Chương 3: Foiling a Dastardly Scheme

Bruno had an expression which matched that on his father's face. He was astonished by this proposal. Sure, it was common knowledge that engagements were made between noble families throughout history and in many cases the parties involved were quite young when they first occurred.

But he was the 9th son of a Junker nobleman from a family whose nobility was less than a hundred years old. Why would this general, who clearly looked down on his family, propose such a thing? Unless… Sure enough, just as Bruno began to suspect that there was some hidden meaning behind this engagement his father's expression shifted.

At first, the man was shocked, and he had every right to be, as he knew more about the circumstances behind the "offer" than his son did. But when the Lord finally recovered his senses, he could not help but clench his teeth and curl his fists.

It took every ounce of the man's strength to compose himself, as he knew the consequences of behaving recklessly here and now would be dire. He then posed a question to the middle-aged general, who was sneering at him while twirling his mustache as if the Lord's reactions were something to take great enjoyment in.

"Your Grace, am I to understand that you intend to betroth the daughter of your mistress to my true-born son?"

It suddenly hit Bruno when he heard these words. This little girl was a bastard? It made sense when he thought about it at greater length. I mean why would a middle-aged man have such a young bride, unless of course it was either a second wife, or a mistress?

And this would also explain the timid nature of the girl, who was practically shaking as she hid behind her mother. Bastards were seldom treated as family by the nobility, and were often bullied and harassed by their siblings, far more than the likes of which Bruno had endured these past few years.

A hint of pity appeared in the boy's blue eyes as he gazed upon the timid rabbit who was being sold off to his family, and for no less tragic reasons. Though Bruno suspected there was more to this offer than met the eye. Perhaps there was still some hidden meaning behind it.

With this in mind, Bruno shifted his gaze to his father and mother. Both of which looked like they were just about to throw the Prince and his family out of their house for daring to hurl insults at them within their own home. But somehow, they found the strength within themselves to remain calm.

Judging by the fact that his father had used the term your grace to deal with this general, the middle-aged man was likely a Duke. Or perhaps a mediatized Prince. Bruno would later find out that his assumptions were correct, and the general was indeed a Prince from the ancient and high noble family von Bentheim of whom had been raised to the status of "Princes" by King Frederick William III in 1817.

But at this moment, what type of noble this man was, insofar as their exact title, if they still held control of their ancestral lands, or for how long they had held such a lofty position Bruno did not know, but he did not have time to think about these matters as the middle-aged Prince quickly responded to the Lord's statement.

"Oh? What is this? You and your lovely bride seem so offended by my offer? You should be honored that I am willing to marry my daughter into a family with such a lacking heritage. She may not hold my name, but my blood runs through her veins. Perhaps some actual noble blood will do you up jumped peasants some good, don't you think?"

Now the man was no longer even hiding his insults. And Bruno knew his father's breaking point was near. Because of this, he sighed internally. If his father insulted a Prince, and a general in the Imperial Army no less, the consequences would be severe for their family.

Sure the von Zehntner family in this timeline may hold a bit of wealth, and a fair degree of influence within the Military and Reichstag. But to compare their family to this Prince, it was like comparing a lieutenant's power to that of a Field Marshal.

No doubt if the Lord acted without decorum here, it would be catastrophic to his family's future. And because of this, Bruno stepped forward. Fully willing to be the sacrificial lamb for the sake of his family and his own personal future.

"Apologies for my interruption but I would like to express my opinions on the matter. If that is acceptable to you, your grace…"

Bruno's father eyed him carefully. The boy was exceptionally intelligent and mature for his age. But to intervene now, and address the Prince and not him. There was very clearly some kind of scheme going on in his little mind. The man wanted to interrupt his son from making a mistake, but he was too slow to do so.

The Prince raised his brow and gazed upon Bruno as if he were a truly unique specimen. Most children his age would be utterly unaware of the significance behind this discussion. Or its hidden meaning. Yet this boy seemed to have followed the exchange between the two noblemen perfectly.

Wasn't this a bit too terrifying a display of intelligence and wisdom for a mere child to possess? Still, he did not know why, but the Prince wanted to see what the boy would say and because of this, was quick to nod his head and accept Bruno's request.

"Go ahead boy, speak…"

Although Bruno had the memories of a middle-aged man, he had been reincarnated and born anew. Because of this, he was still a young child, and so he decided to play to these strengths.

In doing so, he shot a kind smile at the young girl whose future was being discussed along with his. Before making a statement, that would save his family from speaking out of turn against their betters.

"I would like to thank you for your benevolence your grace. It would be my honor to marry your daughter, whether she is officially recognized by your family as a member of your house or not…"

This remark stunned the Prince. The truth of the matter was, he had not fully intended to marry his bastard daughter to Bruno. Rather, his reason for coming here today was to sabotage the von Zehntner family who he despised.

After all, the von Zehntner family was venerated among many of the newer nobility who had earned their title over the course of the last century through gallantry in battle. Or through grand achievements in science and culture.

If they lashed out against an older and more established noble family like that of the Prince's it could be used to slander all the new noble families. And that was the Prince's real goal.

But there were more people concerned about Bruno's statement than just the Prince. For example, the boy's mother was quick to cry out in shock. Trying to tell her boy to shut his mouth in the most motherly way she could.

"Hush child, you don't know-"

But her husband who raised his hand to silence her quickly stopped her. The man had few interactions with his youngest son over the years. But he had heard tales of the boy's genius. During their few encounters, The Lord knew that his son was harboring a frightening degree of intellect and wisdom, far more than a boy his age should possess.

Not only that, but he had been keeping tabs on all his sons and their growth throughout the years. Among them all, Bruno alone stood out at such a young age. Because of this, the Lord gazed down at his son with a stern gaze and asked him a simple question. Depending how Bruno answered would determine his fate.

"Bruno… Do you know what you are saying right now?"

What the Lord was really saying was, do you understand the consequences of your actions, and the effects it will have on your future?

To which Bruno responded with an equally severe gaze, as well as a slight nod of his head to his father, uttering a single word in response. And yet this word contained far more fortitude than it otherwise would have, especially when coming from a five-year-old boy.

"Perfectly…"

Bruno's father quickly sighed and shook his head, rubbing the bridge of his nose as if to soothe a headache. After which he turned to the Prince who was still staring at the boy, as if something was wrong with him. The Lord's response ultimately shook the middle-aged Prince from his stupor, making him fully realize that his plans had not gone as expected.

"You heard the boy. I have no choice but to accept your proposal. My son Bruno, and your daughter Heidi will be married when they both come of age. Or are you willing to retract your offer for reasons unknown to us all?"

It was evident by the expression on the Prince's face, and that of his young mistress that they did not know immediately how to respond to this. They fully expected the Lord to refuse the offer and hopefully even make a scene.

Which they could use to tarnish the family's reputation, painting them and those like them as little more than ill-bred peasants masquerading as nobles. But this small boy had interfered, taking the weight off of his parents' shoulders, and carrying the burden on his own. It was truly bewildering.

Before they could fully decide how to proceed, Bruno took the advantage, approaching the young girl, who was still hiding behind her mother. Bruno wore the most kind and childish façade he could possibly manage, as he grabbed hold of the girl's hands and smiled at her. All the while confirming the deal was done.

"So your name is Heidi? it is a pleasure to meet you my lady, my name is Bruno. We are to be married when we are older, so I hope you will take good care of me when that day comes!"

The girl was not nearly as articulate as Bruno was, as she was, after all, a normal child. But she broke out into tears when she saw how kind Bruno was treating her, and instinctively hugged him.

An act which shocked him. Bruno's first instinct was to pull away, but his mother looked at him with an affectionate gaze upon seeing his kindness. Ultimately compelling him to stay put while his young fiancee struggled to mutter the proper etiquette between her sobbing into his shoulder.

"I… I wi… I will be in your care…"

At first, Bruno did not understand why the girl was sobbing. But it took him all of a few seconds to process that this was perhaps the first time anyone had ever shown her any kindness in her life, and because of this he fully accepted the girl's gesture, albeit while at a total loss for words.

Though the Prince, on the other hand, was beginning to panic. He had long since lost control of the plot, and his anxiety continued to get worse until, of course, Bruno shifted his gaze towards him.

The boy mustered the most shit-eating grin he could manage, showing the Prince that this battle had ended in Bruno's victory. Causing the middle-aged man to damn near suffer a heart attack as he collapsed back onto the nearby desk. All the while struggling to breathe.

His mistress quickly began to panic, not showing the least bit of concern towards her daughter's emotional outburst, and instead checking to see if the man was alright.

"Your grace! Are you alright!?!"

Though he appeared to be on the brink of death. All it took was for the man to rationalize that he had been bested by a mere child in order for him to eventually recover from his panic attack.

He would ultimately recover his composure, after his embarrassing display, and storm out from the room entirely, leaving his mistress and their young daughter to follow shortly thereafter.

"You… I…. We're leaving!"

Heidi's mother pulled her away from Bruno, promising the girl that they would visit again before long. Whereas the girl would wipe the tears from her eyes and blush as she was dragged away by her mother, using all of her courage to wave goodbye with a forced smile to the boy who would one day be her husband when they both grew up.

As for Bruno, he waved back to the girl with a perfect smile. And once she and her family were out of range, his expression sank back to a cold and stoic visage where he sighed heavily before turning to his father, who gazed upon him with what appeared to be displeasure.

Bruno's father, having grown up among soldiers had a bad habit of breaking etiquette when he was angry with his family, and was quick to call his son out for being a scheming prick in the most vulgar of terms that would normally be ill-befitting of a noble Lord.

"You little shit… Just what are you planning?"

Bruno simply looked back at his father, remaining completely emotionless as he made a single statement before walking off.

"Nothing that you need to concern yourself with, father…"

After saying that, Bruno turned around and walked out the door. While his father collapsed in his seat and vented his frustrations to his wife.

"That little brat is going to be the death of me one day…"

As for Bruno's mother, she was filled with nothing but motherly affection towards her little genius who had rapidly become her favorite child, and rubbed her husband's shoulders while assuring the man that everything would be alright.

"On the contrary, our little boy just saved us a great deal of trouble…"

Ultimately, the Lord could not disagree with his wife's words. Had Bruno not been so quick thinking, and had not been willing to take a bullet for the family, then they could have ended up in real trouble. If Bruno was so capable at such a young age, then perhaps his father would have to pay more attention to him from here on out.

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Chương 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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