Bruno returned from Korea not long after his negotiations had concluded. And by the ti 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 perford the crispest and most formal salute he had ever perford in his career.
"Your Majesty, it has been the honor of my lifeti 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 ."
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 mont before taking the Kaiser up on his offer. The mont their gloved hands touched the Kaiser wrapped his second around Bruno’s and shook them together.
"I accept your petition for retirent, 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 ti 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 ho.
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 developnt of the Reich’s infrastructure.
Technology that wouldn’t normally be feasible for decades had beco a reality much earlier in this tiline thanks to Bruno’s interference.
And for the first ti 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 sohow seed more real to him in the brief journey ho 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 ti had finally co. The ti had co 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 seed like an eternity between them. Until finally Heidi looked up at her man, and whispered gently in his ears.
"Welco ho..."
The words resounded in Bruno’s mind like an echo... Ho... for nearly three decades, Tyrol had been his ho. 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 monts between the fighting, Bruno had never truly allowed himself to relax, to feel safe, even in his own ho.
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 co to an end.
Bruno smiled and held his wife in his arms. Heidi imdiately noticed it; the difference in her husband’s deanor.
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 sa man I have always been...."
But Heidi disagreed with this assessnt, 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 so 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 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 shalessly with his wife within the walls and privacy of his own ho, 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 so peace shared only with the one woman who had ever afforded him any throughout a lifeti of war.
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