A few hours had passed, and Alexander and Sergei completed the diplomatic discussion with the Francois Republic and the Britannia Empire. Alexander got Francois’s guarantee of giving Ruthenian an extension to pay off the debts while Sergei succeeded in signing the trade deal.
As he got back to the Winter Palace, Alexander made his way to the office to resume his work, and he is certain that his work piled up again.
As he was about to make a left turn, someone bumped at him, causing Alexander to almost fall from his feet.
“Ouch…”
Alexander looked down and saw a girl with long platinum silver hair with books and papers everywhere, some were even in her hand, Alexander noticed. It was his sister.
“Tiffania?” The girl stopped her actions for a moment and looked up to see who called out, she then quickly squealed out in recognition.
“Alex?! Why are you here…I thought you were in Mikhailovsky Palace…doing work…” Tiffania stammered out with confusion laced into her voice.
Alexander shrugged as he knelt down and helped her get the things that she dropped when she bumped into him.
“Well, I am. I just finished the meeting so now I’m back here to return to my office to resume my duties as the head of state…” Alexander answered honestly. He smiled fondly at her, causing her cheek to tinged lightly red.
As she collected all the books that were scattered around her, she clutched them tightly against her chest. Alexander could tell that there was something else going on, it was more than just the fact that she accidentally crashed into Alexander.-.
“Tiffania…what were you doing in my office?”
“Huh?!” Tiffania gasped before she looked at him sheepishly. “Well…you know I just happened to pass by…” her voice is gradually growing quieter and quieter, indicating her nervousness.
Alexander saw through her lies, that she is hiding something but he let it slide because he doesn’t want to push too much. If anything, he wants it to hear from her mouth. After all, there’s no reason for her to be here in the first place. In this section of the palace, the only room that can be found here is his office.
“Do you need something from me, Tiffania?” Alexander boldly asked. “I mean is there something I can help you with?”
“Hah?! What made you assume that?” Her hands were starting to shake violently and she couldn’t take her eyes off of the ground. She didn’t meet his gaze.
Alexander sighed deeply as he placed a gentle hold on top of his sister’s head, instead of batting it away, Tiffania let her brother’s hand rest there. After that simple gesture, Alexander noticed how much lighter his sister was. She looked like she was relieved as her body relaxed, she was still tense but not quite as tense as before.
Who knows that aside from her prickly side, she has this innocent and warm side that could melt anyone’s heart? Alex chuckled quietly to himself. Who would’ve thought? She’s been repulsive at him whenever he’s around and now…this bashful expression she is showing right now? It makes Alexander want to protect her.
He shook his head to clear those thoughts. He really needs to focus on what they needed to talk about. He removed his hand and looked at her cast-down expression. She looks so vulnerable and cute right now.
“Hey, Tiff,” Alexander softly said. Tiffania’s attention turned to her big brother once again. “You can say it,”
“Okay…then…” Tiffania took a breath before looking at him once more. “…I need your help on something…”
Alexander exclaimed internally. Tiffania is asking for his help? Now, this is new as she had never asked him to assist her with her problem before. This is a huge opportunity for him to develop a brother-sister relationship with her and make amends for his past mistakes that made her not like him and strain their relationship.
“I see…why don’t we discuss it over at my office?”
Tiffania innocently nodded her head and walked after Alexander.
***
As the two arrived at the front of his office, Alexander opened his office door and gestured for Tiffania to enter. He closed the door behind him and made his way towards his desk, while Tiffania sat in one of the chairs by the table.
Tiffania sat there in silence as she observed his office. A neat and organized office, where everything is in its place and not a single thing was out of place or misplaced, it smells pleasantly clean and there wasn’t any sign of dust anywhere. All in all, it was very tidy and presentable. This is giving off a different vibe from what Alexander was years ago.
Inside his office, she saw a chalkboard with complex mathematical equations she couldn’t understand.
There were also many diagrams of various types of machines that she won’t even bother to analyze.
What caused this sudden change? After he woke up from a coma, Alexander became a different type of person, one that is less jerk and more kind.
And strangely, intelligent.
“So, Tiffania…” Alexander suddenly spoke, startling her lightly. “How can I help?”
He placed both of his elbows on his desk and leaned forward a little. Tiffania was caught off guard as she quickly replied; “Um…I want you to look at this piece of writing!”
Tiffania blurted out as she handed her paper to her older brother. Alexander slowly reached his hand out and gently grabbed the piece of paper. His expression softened as he gazed at the piece of paper. It was not just any paper but a research paper that is 20 pages long.
Alexander hummed as he perused it. The content was about the people’s perception of modernization and industrialization of the Ruthenia Empire, so basically, she’s writing in a social studies field. Though this is not his forte, he’ll do everything he can to help her…after all…she goes out of her way to ask for his help. There’s no way she can let her down.
“Okay, give me an hour and I’ll give you my honest opinion.”
“It’s…fine, I’ll wait here,” Tiffania said while sitting down in the chair that was across from his desk.
“You sure…it’ll take an hour? Aren’t you going to get bored?”
“I said it’s fine brother…I’ll just watch you work, it isn’t like it’ll take long anyways…” Tiffania mumbled in reply as she fiddled with her hand.
“Okay then…”
One hour has passed, and Alexander has read all the contents. The problem is that the presenter is sleeping, her face over her arms. Now that Alexander had a closer look at her face, he must admit, that she has doll-like features.
“She is sleeping…very peacefully…” Alexander whispered as he felt an urge to caress her cheek, though he refrained himself. “Maybe I should wake her up.”
The prince carefully stood up from his seat and moved closer to his sister’s figure, his arm stretched out slightly and slowly reaching toward her. But the action caused the sleeping presenter to stir awake, and immediately snapped her body upright.
“Uwah…how long have I been sleeping?!” Tiffania stammered out as her eyes opened wide and started to panic. Once she realized that she was still in Alexander’s office, she instantly stood up in embarrassment and tried to cover herself with her arms.
Alexander just stared at her with amusement on his face, though he did not tease her. Instead, he gave out a small chuckle. “Don’t worry, it’s fine. Like I told you before, it’ll take an hour for me to read through all of it…”
Tiffania lowered her arms slowly, “You finished it? How was it? I’m to present it at an academic conference three weeks from now, at university,”
“Oh? Tiffania…you attend university?”
“Uhm…N-no, not officially. Truth be told, I visited the university when I heard that a scholar I respect would give a lecture there…Unfortunately, his schedule changed and it was canceled. So during that time, I’ve been receiving private guidance from the university professors I met there, albeit some of them are reluctant because of my origin…”
“Oh…I see…now I learned something new here…”
“So…brother?” Tiffania said as she twiddled her fingers with a bashful look on her face. “How was it? It has a hard theme but I welcome your candid advice…”
‘My advice…are you sure about that? I mean your brother doesn’t have one published paper…you sure you’re going to take my advice seriously?”
“Well…Uhm…you’re the one who invented the cure to treat Anastasia so that counts…”
Alexander chuckled softly, “Okay…if you want candid advice then…” he cleared his throat and began. “The content is insufficient…regarding the ethnic groups’ perception of the rapid industrialization…you merely rehash some of the previous papers…there’s no new point of view here. Furthermore, the frequent misspellings and grammatical errors are jarring…I marked them for you…To think that you’re going to present them in the academy…I can’t imagine…”
“Ngh…!” Tiffania’s heart sank after receiving blunt criticism from her brother. She looked like she was about to cry as she gave him a glare with startling intensity. Well, she asked for it so no hard feelings there.
“But hey! Cheer up. That’s okay. We’ll fix it together, I said that I’ll help you, right? And this paper could serve as a reference to my rule…this will be beneficial to both of us…”
“Is that true…brother?” Tiffania asked.
“Of course…now, shall we start working?”