Re: Blood and Iron-Chapter 406: The Weight of Names
The chapel bell rang out across the winter courtyard of the Potsdam Youth Academy, its sharp tools echoing against the stone walls and frozen barracks. Snow clung to the corners of them. Untouched and silent, much like Erwin von Zehntner, as he sat alone on the stone bench beneath the statue of Saint Maurice, his collar drawn up high against the chill wind.
Fourteen years old, already taller than most of his peers, he wore the cadet grey of the Imperial Military Academy's youth corps. The fabric, pristine and pressed, bore the insignia of House von Zehntner over the heart—a silver wolf rampant beneath the Iron Cross.
A symbol he had grown to resent.
His gloved hands clutched the letter tighter. He'd read it three times already, each time more painfully than the last. Alya's handwriting was graceful, even when weighed down with sorrow.
Though they had been married for less than a year at this point, her words, written poetically echoed a true sentiment, one born by every soldier's wife in history. She missed him. She said the house felt too large without him.
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That she had grown accustomed to falling asleep to the sound of his quiet breathing beside her, and now silence gnawed at her like winter rats in the rafters. He had read those words and felt his chest tighten in a way no drill or sparring match had ever inflicted.
Cadet life was not what he expected. The uniforms, the formations, the lectures on Clausewitz and Frederick the Great—those were all as Father had said. But the pressure... the weight of expectation... that had not been in any letter or spoken word from the man who stood taller than any statue of Germania herself.
Bruno von Zehntner was more than a father. He was the man who saved Germany. The man who carved a new world order with blood and iron. A living legend. And Erwin was his son. Not just any son, but the first. The heir. The one whose name already passed lips in every officer's mess from Berlin to Königsberg.
And yet... He didn't want it. Not like this. For years he had tried to distance himself from the expectation those had of him. Thinking he would be the next alpha in a dynasty of wolves. But the more spectacular Bruno became, the more Erwin expected to fill the footprints he left behind.
It was a crushing realization, one that Erwin understood was not his father's fault, nor his own inadequacy for that matter, displaying remarkable maturity and resilience for his age. He just knew that with the way things were headed, the path of the military officer may not have been what he thought all those years ago, when be begged his mother to let him become a cadet.
But these thoughts were instantly stirred by the creaking of the floorboards. Erwin heard footsteps approach. Not boots—they were lighter, softer. He didn't need to look to know who it was. Only one person in the academy knew to look for him in this secluded corner.
Konrad Albrecht. His roommate. Son of a merchant, grandson of a decorated artillery officer. Loyal, simple, and honest to a fault.
"You're missing mess again,"
Konrad said, standing above him, exhaling mist in the frigid air.
Erwin didn't answer. He only folded the letter and placed it back into his coat pocket with the care of someone handling fragile glass. Konrad eyed him.
"Another one from her?"
Erwin nodded.
"I thought cadets weren't supposed to marry," Konrad muttered, not critically, just stating the obvious as if wondering aloud.
"Special exception," Erwin said flatly. "Father arranged it with the Tsar's blessing. Alya's family... well, you know."
"I don't know much, only what you have told me.... She was an orphan who your father's friend, Generalleutnant Heinrich von Koch, picked up and adopted while they were in Russia together during the revolution leading the Iron Division all those years ago.
From what you have told me, she's not even of noble birth, and is quite a few years older than you, so why would the Kaiser and the Tsar approve such an unorthodox marriage in the first place?"
Erwin did not immediately respond to this line of questioning. It was not like he could reveal his father's grand plans to unite the Hohenzollerns, Romanovs, and potentially even the Habsburgs using the women of their family as the glue that stuck them together.
No, this wasn't yet public knowledge, and because of this fact he finally stood, brushing snow from his trousers. He looked out over the parade ground where younger cadets were marching under the watchful eye of a crimson-nosed instructor barking cadence. Changing the subject to something else entirely, something more deeply personal than the machinations of noblemen far above his own status.
"She's all I think about, Konrad. No tactics. Not bayonet form. Just her. Her smile. The way she looks at me when I read to her. The way she touches my hand when I'm troubled."
Konrad nodded slowly, a deep look of understanding on his face, but also something else was mixed in subtly behind his smile, envy... Though he did not reveal this fact as he spoke with a comforting tone to his clearly distressed friend.
"You miss her."
The remark Erwin made was brief, but beyond expectation.
"I need her."
Konrad shifted, unsure what to say. But before he could muster an appropriate response, Erwin had settled his resolve, boldly declaring the path he now saw blazed before him.
"I'm thinking of leaving."
Those words hung in the cold air like a thunderclap.
"Leaving the academy?"
Erwin nodded once.
Konrad stepped forward, his voice urgent.
"Erwin, if you do that, there's no coming back. You know that. The Kaiser himself signs off on the senior cadet rolls. You'll be branded a disappointment, not just to the army but to your father."
Contrary to what Konrad was saying, and the truth within it, Erwin knew his father better than most, perhaps only his mother, and the man's closest friends truly understood him better. Because of this there wasn't anxiety, or even fear in his eyes, but a subtle smirk, one of relief as his words echoed this expression.
"Perhaps it would be better that way..."
Konrad took the meaning of these words entirely different from how Erwin had meant them, immediately becoming quite urgent as he approached the young man trying to convince him out of the path he seemed dead set on walking.
"You don't mean that. You have worked so hard these past few years! Harder than anyone! Are you really going to throw it all away now?"
Erwin's voice was cold, devoid of passion, anxiety, or least of all intimidation. They we words he spoke were a statement of fact, and nothing more, as he made one last comment before no longer entertaining the discussion.
"Don't I?"
After which Erwin turned away from his friend, eyes glinting with a fire that hadn't been there a moment ago.
"You wouldn't understand Konrad... You don't understand my father, or my family... And quite honestly, I'm only starting to understand the truth myself... This... All of this.... Was totally unecessary, it was my own desire to be like my father, when all he ever wanted for me was a peaceful life. And I think it's about time I honor that desire...."
Konrad opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Footsteps again. Heavier this time. Both boys turned. A man approached from the far end of the courtyard, dressed in a dark woolen greatcoat, gloved hands behind his back, hair streaked with silver. Eyes like ice. Bruno.
He had arrived without escort, as he often did when visiting unannounced. The cadets standing post at the front gates knew better than to question the Wolf of Prussia. Konrad stepped back and saluted. Bruno gave him a nod.
"Leave us."
Konrad vanished. Bruno looked at his son, who stood straighter now, but was no less defiant.
"It would appear my suspicions were correct. When I last saw you, you appeared to be wavering in conviction. Truthfully, I had hoped you would come to me first, before making such a decision."
Bruno said quietly.
"You heard?"
Bruno's expression softened, from as rigid as hardened steel, to as soft ass gelatin. He placed his gloved hand on his son's shoulder, and made a slight remark, one intended to ease the tension between them.
"There are few things that happen within these hallowed halls that don't eventually reach my ears. I wouldn't be a very good father if I ignored your development entirely now would I? The truth is I have been aware of your struggles for some time.
I understand how hard it must have been for you, everyone expecting you to be greater than I ever was. And I won't lie, you do have the potential to surpass me, but Erwin... This is never the life I wanted for you, or you brothers for that matter.
Our family line was forged in blood and iron, from the battlefield of waterloo, to the unification of the German Reich, every male successor to the von Zehntner name has served the Reich in exemplary fashion.
But it's an old tradition, it's not necessary for you to lift up a rifle and fight on some foreign battlefield far away from this home. A new era is coming, and I will still be around to carry the sword in your stead.
If you have truly decided that this is the path you must follow, then go, be with your wife, start a family, become an educated man who wields his wealth and power for the betterment of the people.
You can be what I can never be, a man of conscience and chivalry. There will come a day when Germany no longer needs a wolf at its borders to tear those who threaten it limb from limb.
And when that day comes our nation will need you to be the man to guide it into a truly peaceful, prosperous, and secure era. Go home Erwin, you don't need to follow me in my footsteps. You are your own man, and a better one than I will ever be..."
After saying this Bruno didn't say another word, he threw up one last salute to his son, which was the inverse of the order of things should be considering the man's rank and status, and after his son had returned it he walked off, away from the Academy where neither he, nor Erwin would step foot in again.
