Chapter 101
Chapter 101: Breaking news! (smut? More like cuddling imho)
15th April 1574
As soon as the moment of climax passed through our bodies, the two of us collapsed on top of each other. With the last remaining bit of strength still in my body, I grabbed Elia's sweaty thigh, turning her around on the back, only to once again push myself just a tiny bit forward and fall right on top of her wet body.
Feeling the violent rocking of her heart directly on my skin as her hands moved on my back and head only for the sake of lightly caressing them, I felt yet another wave of powerful emotion swiping through my mind. This time, however, rather than being something as simple as an animalistic urge to mate, it was something closer to finally reaching the place when I, as a man, had to travel through my entire life.
Maybe it was something as simple as a hormonal reaction in my body influencing my thoughts, but despite how powerless Elia seemed to be, pinned in all sorts of meaning under me, with her fingers running through my hair I never felt so safe as I did right now, coated by the soft touch of her arms.
"Kiss me, dear."
After all the shouting she initially faked only to release from the honest bottom of her heart later, her voice was now haggard, breaking on every beat of her heart, as if wasting even a single opportunity to inhale the air would lead to her demise.
"Sure."
Despite the entire act already done, I never pulled myself out of her soaked hole, even now straining myself to reach her lips without being forced to separate. With all our movements coming to an abrupt stop and turned slow, as if we were deprived of sleep for the entire week, I once again immersed myself in the taste of her lips, while enjoying the way in which her wet thighs were rubbing against my waist.
"Hmph?"
While still kissing her, I suddenly felt a strike of a dread overwhelming my mind. What if my weight could do her harm, now that we were all tired and relaxed?
Not breaking the contact on either end of our bodies, I coiled my hands around her waist only to turn the two of us around, now placing her in the safe position above me.
Maybe due to the change of position which allowed her far easier movement, while we were still kissing, Elia's hips started to slowly move up and down, gently caressing my still hard dick inside her, as if trying to suck all the drops of liquid seeds remaining inside my shaft.
Rather than once again turning to the almost violent level with her, I simply moved my hands to caress her softback, running my fingers on her spine all the way from her neck to the spilling wonderland of her bottom.
"Thank you for your treat"
Raising her head for the briefest of moments, Elia whispered those few words to me, before reuniting our lips once again. In an instant, her tongue pried my mouth open, subjecting me to the flood of her sweet saliva, as she rubbed her inner mouth muscle against mine, bringing my mind even closer to collapsing from the intense addiction to her entire self already in the last development stage.
Feeling her mischievous tongue doing whatever she wanted it to do, I suddenly pushed against it, almost making her choke on her own saliva, only to close my mouth on her bottom lips, sucking at it with all my might.
While this moment of slight dominance lasted, Elia's hips started to move a bit faster, slowly rekindling the flame in my abdomen. Even though I couldn't be more eager to go for another round, this time with a slow and caring feel to it, considering the fact that we were still in the middle of the party thrown by us and for our sake, it would be rude to keep our quests alone and entertained for too long!
"Love We should get going soon"
As much as it pained me, there was no other way for us. We could enjoy ourselves as much as we wanted through the night, but the festivities would only last for so long.
"Dear, wait for a second, please"
Suddenly pulling the movement of her hips to a complete halt, Elia raised on top of me, now in the proper cowrider position. Yet rather than jumping on my dick in order to go for yet another round, she reached for my hand, before placing it on top of her belly.
"This is where your seed came, dear"
With a mysterious light behind her eyes, I could feel a strange feeling growing inside my heart, yet as this entire thing was a first for me, I was unable to recognise it, not even speaking about naming it properly.
"Here." Wuxiaworld for visiting.
With my other hand suddenly landing on top of Elia's breast, I wasn't sure whether she wanted me to enjoy touching her, or something entirely else.
Seeing the mute question on my face, she only smiled gently, before covering the hand on top of her breast with her own palm, and pressing it closer to her heart.
"Dear don't you think that my breasts grew a bit?"
Hearing those words, I felt as if the entire world suddenly stopped. Disregarding all the bullshit about from the few animes I watched back in the modern times about massaging one's breasts in order to make them grow, there was one, obvious reason for the growth of that part of a woman's body.
"Don't tell me"
Still unwilling to accept such an outcome, I could only look on at Elia's uncertain expression, in the hopes of finding an answer there.
"I. I h-hope you won't mind if"
While the reality was now clearly painted in front of my eyes, with how confused my mind was by the sudden influx of all sort of emotions, I could only guess how dumb my own face looked like.
As if suddenly a switch was turned in my mind, all Elia's gentle action started to make sense. The reason why she placed my hand on her tummy, why she directed my attention to her breasts, why she was looking so defeated when I failed to give her a proper response even after all the obvious hints she dropped
While I was still unable to sort the thoughts running desperately through the channels of my mind, I didn't dare to put myself into even a greater shame than my stupidity forced me in already!
Kicking the ground behind my back with my shoulders, I tensed my belly muscles and raised to a sitting position, instantly squeezing Elia between my chest and my arms locking her from behind.
"I I really don't know what to say right now Like, I have never been so overwhelmed in my entire life!"
Exclaiming openly right to her ear, I realised that I just made yet another blunder, so rather than crying over the spilt milk, I suddenly pushed Elia's body just a bit away, just far enough to look her directly in the eyes.
With a new kind of resolve taking over my entire mind and pushing all the other useless thoughts aside, I placed the top of my head against Elia's forehead.
"Dear, you couldn't make me happier. It's just"
Taking a small break both for the sake of building the tension and trying to calm the heart that was violently knocking around my chest as if in an attempt to break free from the confines of my ribs.
"... I'm worried that this joy this happiness... Will be too much for my heart to handle right now!"
This time, there was no hesitation in my voice nor action. With everything that was supposed to be said already in Elia's ears, I simply lowered my head and closed her lightly shaking lips, sealing all the words that I uttered with yet another, long and loving kiss.
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Chapter 102
Chapter 102: Trouble
15th April 1574
No matter how insane Elia's revelation was, in the end, it was nothing but a guess. And even if we could confirm it right away, we would still be forced to push this matter for the later time, as our absence was slowly reaching the limits of what could be acceptable for our guests.
After our lips parted for the last time, while reluctantly we still had to separate ourselves completely and go on to dress in the clothes that we prepared in advance. With my mind now fully focused on Elia's health and safety, I even went for the additional mile of helping her dress up, unwilling to see her stretch her arms and belly for the sake of reaching the buttons at her back. Wuxiaworld for visiting.
"Oh my, how kind of you!"
Seeing my poor attempts to save her the trouble, Elia couldn't help herself and stare at me with a teasing smile, before finally giving up and presenting her still exposed back to me. With how vengeful I was all the way down in my core, rather than helping her out, I placed my finger on her neck and slowly tracked it down, along her spine, all the way to the back of her crotch. Just as I was about to reach her sweet spot, I suddenly retracted my hand and started pulling on the sides of the dress, slowly buttoning it up from the bottom up.
"Okay now, until we will be fully sure, let's not reveal even a hint about the matter. I don't want to start the inheritance struggle before we will be fully prepared for it."
While the marriage itself was a joyous event, some venomous snakes were bound to appear. For as long as I remained childless or rather, without a male heir, some people were bound to eye my lands, especially with how they were turning richer and richer by the day. If the news of Elia's potential pregnancy were to reach their eyes, then even with all the possible attempts of mine, I would be unable to fully guarantee her safety!
"Yeah, I get it. Let's not think about it for now, and enjoy this party of ours instead!"
As soon as she finished dressing, Elia wrapped herself around my arm and pulled me outside of the tent, while pretending to support herself on my side. While the times where the crowd would demand the newlyweds to show the bloodied blanket as the proof od the bride's purity were long gone, there was no point in stirring up the more traditional folk, especially with how the potential birth of our child would be rather quick when compared to the wedding date.
"The young ones have returned!"
I couldn't tell who was so daring to announce our reappearance on the open field. As soon as the shout resounded in the air, a crowd of people instantly jumped at us, swiftly kidnapping Elia from my hands only to lift the both of us on their hands and start throwing us in the air!
In a flash, my heart froze. While for them this was nothing but a silly fun, just a single slip of hand of one of the main supports for our landing was enough for Elia to fall down and end up being hurt! But while I instantly attempted to free myself from the overjoyed crowd, against the few dozens of hands throwing me up to the air over and over again, no matter what I attempted to do, it all ended up failing.
When this moment of stupid, drunken fun was finally over, I was barely able to stand on my own legs from the fear that something would happen to my wife, unable to be even bothered by the fact that while throwing her around, some of them statistically looking, had to end up touching the parts that should belong solely to me!
While this thought was enough for me to place my hand on the top of my sabre, according to the noble tradition - always hanging down from my belt, yet rather than pulling it out and freaking everyone out, I could only use it as a stick to support my own body.
"Come on guys! We couldn't start the dances without you!"
Rather than giving me some time in peace to recover my strength and make sure Elia was all right, as soon as I somehow managed to pull myself to a proper standing position, yet another group of nobles kidnapped everyone with them, pulling us towards the central point of the camp.
From the looks of things, the statement about the dances was true. With the musicians already waiting in a small group beside the open field, most of the guests could be seen trodding around and looking for the initial pair. Seeing this sight, I realised what kind of trouble I suddenly found myself in!
While I knew how to dance the most basic and culturally rich dance of the later ages that keep their legacy in modern times, I had no idea what were the moves for the dances of the current time!
Sensing Elia's hand suddenly taking over my own fingers and pulling me towards the very middle of the gathering of the guests, I started manically looking through the system, with the hopes of finding some way for me to avoid embarrassing myself in front of all the guests that I invited myself. Yet rather than helping me out, I wasted a few precious moments looking through the numerable menus and options only to find that in the end, I was left to my own devices!
"Darling? Are you okay?"
Seeing the distress on my face, Elia leaned towards me, shielding her face with my own torso from the looks of everyone around. From how her eyes were filled with worry reaching the level of fear, I instantly understood that with what kind of challenges we had to overcome to get to this point, being scared of a simple dance was simply silly!
"Don't mind me. It's just that, I never really had the chance to learn how to properly dance"
With how turning my head would expose my blush right to the eyes of the massive crowd setting itself behind me, I had no other choice than to let Elia feast her eyes of my own shame.
Yet rather than giggling up or even putting up a smirk, she instantly raised her head and gave me a light peck on the cheek.
"Don't worry. While I'm not the greatest dancer myself, I will help you out. And if you really won't be able to handle it, just give me a hint, and I will pretend to be unable to move properly."
With the fear now replaced by the determination in her eyes, all my worries suddenly disappeared. How I could call myself a man if I would even consider my wife taking a hit for me? Yet it went without saying that seeing her willingness to cover for me at the cost of her own face without even a hint of hesitation once again fanned at the flames of my affection to her!
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Chapter 103
Chapter 103: Dance and offer
15th April 1574
"Esteemed guests! Let's start the dance with something suited for the glory of our happy couple! Musicians, play the Belle qui tiens ma vie"
As soon as everyone took the proper position in a single column, Jan Bone himself stepped up to the task, most likely noticing the small problem that my military upbringing might create, ordering the musicians to play some kind of song.
And only then the system came to my help, with its crude and totally unhelpful approach. Thanks to it, I could learn that the music ordered by the governor was one of the greatest and most remembered examples of the 'pawana' type of dance, aimed to resemble the moves of a peacock. With its slow movements and alternating direction, even such newbie in terms of dancing like me could get used to it and escape the scrutiny of the nobles that considered themselves a proper aristocracy!
With the first few steps, I had no other choice than to allow Elia to take the lead. As soon as the music started playing, several voices suddenly joined it, with some of them even coming from directly behind me, indicating that some of the dancers joined in the tune as well. Yet contrary to my expectations, rather than making the first step as soon as the rhythm of the tune fitted, Elia joined the singing as well, waiting for the entire first part of the song to pass before squeezing my hand and steeping on the second opening tone.
Following her lead at first, just a few moments later I felt a strange force taking over my body as if I was losing the control over the host that I inhabited ever since the reincarnation. Surprisingly, this strange feeling was even stronger than when I fought the bandits all the way back on the road, swinging my body lightly to the sides with each step that we made.
After moving for exactly sixteen paces, the tune entered yet another part of the song, indicating the change of direction. This time, even without Elia's help, my body suddenly moved to the side, breaking any form of contact with my partner. After a light bow, we turned once again, joining with the other set of hands before moving sixteen paces back to where we started in the exact same tempo.
This slow and majestic dance went on for a while, only to end up with loud applause as soon as the musicians played the last tune. Yet there was no time to rest, as I could see the instruments still tightly held by their owners, as they prepared themselves to start yet another song.
"You lier You told me you can't dance!"
Replying to Elia's accusation with a wry smile alone, I fixed my hold on her hand as the tunes for the Branle started playing. This time, almost double as fast as the previous dance, our bodies almost instantly started swinging lightly to the sides as we simply marched in half jumps forward, without any complicated stuff like reversing the direction of the dancing column.
As the mellow tune of the lyre entered my ears, my entire body synchronised to the rhythm of the dance, even allowing me to affirm the domination over Elia during this dance. Yet rather than being angry at me for doing so, she simply let go of her own caution and allowed herself to be moved around by the small pushes and pulls that my hand gave her, only to end up right in my arms perfectly in line with the last tune played by the musicians.
"God bless the newlyweds! God bless the commonwealth!"
As soon as this second dance finished, the cheering started all over, finally giving me the window of opportunity to excuse myself from the crowd and move back to the seats that were originally ours. Flaunting the need to rest for a bit against the people attempting to force us back into the dance, I poured some of the premium beer to our shared crystalline cup, allowing Elia to have a light sip before sating my own thirst. Wuxiaworld for visiting.
Despite the two of us taking at least a momentary leave from the dancing, it didn't bother the rest of the guests, as even a greater crowd already joined in the rhythmic jumping in the middle of the open space of the campsite.
Yet even in this situation, there was a nice group of nobles mixed amongst the crowd of servants, making the best use of the open kitchen and enjoying the food prepared with the generous use of my spice. Sadly for them, the premium beer was moved around in the exact same barrels as the normal one, with only a small marking on its side, known only to the kitchen servants and myself, so that whenever required, I could serve it for me and the distinguished guests.
And we didn't need to wait for a long for such a necessity to arise.
"That was a great dance!"
For the first time since the festivities started, the second major figure of the entire event, Michal Cherrie approached me, even bringing one of the chairs with him, only to place it on the opposite end of my own table and shamelessly pour himself a cup from the barrel standing in front of me.
"Thank you, for your generous words, sir."
While I was happy that such an important person came to talk with me directly, I couldn't help but wonder whether his intention was to talk real business or just secure a stable supply of my beer.
"You see, I'm not one of the kinds to beat around the bush, so I will get straight to the crux of the matter. What would you want in exchange for building one brewery capable of producing this kind of beer on my lands? Speak out your mind, as I already checked your recent history. While I do realise the worth of keeping the monopoly on the recipe and production means, so I won't mind if the price turns out to be quite steep!"
Chapter 104
Chapter 104: Idea for investment (part 1)
15th April 1574
"The price for the ability to produce it Just like you, sir, decided, to be frank, I will be honest as well. I never really thought about it, and considering how this drink didn't hit the market in the truest sense, I can't really gauge the worth of such exchange."
Rather than jumping at the occasion and asking for either something that I would really need in the near future or just something impossible to push this idea to the litter, I seriously started calculating the stuff in my head, thinking what would be the best response. Wuxiaworld for visiting.
"Don't worry about it, just take your time in it, although I would love to maybe hear what sort of thing you would even consider when calculating the price."
Seeing that I wasn't completely opposed to the matter, Michal instantly latched on to me, giving me just enough space to not feel pressured while making sure I wouldn't escape from his grasp right away.
But it was only to be expected. With how the lives of most of the people was ultimately boring, being able to secure a stable source for such a great beer was way more valuable than what people would pay for craft beers far in the future!
"Okay then, let's start thinking about the future and how I want to expand my wealth then. Considering how I will inevitably reach for the borderlands with my investments, I would much rather have someone like you, sir, back them up rather than trying to curb them out of the existence."
Looking at the figure of the major lord in front of my eyes, I could already see the carnages of the local people that would be forced into serfdom by the current generation of nobles. With their prideful attitude and for how long they were used to be almost completely autonomous, many rebellions would rise up only to fall under the shoes of the commonwealth military All the way to the Chmielnicki uprising, that was one of the reasons why this entire country fell apart!
While looking after my own business was important, if I could make sure that the reasons for all those uprisings, with one of the major ones coming in barely twenty years from now, were eliminated, I would truly hit two birds with one stone!
"First thing first, I need to ask one question. Did you realise, sir, how popular western jewellery, clothes and all sorts of expensive yet useless in the long run items are in our country?"
To be honest, I wasn't quite sure if the first idea that came to my mind could be successful, but with how insanely big the market of the commonwealth was for me, if I played it smart, I could make sure that the entire thing that I portrayed in my head would not only not cost me a single dime, yet it would bring immense wealth to both me and my potential partner in crime, but also lead to the increased wealth amongst the common folks of the southern borderlands, which would directly translate in their willingness to fight for the luxury they obtained!
"Yeah, but what else can we do? No matter how many times I or my ancestors attempted to introduce local production as luxury product, people simply would consider it as second rate wares, even if the quality was better than those imported goods!"
Rather than it being a matter of the local being unable to compete with the west in terms of skill or artistic soul, with the insane power of nobility in the country, merchants and craftsmen in cities simply had no way to expand as much as they did in the west, severely limiting both their production capability and due to that - their ability to invest their income back in their work or simply promoting their products!
But while this trend was impossible to change in a short span of a single life, who said local market was the only place where we could sell?
"Sir, what I'm going to propose now, is nothing but a strange idea that happened to appear in my head a while back, when I first saw how popular my normal beer became amongst the people. While the road to success is uncertain, I don't think it will bear any real risk for us.
Taking a sip of the beer, I peeked stealthily at the lord in front of me, gauging whether delaying the revelation achieved the effect of raising his tension. Seeing how his eyes were now fully focused on my face, I smiled internally, helped Elia to get even with me in terms of drinking before placing the cup down on the table and focusing all my attention at the next few phrases.
"While lands of the war west or even south are more inclined to the wine than any form of beer, many of the german princedoms are still within the striking range of my beer. As soon as the production will increase to the point when I can seel my normal drink cheaply there, I will be able to create an avenue to liquify other products as well"
Instead of finishing up the sentence with what I perfectly had in mind, I simply stopped moving my mouth and looked at the lord in front of me, waiting for him to catch up and say the rest himself.
"That means you will be able to sell the local wares there as well while riding the popularity of your beer. While I think that's a clever idea, what do the eastern lands or my protection have to do with this? It's not like we would introduce something new to the market that could compete with their local production, especially if we were to add all the costs of transporting it from the steppes to the holy roman empire!"
Seeing how my future business partner took the bait, I only smiled a gave him a bit more time, in hopes that he would reach the conclusion himself. Regretfully, maybe he simply never considered the locals as his own people, making it hard for him to even think about them in terms of potential cooperation.
"Sir, the cossacks are slowly starting to pose a problem for everyone at the borderlands, do they not?"
Chapter 105
Chapter 105: Idea for investment (part 2)
15th April 1574
"Cossacks? Do you mean those poor souls thinking they can go against the rightful rule of the crown on those lands? Why did you even bring them up?"
At this point, I realised that I might hurry a bit with my revelations. While I missed only a few years, the age of growth for their organisations at the borderlands that were under Commonwealth rule only on paper would fall on the time of rule for the next King, one of the greatest that this poor country has seen in its history.
For now, the cossacks that the history knew as the brave yet unruly fighters that posed quite a bit of diplomatic problems with their daring raids against ottoman lands, had yet to truly form! Even though they already existed as the commonly know group, they had yet to be considered as officially acknowledged organisation by the crown!
It would be only the next king that would create a cossack register, allowing them to directly serve under the crown, yet that didn't stop most of the nobles in the region to consider them as a barrier against the Tatar raids on the sizeable farmlands of Ukraine!
"Sir, this problem is quite a complicated one, so let me explain myself from the very core of this matter. If I'm not wrong, the period of time when we could borrow the strength of those people and just throw them away as soon as their period of use was over, won't last long. Sooner or later, they will realise their value as a semi-standing army guarding our borderlands against the Tatar raids, and start pushing forth demands."
While we were talking, due to the nature of what I was saying, I had to look around to make sure no soul would be any wiser of the content of our discussion. While people from my neighbourhood couldn't care less about matters regarding cossacks as they never influenced their way of life in any way, if the word got to the Governor, who was a high official in the country, it might draw quite a lot of unnecessary attention!
"What I expect to happen, is someone sooner or later accepting at least a part of their wishes, but ignoring the rest. Just like always, if you don't know what something is about, then its about money. What I intend to do then, is not only offer you the setting up of the brewery for your own use, sir, but also rights to sell it in the entire Rhuthernian province and the Grand Dutchy of Lithuania. But the terms for this transaction are just as harsh as juicy the profits would be."
Rather than putting forward all the potential profits that my partner could earn from the deal, I wanted to explain all the risks and costs that he would potentially suffer from it right off the bat, to avoid him later blaming me for it. In the end, investment always bore the risk of failing, but in the case of what I was going to offer, I firmly believed it had a huge chance of bringing more money than any of us could imagine!
"First thing first, all of the profits from selling the beer around the eastern parts of the country, will be funnelled into investing in the cossacks workshops that I want to establish on the border of their sphere of influence. What I want them to do, is push all the goods they will find on their raids, towards those workshops, while hiring the more artistically talented bunch to create something oozing the spirit of their peculiar group. And considering what I told before, I think you can already see what my real intention is!"
This time, rather than picking up the glass and drinking even more of my premium beer, I simply smiled to the lord in front of me, while watching him raise his own cup towards his own lips.
"I think I know what you want. By selling those uncommon goods to the west as a luxury product that can't be found anywhere else, we will be able to obtain an immense wealth, while providing a good source of revenue to finance the development of the cossacks lands, further binding their loyalty to us I think that's a great idea!"
Hearing the Michal find my proposition not only reasonable but as wholesome as he found out himself, I couldn't help but openly grin, to the point where Elia had to serve me a nudge to the side to calm me down.
"Obviously, this entire proposition will need a lot of time to bring real benefits, while forcing us in the position when we will be clearly seen as supportive of the cossack case. The question that stands is, do you think the possible benefits that could not only fill our coffers but create a loyal and devoted army for the protection of the country as well are worth the risk of being ostracised by some of the other major nobles? After all, before those people will see the benefits of our investment, it will be hard to change their habits!" Wuxiaworld for visiting.
It went without saying that investing in the cossack region brought not only those risks that I spoke about but quite a greater ones along as well. By encouraging the raids on the Tatar and Turkish lands, the tension would only raise, just as they did in the history I knew, leading to a series of a bloody war on the south, that only further weakened the country. Yet if the benefits of this line of trade would be great enough, not only we would create something that Commonwealth lacked the most - a standing and loyal army, financed by its own people, while bound to us as we would be the one providing a way to sell off their wares - but the potential income from this investment should be way more than enough to hire more mercenaries that was even necessary to simply crush any potential enemy with the sheer number of troops!
"There is no benefit if one is not ready to take some risks! If that's how you wish to put this matter, I don't think I have any other choice than to accept your offer!"
Standing up, Michal extended his hand to me with a smile. With how this was a traditional way of settling the deal, I knew that upon shaking his arm, no matter of paperwork would shake our commitment to this cause!
Standing up myself, I even prompted Elia to do the same. Reaching forward with my hand, I grabbed the fingers of my new partner and decisively shook his hand. While it was just a feeling, I could swear that at this moment, I felt the gears turning the world around suddenly stop, only to pick up their pace right away.
Considering the way in which I appeared in this world, this strange feeling made me quite worried, yet seeing the curious look on Elia's face, I simply fixed my own expression and sat back down on the chair of mine and grab a piece of freshly roasted pork brought by a thoughtful servant.
"I don't know why, but I have the feeling that with just this simple handshake, we changed the fate of the world."
Chapter 106
Chapter 106: Morning of the big day
16th April 1574
With all the dances and fun extending way into the night, I made sure to escape the public eyes with my dear wife as soon as the sun started to set behind the line of the trees in the distance, initially moving back to our tent to rest, but swiftly relocating back to the city.
No matter how fun camping was, there was no way in hell that I would prefer sleeping on a pile of blankets rather than doing the same in a comfortable bed back at the Pilznian palace, especially with how little effort it required to have a better sleep. While if Elia was all right, I might have considered staying longer into the night and playing around with everyone else, thinking about the possible repercussions if she really was bearing my child, I didn't dare to risk her, or our potential kid health just for the sake of a few more hours of fun!
Thankfully, my idea to hire some nobles skilled in maintaining the festivities paid off, with how the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes in our bedchamber, was a sign of drunken people roaming around the town in a long procession surrounding the entire palace in a silly yet silent dance.
As if they were reenacting the pagan rites, a huge crowd of people holding each other by their hands and danced around the entire building, instantly attracting the attention of my eyes that I would much better use turning my head just a slightly to the side to stare at the beautiful face of my still-sleeping wife.
Ignoring the silly folk outside, I simply stared at the small movements of Elia's mouth as the air continued to raise her chest, only to suddenly escape from her body in form of a slight, warm breeze hitting me squarely in the chest. With her face barely a few inches away from my breast, even looking at her cute, peaceful expression was a tough challenge, at least compensated with her half-naked body tightly hugged into mine.
"Good morning, dear."
After feasting my eyes and mind on the sight of Elia's sleeping face, when I realised her eyelids started to twitch only to suddenly raise all the way up, I couldn't help myself from reaching with my hand forward and swiping away a wild strand of her hair that blocked my direct line of sight to her pupils.
"Gmoornnin."
While her eyes were already open, the morning dizziness only started to dissolve from her mind, turning her new day welcome from a complete phrase into one long yet cute mumble. Yet while lying right beside her just like that was awesome in its own sense, looking at the how short the shadows were under the window, the time was nigh for us to properly wake up and prepare for the main event for today.
"Come on, babe. Today is a big day."
Seeing how my words alone wouldn't be able to do the work, with a decisive move of my hand, I tore the blanket from above us and threw it to the side, exposing the two of us equally to the chilliness of the early spring.
"AH! How dare you!"
Instantly roused from her sleep, Elia attempted to grab the blanket, yet with the advantage of surprise on my end, she ended up rolling on me and failing. Thanks to our position, just by moving myself up I lifted her along the way, swiftly grabbing her under her knees and carrying her down from the bed.
"Don't tell me you want to miss the trial?"
Only those words were finally able to put some reason back into the head of my dear wife, pushing her to grab her clothes stored beforehand on a small stool beside the bed. Seeing that I no longer had to force her into reality, I moved to dress myself.
"SNEAK ATTACK!"
Feeling a sudden weight pulling me down by my neck, I felt my body reacting instantly by tensing the muscles of my legs in order to kick with both of them forward at the same time and protect myself from strangling by dropping myself back, only to suddenly freeze and force myself to stay still.
"I got you!"
With the hands that initially grabbed my throat now moving to my chest, I felt two hard points pressing against my back as Elia started nibbling on my ear.
"Dear, stop it. We can't make everyone wait!"
Instead of fighting off the assailant, I leaned forward, reaching for my own kontus before raising it above my head. Without even a hint of hesitation, the hands that were roaming my upper body suddenly moved up and helped me pull the cloth down. Wuxiaworld for visiting.
"Thanks."
With Elia finally giving up on her silly attempts to prolong our morning cuddles, I could at last pull the pants on my ass and hold both parts of my dress with the normal belt, before covering it with the sizeable, contus one.
"Are you ready?"
After fully dressing myself up and finishing the worst part being forcing my feet inside the tight shoes, I turned around only to see Elia adding the finishing touches to her own dress.
Yet another advantage of the current times rather than the future. With how insanely expensive all sorts of make-up and perfumes were in this day and age, it took way shorter for any woman to prepare for any outing!
"Yeah. Let's go."
As soon as the last string of cloth that held her dress on her shoulders was fixed in place, Elia stood up and snatched my arm to herself, leading me out of the chamber.
"Come on, what are you waiting for now?"
With her instantly taking the lead in our way out of the palace to the main square of the town, she couldn't miss the opportunity to tease me, could she?
"Okay, okay, I'm coming. We still have some time, so no need to pull on my hand so much!"
Chapter 107
Chapter 107: Opening of the trial and enlightment
16th April 1574
Thanks to the fact that there was still some time before the second ringing of the city bell that would announce the start of the trial on Peter, rather than instantly reaching the town's plaza and just waiting there, we passed through the crowd of people dancing around our palace and too drunk to even recognise that it was the people whose wedding they were celebrating that came out and moved to the smaller streets.
Even though the wedding was already over, all the decorations that people put on the streets remained, yet the state of those that happened to be within the reach of the drunken guests turned this place in a great mess.
Countless flowers were deprived of their petals, now mixing with the everpresent mud on the streets, enriching it with all the colours present in the fields and forests and in effect, making it look like nothing else but a colourful poop.
"This place isn't as lovely as it was just yesterday"
With the wedding now gone, there was no reason for either of us to wear our official and most expensive dresses, making us keep the normal clothes that allowed for comfortable moving around.
"That was only to be expected. In the end, this city built haphazardly, rather than keeping any deeper thought in mind while laying its foundations."
While I would love to keep our slow stroll a bit longer, just when we were about to take yet another turn and finally reach a single place unpolluted by the everpresent leftovers from the celebration, the sound of the city bell announced that it was time for us to go back for the trial.
Yet it wasn't enough to make us hurry!
As we slowly wandered back to the square, what used to be an almost empty plot of open space in the middle of the town, now was already occupied by quite a crowd, with the sets of seats for me, Elia and the other important figures right in front of the small pedestal on which Peter was already standing, chained to a nearby pole.
Just a single look on his body could make one tell that the time he spent in the town's tower's basement didn't serve him all that well. While all the bruises and wounds he sustained during the clash with my forces were long gone due to the passing of time and the minimal care he received in order to not kick the bucket before he could be expelled, just his eyes told the story of the horrors he had to suffer through while waiting for his fate to be fulfilled.
After sitting down at the very front row in the places designated for us, it took only a while for the last spectators to arrive before Jan Bone came himself, and by sitting on the throne of a judge, placed just a bit to the side between the elevated platform and the seats for the spectators, signalling the start of the trial.
"Peter Hellan, you stand accused of manslaughter, attempted murder, attempted kidnapping, instigating a conflict between the noble families in the Sandomir province and multiple acts of banditry. How will you respond to those charges?"
While this man was completely bound by his chains, during the governor's speech, he threw such a hateful stare to me, and one filled with devious craziness to my wife, that despite all the precautions in place to prevent any of his potential outbursts, I still ended up leaning over Elia as if to shield her from any potential aggression and placing my hand on the handle of my sabre.
"I stand accused? I think you got the wrong person, sir!"
Suddenly, all the crazy emotions disappeared from the eyes of this poor man, as he turned - now completely calm - to the governor.
"It was this man, that so defiantly sits now in the front row right beside my rightful fiancee that kidnapped a noble, threatened me, and when I dared to stand up for myself like a Polish Noble and experienced soldier would, he summoned the devil forces from the depths of the hell to deal a fatal blow to the unit of veterans that served their life protecting the southern border of our glorious country against the Tatar raids! With all due respect that is due to you sir, because of the position you hold as the country official, how many Tatars did you kill in your life to sit now in all your glory and judge a proper soldier like me?!"
While initially his counterclaims seemed reasonable and could actually sway the crowd of the observers to his side for a moment, as soon as he went on to rant against the governor, his fate was instantly sealed.
"First thing first, when you speak those words to me, you do not spell them to me directly, but you are insulting the glory of the commonwealth itself!"
Hearing those words, I couldn't help but get the vibes of Senator Kisiel and the grandson of the Michal Cherrie, the famous Hetman Jarema. Just like in the scene of the popular movie where the senator claimed that it was not his will that spoke through his mouth be the will of the commonwealth, so did the Jan Bone now, awakening strange, patriotic tunes in my soul.
Out of this single moment, I realised that so far, rather than focusing on changing the entire country, I could only think about my own benefits, that could maybe make the country benefit as the side profit, yet wasn't that just the kind of mindset that leads to the weakening of the entire state and its later tragedy of one hundred, twenty-three years of being divided and occupied by the nations doing their best to make sure no remnants of the polish spirit would remain on this world?
Yet the world wasn't waiting for me to sort my own thoughts out, with the Governor standing up, and looking sternly at the chained Peter.
"If you don't have anything to say in your own defence, then say so. We will proceed with the trial and get this over with so that everyone can go back to their own tasks." Find authorized novels in Webnovelfaster updates, better experiencePlease click www.webnovel.com www.webnovel.com for visiting.
Chapter 108
Chapter 108: Verdict
16th April 1574
"I'm not going to defend myself against false accusations! If you want to abuse your own power granted to you by the entire noble brotherhood, you should remember how our brothers will react when they learn about you bullying one of them!"
With his mind unable to accept the fact that his claims were simply ignored and refuted, Peter added the last straw to the fireplace below his feet, going as far as to openly threaten the governor!
While it was true that all the official positions were in theory granted by King but confirmed and passed to the picked nobles by the senate, just like in any other country of my new timeline, those high and profitable positions both in terms of pension and the possibilities granted by the power turned out to be inherited by the son after the father, with only a few cases of an excelling noble taking over a position of a fallen one!
"Since you refuse to acknowledge your crimes, I will have Mike of Tarnow to step up with his testimony. Mike, your turn."
Unwilling to bother with Peter more than necessary, Jan simply went back to his seat, while gesturing me to take over from him. With no other choice, and actually unwilling to pass the opportunity to make myself, a face for all the investments that I would be doing, turn even more popular with a teary story about the love that just got fulfilled yesterday, I placed a gentle kiss on Elia's cheek and stood up.
"Dear brothers and sisters in the nobilityhood. This trial, this day, are the results of all the incredible efforts I had to put in order to prevent my dearest Elia, from meeting with any harm from the hand of both her step-family and this pesky little brute."
Taking a moment with my story to reach the place just below the stage, I turned my back to the chained Peter, as if in an attempt to show him that he has fallen to the point when not even exposing my back to him would put me in any disadvantage. Find authorized novels in Webnovelfaster updates, better experiencePlease click www.webnovel.com www.webnovel.com for visiting.
"While I don't want to bore you with the long story, there are some things that I need to bring up. It all started when I was going back from the glorious coronation of our new, wise king, back to my lands in Tarnow."
With these words, I started recounting the most important events that brought Elia and me close, while revealing just enough to point the listeners in the right direction. From how our meeting happened to coincide with the bandit raid on my entourage, through the haughty visit of Peter right on my castle, all the way to the preparations for the obvious attack, escape from Pilzno at the battle with his forces ending.
"Just like he accused me to base my strength of the devil's forces, I'm now going to point you all to the place where this strength of mine came from!"
Suddenly reaching for my belt, I pulled out a small pouch that I emptied back in the palace just for this moment before loosening the thread that held it closed and turning it around, allowing the few, silver coins to fall on the stones making up the city floor.
"The guns that allowed me to defeat him, despite losing quite a lot of innocent servants that came with us to make sure no harm would be done to villagers while procuring and preparing the food, the cost of not only making them, but also providing for the immense amount of ammunition to use them, managed to almost empty out all my coffers! If not for the spoils from the battle that we took over, I can't say for sure if I could afford this wedding in the first place!"
While my story was nothing but a fantastic way to wrap all the events in the mystical shroud of love and sacrifice, the fact that using the reapers guns was expensive, was greatly underrated. Just a single magazine without even ammunition for it was worth close to two red goldens, with the cost of all the ammunition that I prepared reaching almost a fifty red goldens!
Calculating all the expenses together, two and a half weeks worth of income from my entire wealth went down the drain just to give me a way to deal with this pesky bandit! And while I didn't really mind it due to how incredible amounts of gold I could obtain from the newly established beer trade, all the other nobles could calculate the worth of my sacrifice according to their own standards, unspoiled by such intricate business!
"I think that's enough, brother."
Standing up just as I neared the absolute end of what I could say before running out of teary stories to bring the spectators even closer to my side in this trial, the governor finally freed me from my acting, allowing me to sit back beside Elia and calm myself with her hand instantly moving to caress my cheek.
"Brothers, I have heard enough. With everything that this trusty soldier of the commonwealth Ah, you didn't know?"
Suddenly bringing up another point that I intentionally decided to ignore after talking with the Governor about how we should go about this trial last night, Jan looked around at the faces of the spectators before shaking his head in the sign of powerlessness.
"This man, Mike of Tarnow, suffered the fate of fighting in the last great, northern war, and to this day, hold the honorary title of the royal lieutenant, had to pay most of his wealth just to have a shot at protecting someone he fell in love with. If that's not the sign of the God-given love, then you can call me a heretic and trial me right now!"
Taking a moment to calm his agitated heart and breath, the Jan suddenly raised his previously lovered face and looked at Peter with scorn seeping out of his eyes.
"I have heard enough, and I'm ready to give the verdict for this trial. I hereby announce that you, Peter Hellan, formerly a lord over the city of Ropian, are from this day no longer welcomed within the borders of the commonwealth! At this very moment, I'm stripping you out of all your wealth, that will be passed in form of compensation and wedding gift for the newlyweds, while you are hereby announced to be infamed and exiled!"
hapter 109
Chapter 109: Talks about the near future
16th April 1574
After giving the verdict out, the guards of the governor himself took Peter away, announcing the end of this last event for today. With all the fun that everyone had yesterday, the entire second day of the celebration was aimed to let everyone rest, before the grand march towards the Tarnow could be started.
Yet with the compensation part of the judgment, both Jan and I had to go to the study, juts in order to sing an insane amount of papers required for the transfer of the land ownership to be acknowledged by the kingdom.
"What are your plans for all this wealth, now that you basically created the foundation for the new great family?"
As we were sitting alone in the study, with Elia excusing herself to personally prepare some food for us, in theory, I could speak my mind without bothering myself with her own ideas for the development of her city, yet rather than being relaxed, all the questions that the Governor was asking, were putting me on the edge.
"From what I could tell, looking at all the great noble families, if I wanted to reach their level of wealth in the same way, looking for new ways to obtain even more arable land should be the obvious choice, yet I don't think starting a family fortune like that from the scratch is a viable option in our times already. Rather than expanding my lands further, I prefer to focus on consolidating my power in the three cities under me and making sure that they could bring as much wealth as possible. After all, no one will argue with the fact that the city of Gdansk (Danzig) alone brings more revenue to its merchants and craftsmen than what your average noble can ever obtain from his lands!"
Instead of making sure I wouldn't cross the bottom line of my wife in terms of the changes that I would be implementing in our territory, I had to make sure that no matter what, the governor wouldn't suddenly perceive me as a threat to himself, but rather an ambitious yet grounded in reality noble, striving for the absolute maximum of what he could achieve without overstepping his bounds. After all, the times of the glory for the Tarnowian family were gone with the death of my great ancestor, and I could tell how the remaining great nobles would be wary of the reemergence of their old competitor which influence was already divided among them. Find authorized novels in Webnovelfaster updates, better experiencePlease click www.webnovel.com www.webnovel.com for visiting.
"Don't mind me asking if answering my question could sabotage your plans But how do you intend to go about enriching your lands? It's not like you would be the first one with such an idea, yet unless you could somehow obtain an immense wealth greatly exceeding the worth of your lands, I don't really see a way in which you could elevate the worth of your cities to the level of the main trade hub for the entire country!"
Governor intake of this matter was fairly justified. Ever since the last great king that would be later known as someone who saw the Poland wooden and left it bricked, the only kind of development that would happen relied on the natural discovery of the resources or increased influence of a noble family, leading their base city or village to suddenly grow. And it wasn't something special for the commonwealth itself, but rather a common trend amongst the entire continent! The first sparks of civil growth appeared with the industrialisation, and the real race for the modernity started when people dropped the idea of leaches and turned towards nutritional soup! After all, outside of the technology alone, the only way in which human civilization could grow was with the increase of its population!
And there never was any problems with encouraging people to fuck! They would do so willingly through marriage and whores, not to speak about any war happening and leaving a trail of the bastard kids indicating the path that any army would take through the enemy territory. In the end, while some of the conflicts were insanely bloody, humans ability to reproduce was naturally greater than their tendency to kill each other!
That's why if I wanted to really influence the growth of the entire country, I had to hit at the health and sanitisation issues as soon as possible But that's, where my current attempts to bring all my lands into unified administration, came from!
Unless I would be able to effectively govern and improve the life in my lands, I simply would lack both the funds and manpower required to implement any health-related policies!
"For starters, I'm thinking about investing the great revenue I'm receiving from selling off my normal beer in my own towns into building a proper road connecting all three cities. Do you think you could help me ask the crown for some monetary help with it? I think our new king would be glad to see such an initiative!"
Seeing the opportunity to start talking about this great project of mine, I couldn't miss using my relationship with the governor to instantly elevate it to a high level of command! With how all the trade and communication based on the quality of the road that was connecting two places together, if I could use some of the crown funds to finance my investment into the concrete factory, my dream of tuning all three cities into one, great metropolis could maybe not be fulfilled, but at least turn into a realistic future!
"A road, hmm? That's quite a big project, but if you can find some way to make it cheaper, just like you came up with the design of those reaper guns that you showed me I think that we could somehow manage to get some gold from the crown for it!"
hapter 110
Chapter 110: Governor's advice
16th April 1574
"I don't think that finding a proper material will pose any problem. I'm more worried about the insane amount of work necessary to put the thing I have in mind to use"
Due to the shortage of coal on my lands, the most basic flammable material that was accessible in abundance was wood. While the process of turning it into charcoal that was capable of bringing forth enough heat energy to create some kind of basic steam furnace, unless, establishing the entire production for the charcoal, most of which would sink back into the production of itself, was not a cost I was willing to take.
On the other hand, there was oil. While their reserves located around the modern lesser Poland and current eastern Sandomir province were laughable when compared to what the middle east could produce, for the minimal use that my lands would require, there was far more than enough of it!
While some people might think that both the oil extraction and refining process are hard and something that only modern people could achieve, as long as I were to be satisfied with the inferior quality of the finished product, just by investing enough gold into this project, I could easily obtain both the petrol for the basic engines and asphalt for the cheaper production of the road!
"Oho? Seeing what kind of weapons you introduced, I'm all the more interested in this roadmaking product of yours!"
With the reaper guns giving me way more than enough validation in the governor's trust, I realised that as long as I could put this road project as something that would benefit me, him and the entire commonwealth at the same time, maybe I wouldn't need to bother with the financing it myself!
"You see sir, while the products I have in mind are theoretically not that hard to obtain, set up the proper production of them on the scale that could be sufficient to build just a single, short road should be easy. If I were to strain my coffers, I might be even able to do it all by myself!"
At this point, there was no way I would explain exactly what kind of idea was coursing through my mind. In fact, the entire project could be started only when the mines that the governor gifted to me would start bringing up the minimal amount of ore required to cut my dependency on the imported iron. But to make any excavation process efficient, I had to create at least a basic engine along with something to fuel it, forcing me to create at least a basic oil extraction and refinery plants and closing the vicious circle, where any steps I would like to begin with required all the others to be completed!
And in situations like this, there was no other way than to kickstart everything with just a small scale production, all done by hand! While in any other situation, this would require me to work out the way of refining the oil, waste a lot of time of coming up with a design for an engine that could use petrol to run But thankfully, most of those steps could be avoided with the usage of the system!
"But?"
Hearing how I left my phrase kind of open, the Governor thoughtfully put me back on the track of reality, forcing all my dreamlike thoughts about the future prosperity of my lands to dissipate.
"As soon as the process of building this road will star, not only the entire country but most likely all of our neighbours will sell half of their lives to obtain the recipes and instructions how to do it. The moment any noble sees what can be done, no matter if I put my entire income into expanding the production of those materials alone, it won't be enough to sate even a small percentage of the orders, not to speak about providing supplies for the road itself. And even if we somehow managed to keep it under wraps for the time being, no matter how wonderful the material is, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to build a road."
In the end, there was no escaping it. In order to create a proper road based on concrete and asphalt, one still had to dig a trench deep enough, test out how the water would influence it over time, supply the food for all the workers digging the trenches
No matter how one looked at it, starting a fully industrial project like that, required a proper industrial backing to do so!
"Okay, I think I understand what's the problem right now. I would lie if I were to claim that I perfectly understand every single step of your plan and how are you going to go about setting everything up, but I think I see the greatest problem that plagues your mind."
Hearing those words from the governor, I was stupefied at first. How could he even begin to unravel the intensity of my anxiety when he had no idea how immense this project of mine was? What started as a simple drive to build a plain, concrete road, now turned into practically pushing the development of the world by about two hundred years at the very least!
But thinking about this, I realised that while anxious about all the problems piling up in from of me, I turned so worried about everything that this emotion even started showing up on my face. Yet I couldn't help but get curious what kind of result did this old fox derive just from the sign of anxiety on my expression? Find authorized novels in Webnovelfaster updates, better experiencePlease click www.webnovel.com www.webnovel.com for visiting.
"Just from your words, I can tell how insanely complicated and multilayered this project is. But while I don't know the details, I can assure you. Leading the military campaigns or even managing all the countless nobles that have more conflicts between them than one could imagine to be possible, can't be done all at once."
Suddenly standing up from his chair and passing the last piece of paper required to finalize the transfer of the Ropian town and the surrounding villages to my family.
"That's why, instead of rushing to get everything done at once, you just need to focus on a single step, and move to the next one only, when that first step of yours will be fully finished."
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