Rasputin of the East

＜ Episode 77 >

The atmosphere of the funeral was heavy with the scent of lilacs and lilies.

The king’s body was hit with a pistol several times and his face was badly damaged, so it was very difficult to recover the body, and even that was too difficult to restore.

The Crown Prince, who attended the funeral as the next king, was also in a very unstable state. The fact that the Russian army independently conducted a fact-finding investigation in front of a duke who said that the life of the imperial family was almost in danger by the Russian Interior Army, who was in charge of suppressing the rebellion, post-processing, and fact-finding, and Serbian officials refused to even participate in the investigation No objection was raised – one of the arrested Black Hand officers confessed that, after interrogation by the Russian military police, the Black Hand had determined that Petar I was trying to purge them, and that the Black Hand had launched a coup to kill the king and establish a crown prince close to them. it was presented

As it was exposed in the media, Crown Prince Alexander, who became unstable to the point of succession to the throne as he was treated like a bastard who suddenly killed his father, tried to request an official announcement that he was unaware of the coup d’etat plot, but every time he came up with various reasons. was refused an interview.

The Crown Prince tried to meet Tatiana, who had been with him throughout the rebellion—actually who was monitoring the Crown Prince to make sure he didn’t do anything stupid—but she didn’t respond.

Fortunately, I was barely able to attend the funeral.

In fact, it was up to the argument. Initially, the Interior Army did not leave any survivors among those who were in the palace, and the bodies were immediately placed in the hospital without a proper autopsy and the funeral was prepared.

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Moreover, Serbia’s civil government actively cooperated with the Russian army as if it had seized the opportunity, and was intent on bringing evidence against both the royal family and the Black Hand.

It was also an opportunity for the civilian government of Serbia, who lived only breathing, deprived of the basic rights guaranteed by the constitution to the royal family with black hands.

The Black Hand was cast as a traitor, the king died and the Crown Prince is suspected of being involved in a rebellion. The Serbian government was not so incompetent that it did not know that now was the right time to regain power.

And the key here was the Russian Interior Army, which had both cause and skill. No one knew who would seize power in Serbia in the future also depended on the Interior Army and its commander-in-chief, the Duke of Vostok, and of course all factions in Serbia tried to somehow establish a connection with the Interior Army, like a swarm of candy ants.

***

“How long are you going to decline an interview request?”

“Until I bow my head in moderation.”

Unfortunately, I had no intention of taking care of the Crown Prince.

Actually, Petar I, whom we eliminated, is also a problem, but Crown Prince Alexander is not without problems.

‘In the beginning, the Crown Prince himself was an active supporter of the Black Hand, and since he was the regent of Serbia right before the Sarajevo incident, there is little room for excuses.’

At first, I thought about killing the Crown Prince as well, but it is not desirable that the political situation in Serbia be too chaotic, and to the extent that it makes it impossible to dream of properly exercising the king’s power by accusing him of appropriate charges, or worrying about a coup or assassination. It was meant to be cut.

The more you do, the more Prince Alexander will cling to the Russian Empire, and less room for nonsense.

If it’s a thunderbolt, nabal, and Russia doesn’t take sides, before the defeat, he was murdered like the former king Aleksandar Obrenovich, and then his body was hung up in the square. Can you do something stupid?

And what I don’t meet often is a warning that the Russian Empire won’t always be on your side.

Well, looking at the attitude, I guess I got a rough idea.

‘Those who know the truth are thirteen, including me.’

Six of them are my bodyguards, and at the same time, they are absolutely loyal to me, so it’s okay. The other six names are Pyotor Wrangel, Irina, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia.

They are all trustworthy. In particular, since Pyotor Wrangel is a very important and practical third-person position, it should be seen that there is nothing to betray me in any way.

Irina is loyal to me, and since the princesses promised to take the truth to the grave even when the sky is on both sides, there is little chance that the testimony will come out of nowhere.

In fact, I suspect that I may have fabricated the case, but what if I do? There is no evidence, and it is common in the world to make a person a sinner only with a heart, but it is a different story if the other person has power.

Above all else, the purge of the Black Hand was something I had urged, but the Tsar also approved. Although it was an unauthorized act to blow up Petar I, in the report I sent to the tsar, I wrote that it was a mistake on the Serbian side that the security was breached in the midst of the movement of the black hand. Except for my escort who shot and killed Se himself, I knew we were going to rescue the king from the palace that had been taken over by the Black Hand, so I said everything.

Realistically, I am not responsible for this. If you try to argue, it’s enough if you press it while treating it as a conspiracy theory.

“Anyway, if we continue to interfere in Serbia’s internal affairs, it will only become muddy. We’ve succeeded in turning the Black Hand into a traitor, so they’ll have to take care of the rest.”

Now they will know, who is holding the hilt.

Whether it was the Crown Prince, the civilian government, or at least the remnants of the Black Hand, if they wanted to live, they would have no choice but to hold onto the crotch of the Russian Empire.

If that is the case, the goal of preventing Serbia from getting out of our control and making a fuss any more has been fulfilled.

“I will have to meet you one last time and head straight to Germany.”

Allied prisoners of war, known as the Free Corps and the German Army, now rearmed by the Russian Army, advanced to the Oder River with Russian material support.

However, the so-called Berlin Commune or the Free German Democratic Republic are fighting on the Oder River and defending Berlin to death, so in the end we have to go and give the final blow.

“Sure.”

“Can I go in first? To be honest, I don’t really want to meet him.”

What was surprising was that Tatiana hated it. I heard that the two of them had a good relationship in the original history, what is it?

“You don’t seem to like it at all?”

“Aren’t you the only war criminal who caused this war after all? To be honest, I hate it.”

I silently offered my condolences to Prince Alexander. Even in this world, his unrequited love seemed to end in unrequited love.

***

Berlin, Germany.

Thousands of shells were fired, and Russian Ilya Murometsu bombers formed a group and began to drop incendiary bombs.

Although there was no napalm in the era, the Ministry of Home Affairs, who successfully conducted a study to create a napalm-like effect by mixing gasoline with metal powder and rubber extracted from dandelion, quickly formalized it.

The regular army also had an air force, but because the air force belonging to the army was relatively small, most of the air operations were in the hands of the Ministry of Home Affairs, and even the aircraft that are currently bombing Berlin had the emblem of the Ministry of Home Affairs engraved on their wings.

The Duke of Vostok was opposed to air strikes, as the bombing of incendiary bombs in densely populated areas was inevitable. The bombing was strongly demanded.

At the very least, the Interior Ministry compromised and replaced the request to drop ‘the gas used in Poland’ with a mixed bombing of high explosives and incendiary bombs.

From the standpoint of maintaining the Hohenzollern dynasty in the first place, it is undesirable to cover Berlin with gas and turn it into ruins. The side also shut its mouth.

Actually, the German side had no information about the VX other than that the gas mask did not work, so it was not that they could not understand.

However, concentrated bombing of the main stronghold was unavoidable, and Berlin began to burn.

***

“Still, is it fortunate that if there is a sea of fire like this, there will be no slanderous sounds from behind?”

It had already distributed one evacuation advisory leaflet printed in German, but if those commune or something had prevented the evacuation of civilians – it could have been enough – there would have been huge casualties.

It is an attack that falls into the category of tactical bombing, not strategic bombing. Strategic bombing is deliberately targeting civilian areas, but since we are just targeting the main strongholds in the city where enemy troops are concentrated, the probability of the deaths is higher than that of soldiers.

If the only goal is to win the surrender of the enemy, you can fill the city and town with 100% incendiary bombs and burn them. Therefore, you should refrain from accumulating too much notoriety.

Keep Hohenzollern as leader of Germany, and through that, create a German-Russian honeymoon relationship. That was the method I could think of to extract as much mulberry from the tsar’s orders as possible.

Relations with France may become uncomfortable, but in fact, considering the original history, Germany would be better than France. Losing is one way.

Anyway, diplomatic relations with Britain were on the brink of collapse even before the war. They scratched the tsar’s temper by putting them in Constantinople and Jerusalem. It was just one more spoonful. After the war, Russia’s hypothetical enemy is now Britain.

It would be best if they could bring the United States to the British front, but Germany could be a pretty good partner if that wasn’t the case. Of course, for that purpose, there is a prerequisite that Germany must pay reparations but not restrict its armaments.

Then, someone came up to me and looked out the window.

It was Victoria Louise, who had been on the front lines with Prince Wilhelm before we joined. She stared intently at the burning Berlin.

Of course, Berlin didn’t look very normal even before we arrived, but our airstrikes were a confirmation kill.

“It is the end of the traitors.”

“It’s not just the traitors, there will certainly be innocent citizens.”

“Those innocent citizens shot my family.”

“… I am really sorry about that. But surely there are those who are truly innocent. I do it because it is necessary to reduce the sacrifice of my allies, but I do not like it.”

“I don’t get it, aren’t you the director of Ohrana?”

“That’s right, Marshal of the Interior Forces, Director Ohrana, Director GRU, it’s all me.”

“Are you saying that they are innocent?”

“Obviously communists are not innocent. But not all citizens of Berlin are communists. They may just be caught up in the atmosphere, or they may just be cowards and hide in the house because they don’t have the courage to face them or run away.”

Or maybe they were just hungry people in need of a loaf of bread.

Knowing that my duke was the cause of that sea of fire, I may not have had the courage to tell the story to a woman who lost her family as a side effect of my duke.

Because I attacked East Prussia, the German Empire began to run out of food supply earlier than its original history.

I handed them weapons and funds, and spread counterfeit bills in Germany. And the uprisings would have shot her family with the weapons I bought them with the money I gave them, and the guns I handed over.

Those planes that are burning Berlin… are those who obey my orders.

No matter what anyone said, I would be responsible for this situation.

The day for a formal apology will probably never come, but that doesn’t mean you won’t forget it either.

After all, these bloods will also be included in the weight of the burden I have been carrying since the moment I chose this life.