Finally sitting on the desk, he saw the small pile of documents that seemed to be the reports he guessed were from his ministers. Just glancing over them, everything was in another language that he didn't exactly recognize but looking at the wall beside him, it was fairly obvious.
Even worse that via some miracle, he found himself able to read said writing as though it were his mother tongue. He couldn't explain it but then again, he also couldn't explain his presence in this body or even in his current environment.
"Wow, as if they knew" He said bewildered
The first report he opened seemed to be filled with nothing but words like 'unrest', 'Revolutionary group', 'mutiny' everywhere. Apparently the report didn't read as though it was trying to inform him of the situation, whoever wrote the report had already concluded and was simply telling what to do.
Above all, he didn't exactly pinpoint anything, he may be Afro-russian but that was only because he was born in the country, he left the nation before he was even 9 years old. So the locations being mentioned simply flew over his head and besides there was no guarantee that the locations even bore the same names anymore.
However, even ignoring all that, it was very clear that the nation was in trouble. Yes, the report was probably exaggerating things but one does not create facts to exaggerate from nothing. Which meant that most likely the people were getting disillusioned with the government and even if he isn't exactly that familiar with history, everyone knew the image that history painted when the people got tired of their monarchs.
This may be his second life - that is if all this isn't some sort of prank in some way, but he didn't plan on losing it anytime soon. He couldn't imagine that decapitation or execution of any kind was something he would accept easily.
Picking up a pen that lay just beside him, almost habitually, he began to mark out some relevant things that needed to be discussed when he eventually faced his ministers or the ones who submitted these petitions and reports.
"Do they think that applying force would mean anything to a starving peasant or what?" Nicholas questioned himself
Looking around his desk, he saw a bell and almost instinctively he tapped the bell and as though he had expected, one of the Guards he had seen when he stepped out of the room immediately pushed the door open and entered. Nicholas didn't even know how he knew the purpose of the bell but it was a welcomed thing as it meant that this body still held muscle memory that he could rely on.
"Your…"
"How knowledgeable are you on the current upheaval going on in the empire?" Nicholas asked directly before the man could even speak
"Forgive me your Imperial Majesty but I do not quite understand" the man answered confused
"There are over six reports on my desk that either address the upheaval directly or indirectly but last I checked, the people don't seek revolutions out of nowhere, am I wrong?" Nicholas asked
There was a brief awkwardness and silence in the air as the man seemed to try and make sense of his question. Looking at his uniform, Nicholas could tell that he was asking the wrong person this question but at the moment, it was best he asked the wrong person as they are not as entrenched in the situation as the ones directly involved.
"Your Imperial Majesty, I do not have access to such… detailed civilian assessments. However, I believe that the reports from the Ministry of Interior and the Okhrana should solve your dilemma" the man responded almost mechanically.
".... From a security standpoint, however, the reports I am privy to indicate… manageable unrest amongst the masses. The Governor-General has the garrison and the cossacks positioned to maintain order if needed."
Hearing the man, Nicholas nodded. Honestly at this point he didn't even know what he was expecting. It didn't matter if they were entrenched or not, they were trying to curry his favour or at least do their best not to fall out of favour.
"I see… However, sometimes it is best to lay things out as they are. If you know nothing about that then at least do you know how much a factory worker would make on average or even how many hours a day, they work, that much should have come up in conversations before amongst colleagues, right" Nicholas asked as he dropped the pen on hand and relaxed into his chair
"If it pleases Your Majesty, I could request reports from the Ministry of Finance or the Ministry of Interior on prevailing wages in troubled provinces" the man said with a bow
"I see… have a seat, please" Nicholas said
Nicholas gestured to the seat on the opposite side of the desk but the man remained standing as he stared at him for a bit but soon complied. Seeing the interaction, Nicholas was beginning to figure out the level of power in which he had.
If he were a powerless Emperor then the man would have sat right away but here, he weighed his options before he did that which meant that the Emperor probably held far more power in the empire than he anticipated
"Forget the formalities and just tell me what I want… the reports already sugar coat it enough… tell me your mind, I want to hear your personal opinion" Nicholas said as he leaned in a bit closer
"I am afraid, I am not worthy your majesty of such respect" The man said before standing and bowing again
Hearing him, Nicholas immediately became confused and wondered if he had said anything that meant something else in their custom or something of that nature. Given that this wasn't the time to be worrying about such things, Nicholas decided it was best to just ignore it
"You don't need to do that but I do need answers… i dont expect you to hold much information about civilian life but you probably have some knowledge, no?" Nicholas asked
The man's uniform may not be anything that he would really consider military like… well everything here was military like, all the men wore the fancy outfits that he knew old european military wore so he couldn't really tell which was which. Besides only someone in a military position would use such wording 'Civilian'
"I will answer to the best of my ability, your imperial majesty" the man answered
"Good, Now tell me exactly what are the strikes for?"
"Your Imperial Majesty, the war is a primary concern but I am no expert in how it may have affected economy but the fall of Port Arthur has been the latest news as of late and it is not news that soothes the hunger and strife caused by the war itself" The man said
"I see" Nicholas nodded as he quickly began to sift through the reports and true to the man's words, about three of them were about the war.
One from a man named General Alexei Nikolayevich Kuropatkin who was "Commander-in-chief of the Russian forces in the Far East'. It simply rambled on and on about his glory and how the Russian forces would never cede some area known as Port Arthur to the Japanese but they were holding strong.
Another from a Vice-Admiral Zinoy Petrovich Rohzhestvensky who was commanding some fleet that was heading to Port Arthur. However his reports read of many things that didn't exactly sound promising. From the purchase of bad coal from the British to details of access to pass through certain canals which lengthened the journey.
Finally was from the Ministry of Interior, a report from the Department of Protecting Public Security and Order… It was a long name but reading the document, it was clear that this department was some sort of intelligence agency but their reports read as though they were accusing their targets rather than reporting on them.
(A/N: this department would be referred to as Okhrana from hence forth… it is gotten from the russian name for the department 'Otdeleniye po okhrane obshchestvennoy bezopasnosti i poryadka')
The reports also offered some insight into the unrest and it was just as the man had said, the people were moving and plotting because of the military defeat. The war was also touched on in the reports but it wasn't exactly that much different from what Kuropatkin reported just with better details, like which generals committed dissent and all that.
Reading the document, the entire thing seemed to come together. The so-called 'unrest' was simply the calm before the storm, the planning before a strike. He had no issues with Japan but he was now the Ruler of Russia and if this country was anything like the modern counterpart then this bear wasn't one to lose a war against a small Asian country… it was damn near impossible.
However that impossibility was happening before his eyes right now.
"What is your name?" Nicholas asked as he finally raised his head from the reports
"Major-General Peter Hesse of the Combined Guards Regiments, your imperial Majesty" he shouted as he immediately stood up to salute.
Hearing the rank and looking at the uniform, things immediately made sense. He understood that he wasn't exactly that familiar with the fashion of this era but mistaking such a person for a steward was an utterly stupid mistake especially when the dressing was so different… though in his defense, he wasn't the only one flagging medals everywhere.
"Oh General, I was wondering what the rank was… my mind has been occupied lately, I thank you. General Hesse, your insight is a refreshing breath of fresh air compared to the curated wording of these reports" Nicholas said with a wide smile, acting as though he had been trying to remember the man's rank
"It was an honor, your majesty" Hesse replied with a deep bow