Tyranny of Steel

Berengar took a slight sip from his glass of sake, before leaning in close and waiting for Linde's answer. The redheaded vixen had a sultry smile on her face as she first feigned offense before giving her man a proper answer.

"To think that you are so interested in that chain smoker, of all people? Hmph, I'm disappointed in you. There is a beautiful, young, foreign princess in this very room, and yet you have no intention of making her your woman.

Anyway, yes, Hemma has found herself a man. Though I am a bit surprised by her choice. The man is rather simple. I thought that after my years of influencing the woman, she would have landed herself a big shot. To think of all people, she married her dry cleaner..."

Berengar nearly choked on his sake when he heard this. Out of all the men that Hemma could have ended up with, she chose such a simple man. Linde was right. It was truly befuddling, and what had just been a random topic to start a conversation now turned into genuine interest as he prodded his wife for more information.

"Her dry cleaner? How the hell did that happen? What kind of man is he to win the heart of the Deputy Director of Imperial Intelligence?"

A mischievously smirk appeared on Linde's face as she took another sip of her sake before responding to the questions presented to her.

"I swear, this has got to be the most cliche story I can possibly think of. However, I swear on my life it is one hundred percent accurate. About two years ago, Hemma ran into some doofus in the lobby of our building, spilling her pumpkin spice latte all over her uniform.

As a result, she sought out a dry cleaner, where she found a particularly average young man who ran his own small business near our headquarters. She and the man ended up having a brief dispute over payment. Apparently, one of the men he hired had messed up her order, and the man was forced to apologize.

When she asked why he hired such an incompetent fool, the man suddenly became angry and informed her that the employee was a member of his old unit from his days in the military. Apparently, this employee had suffered mild brain damage in combat. In fact, the owner of the dry cleaner only hires disabled veterans, and gives back as much as of his earnings as he can to his community.

Naturally, with all of the government aid that is given to your veterans after their service ends, there isn't much of a need to donate solely to helping wounded veterans, thus he helps out everyone in any way he can.

Well, it turns out this generosity, and overall positive outlook on life, confused Hemma, and she asked the man how he could possibly care so much for his fellow man, after witnessing all the evil humanity as a species has to offer.

The man's response was that he would only inform her if she would let him buy her lunch sometime. At first she refused, but the man's character had left her with many questions, and it wasn't long before she stopped by his business once more with another stain, where she took him up on his offer. They have been together for nearly two years now and will soon be getting married."

Berengar was stunned by this information, to think that such a thing had actually happened. It was almost as if he was watching one of those cheesy holiday romantic comedies that were aired on a specific channel during his past life.

While Linde was discussing Hemma's personal affairs, the appetizers arrived. Where the woman was hesitant to taste the dumplings. However, after seeing her man effortlessly pop one of them into his mouth, and chew on it with a blissful expression on his face. Linde could not help but try it.

She did not regret this experiment, and immediately fell in love with the appetizer. The shocked expression on Linde's face told Berengar all he needed to know, thus with a confident smirk, he goaded the woman on while taking another bite of his takoyaki.

"It's good, right? I told you that you would enjoy it!"

Linde did not respond to this, and merely took a bite out of another octopus dumpling. Before long the main course arrived, where the couple was served both chopsticks, and western silverware. Berengar had opted to use the chopsticks. But the devices confused Linde, and she was forced to eat the ramen with a fork.

Ultimately, it was a pleasant meal, where Berengar and Linde continued to talk about minor things about their personal lives. In the end, the check came, and Berengar paid it while giving a substantial tip.

As the Kaiser, the only bills Berengar carried in his wallet were thousands. He did not care what he was paying for, he always tipped whoever helped him. For this meal, he pulled out a thousand dollar bill for each of the staff, who would be splitting the tips later that night before gently placing them on the table.

When the server came over to collect the money, his eyes nearly shot out of their sockets as he saw the Kaiser depart from the restaurant. This one encounter made a favorable impression on the young man's heart. He would never forget the casual kindness that Berengar had given him on this night.

Once Berengar and Linde had left the restaurant, they had climbed back into the limo before departing for the movie theater. There was an excited look in the redheaded beauty's eyes as she leaned in close to her man and rested her head on his shoulder. She could not help but ask just what kind of movie they were watching tonight.

"So, what are we seeing? I hope it is something good!"

Berengar wore a wry smile on his face as he responded to his wife's enthusiasm with a cryptic tone in his voice.

"Trust me, I think you will enjoy it."

Shortly thereafter, Berengar and Linde arrived at the local theatre, where a single bold word was written on the exterior of the building.

"Dracula"

That's right, a recreation of the classic 1931 film Dracula from Berengar's past life was being displayed in the theatre tonight. In fact, the entire book it was based on was written by Berengar in his spare time, under the pseudonym Bram Stoker.

Some things could not be forgotten just because Berengar had changed the history of this world. Among them were the classics in western literature. The book was a best seller, and Berengar had donated all the proceeds to charity. Including the money he made from selling the movie rights.

Even Linde did not know that Berengar was the author behind the popular work. In reality, he was not the creator of this masterpiece. He was merely the medium which allowed its existence to transcend time and space. This was the reason he had not used his own name as the published author and instead used that of its true creator.

Berengar and Linde first got themselves a bucket of popcorn and some sodas before sitting down in the very back of the theater, where they watched the entire film together. Berengar seemed to enjoy the work, as he was an avid fan of the original. Whereas Linde was actually terrified by many of the scenes, after all, it was a horror movie, and women were generally weak to such things.

The most enjoyable aspect of the viewing was that whenever Linde was too scared, she would cling onto her man and shriek. This was endearing to Berengar, as it displayed a side of the woman's character he had never seen before.

When the film was finally over, Berengar walked out of the theatre with a fat smile on his face, while Linde was pouting, shivering, and still clutching herself tightly to her man's arms. She wanted to scold him for taking her to see a horror flick, but in the end she could not do so. As despite the fear that the movie had caused her to feel, she had to admit she thoroughly enjoyed it, and the time she spent together with her man as a result of it.

The date was far from over, as Berengar and Linde once more entered the car, before heading off to the next attraction: the carnival.

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