Tyranny of Steel

The silence permeated throughout the stale air of the war room for some time before Berengar finally voiced his concerns over the upcoming period with an impassioned speech.

"Gentlemen, we are at the dawn of a new era! The invasion from the Bavarians has brought us an unforeseen opportunity. Vienna is under siege, and the Habsburg Dynasty is nearing its end. If we take advantage of this upheaval to rescue the youngest member of the Dynasty from the predicament he finds himself in; we will be able to benefit from this crisis and establish a government in exile, with our County at the center of the resistance! Imagine a new Austria with Tyrol at the core of its power! For this vision of the future to become a reality, I need every one of you to seize this opportunity that lies before us! For a Greater Austria!"

Every man within the war room of the headquarters of the Department of Defense was an ambitious man, at least to the point that they were eager to follow Berengar in his future conquests, not a single one of them were displeased with this plan that would allow their liege to usurp the Duchy of Austria in the future. As such, when Berengar finished his speech, it was met with the battle cry of the Tyrolean Army from all of the officers present.

"God with us!"

Seeing the officers pound their chests in a unified salute and scream the battle cry of his army, Berengar was pleased; it would appear that the core of his officers had taken his side in the upcoming conflict. Though Berengar did not doubt their loyalty, he was an exceptionally cautious man and had to prepare for the event that he would be betrayed; as such, he was closely examining every member of his staff before nodded his head in approval.  After witnessing the scene of his officers come to terms with his plan, Berengar pointed towards Vienna on the map before sharing his and Linde's plan with the high-ranking officers who made up the core of his military hierarchy.

"Our agents have long since infiltrated Vienna's Castle when the City falls and the Castle with it, we predict that Duke Dietger of Bavaria will butcher any potential rivals to his claim over Bavaria, and as such we will smuggle Conrad out of the Castle of Vienna where we will coerce him into making myself Regent, while we work towards restoring the Habsburg Dynasty to power over Austria. In name only, of course, the real power behind the Throne will be me as Regent, and by extension all of you as Officers in my Army. You all do not need to worry about this operation's success as it is left to the Department of Intelligence; as for your jobs, it will be to ensure that our forces are prepared and amassed at our Eastern border for the three-prong invasion through Salzburg, Kärnten, and Upper Austria! After we have seized those regions, we will rally with the forces of Steiermark and march on the Bavarians in Lower Austria, which will allow us to seize Vienna, and declare our war a victory."

Hearing Berengar's plan for invading Eastern Austria and reclaiming it, the Officers were all impressed. By the time they were able to invade Bavarian-Occupied Austria, they would have roughly 30,000 men. They would be able to split their army into three Divisions of 10,000 Men each to advance on the three locations, each Division would have enough firepower to successfully defeat any army they might come across.

The strategy itself was planned by Berengar, considering Eckhard was currently overseeing the forces stationed in Kitzbühel, the young Count had to design the operation entirely by himself, and as an avid strategy gamer from his past life, he was more than capable of devising an invasion plan such as this. The officers comprised of the core of his military hierarchy all agreed with the strategy, and though a few of them added some minor inputs, the invasion plan was mainly complete. As such, after a thorough discussion, the Officers were eventually dismissed, and Berengar found himself alone in the war room staring at the map. One day soon, Austria would be his, and his plans for unifying Germany into a Greater German Empire would be one step closer to reality.

After looking over his battle plans one more time, Berengar rolled up the map and stashed it away, where he then left the headquarters of the department of defense and returned to his Castle, where Linde and Henrietta were waiting patiently for him to attend dinner. The moment Berengar sat down at the head of the table, he overheard Linde's feminine voice call out to him.

"So, how did the War Council go?"

Upon hearing these words Berengar smirked, before tussling Linde's silky red-gold hair. Afterward, he took a sip out of the doppelbock beer, filled in his skull chalice before responding.

"You do not need to worry so much; everything is going according to the plan. Soon enough, we will rule this land."

Henrietta, of course, had no idea what the young couple was conspiring about this time, nor did she care. Instead, she spoke up voluntarily for the first time in a while with a broad smile on her face.

"I made a friend today!"

Hearing Henrietta openly declare such a thing brought a great sense of surprise to both Berengar and Linde, who had not expected her to make a friend so quickly after they had given her advice. They thought it would take a while before Henrietta would leave her comfort zone and approach the other girls in her class. As such, Berengar immediately took a sip from his chalice before replying to Henrietta.

"I am glad to hear it, so who is this little friend of yours?"

Henrietta was all too eager to announce her friend's name and how they met; as such, she quickly began to spit out the events of what happened as rapidly as machine gunfire. Not that such a thing existed in this world.

"Her name is Charlotte, and she is the daughter of one of the soldiers in your army! We met at lunch when I overheard her talking about how her father always brags about your victories in battle and how he was a part of them! So I told her you were not always the bold commander you are today and how you used to be a sickly, foolish boy! She was eager to hear about your past, so we talked throughout the lunch period about how you used to be and how you changed!"

Berengar nearly choked on his beer when he overheard Henrietta informing her friends of his embarrassing past, Linde. On the other hand, she was smirking at Berengar's misfortune and began to encourage Henrietta to continue with her behavior.

"That's good, Henrietta; I remember when I first heard of your brother years ago, the rumors that were flowing about then was that he would not live to be twenty, and he spent most of his days idling about and throwing childish tantrums every time something did not go his way..."

Berengar glared at Linde when she reminded him of the original host of his current body; every time he looked back on those memories, he began to cringe at the old Berengar's immature behavior and dull mindset. If he had not reincarnated in this body, that fool would have ended up dying anyway, and Berengar would never be able to achieve anything significant in life. Luckily for him, he was able to reinvent his image through many difficulties, that is.  As such, the younger generation was utterly unaware of his original reputation, despite it roughly being a year since his massive change in behavior.

After listening to the two girls criticize his past, Berengar coughed a little before addressing Henrietta's conversation about him with her friend Charlotte.

"Henrietta, my dear sister..."

Henrietta perked up her head like a bit of meerkat when she heard Berengar address her in such a manner.

"Yes?"

Berengar took another sip from his beer before finishing his train of thought; the whole scenario vexed him.

"If you love me as your brother, you will do best not to remind people of my embarrassing past..."

Linde chuckled as she witnessed Berengar's pained expression; as for Henrietta, she was confused; after all, Berengar was the one who encouraged her to talk about information most people did not know about him to the other girls in an attempt to make friends. However, she quickly realized she might have wounded Berengar's pride as the Count of Tyrol and began to pout before nodding her head in agreement.

"Okay, I will only say the good things about your past from now on!"

Seeing that Henrietta had agreed to his request, Berengar smiled gratefully before reaching across the table and patting Henrietta's little head while praising her.

"Good girl!"

This action, of course, brought a gentle smile to Henrietta's face as she basked in the affection of her dearest older brother. Linde, of course, would not miss the opportunity to make fun of Berengar and quickly muttered under her breath.

"Lolicon..."

This statement instantly disrupted Berengar's actions and brought a frown to his face. As such, he withdrew his hand from Henrietta's glossy golden blonde hair before awkwardly digging into his meal. After which Henrietta began to pout at Linde for disrupting her moment, the meal continued in awkward silence as the trio enjoyed the gourmet cuisine made for them by the talented chefs of Berengar's Castle.