Chapter 45: An Invitation to the Kaiser’s Palace Part I
Bruno stepped foot off the docks at Hamburg, gazing upon the thriving German city with a warm smile on his face. The fresh autumn air of the fatherland was truly a miracle to behold. Any thoughts he previously had about that which he had done in Mukden immediately vanished.
Instead replaced by a daydream of what would happen when he stepped foot in the doors of his humble manor. Of course, he could not immediately visit his family, as he had been summoned to Berlin by the Kaiser himself. An honor which he could not refuse, no matter how much he might wish to do so.
Because of this, Bruno hopped on the first train to the capital of the German Reich, a city which he had grown up just outside in his family's estate. Hours passed as the old steam engine toiled away to make sure the cart made its way to the Capital city.
Meanwhile, Bruno enjoyed a cup of coffee by the wait staff of the cart, all while smoking out the window. Though he knew the dangers associated with nicotine, Bruno wasn't of the mind to care. There was one thing that could calm his nerves, in and out of the field, and that was a long drag from a cigarette.
As he sat there in uniform, with his field cap placed on the table in front of him. A young child ran up to him, having seemingly escaped from his parents' watch. The boy was no older than eight, but he gazed upon Bruno's uniform, and the insignia upon his collar.
Surprisingly, the boy recognized the symbol as belonging to a high-ranking officer. He immediately threw up his best attempt at a salute while silently looking upon Bruno as if he were a superhero. Bruno remained stoic as he responded to the boy in kind.
Though he was not obligated to salute a civilian, an act that could be considered offensive by some veterans. Bruno simply did so as a means of not dashing the young boy's hopes. This caused the boy to run off with a wide smile to his parents, where Bruno could overhear him bragging to them.
"Mommy! Daddy! The General saluted me!"
The parents looked over at Bruno with bemused expressions as the man himself nodded to them silently before returning to his newspaper. News of Lenin's return to Russia and the beginning of the revolution were the natural headlines.
Which immediately spurred Bruno's interests in the developments which followed his victory in Manchuria. After reading the entire passage attributed to the ongoing war in the Russian Empire, Bruno placed his newspaper to the side, and a put out his cigarette in the ashtray. Choosing to spend the rest of his journey to Berlin gazing upon the German countryside.
In the coming decades, most of these ancient buildings that appeared as if they were straight out of some kind of fantasy world would be utterly destroyed. The World Wars had exacted a toll on the German Nation and its people that they never fully recovered from. Well, this would be the case had Bruno still been living in his past life.
Still, it would be a shame for such marvelous architecture, which until this new lease on life, Bruno had only seen in old photos from a bygone era to once more disappear from this world.