Chapter 400: The Cost of Victory
Vienna had become secure and stable... The price was gruesome, more than many were willing to admit. The number of deaths was still being calculated, but the figure was already staggering.
Tens of thousands of civilians, criminals, brigands, deserters, and revolutionaries had been claimed in the violence, while a few dozen of the Werwolf Brigade were slain in the process, with a hundred or two more injured.
But they could be replaced, their bodies to be issued crosses, medals of the organization granted to those who had perished with valor. Meanwhile, Franz Joseph could only grieve for his city. The destruction, not just to life but to property, had been so much larger than he had anticipated that he could not help but give Bruno a call. The fury in his voice was clear and precise as he tried to pin the blame for the toll this war had cost him and his people.
"You said these mercenaries of yours were professionals! What is remotely professional about tens of thousands of innocents lying dead in the streets of Vienna?!"
The number was by no means an exaggeration, but what was perhaps the most shocking was the lack of emotion in Bruno’s tone from the other end of the line. There was no lament, no grief, no remorse, no guilt.
No, his words were as expressionless as the dead which the Austrian Archduke was trying to pin responsibility onto him. His words, however, pierced sharper than a knife as he stated the true cost of his services in figures so staggering that the aging Emperor damn near had a heart attack.
"Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands... Your city was so corrupt, degenerate, and beyond rehabilitation that the men you employed had no option but to wipe them out. These things are contagious to a healthy population, and if left unchecked, your entire country would be damned to hell in the wake of their sins.
You owe me in ways you cannot even begin to fathom, my friend, and the war has not yet concluded. You hired the Werwolf Brigade to restore law and order to your lands, and you also authorized them to use any means at their disposal to do so.
It would appear you have been away from the battlefield for too long. Sitting in your luxury while you and your family were safe and protected, believing that no force on this earth could ever bring your Empire to ruin.
But you were deceived, blinded by your own hubris, and now the price must be paid to ensure that you and your family continue to rule and that Austria survives the turbulent era to come.
Blood will be spilled, iron will be forged, engines of war will be built on a scale never before witnessed in history, and in the end, you will emerge victorious. And when the Werwolf Brigade has obliterated the revolutionaries who would see you and your family lined up against a wall if ever given the chance, the price will be paid in full as you agreed upon in advance.
So the next time that the consequences of your naivety prove too great for your feeble old mind to bear responsibility for, do not come seeking me to shift the blame in a poor attempt to assuage your conscience and its need for expiation of guilt.