Chapter 6
Several years passed after I received my first revolver.
Since then, I’d taken apart all sorts of things.
I was only allowed to handle pistols under Wilhelm and the chamberlain’s supervision, but I could work on clocks, telescopes, and wind-up toys relatively freely. At first, I broke more than half of them, but my success rate improved with time.
My ability had gone from saving two out of ten to saving eight out of ten.
‘What about the other two?’
They were unavoidable casualties of the development process. That was why development required a budget.
One autumn day, the entire imperial family headed to Berlin to watch a military parade.
Wilhelm had been in good spirits since morning. His uniform bore more medals than usual, and his mustache curled especially high at the ends.
“Today we’ll watch the Guards march.”
“Are there cannons, too?”
Oskar asked.
“Of course. You’ll get to see the new field guns as well.”
Before I knew it, I was leaning forward.
“New field guns?”
Wilhelm smiled with satisfaction.
“As expected, Bessie is interested.”
He seated me beside him and said,
“I hear Rheinmetall completely redesigned one of its existing guns into a new field gun this time.”
As the carriage traveled down the main avenue, people gathered along the road waved flags. Cries of “Long live the Emperor” rolled on like waves.
In my previous life, I’d lived in an era far removed from monarchy. Since citizens didn’t all cheer when the president passed by, it had felt strange at first.
But after seeing the overwhelming spectacle of thousands of people all facing one way and shouting, I’d grown somewhat used to it.
Once the imperial family had taken their seats and the parade began, the cheering grew even louder.
Infantrymen in neat ranks marched to the beat of the military band. Their spiked helmets and bayonets flashed in the sunlight, followed by the cavalry and artillery.
Each time a horse-drawn field gun rolled over the cobblestones, it clattered and seemed to make the ground tremble.
“Isn’t it magnificent?”
Wilhelm asked.
“Yes! It’s amazing!”
Honestly, it was impressive.
From a modern perspective, some things made me raise an eyebrow. But even so, I could understand why the Prussian-style army was considered one of the strongest in Europe.
Oskar pressed himself against the railing, his eyes sparkling.
“Will I be able to join that regiment someday?”
“If you become an excellent officer, you can.”
Mother watched the two of them and smiled quietly. She didn’t seem very interested in the military parade itself, but she liked seeing the children enjoy themselves.
“Do you want to be a soldier too, Bessie?”
Mother asked, sounding a little concerned.
“I’m not sure... I don’t know yet.”
“Even though you love guns and machines so much?”
“Making things and fighting in person are different, aren’t they?”
Mother looked at me in surprise.
“You know how to make that distinction, too.”
I just laughed it off.
Thanks to my military service in my previous life, I knew very well that liking weapons and liking military life were entirely different things.
Wilhelm patted his sons on the shoulders.
Watching my family, I fell into thought.
The Great War was coming soon. Then came the defeat and revolution of 1918, and finally Wilhelm II’s exile to the Netherlands.
In history books, it was a story that took only a few lines.
The Emperor abdicated, a republic was established, and the royals lost their privileges.
In my previous life, I’d memorized it without feeling anything in particular. If it came up on a test, all I needed was to remember the year.
It wasn’t a subject I’d paid much attention to; it was only ever briefly covered before World War II.
But now, that Emperor was my father, proudly showing off the military like a child beside me.
Oskar wasn’t just a prince whose name remained in a corner of a history book; he was my twin, who fought and played with me every day. The same was true of Mother, my brothers, and even little Victoria.
Within the words ‘House of Hohenzollern’ in my history books were people I’d spent nearly a decade living with.
Even counting my memories from my previous life, I’d spent much longer living as a Korean. I had no intention of laying down my life for the glory of the German people or the Emperor’s authority.
Still, I didn’t want my family to fall.
I knew Wilhelm had done plenty of things wrong. I couldn’t deny that he was impulsive, boastful, and prone to diplomatic blunders.
Just a few days ago, the subject of England had come up, and he’d gotten worked up and rambled on for ages. He’d said the navy needed to be expanded, and that Germany deserved its rightful place in the world.
With the memories of my previous life, I knew where that kind of talk led. A naval arms race with Britain would cost a fortune and was likely to worsen relations.
Even so, a nine-year-old daughter couldn’t say at the dinner table, “Stop the naval arms race.” To explain why, I’d have to confess that I knew the future, or at least become a child who understood international affairs far too well.
It wasn’t time yet.
But even so, we were family. At least in front of me, he was an ordinary father who showed off his new uniform and let go of his principles at one display of his daughter’s affection.
‘I couldn’t stand by and watch that happen.’
It took me a little while to admit that I loved my family.
For the first few years, I couldn’t break the habit of seeing them as historical figures. Whenever Wilhelm got angry, I’d think, ‘Ugh, that crippled-arm idiot,’ and when my brothers played pranks, I’d first think of the lives they’d lead in the future.
But at some point, the order changed.
He wasn’t my father because he was an emperor in history; he was the emperor in history because he was my father. Oskar, too, was my brother before he was a prince.
The difference was bigger than I’d expected.
If possible, the best thing would be to prevent the war that would bring about my family’s downfall, but I knew it wouldn’t be easy.
I wasn’t sure that saving the Austrian crown prince in Sarajevo would be enough to ease tensions across all of Europe. The Balkans, Russia and Austria, France’s desire for revenge, the rivalry between Britain and Germany... There were far too many causes of World War I.
Even without Sarajevo, war would break out someday.
If so, then at the very least, I had to make sure we didn’t lose. The problem was that there was almost nothing I could do right now.
I was only a nine-year-old princess. I couldn’t take part in politics, read diplomatic documents, or command an army.
The one thing I was good at was taking machines apart and understanding how they worked.
‘I can’t change the grand strategy from the start.’
If I went around acting like I knew everything and the imperial family started treating me like a strange child, I might end up unable to do anything at all. To change the future, I first had to grow up normally, earn people’s trust, and find people who would listen to me.
‘I should start small.’
Making a rifle a little less cumbersome, making a pistol a little more reliable, helping a single soldier fight a little more comfortably.
It wouldn’t be enough just to make weapons look good. Someday, I’d have to think about production costs, ammunition, and even the soldiers’ training. Now I could understand a little why the production and quality departments had hated it whenever I changed a design in my previous life.
But to learn about those problems, I first had to give people a reason to listen to me.
If those small changes accumulated, maybe someday I could take on something bigger.
Near the end of the parade, we took a family photograph.
The photographer struggled to get us lined up. Wilhelm stood in the center, and Mother held Victoria. Oskar and I sat side by side in the front row.
“Bessie, sit up straight.”
Oskar whispered.
“You stop spreading your knees.”
“An officer can sit like this.”
“You’re not an officer yet.”
The photographer ducked beneath the black cloth.
“Please don’t move.”
A moment later, a flash of light, and the photograph was taken.
I looked at my family before me. I didn’t want to see these people scattered apart in the future. It wasn’t grand patriotism, and even less was it a sense of duty to world peace.
I just had a small wish for our home, and this peace, to continue.
That night, I couldn’t fall asleep for a long time.
In the next room, Victoria was crying, perhaps after a nightmare. A little while later, Mother came herself to comfort her, and from the far end of the hallway came Wilhelm’s voice as he returned late.
It was an ordinary night that wouldn’t be recorded in history books. I hated the thought of days like this disappearing.
But I also shouldn’t delude myself into thinking I knew the entire future. I had a general idea of why the war would happen and how it would unfold, but I didn’t remember the details of diplomatic documents or the course of every battle. My knowledge of the future was less an answer key than a blurry table of contents.
Still, it was better than doing nothing. And so, for the first time since coming here, I made a clear resolution.
At the very least, I would make Germany strong enough not to lose the Great War.
I didn’t know exactly how, but I decided to start with what I could do.
In one corner of my room lay a drawing of a rifle I’d been developing for a while.
It was a rifle that would be called the Gew 98 once development was complete.
And it was what I’d begun begging for as a present for my tenth birthday.