Ch.2The Last Imperial Princess Anastasia

* * *

Well, what can you do? Even bullets don’t hurt if you take them gently.

The bullet touches my body and rolls weakly on the floor, making me wonder if it’s made of wood—some kind of military procurement fraud. If anything, it only adds credibility to the fact that I’m a saint.

“Th-that’s impossible.”

“God once said the Empire would fall. Though my father and mother committed the grave sin of ruining the Empire, He told me to raise it again. Therefore, I forgive your sins.”

“Sin? The Tsar deserved to die! You all deserve to die!”

The man was now too busy raging to care whether the Grand Duchess had survived or not.

He passionately lists my sins as if wanting me buried.

But unless I choose to be buried, it’s not happening.

Above all.

“Did you need to punish even the young Tsarevich and Grand Duchesses who grew up in a greenhouse knowing nothing?”

“!!”

Why exactly did the young Tsarevich and Grand Duchesses have to die?

The truth behind this was painfully obvious.

“Be honest. You were afraid. If my father, my mother, and my siblings were alive, they would become the rallying point for loyal Imperial troops to fight against the Bolsheviks. But God has told me to forgive your sins.”

Let’s be straightforward.

These bastards were afraid. Afraid that the Tsar might become a rallying point and the Soviet might collapse.

Yet they executed them while claiming it was punishment.

“Impossible. Prepare that terrible Tsar’s throne again? Nonsense! The Empire has fallen! The red flag of the workers has been raised!”

“God has also foretold the future of the Bolsheviks. The Bolshevik regime will be stained with authoritarianism and violence.”

“Lies!”

“If it’s a lie, then what am I—standing before you, having survived bullets, bayonets, and sulfuric acid?”

The Bolsheviks pressed their lips shut.

If I were them, I wouldn’t listen either if someone I’d killed came back to life talking about forgiveness and sins.

I too would have a brain freeze.

After a while, the man who seemed to have led the execution spoke up.

“Why didn’t God protect that precious Empire of yours! Why didn’t He protect the Tsar’s subjects!”

“Stagnant water rots. Russia was bound to be turned upside down at some point.”

“D-do you really forgive us, who killed your parents and siblings?”

“If I didn’t forgive you, I would have to punish your sin of wanting to rape the Grand Duchess. I have forgiven even that with a devout heart.”

They had whined to Yagoda about wanting to rape the Romanov Grand Duchesses.

What despicable criminals.

“D-don’t be fooled! Y-yes. The dead Rasputin must be playing some trick!”

“Isn’t that amusing even as you say it? If that were true, wouldn’t Rasputin be a true saint? I said I forgive your sins. God said that through my parents’ deaths, the Empire will be reborn from the ashes.”

Bang!

A hole appeared in the forehead of the man who had been shooting at me and arguing just moments ago.

I believe his name was Yagov.

The man who led the firing squad now had a hole in his head.

Even though the Tsar’s family deserved to die a thousand times over, these men who openly executed them were being shot without hesitation.

These reds truly have no principles.

“Ah. I forgive your sins. You shall become subjects of the Empire again.”

Anyway, the situation is urgent now.

This should be around the time when the White Army was beginning to mobilize.

They executed the Tsar hastily because they were worried the White Army might recover the Tsar’s family.

“Oh, Saint of Russia.”

“Guide us on our path.”

The reds who killed Yagov knelt before me and began to pray with their hands together.

“You have now become enemies of the revolution, so you must follow me.”

“Yes.”

“Go to the warring great powers and tell them that the Bolsheviks brutally murdered the Russian Imperial family. Ask for help. Use every expression method you can articulate in human language to convey how brutally the Romanov Imperial family was slaughtered.”

Of course, despite my current state.

I can’t stay with those who killed my siblings and parents.

It would be good to keep just one person to assist me and send the rest elsewhere.

The plan is very simple.

First, go to the Russian state that will soon be established.

Then take the Trans-Siberian Railway or whatever to Vladivostok, and take a ship to seek asylum in America or Britain.

The White Army will be defeated anyway.

They’re going to lose.

So at least I should survive.

* * *

Russian Soviet Republic, Moscow

The survival of Grand Duchess Anastasia.

It didn’t take long for this news to reach Moscow.

Vladimir Lenin was shocked when he received the report from the Bolsheviks dispatched to Yekaterinburg.

“Comrade Trotsky. What are you saying? Comrade Yakov is dead and Grand Duchess Anastasia’s body is missing?”

“Yes, Comrade. The other comrades in charge of the execution are also missing.”

“Are you saying they kidnapped the Grand Duchess and took her somewhere?”

“Since Grand Duchess Anastasia was known for her exceptional beauty, perhaps…”

“Ha! Are you saying they wanted to rape her before killing her? And they killed Comrade Yagov for that?”

Lenin clenched his fists tightly.

He couldn’t predict how the mistake made by these madmen would unfold.

“They were reportedly men of bad character.”

“Grr, find them. Capture them immediately! If the Grand Duchess falls into the hands of reactionaries because of their perverted sexual desires!”

That would be troublesome.

With the White Army closing in from all directions, if Grand Duchess Anastasia were to fall into their hands…

The outcome of this civil war would become unpredictable.

Officers of the former Russian Empire who are currently inactive and those dissatisfied with the Bolsheviks might all unite under the Grand Duchess, and the Romanov dynasty could be revived.

The thought alone was terrifying.

The civil war would be prolonged, and Western capitalist countries would not recognize the Soviet as a sovereign state.

They would obviously support the White Army united under Grand Duchess Anastasia.

“They should still be in Yekaterinburg.”

“What are these Cheka agents who took Grand Duchess Anastasia doing?”

“We must kill the Grand Duchess for us to survive, Comrade Lenin.”

Yes, she must be killed.

She must be killed, but something was going wrong.

“Urgent news! The White Army is heading to Yekaterinburg!”

“The Czech Legion is pressuring Yekaterinburg!”

The White Army, enemies of the Bolsheviks, were rushing to Yekaterinburg after catching wind of the news.

Unlike in the original history, the White Army began moving quickly after hearing about the Grand Duchess’s survival.

The movements of the Czechoslovak Legion, which had claimed neutrality in the civil war, also became suspicious.

All of this was happening because of the Grand Duchess’s survival.

“Why has the news spread so quickly?”

“Well, Comrade. It seems to have spread while the local Cheka agents were announcing it everywhere trying to find the Grand Duchess.”

“Such incompetence! Weren’t we trying to kill the Tsar’s family to prevent them from falling into the White Army’s hands? Why are they throwing them bait!”

They must capture her somehow.

If they could just kill the Grand Duchess, the fragmented White Army would eventually be unable to defeat the Red Army.

If they lose the Grand Duchess, she will surely march on Moscow calling for revenge for her family.

* * *

“Shit.”

How did things end up like this?

Three days have passed since then.

For three days, these red bastards carefully repaired the bodies of Anastasia’s parents and siblings whom they had killed, held a funeral, and I couldn’t go out for a while.

From what I heard, they wanted to hold out until their fellow reds withdrew.

After that, I had to make my debut in this city.

These damn red bastards, whether they truly repented or just wanted to parade me around, put me on a horse and promoted me in the city where they had killed my parents and siblings.

At least I’ve learned horseback riding, so I’m riding well.

“This is the Saint of the former Russian Empire, Grand Duchess Anastasia!”

Those reds promoted me as a saint everywhere.

Yes, I devoutly forgave them in God’s name—those who killed my family and even Anastasia herself.

Perhaps that’s why they went crazy with excitement and decided to defect to the White Army.

Anyway.

I, or rather, the defected Bolsheviks and I, remained here.

“Ебать.”

I’ve become familiar with Russian swear words now.

I couldn’t help but curse.

Honestly, even if I were Russian, I would have wanted to tear off a piece of Tsar Nicholas’s flesh.

He messed up so many things, it’s unavoidable.

The problem is me.

Nicholas II and his wife and children were all killed, but Grand Duchess Anastasia survived.

Those crazy repentant Bolsheviks spread that everywhere, putting me at the forefront.

People’s reactions varied wherever we went.

Some extremely cursed the Romanov Imperial family, others felt sympathy, and some would support the Romanovs even if their heads were smashed.

I don’t know if they see me as a real Romanov.

“Is that the Grand Duchess?”

“Where did the Tsar go, leaving the Grand Duchess alone like that?”

“Walking around like that, the Grand Duchess is just like us.”

Perhaps because it was a time when red influence was fluctuating, the citizens of Yekaterinburg didn’t look at me kindly.

But, is this really Yekaterinburg?

Yekaterinburg, right.

First of all, the father and mother of this body.

To put it simply, my parents died here.

And the madmen who killed my parents are promoting me as a saint in the city where they killed my parents.

These guys called themselves Cheka.

Is this right?

I asked just to be sure.

“Is this Yekaterinburg?”

Because they wouldn’t promote me in the city where they killed the Tsar.

“Yes.”

What an innocent answer.

Thank you for the confirmation.

I seriously had to wonder if these idiots had their brains washed out, promoting the last survivor of the Imperial family they killed in the city where they killed the Emperor.

At least.

These brain-washed guys want to work hard to cover up their sin of killing the Tsar’s family, so they’re doing all the promotion they can.

“The Tsar was murdered by the Bolsheviks! Though he deserved execution after a people’s trial, the Bolsheviks cruelly shot not only the Tsar but also his children! The Empress and Grand Duchesses were even violated, and this lady is the only Grand Duchess who survived!”

“The Tsar deserved to die, but his children too?”

“It seems those Bolsheviks aren’t normal either, just shooting anyone they don’t like?”

Now even sympathetic gazes are pouring in.

Haha, well, such gazes are better than murderous intent. Yes.

How can I live with such embarrassment?

I need to leave this city quickly.