The next few days of Bruno’s visit to Saint Petersburg were roughly the same. The man and his family were free to walk about Saint Petersburg’s streets and enjoy all it had to offer. While at the same time, they would return to the Tsar’s Palace in the evening and witness an even greater number of Russian Noblemen and their families gathering.
Bruno became acquainted with many, many people during this time. He quickly was able to categorize them into two groups. Men who he could make use of to expand his ambitions of extracting raw materials from Russia for the sake of his own industrial exploits.
And those who were completely and utterly useless to him and his goals. The more noblemen Bruno met, however, the more he was starting to realize why revolution was a matter of inevitability within the Russian Empire.
Russia’s population was large, much larger than most countries in the world. As was their territory. Considering their history was almost as old as Germany’s, in addition to this, it explained why there were over a million people in Russia who could be considered being of noble status.
With so many noblemen, many of which had been among Russia’s social elite for centuries, there were a lot of wastrels among them. This was in contrast to the German noble system, which had largely embraced meritocracy, especially in regards to military and scientific pursuits since the end of the Napoleonic wars.
In contrast, Russia only ended its system of serfdom in the previous century, and not in the early years of it at that. They were decades behind their western counterparts in many aspects of society. Including the concept of meritocracy becoming a widespread phenomenon.
This was, however, an even greater concern that Bruno quickly realized he had to deal with. And that was the idiotic, young, and unmarried sons of those noble families who could not for the life of them keep their eyes off his wife, or their more malicious intentions hidden from their lust filled gazes.
In Germany, Bruno seldom had to worry about noblemen desiring Heidi, or making an inappropriate move to snatch her away from him. As beautiful as she was, she was of the lowest status possible among the German nobility.
She was the bastard daughter of a German mediatized Prince, who had married into the lowest rungs of the noble hierarchy. And though Bruno didn’t realize it at first, his wife was a bona fide princess in Russia, and that meant a lot to those ignorant degenerates who would do anything to try to raise their status, well, anything other than actually proving their merit.
Heidi’s exceptional social skills did not help with this matter either. She was as graceful as a butterfly, and had always helped Bruno save face among the nobles of the German Reich, as he was known for a rather anti-social personality.
Because of this, Bruno found himself having a hard time balancing his actions, especially when the day for the Grand Ball finally came, where the Tsar’s palace was packed with thousands of noblemen and their families.
Not only did he need to entertain the Tsar, who constantly wanted his “champion” by his side to display the might of the House of Romanov, and the Field Marshals beneath its command. Entirely forgetting to mention the fact that Bruno’s role as a Russian Field Marshal had become an honorary title after he returned to active service in the German Reich.
But Bruno also needed to keep an eye on his wife, and his children as well. All of which were at different locations in the Tsar’s banquet hall where the guests were currently all enjoying alcohol and hors d’oeuvres to their hearts’ contents.
Eventually, Bruno found himself in a situation where he simply could not control himself. After wandering away, to entertain another of the guests the Tsar wanted to introduce him to, Heidi found herself alone, but not for long. She was quickly approached by some drunken sod, who was the third prince of a duke.
You see, if there was one thing you could count on in this world, it was the fact that drunken fools would always act the part. And alcohol had a way of convincing you to do things that were incredibly unwise. Especially if you really wanted to do them.
Thus this man, this champion of the intellectual pursuits, boldly approached Heidi, and tried to make a move on her. A move she was quick to rebuff. After all, her loyalty to her husband was unquestionable. As was often the case with obsessive possessive types like herself.
The idea of even remotely entertaining conversation with another man without her husband being present was simply not a thought that would cross her mind. However, the moment she told the man, she was not interested, in the most polite of terms, albeit with sinister undertones. He grew angry.
Perhaps it was the severe intoxication that led to his, shall we say, lack of emotional control. But his shouting had caught the attention of the entire room. Including, of course, Bruno, who quickly walked over and got between this third son of some Duke or another, and Heidi, rather forcefully pushing the man away as he did so.
“Sir… I’m going to have to ask you to back away from my wife, and never show your presence in my face, or that of my family again…”
It did not take long for the Tsar and this young man’s father to notice what was happening. It was, after all, a giant scene that everyone was witnessing. Bruno’s reputation as the Red Scourge was practically known across all of Europe at this point. Especially in Russia. To say that he had a reputation for being capable and merciless with his enemies was an understatement.
Because of this, the Tsar and the Duke who had sired this rotten offspring were quick to intervene before anything bad could happen. After all, Bruno was someone who was better off not being provoked into violence.
And because of this, The Duke was quick to push his son away, and slap him across the face, while scolding him in front of the entirety of the Russian peerage, or at least the many members who were present for this ball.
“Have you any sense, boy? Do you have the slightest clue whose woman you are trying to abscond with right now, you shameful brat? Apologize to the Prince this instant!”
Tsar Nicholas II was meanwhile trying to soothe Bruno’s anger, who quickly checked on his wife to see if she was harmed in any way. It was only after Heidi said she remained entirely unharmed that the Tsar sighed in relief. That was until Bruno said the words that made him lose his breath.
“That’s good. Stand right here while I go put a bullet in the brain of this little shit!”
Heidi looked excited at the prospect of Bruno taking up arms in her defense for the second time. While the Tsar quickly got in his way to stop him from murdering a Russian nobleman in his palace. After all, when it came to Bruno’s family, he was not the kind of many to consider the laws of man. At least not until he could calm down and rationalize the situation.
Luckily for him, the Tsar reminded Bruno that this was not the battlefield where he could simply execute men who disobeyed his orders on the spot. And Burno quickly remembered where he was, and what the situation was.
“Woah, woah, woah, Bruno. I know this young man has offended you greatly. But you have to remember where you are right now. If you kill my guest in the middle of my palace, there will be nothing I can do to protect you. Think this through! I am sure there are some other satisfactory means that can be had to compensate you for this offense!”
After hearing this, Bruno quickly realized exactly the situation he was in, and instantly conspired against this young man in the worst way possible, no doubt taking meaning from the Tsar’s words that were not intended. He looked over at the young man who was forced to bow his head by his father, and who was sobbing on his knees while apologizing to the man he should have offended.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, sir, please forgive me! I didn’t—”
Before he could finish his statement, Bruno looked at the young man with a murderous gaze before asking him a simple question.
“How old are you, boy?”
The young man was quivering, barely able to get his words out without stumbling over them as he answered honestly to the man known far and wide by numerous fearsome titles which he had earned in battle.
“I’m seventeen, sir!”
Bruno quickly nodded his head in approval. Unfortunately for the young man, it was not a nod of forgiveness, but rather one of condemnation as he turned to the Tsar and issued his price for “mercy.”
“Send him to the army. He will pay for his transgressions against my family by shedding his blood for the motherland…”
Luckily for the Tsar, the boy’s father while a Duke was not a nobleman of any significance. It was an no brainer who to side with in this incident, especially since the intoxicated young man had done something woefully inappropriate at the worst time possible, to the worst person possible.
As a result, he nodded his head and conscripted the young man in the Russian Army on the spot for a term of four years. Unfortunately for this boy, he would not live that long. While Bruno’s title as Field Marshal in the Russian Army was nothing more than honorary at this point in time. There were many members among its officer corps who had served beneath Bruno during the Russian Civil War, whose respect for the man bordered on the fanaticism.
Bruno did not even need to send a single word to these men, and they would make this foolish young Duke’s life a living hell throughout his service. To the point where he chose to end it all via suicide not six months after being sent to the Army.
It was a grim reminder to the nobility of Russia that messing with Bruno and his family was a death sentence. Especially when he had the favor of the Tsar.
