Re: Blood and Iron

After the retirement of Bruno's father, both from politics and the family business, his children had replaced him in both regards. In the theater of politics, his son Ludwig had taken over the patriarch of the house's role.

But when it came to the family business the eldest son of the family and presumed heir of the house had been granted that privilege. Franz however was a man known for spending most of his time abroad operating as a glorified salesman. Stay connected via My Virtual Library Empire

And in doing so, leaving control over the company's day-to-day operations to his younger brother Christoph. Christoph, being the second oldest of Bruno's brothers had little interaction with our protagonist when he was very little.

Because of this, their bond as brothers was not the strongest. But while the man held no real love for his youngest sibling, he also had no animosity towards him. Bruno was a pillar of the house, and sure there had been some controversy early on with his morganatic marriage, but these matters had long since been settled.

By Bruno's own hand, he had made his wife a legitimate princess, and recently a step above with the title Grand Princess. Sure, these were foreign titles, and one of them was quite literally landed, but in the world of nobility that didn't actually matter.

The title itself was what was valuable, not where one might be a Prince or princess from. Hence why Heidi's new position needed to be respected above everything else.

She was quite literally of a noble house now, and not just married into one, but helped found one with Heidi as the wife of its head. That, of course, being the recently established branch of the von Zehntner family Bruno established in Transylvania to distinguish his line of succession from his father's.

This, of course, created some minor difficulties for Christoph as he now needed to treat his youngest brother as a superior. Something that he had no personal qualms with, as he had enough self-awareness to recognize how exceptional Bruno's deeds had been in life, and how much more valuable the man was to the German Reich than himself.

But Christoph's wife on the other hand did not like the idea of bowing her head to the "Bastard princess of Transylvania."

A nickname that only dared to be uttered by the petty and jealous hags who conceived it in private. Even their husbands were not privy to the title they had "bestowed" upon Heidi whom they held so much contempt for if not simply because she shined much brighter than their own mediocrity despite being of lower birth.

Humans were, after all tribalistic by nature. And astonishingly could form a tribal identity from just about anything. Whether that be the family they were related to, the nation they were born into, the religion they chose to follow, or sometimes even their favorite sports team.

One could simply observe human behavior, and be astounded at all the nonsense that came from it if they simply sat by and watched long enough. And if they were to do so, they would notice a peculiar phenomenon where the most mediocre of a tribal identity would often claim to be of a superior status in life because of the collective achievements of their tribe, rather than anything they had personally accomplished.

It was quite common in nearly every tribe, or "community" that was formed. And thus it made sense that the most mediocre of women among the European nobility would proclaim themselves superior to Heidi not because of their personal deeds, or merit, but because they were born into the right tribal group. That being their own noble households.

Naturally, these pathetic wretches were gossiping in the living room of Christoph's own home, with his wife being host to the rabble. And their gossip was of the news regarding Alya's recent threats to her own flock of hens.

"Have you heard the most recent news regarding that family? Poor dear, she has chosen to marry her eldest son, the heir to their princely household to some poor little orphan girl from Russia. I suppose being ill bred herself, she must have sympathy for such little tramps.

It isn't surprising that the Russian girl lashed out at her friends for commenting on how peculiar her engagement is to the Prince!"

These old hags were not actually all that concerned about the age gap between Alya and her future husband. They could not care less about such things, as several of them were already involved in illicit affairs with much younger men than themselves.

Rather, where they found fault with Alya was the fact that a lowborn orphan girl was marrying the heir to a line of Grand Princes. And for a matter hat had nothing to do with them, it simply made them seethe.

Though Christoph's wife had not heard of this news until now, as her family was not particularly close to Bruno's except for sharing the same last name, she acted as if she did, nodding her head and adding her comments on it.

"Quite the scandal indeed! Considering she helped raised the little Russian urchin, I suppose this is why we call her the Bastard Princess of Transylvania, no?"

She then immediately returned to sipping her tea, her eyes bulging open in shock when she saw her husband standing behind her friend who had dared to open her mouth about the subject. The man was staring at his own wife as if he was going to murder her. And the tone when he spoke matched such a sentiment.

"What in the hell did I just walk into? When you say the Bastard Princess of Transylvania, you are not speaking about my sister-in-law are you?"

All eyes were set upon Christoph, who, for the most part was considered a far more honorable man than his elder brother. And when the women saw the sheer rage on the man's face, they instantly became pale and petrified.

Not a single one of them dared to speak as Christoph aggressively approached them, all the while demanding answers.

"Speak now! Or I will have you a lot of pathetic witches cast from my home for this grave insult against my family!"