Road to the Crown

Chapter 71: Missing Peter

12th march 1574

Contrary to my worries and even expectations, we didn't get to meet Peter's forces. A night raid didn't happen, no one ambushed us as we were preparing the carriages to depart, no one blocked our way on the road to the Tarnow nor did anyone gave us a battle under the city walls.

Without anyone interrupting us, I rode on top of the column of people all the way to the mountain of the saint Martin, when my castle was located. Not even there was there any interruption, outside of the guards arming themselves as they spotted the armed group, only to calm down when they saw me leading it.

"What's going on"

Speaking to myself, I finally entered the lower castle, while Al already went forward to organise enough space in the stables for the horses that the men of my loaned unit were using, while ordering some servants around to unpack the wares from the carriages directly on the grazing ground.

As metal ingots, stacks of planks and all kinds of other basic building resources were unloaded, I moved to the higher castle with the former sergeant, Bart and Elia, after asking one of the militia to fetch Jan and Kalen from the city.

No matter what, I highly doubted that Peter simply gave up on Elia just like that!

After waiting for about half an hour in the dining hall, most suited for all sorts of bigger conferences, the two nobles that I met in the village near Pilzno finally arrived, instantly clearing up the situation for me.

"As soon as he realised that you were gone to Sandomir, he left the area and rode for the Pilzno. While I didn't want to risk my people getting caught, they only tracked him for about ten kilometres, before going back and reporting to me. From what we gathered from the merchants, he stayed in the city and occupied it for now."

Even if this couldn't be called an exhaustive report, at least it cleared up my doubts. In the end, while this move surprised me, I couldn't ask for a better opportunity! With the Tarnow still well in my hands and the enemy forces all the way in Pilzno, I could take my time setting up the brewery before even attempting to deal with him!

"That's good then. While we are already on the clock with the marriage, let's leave him be for now. Was there any problems in the city while I was away?"

With my head already bustling through the recipes of the system, while I was busy confirming that I had all the items necessary to create the proper brewing system, I still had to ask some questions to not make it look like Peter was the only thing I had on mind and the lack of information about him, the only reason why I called them to the castle.

"Problems? Thank to God's will, nothing bad happened, but I observed strange actions of some innkeepers. They would go out of the city day by day, with their peculiar carriages full to the brim, and come back a few hours later with their carriages empty. I'm worried that there is some kind of smuggling cliche in your city, brother."

With Kalen already busying himself with the Garn of the beer that I prepared in the few minutes that I took while alone in my room, it was Jan that I was having my conversation with. But hearing his recounts of the events, while I managed to hold back from laughing up, Elia couldn't stop herself from a giggle.

"You don't need to worry about it, brother. They were acting on my order. Speaking of which, it would be great if you could go pay them a visit and ask how is the popularity of my idea going. Unless the serfs will appreciate a warm meal during a hard day of work, there won't be any point in wasting any more resources on it!"

Cupping my hands on the table, I continued the talk for a little bit longer, before dismissing the two nobles and standing up. Looking to the side, I could see Bart deep in his thoughts.

"What's wrong, boy?"

In theory, away from the military camp, there was no need to keep up the military appearances and the titles, calling him a boy was still a bit unreasonable, but I still decided to go with it. Since he lacked a fatherly figure in his life, the best way to turn him from a hesitant and arrogant young noble into a proper lord, was to assume such place in his heart and act on it!

"Ah, sorry, I wasn't really listening. What was the question again?"

Startled by my question, it took him a while to regain his senses as he wobbled on his chair, almost making it fall to the back.

"I asked what's wrong. You seemed deeply infatuated with something."

Smiling kindly in response to his small mishap, I hoped that my sympathetic approach would be enough to calm him down and make him openly explain what kind of doubts were running through his head.

"Ah, so that's what the question was"

Taking his time, Bart rested his head on his hands for a moment, as if gathering either his thoughts or the wits to openly speak about the ideas hidden in his brain.

"Don't get me wrong, sir, as I don't want to be rude, but what's even the point of catering to the serf's needs? Aren't they in a simple deal with the nobles where they rent a part of our lands in exchange for their work? If we take responsibility for one of the things they had to take care of themselves so far, won't it turn them even lazier than before? I don't know how the situation looks here, but in my lands, its a pain in the ass to make them work properly without an overseer serving the whipping once in a while!"

So that was the case. Not some deep problem that was troubling his head, but just a conflict of paradigms born from the nobles inborn contempt towards the lower classes. While I couldn't blame him for showing this kind of mindset, if he wanted to make a career under me and later achieve some nice position in the empire I was intending to build on my lands, he had to work on it as soon as possible, and this question gave me the opportunity to lay down the seed of doubt that could make him grow into a proper caretaker of his underlings!

"You see, even if we treat them as a means to obtain more wealth from the grain trade, they still have a vast numerical superiority over us. While we have yet to reach the point of the western Kingdom's when the nobility accounts to maybe a single man out of a hundred if not less, we are not that far off. And just from those numbers alone, you can already imagine what kind of wealth all those serfs possess combined. If we give them the means to earn, while at the same time making sure they have enough opportunities to return the gold back into our pockets, not only will they work themselves to the bone in order to obtain more goods from our shops, bringing us direct profits, all of the industries that I'm going to set up in my lands, will be backed by this innumerable number of people!"