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Austria, 23rd October 1796

5:32 PM

'Th-This is what I wanted!' Lukas thought in celebration. 'Just hope that family is coming to the party... no! There's no way it's not coming!' he concluded.

Elias raised his brow. "You seem weirdly excited, Lukas. What happened? You used to hate parties," he said.

Lukas immediately calmed down as he cleared his throat. "Oh, it's nothing. It's just that I'm very happy that Austria won the war," he said, finishing with a smile.

Elias looked at Lukas as he narrowed his eyes. "Oh, I see..." he said.

Lukas cleared his throat once again. "Anyway, do you know any details about that?" he asked.

Elias sighed. "Well, 5 days ago, France finally surrendered and it signed a treaty with all its opponents, the Coalition," he explained.

Lukas smiled at Elias in interest. "What were the agreements in the treaty?" he asked.

Elias shook his head. "I don't know the details, but I guess they had to make a huge party, gathering all the greatest nobles and the Royal Families of all the nations who participated in the war. I also heard that, although France will keep being an independent country, the Habsburg house will take over the power there," he explained.

Lukas put his thumb on his lip and nodded his head in understanding. 'That was an expected move from the Coalition, however, I didn't think they would gather all the main nobles of all the countries that participated in the war. I only thought that it was going to happen amongst the victorious nations, since the nobles don't waste a chance to drink and hold lascivious banquets.

That's the only reason I wanted Austria to win to be honest,' he thought.

'They must have done it in order to show the French nobles, and mainly the French people that this war is all water under the bridge and that they want to start all over again. It's an important thing to do when you are going to establish a new government, mainly in a special case like this, since they are going to change back from a form of government that the population fought so much to have,' Lukas thought.

Lukas sighed. 'Still, it's a very risky move that they are pulling off, if the new king doesn't do what the population is expecting, they are going to go crazy all over again,' he thought.

Lukas put his hands on his hips. "Okay, when's the party taking place? And where?" he asked.

"It's going to be in 3 weeks and in Königsberg, capital of Prussia," Elias replied.

Lukas raised his brow. 'What?! I was almost sure that it was going to take place in Vienna! Why didn't it happen? Huh... well it must be just a security measure, since Königsberg is much farther from France than Vienna, so the ones who still didn't accept our victory probably will not have the courage to pull off some funny tricks,' he thought.

After thinking, Lukas nodded his head. "Okay... are we going?" he asked.

Elias raised his brow. "What's wrong with you, Lukas? Of course we are! As much as I don't want to go, I can't just refuse this, I'm not stupid!" he said.

Lukas nodded his head. 'This is another thing that I was afraid of. I was sure that they were going to call members from the Von Neumann house, however, I was not sure if my father and I were going to be invited, and still, if we were, would Father be willing to go? I guess I didn't need to be afraid of that, though,' he thought.

"When are we leaving?" Lukas asked.

Elias shrugged his shoulders. "In one week, I guess," he answered. "Like that, we can guarantee that we'll be there on time and that the long trip was not pointless," the brown-haired man explained.

Lukas raised his brow. 'It's not because we were late that the trip was pointless,' he thought. He nodded his head. "Fine," the blonde boy answered.

Lukas then fidgeted a bit. "Well, I'm going upstairs. I have already eaten in the city. Bye," he said, before darting to his room.

When Lukas left, Elias sighed. "He seemed very excited about this. It's like he had been waiting for it," he said.

Olivia shrugged her shoulders. "I guess it's normal. War is a stressful situation, so he just wanted it to end," she said.

Elias shook his head as he leaned back on his chair. "I don't know, he seemed more worried about the party than the end of the war itself," he said.

Olivia crossed her arms. "What are the

preparations for the trip, Mr. Hügel?" she asked.

Elias looked at her for a bit, before shrugging his shoulders. "You probably know it better than me. It must not be that hard, anyway. Pack some food, clothing, drinks..." he answered.

Olivia nodded her head. "Of course. Just one more thing, do you plan to bring any servant other than Rambert?" she asked.

Elias raised his brow. "Of course not, it would only demand us to pack more food. Leave it like this," he answered.

"Of course," Olivia said as she bowed. After that, she left.

When Olivia arrived to the kitchen, she sighed.

Klara noticed Olivia's reaction right off the bat and just raised her brow as she smiled.

After that, Klara approached Olivia. "So, Olivia, how did it go?" she asked.

Olivia and Klara had gotten very close recently, so Olivia usually shared a lot of information with the young woman, and this case wasn't different.

Olivia sighed. "Young master acted weird," she answered.

Klara laughed. "Please, tell me something I don't know," she said.

"I'm serious, Klara. He seemed a bit too interested in that," Olivia said.

Klara shrugged her shoulders. "That's normal. Young master has always been a very curious boy," she said. "Why do you worry so much with him, anyway? I understand, but he's a boy who knows how to get by," the brown-haired woman asked.

Olivia rolled her eyes. "He's still a child, Klara, and he's gone through a lot already," she said.

Klara nodded her head. "I understand that, but it's not like you'll have to worry about him because of every single thing he does or says, that's not healthy neither for him, nor for you, Olivia," she said.

Olivia went silent for a while, but then she sighed. "I suppose you are right," she said. "Well, I have something to tell you that will make you happy. I believe that Mr. Hügel is having a more cordial attitude towards me and everyone," she said.

Klara didn't react at first, but a wide smile soon spread across her face and her eyes started shining. "Yahoo!" she said as she raised her arm and squirmed her body in celebration.

Olivia sighed. "Don't get so happy, Klara. He has still scored more than 1000 hate points for me," she said.

Klara sighed with a smile. "It's okay, I'm not asking you to forgive him. I'm just asking you to realize that he's not that bad of a person," she said.

Olivia said. "In that case, I don't understand why you are insisting so much for Young master to forgive him, Klara," she said.

Klara sighed. "I know it's not the best way to approach things, but... I can see that Mr. Hügel loves Young Master so very much! And I can also that it saddens him that Lukas is mad at him," she said.

"You can't criticize him for that," Olivia said.

Klara sighed. "I know, Olivia, I know! Besides, I noticed that in the last conversation we had about that subject, he got truly mad at me," she said.

Olivia smiled and then she chuckled a bit. "Do not worry about that, Klara. Young master has a good heart, he wouldn't be mad at you for long after that," she said.

"Hmmm, are you sure?" Klara asked hopefully.

Olivia nodded her head, smiling. "Of course. Besides, holding a grudge against a person is already difficult, now against two is twice as difficult, so don't let that harass you," she said.

Klara nodded her head with a smile. "Thank you, Olivia. You have been very helpful for me ever since I arrived to this house, mainly with handling Young Master, I had never seen a child like that," she said.

Olivia chuckled. "Neither had I! And I have more than twice the experience you do," she answered.

"To be honest, I am starting to believe that we are not the ones who handle him, but that he's the one who handles us," the humble-looking woman said.

Klara laughed. "That might be true," she said.

-----

Austria, October 23rd 1796

5:40 PM

Lukas was in his room with the copied version of the document he had taken from the storage.

Lukas now was looking at the name of the girl he had chosen to be his new bride.

Lukas sighed. 'This is the girl I'll have to persuade into marrying, not only her, but also her whole powerful noble house. A house of dukes' he thought.

Lukas took a few deep breaths. 'Alright, I got this! I have done more difficult things, I'm just more nervous for this one because I've been waiting for it for too long,' he thought.

Finally, he took one last look at the girl's name. 'She's a Prussian noble from a powerful house of dukes, whose main location is Königsberg, its capital. Her name is Nathalie Santen, and if everything goes as planned, she'll have the name "Von Neumann" too in a few years,' he thought.