Re: Blood and Iron - Chapter 903: Ten Years

Chapter 903: Ten Years

Bruno’s palace was more than just an estate. It was a home for him and the multiple generations of his family.

Frankly, speaking, he found many of its supreme luxurious distasteful. But there was one he could never truly be mad at. And that was his personal bath.

During the beautiful summer climate of the alps his family enjoyed the comfort that the estate’s grounds Olympic size pool had bought them.

But Bruno had a more personal “pool” of his own that was part of the Master Bedroom suite. Inspired by the ancient thermae baths of the Roman aristocracy. Bruno had ensured that his ensuite had a proper pool of hot water for him to plunge into for a nice soak.

In recent years, as his body aged and healed at a slower rate. He found the warm water and the steam it produced to be nothing but soothing.

He sat in the pool wrapped in a towel, while his old bones and muscles rejuvenated in the warmth that permeated them.

Bruno was so relaxed, he practically didn’t hear the footsteps arriving behind him. At least not until the splash of the water startled his focus back to reality.

There, Heidi waded through the pool, her own towel clinging tightly to her figure. He couldn’t help but smirk and shake his head as the woman sat down right by his side, resting her head on his shoulder.

He knew what she wanted to say. After all, they had not had a proper moment of privacy like this since his work as the new Chancellor first began.

But he waited for her to say it. Some words needed to be expressed aloud even if both parties were already aware of the weight they carried.

“It was nice while it lasted…”

Bruno scoffed and rolled his eyes, wrapping his arm around his wife’s shoulder, dragging her in closer.

“It sure was…”

Nothing else was said, not for a long time. They sat for a minute, five, perhaps even ten. Simply enjoying the warmth of the water and each other’s companies, while staring into the mist, as if they were to focus on its haze long enough they might be able to witness the years of their past play out before them.

Bruno finally sighed and shook his head.

“Hopefully this time it doesn’t take me forty years before I am able to retire a second time.”

Heidi looked up at Bruno’s smug smirk and gently nibbled on his shoulder, causing the man to feign injury.

“Ow! That hurt! What are you a cat?”

Heidi’s color seemed to improve upon seeing Bruno play along with her discontent. Her voice however was far more playful than scorned.

“That’s what you get for joking like that! I’ve sat here patiently and waited forty years for you to finally come home from that damn war. And all I get in return is a single year with you before the Kaiser pulls you back into his service? He’s starting to get on my nerves! I’ve got five, maybe ten years of patience left in me, but after that I’ll march right into the Kaiser’s palace and demand he relinquish you!”

Bruno chuckled and shook his head before petting his wife’s silky and silver hair.

“You would… Wouldn’t you?”

Heidi seemed almost proud of herself as she nodded her head thrice.

“That’s right! I absolutely will! So, I will grant you another five years’ leave, Bruno, maybe ten… But that’s it. After that, God himself would have a fight on his hands if he tried to keep you from me, and don’t you forget it!”

There were a million ways Bruno could respond to this, but he simply dragged Heidi in close and kissed her forehead while conceding to her conditions.

“Alright, ten years it is. After that, if the Reich still can’t stand on its own two feet without me, then I suppose my life’s efforts will have been a total waste, anyway.”

Despite the fact that Bruno had just agreed to her demands, Heidi did not feel the slightest bit better about it.

Whether consciously or subconsciously, her fingers intertwined with his. Once more resting her head on his shoulder as she began to grow tired from the heat and the mist.

“Your efforts could never be considered a failure….”

The woman drifted to sleep in Bruno’s arms. Causing him to sigh and shake his head. Picking her up into his arms, he effortlessly carrier her out of the bath and into their room, where he tucked the woman beneath the sheets before climbing in next to her.

Stroking her hair out of her eyes before kissing her forehead goodnight.

“What am I going to do with you?”

Bruno recalled the past… How they had met… Her father a mediatized Prince, her mother, a lowborn mistress. How the man had tried to bully his family into accepting a betrothal with her when they were small children.

At the time, Bruno saw it as a power play, one that put his family in an awkward situation. He had stepped forward, no older than five, and accepted the engagement, despite his parent’s reservations.

He thought back to his reasoning then. He was reincarnated, he had the wherewithal to recognize what was happening.

But if it was just pressure on his house by a family of ancient aristocrats trying to leverage their wealth and prestige, then Bruno would not have stepped forward.

No, it was how timid Heidi looked, hiding behind her mother’s skirt. She couldn’t look her own father in the eyes, let alone his family. Back then, she was young, too young to even be consciously aware of the fear she felt, but the way she flinched when their father began shouting at one another.

He would never forget it, she was like a timid rabbit, and Bruno had decided then and there to step forward and protect her with all of his being.

He and Heidi had been inseparable since. At first, he thought she was a nuisance, one who clung around him while he was trying to expand his horizons with his family’s old library.

But as they grew older, he couldn’t help but grow attached to her. However, if there was one defining moment where Bruno’s love for Heidi was sealed. It was the moment that changed his life forever.

Had he not stepped forward to defend Heidi’s honor as his fiancée, despite being a bastard, at the Berlin Palace all those years ago. And dueled a prince much older than himself, he would have never caught the Kaiser’s eye.

And if that had never happened, his rise through the military would have been met with considerable difficulty.

Barriers that would have otherwise normally existed were lifted, all because he had fallen in love with Heidi and chose to show the world what would happen to those who made her cry.

For all his certainty in youth, Bruno could not help but notice how different that boy felt from the man he had become. Back then he had acted without hesitation, without calculation. He had stepped forward because it felt right. Because she was afraid. Because no one else would.

In that moment, nothing else existed. No grand design, no vision of empire, nor foreknowledge guiding his hand.

Only instinct.

Only her.

He shifted slightly beneath the sheets, careful not to wake her, his hand resting lightly over hers. The skin that had once been soft and unlined now bore the gentle marks of time, just as his did.

The years had taken their toll on them both. And yet, they still looked so much younger than they should.

Bruno had outlived rivals, enemies, and even entire dynasties. But time was a foe that did not bleed and did not retreat.

He had always assumed he would go first in battle. He had never truly considered what it would mean if he went first in life.

The thought unsettled him in a way artillery never had.

For decades he had been shield and sword. Against nations, against chaos, and against entropy itself. But none of that had frightened him as much as the quiet possibility that one day Heidi might wake to a bed that was half-empty.

He exhaled slowly, tightening his arm around her ever so slightly.

Ten years, he had said.

Five, perhaps.

For the first time in his life, he found himself hoping not for victory, nor stability, nor reform; but simply for time.

Time to sit beside her without dispatch riders. Time to hear her complain about trivial things. Time to grow old without war knocking at the door.

He had given the Reich strength, he had given it order, he had given it discipline. But perhaps the last thing he needed to give it… was himself back.

The empire would endure.

It had to.

Because he was tired of fighting for a world that never allowed him to simply live in it. Bruno pressed a gentle kiss against Heidi’s silver hair and finally allowed his eyes to close.

For once, there were no footsteps in the hall, no urgent summons, and no crisis demanding his hand.

Only the steady rhythm of her breathing, and the quiet promise of a morning that did not belong to war.