Road to the Crown

The moment where I finally got to jump on my horse had a magical feeling to it. As soon as I reached the stables where the lower servants were running around while trying to not break their spines as they bowed on the run in my direction, I knew which horse was waiting for me.

Taking a piece of apple from the open casket hanged on the side of the wall - way out of the reach of horses greedy mouth; I moved towards the box located around the middle point of this small shack. Slowly taking one step after the other, I approached this majestic creature, watching as it turned its big head towards me, and looked me right into the eyes.

Reaching with my hand forward, palm upwards and the piece of apple right on its top, I observed as this calm animal took a quick sniff while closing its nostrils towards the delicacy, before catching it with its huge lips and allowing me to pet its long mouth. Feeling the soft hair wrapped around the relatively hard part of its head, I slowly moved my hand up, going as far as the top of its head, before retracting it even slower.

Even if there was a bond between this noble and this horse before, I was almost certain that this intelligent creature recognised that I was someone new. Even with that, it still graced me with its trust, lightly raising its head in response to my rub!

I could just stay here and continue to gaze into this beast deep eyes, but the constant clanging of the servants running around to prepare everything for our trip promptly knocked me out of my daze, allowing me to reach for the bridle with one hand while raising the knob that locked the gate to the box with the other one.

Despite being the reason for everyone's fast tempo, I took my time leading my partner outside, while inspecting whether its fur wasn't tainted with any sort of dirt. As we stepped to the field away from the stable, I took yet another moment to check whether its horseshoes were nicely fitted and without any flaws, before moving back to its head.

"Hello, Helga."

Since there was a history to this horse that reached the times far before my transmigration, I had no choice but accept this ugly name. But after a second thought, I had to admit it was quite fitting. While for now this beast of a horse remained calm and polite, I could tell from a single look at it that its true fate was to push everyone aside as she would charge against the enemy lines!

Once again taking a moment to kinda synchronise myself with her, I took a few deep breaths while resting my forehead on hers. When I felt the moment was right, I rubbed her behind her sizeable ears for a short while, before moving back to her side. With a sudden impulse to my body, instead of using the stirrups my outer, right leg shoot to the back, only to make a full swing forward. With my body allowing the momentum to carry it, I jumped on my left leg, swiftly setting myself comfortably in the saddle.

"Sir is still in its good form!"

Noticing my acrobatics, Al and Elemo laughed at the same time. While their faces alone were enough to notice a stark difference in their characters, the sympathetic approach of theirs wasn't hindered by the extraverts of Al nor by introverts of Elemo. Brought to my service years ago, or to be exact, three years, seven months and twenty-six days ago as the system described, they belonged to the poorer part of the nobility. With neither of them holding the title of the firstborn, they could only look for their fate in the army or in the services of those better endowed than them.

"Stop the laughs and set off! Everyone is long busy feasting at the castle. If we don't hurry up, we will be forced to stay the night in the city!"

While the threat wasn't that harsh, the city taverns were surprisingly expensive when one realised that the level of the services they offered was even below that of the roadside resting places!

There was an additional point of the journey we would have to soon make back to Tarnów. With the estimated speed with a light carriage, I believed we could cover the distance of about ninety stais (90km, 56miles) in max three days. With the horses alone, we could bolt forward and finish in just two days worth of slightly forced horse march, but this wasn't the modern times when one could just go on the road and go from point a to point b without worrying about anything but accidents. In this time, leaving the carriage with only militia and no mounted cover, was akin to sacrificing it to the bandits!

"By the way, what do you think about our new king?"

As we slowly started moving on the road, I couldn't help but compare our current momentum to the swiftness that public communication offered. By the time we would arrive at Kleparz, I could go to the furthermost part of the modern city and back… Twice by the tram, or just cover the distance from one side of the modern city centre to the other.

"Don't get me started on it. All I want is a quick war with Muscovites under the new King, some quick loot at the border villages, soldier's pay after everything, and I would be able to buy myself a small ranch at the wilds plains to the east!"

Hearing this, I couldn't help but shake my head. There would be no major conflicts for the next two years. While for me it was the opportunity to build a proper powerbase in my lands and prepare for what was about to come, poor younglings like Al would rather go to war and risk their life just to speed up the annoying reality of saving up as a sidekick to more powerful noble.

But there was some good points about his idea. Ever since the conflict between the Crown and Lithuania arouse about the realisation of the real union between those two countries so far bound only by the personal union, there was no way to miss the rise of the pioneering spirit all over the country. Countless expanses of fertile land… Almost to being completely barren of people…

It was that that would set the foundations for the future conflict, that would shake the entire country and start the domino effect that turned Commonwealth from world's power, into a puppet state-controlled and later annexed by its neighbours.

"Drop the spare talk and hurry up! We only have two hours before closing the gates!"