Published at 19th of May 2026 6:37 am

Chapter 954: A Bitter Farewell

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The next morning, Bruno caught the first flight to Japan. In the middle of the night, a Luftstreitkräfte strategic airline was diverted from the German base in Okinawa to Hanseong’s airfield.

Generally, Bruno did not prefer air travel, and the fact that he used a plane to cross the sea between Korea and Japan was ironic, considering this summit was about changing the infrastructure of Eurasia to avoid such measures in the future.

But the reality was that Korea’s infrastructure, while heavily developed, was a far cry away from what Germany and Russia had built through shared technology and resources throughout the decades.

A steam powered train from Hanseong to Busan, and then a ferry to Tokyo would take far longer than Bruno had the time or care to endure.

As a result, Bruno had sacrificed comfort and reliability for speed. When the plane touched down in Tokyo, Bruno found that a car had already been arranged for him.

It had been a long time since he had seen this city, and it had changed much in the decades since his last visit.

He had not westernized its architecture, in fact, much of it was still very much traditional. But the streets were modern, the trams ran on time, and the trains with them.

For over a decade Japan had acted as protectorate of the German Reich, and while Germany had relaxed the restrictions it imposed following the end of the German-Japanese war. They still maintained a large presence, both militarily and economically, in the nation.

It was a strange sight to witness. It was almost as if he was looking at a completely different world than the one he remembered watching on television in his past life.

Japan was so thoroughly decimated in its war with Germany during the 30s, as a result of Bruno’s falling out with Emperor Taisho, that it had never partaken in any of the wars or atrocities that it had in its past life.

Or, at the very least, it had not committed the sins of the 1930s and 1940s. This meant there was no Pearl Harbor, no Iwojima, and no nuclear detonation on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

This also meant that Japan never underwent a period of rapid cultural metamorphosis. They had been allowed to an extent to keep their Emperor, keep their martial traditions. Albeit under strict German supervision, and most of all keep its own culture without a forced importation of western influence.

Post War Japan in this life had seen German troops present and economic institutions. But Japan had largely remained the same culturally, as it was before the war.

Because of this, men, women, and children did not wear western clothes, at least not in their entirety. They shared the same 1930s aesthetic of blending Western fashion with traditional Japanese attire.

Kimonos were still a common and casual attire choice. It was truly a different world, and Bruno found himself smiling as he entered the car that his nation’s soldiers had prepared for him.

The car journey to the palace passed without Bruno even noticing how long he had been in transit.

And in the end, he entered the hallowed steps of the Japanese Imperial Palace with solemn respect for what had been preserved.

An attendant quickly approached him, bowing respectfully and without hesitation speaking.

"Your Royal Highness, the Princess will be pleased to see you that you have come. Please, if you would follow me."

Bruno nodded silently and followed the attendant’s stride until finally they both arrived at private quarters. The attendant knocked softly and cleared his voice before speaking.

"Your Highness... Mamushi has arrived at your request, would you like to see him now?"

"Yes, please send him in."

A faint voice called out from the other side of the door, but Bruno recognized it instantly. It had been many years, and the last time he saw her, Sakura had been perfectly healthy, albeit tired....

The door opened, and Bruno stepped inside. There he saw her, Princess Sakura. She had been an abnormality in this life. A royal figure whom he had no recollection of from his past life. A niece to the late Emperor Meiji that didn’t exist in the world he had originally come from.

He had always wondered why she was one of the rare individuals he met who he had heard no mention of before he reincarnated in this timeline.

Sure, others like his wife Heidi, his friends Heinrich and Erich, and any number of others he had met could be counted as men who held no significance in his past life. But were brought up to historical infamy by his own doing.

And yet, he had not done anything to spawn Sakura. It was truly bizarre.

She was at least ten years his younger. When he arrived in Tokyo in 1904, she was still in her early adolescence.

While he had been in his mid-twenties. And yet, here he was, standing as strong and healthy as a bull, in his late sixties. While she was bedridden in her fifties. He didn’t need to know her diagnosis, he could tell by the weight of her gaze that whatever she had was terminal.

He stepped forward, each movement feeling like his feet were encased in lead. Until finally he was by her bedside. Sakura looked up at him and smiled wistfully.

"Hello, Bruno... It has been a long time since we last met, hasn’t it?"

Bruno didn’t say anything, he simply nodded his head in silence. And this only caused the woman to smile more.

"What? You’re not going to inquire about what ails me?"

Bruno sighed and shook his head. He could more or less surmise any number of conditions that could lead to her current state, none of which were treatable by current standards of medicine.

His voice was filled with regret.

"It wouldn’t matter if I did would it? If whatever has taken your strength could be cured by German medicine, it would have been done so already, right?"

It was Sakura’s turn to remain silent. She nodded her head and looked out the window, towards Tokyo, towards her family’s capital. Her voice carried a certain sadness. One that Bruno had seldom encountered outside moments like this.

"The last time we met, our two nations were at war... I had gone through great difficulties to see you, hoping I could gain some leniency for my homeland, despite the arrogance of my Cousin who thought he could win a war with your Colonial forces."

Bruno smiled bitterly, remembering a war that should have not occurred, could have been avoided, but was waged out of the principle of pride. He nodded his head, his words more frail than they had been in a while. But forceful all the same.

"Yes... and I burned four of your cities to the ground... sorry about that...."

Sakura unexpectedly broke out into a laughter so fierce it forced her to cough. Bruno rushed to her side, checking on her condition, but she stabilized immediately afterward. She rested in his arms, the bitter smile returning to her face.

"I have never met a man in my life as shameless as you. I suppose we are the same in that regard, though. I had the gall to beg the Emperor to send you my invitation because I heard by sheer happenstance that you were in Korea."

Bruno didn’t remain silent any more, he helped Sakura up so that she could properly sit, and it was then he coaxed the answer out of her.

"Why did you invite me all the way here? As far as I was concerned were estranged after the war. And yet you summoned me as if I were a distant lover."

Sakura laughed once more, this time softer than the time before. She shook her head and sighed.

"You always did have a way with words, didn’t you? No, it isn’t anything so tragic, like a deathbed confession. I wanted to thank you is all. To tell you how I felt before my chance to do so slipped me by."

Bruno was stunned by these words. He couldn’t speak for the longest time until finally he found the strength to do so.

"Thank me? For what? I destroyed your country’s chances of ever becoming a great empire. And I killed a lot of your people doing so...."

Sakura nodded her head along with Bruno’s words, but forced his gaze to meet hers as she finally answered his question.

"That is all true, but you also humbled us greatly. We were so hellbent on proving we were every bit as powerful as your European empires that we almost stumbled into a war that would have cost us far more. We lost the war with Germany so spectacularly that it killed our ability to get involved in foreign affairs. And in doing so, we were spared significantly more suffering than we would have endured had we fought alongside the Americans against you in the Philippines."

Bruno remained silent as Sakura continued her explanation, listening to every word as if it changed his perspective on things that had already come to pass.

"There are still those who resent you for destroying our dreams of being an empire. But I think in the end we will be better off for it. The truth be told, Bruno, I’ve spent the last few months of my life looking back on your actions in this life. You seem to have a knack for showing up at the exact time and place something is about to blow up, somewhere in the world."

She paused, seemingly out of breath from the statement. Taking a few moments to fully recover and collect her thoughts. She finally posed the question she had been dying to know, and in doing so revealed the real reason she summoned him here.

"Many have stated that you are responsible for the deaths of millions from the wars you waged... But I wonder, how long would those wars have continued if you hadn’t shown up when you did? How many more would have suffered if you had not ended them decisively, albeit ruthlessly?"

"How many people exist today without ever realizing they would be dead, or never have had the chance to be born, if you had chosen to simply live the life of a man unbothered by the world around him? It’s almost as if you were sent here into this life, in the exact time and place to prevent greater tragedy."

Bruno sat stunned into silence for a long while. There were no words that he could possibly form that expressed how shocked he was at Sakura’s insight.

In the end, he shook his head, smirking as he rested his head in his hand.

"I’m impressed... I have lived this life for sixty-seven years. And not once has anyone pieced this together on their own. Should we meet again in the next reincarnation cycle, I’ll tell you everything you want to know, Sakura."

"I would like that very much...." Sakura said with a smile.

There was a gaze of understanding and serenity in her eyes. He hadn’t outright confirmed it, his words were vague. But the fact that he had specifically used the word reincarnation in his farewell told her everything she needed to know.

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