Tyranny of Steel

In the middle of the German Aerial Warfare Academy's cafeteria, a pretty young blonde woman sat alone while staring at the contents contained within one of the nation's more popular tabloids. An image of herself seated on the back of the German Prince's motorcycle was plastered across the front page, along with a scandalous headline.

"Is the Princess of Bavaria Prince Hans's new side piece?" 

It took significant effort on Anne's part not to scowl at this piece of trash. However, she maintained a pretty face, albeit a stern one, while waiting for her boyfriend to arrive. After all, the last thing she needed was to be scowling when Hans finally sat down next to her.

Despite her facade, the moment Hans arrived at the table with a tray in his hands, he immediately noticed that Anne was in a sour mood, and thus he was quick to inquire just what had caused her to be so angry.

"Anne, what's wrong?"

The Princess of Bavaria remained silent, and instead handed the tabloid over to the boy, which quickly caused him to smirk. A confident expression was on Hans's handsome, yet youthful face as he was quick to console his girl. 

"Is this it? So what? Isn't this a good thing? Now that news is spreading about our relationship, that fat sack of crap will come into the limelight. In fact, if I really wanted to, I could get my mother to manipulate the media to expose his sinful behavior. Once everything he has done is in the public eye, Prince of Saxony or not, he will be in hot water."

Anne merely sighed as she nodded her head. She understood that this would undoubtedly help expose her fiancee's cruelty, and in doing so might actually get her out of the betrothal her father had forced upon her. However, she still found fault with the headline, and was quick to express her grievances.

"Is this all that I am to you? Just a side piece?"

It astounded the young Prince that the woman had taken such offense to what was clearly a salacious headline designed to attract the audience from a quick glance. Even so, there was a clear expression of discontent on Anne's face, which caused Hans to grab hold of her hand and comfort her with his words.

"Of course not. I already told you, once my betrothal to that bitch is broken, I will gladly take your hand in marriage as one of my lawful wives. I'm not like my father. I have no intention of keeping several mistresses despite having four wives. Five women are more than enough for me to be happy."

If Anne had grown up in the previous generation, she would have found that statement laughable. However, she was raised for the most part in the polygamous society that Berengar had created. As a result, the idea of one man having several wives was as normal to her as having breakfast every morning. 

As for the concept of mistresses or concubines, whatever one might call them, it was not exactly a normal practice in the Reich. However, as the Kaiser, Berengar could pretty much do whatever he wanted, thus he kept a few women on the side.

This was something that Hans took exception to, believing these women, aside from his aunt Henrietta, were unworthy of his father's time and energy.  In fact, Hans sighed in lament when he thought about the idea of his father taking another mistress. Which he could not help but express his thoughts on.

"I heard that my father took another foreign beauty into his harem. This time, it was the princess of the Golden Horde. Apparently, it was part of his negotiations with her that she bear his child. I can't help but think that my father intends to seat his own offspring on all the world's major thrones."

Anne scoffed at this remark. Her first instinct was to deny it, frankly, because it was ludicrous. However, when she thought about it more clearly, Berengar had taken wives and concubines from across the world. The Sultan of Al-Andalus was his own child, and the heir to the throne of Byzantium was another one of his sons. 

It would be no exaggeration to say, with the right amount of scheming, the future Emperor of India would also be a child of Berengar. The same could be said for the Majapahit Empire. Now the princess of the Golden Horde had fallen into the man's clutches as well? 

Upon further inspection, all the petty kingdoms in Europe had at least one of their princesses engaged to one of Berengar's sons. Those who didn't would actually be ruled over by one of the German Princes when they finally came of age. 

After several moments of awkward silence, Anne stared at Hans with a gawking expression. She could hardly believe it, but the more she thought about it, the more this theory turned out to be true. She could only shake her head and sigh before expressing her thoughts on the matter.

"Your father is truly unfathomable. Such a scheme is nigh impossible, and yet in a hundred years every Kingdom and Empire in this world will be ruled by members of your father's dynasty. If you had not said a thing about this, I never would have expected it..."

Hans scoffed when he heard this before shifting his gaze to Anne. There was a look of fear in his eyes as he murmured his thoughts beneath his breath. 

"I highly doubt this is my father's doing. There's only one person in this world with the cunning and lascivious nature to even concoct such a massive conspiracy, and that would be my mother. No disrespect to my father, but I doubt he would even think of such a thing without my mother whispering it into his ears."

When Anne heard this, she did not know how to react. She could not fathom why any woman would want her husband to go around impregnating other women. In fact, she was quick to disagree with Hans's assessment.

"No, that doesn't make sense. What would Linde possibly get out of such a thing? After all, these are not her children who will be ruling over the world, but her husband's."

A bitter smile emerged on Hans' lips as he shook his head in disagreement before arguing his point. When he did so, a look of shock appeared on Anne's face, as well as a flush of embarassment.

"You don't know my mother very well, do you? First and foremost, the woman can be incredibly petty, possibly more than anyone else on the planet. Though she was elevated to the level of Empress, she was born a lowly count's daughter.

I don't doubt for one second that she gets some form of sick joy, watching the man she chose, deflower, and taint those noble princesses, taking them as mere concubines, rather than giving them the wedding ring they would surely get with any other man.

Second, my mother is what you might call a cuckquean. She derives pleasure from watching the man she loves be intimate with other women. In fact, the entire Royal Harem is her brainchild. You have no idea what levels of degeneracy my father gets up to with his wives and concubines, and my mother is the mastermind of it all. 

Third, and most importantly, my mother is fiercely devoted to my father. She loves him more than anything in this world. I mean, she practically worships the man as her god. Naturally, because of this, she wants nothing more than to help him accomplish his goals in whatever way she can.

Building an Empire that will last a thousand years is something my father has already set the foundations for. But making that Empire rule above all others as the world's only superpower? That requires a level of stability that can only result from all the world's leaders sharing a common lineage. My father's lineage."

After hearing all of this, Anne could no longer look Hans in the eye. She felt like she had learned more about the boy's mother than she ever wanted to. To think that the stunning and beautiful Kaiserin who she always looked up to actually had such a fetish, it was something she had never expected.  However, after thinking about this for some time, Anne had one question on her mind, which she was compelled to ask. 

"I'm sorry, but how do you know all this about your mother?"

Hans simply sighed and shook his head before answering the girl with a defeated expression on his face.

"I'm a keen observer. Let's leave it at that..."

Though this only created more questions for the girl. She decided to leave the topic be, fearing that if she delved further, she would discover something even more intense than she had already heard. 

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