บท 3: Baptism (1)
Author's notes:
Hey, first chapter of the year! Hope you guys enjoy it!
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Austria, August 25th 1788
3:55 PM
"Good morning, honey! It's time to wake up!"
Lukas opened his eyes slowly to see Frida's smiling face. He then rolled over and went back to sleep.
"H-Hey, Lukas! It's time to wake up"
Frida picked Lukas and kissed his cheek in an attempt to wake him up, which made Lukas moan as a complaint. Frida already knew he used to do it to try to complain, so she giggled.
"I know, I know! You don't like to wake up so quickly, but it's almost time for an important occasion!"
Lukas raised his brow, "occasion"? Lukas had learned a lot of words in the last few days, but many still made him confused, however, it didn't stop him from learning a lot about the world he lives in. For instance: their way of communication, nay, language is called German and there are many others around the world, which made Lukas feel quite upset once he found out. He hoped he could talk to anyone once he learned this language, but he apparently wouldn't.
He also learned he lives in a place called Austria, which was within another place, the Holy Roman Empire, however, he still couldn't understand very well whether it was a city or something else. If he could at least ask it to someone...
Frida and many of the servants in the mansion have been talking about something called "baptism". Lukas obviously tried figure out what it was but he still had no idea.
"Come on! I'm going to ask Olivia to give you a bath and change your diaper so you can eat, okay?"
Lukas was glad to hear that, he loved the feeling of taking a bath and having his diaper changed and today wasn't different, he felt so good after the bath that he didn't even care about having been woken up so hurriedly anymore.
Olivia then wrapped a cloth around Lukas which he absolutely hated. At first, he liked it, it was warm and comfy but now he could only think about how limited his baby movements were when he had that thing around him.
Olivia proceeded to walk to one of the living rooms that existed in the mansion, finding the other three nobles who lived there: Frida, Karl and Elias. They were all sitting at a table apparently just lost in their own thoughts.
"Here he is, Mrs. Von Neumann. All clean."
Frida picked Lukas and smiled to Olivia.
"Thank you, Olivia. You may go."
Olivia nodded and left the kitchen, leaving the four nobles alone.
Elias looked at Lukas. He was his son, so he obviously cared about him, he just didn't know how to show it. He didn't want to admit that something he liked had come from the Von Neumann house.
Elias, despite having a difficult personality, was a very handsome man. He had a lot of facial features in common with his brother. He had the same eyes as him, however, he didn't have those eyebags that he had, which proved that it probably wasn't anything genetic.
Elias's hair was light brown, he had also let it grow out a bit, making it reach his middle back whereas two strands of his hair stood on each side of his face. His hair was also a bit wavy and the more Lukas's hair grows out the more it looks like its shape will be just like Elias's despite its color being the same as Frida's.
"So... How is Lukas doing?"
Frida looked impressed, Elias rarely asked something about Lukas. Actually, the only things he had asked until that moment was his name and whether he looked to be more from the Von Neumann house or from the Hügel house.
Frida smiled.
"He's doing great. I can feel he's a very smart boy. Do you want to hold him? He's done eating already."
Lukas heard that and was a bit taken aback. In his short life, he had only been held by just three people: His mother and two of the servants in the mansion, one of them being Olivia.
His father had never held him. Neither did he want to be held by him, the fewer people he was held by, the better.
"Hum... No. It's okay."
Frida nodded. In spite of that, she was still glad. Although Elias didn't agree to hold Lukas, she felt like he was creating bounds with the boy. It would be very slow, but Frida had hope they'd end up getting along. After all, it really looked like Lukas was going to be very similar to his father. Not just physically but also psychologically. He already had Elias's grumpy face at least.
Meanwhile, Lukas listened to everything very attentively, when he heard that Elias didn't want to hold him and that Frida didn't mind it, he sighed in relief.
Frida looked at him curiously. He had just sighed?
When Lukas noticed that it had caught his mother's attention, he tried to disguise by coughing. Although it was horrible acting, Frida seemed conformed with it, so she stopped staring at Lukas.
Lukas was relieved. He had noticed that there were some things that adults found strange for him to do. After a lot of testing, he noticed that the pattern was that when he did something goofy, it was fine, but when he did something which demanded a bit more brains, he got weird looks.
That's one of the only reasons that he hasn't tried to start speaking yet. He was afraid that the people would overreact. I mean, if Frida had already looked awkwardly at him for a sigh, just imagine what will happen if he starts saying a few words. He really wanted to know when it's normal for people to start speaking so he would look like a normal baby for at least once.
Another servant came back to the living room holding a platter with a teapot and three teacups on it. This one looked much younger than Olivia and seemed to be even younger than Frida. She seemed to be around 18.
"Ms. Olivia asked to bring you this and also add another teacup in case Mrs. Von Neumann also wishes to have some tea."
Frida smiled.
"Oh, thank you very much, Sarah! I do wish to have some tea."
The young servant smiled, flattered. She had few chances to talk to Mrs. Von Neumann, but she always treated her so well. She felt very lucky. Since there were many nobles who treated their servants worse than animals, she couldn't complain at all.
She proceeded to serve them tea.
Frida kept her smile.
"Thank you, Sarah. You may go."
Sarah bowed and left.
Karl took the opportunity to talk.
"Mrs. Von Neumann, you treat your servants too well. They may come to misuse your kindness"
Frida looked kindly at him but her blood was boiling. She didn't like Karl at all. He was the only person she had ever met who could make her blood boil very easily.
Lukas noticed his mother's anger and just waited to see what was going to happen.
"Mr. Hügel, you are wrong. I may be kind but I also don't let anybody... what did you call it? "Misuse" my kindness. If you are kind to someone, they are very likely to retribute it to you. Of course, there are always people who will "misuse your kindness" as you said, but it is always guaranteed that when you mistreat someone, betray their confidence and misuse them, they'll eventually revolt, it may take one, thirty, one hundred years, but it will happen. A recent instance is the revolution which happened to the British Empire, which made it lose a huge colony."
Frida then took a sip of tea. It felt awesome to deny Karl like this.
Karl gritted his teeth.
"Indeed, I could say a few recent instances regarding the Von Neumann house too."
Frida looked taken aback by that statement. She couldn't believe Karl had said it.
"You know it wasn't quite like tha-"
At that moment, Olivia walked into the living room, which made Lukas pretty upset, he would like to hear the quarrel until the end.
"I came here just to remind you that the appointed time for young master's baptism is within one hour."
Lukas felt angry and happy at the same time. He would finally find out what a baptism is, however, why did Olivia let them know that it was going to begin in one hour if it... well, was going to begin in one hour?
Frida then took that opportunity to stand up.
"Well, in that case, let us get going."
Karl grinned.
"Indeed, it's better for you to get going."
"Everyone here is going, his godparent must be there as well."
Lukas's godfather was Karl and his godmother was Frida's sister, but she couldn't go because she was ill.
"Indeed, I'm Lukas's proud godfather after all. I like him, he is a good boy. He had to be half-Von Neumann to be someone decent."
"That's enough, Karl. Let's go."
Elias decided to step up and finish that argument there. He didn't have patience for that at all.
Karl decided to do what his brother said.
The four of them left the mansion. Lukas was stunned, he had just seen outdoors through the windows of the mansion. Or he would go with Frida for a walk through the garden of the mansion, but that was all. He had never truly left the mansion.
A carriage was waiting for them outside. But what impressed Lukas wasn't the carriage, but two strange creatures who were standing in front of it with some ropes tied to their snout.
Lukas was absolutely astonished by seeing those creatures. Were they living beings? Could they also talk? He had so many questions, but he obviously couldn't ask them, so he limited himself to thoroughly admire them.
Frida noticed Lukas's astonished face and smiled.
"Do you like horses?"
Frida was amused. Lukas usually had a grumpy or an aloof face all the time. It's rare for her to see him smiling, laughing or making expressions like this. She loved it.
Frida stepped closer to the horses for Lukas to see them closer. Lukas looked at them quite curiously.
He was watching each feature of that creature, he really wanted to know what they're called.
'Mama said "horses", right? Hum... I never heard that word before, so that must be these creatures' name.'
Lukas stretched his arms in order to try to reach the horses. Frida stepped even closer to the horses for Lukas to be able to touch them.
"Do you want to touch them? Here."
Lukas finally touched those creatures and started to pat their head. They had a soft fur, Lukas enjoyed to touch them. It was an unique experience to him.
The horses also seemed comfortable with Lukas's hand. They seemed to have a kind of affinity with the boy. Actually, Frida had noticed that Lukas always got along very well with all kinds of animals, including insects.
Every time any kind of bird was standing on the stool of the window, Lukas always looked at the birds amused, the birds also looked at Lukas, it seemed like they were communicating just by staring at each other.
Curiously enough, Lukas had never even tried to reach them. Somehow he knew that despite the window being clear, it couldn't be trespassed. Those are one of the many simple things that made Frida think that Lukas was not a normal baby.
"Okay, it is time to set off."
Elias had finished speaking with an old man with a kind face, he seemed to be around his late thirties.
Frida looked at Elias and nodded slightly.
"We will be right there."
Elias shrugged and got in the carriage.
'Oh, ok. Byebye, horses.'
Lukas took his hand off of the horses and turned his head to Frida.
Frida proceeded to hold him normally again and got in the carriage with him. She approached a seat and sat next to Elias and across Karl.
Lukas watched the inside of that carriage with enthusiasm. It was all very posh. The inside of the carriage was made out of dark wood and its seats looked more like sofas.
Frida looked at Lukas. It was the first time he was going to travel by carriage and she was curious to see his reaction.
Meanwhile, Lukas was thinking:
'Well, this stuff had two wheels attached at each side of it, so I guess it probably moves... but how? Oh, of course, the horses outside will pull it and the old man will guide them... well, actually, to be honest, it looks kinda bad. Did they even choose to work like this? I guess it must be tiresome to do this every day, but I guess it's a job like any other, right?
Anyway, it's the first time I am so far away from home and soon enough, I'll be even more! I wonder what there is further ahead! I'm so excited! I did see something further ahead, but it was all so blurry!'
Lukas's eyes seemed to shine. Frida could feel his excitement.
"There, there, Lukas. We'll be moving soon eno- Oh! See? It's already moving!"
Lukas couldn't control his excitement. He couldn't wait to see what there's in the world outside. How many more animals are there? How many more people are there? He wanted to see every single thing.
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