somewhere else, he began to eat once more. No need to make his stomach suffer for the opinion of the old men.

Just when he was finished with his dinner, his father asked him another question. “So, will you be spending the day of the Sun here?”

But at least, he knows how to answer this one. “No. there are some… important things waiting for me at the castle.” He gave the predictable answer.

“Ah, self-made man.” Jorge smiled. “Wishing to stay away from the comfort of the home, to build that sharp edge.” He nodded with approval.

But when Jorge is finally alone in his room, he watches the pictures of his family, and his children, hoping that one day, Josh would say yes.

Meanwhile, Josh couldn’t wait to get back to the castle.

PART 4.

The next day, Raven is taking Hatori to lunch. The boy is still having trouble with moving around the castle; the size of the place doesn’t make it any easier. He is also explaining that Josh will return today, and how he should behave when he returns because he is always in a bad mood when he returns from his home.

“In general, don’t ask about his home, and don’t be mad at him if he says something…” Raven searched for the correct word, “Harsh.”

“Alright.” Hatori agreed.

Although he decided privately, that he will only let Josh have some leeway. Just because his home life sucks, doesn’t mean that he gets to take it out on others. (As for how he knows about the bad home life, he deduced from Raven’s comments.)

An hour later, when they were just walking out of the mess hall, a familiar voice greeted them. “Hey, guys!”

Raven and Josh exchanged high-fives, while Hatori restrained his first instincts to ask about Josh’s visit to his home.

Walking to Josh’s room, Hatori realizes that he doesn’t seem to be in a bad mood like Raven warned, but Hatori decided not to mention anything about it. They both entered the room, chatting about various things, and Josh puts his travel sack down.

“So, what happened in my absence?”

“Nothing unusual.” Answered Raven.

“Really? That’s so boring.” He said in disappointment.

“Well, I was taken to the hospital and experimented, so…” Hatori trailed off.

“Seriously?” Josh asked in a horrified tone.

“Nah,” Josh sighed in relief. “There were some tests about my physical condition.”

He conveniently forgot to mention how there were so many questions regarding his behavior as if they were trying to map his personality.

Hatori is having trouble deciding which one is worse. The blood extraction, or the dozen questions about his reaction to various scenarios.

After talking to Josh all day long, they leave for dinner in the night. All three kids were leaving happily, after stuffing themselves silly, when a tall shadow fell upon them. Raven and Josh immediately stopped walking.

“Who’s blocking our path?” Hatori asked.

“Good senses.” Zeko’s voice made him jump in surprise. “We’ll get you good enough that you will be able to recognize a person.”

The old fox put one hand on Hatori’s shoulder. “Just be ready for the training tomorrow kid, or I’ll drag you down from your bed.”

Zeko walked away after that warning, leaving three terrified kids in his wake.

(End.)