Road to the Crown

To say that the primate dropped a bomb on the entire place would be a gross underdescribtion of the effect that those few words of his had over the entire hall. Yes, outside of me, only the primate himself didn't seem to be perturbed by the news that he spoke off himself.

"Offer? Stop putting us on edge. We are not in a theatre for you to play around with tension when speaking to us."

This sudden revelation seemed to bring more harm to the primate plans that it brough benefits. While it was certain that he managed to catch nearly everyone by a surprise, but the looks of fury visible on the faces of some of the high nobles clearly indicated that they weren't happy with this kind of withholding information from them.

"Alright, alright. To put it in short, they somehow came to the conclusion that if we want to end the war, then we could as well unite our two countries in a royal marriage. And given the terms that were offered alongside the marriage…"

Shaking his head, the primate clearly couldn't stop himself from enjoying the moment. It seemed like both the poor organisation of the summons and the withholding of the information were all the results of the primate messing around instead of some kind of organised ploy aimed at putting me at a tactical disadvantage in this game of chess.

"But what's important here, is what it means for us. To put it in short words, I do believe that we should add another restriction for the royal election, and that is for the candidate to be… unmarried."

Once again, the entire place stood still. For a few moments, no one dared to even bat an eye. And then everything erupted.

"What do you mean?!"

"How is that fair?!"

"Did you sell yourself to the muscovites?"

Once by once, voices of process shook the entire hall, ranging from the dissatisfied candidates who clearly played for my side with how I was the only one that this new restriction would exclude, through the high nobles that already foresaw the treason… All in all, for everyone the situation seemed as if it took turn for worse for me, while I could only secretly rejoice at the sudden blessing!

So far, I couldn't do anything that would undermine my position during the elections because that would not only lessen my chances for the crown but more importantly, it would affect my ability to influence the outcome of the election. If I were to put my money on one candidate only for another one to win, my entire scheme of becoming a person behind the shadow could instantly fall apart!

Even if the Commonwealth court couldn't be compared in any way or form to the intrigued of the far-eastern countries, it still had its own dose of blood-feuds and typical political cleansings. Even if my status as not only the high noble but also quite a powerful one so to speak would protect me and my family from any major harm, having an uncooperative king on the throne would quickly lead to setbacks worth years of efforts!

"That proposition does seem reasonable."

As I was the biggest potential victim of the new rules, my voice right now was the most important. Everyone understood this reality, hence allowing me to freely speak up when I decided it was the time to do so.

But instead of praising this point that could potentially solve a lot of my problems, I had to take a hard stance instead. Allowing for this new rule to come into being just like that would be akin to intentionally sabotaging my own chances at reaching for the crown! Sadly, this wasn't something that I could do just like that!

"But why do you consider marrying our nations to be a good idea?"

To be frank, I was perfectly conscious of what the primate and the current royal regent was hoping for. Reuniting muscovite lands with the roman patriarchy was one of the long-lasting dreams of the clergy. By putting the great schism behind and joining hands, the position of the catholic countries would surge, quickly leading to the end of the Protestantism in the face of the overwhelming popularity of the holy see. 

But that wasn't something that I could wish for. No matter what would be the way in which the shared rule would work, it wasn't something that could put Commonwealth in a good position. With how young this confederation of two different countries was, it was incredibly hard to speak about any unification between different folks. If yet another massive group with completely different culture were to join the commonwealth, then as a huge opportunity as it would be, there wouldn't be huge chances that the current, relatively peaceful atmosphere in which I could prosper would turn to the country ravaged by protests, uprisings and ineffective administration.

In short words, if that was the response to the proposition I passed back during my meeting with the muscovite diplomat, then it would mean nothing else than how Muscovites hoped to turn the tables and assimilate the entirety of the commonwealth into their growing empire!

"They proposed something unheard off. They proposed to repeat the thing that our nations managed to pull off already, but in a greatly different situation. Right now, we are not Muscovitan allies. Our interests clash instead of working together. Our avenues of expansions are exactly the same. I think that muscovites caught news of what I did at with the Ostros, along with the methods that I used. We could summarise this proposition in a single sentence. They just want to catch up with what we can offer and then swallow us all at once."

That was more than I had to do to convince everyone how far I was from accepting the terms proposed by the Primate. No matter what were the details of the Muscovite proposition, just the point of marriage alone was enough to prove that they planned it precisely beforehand. People like that diplomat I met should be competent enough to know that I was married. WIth how they used the marriage as the main point of the proposition, it was clear that the muscovites themselves didn't wish to see me ascend to the level of royalty!