Chapter 524: Stubborn
Rein stood before Brauchitsch, feeling completely out of place amidst the bright lights and the grand hall. He felt he was better suited to sitting inside a cramped tank, feeling the security that the cold iron plates gave him.
Giant swastika flags hung from the marble pillars, stretching from the very top down to the floor. The eagle on the wall in the center of the hall, clutching a swastika in its steel claws, looked immense. Its texture suggested it was made of bronze, but only the architect knew what it was filled with.
Alice, of course, had seen grand scenes before. She had originally served at an air defense base near Berlin and had naturally been to the city before. But when she saw this newly built, massive hall, she was still a bit overwhelmed. She suddenly felt that every day she had spent at the front was worth it, because it was through her hard fighting that such a magnificent miracle could be born in the fatherland.
“General von Bock of the Army has arrived!” a soldier standing guard at the door announced, saluting. The officers who had already arrived in the hall all stood up. The buzzing sound of their quiet conversations immediately vanished, replaced by the clatter of folding chairs as they stood.
When a general arrived, everyone naturally had to stand at attention and salute, unless you were a field marshal. Rein was certainly not a field marshal. He was still just a lowly second lieutenant. It would be a little while before he could rightfully become a captain in the SS.
Since the military’s integration, the Waffen-SS had been placed under the unified command of the Wehrmacht. Promotions and appointments were also carried out by the unit’s superior Wehrmacht command. But this promotion was a bit special, so various military and political figures from the SS had also come. They were discussing what kind of person this Lieutenant Rein was. After all, the promotion of many colonels to major general was nothing more than a piece of paper.
“General of the SS, Reinhard Heydrich, has arrived!” The guard at the door, as if the figure he had just announced was not shocking enough, followed up with the name of a terrifying general. Although he was also a general, the deterrent power of the infamous SS general was not something the Deputy Chief of the Wehrmacht General Staff could compare to.
All the SS officers present immediately stood at attention, raising their right hands. “Long live the Führer, Akado Rudolph!” The man who had just entered was their direct superior, or rather, their boss’s boss’s boss… Who would dare not to stand and salute?
Heydrich was a tall man. He walked to the front row, looked at Rein and the others who were standing at attention, and walked over with a smile.
He came before Rein, signaled for the five crew members to put their hands down, and then patted Rein’s shoulder. “You have brought honor to our SS. Well done! Everyone should learn from you and make their own contributions to the Reich! Keep up the good work. I look forward to your future performance!”
“…” In the row behind them were the SS generals and officers, their faces glowing with pride. Many of them saw Heydrich often, but most never had the chance to speak with him. At this moment, hearing their top boss encourage an officer who was not even a captain yet, they suddenly had the thought of swapping places.
If only… if only I were standing there, how great that would be, a major thought with envy, watching Heydrich chat and laugh with the lieutenant. This was the first time since his own promotion to colonel that he had looked so seriously at a second lieutenant. Even just from the back, he studied him carefully.
“Field Marshal of the Army, von Brauchitsch, has arrived!” The doorman, as if the scene were still not sensational enough, continued to announce a name.
After his announcement, Brauchitsch, wearing the special trench coat dress uniform of a field marshal, walked into the hall with his aide. His steps were brisk, and he quickly reached the side of Heydrich, who had not yet sat down.
“Long live the Führer, Akado Rudolph!” Heydrich said, saluting. He did not seem particularly respectful, but his etiquette was perfect.
“Heil Führer!” Brauchitsch returned the salute, then turned his gaze to the protagonist of the day, Rein. “Welcome back, our little hero. I hope your spirit can infect every one of us here.”
“No way. Field Marshal Brauchitsch thinks so highly of him too? Could this Rein really know the Führer personally?” a lieutenant colonel asked his colleague next to him.
“You’re asking me? Who should I ask? But from the looks of it, he is highly regarded by several of the big shots,” the other lieutenant colonel replied, glancing at his companion.
While the people were murmuring, the doorman once again announced the name of a guest, a name that made the entire venue fall silent. “The Führer has arrived! Long live the Führer, Akado Rudolph!”
Everyone looked at each other, a bit at a loss. But they quickly reacted, scrambling to get their rears out of the seats they had just sat in and to stand in their most upright military posture.
“Long live the Führer, Akado Rudolph!” Brauchitsch also stopped his idle chat with Heydrich, stood at attention, and shouted along with everyone else.
Akado walked step by step down the red carpet with Anna, looking at the forest of arms on both sides, feeling the fervent, fanatical gazes. The two walked to the side of the main stage. Akado gestured for everyone to sit down, then waved to Brauchitsch and Heydrich. “I’m just here to observe the ceremony. You carry on, don’t mind me.”
The ceremony began on time. Rein and the others stood on the stage, looking at the countless generals and officers. Then, to the applause led by Akado, they received their documents and papers from Brauchitsch’s own hands. Subsequently, Heydrich personally changed their shoulder boards. As they stood at attention and shouted “Long live the Führer,” the applause grew even more enthusiastic.
Akado stood up, and as a result, everyone behind him was startled and stood up as well. Hearing the uniform sound of them rising, Akado turned his head and smiled embarrassedly, then walked onto the stage to Rein.
“How about this, next time I will personally award you the medal with the Swords,” Akado said to Rein with a smile. “At that time, I will have someone take a good photo and put it on the front page of the Greater Germany Gazette.”
“Should I thank you?” Rein asked, looking at Akado.
“No need. Thank me for what? For letting you kill more people?” Akado shook his head. “I just hope you find a reason to live. You crawled out of the hell I created, so I hope you can live like a normal person.”
“I am already living like any other soldier,” Rein said, looking into Akado’s eyes and speaking word for word. “I am now doing my best to protect everything I care about, so I am living very well.”
“Do you still have those nightmares? Of shooting the child, and strangling the woman,” Akado said to Rein, while waving to the crowd below to indicate that the applause could be even more enthusiastic.
“Occasionally,” Rein replied with a wry smile. “Life at the front is very tiring. I rarely dream after I fall asleep.”
Akado nodded. “I still hope you can stay in Berlin. Wouldn’t it be good to teach at the tank school? You know, sometimes I can’t help but think of what I did to you, and it makes me very uncomfortable.”
“I am not suited for a peaceful environment,” Rein once again rejected Akado’s good intentions. “I feel that the lights here are too bright, the space is too wide. There is no roar of an engine, no blood or guts… so I feel very uncomfortable.”
He sighed and continued, “You trained me to be a warrior, so I should be on the battlefield. I need to fight to the last moment, to the last second of the war. Only then can I convince myself to pursue other things. Only then will my life truly belong to me.”
“Must you be so stubborn?” Akado sighed. “The more you are like this, the more I feel sorry for you.”
“I owe you a debt, and I must repay it,” Rein said, shaking his head. “I have no other special skills. I can only help you by killing a few more enemies. And I feel that it is very meaningful to fight for such a self-reliant nation, so I insist on my idea.”
“You won’t reconsider?” Akado was about to say more, but the head of Wehrmacht Intelligence, Gascoigne, hurried over and handed a document to Akado.
Akado took the document, read the record on it carefully, and then looked up at the sweating Gascoigne. “Is this intelligence true? Are you sure?”
Gascoigne nodded, his voice trembling slightly. “We have a high-level spy in Japan. This spy is the butler of the Japanese Navy Minister. He accidentally discovered this terrible plan. Although he only saw a small part of the content, we can be sure that this news is reliable.”
“Contact the ambassador in the United States immediately! Have him spread this news at once. We must get the attention of the American high command!” Akado said to Gascoigne after a moment’s thought. “This matter cannot go through Roosevelt! We must use other channels to get America’s attention!”
The content of the document was not complicated. It was an operational plan that Japan had already drawn up. The codename of this plan was “Tiger,” and its content was to dispatch the carrier force of the Japanese Combined Fleet to launch a surprise air raid on the poorly guarded American naval base—Pearl Harbor.
Those idiots in Japan! Do they have to drag America into this before they’ll stop? To attack Pearl Harbor at this time, isn’t that just giving the Americans an excuse to enter the war? What kind of idiot in this world digs a pit for himself, jumps in, and buries himself?
“If that doesn’t work, prepare to break off diplomatic relations with Japan at the critical moment!” Akado said viciously to Brauchitsch and Heydrich, who had rushed over. “If necessary, we can even go to war!”
Published: 2025-09-02T03:35:50.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2025-12-11T21:22:45.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c524-137920484
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