Tyranny Of Steel Chapter 1253 Saying Good-Bye To An Old Friend



Nearly three years after Berengar's parents had passed away, a call came from a longtime comrade. Eckhard von Marienburg, the formidable Austrian General essential to Berengar's first battlefield triumphs and now King of Prussia, lay on his deathbed.

Time had at last overtaken the warrior, and with the reaper drawing near, his kin assembled at his bedside. Yet it was not his sons or wives he sought in his final moments, but the man he had aided in crafting the world's supreme Empire.

Once he received Eckhard's call, Berengar boarded his private jet and flew directly to Marienburg. He stepped inside the medieval fortress and discovered his old ally resting in bed. The passage of years had fully seized Eckhard, making him even more aged and fragile than during their chess game in the royal gardens.

Eckhard had shrunken to skin and bones, and Berengar hardly knew him anymore. But the second Berengar walked in, Eckhard let out the feeblest chuckle imaginable before remarking to Berengar, whose hair gleamed silver like a fox's fur.

"You got old...."

Berengar eyed Eckhard with a look that screamed "Look Who's Talking?" sparking laughter from both. This halted when Eckhard fell into a fit of coughs, which his nurse eased with a quick sip of water.

After that short banter, Eckhard knew it was time to advance their talk, and he did so without delay.

"It's good that you came. I was beginning to worry that you had forgotten about me..." 

Berengar flashed a wry smile while shaking his head, then vowed to Eckhard that such a thing could never happen.

"Forget about my oldest friend? What have you been smoking?"

The quip drew another weak chuckle from Eckhard before he wheezed again. Speaking strained him greatly, yet he summoned every bit of strength to voice the vital words.

"I have a lot of regrets in this life, and there are things I have wanted to say to you for some time now... But never had the courage to do so. Now that I'm a dead man, I feel it is time to confess my thoughts." 

Berengar had suspected as much from the call, so he prepared to hear Eckhard's final words during his trip to Prussia. He softly gripped the man's skeletal hand, assuring him of understanding no matter what.

"I figured as much, go ahead Eckhard, I give you permission to speak freely...." 

Eckhard took several moments to collect his mind before sharing the words he had held back for years.

"When I look around at how the world has changed, all because of your actions. I am truly astonished. I grew up in an age of knights and feudalism, and within fifty years, it has all changed into something I can't even recognize.

Truly, you have single-handedly ushered in a new era of peace and prosperity for the German people. And I know I myself have played my small role in it. But I can't help but think back upon what was needed to remake the world into what it is today....

How many cities did you bury, along with all of their inhabitants? How many women and children have you slain in pursuit of this goal? I wonder if God will judge me as favorably as our people look upon me. Because all I can think of is the overwhelming amount of death and suffering we have caused to those who are not our own. 

Entire civilizations have been wiped out because they incurred your wrath for one reason or another. And though their lives were snuffed out by your actions, I know that you would not have been able to do so if I did not help you gain your power over Germany in the first place. 

Berengar, I must ask you, and I want you to answer me this honestly. Are we the villains in this story of our lives?" 

Berengar's face remained perfectly impassive, showing no trace of feeling. Eckhard knew Berengar well enough to recognize this sign of inner turmoil. After a prolonged, uneasy pause, Berengar sighed with a bitter smile before expressing his view on the subject. 

"You only did what your Lord commanded of you. You are not a villain, my friend... But I am. History will either remember me as the greatest man to ever walk the Earth, or the most wicked. This is something I have thought about for some time, and it is a cross that I must bear alone. You are not responsible for anything that I have commanded you to do, or any that I have done long after I freed you from my service. I alone am to blame for the deaths that have occurred during my conquests. So go forth, and face your creator, with a heart free of guilt."

Tears streamed from Eckhard's eyes while listening to his Kaiser's words. His ragged breathing grew harsher as the tears poured down. Deep pain and turmoil burned in Eckhard's weary gaze as he voiced his inner doubts aloud.

"And... What if God judges me differently?"

Berengar just sneered in response, shaking his head with a smug grin plastered across his features, before uttering remarks so brazen that only a world-conquering ruler could deliver them without flinching.

"Then I will march my armies into hell itself to liberate you from such an unjust sentence. Rest easy Eckhard, for eternal paradise awaits you!"

Berengar couldn't bring himself to shatter the illusions of a dying man by revealing his faith as falsehood, or that a heathen afterlife awaited based on the life's merits he upheld. He resorted instead to consoling him with that outlandish vow.

This succeeded marvelously, for Eckhard's tears evaporated, giving way to a beaming smile. A fresh bout of coughing gripped him momentarily before the elder uttered his parting words.

"Goodbye my old friend... If you should find yourself forgiven in the eyes of the Lord, I would enjoy meeting you again in paradise."

Upon those words, the spark vanished from Eckhard's eyes, and with it, his final breath escaped. Berengar fixed his gaze on the newly lifeless body of his longtime companion in quiet reflection for a few moments before sharing his own closing sentiment.

"Goodbye Eckhard..."

With that said, Berengar rose from his chair and drew near to the kin of his steadfast ally, extending an lavish promise they hadn't anticipated.

"You do not need to worry about his burial. The State shall pay for it. Eckhard shall be honored as one of our people's greatest heroes, and I will have a grand monument built in his memory. You have my word."

Berengar offered no pause for their reply; he promptly departed Marienburg's castle and soared homeward. There, he lingered in complete silence over the following three days, uttering not a single word even to his multitude of lovers.