Interlude:
You are seated in your classroom, listening attentively to Mr. Cieślak lesson on imperial history, your metallic pen scratching the paper of your notebook, the noise one of many in the room, when a knock on the door disturb the studious air of the classroom.
Your teacher stops speaking, glance at the door, a small frown of displeasure on his severe face, before going to open it. At the entryways, in the gap between Mr. Cieślak and the door frame, you catch a glimpse of Ms. Woźniak , the secretary of the headmaster, standing there.
From where you are, you can only catch your teacher's profile, but he seems surprised for an instant, they exchange a few words in hushed voices before the teacher turned toward the students.
“Listen class, I must leave the room to speak with Ms. Woźniakdo. Do not make a ruckus while I am gone, or I’ll have to punish you”
Finished with his warning, he left with the secretary, closing the door behind him as he went.
As soon as he was gone, the room was awash with whispering as everyone started speculating about what was going on as only school children can.
“Do you think they’re here because of the prank Heinrich pulled last week? But I thought no one caught him! Do you think someone tattled? No way! If that happens, we need to teach whoever spoke a lesson!”
“Nah, can’t be, Heinrich is the constable's son anyways, the headmaster wouldn’t get involved unless he did something really terrible.”
“Guys, I know what’s going on, I heard Gustav, was seeing Adelajda, the daughter of the teacher from class three.”
“Hey! Who told you that?! Don’t go spreading it around!”
“Hahaha”
…..
And on they went, honestly, it was all pretty dull to you, why waste time wondering about what was going on when you would know in a few minutes? Sweeping your gaze across your agitated classmates, you snorted before concentrating on your notebook making sure you got your dates and historical events right. Nobody spoke to you, they knew better then to bother you when you worked on something, you usually didn’t even bother to acknowledge the person speaking to you.
The hubbub continued for a while, until your teacher abruptly opened the door, standing straight as a pike, gazing at the class in disapproval and stilling it into silence.
He kept the pose for a few moments, only the sound of you turning page disturbing the otherwise perfect silence.
Then he turned to look at you.
“Filip, the Headmaster wants to see you in his office now.”
You blinked, looking up from your books. Even as hushed whispers filled the room once again.
“Silence! I will not have chatterboxes in my class! Now, Filip, follow me.”
You couldn’t help but feel a tinge of worry, you had not picked a fight in a long time, surely, they were not here because of the little trouble you stirred as child? Ah, you thought you had been nothing but a dutiful subject and filial child in those past few years? Perhaps they thought you stained the school's reputation with your previous action.
Even as you doubted yourself, you still got up, towering over your classmates at 160 cm, your body well-muscled for a 12 years old, and followed Mr. Cieślak out of the classroom.
Your teacher did not turn to look at you, but Ms. Woźniak, apparently waiting for you two outsides, flashed you a smile that somewhat assuaged your worries. It couldn’t be that bad if she smiled at you right?
It took you three minutes to get to the headmaster office, the walk was spent in silence, none of you used to small talk.
Once in front of the solid wood door carved with the twin headed imperial eagle of the Principle's office, your nervousness came back to you, your hand sweaty due to the stress.
The secretary went to knock.
“Headmaster Kaczmarek, Mr. Cieślak and Filip are here.”
“Good, show them in.” answered the gruff voice of the principle.
As you were showed in by a smiling secretary, you immediately noticed the two people in the room.
One was an older man, around 60 years old, wearing an impeccable suit, he was rather corpulent, filling his solid wood chair rather well, his hair had all mostly turned gray, with a few black hair peeking out of his slightly receding hairline, he had an imposing imperial beard, and was puffing on a pipe, the smoke not hiding his bright brown eyes on his wrinkled face.
He was Pietrzak Kaczmarek, the headmaster, and though you had not seen him often, you could still recognize him easily.
The other person was someone you recognized even more easily, wearing cleaned-up work clothes, still taller than you at one meter and seventy centimeter he sat in front of the principle, his build impressive from all the physical word he did, but his face already showing some sign of the exhaustion of life, a few wrinkles accentuating his somewhat tired trait, some gray hair sprinkled here and there, hidden by his dirty blond-hair, he was smiling at you, his head twisted to look at the doorway, his blue eyes looking at you warmly.
He was your father.
You could only stare, a bit numb about whatever was happening, calling in the parents usually meant things were really, really bad, but once again, he was smiling, so what was going on here?
“Ah, Mr. Cieślak, Filip we were waiting for you. Take a seat, we were just speaking about you with your father.”
I went to sat down to the right of my father; my teacher sat to the left.
“As I was saying earlier Mr. Kowalski, your son results are exceptional in all matters, he is without a doubt one of the best students in our school since its founding, if not the best, he works with a rigor I have rarely seen in…. well, anyone really. This alone would have warranted a scholarship so that he could further his study…but as it happens, Mr. Cieślak noticed the scribble the Filip wrote in his notebook from time to time.”
Your father frowned and you felt yourself sweat even more.
“Scribble?”
This time it was Mr. Cieślak who spoke out.
“Yes, I thought it was nothing but a young kid passing his time when bored, considering his marks and his usual studiousness, I was only planning to scold him before his classmate, but when I got a closer look, I noticed that were all mathematical formula…”
He paused.
“Advanced Mathematical formula if I may add, not only for his age, but even for the teaching staff, it was…. difficult to understand, definitely not something I taught.”
The Principle puffed on his pipe a bit, seeming quite happy.
“I took the liberties to send a copy to an old colleague of mine in the university of Vienna… he seemed fascinated at the idea that a 12 years old boy could reach such a level on his own, without anyone to teach him.”
“What?” You croaked out, speaking for the first time since you entered the room.
Your father on the other hand did not seems surprised, his frown smoothed.
“So, it’s about this in the end.”
The principle chuckles.
“Yes, I expected you would have noticed, there is no doubt about the fact that your son is a true genius of mathematics, my friend and I talked about it for a while, and we managed to not only get a significant royal scholarship for him, but a letter of recommendation, from the headmaster of the Vienna institute to give to any school of your choosing. Let it not be said that the Emperor dislike talented people.”
He looked at you with a smile.
“Shall we speak about your future?”
Military path:
-[] Path of the Cadet: Wait until you are 14, then go to a Kadettenschulen from 14 to 18, after which you will get a posting in the army, and within 2 to 4 years(average) you will reach the rank of leutnant.
-[] Path of the military academies: First go to the Unterrealschulen until 14, before passing on to the Oberrealschulen until 18, after which you have a 3 years course in a Militärakademiebefore joining into one of the various branches of the army with a grade of leutnant.
-[] Just wait until you are 18 and either enlist or get conscripted.
-[] Write-in, subject to QM veto
Civilian path:
-[] University path: First go to the Unterrealschulen until 14, before passing on to the Oberrealschulen until 18 then enter an university of choice to study what you want for 4 to 5 years, it is a scientific education.
-[] Fachhochschule path : Similar to the university path, except it is 3 or 4 years of studies unlike 4 to 5 and it is more concentrated on practical skills.
-[] Do not pursue higher education, and go back to work in the factory and take care of your family.
-[] Do not pursue higher education and do something else.
--[] What?
-[] Write-in, subject to QM veto
QM note: Pfew, I suck at writing those kind of scenes.
Anyways, With this, I will tell you that I have already left one clue about which universe you guys are in.