Young Master's Regression Manual-Chapter 122: Commissioner

With the child safely nestled in his arms, Julius stepped out of the bedroom. Anneliese moved slightly, her eyes fluttering open.

"Nnh... Mister...?"

"Sorry," Julius whispered, a small smile touching his lips. "Did I wake you?"

"What is... Mister doing here...?"

"I came to pick you up," he replied. "Let’s go home, Anneliese."

"Ahn... okay..."

Her grip loosened as she relaxed against him, closing her eyes once again.

The moment Julius stepped back into the living room, Directorate personnel were already moving in, cleaning up the mess left behind.

Despite still being listed as a probationary officer on paper, it made little difference. With someone like Sabine backing him, any operative without superior clearance stood well below him in the chain of command.

"Throw him into the camp."

"Yes, sir."

One should never spare their enemies.

Given enough time, they would always find a way to return and sink their teeth into you.

And by then, regret would be the only thing left.

Julius already had enough regrets for one life.

He would make sure Frederick Aschoff would never see the light again.

* * *

The next day, Julius returned to the Directorate office.

Many of the officers who had once been familiar with him now regarded him with open surprise.

To them, his sudden reappearance felt unreal. Before leaving for the USSR, Julius had made a considerable mess of things, enough to place him on the brink of dismissal.

It was only through Sabine’s defense, and perhaps a few strings pulled by his father, that he had avoided being cast out entirely.

Ignoring the stares and whispers, Julius accepted the formal gestures of his return and made his way deeper into the building.

Before long, he stood before the door to the Director’s office.

"I have returned, Director Bärwald."

"You certainly have, Officer Schneider."

Gerhardt Bärwald, Director of State Preservation. The man known as the head of the Directorate, the Secret Police. He lifted his gaze and eyed Julius closely, tracing him from head to toe.

"I hope you’ve returned with something worth noting," Bärwald said. "You know what happens if it isn’t sufficient."

"Yes."

Julius stepped forward and placed a flash drive on the desk.

"It’s all in here."

Bärwald’s gaze dropped to the device.

"Is this perhaps—"

"I intend to conduct a formal briefing," Julius cut in. "It may be presumptuous to ask, but I believe what I’m about to disclose is significant enough to warrant the presence of all superior officers."

The room fell silent.

Bärwald leaned back, regarding Julius with renewed interest.

"...You’re confident," he said.

"I wouldn’t be here otherwise."

After a brief pause, Bärwald reached for the intercom.

"I’ll grant you the room," he said.

Julius inclined his head.

* * *

With that, all superior officers were gathered.

The briefing hall filled quickly as layers of authority assembled one after another.

Section Chiefs, Division Commanders, Executive Wardens, High Directors, Commissioners, and so on and so forth.

The murmurs died down as the lights dimmed. Holographic displays flashed above the table as data streams flooded their peripheral view.

Bärwald took his seat without ceremony.

"Begin."

All eyes turned to Julius.

Julius placed his hand against the console. The flash drive synced instantly, flooding the room with classified schematics.

"What you are about to see," he began, "concerns national security, unauthorized technological proliferation, and concerns regarding our neighbor’s competence."

No one interrupted him.

"For the record, this briefing is not a warning."

The data shifted.

"It’s a declaration that we are already late."

A presentation bloomed across the holographic display.

Julius began without preamble. He outlined what the USSR had become, the structure of its internal surveillance, and the measures he had been forced to take just to bypass the outermost security layers.

He spoke of forged identities, burned routes, false trails, and the constant risk of exposure that followed him with every step deeper into hostile territory.

"After six months," he said, "I managed to rise to what is designated as Zima-12."

The room remained silent.

No one interrupted him as he explained what Zima-12 represented. Its function, its authority, and the level of access it commanded within the Soviet hierarchy.

The implications alone were enough to keep every officer listening.

"But to go back," Julius continued, "most of you are probably wondering why I did this in the first place."

He paused.

"Let’s retrace the issue from a year ago."

With a motion of his hand, the slide changed. The hologram focused into a vivid profile image of a man.

"This is Joachim Pascal Beißwenger," Julius said. "Some of you may already recognize the name. Joachim is a Glassheart who escaped the concentration camp in Braunfels one year ago."

The image rotated.

"He is the individual I tracked all the way into the USSR."

Julius continued, laying everything bare. His coordination with Emil. The risks taken to smuggle Joachim across borders.

"And while officially listed as a fugitive," Julius added, "Joachim lived a second life."

The slide shifted again.

"A high-ranking researcher within the USSR."

Julius stepped forward and continued his explanation.

By the time he reached the end, the atmosphere in the room had shifted entirely. Wide eyes followed the data scrolling through the holograms. No one spoke for several seconds.

"Glassheart experimentation...?"

"To turn an oppressed race into weapons..."

"That’s a matter of global concern..."

For these people, it all seemed like straight out of a fantasy novel, yet one of them challenged him. Video footage and photographic evidence accompanied every claim.

Julius Sebastian Schneider was not simply pulling things out of conjectures.

It was documentation.

"This is the result of my one-year assignment."

He lowered his head.

"Schneider," one of the superior officers spoke up, breaking the silence. "You explained how these grotesque entities were capable of accomplishing the impossible. But tell me this. How can you be certain none of them escaped during your rampage?"

"That’s the problem," Julius replied. "Even I don’t know."

"But still," another officer interjected, "none of this explains how they escaped in the first place. Was it a system failure? A containment error?"

"Ah."

Julius lifted his head.

"I was the one who broke their containment."

Gasps filled the hall.

"Officer Schneider," Sabine spoke up at last. "Are you saying you’re responsible for a potential global calamity?"

"There is context, Commissioner Sabine," Julius replied evenly. "Given the USSR’s level of thoroughness, I required a justification to destroy everything at once."

He paused.

In the future he had seen, Zima-12 fell apart on its own. The containment collapsed with every anomaly managing to escape.

The world paid the price.

In this life, it was different. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Julius had destroyed nearly all of them. Perhaps every last one. And even if a single anomaly had slipped through, it was still a far better outcome than the future that once awaited this planet.

"Joachim intended to weaponize those creatures under his control," Julius continued. "Whether I acted or not, they would have escaped eventually."

The room remained silent.

"I assessed the situation within the limits of my abilities," he said. "And I acted accordingly."

He lifted his gaze.

"Simply put, I had no other choice but to take a gamble."

And that gamble paid off.

With the information Julius had brought back, Germany gained irrefutable cause. The evidence alone was enough to shatter the façade the USSR had maintained before the world.

Alliances collapsed almost overnight.

Countries that had once stood beside the USSR tore up their pacts in an instant. Others realigned themselves with Germany. What followed was a full frontal assault.

The USSR was breached from every side as former allies and rival powers alike converged, each seeking to dismantle it.

Borders burned, networks fell, and command structures were destroyed under coordinated pressure.

At least, that was the plan Julius had proposed.

And it held.

In the days that followed, confirmations arrived one after another. The United States. Several European blocs. Independent federations. Strategic partners who had hesitated for years now moved.

The chamber remained silent as the final assessment concluded.

"Probationary Officer Schneider," Bärwald said at last, "you are promoted effective immediately."

Applause filled the room.

Just like that, Julius skipped several layers of the hierarchy in a single stroke.

"Commissioner."

Titles that took others decades to earn were bypassed in an instant.