Forty years ago, at the same castle in the region of Wallach, a young lord Vlad Hunyadi who was only twelve years old at that time was reading a book at the study. He was obsessed with reading since that was the only activity he could do in the castle. His parents didn't allow him to leave the castle. The current count of Wallach was a very wary and paranoid person.

Soon the young lord heard rustling in the window. A young girl popped his head from the window.

"What are you doing?" asked the young girl.

"…. I am reading…. a book," said a shy Vlad.

"What is a book?" asked the girl.

"You don't know what a book is?" asked a timid Vlad.

"Never seen one." said the girl still hanging outside the window.

"Sorina! Where are you? Don't try to ditch on work. We need you to work at the fields," yelled a woman's voice from outside.

The girl got scared immediately.

"Hey, can you hide me in here for a moment." asked the girl from a young Vlad.

"Ah. I don't kn….."

"Thank you!" said the girl and climbed in, "My name is Sorina. What's your name?"

"Vlad…Vlad Hunyadi"

After that day Sorina would climb up the vines often to visit Vlad. Vlad would teach her to read while Sorina always brought some delicious food from the village. They played games as children should. Vlad was having fun since before that he hadn't played with anyone.

Sorina had to often hide if the parents of the lord were close by or other servants of the castle. Young lord Vlad would hide her all over the place. One day Sorina persuaded the young lord to leave the castle to play with the other kids in the field. She finally persuaded him to climb down the vines with her.

At first, the young lord had a hard time trusting the kids and was afraid of them, but Sorina persuaded the village kids to be nice to him. Sorina didn't tell to anyone that he was the count's son. The parents of the young count had no idea what their son was doing, but they didn't pay much attention to him in the first place.

Young lord grew slowly and slowly out of his shell. He was spending time with the people of his region. Going to fish by the river, playing games and other activities. At the age of sixteen, the young lord had started to form feelings towards Sorina. Unfortunately, the time to play and hang together with the kids of the village started to get shorter. His duties as the count's son started weigh on him more and more.

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The father of lord Vlad died on his seventeenth birthday. He then had to take the mantle of leading the Hunyadi family and the region. He took part in many social gatherings of other nobles. The Hunyadi family was well known so he was invited to many formal events. He was considered at the age of eighteen the most wanted bachelor in the kingdom.

Once he even traveled to the royal palace for a formal meeting with the king. The only thing he could think about was how boring the social gathering was and how stagnated the king felt.

After one social meeting at the age of nineteen while riding back home he passed by a river. He looked down at the river and saw a girl bathing underneath it. He couldn't help but stare. The girl spotted the young lord staring at her and yelled," What the hell. PERVERT!"

"Aah…eeehm…I'm sorry I couldn't help myself."

The lord and the girl then looked at each other. The girl was Sorina. Few moments later Sorina put her clothes on and approached the lord and his entourage. The lord came off his horse also to greet her. Sorina jumped straight away to hug her.

"It's been so looooong, Vlad!" yelled Sorina in excitement

They hadn't seen each other in many years. The young count blushed instantly.

"Yeah. It has been long. How are you?" asked the lord from Sorina.

"I am good. I see becoming the lord made you into a proper pervert. Would have thought becoming a lord you'd just have to ask for a girl to lift her skirt. Not needing to peek while a woman was bathing," said Sorina jokingly.

"I said I'm sorry and it's your fault anyway also. Who bathes by the side of the road," Vlad argued.

"Pervert, Scoundrel."

The young lord decided to give Sorina a ride back to the village on his horse as an apology. It was obvious that Sorina blackmailed him to give the ride was enjoying the ride.

"So why were you bathing anyway?" asked Vlad from Sorina.

"Ooh you didn't know. We are having the harvest festival tonight. Have to be clean for that. Can be smelling all sweaty," explained Sorina.

"Harvest festival you say."

The count had only been to the harvest festival when he was a kid and slipped out. It was a day when even the common peasant ate his weight in food and drowned himself in alcohol. It was a happy memory for him. After they arrived at the village the young lord was about to return to the castle with his entourage before Sorina stopped her.

"You should come to the village square for the festival. It'll be fun if you'd join us. I am sure everyone would be happy to see the lord here."

"Ah…I don't know."

"Promise me you will come!"

"I won't promise anything!"

"See you tonight!" said Sorina and waved at him.

Later that night the lord looked from his window at the festival. A large bonfire made into the shape of a goat was burning at the center of the village. It looked like fun in the eyes of the lord.

After a little reluctance at first the lord decided to join the festival. Wine and cheese were being served everywhere with other top Wallach-style dishes. People were dancing around the fire and partying hard.

The young lord had his nice clothes on that made him stand out. Everyone in the party went suddenly quiet when the count came to the festival. They were not sure how to be since never had a noble joined in with the commoner's celebration.

Sorina saw this and asked for the musicians to continue playing. She then went and ran to lord Vlad and took her by his hand. She started to dance with him, with her leading. All the other commoners decided to continue the festival. Sorina was able to break the ice.

The young lord got to know everyone in the village with the help of Sorina. He showed genuine interest to everyone, and everyone also wanted to know the young lord. He also reunited with his old friends he used to play with as kids. He participated in the wine drinking, ate peasant foods that he loved and danced until his legs could not move no more.