Rasputin of the East

＜ Episode 118 >

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Moscow. Russia.

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My brother-in-law in Moscow was guarded by soldiers.

As soon as I approached, the soldiers raised their salutes, and the officer who opened the door followed me behind my back and whispered something, but I hardly heard it.

As I was about to enter the building, the officer, who couldn’t come any further, saluted behind my back and walked out.

Now alone, I stood at the doorway.

Should I open the door and go in, what should I say?

You open the door and you come in.

Time stretched, and countless emotions and thoughts intersected even in one brief moment when the extended time was cut off.

Reason and emotion, impulse and rationality, emotions and thoughts, and memories were infested.

“What are you doing?”

At that moment, the voice hardened my body.

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My body was petrified as if I had made eye contact with Medusa.

It seemed that hundreds of years had passed, but in reality it was only a few seconds.

The voice you heard from the door, you must have known I was there, but the guards made a fuss, so it’s funny to not know.

I called out the name of the woman beyond the front door, the name of the woman who gave birth to my child.

“Tatiana.”

“okay.”

I slowly pulled the door handle.

I could see her face, which I had seen for well over a year.

The woman who gave birth to my child.

But a woman who cannot be called my wife.

“Tatiana.”

“Mikhail.”

The name Mikhail, a name that even I forgot because it was only called by a nickname all over the world, hit my eardrums.

“You are back.”

I barely, really, barely lifted my lips that didn’t come apart.

“I’m back.”

What more should I say, I had a lot of things to say, sorry, thank you, etc.

But none of those words came out of their mouths, like snakes twisting and entangled in their hearts.

Barely, barely squeezing his lungs and heart, a single word escaped the tip of his tongue.

“Your name was… Nikolai.”

“okay.”

A person who cannot stand by her side during pregnancy, hug her at birth, take responsibility publicly, or even call her a son in public.

Is there such a thing as irresponsible man?

Tatiana smiled silently, took my hand and led me into the house.

Inside the quietly open door, there was a crib in the room lit by the deep blue dawn light.

There were splendid luxury items, expensive furniture, and ornaments. It wasn’t Tatiana herself.

“My sister sent me. I’m sorry.”

As if he knew what I was thinking, Tatiana’s soft voice thundered in my ears.

I went one step further.

There was no response from the cradle. The inside of my mouth was dry, the blood felt dry, my muscles were stiff and it felt like it was going to break, and I couldn’t breathe well because it felt like my chest was being crushed. Only the heartbeat was beating like crazy like a triumphal drum.

Every step I took, I felt heavy.

When I stood on the cradle, my eyes met their eyes.

Eyes black like ebony reflected the dawn light like black pearls and were shining brightly.

The child raised his arm. However, due to lack of strength, it soon sags.

I took the arm by the hand. If you didn’t touch it, you wouldn’t be able to feel the reality.

As if to say something, the child began to babble.

“Ab……”

I blankly let the child go. I touched it without realizing it, but I looked at the child two or three times for fear that it might hurt.

Because it always has been, because my hands have shed blood countless times.

It is said that a person’s body odor resembles the smell of the closest thing to him, just as the saying goes, the closer you get to the jelly, the blacker it is.

And my body smell was bloody and premiere. it has always been

So it didn’t even feel real. I was afraid that my callused hands, holding guns and swords, would harm the child. I was afraid that the boy’s soft skin might get hurt by my hand.

“Nikolai.”

I muttered softly.

“Abb……”

I had no choice but to stand in front of the babbling of a child who had not yet turned into stone, no, it must have been 100 days old, as if possessed.

Then, the child laughed softly.

With that innocent smile, I bit my lip hard involuntarily.

“Nikolai, my son.”

“Uh…Ab…Papa?”

“Yes, I am your father.”

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Memories come back faintly. When the image of me in the past, which burned the city and ordered the death of countless people, and the image of a child smiling innocently as if he knew nothing, overlapped, my eyes became blurred.

“Mikhail.”

Something rides down my cheeks, just as it is, I stared at my first child without hesitation.

Promise that you will be ready to fight no matter what happens, no matter what trials stand in your way, no matter what the cost of twisting causality.

It was just standing there.

***

Kremlin, Moscow.

“You gave me a lot of homework, Duke.”

Olga, who was paying the pile of papers with a pen in one hand, got up when I entered.

She approached me boldly and hugged me boldly and kissed me.

“Sir Regent.”

“Hmm.”

Long if long, short if short When the contact was over, Olga stroked the back of my neck and said.

“You’re a regent, I’m so sorry.”

People tell her to quit her like flattery. She is the Crown Princess, not yet the Empress. Nicholas II has not recovered enough to understand how things are going now, but he is recuperating in Yekaterinburg with dozens of attendants and attending physicians.

Like the Empress, she probably knows less about the current political situation in the Russian Empire than the average gentleman who reads the newspaper in London.

Of course, she is not obsessed with the title of Pehara.

“I can’t even call you by name, ah, sorry. Is this the duke’s attitude toward his fiancee who is holding a wedding date?”

“Stop joking around, Olga.”

“Originally, people’s relationships are a series of push and pull, but strangely, it feels like only me is pulling.”

“Where else have you heard that…”

“You said it.”

“I did.”

I don’t remember.

The chatter was there. Olga and I sat in the chairs and picked up the tea.

“The lieutenant you borrowed is doing very well. Did you do a good job? Thanks to that, my paperwork has been cut in half.”

“Half.”

“Prime Minister Stolipin’s reforms, of course, all the reforms themselves have to be implemented, but negotiations are necessary in the meantime. .”

“Irina’s main sport is probably not negotiation.”

“Whether it’s called negotiation or blackmail and blackmail, shouldn’t it be something that we can settle satisfactorily with the person concerned? After all, it is not taking away privileges and property without paying anything.”

“That’s not enough, you know?”

“Yes.”

Let’s keep things as short as possible.

First of all, there are large-scale purges that must be carried out from the church to the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie, such as reforming laws, improving the working environment, economic reform, eradicating corruption in all walks of life, land reform, and the church. This part is being treated with the highest priority, and it will be difficult to resist as it is a public stability state right now, so this part is relatively easy. In fact, about half of it is being handled by Stolipin.

Next, the land development project should be carried out. The trans-Siberian railroad must be double-tracked through a canal, roads or railroads must be laid, etc. Of course, it is highly likely that most of this land development project will have to be carried out as a national project during the Great Depression, but in any case, civil engineering work must be prepared.

In addition, education, at least national basic education, should be provided. It is necessary to develop the necessary infrastructure, nurture talents who can be used as teachers, establish textbooks, establish standard languages, improve grammar, and scout overseas talents, develop technology and foster heavy industry.

Since I have been in charge of the military and public security fields so far, Olga is responsible for all kinds of administrative demands and response to the demands of medical personnel due to the flu epidemic.

And, crucially, you have to rake in a budget to go here. Even if I have plundered a lot of underground resources, the exploration of those resources will also consume the budget, and the compensation will be dismantled in an instant.

In the meantime, I also have to deal with diplomatic affairs.

“So, you also have to do some work as a public servant. Help me with my homework, sir.”

Olga added a playful comment, fluttering through a piece of paper.

“I left the foreign students to the Ministry of Home Affairs, but I think your doctor will be important.”

“There’s no real use for it right now, but they probably didn’t just come, we’ll analyze their tendencies in Ohrana, if there’s any use for it, we’ll use it. , I wonder about them now, colonists.”

“The people in your trend.”

“I don’t have to stress it, but yes, I think it’s one of two things.”

Pro-Japanese formation, or deportation with a false appearance.

Either one has its uses.

If it is a pro-Japanese cult, there is a way to make him a fixed spy in preparation for war through conciliation, and if it is a good deportation…. If it is a socialist type, it cannot be recycled. Whether it is used to take control of groups engaged in war, as a bullet catcher in wartime, used for black ops, and used for chasing or intervening in the Chinese side, it has a variety of uses.

In the beginning, Japan is now Russia’s second hypothetical enemy. It also means that carrying out a cross-border operation is not an exhibition but overflowing.

Installing a wiretapping device to eavesdrop on the whole body, or leaking a password book.

“So, I’m thinking of hiring Ohrana agents as instructors.”

“Just like we planted a parasite in the heart of a lion, we should do the same in Japan, although it will not be easy. There’s nothing you didn’t want to do.”

Having said that, Olga said with a soft gaze.

“So when are you going to get married? I think we’ll have to raise the ceremony sooner so we can make you work more legally.”