Chapter 164: Elsa’s Birthday Part I
Bruno did not immediately answer the request to visit Japan, or more specifically its capital, to meet with the Ruling Dynasty of Japan. Rather, he would do so at his own leisure. It was nothing urgent and could wait for some time.
Emperor Meiji had sent a letter that traversed by sea and railway to the German Reich, requesting Bruno to visit and witness what his passing thoughts had given birth to: a rather exceptional machine gun for the time. It was something that was most certainly superior to anything fielded by the Imperial Japanese Army in his past life.
Or at least it had the potential to become such a weapon once it had gone through proper prototyping, experimentation, and so forth. It had taken roughly four years for the German Reich to go from the conceptual stage to passing military trials for the small arms Bruno had given them.
But that was because Bruno had provided them with a very detailed understanding of what to make, while the German Reich's engineers, especially those at Bruno's family's factories, had a capable knowledge of machine guns already.
Whereas Japan had yet to field its own domestically manufactured machine gun, relying instead on designs built by foreign powers for the limited use they saw during the Russo- Japanese War. The fact that they had only just begun prototyping a little over four years into development was rather usual for arms manufacturing.
Bruno suspected whatever they had to boast about would not remotely resemble the same product once it reached its final stages of development, trial, and manufacture. Because of this, he was more than willing to put off this meeting, which was merely an excuse for a diplomatic visit to Japan at the behest of the Japanese Emperor.
Something he would normally jump at the opportunity for; so then why was he so adamant about not immediately responding? Because it was his youngest daughter's birthday today. And he had no intention of leaving his home under any circumstances.
Unless it was something like an all-out civil war requiring his command to put down, Bruno would not be leaving his estate today. Elsa had, of course, used this occasion-which only happened once a year-to gain as much affection from her father as possible, who, unlike her mother, was commonly out of the home from the earliest hours of the morning until the final hours of the evening.
And that was assuming he was actually in Berlin and not on some diplomatic meeting elsewhere or, God forbid, a deployment overseas. Because of this, Elsa was constantly around her father, even when her friends and extended family all visited the estate to celebrate her birthday.
Only Heidi could compel the girl to go socialize with her classmates, as her tyranny was something the young girl deeply feared. It was only after Heidi approached the girl-who was sitting on her father's lap while happily chatting with him-that Elsa fled off into the distance to properly greet her guests.