The Heavy "Love" (Extra Update)

1836, Vienna, Schönbrunn Palace.

Franz celebrated his sixth birthday. According to imperial custom, he was required to leave the nursery.

As Franz departed the nursery, Maximilian stared at him with intense fixation, wishing he could force Franz to vacate his kingdom immediately.

As the second son of the family, Maximilian found himself overshadowed by Franz at every turn.

Everyone who visited the nursery—servants and family alike—would pay their respects to Franz first. It seemed as though everything was prepared for him, while Maximilian was relegated to second place.

When Maximilian first visited the Hall of Mirrors, he was captivated by the bright, spacious hall. Seeing Francis II seated upon the high throne stirred a tempest within his heart.

He felt an instinctive urge to walk toward the throne, yet Francis II stopped him.

"Little Maximilian, do not come any further. This is a seat you cannot occupy."

Maximilian had no intention of obeying the old man, but Francis II spoke again in a sterner tone.

"Archduke Louis, take him away. Let him go play somewhere else."

Archduke Louis blocked Maximilian's path and said, "Grand-uncle Louis will take you to play. Do you want to watch the parade, or would you rather go horseback riding?"

Maximilian did not answer; he only looked back at the throne with resentment. Franz was sleeping right there on it.

Born from the same womb, why was Heaven so unfair?

BGM: Snowflakes drifting, north winds howling. The world is vast and desolate.

Once Franz left the nursery, he gained his own room. The benefit was having his own territory; the drawback was that he could no longer sleep while clinging to Thalia's leg.

Thalia was also forced to leave the small nest she had occupied for five years, moving into the room next to Franz. After all, as his governess, she was obligated to look after him.

Franz felt the greatest benefit of leaving the nursery was escaping the harassment of Sophie.

However, reality proved that Franz was still too young. He had no idea how terrifying a woman could be when she decided to embrace a Spartan lifestyle.

She had already grown desperate over her husband's cowardice and incompetence.

Consequently, Sophie poured all her energy into Franz.

The first thing Sophie did was order the large bed in Franz's room to be removed, replacing it with a cold, hard cot.

"Franz! From this day forward, you must not be weak! You must fight like a man! This family needs you, and this country needs you!"

Sophie clearly wanted to infect Franz with her own fervor, but Franz was not happy about losing his soft bed.

"But what does this have to do with a bed?"

"A warm bed will erode your will and stifle your soul!"

"That is terrifying, Mother. But this cold iron bed will make me sick. Harsh environments make people irritable; they are easily satisfied after success and easily despondent after failure."

Franz explained. Honestly, he didn't believe that those who suffered more were more likely to succeed—though it was true they were more likely to head toward extremes.

"You talk too much. As your mother, you must listen to me." Sophie pinched Franz's face.

Franz covered his face, thinking to himself, If you had just said that earlier, I wouldn't have bothered explaining.

If it had only been a bed, that would have been underestimating Sophie.

Franz's diet also took a turn for the worse. Previously, his meals were prepared by the royal head chef.

Now that Sophie had taken charge of his nutrition, she wanted Franz to experience the hardships of the common folk.

Thus, some inexplicable foods began appearing on Franz's table. Blood sausage and tripe were the least of his worries.

There was even a dish resembling porridge. It looked familiar to Franz, but the taste was truly impossible to swallow.

Moreover, it was less like porridge and more like a paste—a sticky, semi-solid substance.

This was a dish from the rural regions of Austria, made by boiling wheat bran with cabbage and bracken roots in water.

Wheat bran, a byproduct of wheat processing, was now commonly used as animal feed. It had a poor texture and was somewhat scratchy on the throat (I have eaten it before).

After several days of torture, Franz thought it was all over.

He hadn't expected that Sophie would also intend for him to learn about the customs and cultures of countries around the world.

First was Britain: Stargazy Pie.

Looking at that plate of small fish staring back with dead, unblinking eyes, Franz was filled with mixed emotions.

Next was Swedish surströmming. The chef in the kitchen, fearing Franz would get a stomach ache, had thoughtfully heated it up.

Then, an epic disaster descended. The stench permeated everything. The servants had to thoroughly scrub the kitchen and replace all the cookware.

Spanish cheese.

Japanese bonito.

However, the first one to reach their limit wasn't Franz, but Thalia.

As Franz's governess, she also held the duty of taste-testing.

Therefore, Thalia was the first victim of every one of Sophie's dark culinary experiments.

In the past, she had naturally welcomed the grand feasts, but these current dark dishes were truly more than she could handle.

Finally, the day came when Thalia was poisoned by Sophie's dark cuisine; it started with diarrhea, followed by a persistent high fever.

If Franz hadn't prepared Allicin beforehand, Thalia would likely have already gone to meet God.

Yet, the first thing Thalia did after regaining consciousness was to ask Franz what he had fed her.

Just as Franz was about to introduce his new product, Allicin, to her.

Thalia stopped him.

"Don't say it, let me vomit for a while first; I am no longer pure."

Franz was left completely bewildered, though in truth, he had also prepared Penicillin. However, the production volume was too low, and furthermore, Franz lacked the tools for injection.

Unable to bear such horrific food, Thalia expressed to Sophie that she wanted to resign.

She would rather spend the rest of her life in prison than eat these terrible meals ever again.

At this moment, Sophie finally realized that her culinary skills might be lacking and that the food she had chosen might have been a bit excessive.

Sophie did not punish Thalia or send her to prison; instead, she gave her 500 Florin and a week of vacation, telling her to eat something good and relax.

500 Florin was no small sum at the time, equivalent to three years of wages for a worker.

Sophie granted Thalia leave, but Franz had arranged a new task for her.

After all, Franz now considered himself Thalia's savior, so Thalia had no choice but to comply.

With Thalia, his tutor, away, Franz felt that he didn't have to do his homework—how liberating.

However, Sophie had no intention of letting Franz off the hook; she brought in a linguistics professor, a true master who was fluent in over a dozen foreign languages.

Perhaps it was the original owner's exaggerated talent for languages, but Franz quickly mastered the eight most important languages within the Austrian Empire.

Thanks to book friends 20170803232307184, 35271, Gengxin Wangzu, and 丶Chabuduo Xian Shi丶 for their monthly tickets, as well as the support of all the book friends.

The pace of this book has been accelerated by about twenty chapters.