The War

Austria, May 26th 1792

1:12 PM

Lukas was having lunch in one of the dining rooms of the mansion. Since Elias almost never left his room, Lukas always ate alone at the table.

The only company that he had during his lunch were the servants who stayed around him. And even though they were always silent,it felt good for Lukas to have some company.

After what Lukas had read in Karl's diary, he decided to do some research by himself. First, he decided to go through all the history books in the library of the mansion, and even after 3 days reading, the blonde boy didn't find anything about the war that the Hügel house went through.

'Perhaps there are some rumors about that war, however, if I wanted to hear them, I would have to go to the region where the Hügel house is located, which is not a possibility because I'm sure my Father wouldn't be willing to take me there.

Besides, I would not be able to go there neither by myself nor with Herman, since my Father wouldn't let him take me,' Lukas thought.

Lukas sighed and put down his silverware. "Thank you for the food. It was very good," he said with a smile.

After Lukas went through all the history books in the library, he wanted to get to know more about that Finn that Karl talked about. Unfortunately, that was a very common name, which made things much more difficult for him.

As Lukas jumped out of his chair and dragged it back to its place, he let out another sigh. 'It's useless, I have, once again, come to a de-'

Before Lukas could finish his thoughts, he let out a huge shout, which scared all the servants around him. "Y-Young master, are you okay?" a servant asked.

Lukas turned to the servant and nodded his head with a smile. "Y-Yes, I am! Sorry about this," he said.

After that, Lukas darted upstairs and entered his room. 'How can I be such an idiot?!' Lukas thought. 'Both Uncle Karl and Father hated the Von Neumann house. Now, there is this dude who Uncle Karl hated! The war was probably against the Von Neumann house!' the blonde boy concluded.

After that, he went to his secret spot in the wall and took a family tree of the Von Neumann house. 'This is a copy I made back then when I was studying about the problems of inbreeding. I thought it might come in handy,' Lukas thought.

Lukas sighed and opened the scroll on the floor of his room. 'Okay, I'm pretty sure there's someone called Finn in this family tree,' the blonde boy thought.

After looking for a bit, Lukas finally found the man he was looking for. 'Okay, it's this dude! Very well, he has a 5-year-old son named Felix and he's one of... many of those relatives I have who are both my cousins and uncles at the same time,' the blonde boy concluded.

'Actually, the family tree of the Von Neumann house is quite complicated, who had the brilliant idea of inbreeding in the first place?' he wondered.

Lukas sighed. 'Anyway, I guess I have confirmed this idea,' he thought.

Soon, Lukas heard a high-pitched scream coming from downstairs.

Lukas just sighed. 'What is it? A bird aga- oh, no! They must have found Uncle Karl's corpse! I'd better go down there,' the blonde boy concluded.

Lukas calmly went downstairs, when he got there, he saw a maidservant sitting on the floor in front of Karl's room with a shocked face and a lot of other servants around her. "What's wrong? Another bird entered the mansion through the window?" he asked.

The maidservant looked at Lukas with a shocked face. "P-Please, young master. G-Go back upstairs," she said.

Soon, a servant left Karl's room with a sad face. "We'll have to call Mr. Hügel," he said.

When the servant saw Lukas there, he immediately showed an anxious expression. "Y-Young master! I thought you were already taking a nap!" he said.

"What's going on?" Lukas asked.

The servant sighed. 'It'll be useless to try to change the subject. Young master will not rest until he finds out the truth,' he concluded.

"Huh... I'm sorry to tell you this, I know you lost your mother not very long ago, but... we found your uncle's corpse down there," the servant explained.

Lukas sighed. "Well, it's not like I would suffer as much with my uncle's death as I did with my mother's," he said. "And this is not being cold, it's just that I didn't spend as much time with him as I did with my mother," the blonde boy explained.

The servants around him were totally

dumbfounded. They didn't expect this kind of reaction from Lukas.

"It's still going to be hard for my father, though," Lukas said. "Do you want me to tell him myself?" he asked.

"N-No, young master. I'll tell him!" the servant answered.

Lukas nodded his head. "Very well," he said. "By the way, how did he die?" he asked.

"Huh... he was murdered," the servant replied.

Lukas hummed for a bit. "I wonder if this happened because of the war?" he said. "Uncle Karl was a noble, after all," the blonde boy explained.

All the servants looked at each other and nodded their heads in accordance, however, they somehow seemed to be acting awkwardly.

'Yep, they still think it was the person Uncle Karl was torturing who killed him. Well, good enough for me,' Lukas thought.

After a while, Elias came downstairs and stood in front of everyone. He didn't look sad, he was just showing a cold expression. "Why is Lukas here?" he asked.

"Well, I-"

"I'm not talking to you!" he said and then looked at all the servants. "Why are you allowing a child this age to see this? Wasn't his mother's death

enough?!" Elias asked.

All the servants just looked down in embarrassment.

'He's got a point, though,' Lukas thought.

Elias then turned to Lukas. "Go upstairs," he ordered.

"But I-" Elias interrupted Lukas.

"Go!" Elias said.

"...Father, I'm also related to him," Lukas insisted.

Elias sighed. "You'll have the time to bid him farewell. Now go upstairs because you're not supposed to see this," he answered.

'I'd better not insist anymore,' Lukas thought. "Okay," he said as he nodded his head.

Lukas then went upstairs towards his room.

Meanwhile, Elias stayed there.

He was looking at all the servants who were there. "Where's his corpse?" he asked.

"Down there," a servant answered. "One of his victims apparently broke free of his chains and the both of them ended up killing each other," he explained.

Elias nodded his head in understanding. 'It doesn't seem very likely, I would say. I'll take my own conclusions,' he thought.

"None of you moved the corpses yet, right?" Elias asked.

"No," another servant answered.

"Very well," Elias answered as he nodded his head.

After that, he went down to the torture room to see one of the tortured people laying beside Karl and the both of them dead.

Elias at first showed a grossed out expression, but then he took a deep breath and went to examine the corpses.

Elias crouched down beside the corpses. 'Karl had his throat completely cut. The person really wanted to kill him,' he thought. 'However, this other man doesn't have any lethal wound. He apparently died from lack of assistance. You don't need to be a genius to notice that this guy truly went through torture,' the brown-haired man concluded.

Elias stood up and sighed.

'I guess I am going to talk to Lukas now. I bet he will not rest until I give him an explanation,' he thought.

So Elias went back to the first floor of the mansion and met the servants once again. "You may go and take care of the corpses now," he said.

One of the servants nodded his head and Elias went upstairs.

Meanwhile, Lukas was peeking from the second floor of the mansion. 'Shit! He's coming! I'd better go!' he thought.

Then, he quickly went to his room and closed the door behind him.

Soon, the blonde boy heard a knock on his door. "Come in!" Lukas said.

Elias immediately opened the door and closed it behind him. "I told you to wait up here, not to spy on us from up here," he said.

'Oh, damn,' Lukas thought. "Huh... what are you talking about?" he asked.

Elias sighed. "Whatever," he said. Then, the brown-haired man went to sit on Lukas's bed.

"I guess I owe you an explanation," Elias started.

Lukas raised his brow. 'You don't. I already know everything, and I still don't like you, you know,' he thought.

Elias sighed and told everything to Lukas, about the tortures that Karl practiced on the slaves and also that that might have been the reason for his death.

"Why didn't you stop him, Father? He is your brother," he asked.

"To be honest with you... I didn't have the interest to do it. That man... hasn't been my brother for a few years," Elias explained with a sad expression.

'That was not my point, though,' he thought. "But... nobody in this mansion tried to do anything regarding that problem," Lukas said.

Elias sighed. "Someday I will tell you about the whole story, but not yet," he said as he stood up.

After that, he patted Lukas's head and left his room.

Lukas stared at the door for a while with a confused expression. 'What was this?' he wondered.

-----

Austria, May 26th 1792

5:33 PM

Lukas was sitting on the bench of his garden as Herman organized his training material. "You could help me to do this someday," the bulky man said.

"I am always very tired after the training, Herman!" Lukas answered.

"Well, I don't leave the training completely fresh either," Herman replied. "But I guess you are partially right there," he said.

Lukas raised his brow. 'Partially?' he wondered.

The blonde boy sighed. "Anyway, Uncle Karl's corpse was found," he said.

Herman widened his eyes. "How can you say something like that so naturally?" he asked.

Herman ran and sat beside Lukas. "How did they find it?" he asked.

Lukas shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. Someone must have opened the door of his room to clean it, and they checked the torture room because they didn't see Karl in his room," he said.

Herman nodded his head. "It's a possibility," he said. "How did your father react?" the bulky man asked.

Lukas shrugged his shoulders. "It was weird," he answered.

Herman waited for Lukas to continue speaking, but he didn't say anything else. "That's a bit broad, you know," the bulky man said.

Lukas sighed. "I don't know. He acted in a completely cold way," he said. "Besides, he said something that intrigued me: "He hasn't been my brother for a few years." Uncle Karl did change," the blonde boy explained.

After a short break, Lukas looked at Herman. "Herman, did you know Karl before he turned out like this?" he asked.

Herman shrugged his shoulders. "More or less. I have lived in Vienna for a long time. Me and Elias only got back to talking about two years ago. Still, I know him ever since we were nine," the bulky man explained.

Lukas sighed as he nodded his head. "I see," he said. "What do you know?" the blonde boy asked.

Herman hummed for a bit. "Well, Karl is two years younger than Elias," he started. "He hated training with the sword. I even remember that both me and Elias were one of the best members of the

academy where we trained and when Karl joined there was a big expectative over him, but he didn't perform as expected," the bulky man explained.

Lukas nodded his head. "Who's stronger? You or my father?" he asked.

Herman laughed out loud. "Are you kidding me?! When I was twelve years old I went to the best academy of the country in Vienna! Elias never set his foot there! Besides, he rarely won a fight against me," he said with a smug smile.

"Still, I'm impressed to know that Father was good at fighting," Lukas said.

Herman nodded his head. "He still is. He might be a bit rusty because he hasn't trained for a while, but he told me that he did participate in the war of the Hügel house," he said.

"Oh, I almost forgot!" Lukas said. "I figured out that the war of the Hügel house was against the Von Neumann house," he said.

Herman didn't look very surprised. "...Oh..." he said.

Lukas frowned. "What? You already knew it?" he asked. "You told me that Father didn't tell you anything about it!" the blonde boy complained.

Herman sighed. "Lukas, you have to understand that Elias and I have been good friends for a very long time! I can't betray his confidence like this!" he answered. "This is not an easy subject for him," the bulky man explained.

Lukas grunted in frustration and crossed his arms as if sulking.

"...Besides, I thought it was very obvious that the war was between the Hügel house and the Von Neumann house," Herman said.

Lukas sighed. "Don't even touch that subject! I felt like an idiot when I realized," he then looked at Herman. "...So, will you tell me more about it?" he asked.

"Nope."

"Herman!" Lukas said in frustration.

"Don't worry! Elias told me that he was going to tell you everything about it once you are old enough," he said.

"Oh yeah?! But the point is that I hate waiting!" Lukas answered.

"Tell that to Elias to see what his answer will be," Herman said.

"...I don't even wanna test it," Lukas replied.