Tyranny of Steel



Today was a day like any other. As the years passed by, and Berengar became older, his own children's families started to age as well. By now, Helga had a large family of her own, and decided to spend the weekend with her parents at their lakeside estate. 

Hallstatt was a secluded town, one with little living space. But it was a beautiful town, nonetheless. It was almost like a dream retirement spot for many people. While Helga and her husband were speaking with her parents, two of her children had secretly wondered off through the town to see what life in such a quiet and quaint place was really like. 

Helga's eldest son was a boy in his early teenage years, who looked very much like her uncle Hans did when he was the boy's age. In fact, he had actually been named after Hans, and because of this, he walked around with pride. 

Since Berengar's retirement, Kaiser Hans von Kufstein had worked effortlessly for the Reich to maintain its position as the global powerhouse while expanding their borders and wealth. He was almost as popular among the German people as Berengar was. 

And little Hans took pride in this. He was currently walking around the town of Hallstatt with one of his little sisters by his side. The girl was roughly twelve years old and was as adorable as Helga was when she was her age. Her name was Gertrude, and she was among the favorite of Linde's grand children. 

However, while little Hans was haggling with a street merchant for a souvenir, the young girl got distracted by a beautiful bird and wandered off from the safety of her brother's protection. Eventually, she found herself alone in the streets where a three old men were sitting on the sidewalk while getting drunk. 

They had no idea that the little redheaded girl was a member of the esteemed von Kufstein Dynasty, but these were men who had grown up in the medieval age, where a twelve-year-old girl was considered an adult. And thus, they approached Gertrude while intoxicated, seeing if they could take advantage of the gorgeous young girl, who was all alone. 

The moment Gertrude saw the lecherous looks on the old drunk's faces, she began to panic, and quickly ran away, but unfortunately for her, her long dress made this very difficult. Of course, the men chased after the girl, where she began to scream for her brother. But he was nowhere to be found. 

"Hans! Hans! Help me! Somebody Help me!" 

Unfortunately, nobody was nearby to save Gertrude, or so it appeared, and because of this, the men quickly tackled her to the ground while pulling at her dress. All the while shooshing her screams. 

"Shhhh girl, don't be so loud, or we won't be gentle. You really have wondered into the wrong part of town. It's almost as if you were asking for this!" 

Just when the men were about to finally tear off Gertrude's dress, a loud gunshot rang in the air. Which spooked the men to their feet. Little Hans stood no more than five meters away with his hand raised in the air while holding a handgun.

He then pointed his weapon at the three old men, who nearly shit their pants when they saw this. However, rather than immediately killing the men, little Hans's hands were shaking. He was a fourteen-year-old boy who had been raised in an era of peace, and because of this, he had never killed anyone before. 

Despite the fear he had on his face, Hans did not hesitate to fire a second shot, which hit one of the men in the shoulder. The moment this happened, the other two men grabbed hold of their wounded friend and ran off. Leaving Hans and Gertrude in a state of bewilderment. 

It took Hans several seconds to realize he should be looking after his little sister, and when he did, he immediately helped her back to the estate. Unbeknownst to the three would be rapists, they had just incurred the wrath of a sleeping giant.

---

After returning to the Villa where their family was currently staying, Berengar and Linde were horrified to hear that their granddaughter had experienced something so traumatic, and while the girl's mother and father began to comfort her, Erich took his wife aside, and said something to her with a murderous glint in his eyes. 

"I want these men to disappear, along with their families. Do you understand me?" 

A sadistic smirk appeared on Linde's lips, as she responded to her husband as if his request was the most obvious thing on the planet.

"Don't worry, dear, I will make sure their entire bloodline is punished for this offense." 

After saying this, Linde walked away and made one phone call. The phone call was natural to the new director of Imperial Intelligence, who was immediately shocked to hear Linde's voice on the phone. But after hearing about what had happened to Gertrude, she narrowed her eyes with a chilling gaze before responding with one simple sentence.

"It will be done...." 

The web of German Imperial Intelligence spread across the entire world, there was nothing that happened in this world that they did not know about, and because of this, they were real quick to find out the identities of the men who had attacked the young princess. 

Immediately, the agents of Imperial Intelligence were dispatched across the fatherland, not only to arrest the perpetrators but also to drag their families off for an immediate execution. Berengar and Linde did not mess around when it came to avenging their family, an attack on one of them, was an attack on all of them. And only the families of those who were responsible could possibly sate this desire for blood. 

Even if the public were to find out about what had happened, they would agree with the Reich's decision to punish the entire blood line. The von Kufsteins had the blood of a living saint residing inside of them, which meant they were damn near the equivalent of gods in the flesh. 

To tarnish the such divine beings with such sinful action meant that blood needed to be spilled. And the lives of the three men responsible were not nearly enough to appease the gods or their wrath. Of course Imperial Intelligence was very discreet, and rounded up the members of the perpetrators' families one by one, over time, and during the dead of night, to avoid making national headlines about a matter which the von Kufstein family wanted to remain private. 

In the end, a total of 76 lives were lost, as a result of the three old lechers' actions. The youngest being a boy roughly the age of little Hans. And while this one final act of fury on behalf of Berengar and his Spider Queen went entirely unnoticed by the public, it served as a reminder to those people who did know about it, that the von Kufstein family reigned supreme within the Reich, and if you dared lay your hands on one of them, it would not only be your head which rolled. 

A lesson which many had seemed to have forgotten during this age of relative peace. After all, it had been many years since Berengar burned Algeria to ash in retaliation for a man daring to strike his favorite daughter. Had these old lechers been foreign monarchs, you could bet that their realms would also have suffered a similar fate.