Re: Blood and Iron - Chapter 841: The Aftermath of a Bloody Peace

Chapter 841: The Aftermath of a Bloody Peace

After all was said and done with the peace negotiations held in Geneva, Bruno found himself invited to the Office of the President of the Swiss Confederation.

Philipp Etter sat in his seat, waiting for Bruno’s arrival, raising briefly to shake the man’s hand before the two of them sat down across from each other.

The assistant poured tea for the two statesmen and then promptly left, ensuring they were alone to discuss matters that should only exist between the two of them.

Bruno’s posture was relaxed as he took a sip of the tea before responding. While his opponent was slumped and awkward. Refusing to engage in eye contact with the man he had invited into his office. Nevertheless, Bruno found himself starting the conversation.

“It is good. Now shall we address your concerns, or shall we continue playing nice for the sake of formality and decorum?”

Bruno’s sharp wit did not surprise Philipp even if it stung slightly. He had been warned that Bruno was a blunt man with a sardonic tone. One who seemed to treat every conversation like an exercise of dominance and not friendship.

But even he had to admit that such an opening statement as they drank tea together was a bit much for his liking. He forced a smile, but it only came across as fake when he made his retort.

“It is a rare thing in this world to meet a man who properly lives up to his reputation…. Very well, since I won’t be able to score points for flattery, I suppose I will have to get right to the point, won’t I?”

Bruno cast a glance at the man who said his thoughts without ever needing to speak them. And Philipp knew exactly what it meant as he continued with his proposition.

“I suppose some apologies were in order… The Kaiser personally requested his own forces as a security detail. And I limited him to a small number of men who seemed to have been following you around this entire time. It was a mistake on my part to do so, but I hope you know my intentions were simply to preserve the peace ,and not allow these negotiations to conclude under such… tyrannical presence.”

Philipp could instantly tell Bruno was not impressed with well wishes, but Bruno continued to say nothing as the man desperately tried to salvage his situation.

“I understand now that we gravely underestimated the level of risk associated with hosting this event, but in my defense none of the previous conferences held in the Swiss Confederation had ever been presented with such difficulties.”

Bruno finally spoke, making sure the man silenced himself with a clank of his teacup as it weighed down upon its saucer.

“The Switzerland of today is not the Switzerland of yesteryear… You have a cancer in your society, one that has been allowed to metastasize into something overarching and dangerous. The French-speaking minority perceives my nation as a threat. And I don’t blame them; their minds have been poisoned by the refugees of de Gaulle’s regime, which you so carelessly allowed into your nation’s borders. And now you see the result of your so-called empathy.”

A cold sweat went down Philipp’s spine as he heard Bruno’s words spoken with utter clarity and a total devoid of emotional weight behind them.

So this was the legendary ’Lion of Tyrol’ that many of the world’s most formidable leaders had feared for so long?

Bruno, however, did not allow Philipp’s dread to continue. Instead, he was quick to assert his position.

“The chancellor of my nation came under attack. And several of my country’s diplomats lie dead in your streets. All because you failed to provide proper security for this event, while simultaneously disallowing us to bring our own in sufficient numbers. If it weren’t for the few men I was allowed to accompany me, who knows what kind of disaster this event could have been….”

Bruno’s gaze was as sharp as it was cold, like an icicle piercing deep into Philipp’s heart. His breathing became short and sharp as he tried to weather the storm, that is until Bruno finally spoke again and in doing so shattered the ice.

“I trust you will not make the same mistake again…. What remains of my delegation and I will be returning to the fatherland, and thankfully your predecessor saw fit to pay your former debts with your railways, lest I would not even trust them to carry me home safely under the current circumstances. You would be wise to think of how you intend to make this up to the Kaiser who placed his faith in you….”

After saying this, Bruno stood up and swiftly departed, leaving Philipp to collapse in a state of both exhaustion and relief. He could not fathom the price Switzerland would have to pay for his mistakes.

Nor did he want to think about it at this moment either. He simply cracked open a fresh and aged bottle of wine before drinking it straight.

—

Bruno arrived in Tyrol not long after. Truth be told, his presence was no longer required in Cuba.

He had overseen personally the last major invasion of this war. All that was left was to apply the leverage he had gained across the Atlantic to accelerate the end of the war.

And that was something he could do from the safety and comfort of his own home. When he walked through the doors, he found his loving wife waiting there for him. A stein of beer in one hand, with the other wrapped around his waist.

Bruno took the beer from the woman’s hands, and kissed her affectionately, twirling around with her in the doorway as if he were a man thirty years his younger.

The act caused Heidi to chuckle, and retort in the most playful manner she could conjure.

“And here I thought you had become an old man; it appears you still have some pep in your step…” she whispered into Bruno’s ear.

Bruno immediately took a sip from the stein his wife had provided him before grabbing her hand and forcing her to walk by his side through their home.

“It’s hard not to when I have such a demanding woman waiting for me at home.”

Heidi simply laughed when she heard this, following Bruno through their home with her hand in his.

“Really? Who is this woman? I’d very much like to meet her so I can give her a piece of my mind!”

Bruno didn’t respond to this; he only smiled as he took his wife up the grand staircase and towards the master bedroom, where she helped him relax after a brief but tiresome journey southward.

The war was ongoing, but for one night, Bruno could forget about it.

—

Heinrich sat smoking on the balcony of the Presidential Palace in Havana. He gazed at an old photograph from decades prior, still in black and white, showing him, Bruno, and Erich in their academy uniforms.

The picture was taken in a time before photography had truly advanced, where nobody actually smiled in photos or expressed any emotion whatsoever.

But Bruno was sitting here forefront, his cheek freshly scarred from a duel he had with a naval cadet at another military academy for officers.

He had won the duel, but at the cost of a permanent marking across his face. An honor for men of their trade, and a distinguishing feature that followed him even now.

The three of them had been young, and though they looked stoic in the photograph, once could see by the light in their eyes that they were so eager, so filled with vigor, and hope for the future of their careers as soldiers.

It was a photograph from a different era, where the world had yet to fully understand that honor and glory on the battlefield were dead, replaced by the industrialized slaughter of men with weapons of war so horrific one might even consider if God himself had abandoned mankind, and left them to the mercy of the devil.

The embers on his cigarette continued to burn as he gazed off towards the Caribbean Sea. And the continent that lay beyond. Burning bright, but just beyond his view in the flames of civil war.

It took him a while before he began to stir again with life, and when he did, Heinrich placed his photograph back in his coat pocket, before making a solemn vow to himself and to his absent commander.

“My entire life I have followed you into battle, served as your right hand. You once told me that this will be your last war… And I have decided here and now that the day you lay down your sword and retire from this life, I will do the same.”

Heinrich then took the bottle of rum lying on Batista’s old desk and walked off. Taking a swig as he shut the door behind him.

Where he went for the remainder of the night, and what he did, only he would ever know the answer to.