Chapter 327: Dead and Buried Part I
Christoph was not a fool, he was aware that Bruno’s rapid rise to prominence both in the Imperial German Army, and among the aristocratic class had made him many detractors. It was an obvious inevitability, one that Christoph already suspected Bruno was already well aware of himself.
After all, humans were petty and vain creatures. And those who rose to the top via their own merits would always be chastised and spat upon by the incompetent, the mediocre, and god forbid those who gained their position through nepotism.
But Bruno had gained the Kaiser’s favor and because of this, nobody had the balls to openly say anything about the man. They would only whisper among those whose ears they knew were friendly, and even then, they would take more than a few glances around to make sure that no prying eyes were lurking around the corner.
The more Bruno shot to the top, the more he would be despised by the old guard of the aristocratic class. Especially when he was challenging certain social norms. For the most part, Bruno was a staunch traditionalist, and a large supporter of the monarchy, and the institution of nobility in general.
However, there were some things he felt were impractical and needed to evolve with the times. For starters, the idea that noble families should only marry in their own social class. This had caused long-term genetic defects in many of the noble households, especially the older ones.
The rich veins of those whose ancestors had risen to their positions in a time of strife and bloodshed had initially made the Knights, lords, and kings the most genetically gifted families. As the exceptional rose to the top and produced exceptional children.
But over time, without fresh new blood to be pumped through the veins of these ancient lineages, they would ultimately rot and decay from inbreeding. This was one of the many reasons Bruno was more than happy to marry his eldest son off to a Russian commoner.
However, this was also something that many looked down upon, especially since Bruno’s family was relatively recently established as nobility, marrying his heir off to a commoner meant that he was depriving another noble house of that honor, and this made more than a few powerful figures resentful towards Bruno’s familial practices.
Ultimately, this was not something that Christoph perceived to be an issue that he was required to get involved with. He was after all not in his youngest brother’s position, nor was he particularly close to the man, in fact, he would only do something of the matter if he either personally witnessed it, or he heard of something that may perhaps be considered a threat.
Unfortunately, because he had walked in on his wife and her friends at the wrong time, while they were in the midst of gossiping about Bruno’s family, Christoph was now in a place and position where he needed to confront the slander being cast towards his own bloodline.