Road to the Crown

Chapter 276: Leshyn Family

15th August 1574

"That will be enough for today."

Rather than replying to my point in any way, his excellency primate decided that concluding the meeting for today would be a better option. And quite frankly, I fully supported that idea!

"Sir Bart, while the points that you brought today will surely result in us thinking about them, I hope that we can count on you not trying to enforce them outside of your lands, am I right?"

This time, it was neither the primate nor the senator Jacwin who spoke out, but someone whose face I couldn't recognise. While that didn't mean he wasn't an influential or important figure, it put me in a quite troublesome position. In short words, how I was supposed to call him?

"Respectable sir, forgive me my ignorance, but how should I refer to your noble self?"

In the end, I could only hope that being ignorant of the name of a certain noble, or at least being unable to connect his name with his face wouldn't be gross misconduct. With how detached from the power my household was ever since the death of my great grandfather, in the worst-case scenario I could mandate my lack of social knowledge with the lack of chances to improve it in the first place.

"I'm Rafael Leshyn, sir Bart."

Rather than using this opportunity to put me down or boast about his own importance, this old noble kindly saved me from my situation. But by doing so, he successfully shut my mouth. While not so important in the current age, his household obviously already belonged to the ranks of the high nobles! But what was even worse, his name was perfectly well-kept in my memory!

It wouldn't be as easy to recall who he was, if not how one of his descendants, nearly one hundred and fifty years from the current day, would become a damned King of the commonwealth! Yet, even then, if not for the tragic times that he came to rule the country in, I would most likely only know about this great noble household from the occasional mentions!

"Respectable sir, please, forgive me my ignorance. At the same time, I would like to extend my deepest gratitude for all your efforts aimed at reforming the country!"

Before even replying to his question, I bend over on my knee, at first pretending that I just wanted to pick the crane that I threw away a moment before, yet with my knees already bent, I properly bowed to the man who along with the current head of the Zamoys family, was one of the leaders of the executional movement, aimed at retaking the crown lands unlawfully claimed by the nobles and clergy.

"Dear Sir, there is no need for such a formal approach!"

Raising my head, I could see that my action only made this old noble embarrassed. Yet, the message was already passed. From now on, everyone would know that I would side with the executional movement as soon as given the choice of doing so!

"Respectable senator, to answer your question. I wouldn't dare to impose my ideas anywhere outside of my own lands. As long as we act within the limits of the Commonwealth law, we are free to rule our places as we see fit!"

Despite the entire meeting ending for today, I just couldn't stop myself from putting even more details about my current outlook at the general politic. To all the influential figures that could either ally or side against me, so far, I was just a no one. A grandson of a great man, likely to strive to reclaim the greatness that my household once commanded. 

But that was all they could know about me, without actually making an effort to learn about me. By clearly stating my position in front of this gathering, I could finally make my introduction into the table where the big politics played out, setting the foundations of becoming one of the high nobles myself!

"That's a relief then. As much as I can sympathize with your ideas after hearing about them, I don't really think that our beloved country is ready as a whole for them. But for now, let's stop making his excellency put up with our small talk any longer. If you will find sometime later, I would be honoured if you could have a drink in private with me later."

To think that I could achieve such a grand success right off the bat! While one could argue that winning the support of just a single magnate household was nothing to be so proud about, once adding both the Bone's household, Zamoy's household and to a point, Zboros household, I suddenly turned out into a dangerous potentate!

"Thank you for heeding to my words, dear Rafael. And with that said, we won't bother you any longer today. If you have some time after drinking with our friend, I would love to learn those several bits of information about how this incredible carriage of your works. The meeting is concluded!"

With a stamp of a huge sceptre the primate held in his hand, the meeting was officially over now. But even when I was moving past the gate of the room, I couldn't stop myself from smiling at the memory of this bishop nearly calling my carriage magical!

Yet, as funny as it was for me from the future, this kind of slip of the tongue would be enough to put anyone else of the current era on the high alert. After all, magic was considered to be a domain strictly against the Christian teachings! In this regard, this small mishap of primate could very well mean that he would now watch my every move, trying to find out whether I still belonged to the proper catholic faction within the commonwealth!

'To think that this tolerance would be so shallow'

Walking down the wide corridors of the Wawelian castle, I couldn't help but whine in my thoughts. While the fact that Commonwealth of the current time was still the most tolerant place that existed in entire Europe stood, it wasn't as great as I imagined it to be. 

Surely, while in the commonwealth senate a catholic primate was calling a reformed senator a friend of his, the rest of Europe was about to descend into the chaos of thirty-years war, sparked mostly due to the differences between the catholic and reformed dynasties. This war would reach the point where some would consider it a prelude to the seven-years war, the official prologue of the world war series!

But even with that, I still had to be careful as to not cross any of the lines that would put me against the catholic faction. Even with all the orthodox, protestant and reformed households occupying the titles of the high nobility, it was still the Catholics that were the prime power in the entire country. Unless I was willing to lose their support, keeping myself as the purely catholic persona who only dared to interact on rather cold terms with other factions would be still to my best interest!

"Sir, it's glad to see you in good health. Where should we go now?"

As soon as I stepped outside of the main gate of the castle embankment, one of my subordinates instantly reported to me. To my surprise, rather than using the free time they had during my meeting to either eat something or just take some rest, they all diligently remained near the steam carriage, making sure no one would dare to approach it lightly!

"Let's go eat for now. There is no point in staying in the castle for now."

Even with Leshyn's invitation for the drinks which was, in reality, nothing else as an invitation to have a political debate about my aims and views, I knew that despite the meeting concluding, it would still take at least several hours before the senators would finish discussing everything that I said there. That was the sad reality about the current democracy within the Commonwealth, just like it was in the future democracies of the entire world.

Without a strong leader, wielding a power to make the decisions on the spot, everything would stretch endlessly in time, making it all the harder to react to the emergencies, and wasting a lot of time of people willing to reform the country!

"Where shall we go then, sir?"

Even though I could pick from tens of great places in Krakow, sadly, only a single one of them could trace its roots all the way back to the current era. Yet, even this one bar that I fancied so much in my previous timeline despite how expensive it was, was nothing else but a cheap beer-drinking place now!

"I don't know, just pick someplace you will find pleasant. I need to rest for a bit now."

Using the help of my retainers to climb back into the carriage, I finally seated myself in the comfortable couch, before immersing my thoughts into what could be potentially the next topic that would be brought in the next meeting tomorrow...

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