Tyranny of Steel

In the following days, Berengar aided the Majapahit King as the man stabilized his newfound power over his vassals. Feudalism within Indonesia had a quick death as the forces that Germany had helped train secured control over their territory and put those who resisted the new order to the sword.

After nearly a week of effort, Berengar left the Majapahit palace with his concubine and infant son in tow. The two of them boarded the Kaiser's personal transport aircraft before having a long flight back to Kufstein. 

With little effort, Berengar used one of his many properties to house Princess Anggraini and her young son while also hiring a staff of talented professionals to make sure all their needs were met. The woman was given the same treatment as her Aztec counterpart, while living a life of utter luxury within the world's most advanced city. 

Upon spending some time with Anggraini and their son Darma, Berengar returned to the palace alone, where he quickly got to work on a critical piece of technology that was absolutely required for the further advancement of the reich. 

For some time now, Berengar had invested extensively into the field of science and engineering, and those investments had already paid off in more ways than one. With an entire community of Germany's greatest minds working together, new technologies were being discovered with each passing week.

Among these inventions was the vacuum tube. Which Germany's scientists had already widely adopted in the fields of radio, television, sound recording and reproduction, long distance telephone networks, among others.

Though Berengar knew how to create such devices on his own, fundamentally his work in the fields of engineering was now largely being superseded by his nation's scientists, while he focused his efforts on important matters of the state. 

However, every now and then, much like today, he would take time out of his busy schedule to use his vast knowledge to advance certain fields of study. At the moment, he was using the basic technology behind vacuum tubes to create a first generation computer, or at the very least the design of such a device. 

Why was such a critical piece of technology necessary to create? Because it would allow a single man to do a day's worth of calculations within 20 minutes. This was monumental for civilian applications, as well as the continued development of technology in general, but it also had military applications as well.

To put this in perspective, when used on board naval vessels, this would allow for the rapid calculation of a missile's trajectory. Meaning that Berengar could implement computer-based attack and defensive programs to use his anti ship, and anti-air missiles most effectively. These computers could also be used to effectively break ciphers. Giving Germany an enormous advantage in the field of information during their upcoming war with the Japanese Empire.

While vacuum tubes were used for logic circuitry, magnetic cores were used for memory. Essentially, this was achieved by using rings of semi-hard ferrite transformer cores, where each wire threaded through the core functioned as a transformer winding. Two or more wires passed through each core while magnetic hysteresis allowed each of the cores to "remember", or store a state.

By making use of magnetic core memory, Berengar's computers were already more advanced than those used during the second world war of his past life. After going over the basic design several more times, perfecting any flaws with it. Berengar approved the document before sending it off to the appropriate department, who would bring the design into reality. 

After finishing his work on the computer design, Berengar decided to call it a day, and walked through his palace, where he found his eldest daughter Helga in the middle of painting, it was not unusual for the young girl to be doing such an activity, as she had a fascination of art ever since she was a child. However, her skills had vastly improved over the years, to the point where she could make photo-realistic portraits. 

At first, he silently observed the girl's efforts until she noticed his presence. With a rather shy expression on her face, she shockingly called out to her father, who was just about to leave the girl alone. 

"Father... If you're not too busy at the moment, do you mind if I paint you?"

This sudden request slightly surprised Berengar. In the past, he had commissioned lavish portraits of himself and his family by Germany's most talented artists, but his daughter had never shown any interest in doing it herself. However, upon hearing such a request, Berengar could only smile and accept the offer. 

"Of course... I would be delighted if you would paint a portrait of me. However, do you mind if I change into something more militant first?"

The girl nodded her head silently, her eyes never wavering from glancing upon her father's figure. Upon receiving approval, Berengar silently departed from the room and tidied himself up in his military uniform. Until now, every portrait he had commissioned was of him, dressed in extravagant noble attire. However, since his daughter was doing the painting this time, he wanted to give her something special. Thus, he dressed in his Reichsmarschall's uniform, with his greatcoat over it. 

Atop his greatcoat was a black leather Sam Browne style belt, with his holster that contained a p-27 pistol. The only medal that was visible was his grand cross of the iron cross, which hung gracefully from his neck. After adorning himself in this military uniform, Berengar returned to the room where his daughter was waiting for him.

Upon seeing her father reappear in his military uniform, a glint of fascination appeared in Helga's blue eyes, yet there was no smile on her lips. As if she were too shy to show any emotion in front of her own father. Instead, she gave him a simple command.

"Please, sit..."

Berengar did as he was instructed and wore a charming smile as he sat down in a fine oak chair, where he waited for his eldest daughter to paint his portrait. He held his cap in his lap as he sat there in silence. 

Some time had passed before the door to the room abruptly opened, revealing the lithe figure of one of Berengar's other daughters. The seven-year-old child had a magnificent smile on her face as she rushed over to her father and jumped into his lap before expressing her glee.

"Daddy, Daddy!!! Come play with me!"

Berengar smiled as he stroked Zara's sandy hair. The girl had been born with her mother's amber eyes and tan skin. Yet her hair took after her father, albeit diluted from a pure gold, to a less saturated color. Among all of Berengar's children, only Zara could match Hans in terms of sheer intelligence. 

Though Berengar spent as much time as he could manage with his family, he could only spare so many hours of the day, and he had too many children to evenly distribute them with. As much as he wanted to entertain the girl, he had promised to sit still for the portrait for Helga, who rarely approached him for company. Thus, he could only sigh and reject the girl. However, before he could do so, something peculiar happened.

Helga showed the first bit of human emotion he had seen on her doll-like face since the day she was born. The girl who was already in her pre-teens pouted at her little half sister and spoke up on her own behalf.

"Zara, please leave father be.... He is spending time with me right now." 

Zara was confident that she could easily steal her father away from Helga. Thus she put on a deliberately childish act, one fitting her own age as she shook her head and stuck out her tongue before refusing Helga's request. 

"I don't wanna!"

After saying this, the girl shifted her gaze towards her father and innocently looked to the side as if she was in trouble.

"Daddy... Why won't you come play with me? Are you perhaps mad at Zara?" 

The sight of his daughter practically in tears nearly broke Berengar's heart. He honestly did not know the girl well enough to understand that she was just manipulating him. However, Helga knew the truth about her younger sister's personality and bit her lip in displeasure.

She wanted to speak up and assert that her father had promised to spend time with her, but her anxiety held her tongue. Berengar's spirit of resistance ultimately broke as he petted Zara's' hair before coming up with a compromise he believed would work.

"How about this? You sit here on daddy's lap, and the two of us will get painted by your sister together?"

Zara immediately agreed to this suggestion, after all she was able to sit in her father's lap, something she knew Helga desperately wanted to do, but was too shy, and too old to actually accomplish thus she nodded her head with a cheeky smile on her cute face.

"Sure!"

However, just as Zara said these words, an ugly expression appeared on Helga's face as she shouted at the top of her lungs for the first time in her life. 

"No! Absolutely not! I am painting father, and father alone! He promised me he would let me paint him! Now get out of here Zara, you're being a nuisance!" 

Both Berengar and Zara were both surprised by this turn of events. The man had never seen his usually quiet and reserved daughter respond so explosively. Clearly, she took her painting very seriously. Or so he thought.

In reality, she had for the first time worked up the courage to spend time with her father, who she knew to be an important man, and he had agreed. So no matter what, she would let none of her siblings steal this precious time away from her. No matter what the cost. 

Naturally, Berengar did not know how extreme the girl felt about this minor dispute, but he could tell by her outburst that Helga was serious over this matter. Thus he could only sigh as he lifted Zara off his lap, and petted the girl's sandy hair once more before sending her on her way. 

"Zara, this painting means a lot to your sister. So I will fulfill my promise to her. I'll come find you after we're finished here and play with you as much as you desire. So until then, just wait for me, okay?"

Zara merely pouted before nodding her head in silence. She had never believed that Helga would stand up for herself like she had done today. The girl had to admit she had miscalculated and could only accept her defeat.

The last thing Zara wanted was for her father to think she was a spoiled brat. Thus, she walked out of the room as she was instructed to do, but only after making her father promise her that he would spend time with him after the painting was over.

"Daddy, remember your promise! Okay? I won't forgive you if you forget about me!" 

After saying this Zara left, and Berengar once more resumed his pose, though this time he had difficulty maintaining his smile. As for Helga, she was just relieved that her father did not abandon her to go spend time with one of her other siblings. And though her painting would not turn out as she wanted now that her model was in a rather poor mood, she could be happy knowing that she still managed to paint her father's portrait at least once in her life. 

---

If you enjoy the novel and want to support my work, please consider donating at https://ko-fi.com/zentmeister