The year is 1915. I have been alive for one year, and slowly learning to walk and talk through Russian has been challenging to master. Currently, the princess is walking me through the palace, looking for something to eat. After being around this girl virtually all the time, I have learned a few things about her.
The main one is that she has a massive appetite though still not too big considering she is only four. Other than that is how much she cares for others. She does odd things, like helping clean up after herself and offering to help the staff. The strange thing was a lot of my original assessments of the girl were wrong, but the one thing I was dead on was her weird fascination with me. Not only did I have to dress exactly as she did, but for some reason, the royal family was fine with her dragging me.
I got to eat dinner with them. It also meant I had to deal with Rasputin. Which was not something I was ever glad to do. She also made me help with any task that she decided to do though not everything was something I was not particularly eager to do like I got to take classes with her.
The most annoying thing I was forced to do with her was I had to sleep next to her. Luckily since I was still a baby, I still got to sleep in a crib through my crib was next to her bed. She would either take me out and hold on to me or go in my crib. I thought she did this because I was in her old crib. She missed it, or because she must have genuinely thought I was a doll, I was surprised it was even allowed since the difference in class between us. I was the bastard to a nanny, but I was currently in hand with a princess to the Russian empire looking for sweets.
To say I was walking with the princess would be inaccurate since I could barely walk. She walked while dragging me, and occasionally I would move my legs, get up, and walk a few steps whenever she stopped to figure out which hall to take. Indeed it was a low point. Then again, this whole life has been a low point fuck you Being X.
"What way do you think we should go, left, right, or forward."
"How have you not memorized where the kitchen is, your highness" I replied in a proper tone to addressing a superior as I finally stood up.
"How many times must I say it? Please call me Visha, Tanya also. It seems this place gets bigger every time we walk around the halls."
"Luckily for you, princess Visha" was odd saying her name, not I can't disobey her since she outranks me socially and physically since she is three years older than I, but "I have memorized it."
"Thank you for memorizing," she said as she hugged me tightly to the point I couldn't breathe shame too since I had just finished stabilizing myself. "But I must insist that you call me Visha and forget about those silly titles. Only father cares about those silly things," She continued as she tightened her grip on me.
"Air" was all I got out as I was flailing in her arms.
"Sorry, sorry, I couldn't help myself," she quickly said, releasing her grip on me.
"It's okay, just not so tight," I said, gasping for breath."
"So where is it"
"Depends which kitchen you wish to sneak into."
"The main one that's the one to attract the least attention."
"You've thought about this, haven't you, Viktoriya" upon saying this, it occurred to me the girl was rather smart for her age while going to a smaller would be quicker. It also meant the chance of getting caught was higher since it was a smaller space. That didn't make the larger kitchen better since there would be more people and more opportunities, but for a 4-year-old to recognize some hazards made my impression of her go up.
"So what if I have, and if you don't call me Visha, I will have father send you and your mother to Siberia for disobeying me."
I was shocked when she said this since this was the first time she had threatened me for such a minor reason. That was expected for someone her age since children are known for overreacting to the most insignificant thing, or at least to my experience of children that I can recall from my previous life.
It also made me respect the girl a little more; just like I would warn, there would eventually be threats just like I would. It also made her a bit more humble with her refusing to take any titles, and I'm okay with her showing how she has authority over others. Though I am not a fan if it's me, I still respect that she does know when to be authoritative.
I thought being exiled would better my chances of survival during the revolution in the hope that while there. The white army might recruit or even help prisoners escape to places like America, Britain, or even France. But that was quickly thought of as a dumbass plan to be avoided, which annoyed me since I couldn't develop better strategies since there were too many variables. I had to hope some things went perfectly, and with that bastard Being X most likely fucking things up so that they would never do that, my current plan was to be friends with the princess was all I had. So that left me little choice but to do as she requested.
"Yes, Visha"
It was odd calling her that nickname because she was my superior, and I had always said the proper name and title of any of my previous superiors to their entirety. It was interesting since the first time she asked me to call her name, I said her royal highness the grand Princess Viktoriya Nikolaevna of the Russian Empire, the youngest daughter of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna consort of Nicholas the Second, by the grace of God, Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias, of Moscow, Kiev, Vladimir, Novgorod, Tsar of Kazan, Tsar of Astrakhan, King of Poland, Tsar of Siberia, Tsar of Tauric Chersonesos, Tsar of Georgia, Lord of Pskov, and Grand Duke of Smolensk, Lithuania, Volhynia, Podolia, and Finland, Prince of Estonia, Livonia, Courland and Semigalia, Samogitia, Białystok, Karelia, Tver, Yugra, Perm, Vyatka, Bulgaria, and other territories; Lord and Grand Duke of Nizhny Novgorod, Chernigov; Ruler of Ryazan, Polotsk, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Beloozero, Udoria, Obdoria, Kondia, Vitebsk, Mstislav, and all northern territories; Ruler of Iveria, Kartalinia, and the Kabardinian lands and Armenian territories; hereditary Ruler and Lord of the Cherkess and Mountain Princes and others; Lord of Turkestan, Heir of Norway, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, Stormarn, Dithmarschen, Oldenburg, and so forth, and so on. That both surprised her but also disappointed her. She then asked me to drop her parents from her name, which was fine; I could only do that because it was extra credit for a class I took in college. That and it would make conversation difficult, but I wasn't going to do that anyway since it was to prove to her I could be of use, and it worked then, but now her name has been brought down to 5 letters indeed, it was odd.
"Good, Tanya, now anyway. How do we get to the kitchen."
"Right from where we are, I'd say we are at the Rotunda on the second floor, so we need to go through that door through those rooms till we find the stairs and then go down to the first floor, which will be next to the smaller kitchens. Take a right after we are down the stairs and go all the way down until we are at the end of the corridor. Take a right. Go through the small church staircase by taking a right, take a left in the corridor, then an immediate right, go through the corridor to your room, then through the Jordan corridor, take a right at the staircase, then take a left after the fourth storeroom."
"Okay … got it!" she looked up and moved her hands in the direction I told her was the way. Before grabbing my hand and bolting the way, practically breaking at least three doors, dragging me behind to the point I didn't even touch the ground as I'd typically be when wandering the halls.
Unfortunately, as we were in Jordan hall, about to take a right at the staircase, I came in contact with the ground again. Wondering why I looked to where Visha was and saw she had run into a black pillar.
With that, we both looked up, and to my horrible realization, it was not a pillar, but instead, it was a man's leg, the worst leg it could've been as we continued to look up, I noticed the man poorly kept beard where a Russian orthodox cross could be seen behind it. At this point, my suspicions were confirmed, especially since my eyes met his flaming golden eyes.