Just as Bruno was about to get off work for the day, he found himself facing an official summons by the General Staff and its chief assembly. The leaders of the German Army were calling him in?
Was this some attempt by those ancient vampires—whose family legacies were older than God himself—to stir a coup against him? Or was this an inquiry about his involvement with the Werwolf Brigade and its unsavory affairs south of the German border?
Either way, Bruno had only one means of finding out. He quickly got to his feet and approached the room where such private matters were held.
He was surprised to find the Kaiser himself personally sitting at the head of the table, with powerful and prestigious figures like von Mackensen and Ludendorff waiting coldly.
Each Generalfeldmarschall of the German Army was present for the meeting, Bruno himself included, standing at attention.
Ultimately, it was the Kaiser who spoke first, as Bruno cautiously gazed at the vultures who were eyeing him as if he were a meal—starving voraciously for the mere chance to pick him apart.
Yet, despite the tension in the room—so sharp it could sever a head with the slightest pressure—Bruno remained undisturbed, emotionless, as stoic as the ancient philosopher-king Marcus Aurelius himself.
And, just as expected, the Kaiser spoke of exactly what Bruno had anticipated.
“I have summoned you here to answer a formal inquiry into your relationship with the mercenary group known as the Werwolf Brigade.
According to the latest reports, they have been burning the Austrian countryside, spearheading the loyalist forces of the Habsburg Empire against more than just revolutionaries and brigands.
Supposedly, they are wielding new weapons—produced from your factories.Weapons that the German Reich has yet to introduce to its own armies.Do you deny these allegations?”
Bruno, unwilling to give the old men of a bygone era the satisfaction of seeing him squirm, was quick to make a personal request of the Kaiser. One he knew the man would be inclined to oblige.
“Your Majesty, with your permission, I would like to request a private audience for this matter… Not out of any semblance of guilt, but because I fear there are those here who would manipulate and twist my words for their own personal gain… I trust you—and you alone—to hear my admission.”
Von Mackensen, who had previously taken Bruno’s side in his stance against the old guard, nodded in approval toward the Kaiser, as did Ludendorff, who had decided to throw his lot in with this new meritocratic generation of military leadership—challenging the ancient noble families for power as the Great War came to an end.
Meanwhile, the old men of the high command were furious that Bruno would dare to request their dismissal from a formal inquiry. One of them overstepped his bounds, demanding a proper answer.
“You dare to have a private audience with the Kaiser where no man can bear witness?What kind of nepotism are you trying to pull here!?!”
Bruno chuckled in disdain at the remarks made by the aging General, and was quick to remind him of his place—without the slightest respect for his position, as they were peers. His words carried a venomous tongue.
“Nepotism? What slanderous projection is this?If I were a weaker man, I would sue you in court for defamation of my character!But we both know how I settle insults to my honor, now don’t we?
How’s that cousin of yours? I heard he went missing after barging into my brother’s personal home without invitation in an attempt to extort him. Did the authorities ever find his body? Or has it been picked clean by a murder of crows by now?”
Everyone knew that Christoph had killed the lecherous count who had forced his way into the man’s home after being insulted with a disturbing truth.
It was an illegal duel, held in the backyard—one in which Christoph had cheated by shooting his opponent in the back before they could properly face one another. But nobody had ever proved it—because there was no body to exhume and perform an autopsy on. No, there was no proof of what Christoph had done.
Bruno’s words were a sharp reminder of what happened to those who crossed his family in ways that they deemed beyond the means of proper settlement—and in doing so, he shut everyone up instantly.
The old general choked on his own words, so enraged by the fact that Bruno had basically admitted to the murder they all knew his brother was responsible for.
But Bruno had done so in a way that completely avoided any legal repercussions for him and his family. It was enough to cause the man to suffer a stroke—or it would have been if von Mackensen hadn’t immediately intervened before such a terrible fate could befall the old man.
“I’ll stand as witness to what Generalfeldmarschall von Zehntner has to say.Or do any of you have the gall to question my honor in addition to that of the hero who won us the Great War?”
Insulting Bruno was one thing. He was still very young—younger than 40, and he wielded unimaginable power across the German Reich.
His family’s legacy—having been granted noble status little more than a century ago, during the Napoleonic Wars—made him an upstart of the most dangerous kind in the eyes of the ancient nobility.
But von Mackensen? Von Mackensen was beyond reproach. He had spent a lifetime of military service to the Reich, and though he was a man of common birth, ennobled by his own valor, he was not in direct political contention with the old guard. At least, he had not been until very recently.
Compared to Bruno—who was still very young—it was far harder to throw shade at a veteran closing in on seventy years of age. Thus, the matter was begrudgingly settled then and there, as Kaiser Wilhelm II made it official with a declaration.
“Leave us.”
The conversation that followed would be one to shape the course of German foreign policy for decades to come.
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