Am I the Villainess of this Story?

Interlude 5: A Cousin's Worries

I am Friedrich Liam Hurst. I am the current and only heir to the earldom ruled by the Hurst Family. Due to my somewhat timid nature, my father despaired about having people take advantage of me. I am apparently too kind sometimes. Father said that being kind is not a weakness but a tool to be used against my enemies. Apparently, most people believe that, normally, kind people are those who are gullible enough to believe the best of others even if there is obvious evidence to the contrary. However, Father said that since I am so inclined to treat others with kindness, that it was best for me to learn how to distinguish whether those around me are worthy of such good treatment. So, as the years before school passed by, I was taught how to be able to read people. I learned that you can infer so much from what people do not say, see their true selves by their body language and guess their thoughts based on their facial movements. Because of this, I grew to disdain those nobles who constantly call on my father and myself for their blatant brown-nosing and verbal backstabbing of each other. As such, by the time Father sent me to Grandfather's mansion in the capital, I was already a bit cynical about people's nature.

Maybe that's why I was pleasantly surprised when I met my cousins. From the gossip I accidentally heard from the nobles returning from the capital, Mari was nothing more than a talentless spoiled brat whose father used his position to end up as to have her become Prince Mikhail's fiancee while Sean was a useless worm riding on his family's coattail to achieve anything. Now that I think about it, it was very obvious that those nobles were the ones who failed to have their daughters engaged to the prince and those whose application for the reimbursement unsupported territorial expenditures got refused by the Prime Minister.

Originally, I was supposed to stay with Grandfather in his manor. However, I was brought to my Duke Einhart's place instead. According to Grandfather, staying with an old man who lives alone in aside from the help will not help me to acclimatize myself to ways of the Capital. So, he decided to have me stay with my Aunt's family so that I'll be able to interact with my cousins. Since, I didn't want to be a bother, I simply shrugged and accepted the change.

When, I was introduced to my cousins, what struck me was the fact that the two seemed to be wholly genuine in their acts. Mari may be a bit tactless and Sean much to taciturn but their movements, words and expressions were sincere. I almost laughed when Mari mistook me for another child of her parents who was hidden from them. Her expression was one of such curiosity rather than of jealousy. It was quite a surprise especially when Sean's eyes also reflected curiosity rather than suspicion or disdain as I expected. After all, from my experience with the children of Father's circle of acquaintances, oldet siblings were to be treated with respectful jealousy while younger ones were treated with disdain. Neither Mari nor Sean acted as such when it was announced that I was an older cousin who was to live with them for a foreseeable period of time. In fact, I was treated as a long time friend without any reservation. This unbalanced me for quite a bit. The me who was used to being treated by children my age as a stepping stone for a better future was now treated with sincere enthusiasm. It felt humbling to realize that my world was once too small and narrow that I failed to realize that people, as individuals, do not fit a specific category that would characterize them for their whole lives. As such, I found myself looking forward to spending time with my cousins.

xxxxx

The moment I met Mari's fiancé, I was treated with hostility. It seemed to be a case of simple jealousy at first. But then, I realized that Prince Leon was afraid to have one of his friends taken away from him. To the young prince, I was someone who invaded his territory, his place of solace away from his responsibilities as royalty. And, my arrival meant having to share his only friends with an unknown. For I am unknown to him. I did not grow up with them or spent enough time with them to be trusted solely based on my relation to his friends. I might not agree but I understood the prince's doubts. So, I accepted his hostile treatment with as much grace as I could muster. However, when his bullying, for it was bullying, almost got Mari hurt, I snapped. I berated him for his lack of trust towards his friends, for his unbecoming behavior, for his baseless suspicions, and for his unwarranted actions towards my person. Shocked at my reaction, the younger boy took my scolding with a combination of numbed shock and ill grace. He apologized to me for his hostile treatment and vowed to try to get to know me. I accepted his vow and after some time, I was considered a friend.

Being friends with two other boys around my age, I was happy. I spent most of my time with Sean and Leon that I failed to realize that we were excluding Mari. In hindsight, I guess we, boys, were to blame when she gradually acquired our magic teacher's eccentricities. Having no one to play with, Mari turned to the older man for companionship. I thought that she was having a crush on Master Shaine but it seemed that she simply found the genius to be an accomodating playmate and brother-figure. It was funny, though, to watch Leon fume with jealousy everytime his fiancee spent any amount of time with the man. Really, couldn't he see that the two acted more like siblings? It may be grating to be passed over as an older brother-figure but I understood that despite his eccentricities, the man have Mari's best interests at heart.

Well, I guess I really can't blame Leon. Afterall, Edith's arrival fanned the prince's flames of jealousy that the younger boy even coerced us to spy on the girls and Master Shaine. The fact that our teacher seenmed to take pleasure in annoying Leon also made matters worse than was necessary.

Sigh... Sometimes, I was of the opinion that the adults at Einhart Manor are all idiots. Especially when they seem to take pleasure in seeing as boys do the most inane things in the name of safeguarding Mari from the "evil" clutches of Master Shaine. But, since I consider myself at fault as well, I can't really say anything about how things went. So, I decided to simply enjoy myself even if it was at Leon's expense.

xxxxx

Mari's near fatal kidnapping brough home the fact that this world we live in is not a safe place. There will always be people who would take advantage of the weakness of others. Although I don't begrudge Selena of her being safe with is, I couldn't help but feel bitter over the fact that keeping her safe came at Mari's expense.

I guess, I should be grateful that my cousin had been trained by Grandfather and Master Shaine in bladework and magic, respectively. If it weren't for that and Mari's innate common sense in the face of danger, I don't know how she'd be right now. Selena's friend, Christien, was such a foolhardy boy. He should thank his luck that I and Leon werr only informed at a later time about his actions putting Mari in grave danger. Skilled as she may be, the chance of Mari surviving against such number of assailants is almost next to nil. If Sean was unable to lead the other to the two adolescents in time, I fear that what would have been returned to us would have been nothing but a corpse. I couldn't even find it in myself to disagree with Master Shaine's rage-filled act that day. Knowing that his protegé was almost killed because of another's idiocy would probably enragd anybody, especially if that protegé was also someone he treated as family.

I guess I wasn't really surprised that all of us would end up hovering over Mari. It even took Grandfather's scolding to make me realize what I was doing. To my surprise, I actually found that I didn't care about failing my placement exam if it would mean that I'd be able to keep an eye on my cousin. It was only the idea of Mari feeling guilty about my failing that made me focus on my studies again.

Mmm... Grandfather really knew how to motivate a person. So, I studied and became the male student representative of my batch. The looks of pride from the adults and my friends awe-filled expression made me feel warm. I was very glad to find people who really cared about me.

And, when I left for school, I was happy to realize that, apart from Father, there were others who would actually miss my presence.

xxxxx

It was almost time for the other three to join me and Edith here at St. Regulus. I am excited to have them here with me again. Though, from the letters sent by my friends, I cannot help but wonder about the troubles that would come with their arrival.

In fact, when I received a letter informing me that Mari adopted a so-called butler-in-training who would come with them to school, I suffered through a headache of epic proportions. It didn't help that Edith was laughing beside me while I was reading that particular letter.

Really, Edith's love for chaos seems to be on par with that trio's penchant for attracting trouble. I wonder if this make me the only one with enough sanity in our group.

Then again, there is no use in borrowing unnecessary trouble. I'd just worry about the chaos that would come the moment it arrives.