Chapter 21: The Miracle Healer (2)

The death of Grand Duke Alexandrovich, a hero of the Russo-Japanese War on par with Japan’s Admiral Togo, naturally sent shockwaves in every direction.

It was fair to call it roughly on the level of Mutaguchi Renya dying before the Second Sino-Japanese War had even begun.

With the man who embezzled half the naval budget gone, the Russian Navy had effectively seen its budget double overnight.

Above all, the Tsar, having realized that the uncle he had trusted without question was a legendary son-of-a-bitch embezzler, was in considerable shock.

“…My uncle… Grand Duke Alexandrovich’s embezzlement came to 30 million rubles?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. As for… this accident as well, it appears the Grand Duke met with misfortune while carrying diamond necklaces and rings, purchased with the money he had siphoned off, to give to his mistress….”

The evidence had turned up right at the scene, so no matter how badly the Tsar wanted to look the other way, it simply wasn’t possible.

“No, no, even so, 30 million rubles cannot be right, surely? How much was my imperial household budget again?”

“Roughly 17 million rubles, Your Majesty.”

“Uh…….”

For once, even Niki, the world’s greatest family pushover, was at a loss for words.

Nicholas II’s personal spending money came to about 200,000 rubles a year.

The budget allotted to the entire imperial household was 17 million rubles, and here they were saying the Grand Duke alone had pocketed nearly twice the whole household’s operating costs.

– For reference, I checked, and last year’s Russian state budget was about 1.4 billion rubles. He skimmed 2% of the state budget.

Objectively speaking, the man deserved to die, but he was still the Emperor’s uncle and a Grand Duke of this country.

Section Chief Yakov, who had come with me to report to the Tsar, all but pressed his forehead to the floor as he fervently preached the Okhrana’s innocence in this affair.

“And that is not all. During the recent strike, His Imperial Highness the Grand Duke ordered the naval shipyard workers suppressed by force. That information passed into the hands of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, and upon learning of it, the Young Master and I petitioned His Highness to permit us to increase his guard.”

“Then why…?”

“It seems… that as he had to deliver jewelry purchased with navy funds to his mistress, he could not very well bring along the escort the Okhrana had assigned him.”

“…Maddening.”

Thirty million rubles was enough to build 2 state-of-the-art battleships, or to feed 120,000 soldiers for a full year.

As this sort of information was steadily injected into the Tsar’s head, even he gradually had no choice but to admit that his uncle had, in fact, been a son of a bitch.

And here, what the man had said to me had a surprisingly large effect.

“Is it true the Grand Duke told Misha that doing lowly work like intelligence would make him lowly as well?”

“Yes. Though of course, the Young Master’s expression did not so much as flicker, and he responded with truly admirable composure. Watching it, even my chest grew tight….”

“Hoo, yes. You have worked hard.”

Even a man who is soft on his relatives changes his tune once his own child is involved.

After hearing how Grand Duke Alexandrovich had slighted me and poured out insulting remarks, the Tsar’s attitude had noticeably cooled.

Talk of holding the Okhrana responsible never even came up.

We had detected the assassination plot in advance and delivered a warning directly to the Grand Duke; hadn’t we done our duty more faithfully than anyone?

It was the Grand Duke himself who had ignored the warning, and the Grand Duke himself who simply came to bear the consequences.

“Section Chief Yakov.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Thanks to this affair, I feel I am seeing many things I had failed to see before.”

“How could that possibly be Your Majesty’s fault? There were merely those who exploited Your Majesty’s trust to enrich themselves by corrupt means.”

“From now on… I suppose I, too, must pay closer attention to matters like these.”

Looks like the shock of 30 million rubles was more than even his family-only pushover powers could digest.

Anyone could see this was a good trend.

The Tsar taking an interest in imperial family corruption meant the reforms ahead would pick up that much more momentum.

When we left the audience chamber after finishing the report, Yakov walked alongside me down the corridor and spoke in a low voice.

“Young Master. His Majesty has finally begun to turn his eyes to the problems of the imperial family. This will make things a great deal easier.”

“Yes, Chief. But there’s one thing that worries me.”

“Pardon? A worry, on such a fine day?”

“It’s good that we’re cleaning house so hard and Russia’s getting cleaner. But what will the people watching from outside think?”

Yakov’s steps slowed slightly.

“From outside… Europe?”

“And Japan. Japan doesn’t get along with us, right? Mister Akashi was one of theirs, too. If they find out we’re cutting away all the corrupt people and fixing up the military, they’ll get scared, won’t they?”

“…They would certainly begin to prepare.”

Even a child knows that an enemy who rates this side highly and prepares thoroughly is more frightening than one who doesn’t.

Yakov unconsciously came to a complete stop, lost in thought.

It was far too political an observation to be coming out of an 8-year-old’s mouth, but having seen more than enough of my ability by now, the section chief never let my words go in one ear and out the other anymore.

“So… do you have some good idea, Young Master?”

“How should this affair look from the outside? Russia is getting healthy? Or Russia has fallen into an internal power struggle?”

Saying this much should be enough for him to get it, right?

– Obviously. The idiot Grand Duke who got himself blown up misread it exactly that way in the first place, thinking the Okhrana was so hell-bent on the power struggle it was gunning for him.

A seasoned intelligence-service official would naturally know what to do next from a hint of this size.

“So we go with the picture of the Okhrana digging up dirt on high officials in order to seize internal power.”

“Yes. We make it look like the Okhrana wasn’t rooting out corruption for the country’s sake, but shoving aside rivals to expand its own power.”

“Then from outside, it would appear not that Russia has grown cleaner, but merely that the secret police are running amok….”

Honestly, isn’t this the image that suits a country like Russia better anyway?

A Russia that roots out corruption and promotes capable talent to set the nation right?

No such Russia could ever exist.

Yakov let slip a wry smile.

“It stings a little that foreign countries would regard the Okhrana that way, but if anything, that makes it easier for us to operate.”

“Right. If there were people outside who actually thought well of the Okhrana, wouldn’t that be the bigger problem?”

“Haha, that is certainly true.”

As it was, Japan was no doubt on edge, unable to find the cause of the collapse of Akashi’s intelligence network.

What if information now flowed in that explained that cause with perfect clarity?

Relief would come before suspicion, inevitably.

What humans fear most is the unknown, nothing more; the moment an answer is found, the tension drains away rapidly. That is simply the natural response.

“The Akashi matter can be handled along the same line, then. I will try putting together a suitable sequence of events.”

“The Japanese Legation must be lying flat with its head down right now. How should we go about it?”

“As naturally as possible. In truth, they’re starving for information over there, so slipping them a quiet hint won’t be all that difficult.”

Yakov took out his notebook, checked a few items, and nodded.

“To start, I will leak the information unofficially into diplomatic circles through the Paris branch. So that it finds its way naturally to the Japanese Legation’s ears as well.”

“As expected, Chief, your work is airtight. How many years until I can handle things the way you do?”

“Hahaha, you are so exceptional, Young Master, that within just a few years you will be handling field work yourself.”

– Good. If Japan gets spooked and changes strategy, everything we know could turn useless.

Attacking without a declaration of war is Japan’s greatest specialty in the first place, isn’t it?

To make them throw the first strike this time as well, we need Japan to hold to exactly the same judgment as in the original history.

Russia looking like it has gotten its act together is nothing but a view colored by hindsight.

What do they even take our romance-fantasy empire for?

An incompetent Tsar, an intelligence service interested only in power struggles, generals whose heads are stuffed with nothing but skimming the budget.

This is the correct image of the Russian Empire that Japan needs to perceive.

* * *

The Japanese Legation, Petersburg.

Honda Kumataro had quietly continued gathering intelligence even after Akashi was repatriated.

Of course, with no telling where or how one might get caught, he had to move far more carefully than before; that much was fact.

Still, thanks to the recent shock of Grand Duke Alexandrovich’s assassination, information had begun pouring in.

As if a dam had cracked, the mouths of society and officialdom had opened all at once.

“Secretary Honda. Materials obtained from diplomatic circles.”

One of the legation’s interpreters had somehow managed to procure a copy of the list the Okhrana had drawn up while investigating the people around the Grand Duke.

They had already grasped that the naval higher-ups who had been the Grand Duke’s confidants were being cut down one after another, but this list was a level more concrete.

It was packed with the names of those under investigation, their postings, and the charges against them.

“Ooh, where did you get something like this?”

“A French diplomat reportedly sold it for money. It appears to have leaked from the Okhrana’s Paris branch.”

Honda leafed through the list, scanning page by page.

Colonel, Naval Supply Bureau, suspected misappropriation of funds.

Lieutenant Colonel, staff section, Far East Command, suspected receipt of slush funds.

Section chief, Naval Personnel Section, suspected personnel corruption.

His eyes, running steadily down the list, stopped dead at one entry.

Major General Ivanov, staff section, Far East Command, abnormal contact with foreign legation personnel confirmed.

“…Ivanov?”

For an instant, it felt like a blow to the back of the head.

Major General Ivanov.

One of the generals Lieutenant Colonel Akashi had recruited; hadn’t the surrounding intelligence network come crashing down when this man got caught?

“Takahashi!”

“Yes, Secretary.”

“Item 7 on this list. The name Ivanov is underlined, yes? Is this the man Lieutenant Colonel Akashi was in contact with?”

“Yes… th, that’s him. I’d been wondering where on earth he got caught….”

Without realizing it, his fingers tightened around the list.

The Okhrana, digging into the Grand Duke’s corruption, had happened upon suspicious money flows around military personnel, traced them back, and arrived at Ivanov?

Investigating Ivanov had turned up contact with a foreign legation official, and that foreign legation official had been identified as Lieutenant Colonel Akashi. That was what it meant.

“Secretary. Then the reason Lieutenant Colonel Akashi was caught was….”

“The Okhrana was never trying to catch us.”

A single sentence, close to a groan, slipped from Honda’s mouth.

While the Russian bastards were tearing at each other’s throats, they had simply blundered backward onto Lieutenant Colonel Akashi’s tail. Nothing more.

He could only pity Lieutenant Colonel Akashi, who had racked his brains so desperately over where the mistake had been made.

The memory of the man lamenting that he could not, in the end, fill in the final page of his incident report was still vivid in his mind.

“Haha… this was the reason? Something this absurd….”

The reason he had replayed the New Year rite over and over, retracing his steps for the mistake, and still found no answer?

It was utterly simple.

The Russian bastards had been digging into one of their own and had discovered this side by pure dumb luck; how could anyone have guessed the reason?

Honda took from the drawer the final page of the incident report that Akashi had left blank.

The moment he picked up the pen, the words flowed out, this time without a trace of hesitation.

[Owing to an internal power struggle within Russia, Major General Ivanov, Lieutenant Colonel Akashi’s contact, was included among the subjects of an Okhrana investigation into the corruption of a rival faction.

It is judged that Lieutenant Colonel Akashi’s activities were incidentally exposed in the course of tracing Ivanov’s external contacts.

This is difficult to regard as the result of systematic counterintelligence activity, and no indication of improvement in the authorities’ foreign counterintelligence capability has been confirmed.]

Only after setting down the final word did the tension leave his shoulders.

No unidentified mastermind behind the scenes had ever existed in the first place.

Having filled in the report’s last blank page, Honda Kumataro let out a sigh of relief and put away his pen with satisfaction.

“Lieutenant Colonel Akashi… it seems the injustice you suffered has finally been laid to rest.”

Please, let this truth reach the homeland, so that he might be repaid for all the bitterness he had endured.

Japan, upon receiving Honda’s report, decided to keep its assessment of Russia exactly as before.

A nation of terrifying size, but chaotic within, and so complacent that it looked down on Japan without even treating it as an enemy.

In other words, if they secured command of the sea through a surprise attack as originally planned, they had every chance of winning.

Surprise attack first, declaration of war after.

That was the conclusion Japan reached.

~~~

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