Chapter 565: A Visceral Truth
It was not long after the war had ended that Bruno received word from the Tyrolean Leibgarde that someone unexpected had arrived at his gates: a teenage girl, roughly the same age as his daughter Anna.
She was quickly approaching adulthood, though not yet there, and had traveled across the Reich alone. Outside the gates of Bruno’s palace she was stopped by armed guards; and was now raising quite the commotion, demanding entry.
The only reason she wasn’t outright arrested under suspicion of hostility toward the Tyrolean Grand Prince and his family was because of the name she had uttered:
"Erich von Humboldt."
The moment those words reached him, Bruno shot up from his chair. Still dressed in simple civilian clothes, he looked less like a ruling prince and more like a local sawmill laborer.
He rushed through the corridors and out the grand front doors; and when he saw the girl standing there, with raven hair tied into innocent twin braids and dark denim-blue eyes he’d seen far too many times before, his jaw fell slack.
"Erika..."
Erich had a daughter; conceived in secret with his fiancée shortly before he died. Now that girl was nearly grown.
The last time Bruno had seen her, she’d been a little child; he had quietly supported her and her mother for years.
But Louise seldom sought Bruno out after that awful day. They met only in passing, visiting Erich’s grave on each anniversary.
Yet the girl standing here did not look pleased to see her godfather. In fact, her eyes blazed with a fury that was all too familiar to Bruno.
Not wanting these buried secrets to explode in public, right outside his gates, he quickly stepped forward and spoke with a soft command.