[A Village girl's POV]
My name is Teresa. I am a 9-year-old girl, living in the Curzon territory with my family. Although this place is not bad, it can't be called that good either.
My father is a hunter. He occasionally goes out to hunt animals with many of the other hunters in the village. Honestly, in this part of the kingdom, which is so remote from the outside world, it is considered as one of the most prestigious jobs.
My family is on fairly good terms with the lord. My father sometimes helps the lord with his work too. Some of the people in our territory aren't though, but they are in minority.
The lord currently has 3 sons.
The first son, Karl Curzon, who has already been announced as the successor to the Curzon household. He has also been married recently. Everybody in the territory holds him in high regards. Even the people who are against the Curzon Household agree on this fact. He is very kind and rather good-looking too. He helps in the fields from time to time and also provides help to people in the territory in case they ever face any problem. Many of the women in the territory have a crush on him too.
Next comes the second son, Ralph Curzon, I guess he can be seen as someone who is... a bit wild? He can normally be seen going with the hunters to the forest due to his mastery of the bow. He has also been engaged to the only daughter of the branch house of the Curzon family. The small kids in the territory love him as he is usually pumped with energy. His is also kind to everyone except his younger brother.
And that brings us to the third son, Claude Curzon.
Information about him is rather limited. The Lord chooses to disclose as less information about him as possible. My mother even said that he appeared out of thin air.
Apparently, before I was even born, the lord suddenly announced that he had a third son. Everybody in the territory was shocked as the lord's legal wife hadn't even gotten pregnant then. The villagers started to discuss the possibilities and finally concluded that he might actually be a bastard child. This was further thought to be true when the lord's wife refused to take care of the boy.
However, that reasoning was proven wrong when he grew up. That was because he had neither the facial feature of his father nor of his mother. In fact, he doesn't match anyone one in his family. The people became intrigued by his identity but couldn't muster the courage to ask the Lord. As such, the villagers told their sons and daughters to take their distance from him(myself included).
Claude has short, black hair with bangs sweeping over black eyes. He is quite tall for his age with broad shoulders, long limbs, and a well-built figure. His daily ensemble consists of various shirts and trousers; his fashion style is (as noted by me) to resemble that of an ideal noble boy of the countryside. During formal occasions(such as Karl's wedding), Claude wears a well-tailored suit, complete with a decorated, double-breasted frock coat, a fur-lined cape, trousers, and boots.
Moreover, he is the most good looking out of his three brothers. Actually, if we are just comparing in terms of looks, Claude would undoubtedly be the most handsome boy in this territory. If he grows up a little more he would undoubtedly become a lady killer.
However, this didn't mean that he was well-liked in the territory. The girls in the territory didn't like to associate with him before because of the warnings from their parents. The boys didn't like him because of his looks. But that's not all, the way he used to interact with them also played a major factor.
For example, 4 years ago, when I was passing through the village to do some work my mother had asked me to, I witnessed this scene.
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The village boys were playing together when Claude approached them.
「Ummm.....Excuse me!」
He called out to them to grab their attention. The boy who looked like the leader turned around and looked at him-
「What?」
As if waiting for this opportunity he cleared his throat and respectfully bowed. Then he said-
「Greeting, gentlemen! May I, Claude Curzon, have the honour to play with you the game that you are currently playing on such a fine evening!」
After saying so, he made a smug little smile, as if he did something he was trying to do perfectly.
The boys looked at each other confused and after a while, one of them spoke.
「Is.....is this guy making fun of us for being uneducated?」
「I...I don't know man, but one thing I know for a fact is that this guy is weird.」
「Yeah, hella weird.」
His attempt to at making friends failed yet again. All the boys slowly left only leaving him behind. He was still in his bowing position as if he still hadn't registered what had happened to him. Then he suddenly jolted up and shouted-
「Dammit! Even though mom said that this would work! Just what the hell is weird about me? Oh god, help this poor soul!」
He started slamming his foot on the ground in fury. After a while, he calmed down. Then looked at the sky, which a face that almost looked like he was about to cry, he said
「I guess I am going to be alone forever, huh?」
He then left.
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Yeah, I think he really needs to reconsider how he should approach and make friends.
Anyways, after some time, he was seen playing with Aiden.
Aiden was also a kid who seemed to have always played alone. However, unlike Claude, it was his behaviour that made it difficult for him to have friends. The thing was that even though Aiden was a boy he acted rather feminine, sometimes more feminine than some of the girls themselves. As such the boys usually made fun of him. He also couldn't talk much with the girls too as he was shy. So he and Claude, the two who were always alone seemed to have made a great pair.
Nobody really seemed to have cared much about them either. That is until that incident happened.
The day when Aiden came running to the village and informed them about the cave they had tried to venture in. He also told about how Claude stayed behind and bought him enough time so that he could escape, even though he forced him to go. The word spread and the lord heard about it. The action was quickly taken.
My father also one of the people who went to rescue him. When my father came back, he told us that Claude was saved but he also looks like he was confused about something. On asking, he replied that when he reached the spot where Claude was unconscious he saw numerous corpses of goblin around him(about 10-12).
He was surprised as even he as an experienced hunter would have trouble fighting 5 of them at once but Claude not only fought and defeated them, he also survived the encounter from a Goblin leader. He could not digest such a fact. Almost all villagers commented that the actions of the two kids were very rash and that they need to be punished accordingly. Claude's already low image among the villagers dropped even lower.
However, Claude became a hero among the kids of his age group. He looked almost like a living legend to them. Almost all the boys of the village were learning swordsmanship and as such, they knew exactly how difficult it must have been fighting those monsters. So not only surviving but also defeating them was something that they started to admire him for.
Even the perspective of girls about him changed. He already had his good looking face, he came from a well off family and he was strong. The girls were already interested in him a bit but due to the pressure from their surroundings they didn't want to associate with him much. But now they started to become conscious of him as a member of the opposite sex.
Slowly they started to want to become closer to him, both boys and girls, boys as someone they admired and girls as a prospective marriageable partner(myself included).
But the problem was that they became very shy whenever they talked with him, as such none of them could talk to him for a considerable period of time before running away. So they tried to become closer to the next person who was the closest to him.
Aiden
Aiden started to be called by the village boys to play with him more often and even the girls started to approach him. After talking with him for a while, many realised that he genuinely a fun guy to be with, this combined with the fact that he was a direct link to Claude made him very popular in the village. Some girls even started to have feelings for him.
But in the end, none of them could really become a proper friend of Claude.
Well, not that any of it matters anyway. I started to concentrate on my work.
I quickly pulled out the water from the well and poured it in the bucket that I had brought. That is when I heard his voice-
「Teresa? It's you!」
I looked around and saw Claude. I quickly became flustered and was about to drop the bucket of water when he quickly caught it.
「Woah, careful there! You could have hurt your feet.」
「Sir C-Claude? W-what are you doing here?」
「Me? Oh, I was waiting for Shu. You know, the boy who is training under that Old geezer? Also, I have told you many times already that you don't need to be that formal with me.」
「I-I see.」
W-what do I do? I didn't expect him to suddenly show up here. Am I looking good today? I don't know! I forgot to check the mirror while coming here. What do I do? What do I do? I can't look at him in the eye. I should say something, shouldn't I?
「Umm...Teresa? Are you ok? You face looks rather red.」
「Huh?」
Oh no. I looked at his face. I can't. He is too good looking.
「Kyaaa!」
I quickly took the bucket from his hand and rushed towards home.
I touched his hand!
「P-please wait, Teresa! I know I might be ugly but please give me a chance, I guarantee that my personality is top-notch! Please just- 」
How humble! He doesn't flaunt his superiority and isn't arrogant even after being so handsome.
You wait for me, Claude! Let me groom myself as a proper woman first before being capable of standing by your side.
Thinking so, I rushed home and the day came to an end.