Airship
[London police have been unable to identify the perpetrators, leaving the city center in a state of anxiety and fear. Residents are fleeing to the safest places at night, and dark alleys in the city center are no longer considered safe places to be].
"Stupid London police. They're doing nothing when they should be catching and interrogating everyone they suspect of being the culprits..."
"What.... It won't stop the murders, so why don't the London police just do something about it?"
"Are you saying they don't have to violate civil liberties to catch the culprits?"
"Ther're a public servant who doesn't want to be held accountable."
I nodded at Princess Louise's words.
Unlike the Gestapo, which offers a reward for every criminal caught, the London police are an iron fist, aren't they?
That's what civil servants are for...
[The horrific incident heralds a new wave of crime in the city center - an attack with such a weapon is unprecedented in Whitechapel-]
"Emperor."
"What is it?"
"They've arrived."
"...Already?"
As usual with the yellow press, the paper was sensational.
Time passed like a ghost when I realized how long it had been since I had read a newspaper.
"Let's go then, shall we? I'm going to see my dear Dr...."
***
August 10th, 1888.
The wide plain of Bad Cannstatt.
From the carriage of the train we could see a vast plain of concrete.
We humans decided to call it an airport, didn't we?
"Thank you for coming all this way. I am William, the rightful monarch of the German Empire."
"You are...."
As soon as I and the three women disembarked, an old man in glasses hurried over.
His name was Friedrich Hermann Wölfert.
He was a pioneer of Imperial German aviation and a man who has been called living history.
He was also a leading figure in the airship industry in the German Empire.
"It's been a long time, Dr. Friedrich."
"Pfft, I apologize. No matter how busy I was with my research, I should have attended the Kaiser's coronation in person, but my airship research was about to reach the practical stage, so I couldn't make the trip to Berlin."
"....."
It is perhaps fortunate that Dr. Friedrich did not attend the coronation.
If he had, he would have spent his time in the dungeons of the Constantine Palace with Junker, the Fang family, and the monarchs of the Empire.
What if that old man's anger over what happened to me was so great that he punched a hole in my future airship?
You can't just go around lynching the inventor of the airship that would destroy the evil of the world, the British Empire.
"It's okay. It's okay... But where is this college girl named Jorge?"
"Oh, you mean Horky, the ingenious engine inventor? It's no exaggeration to say that thanks to her, the future of airships, which would otherwise be as ragged as cars, has been advanced by decades. She..."
"And where is she?"
"....."
Dr. Friedrich rolled his eyes at my words.
The look in his eyes made the guards behind me fear for their lives as they reached for their German-made firearms, and the startled Dr. hastily pointed his finger in the distance and shouted.
"There she is.... The future of the German Reichswehr, to which I have dedicated my life, and to which she has added, is riding on Dr. Horch. It's something she had a hand in, and as a fellow inventor, I couldn't stop her from wanting to ride in it, even if it meant dying."
"...!!!!"
"...!!!!"
"...!!!!"
In the direction he pointed, an airship, dwarfed by the LZ 129 Hindenburg, but in a style that would have been built at least as early as 1900, was preparing to take off.
The problem was that a girl was about to board this airship alone?
***
While I, Bismarck, and Princess Louise freaked out at the sight of the fearless girl, only Bertha Benz looked lovingly at her daughter, as if proud of her.
Princess Louise frowned at the crazy mother-daughter relationship.
"Of course.... That's my daughter. Cancer. An inventor has to try, even if it means dying."
"You know.... Bertha Benz?"
"Yes, Princess Louise? Is there a problem?"
"Problem? Huh.... Are you crazy?! What kind of mother looks at her daughter like that when she says she wants to kill herself?!"
Princess Louise cuts off inventors with common sense.
But inventors at the end of the 19th century, when romanticism was alive and well, were different.
They had absolute confidence in their inventions, and they didn't mind risking their lives to make them work.
If they succeeded, they would gain immense wealth and fame; if they failed, they would die a lonely death, unable to write a single line of history.
Like everything else in the world, the world of inventors follows the same principle.
A mother rides in a coffin that walks on the ground,
and her daughter rides in a coffin that flies in the sky....
I suddenly felt sorry for Karl Benz.
"I am so proud of my daughter. She may be a princess, but she doesn't care about inventors' souls."
"...!!!!"
"As long as I live, I will support my daughter's challenge...."
Listening to Bertha Benz's words from the sidelines, I realized something.
I realized why inventors create things that change industries, eras and history.
They are no longer human.
They've evolved into a new species called inventors.
"Tsk...."
"But why, Bismarck. What else do you cluck your tongue at because you don't like it?"
"If.... That girl falls out of the sky and dies, that's a huge loss for the Reich's engine industry, and the thought of making up for that loss makes my head hurt."
"So you're saying that her death as an inventor would hurt more than the death of the girl herself?"
"Of course it would, Kaiser, you are the rightful monarch of the German Empire, aren't you?"
"....."
What is this asshole?
...Did she develop a species called 'Chancellor of the German Empire'?
Ah.... My head hurts.
I want to run away from this crazy German Empire and go chop logs.
But I've already stepped in too deep.
Into the swamp that is the German Reich.
***
August Horch.
A geeky student who prefers inventions and money to love and lust.
So it's no surprise that she applies for a part-time job at the Palace of Constantine, where the hourly wage is exceptionally high.
Call it fate?
"A daily wage of 3 marks ($240 in 2024)?!"
Jörg was shocked.
He'd heard rumors that the Hoenzollerns had a lot of money, but he'd never expected a maid's salary to be so high.
"Of course, the qualifications are ridiculous.... I have to be pretty enough to catch the Emperor's eye and have a good figure..."
She quickly stepped in front of the full-length mirror.
She turned her body around to get a good look at her voluptuous figure.
"I don't usually decorate, so of course I'm confident in my appearance. The problem is my body, but it's not bad. For a body that doesn't move, that sits around and works with mechanical parts, it's not bad. Should I work out before the interview?"
To make matters worse, the rumors were not good.
That Kaiser was a masochistic pervert who beat his maids.
That the high hourly wage was not only for the maids but also for entertainment.
Rumors spread by unqualified men and women shook Berlin to its core, but Horch didn't care.
Watching the coronation in person for what would probably be the first and last time in his life.... was too good to be true.
She just signed up for the high hourly rate.
Little did she know.
that the three marks included a living allowance.
"No way! No way! You don't take a sweet, lovely maid like me into your bed, you put me in a dungeon.... I want to run away!"
"Then don't you want revenge?"
"...!!!!"
Junker, the royalty of the Fang Clan, and even the imperial monarchs had been transferred to the Berlin Palace.
Horch, who was alone and lonely in the dungeon of the Constant City Palace, was startled by the sudden voice.
She was also surprised to see a face in the light.
Wasn't the face of the woman who had come to see him the one that appeared every day in magazines proclaiming her the most beautiful woman in the German Empire?
Her name, the one he saw every time he looked at the magazine, was...
"Chancellor Bismarck?! Why you?"
"Because.... Because I know your frustration...."
"....."
"What about it? Don't you want revenge like I said before?"
The sweet demonic voice echoed in the cold dungeon.