In the slowly rising Ferris wheel pod, Natsuki and Charlotte sat on their knees. www.biquge.info It was a space where the two of them were completely alone, and Natsuki had hoped that such a journey would strengthen their relationship, after all, the two had yet to establish a relationship, let alone hold hands, hug, kiss, and more.

Now the atmosphere has completely changed.

"Jochen, actually...... I've tried to accept someone else. Charlotte was the first to speak, and before she could finish a sentence, tears welled up in her eyes.

Natsuki was dumbfounded. All along, he felt that his biggest obstacle to pursuing Charlotte was the deteriorating relationship between Britain and Germany, and the conflict between the traditional concepts of the two families, and he did not expect that the problem would be Charlotte......

"Earlier this year, I went to visit a cousin whose husband, a British officer, had been living a depressed widowhood since he was killed in the war with the Boers. In her, I saw the hideousness of war, and I wanted to be able to stay away from it as much as possible. However, my grandfather, my father, and many other members of my family were soldiers, and I couldn't choose it, and I didn't want to marry a soldier who could go to the front at any time and die at any time. Jochen, although you are a royal family of Germany, you have chosen military honor. As long as you're a soldier for a day, you can't guarantee that you won't go to battle, you can't guarantee that you won't get hurt or even ......" Charlotte pinned her face to one side, her cheeks filled with tears.

Unable to suppress the sadness surging in his heart, Natsuki lowered his head helplessly. Indeed, he could not make such assurances, and the more terrible fact was that his military plan was to become a fleet commander and lead the German fleet in battle against the British Navy. As long as you board the ship and go to sea, you will inevitably run the risk of dying at any time, and the risk is extremely high.

"Jochen, if you truly care about me and see me as the only one in your life, please leave the navy, okay? Even if you continue to be your ship designer, as long as you swear never to return to the combat unit, I am willing to give you everything I have......"

For someone else, Natsuki had reason to suspect that this was a despicable beauty trick, but in the face of Charlotte's tears, he couldn't make such a question. Charlotte's words made him clearly understand that she had already given her heart to herself. However, is it worth it to quit the Navy in exchange for a love?

Career or love, country or beauty, this may be the most painful choice in the world.

Natsuki thought that she would be very decisive in the face of this kind of problem, but Charlotte sat within her reach, the white moonlight quietly shining on her handsome but sad face, and Natsuki Huo Ran found herself in an unprecedented predicament.

Do you have to choose one or the other?

From a realistic point of view, the answer is clearly no. With Natsuki's tongue and acting skills in the power dump, it is not difficult to "get by". When the raw rice is cooked, many problems will be solved—Natsuki has not thought about it this way, but he does not want to pollute this hitherto almost immaculate relationship in such a worldly way, and he feels that with Charlotte's love-hate personality, this method will eventually lead to the loss of her.

After careful and careful consideration, Natsuki said: "Heaven testifies that I have a sincere heart for you, and if I lose you, my life will become pale and powerless. However, if you lose your dreams and the goals you strive for, I will no longer be me, but a soulless body. You don't want me to be like this, do you? ”

Charlotte turned her face and looked at Natsuki with an expression of seriousness that had never been seen before: "If you could only choose between your navy dream and me, what would you choose?" ”

Natsuki frowned: "I am willing to do everything I can for you, and I am willing to give up everything I can for you." ”

"Really?" Charlotte was not surprised, not happy, but incredulous.

Natsuki's tightly knit brows suddenly relaxed, and his expression was calm: "If leaving the combat units of the German Navy is the only way to solve the problem...... Yes, I do. I am willing to choose a risk-free lifestyle for your sake, even if it eats away the brilliance of my life. ”

The deep cold frost on Charlotte's face melted instantly, and she could no longer suppress the surging emotions in her heart, and the whole person threw herself into Natsuki's arms, sobbing: "No, Jochen, you shouldn't have appeared in my life, you shouldn't have gone to Hill Manor, you shouldn't have taken my 'tulips', you shouldn't have written to me, you shouldn't have sent me photos, you shouldn't have fallen from the sky, you shouldn't have played the piano and sung to me. Without that, we would be free and happy with each other, and we would not have to be bound to this. You don't have to be so painful, and I don't have to be so sorrowful. ”

At this moment, Natsuki suddenly found the feeling of a heartbeat that had been lost for many years, as if dead wood was spring, and the emptiness in his heart was finally full.

Because of this, he firmly told himself in his heart: never give up on Charlotte!

Without excuse or comfort, Natsuki gently lifted Charlotte's thin and handsome face and bowed her head to kiss her......

A delicate fragrance excites every olfactory cell in the nose, which is exactly what Natsuki dreams of, and it is extremely wonderful.

The interdependence of lips and lips makes the two young hearts closely connected. They are like a pair of ingenious sculptures, always maintaining the purest shallow kiss posture, and no one is willing to spoil this unique first kiss with further actions, until the stagnant time begins to flow again......

As the pod rises to the highest point of the Ferris wheel, there is no distraction in the horizontal line of sight, as if you are in the clouds, and you can taste the vastness of the world from an unprecedented perspective, and your mood is cheerful.

When the love is strong, it seems that even the silver moon has become the shape of a heart.

With a feeling of happiness, Natsuki's mind is not a certain love song or love poem, but "Old Boy" by the Chopsticks Brothers. When the pod slowly descended, he hugged his sweetheart in his arms and gently hummed the original song:

That's the person I love day and night

How do I express it?

Will she accept me

……

Dreams are always out of reach

Is it time to give up

It is the rainy season when the flowers bloom and fall

Spring, where are you

……

Look at the flowers floating in the sky

Wither in the most beautiful moment

Who will remember that she was in this world

……

Look up at the starry sky

The one that accompanied me at that time

Do you remember the story here

……

……

Although she couldn't understand what Natsuki was humming, this sentimental tune infected the complicated English girl, Charlotte snuggled tightly into her sweetheart's arms, her cheek against Natsuki's chest, quietly listening to the man's heartbeat and his songs, feeling his life, feeling his inside, and experiencing everything about him with her heart.

This scene is destined to become the most memorable memory of their lives.

Over the next few days, the group of four continued their travels in and around Vienna. Although Natsuki failed to resolve Charlotte's worries in a way that best of both worlds, after incubation on the Ferris wheel, the relationship between the two finally broke out of their shells, and the most obvious manifestation was the intimate hand-holding. Envious of Natsuki's success, Christian also bravely made an attempt, but unfortunately, the sweet atmosphere failed to impress Louise, but she did not seem to explicitly reject Prince Oldenburg, and there are still countless possibilities for the future between the two.

Although Natsuki and his family traveled this time as low-key as possible, they were recognized on the way, and it was impossible not to alarm the Austrian authorities at all. While visiting the famous resort town of Ishel, Natsuki received an invitation from the Austro-Hungarian Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand, who was inconvenient to refuse, not to mention that the host's banquet did not conflict with their travel plans.

At Laxon Castle, 15 miles from Vienna, Natsuki and his party were entertained by Archduke Ferdinand and his wife, Countess Sophie Hotek. Before this, Natsuki had a few encounters with Archduke Ferdinand, and also had contact with the Grand Duke. Historically, the couple's death was the direct trigger for the First World War, but they were by no means to blame for this human catastrophe. In fact, Archduke Ferdinand was not a fanatical warist, he pursued a relatively tolerant political philosophy and national strategy, and the root cause of the tragedy was that he married a wife who was not accepted by the Habsburg royal family. For a long time, Emperor Joseph refused to grant Sophie the title of Grand Duchess and the corresponding privileges, so that Sophie could not go to the theater with her husband, walk into the banquet hall with his arm, use the royal carriage, etc. Eventually, Sophie was crowned royal at a military celebration, and to make up for the slightdown, Archduke Ferdinand decided to take Sophie to command military exercises in the newly annexed province of Bosnia. Despite being reminded that the Archduke's angry Serbs might be against him, he finally took his wife on this journey of no return, ending his life full of sorrow in a suffocating way.

Because he was elected crown prince after Emperor Franz's son Rudolph committed suicide, Archduke Ferdinand did not have the charisma and prestige that an imperial heir should have, but his diligence and hard work are obvious to all. In this bureaucratic and inefficient dualist empire, the pace of socio-economic and military development was extremely slow, and it was thanks to the attention and support of Archduke Ferdinand that the Austro-Hungarian navy ushered in another period of rapid development.

Archduke Ferdinand attaches great importance to naval construction, and Natsuki is currently recognized as a genius-level naval designer, so the conversation between the guest of honor naturally does not deviate from this topic. In a relaxed and friendly atmosphere, Natsuki frankly admitted that with the industrial economic capabilities and strategic environment of Austria-Hungary, it was impossible to focus all its energy on the construction of capital ships, and that once a war broke out, it was unrealistic to expect the Italians to abide by the Covenant, and in the case of a blockade of the Adriatic Sea, submarines and torpedo boats would be more valuable than capital ships.

Although Natsuki's analysis made Archduke Ferdinand nod frequently, the extremely complex internal structure of the Austro-Hungarian Empire could not be changed by the power of one person. In addition to the notorious slackness and procrastination, the indifference of the Hungarian parliament to the construction of the imperial navy was also an important constraint, and Austria's less-than-ideal financial strength alone made it difficult to promote the construction of the navy.

On the other hand, under the "tireless" tossing and turning of Wilhelm II and his dog-headed staff for more than 20 years, Germany's grand strategic environment has deteriorated to the point where there are few friends left, and Natsuki knows that he does not have Bismarck's vision and skill, and his political experience has been accumulated almost from scratch, so he has to make up for the shortcomings of the other with his own strengths. If war broke out as scheduled, and the pattern of confrontation did not change much, the German Navy would be able to provide the Austro-Hungarian Navy with redundant high-speed torpedo boats and short-range submarines, so that it could contain as many Allied navies as possible in the Mediterranean.

Natsuki never expected one or two conversations to completely change someone's mind, not to mention that Archduke Ferdinand was a macro organizer rather than an actual executor of strategy and tactics. He saw his invitation to Laxon Castle as a fortuitous journey of love, because it was the place where Princess Sissi and Joseph spent their honeymoon, and although their lives ended tragically, their love remained the same after decades of storms, and Joseph faithfully sent letters to every place she went as she traveled to relieve the loss of her son. Today, the marriage of Archduke Ferdinand and Countess Sophie is also writing an inspirational story of the supremacy of love......

(End of chapter)