Chapter 16:

Franco, who had previously treated Germany as a step below Italy, began to show immense favor to Germany after the Condor Legion's great performance in the Battle of Brunete.

I'm not a working-level official in diplomacy, so I don't know the details, but if things follow the Original History, Germany would receive various rewards, like resource mining rights.

Though the insatiable Nazis would exploit them so much that it would become the main reason Franco would refuse to join the Axis powers in World War II.

Time flows like water.

After receiving a recommendation from Colonel Model and fighting in a few more minor battles, my admission to the War Academy was confirmed, and I was able to get a promotion to Captain.

I was a bit surprised by the unusually fast promotion, less than a year after becoming a First Lieutenant, but it was apparently made possible thanks to the superiors in the Condor Legion, including Colonel Model and Lieutenant Colonel Richthofen, who argued for my contribution to the military gains in the Battle of Brunete with the 88 Anti-aircraft Gun.

When I first saw Richthofen, my impression was that of a madman who rained incendiary bombs on civilians, but he was surprisingly kind to me, and now my gratitude for him has grown.

If he is to remain merely a warlike patriot, Germany must not create situations where they have to drop incendiary bombs on civilians.

And then there was Colonel Walther Model.

For me, the War Academy was nothing more than a means to return to Germany quickly, so I had no great passion for it, but having received his recommendation, I couldn't entertain the thought of dropping out of the General Staff Course.

Well, even without him, I desperately needed a point of contact with the military.

My father, Hjalmar Schacht, might have some influence in the Anti-Hitler Group, but he was just a peripheral figure.

With World War II just around the corner and the future uncertain, I was also terrified of what Colonel Model's reaction would be if I was lazy at the War Academy and got expelled, or used it as a Ticket to Berlin and bailed.

If I got on the bad side of one of Germany's top famed commanders, I'd have to fear the future repercussions even if we succeeded in overthrowing the Nazis.

The thought of that cold gaze from behind his monocle still gives me goosebumps.

Ugh…

After enduring the long and lousy Spanish Civil War, the time had finally come to go to Germany.

-

October 24, 1937

Central-Western Spain, Salamanca, a major strongpoint for the Spanish Nationalist faction

“For the Captain!”

Klemens raised his beer mug high and led the cheer.

“Cheers!”

The company members raised their beer mugs in unison for a toast.

Seeing everyone enjoying themselves with smiling faces gives me a strange feeling.

Just a few months ago, we were rolling around in a hellish battlefield…

“Hey, Captain. Why the long face on such a good day?”

Klemens approached and clinked his mug against mine, so I answered with a smirk.

“Haha… No, it’s nothing. Klemens… Company Commander?”

“Kuh— Could you say that one more time, Captain?”

“Hehe, sure.

I’ll say it as many times as you want. Company Commander Fleck?”

“Hahaha! It’s all thanks to having a good batchmate!”

Klemens was promoted to First Lieutenant in recognition of his service assisting me as my adjutant, and he succeeded me as the commander of our company.

“But aren’t you a little too happy, Klemens?”

“Huh? If I’m not happy now, when would I be?”

“Hahaha… It’s a post where you’ll have to face Chief of Staff Model directly now, you know? I’m bailing first, so good luck, Company Commander.”

“Arrrgh, a sudden stomachache.

.!”

I chuckled mindlessly at Klemens's theatrics and chugged my beer.

Damn, this beer is good!

I’ll be going to Germany soon, so I won’t be with Klemens or the troopers anymore, but…

I trust that Klemens, who is self-protective but surprisingly warm-hearted, will do a better job as company commander than me, who easily gets hot-headed due to my modern sensibility.

I looked around at the troopers while tasting the morcilla, a local specialty of central Spain that I privately callsundae.

Hmm, I don't know about anything else in this crappy place, but I'll miss this. Even if I went back to Korea now, I wouldn't be able to taste something like this…

That aside…

We spent a while laughing and talking, but everyone is busy enjoying themselves.

Usually, in situations like this, aren’t they supposed to do some kind of special event, even if it’s not a 21st-century 'rolling paper'?

But no matter how much I sipped my beer and read the room, there was no sign of anything like that.

All around were German youths and middle-aged men, chugging beer like water and stuffing their faces…

“Sigh, what am I even expecting…”

What kind of touching moment did I expect from the most stoic people in the world…

“Klemens, you’re my only hope…”

“What? Why are you suddenly like this, batchmate?”

How can I explain Korean sensibility to you? Sigh.

“…Never mind. Let’s just drink ourselves to death today!”

I was about to grab my batchmate and drink until we dropped, but Klemens waved his hands.

“Oh, sorry.”

“…Huh? What’s with you, ducking out at a time like this?”

“Well, I have an appointment… Ah.

Over here, over here!”

I turned my head to see a woman with attractively tanned skin and brown hair approaching with a smile.

“Dietrich, let me introduce you.

This is Raphaela Diaz. Haha.

My girlfriend.”

“Hello, Captain Schacht? I've heard a lot about you from Klemens.”

“Ah… Yes, hello…”

Raphaela spoke in quite fluent German, though with a bit of a Spanish accent.

…No, but…

“Hehe, isn’t my darling pretty? We met at the banquet after the Battle of Jarama!”

Ah.

The day I said I was fine…

“Oh, honey, you’re embarrassing me…”

“…”

Klemens gave Raphaela a peck on the cheek, put down his half-finished beer, and stood up with his arm linked with hers.

“We’re moving to the front line the day after tomorrow, so we decided to spend some time together today.

I’m leaving first. Enjoy yourself, okay?”

“Oh, you.

You’re in such a hurry… Captain, congratulations on your promotion!”

“Ah, thank you…?”

While I was dumbfounded, Klemens and Raphaela left.

…No, damn it!

While I was busy agonizing and fighting as a company commander, my adjutant was having dating shenanigans?! That bastard?!

More importantly, is this for real?! He left his batchmate’s farewell party to go on a date?!

“…Haa…”

As I looked around with cold, disappointed eyes, I felt Second Lieutenant Ross and Second Lieutenant Beckermann flinch as they met my gaze.

Sergeant Kocher is… already passed out drunk.

The other troopers…

They’re too busy drinking among themselves to notice.

I let out a sigh and stood up from my seat.

“Your departing superior officer will take his leave, so you all have fun.”

“Gasp, n-no, sir! Thank you so much for everything! Captain!”

“Thank you for your hard work, sir!”

The platoon leaders, and then the troopers who belatedly noticed, started chattering enthusiastically, but no one asked me not to go.

Sob…Why do I feel like I'm about to cry?

…This (former) company commander is very disappointed in you all.

------------------------------------------------

November 3, 1937

Hamburg, a port city in northwestern Germany After punishing the traitor Klemens with great enthusiasm, I took a ship from the Port of Cadiz and returned to Germany.

It’s a bit of a misnomer to say I returned to my homeland, since it's only a homeland in Dietrich’s memory, but by now, Dietrich is Yoon Sung-il and Yoon Sung-il is Dietrich, so that's how it felt.

As I disembarked at the port, I saw a 20th-century Germany, quite different from the Germany I had visited as a tourist in the 21st century.

The scenery of Hamburg, which became Germany’s richest city even after suffering a great fire, is completely different from that of the 21st century.

If history proceeds as in the Original History, this city will become ruins of ash from Allied bombing, so it's bound to be different from the Hamburg a modern Korean would visit.

As I was heading to catch a train while retracing Dietrich’s memories, a man wearing a Hakenkreuz armband—probably a Nazi Party member—was giving a fiery speech in front of a crowd in a public square.

“Why did Great Germany have to be defeated! Was it because we were weak?”

“No!!”

“That’s right! It was all the doing of the Judeo-Bolsheviks! If those cursed devils had not engaged in slander from behind the scenes, we would never have been defeated in the last great war!”

“Hear, hear!!”

When I was in Spain, I just had to get used to the Nazi salute, but this homecoming welcome is really hammering it in. That this is, in fact, the damn Nazi Germany.

“Fortunately, God has sent a truly great leader to save Germany from these dark days! With the Führer, our Germany, the Fatherland of the Aryans, will reclaim the greatness it was meant to have! Heil Hitler! Sieg Heil!!”

“Sieg Heil!!”

I wonder if those people shouting 'Sieg Heil' (Hail Victory) now will still be able to shout it at the moment of their deaths when they become members of the Volkssturm and are thrown at the Soviet Army.

Well, it’s not like they could have ever imagined such a future.

I came to Germany to prevent that, so I need to get busy.

Soon, my father, Hjalmar Schacht, will be stripped of his position as Minister of Economy and Plenipotentiary for the War Economy, and starting next year, a relentless storm of events will drive Germany and the world toward World War II.

In January 1938, the Blomberg–Fritsch Affair, a scandal involving high-ranking military officials, will cause a major shake-up in the military's High Command, and Nazi influence will spread to the military leadership.

After that, it'll be a straight path to the Anschluss (annexation of Austria), the Munich Agreement, the annexation of Czechoslovakia, and the invasion of Poland.

I don’t know the exact timing of my father Hjalmar Schacht’s ousting, but since it happens because he loses out in a rivalry with the Nazis' second-in-command, Hermann Göring, there's nothing I can do about it.

On the other hand, the Blomberg–Fritsch Affair was a fabrication orchestrated by Göring, who wanted to control the military, and Himmler, who wanted to strengthen the power of the SS, to diminish the power of the Wehrmacht.

So I considered trying to stop it, but aside from the question of whether a mere captain could possibly stop it, a significant number of the key figures in the Anti-Hitler Conspiracy would join the Anti-Hitler Faction after that incident.

The ringleaders of the Anti-Hitler Conspiracy weren't trying to kill Hitler out of some grand, rosy-eyed love for humanity to save the Jewish people and set Germany right.

Well, it’s not that such figures didn’t exist at all, but most were from the existing establishment who were simply dissatisfied with being sidelined by Hitler and wanted to oust the Nazis to seize power in Germany.

They weren't the heroes who tried to oust Hitler for the sake of democracy and the public, as they were glorified in postwar West Germany or in movies.

Many of them were imperial restorationists or from the aristocratic officer corps.

But still, it's impossible to overthrow the Nazis without their power, so paradoxically, the military shake-up by the Nazis must happen.

Moreover, World War II wasn't started by Hitler alone. Even setting aside the Nazi madmen, most of the German military…

No, a significant number of Germans were itching to reclaim the territory of Poland, once a German colony, and the Polish Corridor that would connect the homeland with Prussia.

Their opposition to the war was entirely due to their fear of clashing with France and Britain before rearmament was complete, not because they were against invading Poland.

In other words, if they were sufficiently prepared, the German military was a group that would have started World War II even without the Nazis.

“Haha… Isn't the difficulty level on this a bit too high?”

I survived the lousy Spanish Civil War, and now—

'Wow, you did it! Good job. Ta-da— But that was just the tutorial, and now the real game begins!'

…it feels as if God himself is shouting that at me.

The more I think about it, the more bleak the future looks.

Just four months until the Anschluss, the prelude to the express train to World War II.

Less than two years remain until the invasion of Poland—the start of World War II.