SWNOVELXO Chapter 400
“Feels like I’m really in a dream. No, this is truly a dream.”
To think that I could recognize a dream like this. It’s as if I’ve actually seen Anastasia.
“Did you meet the Tsar’s family?”
“Why? Is it already time?”
It seems the old man has arrived a bit sooner than expected, much like the Tsar’s family did a moment ago.
It’s almost certain this guy summoned the Tsar’s family.
The fact that he showed me the dead people is kind of suspicious.
“Well, the Tsar’s family said they would come to see you. They forgot to give you something.”
“What is it?”
“Come on, living like this alone would be lonely, wouldn’t it? If it’s hard to marry a man because of your past life, wouldn’t it be better to at least have a partner who could stay by your side for life?”
He offers to create a lifelong partner just like that?
Unfortunately, that’s not something I desire. It’s nothing but self-deception.
“What do you mean?”
What are you suddenly talking about?
“Don’t you like that friend Maria? I genuinely think she will dedicate her family to support you. I could bless them with my family’s scale. After all, there are only three for now, so three Marias should be enough.”
I was starting to feel something was off. Is that what he means?
Is he saying he will bestow the same blessing on Maria as he did me?
Curiosity got the best of me, so I asked.
“What does that mean?”
“When you go, you can take them with you. That’s what I mean. Anyway, you’ve already been marked as a saint while attracting people’s focus; will it really change if some of the characters around you change?”
Yeah, but that’s one thing. Whether the Marias would accept that is another issue.
If the Marias say they don’t want that and just want to inherit the family, it would definitely change things.
I wonder if the Marias would really want to live with me.
“Well, see you next time.”
“No, you old man!”
Before I knew it, the old man vanished, and suddenly I felt a floating sensation enveloping my whole body, then I woke up.
“Your Majesty. Your Majesty!”
I’m not sure what’s happened, but Maria barged into the bedroom.
What’s going on?
“Huh? Maria? What’s with this? There are two Marias?”
Well, it’s true that there are two Marias, but hold on… Why are there two Marias who look exactly the same?
They only differ slightly in hairstyle, but there are indeed two Marias here.
“Suddenly I heard a voice telling me to serve your Majesty well, and I—I became younger.”
“Ah, so you’re the original Maria, and this one is… Maria II then.”
Both are so young I can’t tell who’s who. Are they really both Marias?
It’s astonishing to see how youthful they both are.
I never expected things to turn out like this. Maybe soon Maria III will join us in the Kremlin, right?
Is this really okay? I feel oddly guilty.
“God has told you that he will bless you. He praised your commitment to serve me with your family.”
That’s likely the general idea behind it.
Otherwise, this situation wouldn’t make sense.
The concern is, if the Marias have children, that would create complications in many ways. Would that mean I would be living among immortal Marias?
“Truly, you are a blessed one, Your Majesty.”
The Marias said in astonished faces.
Aside from the hairstyle differences, they don’t seem all that different.
Actually, Maria II seems to show fewer emotions. That might be how I can distinguish them.
“Don’t be too stiff about it.”
I’m equally scared of this.
At this rate, reality has morphed into something like true fantasy.
I suppose I could suppress the media somehow.
“But, with this, it would be easier for us to support you, Your Majesty.”
“Isn’t it bothersome? I mean, you’re not going to die or anything.”
At present, I worry if I’ll still be able to cope as time passes.
“We don’t mind.”
It’s adorable how they proudly pat their chests as they speak.
The old man likely chose Maria due to her shown loyalty to me all this time.
Essentially, she’s just a spokesperson for the Kremlin. If that’s the case, I might need to manipulate things a bit.
I should ensure the media isn’t focused on the Kremlin and perhaps do some family tree tampering with the Marias.
I wanted to cleanse my identity, but it’s the Marias who are doing it.
It’s truly lamentable.
However, if they are Marias, they would at least be a perfect fit for me.
We’ve seen everything together, even things that shouldn’t be seen. They’ve even seen me bathe.
“Your Majesty, by the way, while cleaning, I found this old box, and inside it, there’s a dress. Is it yours?”
An old box?
Maria II, or rather, I guess that could be Maria I, brought in the box.
It’s a box that doesn’t match the Kremlin at all.
“Oh, right. It seems to be from my time living in Yekaterinburg.”
It must be a dress from the time I was in the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg.
It clearly looks like a personal belonging.
Originally, it belonged to Anastasia. Because the Anastasia before the execution and the one after are entirely different.
“Yes. What should we do with it?”
“Well. It’s too old, but it seems a bit wasteful to throw it away.”
Did I perhaps bring it when I left Yekaterinburg? There’s no need to throw it out.
It has to remain as proof that the previous Anastasia existed.
“Then, I’ll keep it safe.”
Maria carefully starts folding the dress when something fell out.
A frame? It looks like a photo; what’s that?
Maria picked it up and showed me.
“Oh? Who is this person in the photo? It looks familiar somehow.”
“Yeah, it does look familiar. Who is it? Ah. Now that I see the face.”
I wondered if it resembled the old man.
It’s a face I recognize; it’s Rasputin.
Now that I think about it, the Tsar’s family liked Rasputin.
OTMAA likely perceived him as a kind grandfather who saved Alexei. I’ve heard he died clutching a photo in his hand.
Surely they could have that photo.
Now that I think about it, it does look a bit like that old man. But surely it can’t be him.
If Rasputin were that old man, would he have left the country in such a state and passed the blame onto me?
“It’s Rasputin.”
“That’s right. Gregory Rasputin. Someone who contributed to the fall of Imperial Russia.”
Of course, he isn’t the only one to blame.
Nicolas II wasn’t exactly competent as an emperor. Neither was the empress. Even though they interfered with governance, he was also the one who suggested against joining World War I.
He stubbornly participated, leading to disastrous public opinion, and then Lenin’s rise caused their downfall.
I’ve heard rumors that right before he died, Rasputin left a letter.
He stated that if he died to the people, the dynasty would last for hundreds of years, and if to the aristocrats, there would be 25 years of bloodshed.
Indeed, a lot of blood has been spilled through the Civil War and the purges.
I’m not sure if Rasputin really wrote that, but it became reality.
“I’ve heard this man saved the life of the former heir.”
Maria doesn’t seem to think Rasputin is a bad person.
That’s fair since the Tsar’s family, including Anastasia, is tied to him. They might not mind it if I just let it slide in the media.
But if I publicly insult Rasputin, who’s linked to the Tsar’s family, I could easily be accused of being a Bolshevik.
Even if that’s not the case, the Marias might not know much about him.
“To Anastasia, Rasputin was someone who saved her brother Alexei.”
“You wouldn’t dare refer to yourself in the third person, would you?”
Of course! I’m not trying to act cute like Nasser here.
I felt that I could slowly start speaking. At this point, it needed to be said. I suppose I have to share this fact with someone.
“The person who originally owned this body, Anastasia, died long ago. She was trampled under the wicked blades of the Bolsheviks. And when I woke up again, I took her place.”
I doubt telling this to the Marias would change anything.
“I may not know the full details, but at least your Majesty remains your Majesty, right?”
That’s true. I am who I am.
At least when I woke up, the Bolsheviks were the ones asking questions.
Given that I possessed this body, I declared myself Anastasia, but thanks to that, I was able to lead the White Army to victory.
“That’s true. At the very least, I’m here by God’s calling.”
Anastasia was just a child who knew nothing.
She would have generally understood that her father wasn’t leading the country well.
But ultimately, she was killed, and it wouldn’t be until long after that the Bolsheviks were recognized for murdering the Tsar’s family.
“It’s not like I have a split personality. Ah, that was a rude question. I apologize.”
It wasn’t a rude question.
There were indeed sufficient grounds for suspicion.
“No, of course, you could say that. How could I have prepared for the future if I were a split personality?”
“So, Your Majesty, are you from the future?”
Hmm, should I talk about this now?
If I don’t, it feels like my mouth might dry out.
“That’s right. In reality, I’m not even Russian. I was originally a citizen of Korea, a nation liberated by the United States.”
Isn’t it funny that a Korean is now in this situation?
I really don’t understand how that old man ended up like this.
“Do you mean the Republic of Korea? The one that used to be the Korean Empire? The one under Japanese colonial rule? The one from the world strategy book?”
“That’s right. Back then, there was no Balhae Federation and the Korean Peninsula was divided into North and South; the South was the Republic of Korea, and the North was Communist North Korea.”
A world that can no longer exist.
That North Korea from that world wouldn’t appear here.
In that sense, the modern Korean state is rebranding itself.
“I suspected it might be a fantasy, but to hear that it’s true, communism existed in the world.”
Maria remarked in fascination.
“Even in my world where communism has supposedly disappeared, after that liberation, communist states emerged under the Soviet Union. Yeah, in a world where the Red Army won.”
“The future of such a world is found in world strategies.”
I suppose I should start revealing this to someone.
I feel like I have to speak up.
“The truth I hold that I cannot share with everyone in this world.”
“Yep. You could look at it that way. So, listen well to what I’m about to say.”
“I’ll listen.”
I explained to the Maria duo who I really was.
“Such things have happened.”
Surprisingly, the Maria duo seemed slightly surprised.
Though, I suppose saying they were surprised is a stretch.
“Technically speaking, I’ve always been the same person to you, so it doesn’t matter.”
It probably wouldn’t matter much to them.
Since Maria was tightly by my side.
After all, where else would the others have been before? I mean, which White Army general would have known me before that?
“Russia becoming that way in the future is quite unfortunate.”
Yeah, who would have thought Russia would mesh things up so badly?
There should at least be some plausibility. Would they really handle nuclear warfare like that?
“So that’s why you tried to divide China, Your Majesty.”
The reason for keeping the United States around is that at least historically, they were the best great power.
I think they are suitable as a safety net.
“Right. I don’t know what kind of future awaits, but I’ve tried to block as many points of conflicts as possible. Now it’s more about how the foundation I’ve laid will be handled by my descendants.”
However, there might be some enormous conflict that I don’t know about, but that’s a problem for future generations.
To say, in the world I originally lived in, if there hadn’t been a nuclear war, conflicts wouldn’t have ceased, and the world could still have fallen apart, right?