Road to the Crown

14th September 1574

"So, what's in your envelope?"

Sitting down in one of the rooms that were built beside the train station of mine, I stared at the enclosed piece of paper that I held in my hands. Even with Elia's probing, I was quite hesitant to open it.

Thinking about this from external point of view, I had nothing to be stressed about. Not only I was already certain that I won't even take part in the elections, in fact, I already knew whose candidature I was going to support! 

In the end, while I still thought that this one, mute candidate had any chance to fight for my support with Lew, during the short meeting that I had with him, all my delusions were dispersed. Outside of huge political talent to manipulate the course of the discussion, there wasn't almost anything that I could see in him as potentially profitable for the country.

On the other hand, Lew had it all. From the great managing skills, through the huge amount of patriotism in his soul, all the way for the low initial position. Those three points were essential for anyone that wanted to earn my support.

First, with how little his lands would contribute to the Crown's position, I would be able to easily maintain his support. As long as my lands would keep bringing in increasing amounts of tax, he would have to swallow the huge degree of autonomy that I would trade my support for. 

But instead of treating it as something that he had to suffer through, his administrative skills would make it fairly easy for him to actually reforge it into one of his greatest ace cards! Even before the election proper could start, I could already tell that as long as he would do one simple thing, not only I stood to profit some kind of insane numbers, but the country as a whole would benefit greatly from it!

And this was the third aspect that I looked for in the candidate that I would support. Patriotism. While this word was often overused or misinterpreted in the future times by the leftist propaganda that sourced itself from a book written by someone who was soo radical that he was expelled from the Soviet Union, in reality, it wasn't as bad as one might consider this trait to be. 

Rather than focusing his mind on waging wars all around the country just to ascertain the dominance in the region, a true patriot would always look not for a ways to make life worse for other counties, but to improve the situation within the borders of one's own country. Rather than glorifying wars like fascists would, a true patriot would consider war to be nothing more but an extension of the country's politic, only affordable if there was either no other choice or if the other choices were simply too disastrous!

"You see… It's not about opening the envelope. I'm already almost sure about what's written in there. But you see, once we actually do read it, we will have to focus all our attention at fulfilling its content as quickly as possible. And just look around you? Can���t you see how much I would prefer to just focus on building and expanding the train? This one investment will completely change how the entire country looks like, but here we are, forced to deal with some stupid, fucking missions!"

Slapping the envelope on the small, wooden table bearing the marks of being made in my own wood factory, I threw myself back on the bed, attempting to regain my peace.

"Should I open it myself, then?"

Sitting beside me, Elia grabbed my neck and moved my head on top of her lap, gently caressing my hair. While I still wanted to allow the anger to power me up for a few moments more, feeling her delicate fingers brush against the skin of my scalp was a spell strong enough to completely eradicate my powerless fury. 

"Yeah, I don't even want to see what's in there."

Given the situation, there was no way that I would be asked to do anything else but eradicating the rebellious Ostros. Given how much time has passed ever since the first batch of my newly formed troops left the city, in about two more weeks I would be able to muster between one and a half thousand and two thousand of soldiers, fully equipped with the basic arms and outfits, and two to three units of them could already use the heavy equipment of mine. 

That strength alone would be a huge overkill when it came to eradicating a single family, but given how strange they were acting both when the conflict started, during their siege of Tarnow and all the way to how they had yet to attempt anything during this period of an unannounced armistice, I didn't want to risk everything I had just by thinking too lightly of them.

"I guess it's just like you thought."

After a moment of hearing the paper being ripped apart and watching how Elia pulls the letter from the envelope, I could hear her words as her fingers continued to massage my head.

"Deal with the ostros, maybe finish the train. Am I right?"

There was no denying it. This kind of mission would deal a fatal hit to all of my plans so far. Given how we basically did our best to convince Ostros that we would attack soon, this mission would force us to change this fake play into a real one. And even if I knew that I was more than a ready to do so, it didn't change the fact that it would only mean bigger losses!

"Right on the point. You are supposed to kill those responsible for the treason and free all their lands from their rule. Quite harsh for our country, I have to say."

I could tell from how her fingers tensed up on my head that Elia was pretty shocked by the second part of the order. Given how hight the position of the nobility was in the country, it was quite surprising to be allowed to deal with them in such a decisive and conclusive manner. 

At least, this meant that I would have one worry less on my head!

"Anyway, now that you know what our mission is, would you care to tell me whether you plan to take part in the election in the first place? While I can see the Crown is far higher on the importance scale than fulfilling our own plan, I can't help but be worried about this entire situation. After all, we did warn the Ostros about the impending invasion from our side!"

Voicing out the same problems that were plaguing my mind, Elia inevitably managed to bring back my anger. 

"Don't you think that I was acting a bit too mild?"

With this sudden realisation striking me right in the heart, I raised from Elia's lap and looked her directly in the eyes.

"What do you mean?"

Most likely confused by my sudden change of attitude, Elia looked at me as if a fish suddenly grew from the top of my head, and I started asking her whether she wants it salty or with herbs.

"So far, I was so focused on doing everything that I could to develop my lands, that outside of investing in the military and propagating new ideas, I didn't actually pull my own weight as the noble."

Speaking this sentence more for the sake of clarifying my own thoughts rather than explaining it to my dearest, I turned around, put my hands behind me and leaned back as if hoping that this position would make it fairly easier to think.

"I know that going to war won't bring me many benefits, but I'm starting to realise now what's the source of our current problems. If you were to name the three most burning problems of our lands, what would they be?"

Rather than bringing my point directly, I preferred Elia to voice it out herself. While this kind of talking was something that I learned during my time as a telemarketer during the early times in the corporation I worked for, even after I advanced far higher to a manager of project that didn't involve even a single phone annoyance, I still found it quite useful for nailing down important points I wanted to convey.

"For the New Tarnow? It would definitely be the lack of charcoal, as the line of the forest is getting further and further away with each damned day. Then it would still be the lack of workforce, as we can't pull new workers from the surrounding lands quickly enough to sate Colonial need for manpower, and lastly, it would be the lack of market for the high tier product of ours."

Without even thinking about this, Elia quickly outlined the correct problems that I already wasted several nights to figure out a solution for. This only served to prove that despite how little people saw her around the place, she was still working hard to earn her place beside me as the head manager… woops, as the wife of the owner of the entire place!

"You see, I see a single solution that would solve all of those problems, but for some strange reason, I was hesitant to even accept thinking about it."

Standing up from the bed, I kneeled in front of Elia's knees, grabbing both of her hands and planting a gentle kiss on top of them.

"It's a war. By taking over Ostros lands, we can get our hands on rich coal deposits, that would save the problem of fuel for our furnaces. By killing their household, we can force their servants into semi-slavery, sentencing them for long periods of forced labour, and finally, by showcasing the might of our war-oriented inventions, we can convince everyone just how much our civilian ones are worth!"