Published at 4th of April 2026 7:18 am

Chapter 927: A Lifetime Ago

This chapter is updated by JustRead.pl

Erich found himself lounging about the family estate on a bright Saturday morning. Like any Saturday during a time of peace, he had the day off. So unless something urgent came up, like the air base was on fire, he would spend the days within the Grand Palace of Tyrol.

The palace was large enough to house the entire extended family, but considering the number of properties in their possession, Bruno’s brothers and their own family lines generally dwelled elsewhere.

Still, the overwhelming majority of Bruno’s children and their families still lived in the Grand Palace of Tyrol. His wife and children were currently in the backyard, enjoying time with cousins, aunts, and uncles.

All the while, Erich sat with a book in one hand and a glass of beer in another. It was a rare occasion where he could simply laze about and relax, like today. And he was just about to drift into a light and tender sleep when a noise forced his eyes open.

"This is cousin Erich! I know it is! I remember how handsome he looked when he was our age! Don’t you remember? Half of our friends said that they wanted to marry him when they grew up!"

Maria’s voice echoed through the corridor, like an earthquake crashing against the peace Erich had made for himself, while Theresa’s followed as a tsunami in its wake.

"Mitzi, I’m telling you that’s not Erich. When he was our age, he went off to Spain, and he didn’t have a uniform like that! Yes, the handsome boy in the photo looks very similar to Erich, but it’s not him."

Maria, however did not take no for an answer, and ran through the corridor with the framed photograph in her hands. That is until she saw Erich sitting there on the sofa staring at them without the slightest bit of entertainment in his eyes as the Twins swarmed him like a couple of piranhas.

"Cousin Erich, there you are! Tell Rezi that she’s senile! This is you, right? In your uniform back when you were our age, right before you shipped off to Spain?"

Erich took one look at the photo and was startled. The young man in the photograph shared a striking resemblance. He, as Maria had said, was a handsome young officer, with the same golden blonde hair, and sky-blue eyes that much of their family shared.

But... Theresa was ultimately right, and Erich was quick to point out why.

"Sorry, Maria, your sister is right. The old blues were phased out of service, even as ceremonial uniforms long before I ever entered the military. This photograph is ancient? I mean, when I was your age we were already using colored cameras. Where did you even find such a thing?"

Maria snatched the photo away from Erich’s hands and looked at the man in it.

"No... that can’t be? I was certain he was you, you looked just like him.... As for where I found it, it was upstairs in one of the storerooms. Hidden away in some vintage chest that seemed to have come from the old villa in Prussia."

"The old villa?" A voice that all three of the younger von Zehntners knew instinctively erupted from nearby.

"Now, I haven’t thought about that old place in a very long time... What could have possibly spurred the three of you to have such a conversation?"

Erich sighed and shook his head, turning around to face his grandfather, knowing that he was going to be completely ignored as he doted on his two younger cousins. The same way he did all the younger female members of their family.

Not that he could complain, because his grandmother seemed to do the opposite for all the boys. And just as he thought, Maria and Theresa ran up in unison to Bruno and showed him the photograph they had found hidden away.

Maria gently handed the photo frame to her grandfather while enlightening him on their topic of conversation.

"Rezi and I were wondering who the handsome boy in this photograph is. I thought for sure it was Erich, but he says it isn’t. He also said the uniform he is wearing was phased out of service long before he entered the military. Do you happen to know who he is grandfather?"

Bruno took one look at the photograph and instantly was able to identify the man in it. His own reflection subtly cast upon the much younger face. He traced his fingers over the glass and smiled.

Nodding as he began to speak softly.

"Now this is a photo I haven’t seen in very long time...."

The two girls looked up at their grandfather with excitement as if he had just found the answer to a question that had been gnawing at the both of them for far too long.

"Really? You know the boy in this picture?"

Bruno handed the photograph back to his granddaughters and nodded his head with a smile that was filled with nostalgia.

"Well, of course I know him... He is me after all. That photograph was taken a lifetime ago, after I first entered the Royal Prussian Main Cadet Institute. I must have been no older than seventeen at the time. Where did you find this?"

Maria and Theresa stared at the photograph in Bruno’s hands in shock. Comparing it directly to their grandfather’s current appearance.

Throughout their entire lives they had seen photographs and paintings of the man, but never once from before he gained his dueling scar at the academy.

Even Erich was slightly surprised that the photograph was his grandfather. Because the young man in the photograph carried a completely different energy. One not worn down from a lifetime of war. One that still had hope and aspiration for a future that had not yet been forged through blood and iron.

He didn’t say anything, he simply returned his attention back to his book. All the while Maria gave Bruno a proper answer.

"I found it in an old trunk full of stuff from the old villa back in Prussia... I didn’t know it was you. I thought it was Erich."

She looked almost ashamed, perhaps even guilty. Bruno didn’t pay attention to it though, instead he was focused on that chest because he knew exactly who it belonged to. He became really quiet, uncomfortably so as he stared down at the photograph again.

He simply sighed and shook his head, a bittersweet smile formed on his face as he handed the photograph back to the girls, speaking to nobody in particular as he did so.

"Of course she would have kept it all those years...."

Theresa could tell that the photograph had ended up upsetting their grandfather and was forced to force her younger sister’s head into a deep bow along with her own.

"We’re really sorry grandfather. We shouldn’t have gone rummaging through storage without permission."

Bruno shook his head, whatever had caught his thoughts before had seemingly vanished in the process. Instead, a warm and gentle smile formed on his lips.

"It’s not a problem. That chest belonged to my mother, and everything in it was hers. I haven’t looked through it since the day she left this world behind. I never realized she had kept this photograph as a keepsake until the very end. If you like it, the two of you should keep it.

The two girls looked at one another, surprised by the offer.

"Are you sure?" Maria asked cautiously. "If it belonged to your mother... shouldn’t it stay with you?"

Bruno let out a quiet breath, the kind that carried more weight than the words that followed.

"It stayed with her," he said simply. "That was enough."

He turned slightly, his gaze drifting past the corridor and out toward the snow-covered gardens where the rest of the family laughed and played beneath the pale winter sun.

"For a long time, I thought it best to leave the past where it was," he continued. "Locked away. Untouched. It made things... easier."

Theresa tilted her head slightly, her curiosity overcoming her hesitation.

"Easier?" she asked.

Bruno nodded.

"When you spend enough years moving forward," he said, "you learn that looking back too often can slow you down. And for a very long time... I could not afford to slow down."

His tone wasn’t cold. Not this time. It was measured... reflective.

"But time," he added after a moment, "has a way of changing what matters."

The girls followed his gaze toward the garden.

"Your great-grandmother understood that better than I did," Bruno said quietly. "She kept the things I would have thrown away. Not because they were useful, but because they meant something."

Maria looked down at the photograph again, her expression softer now.

"He looks happy," she said.

Bruno didn’t answer immediately.

Instead, the faintest hint of a smile returned to his lips.

"He was," he said at last.

There was a pause.

A quiet one.

The kind that didn’t need to be filled.

Behind them, Erich turned a page in his book; but for the first time since the conversation had begun, he wasn’t reading.

Share