Road to the Crown

8th March 1574

One hundred men.

That number was far greater than what I expected Peter to be able to achieve. Even after straining my budget a bit, all I could gather was only half of this number, without jeopardising the safety of the town and castle!

"Those news are indeed worrying."

In the current situation, facing that guy head-on might be possible, but would be a really costly endeavour. Just the loss of my men would be painful, yet the risk of them actually losing was something that I couldn't accept!

"Speaking of which, how long do we have before his arrival? Even if his force is strong, as long as we maintain mobility, we may still best him."

With a myriad of solutions appearing in my mind, I suddenly recalled one advantage that I had over this guy!

After all, didn't I have a system to help me out right now?

With just a single thought of mine, the screen that was kept to the furthest corner of my vision to not let it bother me in my daily life moved to the central point of my sight.

After closing the several windows that I used to turn worthless amounts of grain into MGS and beers, I finally reached back to the main map of the game that I was supposed to be playing right now instead of figuring out my way through the countless intrigues of this world.

Moving my imaginary cursor over the map, I pushed to the east only to find the town of Ropian. Opening its status window, I finally found the tab related to the Peter… Only to feel a great disappointment.

Outside of the set of his statistics, there wasn't even a hint of usefull information there! Not only I was unable to find out where his troops currently were, but I also couldn't even check how the heck did he get such a big group to follow him without causing the economy of his lands to collapse!

"I think you have one, no. Two days at most. But wait… Are you telling me that you are going to fight him?!"

From how Basil was describing Peter just a moment ago when he realised that the troops that this damned noble gathered were most likely aimed against me, his expression turned ugly, as if all his efforts turned out to be used against him!

"Fight him? No, that would be utter madness to pit my fifty men, even if supported by the city guards, to clash with his troop twice the size of mine."

There was no point in denying it. In terms of military, I was in a spot where I could only pit my chances on some lucky event. And doing so, when considered how many other options I had, would be the pinnacle of stupidity!

"Okay then. I hope you will enjoy your meal, Basil. Vlad, I want you to come with us."

Considering how I wasn't sure ff that guy allegiances, it was better to discuss the future steps in a smaller group. After all, Vlad already saw the real profits that my rule would bring both to him and the city he was managing as a whole, whereas if he allowed Peter to best me, not only would all the chances of my investment be gone right away, he would be in for my certain revenge.

But that didn't mean I would reveal the entire truth to him either!

"Okay then, hear me out. First thing first, I'm not going to waste the lives of my men for no reason. Instead, I want you…" - I pointed my finger at Vlad - "... to simply let him in, and pretend like I drove Elia's family out, and then kidnapped her to the Tarnow. That's also where we will head to, but… by ourselves."

While the part of letting Peter into Pilzno was true, since that was what Vlad's part of the plan would be, not even a single of my next words were even close to scratching my real plan!

"On the other hand, to not raise his suspicion, I will send my men as a trade caravan to Resovia. Do you have anyone trustworthy that could play the part of the merchant who hired my men?"

Once again turning to Vlad, I ignored the mute question that Elia's lips was posing. After all, I couldn't explain her my real plan while standing near someone who I just fed a bunch of lies, could I?"

"While you might be surprised about this, sir, but I believe Basil could fill that role perfectly. As long as he will see enough benefits for him in this trade, I can assure that his loyalty will be full and eternal."

"Good then, I will leave it to you, Vlad. Meanwhile, Elia, come with me. I need to have a talk with Elemo and Al."

After reaching the first form of agreement with Vlad, I quickly lead my fiancee away to not make her ask the questions that could put doubt in the mayor's mind.

"Are we really going to escape and give Pilzno to Peter? Just like that?"

There was obvious disappointment in her voice. Just as she recovered it from the hands of her family, she was about to lose it once again, only because the man that she has chosen refused to fight her suitor! I couldn't really blame her for that!

"Of course not. But as things are right now, fighting him openly could only bring us to a loss. Isn't it better to take over his entire wealth, put him in prison and have a beautiful marriage ceremony?"

With the plan already forming in my head, I was preparing a list of things I had to take care off before I would ride with Elia into the dying light of the setting sun.

"What do you mean by that?"

Mentioning the marriage at this very moment, where everything seemed to be falling apart, puzzled Elia and most likely made her wonder what the heck I was speaking. She was worried about losing her heritage once again and I was going to prevent it with a marriage ceremony?

"We won't be going to Tarnow. Or at least, not entirely. While we will hang out in the same tavern we met Kalen back then, we will get Jan to travel back to the Tarnow and alert the guards there about the potential raid of Peter, we will head north for the Ariestown (Baranowice), and then straight for Sandomir!"