The Key

Austria, January 2nd 1792

5:30 PM

Lukas was sitting on a bench in the garden of the mansion. He was panting and sweat was dripping down his face.

Soon, Herman showed with a small gallon of water and handed it to Lukas. "Great job today, Lukas," the bulky man said.

Lukas took the gallon. "Thank you," he started drinking.

Herman noticed that Lukas had started putting more effort into his training. Lukas did work hard before, but now, anyone could see that Lukas's motivations were something bigger than just pride.

Lukas stopped drinking and took a deep breath.

Herman sat beside the blonde boy and stretched himself, after that, he turned his head to him

"So..." he started. "...what are your plans to make the world a better place?" Herman asked.

Since Lukas did have a lot of confidence in Herman, the blonde boy ended up by telling him his goal. Even though Herman was a bit disappointed with that, he ended up accepting it.

"It's not just making the world a better place." Lukas said. "I wanna make it perfect. Nobody else will be suffering here," the blonde boy finished, with resolve in his eyes.

Herman sighed. 'That's the problem,' he thought. "How do you plan to do that?" he asked.

Lukas stood up from the bench and stretched himself. After that, he turned to Herman with a smile. "I'll start by making my household a more pleasant place. After all, it's a beginning," the blonde boy said.

For some reason, Herman noticed some mischievousness. The bulky man frowned "What are you going to do?"

Inside the mansion, Olivia and Klara were watching Lukas and Herman through the window.

Klara was watching them with a smile. "It's so good that young master is managing to deal well with his mother's death isn't it, Olivia?" she asked.

Olivia sighed. "I don't think so, Klara. To be honest, I think this is the worst way he could possibly deal with Mrs. Von Neumann's death," she said.

Klara raised her brow. "What do you mean, Olivia?" she asked.

Olivia sighed once again. "If you look at young master, you can see that he's a bit sad, but he's managing to deal with his mother's death, just like you said," Olivia said. "However, I know young master ever since he was born, and so, I know that, deep inside, he's completely lost. He's just a child."

Klara showed an apprehensive expression. "Do you think so, Olivia?" she asked.

Olivia nodded her head. "Yes, I am sure! I am truly glad he does not spend his whole day closed up in his room, but... I really would like him to open himself a bit more to us," she said.

"Do you not think those conversations he has with his instructor are enough, Olivia?" Klara asked.

Olivia raised her brow. "Do you think young master opens himself to his instructor?" she asked.

Klara smiled and nodded her head. "I do. He always looks so much lighter when he comes from his training session! I can't believe everything they do there is hitting each other," she said.

Olivia sighed. "Perhaps you are right. Mens sana in corpore sano," she said.

Klara raised her brow. "Excuse me?"

Olivia chuckled. "It means "healthy mind in a healthy body", it was Mrs. Von Neumann who taught me that. And if this instructor really does what you think, I believe he is really devote to that sentence."

Meanwhile, Lukas and Herman were finished talking while they were sitting on the bench.

"So... you really intend to do it?" Herman asked.

"Yes," Lukas answered as he nodded his head.

"... Don't you think that might be a bit dangerous?" he asked.

"Yes, probably," the blonde boy answered.

"And you're still going for it, right?"

"Of course," Lukas answered with a smug smile.

Herman sighed. "Just be careful! That might be nothing, but on the other hand it might be something truly dangerous!" he said.

"I know, I know! Don't worry!" Lukas said.

Herman just sighed.

-----

Austria, January 3rd 1792

01:32 AM

Lukas was laying on his bed with a candle on his night stand and holding a clock in front of it. Soon, he heard the screams that usually happened in the middle of the night.

"1:32 AM. Alright, let's go!" Lukas quickly stood up with the candle in his hand. He took a deep breath and went ahead. 'This is kinda frightening, you know,' Lukas thought.

Since the whole house was dark and there were screams sounding in the background, Lukas was slowly starting to feel some horror.

Lukas, once again, took a deep breath and slowly left his room. As he walked through the corridors of the mansion and the wooden floor creaked at each step he took, Lukas looked behind his back at each step he took too.

Lukas was following the sound of the screams until he finally stood in front of the place that they came from. "Uncle Karl's room," he murmured.

Now that Lukas was hearing the screams from a very close distance, he could tell that they were very disturbing.

'It's weird, even though I'm sure the screams are coming from here. It doesn't sound like they are coming from the room, but from something that is connected to it. Like a secret passage,' Lukas thought.

Lukas took a deep breath and grabbed the door handle, however, as he tried to open the door, it was locked. 'It was obvious. However, I already know where the screams are coming from. I just need the keys now.'

Then, Lukas walked away and went back to his room.

-----

Austria, January 3rd 1792

11:01 AM

Lukas was in the mansion, looking for Olivia. 'I really need Olivia in order to find the keys. I know she always has a spare key for each room inside this mansion,' he thought.

'It's not gonna be hard to find the real key, because Uncle Karl's room is, for some reason, the only that is located in the first floor, so I just have to find the spare keychain of the first floor, which has much fewer keys than the one of the second floor.'

Lukas kept walking until he found Olivia. "Yes, Lukas? Do you need something?" she asked.

"The spare keychain of the first floor of the mansion," Lukas said straightforwardly.

Olivia raised her brow. "Why do you need it?" she asked.

"I feel like painting it. It looks nice, you know,"

Lukas said. And he was not lying, he really liked what keys looked like, they have a lot of details.

"Why didn't you ask me for the keychain of the second floor? It has many more keys than the one of the first floor," Olivia said. She knew that Lukas liked drawing hard things.

"Yes, but I know that you'll never give me the chance to touch that keychain because of the storage," Lukas said.

Olivia sighed. "Good point. I'll bring you the keys," she said.

"Thank you," Lukas said with a smile.

When Olivia walked away, Lukas celebrated silently. 'Okay! Now I only need find out which is the true key! And I have just the plan!' he thought.

Soon, Olivia brought Lukas the keychain. "Here you go, please, give it back as soon as possible," she said.

Lukas nodded his head with a smile. "Yes, I will!"

After that, Lukas darted to his bedroom. He had to paint it if he really wanted to make his excuse look convincing.

'Okay, I will not paint now, I'll just pretend. There are only 7 keys here. Well, there's the kitchen, Two living rooms, one dining room and three bedrooms. Okay, since Uncle Karl is in his room almost all the time, I'll have to test the keys in every room of the first floor, excluding Uncle Karl's bedroom. The key that doesn't work in any keyhole will be the key that opens Uncle Karl's room,' Lukas thought.

So Lukas decided to do it as soon as possible, he pretended he was just playing around with the keychain and tested the keys when nobody was looking. It would be pretty hard to memorize which key was meant for which room, so he decided to draw each key as detailed as possible and write the respective room beside it.

After a while, Lukas managed to find out which key opened Karl's room.

'To be honest, I thought it would take longer. It was kinda easy,' Lukas thought.

So, Lukas took the key that opened Karl's room from the keychain and replaced it with the key of his bedroom so nobody would see that there was one key missing.

'I still can't stop freaking out over the possibility of someone noticing that this is not the correct key, but that's so unlikely that I'll just ignore it,' Lukas thought.

Finally, Lukas just put the key that opened Karl's room in the same place he usually placed the key of his room and just went to paint the keychain.

Since Lukas was used to painting a lot in his daily routine, it didn't take him very long.

After that, he just went to give the keychain back to Olivia.

"Here you go, Olivia," Lukas said as he handed the keychain to Olivia with a casual face. "Thank you," he said, this time showing her a slight smile.

Olivia was looking attentively at the keychain, like something seemed to be fishy. 'Strange. Nothing seems out of place here,' she thought.

"Can I see your painting, Lukas?" Olivia asked.

Lukas nodded her head. "Okay. It's drying in my room. Follow me."

Lukas casually headed to his room and showed Olivia the painting of the keychain. "Looks good, doesn't it?" he said with a smug smile.

"Huh... yes," Olivia said, she seemed confused. Then, she looked at the key Lukas was keeping in his room and looked back at the keychain she was holding. 'Nothing seems off,' she thought.

Then, Olivia showed a smile and patted Lukas's head. "Good job, Lukas," then, she walked out of Lukas's room.

Lukas took a deep breath. 'Okay, phase 1 is over. I can't leave my key there. Although it is very difficult for any servant to get in Uncle Karl's room because he simply doesn't let them in, I still need the key of my room!' he thought.

He took the key and looked attentively at it. 'I need to make a copy of this. I can imagine how to make it, I just need something where I can press the key, so it'll simulate its shape. I read books about it yesterday and I know where I can find it,' Lukas thought.

-----

Austria, January 3rd 1792

3:23 PM

Lukas was walking through the forest. 'I need to hurry. Herman's almost here,' he thought.

Finally, Lukas arrived to a river. "Here it is," he murmured with a satisfied smile.

Lukas took both his boots and his socks off and pulled up his pants until it reached his knees. Finally, he slowly walked into the river.

Since it was winter, Lukas felt a shiver going down his spine. 'Oh gosh, it's so damn cold!' he thought.

Lukas took a deep breath and kept going. 'For some reason, I feel like I'm struggling to breath,' he thought.

Lukas walked further into the river and crouched down. 'Okay. Clay, clay, clay...' he thought as he looked for it. 'According to the book, it has soft, pliable consistency when it's wet, so it'll be easy to identify it... at least I guess.'

Lukas kept looking for it in the river bank until he finally felt the consistency he had read about. 'It feels... soft and pliable! Okay, I guess this is it!' he thought.

Lukas struggled a bit to grab the clay, but as soon as he managed to do it, he immediately placed it on a smooth stone nearby.

'Okay, let me flatten this stuff,' Lukas thought as he slowly smashed the clay. 'I am so glad I trained hand dexterity back then. This is harder than it looks,' he thought.

Lukas then took a deep breath. 'Okay, now let me take the key,' he put his hand in his pocket and took out the key. Then, he pressed it into the clay until it simulated the shape of the key.

'Okay, now I'll just leave the clay drying here and I will come back once the training is over,' Lukas thought.

Before going away, Lukas washed the key in the river and put his shoes back on. So, he darted towards the mansion. 'I bet I'm late!' he thought.