Graduation?

Austria, December 30th 1794

2:45 PM

Lukas was sleeping in his bedroom. He usually took a long nap in his room after lunch, it was not something particularly normal for six-year-old children, but he still did it because, on the contrary, he would feel quite tired throughout the day.

Soon, Lukas frowned and slowly woke up. After rolling over a few times on his bed, he sat up and yawned as he stretched.

Lukas then looked at the clock on the wall and sighed. "Yep, it's time for me to wake up," he murmured.

Lukas took a deep breath and stood up. After that, he walked towards the kitchen to grab something to eat.

As he walked through the corridors, Lukas stumbled across Elias. Elias then stood in front of the blonde boy.

Lukas raised his brow. "What is it?" he asked. "I gotta go to the kitchen, I'm starving," the blonde boy said.

Elias started scratching the back of his head. He seemed hesitant to speak.

Lukas sighed. "Well, I have to go," he said.

After that, the blonde boy kept walking towards the kitchen, however, he was interrupted by Elias.

"Herman told me that you are trying to graduate already," the brown-haired man said.

'Herman took a long time to tell you that,' Lukas thought as he rolled his eyes.

"Huh... I hope you'll graduate soon," Elias said as his cheeks blushed slightly.

Lukas sighed. "Thank you," he said. 'I'm sure that I'll graduate today if everything goes as expected,' the blonde boy thought.

After that, the blonde boy headed right to the kitchen.

'Today's snowing. Just hope it snows enough for me to be able to carry out my plan,' Lukas thought.

When Lukas entered the kitchen, he started piling up some food. Suddenly, Klara showed up.

"Oh, young master, you are awake already," Klara said with a smile.

Lukas smiled at Klara. "Hello, Klara," he said.

Klara smiled back at Lukas, however, she soon showed a sad expression, which made Lukas raise his brow. "What's wrong?" the blonde boy asked.

Klara started rubbing her arm as she seemed hesitant to speak. "Huh... well, I saw Mr. Hügel back in the corridor and..."

Lukas raised his brow as he waited for Klara to finish her sentence.

"...Well, I am sorry for getting involved in your familiar problems without being asked, but... I would like you to try to be a bit more gentle when you talk to Mr. Hügel. He's trying to redeem himself, young master, please try to forgive him," Klara said.

Lukas frowned. "First you tell me to be more gentle to him and now you tell me to forgive him?" he asked.

Klara showed a sad expression. "Young master, I know that you are completely right to be mad at him, but you can't me bad at your own father forever. Please, try it," she pleaded.

Lukas sighed. "I don't know," he then left the kitchen to somewhere else with his food.

Klara, who stayed in the kitchen, just sighed.

After leaving the kitchen, Lukas headed to his room and laid on the bed as he put the plate beside him.

The blonde boy started staring at the ceiling. After a while, he sighed. 'Forgive him?' Lukas wondered.

He then rolled over. "Why?" the blonde boy murmured.

-----

Austria, December 30th 1794

3:29 PM

Lukas was sitting on one of the benches of the garden. It was not snowing anymore, but the cold weather prevailed and the snow had piled up about one inch high.

Lukas sighed. 'Great. I have everything on my side. I don't have any excuse not to hit him this time,' he thought.

Lukas then saw Herman arriving at the distance. The blonde boy took a few deep breaths before he jumped out of the bench and walked closer to the place where they usually trained.

After Herman arriving and tying his horse to a tree, he walked closer to Lukas. "Hey, Lukas, sorry I'm late, it's kinda hard to ride a horse with this snow," the bulky man said.

Lukas shrugged his shoulders. "That's fine," he said.

Herman raised his brow. "You brought a coat today, huh? It means it is in fact very cold," he said.

Lukas usually didn't bring any coats to the training session, and when he did, he took it off after a few minutes.

Lukas looked at his coat. "Well, I mean, it's snowing, after all," he said.

Herman nodded his head in consideration. "That's fair," he then checked his watch. "Well, it's time already. Let's begin, shall we?" he asked.

Lukas nodded his head with a confident smile. "Yes, let's go!" he said.

Herman raised his brow. 'This brat always shows this reaction when we are about to start even though I always beat him, does he like having his ass kicked? Or is he just an idiot?' the bulky man wondered.

Lukas raised his brow. "What's wrong, Herman?" he asked.

Herman cleared his throat. "Nothing. Well, let's start then," he said.

-----

Austria, December 30th 1794

5:05 PM

Lukas was training bow and arrow in front of a few trees. Three of them had targets hanging on their branches at different heights.

Lukas was already pulling the bowstring and aiming at one of the targets. He was wearing a quiver that had 4 more arrows in it.

Meanwhile, Herman was sitting on a rock behind Lukas.

Herman checked his watch. "Okay, Lukas, you may start," he said.

Lukas promptly let go of the bowstring and managed to shoot the middle of the first target.

The blonde boy quickly picked another arrow from the quiver and shot the middle of the second target.

Finally, Lukas picked his third arrow from the quiver and aimed at his last target. He quickly let go of the bowstring and shot the target, however, it didn't hit its middle.

Lukas snorted and picked one fourth arrow and then he managed to hit the middle of the target.

"I'm finished," Lukas said as he turned to Herman.

Herman narrowed his eyes as he looked both at his watch and the targets. "4 arrows for 3 perfect targets and 1 normal target, all of them shot in about 9 seconds... impressive, brat," he finished with a smile.

Lukas looked away from Herman as he gritted his teeth. "It was not, I should have needed only 3 arrows for 3 perfect targets," the blonde boy complained.

Herman sighed as he shook his head helplessly.

After a while, he finally stood up. "Well, it's time for our daily duel where you always rage, brat," Herman said with a smirk.

Lukas showed an innocent face. "What? I haven't done that for a long time!" he complained.

Herman laughed. "Yes, you are right, you have been behaving," he said as he patted his head.

After Herman patted his head, Lukas puffed his cheeks as if sulking as he blushed slightly.

"Well, I'm going to get the swords. Wait here, okay?" Herman said with a smile.

Lukas nodded his head. "Okay," he replied, also smiling.

Herman then went to get the swords, leaving Lukas alone.

Lukas took a deep breath. 'Okay, I have gone through this plan countless times! There's no mistake! Unless he has inhuman senses or speed, Herman won't be able to dodge it,' the blonde boy concluded.

After a while, Herman arrived with the two wooden swords. "Here you go, brat," the bulky man said as he tossed the sword to Lukas.

Lukas promptly picked the sword and then looked fiercely at Herman. His eyes were full to the brim with resolve, and Herman noticed it.

Herman showed a smirk. "I like your eyes, brat," he said, before chuckling.

Herman then got in position. "Well, let's begin, then," he said, with equally fierce eyes.

Herman slowly started counting down, after he reached three, both Lukas and Herman charged at each other at high-speed.

Both their swords shocked with a loud rumble. After that, they started exchanging blows at an extremely high speed.

Herman decided to take advantage of his own speed and tried to take Lukas's sword with the guard of his weapon, however, Lukas avoided that attempt by spinning his whole body.

After that, Lukas swung his sword at Herman, the bulky man promptly placed his sword in front Lukas's in order to block his blow.

'Walked right in,' Lukas thought.

The blonde boy spun his whole body once again to the opposite direction and tried to land the blow on Herman, however, he abruptly knocked Lukas's sword off his hands.

Lukas desperately ran towards his sword in order to take it. Herman laughed. "Nice one, Lukas, I had to use my full speed in order to block it," the bulky man complimented.

Then, he showed a smirk. "However, if you wanna hit me, you will have to do much more than that," Herman taunted.

Lukas just ignored Herman's attempts of pissing him off and charged at the bulky man with full speed.

Herman raised his brow. 'What? He's coming frontally? Two times in a row?' he wondered.

Still, Herman got in position to block Lukas's blow, however, as the blonde boy was about to hit the bulky man's sword, he slid right through between Herman's legs and tried to land a blow on his back.

Herman, however, quickly spun around and blocked Lukas's blow.

"Wow, we are creative today, huh?" he said. "I was missing this, Lukas! Go ahead and show me more!" the bulky man encouraged.

Lukas then let go of Herman's sword and darted into the forest, which made the bulky man raise his brow. "What?!" he asked out loud.

Soon enough, snowballs started coming from the forest towards Herman, however the bulky man easily blocked all of them.

Herman raised his brow. "What? Is he trying to attract me?" he wondered.

The bulky man then showed a smirk. "Fine! I'll do what he wants!" he said and then darted into the forest.

Soon, the snowballs stopped being thrown and Herman looked around in order to find Lukas.

As Herman looked, he caught a quick glimpse of Lukas's coat, making the bulky man chuckle.

'You should have chosen a less flashy color!' Herman thought.

He then darted to where he saw Lukas and he just found his coat hanging on a tree branch. Herman, who was showing a smirk before, was now showing a confused expression.

'Huh? So what made the coat move was the wind? Not the boy running with it? No, it was Lukas who made the coat flutter on purpose! This was the actual decoy!' Herman concluded.

As Herman was lost in his thoughts, Lukas quickly showed up above him. He had jumped out of another branch in order to attack him.

Herman showed a smirk. "Found ya," he said.

Lukas then tried to deliver a punch to Herman, however, the bulky man promptly blocked it with his hand.

Then, Lukas tried to deliver a kick to Herman, however, the bulky man dropped his sword and easily defended his kick.

He then threw Lukas onto the ground. "Weird, your blows usually are faster. Did you get rusty?"

Herman asked with a smirk as he tilted his head.

Lukas looked at Herman with an angry face, however, he soon showed a smirk. "Got ya," he said in a low, but threatening tone.

Before Herman could even process Lukas's words, he felt a heavy weight falling on the back of his neck.

Herman felt a sharp pain on the back of his neck and struggled to breathe for a few moments.

Finally, he recovered and turned around to check what it was. When he turned around, he saw Lukas's wooden sword on the ground. 'W-What? Is that his sword?' he wondered.

Before he could even come to a conclusion, Herman heard Lukas celebrating. "Haha! Got ya, you gorilla! Who's the loser now?!" the blonde boy yelled as he laughed out loud in celebration.

After staring at Lukas for a while, Herman just showed a smile. 'I don't remember calling him a loser,' he thought.

He then glanced once again at the wooden sword on the ground. 'He threw the wooden sword upwards before he jumped out of the branch in order to hit me. There's no mistake, he did land a blow on me with his sword. It would've killed me if it was a real blade. He planned all of this from the beginning,' the bulky man concluded.

Herman then looked at Lukas. "Congratulations, brat. You have graduated," he said with a smile.