The Blood Knight

Before I

The earliest memory Cedric could recall was of the first book his father gifted him. It was what the scholars called an "atlas". It had very disturbing depictions of torn up flesh and bone with what looked like coloured string in between that had words scribbled around. Cedric didn't find the book fascinating. His brother, Edward, despised the book.

Eventually, Cedric learned how to read and once he knew some basic knowledge of what his father's trade was, he finally found meaning in his childhood nightmare. And so the nightmare turned into a hobby. The hobby became a goal.

To be a physician just like his father.

But the push turned into a shove too quickly. The shove was so powerful in the past that the eldest son of the Gregory household gave up medicine in his adolescence all together. Cedric was a bit more resilient, only due to the fact that he actually liked medicine in a way.

But even for a gifted prodigy who learned (more like forced to learn in a way) to read at four, and had the total human anatomy memorized at the age of seven (on his own terms this time) , the pressure was a bit much.

It didn't help that Cedric's older brother had a bit of misgivings about their father paying more attention towards the youngest more than him.

But a gift always come at a price, and the Gregory couple and their eldest son discovered it quite early.

Cedric never had any friends in his childhood. What kept his company was the books on his father's study and the occasional stray dog and cat that approached their house. Most of the neighborhood children didn't even know that the valiant hunter, Edward Gregory, even had a younger brother. Cedric's father was quite pleased with his youngest upbringing, while his mother was quite worried about the fact that he always kept to himself.

Still, Cedric grew up quite well, left to his own devices. When he turned thirteenth, he was sent off to the palace to undergo the apprentice exam so that he can start to learn to become a physician. Dalton Gregory's goal had always been to make his youngest apprentice under the most renowned physicians available in the kingdom. But plans are only plans, and most plans never turn out the way you want to.

Cedric got involved in his very first brawl on that fateful examination day and got beaten up, resulting in him staying in the hospital and missing the due time of the exam. The examinees considered punctuality a necessity and thus tardiness due to a brawl was not a good excuse at all. And so Cedric was told to try again next year to gain his apprenticeship. For a moment, Dolton felt his whole world crashing down. It was fine that he was still able to take the examination, but what would his colleagues say about his son?

"In all your thirteen years of life, why did you go and get in a fight with the trainer soldiers today of all days?"

"They approached me," Cedric replied.

"So?"

"Their behaviour was quite peculiar. They asked where I was going and when I replied they laughed and offered to show me the way."

"And you just followed?"

"I was lost. And yes, I did. But they seemed to be lying for some peculiar reason, and they started to punch me."

"And? You got punched once?"

"I avoided it and aimed at the assailant's sensory bundle on his abdomen. I think my actions enraged the rest of them and it became a brawl. I am quite fortunate someone came to stop it."

Dolton looked at his youngest son, feeling a bit helpless. His had a black eye, a broken rib, scratches on his elbows and knees and a bruised abdomen. Any child of the scholar clan knew to avoid the soldier clans. Bullying among clans was common in the palace. But his son just played along with their schemes and lost his opportunity to write his exam.