Road to the Crown

11th November 1574

Just a few years ago, even a fleeting idea that one could traverse all the vast expanses of Commonwealth that separated its southern territory from the capital would be taken as a crazy rambling of a mad person, if not outright heresy. Yet, as if against all odds and probabilities, I was now stepping down from the first-class wagon of my own damned train, just nine months after I appeared in this timeline!

"Come here, dear."

Thinking about it now, it was the first time when I actually could enjoy it. It was the first time when the cheering of the crowd pleasantly affected my humour.

"Vivat Tarnowski! Vivat Commonwealth!"

As if I was some kind of King, while I helped Elia to safely traverse the relatively high distance that I covered with a single jump a moment ago, nearly everyone gathered as far as even in just the vincity of the Krakowian Train Station continued to give me honours. While most of my mind was focused on making sure Elia could get down from the wagon safely, by denying the pleasure that steemed from the current situation I would turn myself into a liar.

"Shall we?"

Once my dearest wife finally stood safely on the solid ground of the stone floor of the station, I couldn't help myself from acting the situation. Offering Elia my arm, I smiled gently towards her lovable face.

"With pleasure."

Replying to my smile with one of her own, Elia graciously accepted my arm before wrapping her hands around it. The warmth of her body nearly instantly repelled the coldness of the snowy day as her delicate smell filled my nostrils.

"Sir, it's a pleasure to see you here."

I wasn't the only one who could read the situation. Before we could even have a chance to descend from the special part of the station reserved for the first-class passengers - something designed according to the advice of one of the officers working on it - the head-officer of the station appeared right in front of the two of us.

"Thanks for the warm welcome."

Even though the cheering of the crowd that was safely kept on the other side of the sturdy barriers that separated the VIP part of the station from the rest still continued, it didn't seem to influence our small talk in any way.

"I'm only fulfilling my duties. Either way, as much as I would like to hope that you came here to have some well-deserved rest… I think just the sight outside is enough to bury those hopes."

Shaking his head in a clear disappointment, the station manager seemed to genuinely worry about my health. To be quite frank, I could actually get where he was coming from.

So far, all of the innovations that appeared were heralded by me and me alone. While there was no denying that at the current stage, some of the major families were slowly taking notice of my insane growth, it was still too early to claim that my actions managed to influence the entire country in the direction of development. 

Thinking about this, my approach was one of the two that one could take while attempting the world conquest in the strategy game made by Paradoxal Interaction company. Namely, there was playing tall and playing wide.

Those names came from the fact that the entire course of this lengthy game was taking place on the world's map. That's why, players who liked to expand a lot and derive their power from an endless number of small fortunes, there were some obvious disadvantages to this approach. 

In their attempt to limit and make the expansion more realistic, every single act of territorial growth would incur a special penalty, that could lead to a great and incredibly hard type of war, where all of the countries that fell threatened by player's expansion would unite in a common struggle to curb his power down. That's why, some of the players given up on this strategy and the idea of conquering the world through the game, just for the sake of developing their piece of land to its absolute limits!

Obviously, this strategy while in the game has its downsides as well, just like in the real world. But there was one insanely important point that made it my goal to not only introduce this kind of approach in my lands but also in the entire country as a whole. There was one element that this otherwise great game failed to take into the account.

The manpower. The ultimate struggle of anyone wishing to grow his or her lands. While on the outside, this was only the problem of finding more able-bodied men for the sake of speeding up the production and construction process, the reality was way worse.

This was actually something that I foresaw all the way back when making the plans for the New Tarnow. From the sanitary problems, through the utilities all the way to something as common as food or overgrowth, while the increase of population was both the cause and the result of the technological growth, it was only when a bit more modern approach to medicine appeared when humanity as a whole managed to tackle the worst of the problems that would appear if the issues mentioned were not taken care off in advance.

But as of today, I could cast aside all those worries. Even though calming down the internal situation of the country and likely contributing to the unofficial cease-fire with Muscovy was nothing but just the first step on the road of evolving the entire country, no journey started at its destination!

That's why even the summons that was the direct cause of my arrival in the Krakow couldn't spoil my mood. Right off the bat, I was welcomed as a hero, even though the population only knew about the single success of the campaign against Ostros. The people that I never had the chance to meet personally just like the station's head office were expressing how much they valued me, and the most important group of people was willing to see me. If this couldn't be called a fertile grounds for the growth of my own influence, then I had no idea what else could!