Chapter 326: Petty Gossip
After the retirement of Bruno’s father, both from politics and the family business, his children had replaced him in both regards. In the theater of politics, his son Ludwig had taken over the patriarch of the house’s role.
But when it came to the family business the eldest son of the family and presumed heir of the house had been granted that privilege. Franz however was a man known for spending most of his time abroad operating as a glorified salesman. Stay connected via
And in doing so, leaving control over the company’s day-to-day operations to his younger brother Christoph. Christoph, being the second oldest of Bruno’s brothers had little interaction with our protagonist when he was very little.
Because of this, their bond as brothers was not the strongest. But while the man held no real love for his youngest sibling, he also had no animosity towards him. Bruno was a pillar of the house, and sure there had been some controversy early on with his morganatic marriage, but these matters had long since been settled.
By Bruno’s own hand, he had made his wife a legitimate princess, and recently a step above with the title Grand Princess. Sure, these were foreign titles, and one of them was quite literally landed, but in the world of nobility that didn’t actually matter.
The title itself was what was valuable, not where one might be a Prince or princess from. Hence why Heidi’s new position needed to be respected above everything else.
She was quite literally of a noble house now, and not just married into one, but helped found one with Heidi as the wife of its head. That, of course, being the recently established branch of the von Zehntner family Bruno established in Transylvania to distinguish his line of succession from his father’s.
This, of course, created some minor difficulties for Christoph as he now needed to treat his youngest brother as a superior. Something that he had no personal qualms with, as he had enough self-awareness to recognize how exceptional Bruno’s deeds had been in life, and how much more valuable the man was to the German Reich than himself.
But Christoph’s wife on the other hand did not like the idea of bowing her head to the "Bastard princess of Transylvania."
A nickname that only dared to be uttered by the petty and jealous hags who conceived it in private. Even their husbands were not privy to the title they had "bestowed" upon Heidi whom they held so much contempt for if not simply because she shined much brighter than their own mediocrity despite being of lower birth.
Humans were, after all tribalistic by nature. And astonishingly could form a tribal identity from just about anything. Whether that be the family they were related to, the nation they were born into, the religion they chose to follow, or sometimes even their favorite sports team.
One could simply observe human behavior, and be astounded at all the nonsense that came from it if they simply sat by and watched long enough. And if they were to do so, they would notice a peculiar phenomenon where the most mediocre of a tribal identity would often claim to be of a superior status in life because of the collective achievements of their tribe, rather than anything they had personally accomplished.