'Why? Why isn't this working?'
Aleksei Kuropatkin - the first Chief of General Staff to oversee both army and navy, excluding the Field Marshal rank only attainable during wartime.
What was the reason that man could make a splendid return after once being pushed out of power struggles for opposing the Russo-Japanese War to the Tsar?
Wasn't it all because the Tsar and Prime Minister Witte pushed from behind and pulled from the front?
'Heh, Roman. Want to know how I, who couldn't even hold a command baton in the field, rose to the peak of this country's military?'
'Well, please tell me.'
'First go to the Imperial Palace. Go and beg. Just beg for your life unconditionally.'
'...What?'
Though Roman didn't know there would come a day when that long-ago conversation with Chief of Staff Kuropatkin would be so necessary.
"Please spare my life!"
"Hmm?"
Still, since he learned something, he begged first.
