Published at 5th of March 2026 6:52 am

Chapter 892: Inevitability

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The launch was all over the German national news. Footage playing across every major outlet. The rocket carrying the command module into space, past the exosphere and through eventual re-entry.

And it wasn’t just German news outlets. All around the world, a single message broke headlines: Germany puts men into space!

For a world that had always dreamed of slipping past the bounds of the Earth, and yet had only ever dreamt it was possible within the confines of fiction, this was the most exciting news since the war came to an end.

Footage of a German warship fishing the command module out of the sea after it crashed down into the ocean from the heavens above, and the men being safely and securely dragged onto the deck was replaying everywhere.

Schools were talking about the achievement; people were discussing it in their homes, at cafes, and at gyms.

Humanity had transcended Earth for the first time in its history as a species. For the most part, most people weren’t aware that Germany had sent hundreds of satellites into space over the course of the last decade.

So for them to suddenly release footage of space travel to the world at large, it was as if they had achieved the impossible overnight.

Claire couldn’t believe her eyes and ears in class. Ever since she first stepped foot in Germany and began attending school in Tyrol. The German Reich had surprised her at every turn.

Their national freeway system, their intercontinental high-speed rail system, which was expanding into maglev-capable rails with each passing day. The airstrips where airships and jets ferried passengers and freight across the globe.

Compared to her own home country, which had yet to even develop proper turboprop engines and was still effectively rebuilding after its failures during the First and Second World Wars, it was a sobering and humiliating sight to witness.

Her people struggled with basic air transport, and Germany was already launching men into space.

France had truly fallen behind Germany in every way that mattered over the course of the century. And she now understood why they had been so devastatingly defeated in two wars.

She should have been thankful that Germany restored the Monarchy, and its aristocratic hierarchy. After all her family regained noble privilege when House Orleans succeeded De Gaulle’s failed attempt at building a republic.

But she could only gaze upon the accomplishments of her neighbors and wish she were one of them.

Ever since that fateful day she was invited into the home of House von Zehntner, she had grown close to Maria and Theresa.

They ate lunch together, studied together, and she was frequently invited into their family estate.

And the more she witnessed the differences between the Tyrolean Royal Family and her own Noble House. The more she felt ashamed of how her family lived.

It was not the wealth, grandeur, or prestige of House von Zehntner that earned her envy. Rather, it was their almost ritualistic humility.

To accomplish so much, to rise to the greatest heights, and still forcefully live at least partially in a way that grounded them with the world below. It created deep-seated anxiety about the greed, pride, and vanity that her own family espoused as virtues.

One day, when she was staying over at the von Zehntner estate for another dinner. Claire couldn’t help but ask the question she had been thinking about day and night for the past week.

"Forgive me if I am speaking out of place right now... But I have been meaning to ask this for a while.... How much more advanced was Germany actually at the start of the war with France in 1938?"

The table went silent as all eyes cast themselves between Claire and Bruno. Bruno didn’t respond right away; he finished chewing on his piece of schnitzel before wiping his mouth with a napkin.

He then looked over at his guest, who was practically quaking in her spot, and spoke plainly.

"It entirely depends on the field we’re speaking of? Infrastructure, twenty... maybe thirty years in some edge cases. Weaponry, a decade in some areas, two in others. Intelligence and communication? Half a century at the most."

Claire stared with her mouth half agape at Bruno’s answers. While the rest of the family continued on as if nothing unusual had been said. Bruno however noticed his blunt but honest answer had not settled the girl’s nerves and only caused her greater internal turmoil; forcing him to place down his fork and knife as he tried to speak in a far more measured tone.

"Victory over France was inevitable. But war itself was not... I tried my best to avoid a war with France after the first one. But De Gaulle... He needed to make me the devil to unify your people after the failures and humiliation of the Weltkrieg. And one can only tolerate the devil on their borders for so long before war is necessary."

Claire’s head hung in shame, but her expression shifted to understanding. She would be lying if she said that growing up she hadn’t been taught to hate the man in front of her.

But after getting to know him over the last few months, mostly in passing. She realized she had been lied to by her own people.

But if they lied to her about the kind of man Bruno was, then what else did they lie to her about? This had been on her mind ever since she first visited the von Zehntner estate. And now she had heard the truth.

Bruno continued. Perhaps he felt the need to continue hammering the point home. Or perhaps he was simply reminiscing about the past as he continued to eat in between.

"In 1916, when the 2nd and 8th armies marched into Paris and the Third Republic officially surrendered. They demanded that we leave France without occupation and without humanitarian assistance. It was established as a primary stipulation within the treaty that ended the war. I knew then and there that another war would be inevitable, and so I spent every waking hour of my life over the next twenty years preparing for it. De Gaulle did not. France has suffered enough at the hands of its own foolish leaders. Perhaps when the day comes that you return home, you can remedy that."

---

Claire lay awake long after the household had retired.

From her dorm room window she could see the faint glow of lights along the Tyrolean valley; orderly, quiet, efficient.

Germany did not feel oppressive.

It felt inevitable.

Her tutors in France had spoken of resistance, of pride, of destiny. They had spoken of Germany as an aggressor, a brute force of conquest.

But no one had ever explained why France had fallen so far behind.

No one had ever explained preparation.

Bruno had not gloated at dinner. He had not insulted her people. He had not even raised his voice.

He had simply stated the difference in time.

Twenty years of preparation.

Half a century of intelligence and communications advantage.

Infrastructure decades ahead.

And suddenly the wars she had been taught to view as heroic tragedies felt less like destiny and more like arithmetic.

She did not hate him.

That realization frightened her more than anything else.

If France had been defeated not by cruelty but by foresight, then reform would require more than pride.

It would require discipline.

Claire turned away from the window.

For the first time in her life, she did not dream of reclaiming lost glory.

She dreamed of catching up.

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