บท 4: Shifting the Blame
Another two years had passed since that fateful day when Bruno found himself suddenly engaged to the bastard daughter of a princely family. And during this time, she became the only real friend the boy had.
Heidi would visit Bruno's family home as frequently as her father would allow. Where the two of them would mostly spend time together in the family library. The collection of knowledge within it was quite vast. Even if many of the subjects were woefully outdated by the standards of the 21st century.
Bruno would treat the girl nicely, but he had an awkward time when dealing with her. In his past life, he was a middle-aged man with no family to speak of. He never really had any interaction with children outside of his own childhood.
Because of this, he had a difficult time understanding how to socialize with kids his own age after he had been reborn. But Heidi made this easy on Bruno, as she just seemed to be happy to have someone to speak to about her daily life and the problems in it.
When Bruno was not having "play dates" with his young fiancée, which was supervised by both of their mothers. He was in class. Having begun his primary education earlier than most. But he did not go to a public institution, or a private one for that matter.
Rather, his father had spared no expense to ensure private tutors who were masters of every field of education come to his home and teach the boy personally. Outside of these two activities Bruno either spent his time in self learning, or playing chess.
It was during this time that Bruno discovered something shocking about himself. It could not necessarily be confirmed. But it was definitely something he believed to be true. And that was the fact that his enhanced intelligence was not simply the result of him having memories from a past life in a world far more advanced than the one he currently lived in.
Rather, his new body, more specifically its brain appeared to be at a genius level intellect. In his past life, Bruno, or Karl as he was known then was above average in intelligence, but nothing really special.
It allowed him to perform well in the military as an infantry officer and later as an instructor at the Bundeswehr Command and Staff College. But he was by no means a literal genius. And this difference was demonstrated by how quickly he picked up the game of chess in this new lease on life.
During this time, Heidi naturally took an interest in chess, as Bruno was commonly playing against himself during their time together. She begged him for weeks on end to teach her how to play the game until he finally relented.
It took her months to finally get skilled at the game and confident enough to challenge Bruno to an actual match. Where he ruthlessly and relentlessly obliterated her time and again. Naturally causing the girl to become upset with him for not going easy on her.
His response was callous, and could be surmised as an old gamer quote from his past life "git gud" which caused the young girl to remain angry at him, and pout for the next two weeks of their gatherings. Eventually, however, she got over this. And life continued as normal.
Bruno had mastered the game in roughly a year's time frame. Competing against men much older, and with much more experience in the game where he would thoroughly dominate them. This could not be said to be the same in the life he had lived before this one.
Rather, although he understood the basics of chess at that time, his skills were poor, even after being raised to play the game. He never came close to the title of Master, and by the time he abandoned the game entirely, he knew it would never be a reality.
Yet after a mere year of dedicating an hour or two to chess a day. Bruno knew he was well beyond the level that would be considered a Chess Master in his previous life. Perhaps the youngest in history. He could easily see five to ten moves ahead of his opponent, and if he really concentrated, it might be even more than that.
He had so thoroughly stunned his chess instructor that the man had given up trying to best him. Stating that the boy was on a level well beyond his own. And it was when Bruno began to understand that his brain in this life had a significantly higher processing power that he began to address subjects of higher learning in his spare time.
---
By the time his seventh birthday came around, Bruno's father had determined that he was old enough to begin learning how to train with firearms. And his father possessed quite a healthy collection of firearms.
After all, he was the owner of a weapons manufacturing plant that manufactured everything from revolvers to howitzers. Not only that, but it was not until after the Great War had ended that most nations began enacting some form of gun control upon its ordinary citizens. And the German Empire was no exception to this lack of restrictions during this time.
Currently, the year was 1886, being seven years after Bruno's birth. This meant that the standard issue weaponry to the Imperial German Army was the Mauser model 1871/84 bolt-action rifle, and the Reichsrevolver 1879, both of which his father possessed in his personal arsenal.
In his past life, Bruno had little means to train with such obsolete weaponry. In the 21st century German Nation, you would most commonly find such items as museum pieces. But he was aware of their existence and knew how they functioned.
The Mauser 1871/84 was a stopgap measure that was designed by the German Empire to compete with modern advancements in military weapons. Being one of the first, if not the first, nations to adopt a metallic cartridge firing bolt-action rifle.
The German Empire developed a variant of the Mauser 1871, in 1884 that was fitted with a tubular magazine allowing it to chamber more than one round, unlike the original. They also included a built in extractor to eject the shell casings after they were used. In addition to this, the Mauser 1871/84 was issued with a new, and more modern style bayonet.
This was a more cost-effective means of modernizing the Imperial German Army's standard infantry rifle in order to compete with more powerful repeating firearms that recently came into play on the global stage.
Something that other nations couldn't really do, because the previously issued single shot rifles they used were of designs other than bolt action. It was a simple, affordable, and practical solution to a serious issue. But such methods of modernization usually had many drawbacks.
In the case of the Mauser 1871/84, it was heavy, really heavy. The original model of 1871 already weighed a whopping 4.5kgs, or 9.92 lbs, but with a ten round tubular magazine which contained the mammoth 11.16x60mmR cartridge, this weight only increased.
For some reason, in the late mid-late 1800s, militaries across the globe had the idea that the most suitable cartridge for waging war against your fellow man was one that was capable of taking down a charging buffalo with a single shot.
It was overkill, and this was clearly realized in the final days of the 19th century when more modern and smokeless military cartridges were developed. But it would still be another two years before the Gewehr 1888 Commission Rifle was released.
And that meant that for the time being, Bruno was being taught how to fire a rifle whose recoil was quite literally capable of knocking a small child like himself on his ass. Not to mention its weight was difficult for a seven-year-old to shoulder.
Still, his father was determined for the boy to learn how to properly shoot at a young age. And because of this, they went out to the firing range that was built on their personal property.
The von Zehntner estate was quite massive, and was located in a rural area outside of Berlin. The wealth their family had gained by becoming merchants of war was no doubt extensive, and their primary residence naturally reflected this.
It was large enough to safely contain a firing range. And when his father handed Bruno the unloaded rifle, he was quick to comment on the basic rules of gun safety. Before eventually teaching him the loading procedure.
It admittedly took Bruno some time to get comfortable loading the rounds into the built in tubular magazine. Such methods of storing ammunition within a firearm were only really commonly found in shotguns within the 21st century, and even then, that was a completely different design.
But After loading 10 rounds, and racking the bolt, so he could load another into the tubular magazine. A technique his father had not taught him, but was surprised to see that the boy figured out on his own. Bruno aimed the sights safely down range, and towards the barrels of hay that rested on the berm roughly 100 meters out.
Because it was difficult for him to stand and shoulder such a weapon, Bruno sat at a table and rested the rifle on a sandbag. It was a common tactic used for precision shooting. But in Bruno's case it was really his only way to learn how to fire such a heavy rifle at such a young age.
The hay barrels he aimed at had targets painted on their ends, and Bruno could easily line up his sights. Which he did so as his father talked him through the process.
"Alright son, so you're going to want to take your rear aperture, and line it up with your front sight po-"
*Bang*
The gunshot rang throughout the ear, providing a deafening sound to those who were within the immediate vicinity of the rifle. And just as quickly as the shot was fired, so too was the bulls-eye struck on the hay barrel down range.
Bruno exhaled deeply after firing the shot. Astounding his father once more that he knew to hold his breath while taking aim. With a simple motion, he lifted the bolt up and pulled it back while ejecting the spent cartridge before sending it back to home with a solid push where he repeated the process, once more cutting off his father as he gave voice to his astonishment.
"How in the hell did you-"
*Bang*
Once more the man's words were drowned out by the gunshot, which accompanied the .43 caliber projectile as it tore through the air, and struck the target no more than 1mm away from where the previous one had landed.
Despite performing a marksman tier grouping during his first shot, Bruno exhaled deeply and shook his head. He was displeased with the fact that he had to use iron sights, rather than an optic.
But it was still well over 100 years before such a thing became standard issue to infantry rifles. As for Bruno's father, he stared in disbelief at his son's performance.
It took him several seconds to come back to his senses, where after seeing Bruno turn on the safety of the rifle and place the weapon back on the table, the Lord smacked his son across the back of his head and demanded an answer for how he knew such things despite this supposedly being his first time shooting.
"You little shit! Where the hell did you learn to shoot like that? Did your mother let you fuck with my guns while I was away on business!?!"
Seeing this as an excellent opportunity to screw with his siblings who commonly bullied him. Bruno put on a masterful display of innocence as he proclaimed his older brothers to be the culprits.
"I'm sorry, father, I was unaware that I could not shoot without your permission. Ludwig and Kurt said it was okay, and took me out to the range multiple times this last year. Was I not allowed to do so?"
Ludwig and Kurt were the two youngest of Bruno's older brothers, and were the most immature as a result. While his oldest siblings had more important things to worry about and thus couldn't be bothered to harass their youngest brother.
These two particular brothers purposely found trouble with Bruno whenever they possibly could, and could be quite nasty when doing so. Apparently, Bruno's façade was perfect because his father was immediately outraged by this prospect. Going on a rampage like Bruno had never seen before.
"Those little bastards! They have no idea how much fucking trouble they are in! When I get my hands on them, they will wish they were never born!"
Having thoroughly enraged his father and shifted the blame onto his siblings. Bruno would walk away from the incident without any form of punishment whatsoever. As for Ludwig and Kurt, they soon found themselves shipped off to boarding school.
Meaning that Bruno had once more proven himself to be a scheming and devious little brat. One that solved the problem of his rampant bullying and harassment rather permanently. If there was one thing that Bruno learned on this day, it was that you should never touch a man's firearms without his expressed permission or presence.
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