Chapter 370 Christmas Eve [Additional update of 1,000 words]
Vienna, Schönbrunn Palace.
This is the twelfth Christmas that Franz has spent with his "family". The old father doesn't like Franz's wine because it has no "taste", but he still insists on drinking it.
Mrs. Sophie has become obsessed with cosmetics. Even at Christmas, she is studying the art of cosmetics. However, she will not experiment on herself. Those beautiful ladies in the past are her canvas.
Before those young and beautiful girls entered the palace, they had more or less heard some rumors about Madame Sophie. Legend has it that she liked to sink people to the bottom of the Danube River, or skin them and convulse them, or eat their hearts alive.
However, in the eyes of these maids, Mrs. Sophie is a beauty. Not only is she beautiful, but she also helps them dress up and is also very kind-hearted.
(A maid is a low-level servant in the palace. In fact, most of the maids in the palace are from noble families.)
But there will always be some seniors in the palace who remind them from time to time to pay attention to etiquette in front of Mrs. Sophie, otherwise it will not be solved by saying sorry.
It's just that these new maids don't care. Most of them believe that they are young and beautiful, and many of them are even pursuing the ideas of a few young princes.
After all, there are countless messy things like finding a lover or one-night stand in Europe.
Moreover, the eldest Archduke Franz is already twelve years old, and Archduke Maximilian is already ten years old, and they are almost old enough to choose a health nurse.
Although they now have female attendants around them, one of them is of unknown origin, and the other is too old, and the special status of health care worker is not usually retained in the palace.
Of course, if you can stay in the palace, you will have a high status, maybe even like Madame Pompadour in France.
(Madame Pompadour was the most trusted lover, playmate and adviser of Louis XV, the navigator of Rococo art, the patron of Enlightenment literature, the driving force behind the French Oriental craze, and the discoverer of everyday beauty... However, in the eyes of many people, she was just a whore lady and the main culprit in the decline of France.
She is a woman who is truly famous and slandered all over the world. )
It’s unlikely, but who hasn’t dreamed of it?
Back to the main story, Maximilian did not like Franz, the eldest brother. After all, without the latter, the former would be the heir to the empire, at least he thought so.
As for Franz's third brother Ludwig, I have to say that he was a very hard-working person, even on Christmas Eve he was studying. So Franz simply gave him a box of exercise books as a Christmas gift.
Workbooks were the first creation of Franz. The first workbooks in history were invented in 1905 by an Italian tutor who couldn't bear it.
But at this time, Franz brought this kind of thing to the world more than sixty years in advance in order to let the children of this era feel the suffering he had experienced.
However, what Franz could not have imagined was that experts and professors from all walks of life were full of praise for this approach and followed suit one after another. It only makes students throughout Austria miserable.
Ludwig was quite happy to receive a large box of exercise books. He felt that this was a kind of encouragement and expectation from his elder brother.
"Thank you, this is really the best gift. I will definitely try my best to live up to my big brother's expectations of me."
Franz just patted his third brother on the shoulder. He did have some expectations for Ludwig, but he didn't expect him to be very good. He just wanted to avoid any awkwardness when deciding which princess to marry or inheriting the throne of a certain king in the future. Just fine.
Yes, Franz's younger brothers and sisters are actually political assets, especially for Austria, an ancient bloodline empire.
Of course, this also includes Franz's sister Maria and Victor in his arms. While they enjoy the rights of being born into an imperial family, they also need to fulfill some due obligations.
Victor Joseph Anton was born in 1842 and was Franz's youngest brother. Historically, because Mrs. Sophie's only daughter died in infancy, she doted on Victor excessively.
However, the love imposed by an overly strong mother was not so easy to accept, which caused Victor to become emotionally disturbed and dislike women, but instead began to like men.
Due to too many scandals in history, Franz had to drive his brother out of Vienna to prevent him from continuing to ruin the family's reputation.
However, at this time, Mrs. Sophie had both children, and the building had been crooked since Franz, which made the subsequent children very difficult to discipline.
At the same time, Franz has been looking for things for Madame Sophie to prevent her from interfering too much in politics.
So Mrs. Sophie simply let it go and ignored her children. Of course, this was also the trend of the upper class society at this time.
Franz's sister took on the responsibility of taking care of Victor. Of course, most of the time she just made trouble for the nuns.
Franz naturally also prepared a gift for his sister, but this time it was not a devilish gift like an exercise book.
But when Franz walked over, little Maria pouted and hugged little Victor to her chest.
"Let me tell you in advance, I don't need exercise books or anything like that. My mother has agreed that I don't need to go to school. I just need to be literate and understand etiquette."
Franz shook his head.
"This is not good. How can you do it without learning or skills? You won't even know if you are deceived in the future. We can't always protect you like this. You will have to rely on yourself one day. You don't have to go to school, but You will always have to hire a tutor. At worst, we will hire a dozen tutors for you and let them take turns educating you."
"Don't listen! Don't listen!"
Little Maria made a face. She didn't like to be preached to by others, including Franz.
But Franz would not let her do whatever she wanted, after all, she might be the one who got hurt in the end. Franz raised his hand, and little Maria was so frightened that she immediately shrank behind the Christmas tree.
But Franz didn't plan to teach her a lesson on Christmas Eve, but instead said it differently.
"Actually, school is not a scary place. My sister is so smart and beautiful. She must be like a little star on campus and make people jealous."
Franz reached out and rubbed Maria's golden hair. It was very soft, but the color made him feel awkward.
"Of course, Nana says I'm smart! So does Monica, Gallia"
Maria held her head up proudly, then lowered her head and counted the names of her friends.
"There are not only teachers in the school, but also many children about your age. When the time comes, you will have many, many friends to play hide-and-seek with you, play swings with you, and pile sand with you."
"Really?!" Maria couldn't wait to interrupt Franz. She lacked everything, but she didn't have many playmates of the same age. Even if she did, it would take a long time to see one. After all, everyone was Princesses, in different countries.
"Really, when did brother lie to you?" Franz looked like a gray wolf who had caught a sheep, but Maria didn't notice it.
"Then I'll go tomorrow!" Maria shouted excitedly.
"It's Christmas holiday, and Maria, everyone expects you to be smart and beautiful." Franz said seductively.
"Maria is the smartest and the most beautiful!" Maria looked unconvinced.
At this time Franz took out an exquisite box.
"A Christmas present for you."
Little Maria approached the box cautiously. After all, Franz often said that a soldier never tires of deceit, and then attacked her in various ways. He was very cunning. Who knew if it was another trap this time.
Even when opening the box, little Maria called a maid to help open it. After all, she was afraid that there would be a spring monster inside, or something like snakes and bugs.
However, there was nothing strange in the box, but an exquisite little crown.
Franz knew his sister very well, and she liked those bright gems just like ordinary girls.
He simply used diamonds dug out of Namibia, real rubies and sapphires, gold from California and silver from Tyrol to create a rather exquisite little crown for his sister.
The crown was made of high-quality silver, gold, 25 pigeon blood stones, and 360 diamonds. What Franz didn't know was that the crown he made was quite luxurious among the entire European royal family.
Later, this also attracted a lot of jealous or envious looks for my sister, as well as some unnecessary trouble.
But at this time, little Maria was still very happy when she saw this little crown, and she hurriedly put it on her head.
"Thank you brother!"
"Do you look more beautiful wearing this little crown?" Franz asked.
Maria looked in the mirror and nodded with great satisfaction.
"Isn't this more enviable?" Franz asked again.
"Yes!" Maria answered affirmatively.
"Then if you ask an excellent tutor to teach you, will you be smarter in the future?" Franz continued to ask.
"Yes!" Maria answered affirmatively.
"If you were smarter and more beautiful, wouldn't everyone like you more?" Franz smiled brightly.
"Yes!" Maria said innocently.
"Then, brother, can you hire a tutor who can satisfy you?" Franz asked.
"Yeah" Maria nodded.
"No regrets!"
"Never regret it!"
The two siblings high-fived each other, and then Maria took Victor and ran all the way to her mother to show off her baby.
"Brother! Wherever Maria goes, I will go too!" Ludwig interrupted.
"Go to hell!" Franz slapped the other person on the head.
"What?" Ludwig was a little confused. His intelligence was that of his recent father, and he was the one in the family who really needed protection.
"Maria went to an all-girls school."
"Oh" Ludwig looked understanding, and then said, "Wouldn't it be better if I went to a boys' school?"
"The girls' school is run by our family, there is no boys' school. Do you see me going to school?"
"No.."
"Stay at home and ask your attendants to go to the university to learn what you want to learn."
"Oh" Ludwig looked disappointed, but what he didn't know was that not just anyone could invite those top-notch professors to their homes to teach.