In Berlin

June 1863, University of Berlin.

As the son of a top-tier noble, Ernst had used his father's connections to audit classes here.

Ernst's schedule had been rather packed lately, though his main focus remained studying economic principles. His other courses were mainly noble etiquette, deportment, and even religion, all taught by his private tutor.

Accompanying Ernst were his private tutor Richard and his servant Tom.

Before this, Richard had always been responsible for Ernst's early education.

They first set out from Hechingen for Stuttgart, then passed through Bavaria and took the train to Berlin.

They lost a great deal of time along the way visiting noble acquaintances, and it took them nearly half a month to reach Berlin.

Fortunately, they traveled mainly by rail during the latter half of the journey, avoiding some unnecessary banquets and social engagements.

Upon arriving in Berlin, Ernst naturally had to visit the Prussian Royal Family first as a member of the House of Hohenzollern. He met his uncle, King Wilhelm I.

In truth, Ernst had met King Wilhelm I as a child, but he had been too young to remember clearly, and his memories of his past life had not yet awakened.

As for why they had connections at all, one had to mention Hechingen's unique position. As the birthplace of the House of Hohenzollern, even though the Brandenburg branch had risen to great prominence, becoming electors of the Holy Roman Empire and expanding the present Kingdom of Prussia, blood ties could not be denied. The ancestors of the Prussian Royal Family had also come from Hechingen.

The ancient castle where his family lived had actually been funded jointly with the Prussian Royal Family. However, his branch had lived in Hechingen for generations and had never left, while the Brandenburg branch of the House of Hohenzollern could not possibly abandon Berlin, Prussia's center of power, to develop in a backwater like Hechingen. Only because of the Ancestral land's special significance had the Brandenburg royal family funded the restoration of Hohenzollern Castle in Hechingen. It was a matter of family prestige.

Hohenzollern Castle had originally been an early military fortress. It was later destroyed in war, and the present Hohenzollern Castle was a newly rebuilt structure.

At times, the Brandenburg House of Hohenzollern would return to Hechingen to visit. The last time the Prussian Royal Family had sent people over was when Hechingen and Sigmaringen formed the new Prussian Hohenzollern Province and joined the Kingdom of Prussia. Ernst had only just been born then, so naturally he could not have recognized the Prussian princes who visited.

King Wilhelm I first asked after Prince Constantin's recent circumstances, then learned why Ernst had come to Berlin. When he found out that Ernst was here to study abroad—

King Wilhelm I was very pleased. The Prussian Royal Family had always attached great importance to education; it was, like the military, a Centennial Plan valued by the Kingdom of Prussia.

Now that Ernst had chosen Berlin as the first stop of his studies, King Wilhelm I was quite pleased. This also indirectly proved the development of Prussian education in recent years.

In the end, King Wilhelm I welcomed Ernst and assured him that if he encountered any trouble, he could come to the palace for help.

Ernst expressed his gratitude and also met other members of the House of Hohenzollern: Crown Prince Frederick, as well as the future Wilhelm II, who would one day stir the winds and clouds of the world but was still just a little child.

Having only just arrived in Berlin, Ernst frequently had to attend gatherings among the nobility. This was Ernst's only social activity.

He spent most of the rest of his time at school or in physical training. Medical standards in this era were difficult to rely upon, so Ernst placed great importance on his health.

Besides basic strength training, there was horsemanship and, naturally, firearms practice. Ernst had encountered this basic military education before. For Prussian nobles, it was the foundation on which they stood.

Ernst also made many friends at the University of Berlin. Though he found his studies difficult and appeared slow-witted compared with these genius-like classmates, Ernst had a good mindset and did not seek to compare his intelligence with those monsters.

There were also some noble children similar to Ernst studying here, though they were all much older. Still, the somewhat mature Ernst got along well with them.

There were quite a few powerful and influential people at the University of Berlin, but that was just how things were in Germany. Nobles were more enthusiastic about military academies, as well as competitors such as the University of Göttingen and the University of Bonn...

"All right, that concludes today's lesson. Class dismissed!" the professor said sternly.

Expressionless, the professor packed up his teaching materials and left work without the slightest hesitation.

Looking exhausted, Ernst rubbed his eyes, gathered the notes and books from his desk, put them into his satchel, and rose to leave.

Suddenly, a voice came from behind him. "Ernst! Where are you going to have fun after class?" Garrett elbowed Ernst, who was just about to leave.

"Of course I'm going home, Garrett," Ernst answered.

Garrett put on a look of surprise. "You're not attending tonight's banquet? I heard Karl organized it, and lots of ladies will be there!"

"Garrett, I'm still young. Don't think about leading me astray. Besides, there have been too many banquets and salons lately. I want to rest for a while." Ernst chuckled as he spoke and nudged Garrett's shoulder with his elbow.

"You bastard, you know more dirty jokes than I do. I think you only look proper on the surface." Garrett flailed about, using comical gestures to "expose" Ernst's hypocrisy.

Amid their horseplay, Ernst left the school. Outside the gates, Tom had already been waiting nearby.

"Tom, to the workshop today!" Ernst instructed.

"Yes, young master."

The carriage slowly departed from the school gates, weaving through Berlin's streets and making turn after turn before stopping some time later in front of a blacksmith's shop.

Ernst pushed open the door and entered. The room was piled with clutter, mostly tools—hammers, axes, and the like—casually tossed across the floor.

Flames burned in the forge, filling the room with the smell of charcoal. Beside it lay splashed, solidified molten iron.

A blacksmith's shop—or rather, a workshop, as Ernst now called it. Ernst had rented this place, and besides the original blacksmith, he had hired a middle-school student in science and engineering. Ernst interrupted Peter, who was feeding the furnace.

"Peter, have you made it?" Ernst asked naturally.

"Boss, it's done. See if this is what you wanted!" With that, Peter retrieved a wooden box from the counter behind him.

He opened the lid and took out a metal object. It had a brass handle, with a thin iron blade clamped between two layers of thick iron plates. It was a T-shaped razor.

For a transmigrator, making money was naturally the foremost priority. Though Ernst had been born a noble, there was never enough money. Leaving aside everything else, even noble status was not secure. In later years, when the German Empire was defeated, even the emperor would have to abdicate and flee abroad.

As a noble from a tiny place, although his status was high—before Hechingen was annexed, it had been a principality; Constantin had been a prince, and was now a Prussian prince, with a status equal to that of the sovereign princes—Hohenzollern Province sounded lofty, but in truth it was not even as large as the county where Ernst had lived in his previous life. Its population was not even a hundred thousand.

In such a palm-sized place, his family was not even the sole dominant power. Neighboring Sigmaringen was clearly more prosperous than his own family.

Drawing upon historical experience, he should make more money while making use of his present noble status. Even if the empire perished in the future, he would still be able to establish himself and would not fall into destitution.

Of course, those were distant matters, and Ernst was not yet too anxious about them. More than anything, this was to fulfill a bold idea that had dwelled in his heart since his previous life.

Once a person reached a certain position, ambition followed. Ernst was naturally no exception.

Knowing the future situation, Ernst naturally did not view Europe's future favorably. Setting aside distant matters, Prussia's series of wars to unify Germany lay right ahead. By the time he grew old, there would also be the two World Wars.

If he insisted on remaining in Germany in the future, the fall of the German Empire alone would affect him. By then, German nobles would be lambs awaiting slaughter. No matter how much wealth they possessed, it might be stripped away by the great powers and the Republican Government. Therefore, he had to arrange a way out in advance.

Europe was absolutely not a good place. Winds rose and clouds surged across this continent, where the great powers stood shoulder to shoulder. Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary—all were crowded here, and in the future there would be interference from America and Soviet Union. Thus, Europe had no future. Yet now was Europe's finest era, Germany's finest era.

Then where did Ernst want to go? That brought him to the place where he had worked in his previous life: Tanzania.

When Ernst had studied East African history in his previous life, he had always been filled with emotion. As Germany's most valuable colony, German East Africa was simply a land chosen by heaven.

Unfortunately, Germany had gone all in at the end. German East Africa had not even had time to be developed before the empire perished. Of course, this was also related to the German government's lack of attention at the time.

At present, no European country paid attention to East Africa. Britain and the French colony held vast territories, Germany had not yet unified, and only the Portuguese had a few footholds along the East African coast. Yet apart from the plains along Mozambique's coast, the Portuguese had not ventured deep into the East African interior.

When Germans invaded East Africa in Ernst's previous life, they had not encountered any worthy resistance. The only ones whose names remained were Africa's indigenous tribes.

These natives still lingered in a primitive tribal society. One could imagine how wild and uncivilized East Africa was.

But to Ernst, that very wildness was a good thing. As long as he used immigration to gradually develop East Africa, then employed methods to relocate the natives still living under primitive social systems, would he not be able to establish a country with ease in the future?

First, East Africa had no particularly notable resources—it had been developed late—and few colonizers paid attention to it.

Second, East Africa's population was small. Unlike the densely populated Philippines in East Asia, colonizers could not squeeze much labor value from it. That also meant the native population was small and easy to drive away, avoiding a repeat of the South African situation.

Finally, East Africa had good agricultural conditions, broad lands worth reclaiming, and its other conditions were not bad either.

In Ernst's eyes, as long as he could obtain administrative rights over East Africa, he could establish an independent kingdom as his future retreat.

This kingdom might be inconspicuous on the world stage, but after Africa's future wave of independence, the nation he built would certainly be able to crush the surrounding native states.

Naturally, the premise was that he did not do something foolish like the Boers—wanting everything at once, only to flee abroad in the end.

It was not that Ernst looked down on them. Even a pig might have been better than those African "benevolent rulers" of later generations.

As for why Ernst believed he could build a foundation in distant Africa, besides his favorable view of Africa's environment and resources, he also had a "benevolent ruler" like Belgium's Leopold II as an example.

Before the great powers fixed their eyes on the African continent, he could create an established fact, then raise Germany's banner and win over Austria-Hungary and Germany. That way, he could carve out a foundation overseas for the House of Hohenzollern.

Of course, the practical issue behind all this empty dreaming was—making money. Ernst could not even come up with the initial funds for colonization right now, so naturally he had to use his decades of life experience to make money.

That was right. This T-shaped razor before him was the first step. At this time, people still used straight-handled razors. Ernst was still young, not yet at the age of being covered in stubble, but merely looking at those straight-handled razors made his face hurt.

Fortunately, he had seen his grandfather's old-fashioned razor in his previous life, the kind invented by the American Gillette.

Ernst only remembered the general design of this razor, so after arriving in Berlin, he had Peter reproduce it from sketches. Now, it seemed that its initial form had been completed.

"Peter, you've done very well. If this razor were mass-produced, how difficult do you think it would be?"

Peter's expression turned grave as he answered Ernst cautiously.

"Boss, look!" As he spoke, he removed the razor blade, gripped both ends, and snapped it apart. Crack! The blade broke in response.

This kind of thin blade had far too little strength and simply could not be used. If the issue of blade strength could not be resolved, it would be impossible to sell.

Ernst pondered for a moment, then asked, "Is there a solution?"

Peter said, "Perhaps metallurgical experts have a solution. We could seek their help. Another method would be repeated experimentation."

"Mm, all right. On one hand, continue experimenting to find a solution. As for experts, I'll find a way." Ernst decided to grasp both ends at once and resolve this issue as quickly as possible.