Permission

"A politician thinks of the next election. A statesman thinks of the next generation."

~James Freeman Clarke

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The next morning, Nicholas woke up early as always. The maids brought him breakfast in his room. He had a calm and quiet breakfast looking melancholically at St. Petersburg from his huge window...

How many people would he kill to achieve his goals? How many lives would he have to sacrifice? As someone with a normal modern mind, could he do it? Could he keep on living even with the shadow of all the people he would directly or indirectly sacrifice to make it?

Nicholas didn't know... He only knew he had to keep pushing forward. For his own good, but also for the good of the whole Europe.

In his past life, Nicholas lived in Europe. And because of the two World Wars, the European Great Powers, from creditor nations, became debitor nations handing the world hegemony to the USA and the Soviet Union in a silver plate. Europe was thoroughly and utterly devastated from the war.

The only two real winners were the Soviet Union and especially the USA.

After that, the once Great Powers of Europe, the world hegemons, had become puppets of the United States. How ironic was that?

To be completely honest, Nicholas had always been a staunch monarchist and he had been given the possibilty to reshape the future his own way, and he would for sure take it.

With this in mind, Nicholas sighed and got up from his seat, leaving the room with a plan in his mind.

Walking through the corridors, his chest still felt heavy and his mind full of thoughts. Until he arrived at a much memorable door. His father's office.

There, he notified the guards which in turn asked for permission from the Tsar who of course granted it.

Before entering, Nicholas took a deep breath, strengthening his resolve. He walked inside the luxuriously decorated office.

"Father, good morning to you" said Nicholas

"Nicholas, good morning. What has brought you to me so early?" responded Alexander with a hint of curiosity.

"Father, I would like to ask your permission to hold a New Year banquet." said Nicholas

"Oh?" Alexander straightened his back and scrutinized Nicholas. "Of course you can my son. As the Tsarevich, you are supposed to socialize with other young nobles and be put into a high pedestal, but I am curious, who will be the most important guests?"

"I plan to invite young nobles mainly from the Houses of Yusupov and Sheremets but also some young officers I have been curious about. But most importantly, uncle Vladimir and uncle Sergei to grant formality and credibility to this banquet."

Alexander nodded while Nicholas continued

"I would also like, with your permission to invite Minister Sergei Witte, Pyotr Vannovky-"

At this moment, Alexander raised an eyebrow while Nicholas continued without batting an eye.

"And lastly, minister Tolstoy. I believe all the aforementioned names have a lot of experience and knowledge which I and all the other young nobles and officers can learn from during this banquet."

After this last name, Alexander thought for a minute before answering.

"Permission granted. You can ask the chief butler for help setting it up. Make sure not to embarrass the Royal family by being stingy."

Nicholas bowed and said "Thank you, Father. I assure you, I won't."

Nicholas walked out of the room taking a deep breath and wiping out the cold sweat on his forehead.

This banquet was very important to him since this was his first step in his plans on creating an inner circle of loyal men who would help him do the dirty work later.

He has intentionally included Count Tolstoy into the guest list to put a balance between the conservatives and the reformists so the banquet would be accepted by his father.

Nicholas ordered his own butler to choose one of the royal estates and coordinate with the Royal butler on organizing the work.

As per Nicholas' request, the butler invited young nobles and prominent young officers as per royal etiquette. The important figures' names however, or the figures Nicholas was curious about, would be directly submitted by him for the butlers to invite in his name.

Also, Nicholas told his butler to alert the Main Chamber of Weights and Measures that he was going to pay a visit tomorrow morning. The reason he gave was that he wanted to inspect how the russian scientists worked and try to learn something from them.

The real reason was that he wanted to meet a very famous figure whom he wanted to rope into his circle. A figure which would help him make contact with the whole scientific and inventor social group.

Contact which hopefully, in the future, would enable him to get them all to his side and use their abilities to the betterment of the russian empire.

When the Main Chamber of Weights and Measures got the news, they were at first flabbergasted and sent the news directly to their director. The director had a hopeful glee on his face and said

"Very well. Proceed as always. There is no need for extra things. I am very confident in our ability to impress the Crown Prince."

Everyone got back to work while the director laid on his seat and stared at the ceiling for a minute and whispered "How curious..."