บท 59: Urges
Prussia, November 10th 1796
2:43 PM
"We are here, Königsberg," Elias said, with a rare smile on his face.
Tobias watched the city with the same, usual smile he always showed. With the time that Elias and Lukas had spent together with him, it became just a routine for them to see it.
Meanwhile, Violett just watched the city with shining eyes. She was almost literally drooling over the appearance and environment of the city.
"Hey, hey! Lukas, wake up!" Violett said as she leaned forward in order to gently shake Lukas, who was sleeping on the seat across her.
Lukas slowly and reluctantly woke up with Violett's insistence. "W-What happened?" he asked as he rubbed his eyes.
Violett laughed. "We are final-"
"OH MY GOD! Everyone, I think we are finally in Königsberg," Lukas said, interrupting Violett, which made her puff her cheeks in frustration.
Elias, who was reading a book, looked slightly at his son. "...Yeah, we knew that already," he said before getting back to reading his book.
Lukas raised his brow at Elias's statement. After hearing that, he seemed a bit confused, he started glancing everywhere as if he was trying to figure something out.
After a while, Lukas looked at Elias. "Huh... I guess so," he said as he nodded his head.
Elias raised his brow and stopped looking at his book to look at Lukas. "You are still sleepy?" he asked.
Lukas nodded his head. "A bit," he answered.
Elias sighed and went back to reading his book. "Then go back to sleep," he said. "Our destiny is still 40 minutes awa-"
When Elias looked back at Lukas, the blonde boy was already sleeping again.
"Thank you..." Elias murmured with a sigh, before going back to reading his book.
Violett just laughed at the situation that had just happened. "He really is always like this, huh?" she said.
Elias nodded his head. "Yes. Didn't change one bit during this trip," he said.
Violett raised her brow. "...Is that a bad thing?" she asked.
Elias glanced quickly at Lukas and then looked at Violett. "Not a bit," he said, shaking his head.
Violett smiled slightly. "I think the same too," she said as she nodded his head.
After a bit more than 40 minutes, the carriage had already arrived at their destiny, which was a simple, but comfortable, two-story house in a considerably calm part of Königsberg, with not many people living there.
Since Lukas was already awake, he immediately left the carriage and watched the house where they were going to wait for the party in.
'The Von Neumann house is an Austrian noble family, it doesn't even have branches in the rest of the Holy Roman Empire, but yet, it owns at least one building in Prussia?' Lukas started scratching the back of his head and then sighed as he shook his head helplessly. 'I sure am overthinking it. It's just a two-story house, no big deal. Besides, they could have just lied in order to maintain their dignity when they only rented it for a few weeks for us to wait here. The Von Neumann house does have that kind of care for its members,' he concluded.
Everyone else started leaving the carriage. Tobias was the first one and Elias was right behind.
Tobias walked until he stood beside Lukas, and put his hand on his shoulder.
"It is beautiful, is it not?" Tobias asked. "Someday, if everything goes well, not just this, but everything else will be yours... and my daughter will be by your side," he said, not being able to hide his smirk in the last part of his sentence.
Even though Lukas wasn't looking at Tobias, he did have noticed that Tobias's tone had changed slightly. 'No, it's not just his tone, but that last part of his sentence sounded a bit... weird? ...Forced?' the blonde boy wondered.
Elias, on the other hand, had noticed Tobias's smirk, even though it had showed up for less than one second.
However, Elias didn't do anything, he just clenched his fists and took a deep breath.
Tobias looked behind him and waited for Violett, who was struggling a little to leave the carriage.
Tobias raised his brow. "What is wrong, Violett?" he asked, with a playful tone.
"J-Just a moment, Dad. It's hard to walk with this dress," Violett said.
After struggling a bit longer, Violett finally managed to leave the carriage.
Tobias nodded his head as he looked at all the three nobles who were along with him. "Very well, let me show you the place," he asked as he started walking towards the house.
Lukas hurried to keep up with Tobias. "Uncle Tobias, have you been in this house before?" he asked.
Tobias nodded his head with a smile. "Of course. I have spent some holidays here in my teenage years," he said.
'Well, that discards the theory that the Von Neumann house might have rented it... well, it still doesn't matter! It doesn't mean anything that the Von Neumann house owns some properties out of Austria. Besides, even though I am pretty good at catching liars, Tobias is specially good at that art, so he could just be trying to deceive me because he must know l like sticking my nose into pretty much everything,' Lukas thought.
-----
Prussia, November 11th 1796
3:23 AM
Lukas was sleeping in his room in the house. The rest of the day had been pretty calm. Tobias had showed the whole house to everyone, and the day went on very smoothly.
Soon, Lukas started frowning, when he woke up, abruptly sitting up, as sweat streamed down his face.
After panting for a while, Lukas, out of disappointment, put his hand over his forehead as he sighed. "These damn nightmares again... they have been with me for years," he murmured.
After a few seconds, Lukas jumped out of his bed and left his room. 'Huh... where did they keep the water gallons again? Oh, right, downstairs,' he thought.
Lukas calmly went downstairs, where he noticed a light, probably from a candle, coming from the living room.
Lukas just shrugged it off and turned his back to go to the kitchen, however, he was interrupted by a voice.
"You are up early, Lukas," the voice, which was Tobias's, said.
Lukas raised his brow and went to the place where the light was coming from. There, was Tobias sitting on an armchair, holding a glass of wine, with a candle and a bottle of wine, along with some more glasses on a small table in front him. Tobias was showing his usual smile, and staring at a random place.
"...Uncle Tobias?" Lukas asked, however, he didn't get an answer.
Lukas scratched the back of his head as he hummed. "Huh... It's not that I'm up early, I am just thirsty. Oh, and it's 3 AM, by the way, it's not early to be up, it actually would be considered late to be up," the blonde boy explained.
Tobias chuckled as he lowered his head. "I see. I always lose the awareness of time when I am with insomnia," he said.
Lukas raised his brow. "Insomnia?" he asked.
Tobias then looked at Lukas. "Did you not say that you were thirsty? There, take a glass and join me," he said as he pointed at the bottle of wine on the table in front of him.
Lukas was a bit reluctant, but then he went ahead to have a drink with him. "Thank you," he said as he walked to pick a glass and pour some wine in it.
Tobias chuckled once again. "I knew it. You are not the boy you pretend you are, are you?" he asked.
As Lukas finished pouring the wine in his glass, he looked up at Tobias. "I never pretended to be anybody I'm not," he said as he sat on an armchair across his uncle.
Tobias then looked at Lukas into his eyes. "No, boy, you are wrong. Everyone pretends to be someone they are not, that's what being a human being is," he said.
Lukas made a short break as he looked at his wine. "Sometimes we control our urges, sometimes we don't," he said, finally drinking the wine from the glass, which made him immediately let out a loud sigh and go red for a few moments.
Tobias laughed. "I think you are right," he said as he nodded his head.
After another short break, Tobias looked at Lukas. "...Tell me your opinion, Lukas. Which side of ours is more human? The one where we control our urges or the one where we surrender to them?" he asked.
Lukas found Tobias's question strange, but he was still willing to answer it.
After giving it some thought, Lukas sighed. "Well, some people say that controlling our urges is what discerns us from animals, however... I don't agree with that very much," he said as he shook his head.
Tobias just waited for Lukas to keep talking. "There are many races of predator animals who wait a long time to catch their prey inattentive. Couldn't you call it "controlling an urge,"? Even if it's just temporary. Also, even we can't control our urges forever. When you are desperate, you'll find a way out that urge, no matter what it is," he said.
Tobias chuckled as he nodded his head. "You have a good point, however... there are people who really go against their urges for the whole lives. The monks, for instance," he said.
Lukas shrugged his shoulders. "Well, they may be able to control their sexual needs, but they will eventually vent it out on something else," he made a short break and then tilted his head, as if giving an example. "They might start eating a lot, for instance... or recur to much more devious methods," the blonde boy said.
Tobias sighed. "So, are you saying that... we are all slaves to our urges?" he asked.
Lukas shrugged his shoulders. "...Before being rational beings, before being made by a divine entity... we are living beings, we are animals," he said, emphasizing his words as he nodded his head.
Tobias nodded his head. "I'm impressed by your self-awareness, Lukas," he raised his glass. "Cheers?" he asked.
Lukas hesitated for a bit, but then he nodded his head. "Cheers," he said.
So, the both of them finished drinking their glass.
"Now I have to go drink for real. Wine doesn't kill my thirst," Lukas said, finishing with a smile.
Lukas then jumped out of his armchair and walked towards the kitchen. After taking a few steps, he was, once again, interrupted by Tobias, stopping on his way to the kitchen, in order to listen to his uncle with his back turned to him.
"You know, Lukas... it's funny that you talk so wisely about not being able to control your urges forever, because... among all of us, you are the one who most controls your urges," Tobias said.
Lukas gulped as sweat streamed down his forehead. "I-I don't know what you're talking about," he said.
Tobias poured some more wine in his glass, and sipped on it once again. "I'm just thinking out loud. You may go, the water is in the kitchen," he said.
Lukas then went to the kitchen in order to have some water.
-----
Prussia, November 12th 1796
8:05 PM
Somewhere, in a lavish bedroom, a little girl was getting ready to go to sleep.
Soon, the door of her room opened behind her, where a maidservant showed up. "Lady Nathalie, have you already chosen the dress you are going to wear tomorrow?" she asked.
The girl sighed. "I will choose tomorrow," she replied.
"...Lady Nathalie, I do not mean to pressure you, but... if you don't get any fiancé for the next few months, the house will start complaining a lo-"
"Well, I'm very happy that you didn't mean to pressure me!" she said, out of anger.
After panting for a bit, she turned to the maidservant. "Besides, "the house will start complaining"? For people who never cared about me, they seem very worried about who I'm going to marry, don't they?!" she asked. "Oh, no, I forgot! It's just political bullshit!" she finished, with a very sarcastic tone.
The maidservant just sighed. "Good night, Lady Nathalie," she said as she closed the door.
"Good night," Nathalie said as she turned back to her bed. After a while, she sighed.
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