Bruno had more or less entertained the Japanese aristocracy for the night, or at the very least, the Royal Family of the Eastern Empire.
Sakura, of course, was very angry with Bruno for not immediately recognizing her and had stormed off to her room to write a series of angry letters, venting her frustrations to her pen pals, who just so happened to be the other princesses with whom Bruno was acquainted.
It wasn’t all too surprising that these young women all knew each other. After all, the German Reich, Austro-Hungarian Empire, Russian Empire, and the Empire of Japan were in a military alliance with one another at the moment.
To say that there was at least one opportunity over the past few years for them all to meet up together and hit it off was an understatement. Diplomacy was an important part of a monarch’s duties, and oftentimes it was conducted in person, over dinner, with one’s family. What was diplomacy if not business conducted over the scale of international boundaries? And because of this, Princess Sakura was well acquainted with the other princesses Bruno had more or less established some degree of familiarity with over the years of conducting operations overseas.
By morning the next day, however, Bruno found himself in an awkward setting. He was eating dinner with Emperor Meiji’s family, and Sakura was giving him the stink eye, much to the amusement of her father, mother, uncles, and grandfather, all of whom felt a bit of joy at Bruno’s misfortune.
Because of this, Bruno eventually sighed, coming up with some line that would only further the misunderstandings that existed between him and the adolescent princess, albeit in the opposite direction.
“I must humbly apologize, Your Highness. I did not realize who you were immediately. And though I am entirely at fault, I must admit the last time I saw you; you were but a young girl, but now you have blossomed into quite the beautiful woman. I’m sure whoever you marry in the future will be a very lucky man.”
Bruno’s words were more or less honest, if not exaggerated in terms of flattery. After all, nobles loved to have their asses kissed especially; it was one of the reasons Bruno seldom liked finding company with his own class in society.
Nevertheless, it seemed to have worked, as the girl blushed and muttered something beneath her breath that Bruno did not hear.
“You really think I’m that pretty?”
Bruno quickly asked what Sakura had said, as he did not hear anything other than a mutter, causing the girl to panic and pretend like she hadn’t said anything. And since she wasn’t willing to reveal it, he left the matter be. Meanwhile, the teenage princess’s mother simply smirked and did not say a word.
Either way, both of their expressions and actions made Bruno feel a bit uncomfortable, so he decided to stir up another topic for discussion, one that would change the overall environment in the room to something more stern.
“So, Your Majesty, Emperor Meiji, how long do you think it will be before you have fully tested and developed these new machine guns of yours so that they are capable of mass production?”
The Emperor was more than happy to discuss this matter, as any further insights he could glean from Bruno would be ideal. Thus, he was more than willing to let the previous discussion die, as he addressed Bruno with a rather excited expression on his aging face.
“My engineers have assured me that the weapon should be fully developed and ready for field trials within another three years at the most. Assuming it passes those field trials, then it will be ready for mass production by 1912 at the latest.”
This was a good estimate as far as Bruno was concerned, and because of this, Bruno nodded his head in satisfaction with Emperor Meiji’s words. If proven to be true, they would give the Imperial Japanese Army a significant increase in terms of firepower to be wielded against the British and French colonies in the Eastern World.
If they caused enough casualties, it could even go so far as to force the Allied Powers to divert forces from the Western Front to Asia, especially if the British Raj came under attack.
However, this estimate put many things in perspective. To many in the room, three to four years almost seemed like a lifetime away, whereas Bruno felt it was even longer. With each passing day, he would wait for the countdown to get closer and closer to the outbreak of the Great War, which was supposed to begin in 1914.
It was both a dreaded future and an anticipated one for the man. Even so, he had no way of knowing if the war would break out sooner in this life, as the changes he had made to the timeline via his direct or indirect interference in major global events that in his past life had contributed to the conflict could potentially have significant consequences on the overall timeline in this war.
Frankly speaking, Bruno desired for the war to break out in 1914 at the earliest. It gave him the time needed to ensure that his weapons were properly tested and fielded at least in some
-capacity.
The more advanced weapons that the German Reich was currently in the process of creating were either not yet fielded in significant enough numbers to change the outcome of the war or were simply not even completed at this point in time.
If the war broke out tomorrow, for example, Bruno would have to revert back to the Schlieffen plan and pray the advantage in firepower gained from having a few regiments armed with the latest weaponry would be enough to break the Anglo-French defenses at the Marne.
A battle that the Germans had lost in his past life was the event responsible for the creation of static trench warfare, which plagued the Western Front until the end of the war. If the war broke out in 1914, the German Army would have the overwhelming advantage in firepower, but the result of another quick victory like the one had in 1871 would simply embolden his enemies to wage another war in 20 years’ time.
Bruno’s defensive strategy was designed to inflict the most pain and suffering possible on the British and French armies so that their people would never again question the German Reich’s hegemony over Europe, and hopefully deter them from waging another pointless war that would only wreak more havoc and destruction on the world.
That was his hope, but whether or not any of these plans would come to fruition was dependent entirely on the butterfly effect and how his actions in this life, both significant and insignificant, shaped the world around him.
Ultimately, it was Princess Sakura who broke the long silence, as she begged her royal grandfather for a favor, shifting everyone’s focus to her.
“Beloved Grandfather, may I please be excused from this meal? I just realized that I have a few letters… which… which I need to… erm… change the contents of! And if I don’t go fetch them quickly, it will be too late!”
Sakura had been won over from her poor attitude rather quickly. All it took was a charming smile and exaggerated flattery, and the girl was back in Bruno’s good graces. Bruno, of course, did not know the letters she wanted to dispose of were the ones she had written about him, addressed to the other princesses.
Letters which contained all forms of slanderous and scandalous statements. Now that she had reverted back to being his admirer, she did not want these letters to be sent, and because of this, she had requested to leave the dinner early.
An unusual request, but Meiji was wise enough to suspect something was amiss, and he silently nodded his head, causing the adolescent princess to scurry off like a frightened rabbit as she ran out of the dining hall, her jet-black twin tails flailing behind her as she did so.
Unfortunately for the Japanese princess and Bruno alike, by the time she managed to get to her room, the letters on her desk, which had been sealed with her signet ring, stamped, and addressed to her pen pals, were gone.
The maids had collected them and sent them off to the postal service on her behalf. Meaning that in a few weeks or perhaps even months’ time, the princesses of the German Reich, Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Russian Empire would believe that Bruno was a man most heinous-one who they would be disgusted by whenever they caught his glimpse and whose name they would tarnish every time they spoke of it.
That is, of course, at least until Bruno could find a way to properly correct the tangled web of misunderstandings between him and the three royal daughters of the world’s most powerful emperors—a task that would require careful diplomacy, patience, and perhaps more than a
little charm.
But that was a story for another time.