章節 25: A Goal?
Austria, December 20th 1791
5:15 PM
Lukas was sitting on a bench in the garden after the training with Herman. The boy was holding a small bottle of water, soon, he started drinking it.
Herman approached Lukas and asked. "What's wrong, Lukas? You've been kinda off lately."
Lukas stopped drinking and raised his brow. "What do you mean?"
"Pfft! Don't play dumb, Lukas. I can see right through you," Herman sat beside the blonde boy.
"Come on, tell me what's wrong."
Even though Herman has only been training Lukas for less than a month, the both of them had already become very close.
Herman even told him a few things about his father, the bulky man had revealed they had known each other since they were teenagers. For some reason, Elias didn't want to admit to Lukas that he had friends.
Herman also told Lukas a few stories about Elias during his breaks, as for instance: Elias tried to ask out the same girl more than 20 times in a lot of different ways before he finally accepted the rejection.
Lukas sighed. "Well, you know that I recently met my betrothed, right?" he asked.
Herman nodded his head. "Of course," he showed a smirk. "Was she that ugly?"
Lukas shook his head. "It has nothing to do with her. After spending some time together with her, her father showed up all of a sudden and they left earlier than planned."
Herman crossed his arms with a frown. "What happened?"
Lukas sighed. "Get ready to listen to this."
-----
Austria, December 15th 1791
12:03 PM
"It was nothing special, young master. Just a little misunderstanding," Olivia said, trying to make Lukas stop thinking about it.
'Okay, something bad did happen,' Lukas thought.
Then, Lukas started walking towards the mansion. He quickly went through the door and noticed that neither Frida nor Elias were there. Only a few servants were present, and they all seemed very apprehensive.
"Where are my parents?" Lukas asked to the servants.
Everyone hesitated to answer Lukas. 'Whatever,' Lukas thought.
The blonde boy darted to the second floor where he could hear an argument. 'I knew it! Mom and dad are arguing.'
Lukas was already used to hearing his parents arguing, but this time everyone was trying to hide it from him, so he figured this discussion would be a bit more serious than usual.
Lukas walked closer to the room where Frida and Elias were arguing and started peeking through the door.
"WHY THE HELL DID IT HAVE TO BE HIM?!" Elias asked, furious. Frida could be seen in front of him, crying.
"I-I'm sorry, I don't really have the control of this situation."
Elias clenched his fist. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN WITH THAT?!" he asked. "YOU ARE THE DAUGHTER OF THE HEAD OF THE VON NEUMANN HOUSE! OF COURSE YOU DID! YOU DID THIS TO PROVOKE ME!"
Frida widened her eyes. "E-Excuse me?! I-I would never do that! You know you have my sympathy for your and your brother's condition!"
Elias gritted his teeth. "SHUT UP! YOU ARE A MEMBER OF THE VON NEUMANN HOUSE! YOU WOULD NEVER HAVE SYMPATHY FOR ME! YOU ARE ALL A BUNCH OF MONSTERS!"
Frida clenched her fist. "P-Please, Elias... don't generalize! It is true that there are bad people in the Von Neumann house, I never argued against that! But you gotta admit that the Hügel house also deserved its fate!"
After saying that, Frida gasped as she put her hands in front of her mouth, she seemed sorry for what she had just said. "E-Elias, I didn't mean tha-"
Elias gritted his teeth and stretched his hand to slap Frida, making her fall on the floor.
Elias looked at his stretched hand for a bit and then he shook his head. "This... It was not me who did this to you. And you know that," he said.
Right after that, Frida and Elias could hear the door opening with a loud boom. When they looked towards the door, they saw Lukas standing there with his fists clenched and with his teeth gritted.
When Elias saw Lukas's expression, it could only remind him of one single person. 'K-Karl?'
"You... it was YOU who did that! Don't you think that something could justify it! You coward!" Lukas said, pissed.
Elias looked taken aback by Lukas's statement. After that, he quickly glanced at Frida and hastily left the room.
After Elias left the room, Lukas stood at the door for a few more moments. After that, he sighed.
Lukas gently approached his mother and warmly hugged her. "It's okay, mom. It's only the both us here. Cry all you want."
Frida hugged him back and started bawling and crying like a baby.
After a while, Frida let go of Lukas and looked down. She looked embarrassed. "I'm sorry for making you see this, Lukas. I'm such a failure as a mother."
Lukas sighed. "Please, don't say that, mom."
Frida smiled sadly to Lukas. "It's true. I'm a burden for everyone in this mansion."
Lukas clenched his fist. 'I don't even know what I should tell her,' he sighed. "I-I'll leave you alone. Call me if you need anything."
Then, Lukas walked away, leaving Frida alone in her room.
-----
Austria, December 20th 1791
5:21 PM
When Lukas finished, Herman was dumbfounded, he couldn't believe what he had just heard. "E-Elias did that? Did he really hit her?" he asked.
Lukas nodded his head. "Everything I just told you is exactly what happened that day."
Herman sighed deeply and leaned back on the bench. "...Poor thing."
Lukas raised his brow, he couldn't tell whether he was referring to Elias or Frida, however, he decided to believe it was Frida, so he wouldn't get even more pissed.
Herman turned to Lukas. "Listen, Lukas. Don't you wanna take some days off?"
Lukas shook his head. "Not at all. I need this. After what happened, the environment inside that mansion... it's awful. I at least need this to forget all the bad stuff happening right now."
Herman sighed. "Yeah. I guess you are right." he glanced at Lukas. "But what did your father-in-law tell Elias that was so bad?" the bulky man asked.
'Don't call him my father-in-law, that's weird,' Lukas thought. He sighed. "I have no idea. Nobody told me. I only know what I just said to you."
Herman sighed. "Well, this might sound like a stupid question, but... how's your relationship with your father going?" he asked.
Lukas sighed. 'Yes, it is a stupid question,' he looked at Herman. "We don't talk anymore. Actually, we barely see each other. What he did just pisses me off so much..."
Herman sighed. "I understand."
Soon, silence perpetuated in the garden. Both Lukas and Herman were just beholding the garden.
Herman turned to Lukas. "Listen, Lukas. Don't you think you should find a goal to accomplish?" he suddenly asked.
Lukas quickly turned his head to Herman. "What?"
Herman shrugged his shoulders with a slight smile. "Well, you are a talented and hard-working boy. Besides, you need something to make you busy, so find a goal to accomplish. It'll be good for you. Just... y'know, be careful so it doesn't get impossible for you to accomplish it."
Lukas looked dumbfounded. How didn't he have a goal yet? 'What have I been doing my whole life?!'
Lukas quickly jumped out of the bench and smiled at Herman. "Thank you, Herman. You are right. I should find myself a goal."
Herman smiled. "Don't mention it, brat."
The both of them bumped their fists and Lukas darted towards the mansion.
Herman could only laugh as he watched his pupil. 'What a strong brat.'
-----
Austria, December 20th 1791
5:49 PM
Lukas laid on the sofa in his room with his right arm over his forehead. He seemed bored.
'What's wrong with me? I can't decide what my goal should be!' Lukas internally complained.
Lukas sighed. 'Okay, Lukas, think. What's been intriguing you lately?'
After thinking about it for a while, Lukas finally remembered something. 'Oh! Violett! Now I remember, I was wondering if it was okay to breed with people who you are blood-related with.'
Lukas sat up and put his hand under his chin. 'Why do I think that, though?' he wondered. 'Well, it's kinda normal for me to think that. Even if this is normal in my culture, I guess that it would still be weird, or perhaps it's just my intuition.'
Lukas sighed. 'I need a sheet of paper and a quill.'
-----
Lukas was sitting at a table in the library of the mansion. He was sitting on a bunch of books so he could reach the table. There was also a blank sheet of paper and a quill and pot on the table.
Lukas sighed. 'Okay.'
Lukas started drawing a simple family tree. The people were circles. 'This basically is the family tree of an inbreeding family. They usually are much more confusing, but I am not going to anything else because it would only get more confusing to me.'
'Fine, what I know about what happens when two people have a child is that their child gets a bit of each of their parents' features.' Lukas leaned back.
'People of the same family always are more similar to each other than those who are not, that could cause their offsprings to be practically doppelgangers of the rest of the family.'
After Lukas concluded that, he quickly remembered Violett. 'I'm still a bit shocked with that. She's stupidly similar to my mother. That actually is one of the reasons I'm looking for a reason that this marriage would be bad. I wouldn't feel comfortable to get married with someone who's so similar to my mother.'
'But still... theoretically, it would be okay if the children are so similar to the rest of their family. Okay, it would be a bit creepy, but still...'
Lukas sighed. 'Well, I guess there's really nothing wrong with marrying someone of your fami- no, wait! I'm going to figure this out by experiencing it myself.'
Lukas quickly jumped out of the chair and ran towards a door that was located in the library. 'This is the storage of the library. Even though there are a lot of books here, there's also a lot of other things, such as documents about the Von Neumann house, I hope I can find the medical records. I gotta put my hands on them. I don't have the keys though. I am going to ask Olivia.'
Lukas left the library and walked to Olivia. She had a sad face, but she still looked at Lukas with a smile. "Yes, Lukas? What do you wish?"
"I need the keys for that storage in the library, Olivia, please," Lukas said.
After thinking for a while, Olivia realized what Lukas was talking about. "Oh! I see what you mean! Yes, okay, I have them here with me, but..."
Lukas raised his brow. "But?"
"What do you want to go to the storage for?" Olivia asked.
"What's wrong with going there?" Lukas asked back.
Olivia shrugged her shoulders. "Nothing, but I have to make sure you don't see what you should not. There are books there which are not supposed to be for kids your age."
'I guess you should know what books I've already read and found in that library, for everyone to read,' Lukas sighed. "I just wanna read other books. I'm curious. You can check whether or not the book I choose is suitable for my age if you want."
Olivia sighed. "Fine. Let us go then."
'Great! Now, let me think about what I need again... well, I need the medical records of the Von Neumann house and also its family tree. I need one that's real. Mother told me that the ones that are in the library are fake, they're just meant to make the Von Neumann house look greater than it actually is. I'm sure there's one that's real there,' Lukas concluded.
Lukas smiled. "Thank you, Olivia," he said.
The both of them went to the library and they stood in front of the door of the storage. Olivia was struggling to find the correct key in the keyring.
Meanwhile, Lukas was watching her. 'Must suck to find the correct key, oh gosh,' he sighed. 'Anyway, I am almost sure that there is the real family tree inside that storage. However, I'm not sure if there are the medical records of the Von Neumann house. Well, let's find out.'
"Finally!" Olivia said as she, at last, found the right key and opened the door of the storage.
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