The sound of artillery firing hundreds if not thousands of rounds in the distance while enjoying coffee was a marvel… I laughed a little bit at how many lives I have lived since the theoretical last life I had according to Being X. Repeating the reincarnating dozens of times… yet it worries me a little bit how he disappeared since my third life.

Although of course, all the words were a parody of Germany, and this was no exception. It is an entire world divided into three major German-like countries fighting for supremacy. Being the Krieg family, the one I fight for as a general, being part of the royal family…

But I'm not complaining. Not really. After dozens of reincarnations and somehow keeping my sanity intact, war became a sixth sense for me. So dealing with a sweetened version of the First World War in a world divided into three nations was no problem for me, and almost a pleasure in part.

You could say that war had become something pleasant, I came to enjoy it even when I was at the front. But it was even more enjoyable from afar drinking coffee.

I laughed for a second, scaring the radio officers in the camp. I had changed since my first life. I love war. What a disaster, I'd rather change my ideals than pray to Being X.

"We have broken the front line," said the communications officer. I drank coffee and nodded. The plan was proceeding as directed.

"The Krieg nation will be proud of this victory, we will finally conquer this peninsula," I said, smelling the essence of the mud with the powder with a little smell of coffee from my beloved cup. The nation of Krieg was contrary to many other sweetened versions of Germany, a nation with a wealth of resources of all kinds so I could drink real coffee. Which was the only drug to which I was addicted.

The system of this world was quite simple. There was the monarchy, having an inheritance based on meritocracy, every ten years the emperor would choose the most competent heir, so that would be the official heir until the emperor changed the heir or died.

Then there was the government, which decided meritocratically within the military ranks. To become a politician you had to be in service for 20 years in the army. This was because it was believed that the only way for a politician to be honest with his actions was to see all the horrors of war and fight to near death in a war.

Then in the army, the men and women volunteers would enter military service at the age of 13, training to be officers for 4 or 7 years depending on whether you decided to move up to field officer or back line officer.

I took the rear line officer, studying for seven years and becoming a major general.

And here I was as a General hearing that my stormtrooper division had broken through the enemy trench line, breaking the two-year stalemate of war on this front. Now the reserve divisions would take advantage of the break to infiltrate and break through the front line.

I stood up and looked at myself in a mirror for a second, I was about 5'6" and had a rather skinny body, golden eyes, and hair, a gray military uniform that reminded me of WWI officers from my first world, a military cap that looked more like WWII and a gas mask with a tube in case there was a gas attack.

It almost made me feel nostalgic to be in a world with WWI technology. For the last 30 reincarnations, I have been fighting variations of WWII.

Smiling, I left the camp and enjoyed the clear skies, with the sun shining in the north...

Wait a second, the sun is never in the north.

I quickly reached for my binoculars and looked up at the giant bright spot that looked like a sun. It was heading towards me, is it a new enemy weapon?

"EVERYONE GET OUT OF THE CAMP RIGHT NOW, EVACUATE IT, IT'S FALLING ARTILLERY" I shouted as I ran towards the nearest trench. The camp officers and support soldiers also came out following my example and took cover in a trench. A few seconds passed when a thunderous sound of something hitting the ground rang out.

When everything calmed down I stepped out of the trench to see something resembling a capsule sitting right on top of my old control base.

"Thank you for saving us," said the communications soldier next to me with more surprise in his voice for the thing in front of them than for almost dying.

"Do not worry" I said. In all my life I had never seen anything, so technologically advanced. Aliens? It was certainly a possibility, but from the looks of it, it seemed more like an accident than something planned.

"Your weapons ready," I said, drawing my pistol from its holster, the soldiers at my sides grabbed their rifles and the officers their pistols. Slowly approaching the capsule. I got so close that I could touch it, it seemed to have a technology thousands of years ahead of what was in this world. I tried to identify something like an interface in the structure while the rest surrounded it.

Just then I found something similar to a technological interface. But they were random buttons that I didn't know what they meant.

"Don't touch anything."

Worst case scenario it was a nuke and if I pressed it we would all die stupidly, so better to keep it tucked away.

"Also inform the Field Marshall"

—-

Returning to the royal family palace was gratifying in part, winning a military campaign and coming home for a vacation was what I would call a good life.

Except I brought the damn capsule with me and my father, Wilhelm XV, and the Kaiser decided it was a good idea to create a large technology complex next to the palace just to research it. Of course, I thought his ministers would tell him it was crazy.

BUT THEY APPROVED THE PROJECT AS A MILITARY PROJECT PUTTING ME IN CHARGE.

Why? I found it and according to them, it was my duty to research it. Sometimes I hated that they were so stupidly rational about this type of thing.

And of course, months went by until there was an entire military research team investigating the device with me supervising.

—-

I looked at the object in front of me with curiosity while drinking coffee. We had achieved some interesting things, some technological advances just by investigating the capsule but we still didn't know what it was for and I refused all requests to press the buttons on it. If I was going to die in this world it wouldn't be by a cliche action of pushing a button and everything exploding. I have died in so many different ways over dozens of lifetimes that it was already an obsession for me to avoid dying in ridiculous ways... Once I died because I fell off a horse... From that day on my pride acted on the way I died. It was stupid but I guess when you live hundreds if not thousands of years of life you start doing stupid things out of boredom. And also death has no meaning when you will always reincarnate.

As a daily routine, I started to turn it over to see if I saw something I had missed, it was part of a routine I made out of boredom.

The sound of something hitting metal startled me. My first instinct was to look around to find the idiot who dropped something but all the staff were standing still looking behind me in fear. Then I heard a second thump.

O come on don't fuck with me. Fuck you Being X

I turned around and watched as the capsule was dented.

"Everyone grab some kind of weapon! Alert the krieg guard!" I said quickly as I pulled out my gun and pointed it at the capsule as I slowly backed away.

It was after several hits that a piece of metal flew out, but nothing came of it. I fearfully put on my gas mask and slowly approached. As I looked around I saw how everyone followed my movement, putting on the gas mask and approaching as the investigators left.

Coming back to me. It was a bad idea to do this but I was genuinely curious to see what was in front of me. So despite my internal alarm that this was a bad idea, I walked over to see its contents...

"A human baby?" I said with surprise, quickly the soldiers approached and stood around the capsule looking at the baby, which looked like a normal baby a little oversized.

I curiously took the baby in my arms and it didn't start crying, just being normal.

"This is weird," I said, however, it seemed to have something like magic in it, damn you Being X what have you done this time.

—-

My father looked down at the baby who had been settled in a towel and was sleeping peacefully on the bed in the room.

"This came from the stars?" He said as he walked over and looked at the child curiously.

"It seems incredible, and this child broke the metal box..."

Silence filled the room and I just waited for him to give his verdict. I didn't care about the baby's fate and the sooner I could get back to my normal routine the better. In my personal experience anomalies of this type were Being X's fault and that always meant big problems.

"Tanya von Krieg, I think you should adopt him since you refuse to get married," My father said, surprising me. I had defended my female virginity for dozens and dozens of lifetimes and I didn't intend to lose it in this world. That's why I had always refused to marry. And now he was forcing me to adopt a baby from space?

"I don't think you're taking into account that it fell from space in a capsule with unknown technology, that it destroyed a metal capsule being a baby and that we don't know anything about it"

My father played with the child's tiny hand and then smiled. Showing his aptitude as a father of several children. He was always compassionate.

"If you ever inherit you need a son, and if you don't marry the only option you will have is to adopt. So this is my verdict. From now on he will be your son."

O come on don't fuck with me.

"What about my previous arguments, what sense does this make" I refuted. But then he disappeared from my sight, leaving the room.

Damn you Being X

—-

Being X watched the situation unfold, so many years of planning, so many plots, so many reincarnations, and finally everything had come to the same place. Bringing together one of the Emperor's children with one of his favorite toys.

"Everything is going according to plan," Said the one who changes paths, the great mutator, the great sorcerer...