Road to the Crown

24th October 1574contemporary romance

My offer had absolutely no weight in terms of diplomatic relations between the countries. One could say that the only peace I could sign would be between the entirety of the Muscovy - or at least the part that was responsible for the war - and me myself. Yet, doing so would be no different from the treason. As a Polish noble, one of the current great powers of the commonwealth, my status alone obliged me to certain things.

"A peace? And who do you think you are to even offer it?"

As expected, the envoy's reaction was simple. Instead of taking me seriously, he simply giggled, instantly annoying all of my soldiers at once while relaxing his own people. But instead of just ridiculing me like that, after a short time his laughter ended in one instant, with his face returning to its usual seriousness.

"But let me endorse you. Why do you think you are capable of offering us a peace, and what would be it's potential terms? After all…"

Taking a sweep around with his hand, the envoy pointed at his entire force.

"... those people here are nothing but a small unit. While they have the right to call themselves elite, in the grand scheme of things, neither do they nor I matter. Just like you claimed that killing you won't change a thing, so is the matter with killing us."

It was to be expected. Ever since ancient times, an envoy was someone who not only represented the entirety of his side, but also was commonly agreed to be a figure that could never be met with harm. It came from the simple fact that if that basic law was not upheld, then there would be no way for any of the sides to ever end the conflict untill the other side would be completly anihilated. And with how most of the wars so far were not about the ideology like in the future, but the influence or some extremely profitable slash strategically important lands, the position of an envoy whose security was guaranteed no matter what, lied in the interests of all the sides.

Yet, even with all of that. There were a lot of cases when envoys would lose their lives. Be it when trying to negotiate the peace with some rebels that actually reached a bit closer to turning their war into a total and ideological thing, when attempting to negotiate with tyrants or in many other cases, the life of the envoy could be ended.

Those two sides of the single coin that was the position of the envoy resulted in a simple thing. Being an envoy would be considered as a great honour, but also a great danger. Due to this, never in the history of the european continent did this position fall onto the head of someone who was vitaly important either for the ruling clan or the country as a whole!

"You see, this matter is pretty simple."

Rather than allowing the words of the envoy to provoke me, I simply smiled and once again sat on the chair, taking my sweet time to find the most comfortable position. Even with how insanely well-made those pieces of furniture were when compared to what a craftsman hand could produce, it was still a far cry from the quality of the stuff produced with all the machines and materials available in the future. 

"From the moment I won against and eradicated Ostros household, the war was over."

Stating this reality with absolute confidence, I took a short break, curious whether the envoy would react. Sadly, this man wits and balls turned to be far bigger than I intialy expected, forcing me to pick up my piece without the other side actually asking for it.

"Right now, you might be winning, I will give you that. If I'm not wrong about the means that the figure behind the Muscovite power possess, then you might even push the frontline way deeper than I believe it already reaches inside the commonwealth. You can steal all the wealth, kidnap all the people from those lands, nad burn everything down upon leaving. But let's be honest, why would be dumb enough to wage war, even a small and simple one, not the total one that you guys are investing yourself in, just for some loot?"

Taking a look at the envoy, I hoped that my face would properly express the same emotion that a parent would have once trying to explain something obvious to any adult to their growing-up kid. 

Someone once said that war was nothing less and nothing more but an extension to one's diplomacy. Just another mean that a ruler would have up his sleeve, used whenever the less costly tools would fail to provide the effect that the crown required. Until the age of empires that would start with the fall of Commonwealth and the resulting rise of the three great powers of central and eastern europe, only very few wars were actually fought for the sake of survival. 

Hailing from Poland in the original timeline, I was capable of pointing just a single conflict that was actually about the survivial of one's country that happened before the world wars. And as surprising as it might sound, I didn't mean any of the uprising sparked by the partitions of the Commonwealth, nor even the wars that resulted in said partition. 

It was the Polish-Teutonic conflict that decided which of those countries would reign supreme over the entire region. Just like the predecessors of the current commonwealth broke the powers of the Teutonic order and quickly assimilated it into its own lands, if Polish-Lithuanian alliance of that time were to lose, then the history of the entire world would change drastically upon the raise of the powerful teutonic force in the region. 

In that scenario, one that I made happen many times over in the world universalis four game, the empowered teuton state would quickly secularise and swallow the remains of the weakened lands of the future commonwealth. Once that would happen, then no other force to the east would be capable of stopping the teutonic growth!

"The amount of resources, manpower and effort you guys are investing into this war makes it clear. It's not just some child's play in the tatar raid's style, but a real war aimed at conquering either a huge swaths of lands, or taking over the commonwealth as a whole. But here is where your problem starts."

With how this entire situation was planned from the very beginning, a single swipe of my hand was enough to get one of my men to bring me a map that outlined the general region of both Commonwealth and Muscovy, along with several other points that were properly kept away from the legend.

"Right now, you guys can do anything because instead of joining the war, I'm taking my time to properly integrate those lands into my domain. But even as my power grows here, those two lines that you can see marked with red…"

Even though it was only one of the three colours outside of black and white used for the overall draft, I still pointed my hand at it in order to make sure that the envoy would perfectly understand what I had on my mind.

"... are nearing its completion. According to the reports that I'm recieving daily, its only a matter of days before the rallying point of of Commonwealth forces will be connected directly to my lands. And its only a matter of about two or three more weeks before the lands that I acquired recently, will start producing the military equipment. In short words, in three weeks, the war will enter a new phase, and in up to two months, your army will be flattened under the tracks of my war carriages. And keep in mind, that what I'm telling you, is nothing more than the worst case scenario."

Obviously, the lines on the map were not precise. The relying point that this map provided was shown in the city of Vilinus instead of the city of Minsk where it would really be. Even when I was providing information for the enemy in order to pull them to my side, I wasn't as stupid as to balantly give them all the information they needed to prevent any of my plans from taking place!

"Let's say that for a moment I will believe in what you are saying. For this one, short moment, I will pretend that you actually have the power and means to realise your words. In that fictional scenario, what would you like to propose? Given all the introduction that you used to bore everyone out, I assume you didn't create this whole ploy just to flaunt how great you are, but to offer something that would be beneficial to the both of us."

Just like the envoy said, everything that I said before was nothing but a preparation for the grand reveal of my proposition. Yet, when it came to actually spelling it out, I realised that there was something within me that stopped me from doing so. As if my moral spine was attempting to prevent me from realising this devilish idea.

"In short words, what I want to offer is a complete world domination. Not by the means of military, not by the means of forcing others into obedience. What I can offer you guys, is to join hands and use our combined force to get so fucking unimaginably rich, that all the petty reasons that one would usually have to wage the war will become nothing more but an annoynace due to how busy we will be not making the money, but counting how much others will be making for us!"

done.co