Devouring World Dragon

Chapter 186 Art Students in Vienna

His eyes burned with rage, and he suddenly lost his temper.

"Incurable—what do they mean by that?"

Panting heavily, he almost roared at Kubisik.

“It’s not that the disease is incurable, but that the doctors simply don’t have the ability to cure it. My mother isn’t old yet. Forty-seven isn’t a hopeless age. But once these doctors are powerless, they claim it’s incurable.”

His face was pale, and he trembled with excitement. His overly sharp eyes became even more aggressive, and his aura seemed to be questioning Death and bargaining with it.

Adolf's mother, Mrs. Clara, was in poor health and had been requiring frequent medical care for several years, but her condition had worsened in recent years. The family doctor was Dr. Bloch, a Jewish physician known as "the poor man's doctor." He was a skilled and kind doctor, but despite his best efforts, he could not save Mrs. Clara's life.

Last month, Kubizik visited Mrs. Clara, and the scene there shocked him. Mrs. Clara was lying in bed, emaciated, and her hands were practically skin and bones, a sight too painful to behold.

Everyone could vaguely guess this, except for Adolf, who refused to admit it. He was a stubborn man, and he always firmly believed that his mother would get better, but until this day...

"Is there anything I can do to help...?"

Looking at his friend venting his anger in front of him, Kubizik felt both heartache and pity, and couldn't help but say something.

However, Adolf, who was in the midst of venting his anger, did not hear what he said until he began pacing around the room. Then, he seemed to calm down and suddenly said...

"I should stay in Linz and take care of the household chores for my mother."

"can you?"

Kubizik asked, knowing his friend had always disdained such "trivial matters." There was a moment of silence in the room, then a voice rang out.

"A person can do anything when necessary."

His words ended there.

……

In the days that followed, Kubizik initially thought it was just a momentary impulse, but his friend, who had once scorned trivial matters, seemed to have truly become a different person after that day. When Kubizik visited Adolf's house, he even saw Adolf kneeling on the floor. He was wearing a blue apron and cleaning the kitchen, which appeared to be almost finished.

“Kubishik, look how capable Adolf is.”

Mrs. Clara, lying in bed, spoke to Kubišik, looking at Adolf with satisfaction.

It's hard to believe that the person who once considered housework unbearable is now actually taking care of every little thing in the house.

In addition, he displayed unprecedented thoughtfulness, carefully selecting his mother's favorite dishes every day and cooking them even better than Mrs. Clara's. When Mrs. Clara had difficulty getting up, he would feed his mother bite by bite, his tone so gentle that Kubisik had never seen him before.

That rude, inconsiderate, aloof guy could actually suppress his temper for his mother's sake—something Kubišek had never imagined before. This made him realize that he didn't seem to truly understand his only friend.

As if due to Adolf's actions, Mrs. Clara's complexion had become rosier, and she could even walk occasionally, but everyone could sense that that day was not far off...

Kubizik last saw Mrs. Clara a few months later, on the evening of December 20th. She was sitting on the bed, with Adolf supporting her by holding her shoulders. Sitting up would ease the intense pain for her.

After a brief greeting, Adolf gestured for Kubizik to leave, and Kubizik also prepared not to disturb the mother and son any longer.

"Gustav".

Then, just before he was about to leave, Mrs. Clara, lying in bed, suddenly beckoned to him. She didn't call him Mr. Kubizik, but rather Gustave, as she would Adolf. For Mrs. Clara, this name held special significance, as her eldest son, who had died young, was named Gustave.

He went to the bedside, and Mrs. Clara made Kubizik lower his head, then reached out her pale and withered hand, took Kubizik's hand, and whispered some words of advice in his ear.

“After I’m gone, I will continue to be good friends with my son… He has no other friends besides you.”

A strange sadness lingered in Kubisik's heart. Adolf, standing beside him, lowered his head and remained silent. He bit his lower lip and responded softly.

"Ah."

Mrs. Clara died in the early hours of the next day.

……

The funeral was scheduled for two days later, on December 23, the eve of Christmas. Very few people came to the funeral, only a few acquaintances of Mrs. Clara and a few neighbors. The number of people was so small that it was almost desolate.

That's true, after all, Christmas is just around the corner.

Adolf's 11-year-old sister, Paula, was already sobbing uncontrollably, while Adolf tried to restrain himself. Kubizik had never seen Adolf like that before—that expression of trying to control his grief yet being unable to hide it. It was an unspeakable sorrow; the person who loved him most in the world, and the person he loved most, had left this world.
The next morning, when Adolf reappeared before Kubizik, he looked utterly exhausted, as if every extra minute could cause him to collapse. He seemed to have reached the end of his rope; his eyes were vacant, and Kubizik saw no vitality in him. He explained that it was because he hadn't slept all night.

Kubizik's mother asked him where he planned to spend Christmas Eve, and he remained silent.

His sister went to his brother-in-law Rabaul's house, but he and Rabaul had a long-standing feud. In the end, he didn't say anything, but simply declined his friend's mother's invitation to stay for Christmas and left alone.

No one knows how Adolf spent that night. Even when Kubizik asked, he simply said that he had wandered the streets all night.

On that joyous Christmas Eve, a man wandered the snowy streets all night. He had no relatives, no friends, and no one would welcome him with open arms. To him, the world was full of hostility and emptiness.

……

“Come with me, Kubizik.”

After New Year's Day, Adolf suddenly said to Kubizik that he knew about Adolf's wild imagination, but he never knew that Adolf actually planned to invite him to study in Vienna with him.

“But…” Kubizik hesitated. He was born into a family that did interior design. His father had always disapproved of his love of music, thinking that “these broken pieces of wood” could not make any money at all, let alone agree to let him go to Vienna to study.

Are you worried about your father?

However, Adolf saw through his thoughts at a glance, and then he snorted coldly. This was his habit; his inexplicable arrogance made him look down on many things.

"Don't worry, I will try to persuade your father."

Kubizik was skeptical. In his father's eyes, Adolf was a good-for-nothing, unemployed young man, and he wouldn't listen to such a brat. But the result was far beyond Kubizik's expectations. He didn't know how Adolf had persuaded his father, only that during Adolf's highly persuasive speech, the stubborn and rude father was actually convinced and finally agreed to let Kubizik go to Vienna to study.

Of course, at this moment, Kubizik couldn't comprehend the profound impact his friend's speaking ability would have in the future...

……

A few months later.

"..."

Inside the cramped room, rain poured outside the window.

After arriving in Vienna, Kubicek applied to the music academy and was unexpectedly accepted. Learning music and playing the piano then became his most important tasks.

Adolf, who was accepted into the art academy, was constantly busy. Sometimes he would paint on the easel, occasionally raising the brush to adjust the position of the painting; other times he would read extensively, reading all kinds of books without getting tired, and sometimes he would even recite his favorite operas.

The two friends shared a room and worked hard to make a living together, which was not bad for them, except for the financial difficulties.

However, what puzzled Kubizik was that Adolf seemed to have become increasingly irritable since arriving in Vienna, as if something was causing him extreme frustration. The two good friends would occasionally quarrel, but since arriving in Vienna, the frequency of their arguments seemed to have increased, and this conflict was ignited by the heavy rain.

Sitting at the grand piano, Kubizik played his own score, while another person attempted to recite an opera.

Because of the heavy rain, Adolf couldn't go to Schönbrunn Palace to recite his lessons, but the two couldn't be done at the same time. Finally, he angrily yelled at his friend.

"Damn it, can you please stop playing that big monster?"

The music stopped abruptly, and Kubizik looked at him, somewhat bewildered. Gentle by nature, he didn't know how to face his only friend's question, so he could only silently close his violin. Then, after a moment's thought, he found a piece of paper, wrote some words on it, and stuck it on the wall.

"This is our schedule. How about allocating time according to the schedule?"

Adolf glanced at the schedule, which detailed everything the two of them had to do each day, and snorted without responding.

After the timetable was set, life seemed to calm down a bit, and the conflicts between the two decreased slightly. But one day, Adolf's temper flared up again.

"This school has too many rigid, outdated civil servants and bureaucrats, too many ignorant and mentally challenged officials. The entire school should be blown up!"

He shouted, his face ashen, his mouth tightly shut, his lips almost deathly pale. But his eyes gleamed, revealing a murderous intent. It was as if all his hatred was stored in his piercing eyes.

Kubizik was about to point out that those who had been hastily labeled in his rage were, after all, his teachers and professors, who had imparted some knowledge to him. But Adolf preemptively struck.

"They rejected me, they rejected me, they abandoned me!"

His hateful eyes were filled with anger.

Kubišik was stunned. So this was the truth; Adolf had never been admitted to the art academy.

At this point, all the perplexing questions about Adolf were fully answered. Kubizik fell silent, unsure how to reassure his good friend, and asked Adolf if he had told his mother about it.

What are you thinking?

He asked rhetorically.

"How could I let my dying mother bear this worry?"

The two remained silent for a long time. Perhaps at that moment, Adolf thought of his mother. Then, Kubizik tried to bring the conversation back to reality.

"Now what?"

Kubišik asked Adolf.

"What do we do now, what do we do... You're here again, aren't you? What are we going to do now?"

He repeated it irritably.

Adolf must have asked himself this question countless times, because he certainly hadn't discussed it with anyone.

"What should we do now?"

Instead of giving a direct answer, he mocked Kubizik's anxious questions again. He sat at the table, surrounded by books.

"What should we do now?"

He adjusted the oil lamp, took out a book, and began to read. Kubizik had no choice but to remove the timetable posted on the cupboard. He looked up, saw Kubizik's actions, and calmly said something.

"It's ok."

(End of this chapter)