Warm golden light streamed through and fell upon Alexander's sleeping face. He squinted at the stimulation as he moved his arm towards his face, trying to escape whatever was burning it, before finally opening his eyes, taking in the sights of the room.
'Oh, damnable daystars.... the same as usual.."
"What time is it?" Alexander grumbled as he shifted on his bed rubbing his eyes, looking to see a digital clock sitting on top of his dresser and he saw that it was 6:30 in the morning.
He lifted his upper body from the mattress and yawned, stretching out both arms and legs before looking at his wife sleeping soundly beside him. He smiled at the sight and turned away from her, standing up from the bed carefully so as to not wake her up, and headed towards the bathroom.
As soon as Alexander walked into the bathroom, he turned on the shower as he climbed inside the tub, and sat under the warm rain, sighing contently at the feeling.
He stayed there for a moment, letting the warmth wash over him, before grabbing a soap bar from the rack on the wall and beginning to lather himself vigorously, hoping to get rid of any remaining smell of the night before.
When he felt clean enough, he returned it back to its holder and grabbed a bottle of specially formulated shampoo from the rack next to it.
Not exactly an invention, this hair shampoo helps moisturize skin and hair to keep them soft, supple, and smooth. Much to his daughter's and wife's delight with his soft beard.
The shampoo is popular among men and even women.
Foam started to slowly drizzle down his back as he washed his hair and beard, neutralizing all traces of excess soap, salt, grimes, sweats, and an odor that dried overnight, and once his hair was all washed, Alex stepped out of the shower, wrapping a towel around his waist as he went to put some clothes on.
Special formulated shampoos and soaps, one of the many futuristic products he introduced to the market, there are already major soap producers in Ruthenia having large shares of the market making common soap, he just improved his product by adding on detergent chemicals, sulfate-based anionic surfactants, alkanolamides for foam boosters, and methylcellulose for thickeners.
Recently, Imperial Dynamic Systems subsidiaries began marketing specific detergents for dishwashing and for clothes as common soap is too weak to wash those.
Donned in his usual attire, Alexander made his way to his office where he'll start his boring day of paperwork. As he walked towards his desk, he stopped midway to open the television. Once it was turned on, he pressed a button on the television, flipping through channels, 3 new ones as of now, until a news anchor appeared on the screen. What's amazing is that instead of seeing a black and white screen, it was colored. That's right, he improved television technology by making it colored. Instead of one electron gun, it now has three, shooting beams at a new material that made colored tv possible called shadow mask.
However, only those with a lot of money to spare can purchase the latest model of the television, the lower middle class can only settle in the black and white television, waiting for its value to depreciate.
Having called for light morning refreshments to be delivered, Alexander promptly sat down at his desk and began sifting through the documents on his table. He has to finish this paperwork by 8:30 in the morning or else he's going to be late for the ship commissioning ceremony that will be happening later at ten o'clock.
Later, the palace staff brought in the tray of morning coffee, doughnuts, bagels, and some cold cuts with hard cheese. Alexander thanked the staff and continues his work.
One hour later, Alexander finished most of his work and half the early breakfast tray, putting a hand to his forehead as he let out a deep breath.
He nurses a cup of cooled coffee he pour earlier, the black liquid swirling in it.
"What a pain in the ass." He whispered to himself, rubbing his temples with his thumb and forefinger. After a few moments of calming down, he emptied the cup and stood up, and made his way to the door. Upon his exit, Rolan greeted him.
"Your Majesty, the car's ready," he informed as he walked with Alexander in the hallway.
"Good, we better get out of here before Anya wakes up," Alexander said with an apprehensive tone of voice.
"I understand your pain, Your Majesty. But don't worry, Princess Anya is still sleeping,"
"Yeah, it's a good thing. I can imagine right now what expression she'll make if I were to tell her that I'm going out for work," Alexander sighed.
Rolan could simply laugh.
The two men continued their walk to the "Bukavac" until they reached it, Rolan opened the rear door for Alexander, who entered the large vehicle and took a seat. He placed his suit jacket on his lap.
Its V8 engine roared to life as they exited and sped off with an additional escort vehicle following them, the large 6 wheels gripping the road as it moved, taking Alexander to the St. Petersburg Airport where he will ride a helicopter to get to the St. Petersburg port. While on transit, Alexander pulled out a note from his inner coat pocket and unfolded it before reading.
Written on it was the flow of events of how the ship commissioning ceremony is going to go down. The ceremony will be held in the hangar bay where the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Kutnetzov will make a speech for about one hour and after his speech, that's where he'll come in.
The whole ceremony is broadcasted live across the Ruthenian Empire to show the people that Ruthenia is not a backwater nation anymore but a superpower that can dominate the high seas with its superior warships.
Speaking of warships, not only the Midway Class Aircraft Carrier copies will be commissioned on this day but the Montana Class Battleships, Des Moine Class Cruisers, Charles F. Adams Destroyers, and Collins Class Submarines copies as well.
Due to their sheer size, they will be celebrated one by one, and that's a lot of hours, not counting the ships that were finished on different docks in Crimea.
In this year, a total of 4 Midway Class Aircraft Carriers were built, 4 Montana Class Battleships, Ten Desmoine Class Cruisers, 30 Charles F. Adams Class Destroyers, and 6 Collins Class Submarines with a lot more being planned to build.
The reason that they were able to produce a lot of ships is thanks to Alexander investing in the naval infrastructures and bailing out shipbuilding companies that had almost gone bankrupt due to the economic downturn during the reign of his father, hence, 30 shipbuilding companies participated in the construction. It's a good thing that the Romanoff Family has tons of gold in their reserves. Without it, running this country would be a lot more challenging.
Alexander bent down to grab a briefcase under his chair, containing sensitive information that he planned to show to Andrei later in the ceremony.
"Sir, we've arrived," Rolan informed as the car stopped near the Marine One whose two rotors were already spinning, indicating that it was prepped beforehand.
Alexander stepped out of the vehicle with a briefcase in his hand, followed closely behind by Rolan as they strode all the way to the helicopter.
The wind produced by the blades of the rotorcraft blew against their faces, causing Alexander to wince slightly and his coat to flutter slightly as well.
Upon getting inside the helicopter, it immediately took off and began its flight towards the St. Petersburg naval base.
