Road to the Crown
Chapter 15: The castle and the envoy (1)

Only after seeing the city walls and recognising some of the landmarks around them, I was finally able to imagine where we would be if that were a modern version of the city instead of its current, primitive form.

While I already got a taste of it back in the Krakow, with how its entire magnificent self was limited to the area that would be fully used for services and shops just five hundred years later. The problem lied in fact, that even though this capital city would grow way more than my hometown, after some point, one couldn't really understand the scale of big cities.

There was only so much one would travel in their daily life, limiting their perception of even the greatest cities to the area they were living in, area they were working in and the area they used to spend their free time in. For most people, the rest of the city could very well not exist!

Compared to this, a relatively small town like Tarnów, where one could easily reach both of its borders within a span of just a few hours long walk, seeing it shrank to just the strict town centre, made me painfully realise how underdeveloped this age was.

Riding on the smaller road that connected the main road from the west to the east with a smaller one that leads to the castle, I gazed at the vast farming fields, that extended all the way to the place that would many years later, become my very first home.

"Why the long face? Aren't you happy you are finally back home?"

Most likely, the nostalgia in my heart broke through my mental barrier and showed up on my expression, alerting Elia. Just like I thought a moment before, this girl was not only intelligent but had the talent for acute observation. At this point, I couldn't help but wonder where the line between being special and being annoying laid.

"We inherited this city from the great household of Tarnowski, once held by one of the great generals, and yet, while it's prosperous in the eyes of others, I can't help but hope that one day, all the farmlands, all the bushes and the forests, would turn into a place where a bustling life would go about. I wonder if we will ever reach the point when we won't have to surround our cities with walls, and just let them sprawl all the way to the distance…"

While I said that, I was painfully aware that even if I had the ability to snap my fingers and expand the town to its future size and population if the corresponding technology and way of thinking didn't follow suit, it would only end up as a disaster.

The greater the city, the greater the challenges of keeping it sanitised, of supplying food for it… With barely two thousand citizens, there were no complicated logistical tasks, with all the wealthier merchants simply living in their mansions outside and only using the city due to its fortunate location.

That was also one of the reasons, why I wanted to start my development plan for this place, with something strictly connected to health.

There was no point trying to teach people to boil the water before drinking it. Even if one could force the nobles and middle class to do so with a set of fines, detainments and additional taxes, when it came to the real source of potential diseases, it was the folk that mattered.

Only by developing a beer good enough for them to enjoy and as cheap as the one served in any of the taverns around, I could prevent people from dying from all sorts of bacterias living in the unsanitised water.

"You know, I never got to travel the continent like more fortunate nobles, so I never had the chance to see those magnificent cities of the west, but I can tell how hard it is to manage them just from the things I experienced before running away from Pilzno. Do you really think its worth to strive for such thing? Wouldn't it better to just make more cities evenly spread around the country?"

That was actually a good question, but showing the lack of understanding akin to someone who enjoyed the benefits of the already existing town, instead of someone ready to go through all the trouble of setting one-up himself.

Starting with the most important and hardest thing, the location right from the king. Even if most of the rulers loved to support this kind of inner sourced development, when it came to the cities, if there was any worth in setting one in a certain place, the chances were, someone already did so before. With the exception of depopulated wild steppes to the south and east, most of the crown lands were filled with small towns all around!

"I can't say it a bad idea, but unless I would be willing to sell out my rights to this place for some empty and deserted lands of the red Ruthenia, I don't really have a way to do so, do I?"

Shaking my head, I noticed that we finally passed the merging point with the road that connected the city directly with the castle. While leaving behind this small, fortified town surrounded by the bricked wall, we still had to cover around two stais (1.6km, 1mile) separating us from the Saint Martin hill, where my castle was located.

Looking at it from afar, I couldn't help but feel emotional.

The only thing that remained from it in modern times, were just a bunch of big rocks and destroyed anti-air site created during the second world war thanks to its strategic location. To be able to experience the glorious Tarnowian castle with my own eyes, was a wonderful experience for me.

Consisting of two parts, the castle was made out of the high-castle, where my household living quarters were located along with only a few other amenities, and the lower-castle, which served as not only the second line of the defences in case of an attack but also as the main living area.

"To be honest… This castle is really impressive."

As we climbed the light slope of the hill from the only side it was actually traversable, Elia exclaimed with adoration written all over her face. For a city to have a castle just beside it, was not only a sign of its wealth but also of its status. While most of the images that survived to the future only showed the prime look of this place with a small, circular stronghold on one hill, and wooden fort beside it, years of hard work of the great general Tarnowski who owned this place all the way until his death about ten years ago, turned it into something to marvel at.

"Not only it looks great, but it's actually pretty comfortable to live in."

Trying to hold the conversation to the point where it wouldn't be suspicious how silent I was about my own damned house, I threw some vague words before returning to adore it myself.

After reaching the highest point of the road, the stone arsenal on one side with shooting windows all over the place and an enormous earth embankment funnelled us into a narrow road, leading us all the way to the primary gate of the castle.

Made out of stone and raising at the impressive fifteen meters high above the ground, that was still distanced from the street by an additional five meters of a high-angled slope. The only real way to enter the premises was to use the drawbridge.

"My lord!"

As I approached the gate, the uniformly dressed guards were already separated into two pairs, with one blocking the entrance to the drawbridge and the other one ready to raise it by cutting a line holding the counterweight in place. As soon as the forward guards recognised me, they instantly moved to the side, signalling to their friends deeper in the building to calm down.

In this day and age, a group of twelve people wasn't considered a big threat, but if something there were multiple accounts of some brave brigands raiding the castles in this way, making the guard's carefulness quite warranted.

After passing through the first gatehouse, we entered a small, open courtyard, surrounded from two sides by the inner part of the castle walls and the remaining two consisting of a backside of the royal mayor house, decorated with a nice set of firing windows at the third, highest floor. Passing through the inner gate embedded in the side of the mayor's house, we finally could step down from our horses.

"While it's not much, this is the lower castle. We will leave our horses here."

With a huge open space, extending for over one hundred meters away from the direction of the inner gate, the lower castle was full of commonly used buildings. From a big stable at its very end, through the line of buildings and a small stable for the mayor's own use, the entire area was bustling with activity even before my group arrived!

"The lord came back!"

"Welcome home!

"Welcome back, sir!"

As soon as I went through the inner gate while leading Helga by her reins, an insane amount of voices instantly surrounded me from all sides. Starting with simple servants expressing their happiness at my sight, through as respectable as old royal mayor greeting me with a slight bow of his head, all the way to the cheerful Matsu, the main econom of the town reporting for duty.

Thinking about this, without the system instantly putting the names and positions of those people above their heads, I would be as ignorant about not only their functions but also their names, as a total stranger would be. I didn't inherit any memories from this body and had to weather all the events with my lacking knowledge about the period.

"How was the city during my absence?"

Letting go of the reins as one of the stable boys jumped forward to take this duty off my hands, I was forced to ignore my guests to listen to the report of a girl marked by the system as my most important helper in managing the city.

"Most of the matters went as the usual. Two serfs got injured due to the predators' attack, old Tom died of age and our pastures increased by two calves."

That was actually both some good and bad news. While it was a pity my people were wounded and even one of them died, especially since - let's call her simply a manager - Matsu called him by his name instead of keeping it vague, but having two calves? That was enough to feed an entire family of serfs!

"Okay then, stop avoiding my eyes and just tell me the bad news."

With the system providing me with what looked like her resume, I could quickly fill the gaps in my knowledge about interpersonal relations with my subordinates. And looking at her achievements and history, I couldn't help but feel impressed!

Not only - just like the darker tone of her skin indicated - was she half-foreigner, with her father were once a widely known and respected merchant who came here from the depths of the Asian lands, way beyond the reach of the Muscovy or even Ottoman empire, he actually managed to make a name for himself by exploiting his knowledge in the crown itself!

Thanks to the previous owner of this place foresight, said foreigner got an offer too good to refuse and settled down in the city, with the lord of this place employing his talents to boost the local economy.

Even after his death, already few years after the respected general passed away, his daughter actually picked up his place, and continued to serve for my household, proving to be as usefull as capable more times than the system would bother to recount, as the system stated itself.

But there was one thing that made me guess the incoming hit to my good humour. She was by no means a nervous person!

"An Envoy from Pilzno came here with the request for you Sir, to give up your attempts to take the hand of the sister of the city lord. Forgive me my insolence, but looking at your new companions, I assume he will have a hard time persuading you Sir regarding this matter."