Chapter 168: Returning to the Land of the Rising Sun
After dealing with his rather useless twat of an elder brother and celebrating his daughter's birthday appropriately, Bruno would finally open the letter sent to him by Emperor Meiji. It was as he suspected-a letter of invitation to visit the land of the Rising Sun to witness the prototype machine gun they had developed as per the recommendations he had made in passing.
Even if the machine gun turned out to be relatively crude, the mere idea that it would be using an air-cooled quick-change barrel, along with a built-in bipod, stock, and pistol group, meant it was leagues ahead of what was currently being fielded by all nations other than the Reich.
Because of this, Bruno was quite interested, as if his recommendations were followed to the letter. Then it was entirely possible that a new machine gun had been developed, one that only existed because of his interference in the timeline.
With this in mind, he said a brief farewell to his wife and children, assuring them that he would be back in a few months. He then took the first available railcar to Hamburg, where he set off on a ship to the Eastern World.
Technically speaking, with the fastest ships of the era, traveling from Germany to Japan was itself a month-and-a-half-long journey. Aircraft were currently in their infancy, and there were still many decades to go before commercial aircraft were invented, let alone used as the primary means of passenger travel internationally.
Because of this, one either had to travel by train or by ship across the world's treacherous seas. With this in mind, Bruno had opted for the latter, as it was more expedient to do so rather than take a train across all of Europe and Russia until arriving in their far eastern territories, where he would then have to cross the sea into Japan proper.
The journey itself was a rather dull affair, with nothing of note occurring during the month- and-a-half time it took for him to arrive on the Japanese mainland. Since this was technically a "diplomatic meeting," he merely treated the journey aboard the luxurious ocean liner as a luxury cruise.
Relaxing as well as he could until he finally arrived at his destination, upon stepping foot in the capital of Japan, Bruno was once more welcomed by state officials, who quickly escorted him to the Emperor's palace.
It had more or less been five years since he last visited this place, and things had not changed in the slightest. Well, perhaps there were a few minor changes, as the uniforms worn by the Japanese military personnel around the Imperial Palace were of a more khaki or tan color rather than the old blue and red uniforms they wore during his last visit.
After all, this was a time when many nations were transitioning to more earthy tones in their uniforms, along with more modern weaponry. And that had largely been a result of Bruno's interference in the timeline. Sure, such a change would naturally be occurring about this time, but these new uniforms had been adopted much earlier than they otherwise should have.