Museum

Austria, January 4th 1789

4:36 PM

Lukas sat on a chair as he looked out of a window, he was in his bedroom, which was right next to Frida's in case something happened.

'I wish I could leave home more frequently. I'm tired being here all day and practically every day.'

Lukas sighed. 'Can't wait to grow up.'

As soon as Lukas thought that, the door of his bedroom opened and a beautiful woman with blonde hair could be seen standing there with a bright smile.

"Hello, honey! How did you get there?!"

Lukas didn't get it at first, but he soon noticed that Frida was referring to the chair. Of course, a normal baby wouldn't be able to get on a chair.

'Good question, mom.'

What Lukas had done was actually pretty simple. Since he had recently learned to stand up without much trouble as long as he had a support, he used it on his favor.

He'd basically done the same thing as when he was trying to leave the crib on the Christmas day, however, instead of flipping forward when he had reached a good height, he decided to use his knees as a support, which was much better than using the elbows. Oh, and he just used one of its pillows as a way to not get hurt as he left the couch.

Lukas had been left on a couch next to that chair, however, since the chair was higher and closer to the window than that couch, he thought it would be better to be there.

Lukas had learned to overcome his physical disadvantage with a lot of strategies, now he could reach pretty much anything he wanted.

"Come here, baby! Let us go for a walk."

'Wow! You read my mind! Way to go!', Lukas thought as he was being lifted by Frida.

"I'm going to ask Olivia to change your clothes, okay, honey?"

'Yeah, right, right, right, do it quickly, please!', Lukas thought as he felt excited. He hadn't left home for a while and he was dying to do it.

Despite taking longer than Lukas wanted, Frida called Olivia, who changed Lukas's clothes for him to look more presentable.

Despite Lukas wearing good garments while he still was inside the mansion, he still needed to wear even better ones when he left it. Even in Christmas, before being introduced to everyone in the party, Frida changed his clothes.

Olivia took Lukas downstairs and waited for Frida at the front door, after a while, Frida appeared with an outfit that made her look even more beautiful than usual.

She was wearing a complete black outfit. Black tights, a black dress and black high heels.

Although the outfit had pretty much just one color, it matched very well with her bright hair and eyes.

"You look exquisite, Mrs. Von Neumann!", Olivia said as she clapped her hands.

Frida's face blushed slightly as she showed a gorgeous smile, "My, my, thank you, Olivia. It's nothing special, really."

Lukas rolled his eyes, 'Stop playing humble, even I can see you look good in that clothing.'

"We are leaving now, Olivia. Please, take care of the house while I'm not here.", Frida asked as she smiled.

Olivia nodded, "Leave it with me, Mrs. Von Neumann."

"Thank you, Olivia", Frida said as she left the mansion. When you leave the mansion, a beautiful garden with wall-shaped bushes drawing its layout can be seen, after you go past it, you find some beautiful white gates restricting the access to the mansion.

'I sure will draw this garden when I grow a bit more, this is just so awesome!', Lukas thought as he beheld the amazing architecture of the garden.

After leaving the garden, Frida went past the gates and entered the carriage. Lukas liked being inside the carriage and being transported by it. It was comfortable and you still moved a lot faster than anyone else.

'You can also say it about being held by someone else all the time, but that's not necessarily comfortable, besides, it hurts my ego. I prefer to move by myself when I can.'

As the carriage moved, Frida smilingly read a book, which made Lukas pout and narrow his eyes.

'You're so lucky you can read.', Lukas thought as he watched his mother reading the book like it was the most interesting thing in the world.

'You're doing it on purpose, aren't ya? Just because I can't read you're pretending that is very interesting! I'm not imagining stuff! I'm not!'

Lukas cursed in his mind as he tried to think about something. He wanted to learn to read as soon as possible.

As Frida read the book, she saw Lukas's pouty face, which made Frida giggle.

"What's wrong, big boy? Are you mad?", Frida teased Lukas.

'No! ...Well, a bit.', Frida giggled once again, like she had heard Lukas's thoughts.

Frida lifted Lukas in a way that he could also see the book, "Come here, you want to see the book too, right?"

'You took up a mind reader skill today, huh? Oh well, I guess pouting is always the answer.', Lukas thought as he showed a slight smile.

"I will read it for you, okay?", Frida said smiling.

'Have I ever said that I love you, mom?', Lukas thought with a sparkling gaze at the pages of the book.

So Frida started reading the book, however, Lukas's satisfied face faded away quickly.

'Hold on... where does it start? I have no idea! Does it start on the left or on the right? Up there or down there? Sh*t! This absolutely sucks!'

Lukas cursed every possible thing in his mind as Frida read her book out loud happily.

'Wait! Just follow her gaze! It'll tell you where she starts reading!', Lukas tried to do it, but it was very difficult, specially because Lukas's sight still needed to improve a lot.

'Dang! This is impossible! I have to think about another way!', Lukas made a short break as he tried to think about something else, 'Oh, well, let's just wait for me to grow up a bit more.', Lukas thought as he couldn't think about anything.

When the carriage finally stopped, it was in front of a beautiful street with a lot of stores and other comercial places.

Frida elegantly left the carriage while holding Lukas, who didn't have such an elegant expression.

'I hate books.'

Frida giggled as she watched Lukas's sulked face, "Come on, Lukas, what's wrong? Don't you like leaving home? Oh, well, I'm afraid I can't bring you out anymore."

As soon as Lukas heard that, he knew that he would have to show enthusiasm during the trip, so he worked hard for it.

Frida dropped by many stores, and Lukas knew right away that it wouldn't be that hard for him to feel excited. There were a lot of interesting things in the stores after all.

Despite a lot of the stores being very interesting to Lukas, one particularly called his attention, that was just the perfect place for him.

Frida walked happily along the streets while holding Lukas, who now had a content expression on his face

Frida watched her son with amusement, "See? It's not that bad, is it?"

'Not at all.', Lukas thought as he watched the people passing by.

"There is one more place I want to visit, I left the one I thought you would like the most for the last."

Lukas heard Frida's sentence with curiosity, 'What can it be?'

Frida finally stopped in front of a huge building, it sure was an imponent place. A lot of windows and a unique architecture.

'Ok, I know what you meant just by seeing it, mother.'

Frida looked at Lukas's dumbfounded expression with a smile, "Come on, let us get in."

When Lukas saw the interior of the space, his face looked even more dumbfounded. It was an art museum. There were lots and lots of paintings.

'I needed to see this... and I didn't even know!'

Frida couldn't help but laugh at her son's expression, "I can see you like it.

As Frida walked through the alleys and Lukas saw all the amazing paintings in the museum, there was a huge exposition occurring in the place, which made Lukas look curiously in that direction.

"Do you want to go there? Very well."

Frida walked closer to the painting, but meaningfully away from the crowd. The person introducing the painting, a man who seemed to be in his mid-forties, was speaking:

"This painting is a masterpiece drawn by the excellent painter, Karl Aigen. It is named 'Fischmarkt'."

Lukas raised his brow as he listened to the man's speech, '"Karl", huh? Curious.', he couldn't help but remember about his uncle.

Once the man's speech ended, a round of applauses echoed through the museum and the crowd slowly decreased in size.

When Frida was about to turn and leave, the man who was previously giving the speech approached.

"Mrs. Von Neumann, right? I have heard a lot about you."

Frida smiled respectfully.

"Good afternoon, what is your name, sir?"

The man smiled.

"My name is Robert, Robert Fischer. I'm one of the administrators of this museum."

Frida nodded in understanding, "I see, congratulations, it's a very beautiful place."

Robert chuckled.

"I am glad Mrs. Von Neumann likes it.", Robert glanced at the baby in Frida's arms, "I heard about your son too, you introduced him in Christmas, right?"

Frida nodded her head.

"Exactly, his name is Lukas and I can say that he already is one of the biggest fans of your museum.", Frida ended with a light chuckle.

Robert laughed at Frida's statement, "Well, we have visitors of all ages here.", he finished with a smile.

'Good to know, because I think I will visit this museum a lot of times as I get older.'

Frida nodded with a bright smile.

"I did not know that Lukas's introduction had already spread all around Salzburg.", Frida questioned.

""All around Salzburg"?! All around the Holy Roman Empire! Despite everything, the Von Neumann house is still a very influential house, so it can't just be kept a secret for a long time."

Lukas raised his brow at Robert's statement, 'Wow! I didn't know the Von Neumann house was so famous, and I still don't hear a thing about the Hügel House. What's wrong with these people?'

"You are right."

"I also heard that your son knows how to draw. If he draws something that you find particularly good, don't hesitate to tell me, I'll gladly put it in display in my museum. And of course, I'll pay a good amount of money for it."

Frida's smiley face turned into doubt in one second.

Lukas noticed his mother's reaction, 'What were you expecting, mom? It's obvious that it'd be known!'

Frida thought about it, 'It couldn't have been Mr. Althann, right?'

Lukas was thinking the same as Frida, 'I'm sure it wasn't that noble, he had a lot of respect toward the Von Neumann house. I bet it was that Thomas!'

Robert noticed Frida's reaction, "What's wrong, Mrs. Von Neumann?"

Frida smiled begrudgingly, "N-Nothing! It's just that... The Von Neumann house doesn't need any money right now."

Robert raised his brow with a knowingly smile, "I wouldn't be so sure, Mrs. Von Neumann. I know that the Von Neumann house is currently struggling financially due to the incident of about two years ago.

And the King also stopped giving the Von Neumann house the allowances due to the same reason."

Frida's fake smile now turned into a frown, "What do you want, Mr. Fischer?", Frida asked straightforwardly.

Robert shook his head, "Nothing, Mrs. Von Neumann! I just want to know in case Lukas starts drawing some things that could give money to this museum, and, of course, I'll gladly pay a lavish amount of money for it."

Lukas listened attentively to this conversation, 'Well, this dude is an asshole, but I can see his strategy is a very smart one. He knows my mother doesn't want me to be known as a prodigy, however, he also knows about the financial struggles that the Von Neumann House is going through, something that even I didn't know, so, this basically is blackmailing.'

Frida showed an angry face, "Let us go, Lukas!", Frida hurriedly left the museum.

'What?! Now that things were getting interesting?!'