Chapter 22: The Child of Two Worlds – 1900–1910
Adrian Van der Berg grew up in a palace that was more museum than home. His grandfather, King Willem, was a distant figure, more interested in ledgers than in children. His father, Crown Prince Frederik, was a gentle man who loved music and art, but he died when Adrian was only seven.
It was his mother, Queen Wilhelmina, who raised him. She was a Habsburg princess, cultured and devout, and she intended to raise a proper European monarch.
But Adrian was not a proper European monarch. He was a soul from the future, trapped in a child's body, and he could not forget what he had seen.
He learned quickly, too quickly. His tutors were astonished by his grasp of mathematics, his knowledge of history, his understanding of economics. By the age of ten, he was reading Adam Smith and Karl Marx, and finding both lacking.
One afternoon, his mathematics tutor set him a problem involving compound interest. Adrian solved it in his head, then added, "But this assumes a stable currency. If the currency inflates, the real return is negative."
The tutor stared at him. "Your Highness, you are ten years old."
Adrian shrugged. "I read a lot."
In 1910, a new tutor arrived: Professor Elias Bergman, a Swedish economist who had fled the anti‑Semitic policies of the German universities. Bergman was a thin, intense man with a passion for social justice.
He found his pupil in the palace library, surrounded by books on finance and engineering. "Your Highness, you are supposed to be studying Latin."
Adrian looked up, his eyes serious beyond his years. "Latin will not save this kingdom, Professor. Understanding the coming war will."
Bergman sat down. "What war?"
Adrian hesitated. He could not reveal his secret. "I read the newspapers. I see the tensions. Austria-Hungary, Serbia, Russia, Germany—they are waiting for an excuse to tear each other apart."
Bergman studied him. "And if they do, what would you advise your grandfather to do?"
"Stay neutral," Adrian said without hesitation. "Sell to both sides. Build our industry. Stockpile food and fuel. And accept refugees—the best minds in Europe will need a place to go."
Bergman was silent for a long moment. Then he smiled. "Your tutors have told me you are a genius. I see they were not exaggerating."
From that day, Bergman became more than a tutor; he became a confidant. Adrian fed him ideas that seemed like precocious insight but were actually memories of the future. He spoke of oil reserves, of submarine warfare, of the importance of synthetic materials. Bergman wrote them down and passed them to the king.
King Willem, now old and tired, listened to his grandson's advice. He did not understand where the boy's knowledge came from, but he trusted it. He began to stockpile oil, to build submarines, to prepare for a war that everyone else thought impossible.
In 1912, Adrian accompanied his grandfather to the funeral of King Edward VII in London. It was his first trip to Europe, and he used it to observe. He met Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, who was struck by the boy's questions about naval strategy.
"Your Highness," Churchill said, "you have the mind of an admiral."
Adrian smiled. "I have the mind of a man who wants his country to survive."
Churchill laughed. "We all want that, young man. But some of us have to fight."