Appetency

EIGHT

   Claude wasn't a love interest. There is no way for the players to interact with him as one. Because of this, there shouldn't be a way for Claude to become anyone's partner. Laurent knew this beforehand and expected as much, but there was the memory of the old Laurent and Claude from before.

During the run of the grand duke when Laurent desperately chased after him. It all started from there.

It was mentioned a few times before how Claude was an illegitimate child from a noble family. Not much was said about his childhood other than being terribly oppressed in his own household. After his mother died, his father's official wife finally kicked him out and that was when Grand Duke Clemonte had decided to choose him as his right hand man despite being so young.

It's just that Claude was found to be useful. That was all the grand duke thought of him.

And to repay his master for taking him in, he served him faithfully in every single run. Even when others tried to bribe him or make him betray the grand duke, Claude had never once turned away from the man. He was one of the biggest thorns to the emperor's side because of this.

He was also an eyesore for Laurent, too.

Back then in the grand duke's run, Laurent was visibly jealous and threw fits in front of Claude, demanding him all sorts of things and going as far as to ridicule the man with his tainted bloodline. It was all because he thought the grand duke favored Claude over him.

It was true, of course. The grand duke never once had any interest in Laurent and kept him around for some benefits, but there were many times Laurent was reprimanded harshly for trying to pick fights with Claude. That made Laurent even more hateful.

It's also said the same for the other routes. Whenever the emperor was backed into a corner by the grand duke, Laurent would fight Valentino and Claude tooth and nail to try and secure the emperor's safety. For the male lead, Laurent didn't hesitate to go against them as well just to make Orion look at him.

His efforts were wasted in the end. Tragic, but not surprising.

It seemed like no matter what Laurent went through, he and Claude were always destined to become each other's enemy.

Until... the memory of Claude being tender to him came along.

This was never in the official story lines. No player had seen it before.

But for Laurent, he remembers it as clear as day.

He remembers his body aching and the painful migraines, tirelessly working this body of his to the bone just to receive the grand duke's favor. Grand Duke Clemonte never gave Laurent the time of day for anything, but he and the rest of high society expected Laurent to try and keep up with him if he ever wanted to be worthy of the position as Grand Duke Clemonte's fiancé.

And so came the endless nights of studies, the harsh classes when Laurent trained himself to be the fiance the grand duke wanted, and exhausting parties he'd always host to maintain the reputation of the grand duke. Laurent had even took it upon himself to take care of the man's estate whenever he was away for business trips and personal matters... which were frequent.

Laurent was always left alone.

He had no one standing beside him either. No one in this place liked him, and the servants even ostracized him.

But Claude always noticed Laurent.

Despite the awful attitude and mannerisms, he couldn't deny the fact that Laurent sincerely tried his best for his master. There were times where he went out of his way to help Laurent, trying to make him more settled during the times when his master was away.