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Forged in Iron and Ambition (Web Novel) - Chapter 848: The Calm After the Storm
Chapter 848: The Calm After the Storm
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Bruno returned from Korea not long after his negotiations had concluded. And by the time he and the Kaiser arrived in Berlin, they stood at attention facing one another before parting ways.Knowing this would be his last action as Reichsmarschall of the German realm, Bruno performed the crispest and most formal salute he had ever performed in his career.
"Your Majesty, it has been the honor of my lifetime to serve under your reign as Marshal of the Realm. In the coming days, I will formally retire and relinquish my position. You have my undying loyalty and gratitude for all that you have done for me."
The Kaiser did not return Bruno’s salute; instead he reached his hand out in a gesture not as sovereign and general, but as a friend.
Bruno hesitated for a moment before taking the Kaiser up on his offer. The moment their gloved hands touched the Kaiser wrapped his second around Bruno’s and shook them together.
"I accept your petition for retirement, Reichsmarschall. You have guarded the realm for longer than any man reasonably should. And you have earned the right to rest. Besides... this isn’t the farewell you make it out to be. I’m sure I will be hearing from you before long. You have never been the type of man to sit idly about. Give my love to your wife and enjoy the time off. I’ll take care of the rest."
Bruno smiled and retrieved his hand, bidding farewell to the Kaiser, before finding the maglev train that took him home.
The journey from Berlin to Innsbruck was short. Shorter than it had any right to be. But over the course of the last forty years, Bruno had invested heavily in the development of the Reich’s infrastructure.
Technology that wouldn’t normally be feasible for decades had become a reality much earlier in this timeline thanks to Bruno’s interference.
And for the first time in his entire life, Bruno could gaze upon the world he had helped create not as a guardian, but as a resident.
The snowcapped Alps, ever majestic somehow seemed more real to him in the brief journey home than they had at any other point in his life.
Not a word was spoken by the man as he truly observed and felt the world around him. Not until he had finally knocked upon his own door.
The doors swung wide open, revealing Heidi, standing there, elegant, mature, and yet still ravishing in a way a sixty-one-year-old woman had no right to be.
Heidi didn’t give Bruno any room to speak; she simply hugged him tightly, warmly, and loving.
She knew... the time had finally come. The time had come for her husband to lay down the sword, and allow the next generation to take up arms in the Realm’s defense.
The two of them stood there in the doorway for what seemed like an eternity between them. Until finally Heidi looked up at her man, and whispered gently in his ears.
"Welcome home..."
The words resounded in Bruno’s mind like an echo... Home... for nearly three decades, Tyrol had been his home. And this palace, this work of art that housed his family, had been constructed under his orders, of his design, and with the aid of his own two hands.
But until now, even in the moments between the fighting, Bruno had never truly allowed himself to relax, to feel safe, even in his own home.
His entire life had been one giant ploy against fate itself. One could never rest while fighting against destiny itself. Not until the fighting had concluded. And now that burden had come to an end.
Bruno smiled and held his wife in his arms. Heidi immediately noticed it; the difference in her husband’s demeanor.
It was subtle, but there was no doubt about it. Deep within his sky-blue eyes, the man no longer looked like he was watching a coming storm.
This made the woman laugh, lightly, softly, but enough to twist the knife, so to speak, in the way that only she knew how to.
"Who would have thought that at this late in your life, you were capable of so much change...."
Bruno’s brow raised, no doubt perplexed by the claim as it did not match his own internal identity in the slightest.
"Changed? I’m the same man I have always been...."
But Heidi disagreed with this assessment, breaking away from her husband’s embrace. She twirled about in the foyer, almost a bit too spry, as she assured her husband she had a better eye for his thoughts than he himself did.
"That’s not true at all... You have changed my love; you no longer look tired. You finally seem to have gained some peace."
Bruno scoffed as he chased after his wife, she herself doing her best to elude his advance.
"You think so? Well, I hate to break it to you, dear, but I have always had peace with you in my life. However, now that all of that nasty business is out of the way there is nothing keeping me from chasing after it."
Bruno ran after his wife, much to the chagrin of everyone else who lived in the palace. But nobody dared to intervene.
Bruno had been at war with the world, himself, and even fate longer than any man could conceivably endure.
If anyone gained the right to behave so shamelessly with his wife within the walls and privacy of his own home, then it was he.
For a life lived in service to family, folk, faith, and fatherland, everyone chose to ignore the scene and instead went about their day.
Tomorrow, Bruno would awaken to a peaceful world, one of his own making. And it was only then that he would begin to plan how to spend the rest of his golden years.
But tonight... Tonight he allowed himself some peace shared only with the one woman who had ever afforded him any throughout a lifetime of war.
