Road to the Crown
Chapter 86: Digging the graves (1)

19th March 1574 (early morning)

After rounding up every single man that didn't manage to escape in time and making sure the Peter was all nicely bound, some might go back to their own tasks, with the real mission finally accomplished, yet I decided against it.

Maybe it was my modern stupidity or just a silly attempt to recreate the rules of the society that I grew used to, I still decided to do the most obvious thing that any modern person would decide to do in my place.

Bury the dead.

In the current times, only the rich nobles could count on their commanders or servants to replace their body after the battle was over, and even then, only if the battle was won. But I couldn't agree to such a thing! As soon as I made sure no further threats awaited behind the line of trees, I pushed my people to organise the camp once again, while forcing the healthy prisoners of mine to work alongside my own servants in digging shallow graves beside the road.

One by one, the graves were dug out, two meters deep, two meters long and half a meter wide. With one meter between each of them in order to make sure it wouldn't turn into a mass grave that more generous monarch would pay for if they decided to give the last respects to the troops that died for their cause.

"Is this really necessary?"

Standing on the road, Elia was back in her normal clothes, yet still hugging my side. Only when it came to digging the resting place for all of the fallen, did both of us and all our people realise the scale of the massacre that happened. While veterans rented to me by the Governor instantly pushed their inquires about this demonic weapon, its price and manufacturing cost, I simply pushed all those questions for later, hoping to finish up the clean up before the end of the day.

"No, it's not, and yes, it is."

Looking down on the first bodies carefully carried on a huge piece of cloth towards their final resting place, I had to try my best to stop myself from taking the blame for their deaths. Those people died for my sake, with most of them never carrying a weapon by them in their entire life! Maybe if I was born in this day and age, I could simply disregard their sacrifice as natural, but my modern nature forced me to at least pay the last respect they were owed!

"What do you mean by that? Isn't it only natural to let the bodies where they fell?"

Looking to the side, for the first time I felt the gap separating Elia's and my own mentality. No matter how quick-witted she was, there were some basic differences in her upbringing, in what she saw in her life, that would forever remain deeply engraved in her soul, posing a problem for me to overcome, yet as the man in those chauvinist times, I had the luxury of simply disregarding her opinion. Even if that wasn't the best way to build a relationship, sometimes it was easier to simply disregard certain topics, especially if, in the long term, they didn't really matter all that much. After all, how often would we participate in battles for this matter the be brough up again?

"Listen, those people died for me. It's only fair for me, to give their bodies the right for the final, undisturbed rest. As for the enemies…"

Looking back, at the other side of the road, I saw an even greater amount of holes in the ground, with some of them already halfway returned to the natural state, after the body was identified by the survivors from Peter's unit and covered back with the dirt.

"... No matter our strife, they were all Catholics. While we could fight in life, I'm not a monster to keep the grudge after they died, especially when there was only one man truly responsible for their death."

Looking to the side of the camp, I saw one of the tents that was quickly set up on my order, inside of which, Peter was tightly bound to the ground and guarded by the mix of my own people and some of the veterans of Jan's.

If not for his silly attempt to stop my marriage to Elia, all those dead people could very well end up as my companions, after a random meeting in the inn. But in fact, there was one more reason as for why I decided to bury everyone, without discriminating for which side who fought.

For my own people, seeing how I wasted a lot of time and resources of burying their comrades, it would serve as a boost to morale. It was rare for the lord to care for his people while they lived, and really uncommon to continue caring for them after they died.

As for the imprisoned enemies, showing them that I still extended my catholic approach towards their fallen brothers and friends, there was a huge chance that in the future, they might reconsider their allegiances!

In the end, it all came down to the fact, that those reaper guns, no matter how effective, were unusable in the greater scale. From the insane cost of ammunitions, through the unbelievable amount of gunpowder required to make it in the first place, as soon as Commonwealth would introduce this kind of guns into its army, all the trade that restocked the national reserve of gunpowder would stop.

With no advanced chemistry, creating this most basic tool of war was simply impossible, forcing both me personally, and the entirety of the country, to keep its usage at a moderate level. Just this was enough to make it impossible for me to introduce those guns at a larger scale, not unless I could force the system to help me with all the hard steps required to create gunpowder from the resources available in the country itself!

"Your way of thinking… At times, I replace it really hard to understand what is going on inside that handsome head of yours… But let me be honest for once. Aren't you worried that this unnecessary project of yours, will delay our wedding? If we spend two or more days here, then another week to get to the Pilzno with all those carriages of yours, are you sure you will still be able to cater to the needs of all the guests that will start knocking on our doors soon?"