"Masha" Rurik calls Maria's nickname.

"Yes?" Maria responds

"You look stressed" Ruriks speaks without lifting his face to look at her.

"Playing chess always makes the player stressed." Maria responds, curiously to what he wants to say.

"I didn't mean this. Dad knows that you are thinking of something else now. Whatever it is, just follow your instincts, my daughter. It's always right and makes you save. In this world, Trusting yourself is the best. Reason and logic can deceive you, but intuition never lies to you." Rurik gently explains.

"What did you know, Dad?" Maria's staring at Rurik's empty eyes

"Well, Just looking at your face I already know it. You probably thought of something spontaneous and weren't confident in it as usual. Dad knew that you're an anxious person. But yes, It's useful. Every anxiety and thought has a cause. You knew yourself the most that you're not someone who assumes without a cause. Find a way to solve your doubt, it if not what you think, then let it be. It doesn't hurt to worry." Rurik gives Maria reasonable advice, successfully convincing Maria easily.

"It's true as you said. I'm too stressed" out about my work. but you didn't answer my question yet." Maria let out a firm voice, sending pressure through her eyes to Rurik.

"Huh, No, I didn't know anything~ I'm just good at face reading. But it didn't mean that I'm a mind reader. I never knew that You could ask something so silly as others" A cunning man with an innocent face speaks in a high-pitched voice.

'*sigh* As I expected, I can't get anything from him, but what he said is right' Maria thought and felt irritated.

'Nevermind. There are only 2 moves left and I will be able to checkmate him' Maria turns to look at the board and move the chess piece confidently. She was really near the victory. But somehow she has a bad feeling about it. But looking at the board, it looks impossible for him to win because she's already blocking every way to protect her king.

"Near to checkmate me isn't it? This is the first time you've gone this far" Rurik speaks up, making Maria sweat immediately. He knew that he nearly lost and he spoke out because he found a way to fix it.

"I give you a chance to resign" Rurik moves horse to kill Maria's queen.

Maria froze, Anxiety rising in her mind as to when where she had missed something. In the chess game, if there's someone loses the queen can choose between resigning or not. Normally, whoever loses the queen would resign because it's a manner and respect to the opponent. But it's not rude to be stubborn. Even though Maria's plan was shaky, Maria had a backup plan in mind. She clenched her fists tightly, digging her nails into them. The young woman stared at the smiling face of the sly man with a determined gaze.

"No" Maria insisted before holding her chess piece tightly and moving it. Even now she doesn't have a queen and her father has 2 queens. But she not going to give up until she rotten to death.

"That's my daughter. Go on, try to kill me in that statement. Show your Dad how far your determination and stubbornness can take you" Rurik proudly giggled, showing an excited expression. He's unfolding his evil smile, winding his eyes with excitement; His demeanour changing from a mand man to a hunter who was enjoying watching the prey in his hands wriggling around.

"You're the one that has to kill me first, or I will bite your head off" Maria fearlessly threatens the hunter in front of her face; She's not going to be a pray who is killed in here today.

"Don't talk the talk. show me what you got after always losing me." Rurik giggled, sending a sweet grin to Maria.

"I got the talk from you, Dad" Maria grins, messing with her father back.

"Ahh... sadly you didn't get full of my intelligence. Checkmate" Rurik moves the house in front of the chess pieces that Maria places around the king. She killed herself with her own chess piece that blocked every way the king could run, And there was no way to get rid of that horse. In the end, Maria is still the victim who was killed.

"..." Maria's in silence, angrily staring at that house. She loses.

"What a shame that you can't win me yet. Go back to practice and then come back to play together next time, My beloved daughter." Rurik cheerfully speaks and smiles gently.

"*groan* I'm not going to lose next time!" Maria was furious; Her blood's boiling. She thinks that her father's words are clearly insulting.

"I like that you always want to overcome something. Be less cocky. If you win and be cocky, I wouldn't mind at all." Rurik's giggling.

'Ugh, I'm so frustrated. It's just a few moves. I need to win. I need to win next time.' Maria gnashed her teeth in annoyance. She doesn't like to lose, and it's really embarrassing after she's being cocky. In the end, Her father laughing at her.

" Now, now, I need to change the cloths to works. You should go change to your uniform too. we will meet at the bridge." Rurik stood up and stretched.

"Okay." Maria replies before wearing her coat and picking up her bag before leaving the room and going to her room to change into her uniform.

After she finished, She took the elevator down to the city and walked to the nearby bar to buy 2 affordable vodkas. She walks to hide in the alleyway. Using her fingernail to open the cap, puts the sleeping pill in, uses her strength to close the cap as before, shakes gently to dissolve, puts it in her messenger bag and then walks to meet with her father at the bridge. Her father is in NKVD uniform. Every time Maria sees this uniform, it makes her upset. But it can't be helped that those who work in this kind and want to do it for the country will inevitably be under the control of the NKVD and GRU.

The young woman and The middle age man in a soldier uniform walks across the bridge together. The evening sunlight touched the edge of the sky, the wind blew past the city welcoming the nighttime which was soon to arrive. They walked up the hill, trampling on the dry leaves on the ground, making a noise as they walked. On the hill, There's a labour camp; It's a labour camp for the captives, political prisoners and former nobility who were collected during the Russian Revolution. Maria started acting strange again. Maria's looking around and then staring at the forest even though there's nothing there.

"You really act like a cat" Rurik speaks up.

"This forest can always make me anxious, you already knew that" Maria speaks with a clearly uncomfortable expression.

"MmmHmm, You needn't worry. There's still sunlight and also it isn't winter yet" Rurik said in a pleasant voice, as if he had no worries at all.

"Ah" Maria replayed Rurik's words in her head, and they were true, but she still couldn't help but look into the pine forest.

They arrive at the labour camp. It's a small camp in the middle of the hill around the pine tree and steel wire. 3 large buildings look like a prisoner's dormitory. Loud noises were coming from the camp, including shouting, working sounds and noise. When they arrived, The guard saluted them; Rurik and Maria did the same back and then handed the guard a military identity card. The guard checked it and then allowed them to go inside. This is Maria's first time coming here. Normally, this place had nothing to do with her. If her father didn't bring her in, she wouldn't have the right to come in.

The guard led them into the labour camp. They walk to the 3rd building. It's an old brick building which has black stains all over the wall. There was a strong smell kicking in Maria's nose; Maria covered her nose with her hand in displeasure. They stop at a wire cage, There's a wide open space in there. It was an empty and open playground, but the kids still found something to play with.

"This is the kids that we will use for the experiment right?" Rurik asks the guard.

"Yes, 20 kids" The guard answers.

"Call all of them here. I will choose 5 kids for the experiment" Rurik takes the name list out of his bag.

The guard blew a whistle for the kids to line up. The kids hearing the whistle, rushed to line up in fear. The guard checks the names of the kids one by one. Maria looks at the weirdly outstanding kid. It's the girl with bright blue eyes and golden blonde hair like a daffodil flower. Despite being in a dirty state; She still looks outstanding with a small smile on her face, different from other kids. Maria secretly suspected that she might be a foreigner because her face didn't look like a Slav or Russian at all.

"Clarissa Inya Doris." The guard calls the name, bringing Maria back to her senses. The kid who's Maria staring at answers immediately in the German language.

'Listen to her voice and stand up straight with feet together. Doesn't look like a kid on the street. More than that, she isn't scared of the soldier in front of her. This is just a kid? Then the assumption that this might be Ernst Heiz Doris's daughter is true. But as far as I know, Doris and his wife were born as only children, so they probably aren't relatives if they're this young. Judging from her appearance, She seems easy to deceive. She's so small and weak. Even if she escapes, she won't survive for more than a day.' Maria observes a weird girl from head to toe. 

"I think I choose..." Rurik walked around to each kid and started picking them out one by one.

His finger's pointing to Clarissa. Maria turns pale; She forgets the fact that her father chose the kid for the experiment. If he chose Clarissa, all of her plans would end. Maria stared at her father's finger not even blinking. It's end at Clarissa. Maria was shocked, but she still kept her face straight for the sake of her image, and this was just something she thought about alone.

"Eh, I change my mind. I choose this one instead" Rurik says in a sweet voice, pointing at the kid next to Clarissa, making Maria feel relieved.

"Do you want this kid to be sent to the research institute?" The guard asks after Rurik has made his selection.

"Yes." Rurik crossed out the chosen name on the list and put it in his bag.

"Excuse me, There's something that the camp administrator wants you to investigate something." The guard speaks.

"Yeah, of course." Rurik responded with a smile.

"About you, major, could you please wait outside? From here on, this is an area where unrelated people are prohibited from entering." The guard says in a serious tone.

"Ahh, This is my daughter. She won't cause a problem. Just let her in please" Rurik's trying to convince the guard.

"At 23 o'clock, I want to have a talk with you" Maria used the chance while her father tried to convince the guard, speaking in German for Clarissa to hear.

"No" The guards still insisted with determination. Rurik's trying to convince them but Maria interrupts him first.

"It's fine. I will wait outside. Thank you for leading the way and doing your duty to the fullest without bias. It is very commendable that you are performing your duties strictly." Maria compliments the guard.

'Even if I hate NKVD soldiers so much. But still who can perform their duties strictly and efficiently should always be praised. The guard has to be like this, with no compromise and bias to be a good guard' Maria thought to herself.

"Thank you" The guard responded with a puzzled look.

The German girl turns to look at Maria surprisingly. Didn't expect that she would be able to communicate with someone abroad place. As the guards separated some of the children to prepare to send them to the research institute, while others were returned to their dormitory, Maria's father and the guard continued on to their way that Maria could not reach.

Maria walks back to the guardhouse and looks left and right before walking inside. It was just a small, guardhouse fort just enough for one person to sit in. Maria hurriedly searched before finding a map of the labour camp; Maria quickly scanned the map, including the shift entry and exit times and the list of each shift.  From evening to midnight shifts are Stanislav Kozlov's shifts. After she gets the information, Maria quickly keeps everything in place before walking out to wait outside; She opens the vodka bottle, that she didn't put the sleeping pill inside, and drinks it.

'I can't believe that I going to do this. But like my dad said intuition never lied to me. And I want to believe and do as it said' Maria sighs. The alcohol smell wafts from her throat.

"I really going to get myself in trouble again" Maria said casually and took another sip. She's standing waiting for a moment for her father to come back to her.

"Hey, my daughter. Dad back" Rurik walks straight to Maria with a cheerful smile.

"Rurik Pavlovich, be careful with your words. We're on duty, so speak formally." Maria says firmly.

"...""Fine." Rurik seemed unpleasant but didn't contradict her words.

"Can I have your name and rank, comrade?" Maria turned to look at the guard.

"I'm Corporal Stanislav Kozlov." Stanislav replies.

"Here, take this, I have some left. But I probably won't be able to finish it. Consider it a small reward. You're a good guard. A good guard shouldn't be compromised or biased. I'll remember your name. If we have a chance to talk, to your commander, I might ask him to promote you. But for now, have a drink with me." Maria praises him sincerely and passes a vodka bottle mixed with sleeping pills into his hand.

"I shouldn't drink during duty" Stanislav says hesitantly.

"Come on, one sip won't hurt." Maria opened the bottle for him, then clinked her bottle with his and took a sip.

In the end, the pressure of Maria's rank and the situation that was impossible to avoid made him drink it.