Tyranny of Steel

Vászoly Noemi was a young girl who had immigrated to the German Empire from her homeland of Hungary due to the efforts of her elder brother. Despite being apart from her family, she was not alone, as she had a guardian assigned to her, who was a young woman.

As part of the immigration requirements, this woman was seeking was now seeking a German husband, and had made some success in the matter. After all, despite being an illiterate peasant, she was a foreign beauty, who spoke the German tongue, and had many of the qualities that German men found attractive in a woman. 

This guardian was actually a young peasant woman by the name of Dudás Lilla who served as a maid to the noble born Noemi. As a result she was good at cooking, cleaning, sewing, and any number of talents that a wife was supposed to have according to the German ideal.

The girl's brother specifically selected Lilla to be her guardian because she looked after the young girl as if she were her own child. As a result, Lilla was provided with a monthly stipend from Noemi's family to look after the girl full time as they both pursued a life in the Reich.

Though it was a considerable sum, it was only enough to provide a middle class life for the two of them. Even so, they lived in a state of luxury and convenience that even the upper echelon of nobility within their home country would envy. 

At night, after putting the girl to bed, Lilla would go out to an upscale tavern and search for a wealthy husband. This is where she met her current lover, who was a wealthy German entrepreneur who was keeping her as a mistress for the time being. The man was even considering proposing to Lilla and taking her as one of his wives. 

As for the girl Noemi, she attended classes in the day, and learned valuable skills such as sewing, knitting, cleaning, cooking, etc. in the afternoon. She had lived in Germany for months, but only recently was able to attend classes at the prestigious Kufstein Royal Academy. Which was a public institution sponsored by the crown for raising the next generation of gifted children. 

The Royal Academy had three distinct campuses based on the age groups of the children. Naturally, as a thirteen-year-old girl, Noemi would be attending the Middle School. Where she just so happened to find herself in the same class as the eldest Prince of the Empire. 

She was curious about why such a young child was in such an advanced course. However, despite the age difference, she thought that Prince Hans was a little cutie, even though he had a standoffish temperament. Though Noemi treasured her old brother, she always secretly desired a cute little brother of her own. However, she was unfortunately not blessed with such a thing. When she first set her eyes on Hans, it was as if he was the physical manifestation of the perfect little brother she had always envisioned in her mind. 

Hans was intelligent, yet cold to strangers. However, he seemed to be very pleasant to those who he was accustomed to, such as his young fiancee Veronika, who visited the school often, just to bring the boy lunch. The reason Veronika was not present in the Royal Academy was that she attended an all girl's school that was equal in prestige. 

Noemi had been silently watching Hans for weeks now and, after formulating a proper evaluation of the boy and his character, she desired to approach him. She had come up with the perfect plan to do so. Thus, when  lunch period arrived, Noemi was quick to approach Hans before he could escape. She had a warm smile on her face as she cornered the boy at his desk. 

"Hello, your majesty..."

Hans was still looking at his textbook when he heard this, and was about to respond with the words "piss off" until he gazed up and saw the girl smiling at him. If there was one student Hans was aware of in his class, it was Noemi. Why was that? It was because she had started developing earlier than the other girls, and already had a decent size bust despite her age. She also had a pretty face and a warm demeanor. 

In fact, all the boys in the school were pining after her, but generally kept their distance as an unspoken agreement. Noemi was blissfully unaware of this fact, and had taken the opportunity to approach a boy of her own accord. Still, the boy she approached was the last person that the enviable youth would have expected. When Hans gazed upon Noemi's pretty face, his vicious words immediately caught in his throat, and he switched to a more friendly demeanor, albeit slightly so. 

"What do you want?" 

Noemi gazed upon the young boy with her shining violet eyes before swiping her fiery red bangs out of her face. She wore a deliberately bashful expression as she posed the question that dominated her mind.

"Well, you see... This morning I got carried away in the kitchen and ended up making two sandwiches by mistake. I was wondering if you wanted one?"

Hans stared at the girl with scrutiny. There was no way she could have made two sandwiches by mistake. Even if she had enough left over material for a second one, why would she pack it for lunch, unless she had an explicit intent?

The boy's mind worked differently than others, and he immediately suspected a hidden plot by the girl. Still, He could see the envy in the eyes of the boys in his class as Noemi approached him, and decided purely out of spite that he would agree to her request.

"Sure, I suppose I can spare some time."

Upon hearing this, Noemi practically jumped with joy as she expressed her happiness.

"Great, let's go to the cafeteria!"

With this said, the young girl began dragging Hans away from his desk by the hand. She led him to the lockers, where her sandwich was contained neatly in a mini cooler. After grabbing hold of her lunch, she led the boy to the cafeteria, where the two of them sat at Hans's normal table. 

Noemi quickly handed one of the sandwiches over to Hans with a smile on her face. She had worked hard preparing the food. Having observed the boy and his lunches for weeks on end, she noticed he seemed to enjoy a tuna and onion sandwich that was made on a sourdough roll.

Hans only ate these sandwiches on Tuesdays, and today was Thursday, which meant one of his mothers had packed a casserole that he enjoyed less than the tuna sandwich. When Hans saw the girl had prepared him his second favorite sandwich, his favorite being a tuna melt, he immediately question her intentions. It became obvious in this moment that she had been observing his behavior for some time, and was playing an angle. He just did not know what.

While the boy Prince was scrutinizing Noemi's actions, she immediately dug into the food with a pleasant smile on her face. She seemed to also enjoy the sandwich, thus putting Hans at ease. Though he could not say for certain whether the food was poisoned, it was a risk he was willing to take. Thus, he took a bite of the sandwich and found it to be pleasing.

He had to admit, the girl definitely had culinary talent. It was not easy to prepare tuna the way Hans most enjoyed. However, the girl's attempt was similar in composition to his mother's. Noemi noticed that Hans had a bit of tuna stuck on his mouth, and immediately pushed the boundaries of their newfound relationship.

"Oh, Hans, let me get that for you!"

Not only did she refer to him by his first name, but she also wiped the tuna off of his mouth with her finger, before eating it herself. The act of which caught Hans off guard. However, he did not despise the treatment he was receiving, and thus made no comment.  Upon seeing that the boy was not the talkative type, Naomi pressed him to speak up by directly asking how he felt about her sandwich.

"Do you like it?"

Hans nodded his head and spoke the words on his mind as he devoured the sandwich with gusto. 

"It's good, but mommy's tuna is better..."

This reaction caused Noemi to pout, as she lectured the boy on his rude remarks.

"Hans, You do know it is not polite to tell a girl who spent her precious time making a sandwich for you that her cooking is not as good as another woman's, right?"

This statement immediately stumped Hans, since when was he on such good terms with this girl? Still, she was pretty, and treated him well. Thus, he could only bow his head and apologize. Or so he was about to until the famous words of his father entered his mind.

"Hans, you may be a boy now, but one day you will be a man, and there is one piece of advice regarding women that I must give you, so that when the time comes, you can retain your dignity as a man. That advice is simply that you should never apologize to a woman. If you do it once, she will expect you to do it every time she thinks you're wrong. If she gets mad and leaves you, so be it. For men like us, there are plenty of women out there who would be happy to be with you."

Upon remembering this quote from his father, Hans immediately straightened his back and wore a proud expression as he revealed his thoughts on the matter.

"I was merely saying the truth. If it offends you, then we don't need to talk about this any further..."

This response caused Noemi to pout. This was not the answer she was expecting. Shouldn't this child behave like a cute little brother and apologize to his big sister for his misdeeds? She realized if she wanted Hans to be her precious little brother, then she needed to educate him thoroughly on manners. Thus the two of them spent the entire meal period passive aggressively arguing about manners and etiquette. A topic of which Hans found to be dreadfully boring.