First Day

Austria, August 30th 1796

9:02 AM

Lukas was sleeping on his bed. He had a calm expression on his face as the sound of his loud breath could be heard in his room.

Soon, his big eyes slowly opened. When Lukas became aware of his surroundings he quickly sat up.

'Today's the day!' Lukas thought as his black eyes were widely open.

Lukas quickly jumped out of his bed and ran to wash his face.

After that, he went to the dining room to have breakfast. He slowly walked into the dining room and sat on one of the chairs.

Elias was there too. He was reading a newspaper with a serious expression.

Elias had recently started to have breakfast at the table every morning. He had finally understood that eating alone every day was not good for Lukas.

Lukas and Elias never greeted each other.

Sometimes, they even pretended they were not in the same space. They had a strange relationship.

"Good morning, young master. Your breakfast will be on the table soon enough," Olivia said with a smile.

"Thank you, Olivia," Lukas replied.

Lukas then sat at the table and waited patiently for the breakfast. Since Lukas was already eight years old, he no longer needed anything to put him higher at the table.

Soon, a maidservant came with Lukas's breakfast. "Here you go, young master," she said with a smile as she placed the breakfast on the table.

"Thank you, Sarah," Lukas said.

The maidservant bowed and then went back to the kitchen.

Lukas then started eating the breakfast. It was obvious that he was in a good mood.

Elias looked at Lukas over the newspaper. "Is today your first day in the academy?" he asked.

Lukas made a short break and then answered. "Yes, it is," he said.

"I see. Good luck, then," Elias replied.

Lukas didn't answer. Instead, he just focused on eating his breakfast.

On the other hand, Elias wanted to keep talking to Lukas. "...Have you been training properly for the last two years?" the brown-haired man asked.

Lukas sighed. "Of course I have," he replied.

"...I see... well done," Elias said.

Elias had no idea how to interact with his son properly. He knew Lukas was not wrong in holding a grudge against him until now, he would do the same.

Meanwhile, Klara, who was standing nearby in case one of them needed something could only sigh internally. 'Poor Mr. Elias,' she thought.

"Thank you, it was very good," Lukas said after finishing eating.

When Lukas was about to jump out of the chair, Klara interrupted him. "Young master," she said.

Lukas looked at Klara with his brow raised. "Young master knows the etiquette, you have to wait for the oldest person in the house to finish eating in order to leave," she said.

Lukas sighed and went back to his place. 'I know what this is about. This never happened in this house, it's just because she wants me to sit at the same table as him,' he thought.

Lukas stayed sitting at the table silently until Elias was done eating. After that, Lukas jumped out of the chair and went to his room.

-----

Austria, August 30th 1796

2:20 PM

Lukas was standing in front of the mirror. He was getting ready to go to the academy.

Soon, Lukas heard a knock on his door. "Come in," he said.

Klara opened the door. "Young master, the carriage is ready for you to leave anytime," she said.

"Thank you, Klara. I'll be right there," Lukas replied as he nodded his head.

Klara sighed. "Young master, may I talk to you for a second?" she asked.

Lukas turned to Klara, and then walked towards his bed. "Come in," he said as he headed to his bed.

"Thank you," Klara said with a smile as she walked in.

Lukas sat on his bed and looked up to Klara. "What is it, Klara?" he asked.

Klara sighed. "Young master, it's about your father..." she said.

Lukas sighed. "This subject again, Klara? You can't force yourself to forgive someone, you know," he said.

"Young master, I'm not trying to force you. I just want you to understand that it is not healthy for you hold a grudge for so long," Klara said.

A short break occurred. After that, Klara sat beside Lukas. "Young master, I adore you, but if there's something that I noticed about you is that you are not someone who doesn't follow Jesus Christ's teachings! I can see that you skip the prayers at the table most of the times," she said.

Lukas stood up and then turned to Klara. "When did this turn into a religious conversation?" he asked.

Klara stood up as well. "This is not a religious conversation. The point is that we have to bring the Lord up when we are making a mistake," she said.

"...Klara, this isn't going anywhere. If you don't have anything else to tell me, please, leave," Lukas said.

Klara sighed. "Sorry for bothering you," she said.

After that, Klara left.

Lukas stood in the middle of his room for a while and then sighed.

After a few minutes, Lukas left the mansion and walked towards a carriage outside.

"Hello, Rambert," Lukas said with a smile.

Rambert, the man who drove the carriage took his beret off as he greeted Lukas. "Good afternoon, young master. It's been a while," he said.

"Yes, it has," Lukas said as he entered the carriage.

"Today is your first day of the academy, huh?" Rambert said. He whipped the horses and they started walking.

"I remember like it was yesterday. You were just a newborn baby, still, you got along with the horses better than anyone. They lowered their heads just for you to caress their heads. It's a shame you don't remember it," Rambert said.

Lukas smirked. 'Huh... I actually remember, sorry,' he thought.

After about half an hour, the carriage had finally arrived to its destiny.

Lukas left the carriage and curiously looked around. He saw many other boys. Some looked nervous, others looked confident and others just looked sleepy.

Lukas kept walking forward and even saw some tall boys who seemed to be older than him casually walked into the academy.

When Lukas was about to follow them, he was interrupted by another boy who looked to be his age.

"Hey, boy!"

When Lukas looked towards the voice, he saw a big crowd of boys who looked all to be his age. In the midst of the line, he saw a boy with his arm raised.

Lukas then casually towards the crowd. After a while, he finally reached the boy who called him.

The boy smiled. "Those are the ones who have been already. We are the newbies," he said as he pointed at himself.

"...I see," Lukas said.

Even though Lukas wanted to meet a few people, he wasn't willing to do it right now. He walked away from the crowd and leaned against a walk nearby.

After a few minutes, a man started yelling. "The ones who are newbies, follow me!!!" the man said with a loud tone.

When the crowd started moving, Lukas followed everyone else towards the academy.

There wasn't much inside the academy. Mostly just the canteen and a few small coliseums... for some reason.

The man started speaking. "This academy is for the boys with 8 to 11 years old. Once you are older than that, you have to go to another academy.

However, that's just for the good ones. You can even wear an uniform there," he said.

Soon, a ruckus started amidst the crowd.

"A uniform? Wow!"

"I wonder what it looks like!"

"I guess it depends on the academy."

The man turned to the crowd and yelled at the top of his lungs. "SILENCE!!!"

The crowd immediately went silent.

Lukas just raised his brow. 'Were they excited over a simple an uniform? I wonder if they're all like Violett. If I show them a swing, they will go crazy too?' he wondered.

After introducing the whole academy to everyone, the man walked them to a big field. There were other four groups separated by fences and some of them seemed to be already fighting with wooden swords.

Soon, another ruckus started.

"Wow, they are fighting with wooden swords!"

"So cool!"

"Pfft! That's nothing! I have already touched a real sword!"

"Really?!"

"That's sick!"

Soon, the man, who was standing in front of the whole crowd of students, yelled at the top of his lungs, once again. "SILENCE!!!"

After everyone went silent, the man sighed. "Hello, I haven't introduced myself yet, but my name is Thomas Neuer. And I will be your instructor for the next four years you will be spending with me.

Here, we split the students into 4 groups, by the amount time they are training in this academy. We are in the right field, where there are all the newbies. The age goes in order until the left field, where there are all the veteran students.

In the beginning, we'll have one hour for each group to train separately from the other. After that, there will be a little break of 20 minutes where all groups can meet.

After another hour of separate training and another 20 minutes of break. The groups will all be training in the same group for another hour. After that, you'll be leaving," Thomas explained.

Everyone paid close attention to Thomas's explanation, including Lukas, who had his arms crossed with a serious face.

"Oh, there is one more thing, there's a very big chance that you will be bullied, mainly among the oldest ones. And I only have one thing to say about it: Bear with it, builds character!!!" Thomas said, yelling the last part.

Some students smirked and others looked very scared with Thomas's sentence.

'I guess this is where Herman took that sentence from,' Lukas thought.

The man then took a step forward and started humming with his finger over his mouth.

"You... and you," he said as he pointed at two random students.

""Huh?!"" the both boys asked.

"Come here, you are going to fight," he ordered.

Soon, one more ruckus started, but this time, Thomas didn't try to stop it.

'This is a good psychologic strategy this dude is using. He picked two boys who seemed and put them to fight each other for them to realize that this is not childs play... for most of them, of course,' Lukas thought.

Soon, the two boys were in front of each other. The both of them were holding a wooden sword and shaking it in fear.

"Prepare, fight!" Thomas yelled.

Soon, one boy was sitting on the ground, whining, as blood flowed out of one his nostrils, whereas the other was standing and whining too.

"This hurts!" one defeated said, whining.

"I-I can't believe it! I won!" the victorious boy said, also whining.

Thomas just sighed and slapped his forehead. 'Unbelievable,' he thought.

"Okay, the both of you, leave the swords here and go back there," Thomas ordered.

As the two of them went back to the crowd, many other kids mocked him and even tried to trip them.

Thomas then walked to the front of the crowd and started yelling. "I GUESS YOU UNDERSTAND NOW! ALL OF YOU HERE ARE RICH NOBLES WHO NEVER MET THE HARDSHIPS OF THIS WORLD! DO YOU KNOW WHAT ALL OF YOU ARE?! A BUNCH OF PUSSIES!!!' he said.

Thomas then looked around and spotted Lukas, after that, he smirked.

"Hey, you there! The one with weird eyes!" Thomas said as he pointed at Lukas.

All the kids tried to spot the one Thomas was referring to. On the other hand, Lukas knew right away it was him.

Lukas just sighed and walked forward. After many kids trying to trip Lukas, he finally reached Thomas.

Thomas just smirked. 'I like this boy's expression,' he thought.

Thomas immediately tapped Lukas's shoulder hard. "Do you all see this brat here?! He's not a man! He's a pussy! A little girl! Even his face looks girly!" he said.

After that, the whole crowd just started laughing.

Lukas could only roll his eyes. 'I don't think you can find many manly-looking students amongst this crowd. We are all around eight years old,' he thought.

Thomas noticed that Lukas didn't change his expression and decided to talk directly to him.

"Hey, what's wrong, little girl?! Are you mude? Speak, you woman!" he yelled.

The whole crowd kept laughing and Lukas just raised his brow. "What do you have against women? Do you like men better?" he asked.

Everyone went silent with Lukas's response.

Meanwhile, Thomas just widened his eyes.

Soon, Thomas bursted out in laughter. "I liked you, young boy! But... you know, you can't just taunt your instructor and be unpunished," he said.

Lukas raised his brow. 'What's this guy about to pull off?!' he wondered.

"Just a moment," Thomas said.

Thomas left their field.

An even louder ruckus started after he left.

"Haha! You are screwed, you shithead!"

"He's gonna be punished on the first day?! What an idiot!"

After a while, Thomas came back with an older boy.

"Boy, this is Elias! He's among the oldest students here! Your punishment is to fight him!" Thomas said.

The crowd went silent for a while and then they started screaming together, as if to motivate that fight.

Lukas raised his brow. 'Now I understand. This is both a psychological and a physical test. He liked my answer, thus he wants to test me. This is gonna be easy, his name is Elias, it only makes me want to hit him even more,' he thought.