Rasputin of the East

Episode 14

Russia, St. Petersburg, Imperial Palace.

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Most European countries celebrate Lent in common. The Russian Empire is even more so.

According to the Orthodox Church standards, from 10 weeks to 7 weeks before Easter Sunday, prepare your heart, and start Lent 6 weeks before.

The week before Lent, Carnival.

Lent is a period of fasting in which no food containing meat, oil, eggs or milk is eaten, and even the imperial family is no exception.

Therefore, it is a carnival that takes place throughout the week, a festival that aims to satisfy all desires before enduring the strict fast.

To drink intoxicated and to vent in advance of all desires forbidden during Lent, with proms everywhere.

If I had to compare it, it would be like high school seniors who finished the entrance exam.

In any case, this period is a festival throughout Russia. The capital, St. Petersburg, and the Imperial Palace are no exception.

So now, everywhere is a festive atmosphere. If a war breaks out sooner or later, there will be no room for that.

Already the first day of the festival, Bstrecha (Meeting Day), and the second day, Zaygrisi (Play Day) have passed, and today is Wednesday, Rakamgi (Gourmet Day).

Although the full-scale carnival starts tomorrow. I grinned as I ate Blin.

According to tradition, Empress Alexandra made blins (a kind of pancakes, there are various types, but made with flour, milk, butter, eggs, etc.) Tatiana and Anastasia brought some because they thought it was a pity that I couldn’t even get Blind because I didn’t have a family.

Thanks to you, I’m able to taste this too, so I should say thank you…. I’m not in a position where I can’t buy Blinn, but anyway, what’s the difference between what I made to sell and what I painstakingly gave to my family? Anyway it is

“It’s sweet.”

Sitting alone by the window and eating while looking down at the bustling streets of carnival from a distance is also tasteful. Then, someone approached me.

“Sir, what are you doing here?”

“I was eating some snacks.”

Olga, who appeared from nowhere without an attendant, looked at me, and I smiled and looked up at Blinn.

“uh? this…..”

“You are probably right.”

“Hmm, did your mother give you this?”

“I didn’t give it to you directly, but… Princess Tatiana and Princess Anastasia were all eating with their family, but they said they couldn’t eat alone, so they brought some. You left without even having time to say thank you, so I couldn’t say thank you. Could you please tell me instead?”

“Hmm, okay?”

Olga sat softly.

“Are you going to spend the day just eating?”

“There is no specific schedule for now.”

“Don’t you want to go out on a day like this?”

“…… Yes?”

“Why don’t we go to get some air together?”

“Then please wait for a moment, the attendant…”

“The two of us.”

“Yes? But the escort…”

“The two of us.”

Olga was smiling, but something seemed uncomfortable, so I was compelled to pack a pistol, and I was satisfied.

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Moments later, Olga, wearing a hood, appeared with a basket of Blinn and wine.

“Let’s go.”

“Where do you want to go?”

“I do not know. I haven’t really thought about it, but wouldn’t it be fun just walking around? It’s a carnival.”

Then I devised a place where I wouldn’t get caught even if I took Olga straight away.

First of all, St. Isaac’s Cathedral or the Cathedral of Blood… It’s the easiest, but I don’t think you’ll like it. Petropavlovsk Fortress? Wouldn’t it be okay because there is a graveyard where the tsars and royal families of the Russian Empire are buried for generations?

“I don’t like it there. On days like this, I have to hang out with the living, I don’t want to go see the dead.”

“Uh… so?”

“I’m going to walk down Nevsky Prospect and see a ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre.”

“I… Then…”

“I have a box seat key for the royal family, so don’t worry about a seat.”

In that case, there is nothing to say.

***

As we walked down the street, we chatted.

“Is this a class at the military academy?”

“Yes, I am in a position where I have to learn to a certain extent…but it is difficult for me to enter as a general cadet because I am in my position.”

“Didn’t you just tell your father? You would have been able to receive a special lecture from the professors.”

“I am grateful that the tsar has been kind to me, but I did not want to trouble the tsar with this.”

Not true. The Tsar Chance is a de facto invincible cheat that can’t be done in Russia, but it has to be paid a hard price.

Am I moving the tsar to gain privileges that it did not originally exist? The privilege itself can be obtained, but at that moment, the checks that come into me become stronger.

Because he hates it, he pretends to be a patriot and is fighting with factions, and he is almost neurotic because he is wary of assassinations.

Already in the Russian Empire, it is a town where large amounts of arsenic can be found in most of the bodies of nobles when digging into the tombs of nobles. There are few people I can trust, so I use it as a shield to sit down and eat with the prince and princess at every meal. I’m in a position to live by hearing the sound of popping out, is there anything I can do to increase the possibility of assassination?

In order to receive anything from the tsar, the main thing should be to receive money or in kind, or to receive some hidden convenience. should be minimal

There are already plenty of enemies.

Carnival processions were overflowing on Nevsky Prospect.

Even in the Russian Empire, the masquerade is quite popular. People often think that the masquerade ball is only held in Italy, but the masquerade itself was brought in by Peter the Great, rapidly westernizing the Russian Empire and importing a large-scale court culture.

Well, until then, there was no such thing as a court culture or aristocratic culture in the first place, and even in Russia at the time, it was called the Tatar yoke and it was disgraceful, but it was not possible to create a culture to replace it.

Even in aristocratic families, the custom of lending a wife to a guest, a nomadic custom, continued until the time of Peter the Great, but disappeared with the introduction of Western court culture.

In any case, the masquerade was also firmly established as one of the cultures of the Russian Empire at this time, and in particular, it has long been established as an integral part of the carnival. Thanks to this, Olga and I were able to walk the Nevsky Prospect undetected, both wearing white and black masks, respectively.

It felt like something out of a date, but there was nothing good for me to leap my imagination in a strange way.

Are you going to get shot by the emperor, no, this isn’t America, it’s Russia, so cannons? If the cannon the tsar will bring, the tsar cannon…if it hits, it won’t leave a trace.

As I was walking with my thoughts in mind, a completely unexpected word came from Olga, who was sitting next to me.

“These days, Anastasia talks a lot about the Count.”

“You mean Princess Anastasia?”

“yes.”

“What do you usually talk about?”

“I do not know? Let’s keep it our sisters’ secret.”

To say that, I’m not making fun of anyone or making fun of anyone.

“As for Alexei, I’m just very grateful to you, Count.”

“Aren’t I also enjoying wealth that I never imagined before?”

“You can get any amount of wealth, but you can’t get your younger brother back.”

“……”

“Some of your relatives say bad things about you, but they’re all hoaxes, how absurd it is to be serious about laughter.”

“……. Is that so.”

After all, fake news, instigation and fabrication itself were negative strategies that came down from ancient Greece, so it seems that the Russian imperial family is also good for people.

“Actually, I thought that the expectation that my younger sibling would live a long time had long since been abandoned. So, a little more, before we left, let’s make the child laugh, let’s make him happy, I thought so, but… After the Count came, I became a little greedy.”

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My brother, 9 years younger than me, always suffered. As a result, Alexei, who became sensitive and sharp, even slapped her in public.

Of course, Olga laughed and the situation was resolved, but it is clear that Alexei was the cause of the great suffering of hemophilia.

“So it’s scary sometimes. Maybe this was just a dream, wasn’t it a happy dream? Maybe it’s a fantasy that disappears to the other side of the darkness when you wake up. Sometimes I really have nightmares like that.”

“……Wasn’t I in that nightmare?”

“Yeah, never once. There were quacks who took the place of the Count, but the Count himself never came out of a nightmare.”

She didn’t bring it up again, as if she didn’t want to go into details.

“But I don’t think I gave up all those expectations.”

What should I say to a girl who says she doesn’t want her family to die?

However, with the words of the moment, one reason why she was following me relentlessly became clear.

She wanted to see Olga with her eyes. To be convinced that this world is not a dream.

Even if it was bothersome to feel that I existed, he would eat with me, and when I had to go down to the countryside, he followed me with any excuses.

‘Are you afraid to be happy, fear that happiness will be destroyed.’

Soon after, I saw the Mariinsky Theater. As I walked through the box-seat aisle in the theater, I asked her unmasked.

“Then, are you happy now?”

“yes.”

As if there was no room for argument, she asserted.

“Then I hope that happiness will continue.”

“I believe that with the help of the Count, it will be possible in the future. So, make a promise.”

“Isn’t that a promise?”

“Swear to me that you won’t run away just like you did, that you’ll stay by my side and help us out.”

“… in this place?”

“Sure.”

The box seat door opened, and as soon as the two of us sat down, Olga turned around and locked the box seat door.

“There is the simplest, most traditional and sure way to do it in this place, would you like to try it?”

Laughing, Olga naturally put her hand on my shoulder, then immediately put her hand on the nape of my neck and pulled me tight.

uh? uh??