Holy Roman Empire - Chapter 1

1 Chapter 1: Crossing Over
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Late at Night time

Lim gazed on the classical but luxuriously appointed room, then at his personal chilly iron mattress, and couldn’t assist however really feel misplaced.

With a sigh of resignation, Lim acknowledged it had been two years!

Certainly, Lim had traveled by way of time; he was now generally known as Franz Josef, the exact same historic determine who was the outdated emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the protagonist within the love story of Princess Sissi.

The grandson of Emperor Franz II of the Holy Roman Empire, the eldest son of Archduke Franz Karl, his mom was Princess Sophie Friederica, the daughter of King Bavarian Maximilian I.

(Franz Josef I, the founding father of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the final emperor of the Habsburg dynasty, born on August 18, 1830, ascended to the throne on December 2, 1848, and handed away on November 21, 1916.)

God appeared to have performed a joke on Franz, for in his early years, he lived a fairytale-like life, had a very lovely queen, lovable youngsters, and managed a mighty empire.

In his early years, Franz was really worthy of the title of emperor; he made his individuals, his nation, his nation, and the girl he deeply liked really feel protected and proud due to him.

Sadly, like a dream that vanishes upon waking, his life took a pointy downturn in his later years.

His brother was executed by firing squad in Mexico, his spouse was stabbed to loss of life in Geneva by an Italian anarchist, and his son dedicated suicide at a younger age.

The chosen successor was stabbed to loss of life by the Serbia Mafia, and the retaliatory struggle he launched in response brought on tens of thousands and thousands to fall in a sea of blood and led to the collapse of the empire he struggled for all his life.

Franz’s uncle, the present Emperor of Austria, Ferdinand I, couldn’t have youngsters as a result of a congenital defect, and Franz had been groomed early on because the inheritor obvious.

Because the inheritor to the empire, his completely satisfied childhood bid him farewell, and as for the blissful, hedonistic lifetime of the the Aristocracy, that was even additional out of the query and had nothing to do with Franz.

Examine, examine, and extra examine; from the second of his beginning, Franz was subjected to the strictest of coaching.

He slept on a chilly marketing campaign mattress, would rise at 4 within the morning every single day, bathe with chilly water, then begin his day with early prayers on the small altar beside his mattress as a religious Catholic, adopted by twelve lengthy hours of examine.

Neither the bitter chilly of winter nor the peak of summer season ever introduced a change to this routine.

Simply after his time journey, snow coated Vienna; the primary time he took a chilly winter tub, Lim thought he was finished for, however surprisingly, his physique was exceptionally resilient, not even catching a chilly.

Over seven hundred days and nights had been sufficient to vary many issues, and now Lim had change into Franz. He didn’t even notice his personal willpower could possibly be so robust; certainly, it appeared individuals had been really solid by way of adversity.

In these two years, Lim, no, Franz now, had retained a lot of the unique host’s life-style habits.

Many occasions he questioned if the recollections of his previous life had been only a dream.

After rigorously evaluating historic developments, Franz reluctantly found that this world was precisely the identical because the one he had skilled in his earlier life, even right down to the potato crop failures within the Germany Area.

As a historical past fanatic, he had studied the historical past of the Austrian Empire extensively in his former life and knew that the seemingly flourishing empire was, in actuality, a shell of its former self, needing solely a slight push to break down totally.

On the floor, the Austrian Empire remained at its zenith, appearing because the chief conductor of the Vienna Congress, the creator of post-Napoleonic European order, and at present taking part in the function of the European Gendarme.

No person knew that this nice empire would crumble within the nice upheaval two years later, and if it weren’t for the main powers needing its existence, the Austrian Empire would have change into historical past by 1849.

Regardless that it barely survived, the Austrian Empire had begun its decline from prosperity.

As a result of diplomatic failures, it confronted a collection of army failures, first shedding the Austria-France struggle, after which the Prussia-Austria struggle; even the Italians had bitten off a bit of Austria.

A succession of defeats undermined the authority of the Central Authorities, finally forcing it right into a compromise and reworking the Austrian Empire into the twin monarchy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The institution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in historical past was stuffed with coincidences, and Franz dared not wager that he might do higher than his predecessor. Now, saving the Austrian Empire had change into his mid-term purpose.

After all, he might select to flee, surrender the proper to the throne, and change into an extraordinary individual dwelling in a protected place as a cheerful capitalist.

Sadly, after two years of dwelling as the Aristocracy, Franz’s ambition had already began to take root.

Life is brief, merely a number of hurried a long time. Having crossed over as soon as to face on the pinnacle of the world and change into the playmaker of the period, why ought to he shrink again now?

It had gotten fairly late, and Franz continued to good his nationwide salvation plan, which he had revised numerous occasions.

…

“Grand Duke, it’s time for sophistication!” the maid reminded softly.

The maid’s voice woke Franz from his sleep.

“I do know!” Franz stated helplessly.

He was now a diligent pupil, finding out politics, historical past, philosophy, languages, faith… managing a mere cross common throughout dozens of topics.

That’s proper, including up all his topic grades and averaging them was simply sufficient for him to barely cross. And if not, effectively, he might all the time spherical up.

He was positively a superb pupil, particularly in comparison with his two youthful brothers who studied with him; Franz was by all means a wonderful pupil.

After all, this was a results of totally different requirements. His mom, Madam Sophie, demanded that he be the most effective, whereas the usual for his two brothers was merely to scrape by.

From Franz’s perspective, this training was basically flawed. An excessive amount of content material required rote memorization, leaving no time for reflection.

There was no serving to it; the Habsburg Household confronted a disaster. Each his father and uncle had been sadly missing in innate intelligence, resulting in a niche within the household’s conventional instructional succession, which successfully halted the transmission of the Emperor’s teachers.

These programs had been all personally organized by his mom, Sophie, a religious Catholic who believed that because the successor to the Emperor, he wanted to be robust; exhibiting any emotion was disastrous, and she or he was exceptionally strict with Franz.

Along with studying his mom tongue, by the age of 8 Franz might write letters in French; by 11, he studied Hungarian, Czech, and Italian and began delving into Latin and Greek on the age of 13…

Sadly, he hadn’t inherited the academic-genius genes from the unique proprietor of his physique. After utilizing up all the tutorial capital left behind, Franz’s efficiency in his research declined steadily.

The traditionally multi-lingual Franz who might converse in virtually all of the languages of the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s nationalities was lengthy gone. Now there remained solely a pupil struggling to cross his lessons—Franz.

…