313 Unreal offer (1/2)
24th October 1574
”How bad is the situation?”
Contrary to my expectations, the envoy turned out to be not only a young man in his forte, but from how fluently he was speaking the local language, I could tell that he had to be born in Commonwealth, but due to some life choices of his or the local warlords, he ended up becoming muscovite.
After all, in the current times, there wasn't such thing as nationalities. The lowborn would consider themselves the be locals, born in the city of A they would call themselves Aers. Outside of that, merchants never would bother with such stupid ideas like nationality, when their job itself required them to know as many languages as they could while keeping contacts in as many places as they were capable of.
The only social class in the current world, as much as it pained me, that cared about such elaborate stuff like homeland or nationality, was the nobility. With how directly they were involved with managing the country, something that was clearly visible with how the senate was now in the full control of the governance of the Commonwealth, the feeling of attachment to certain greater group managed to sprout in the noble souls.
In the original timeline, this process would have to be refined by the fires of constant wars and the overall deterioration of the country, that pushed the great majority of the meaningful nobility to press for reforms. Everyone in the future United States of America would pride themselves in holding the title of creating the very first constitution in the world, yet no matter how future Poland would strive to promote it, the world would often forget that it was the Commonwealth nobility that pushed for creating the very first European constitution that was worldwide second only to American one!
”Would it suffice to say that right now, we have no way of rejoicing the main forces in Ostrog? With how important this meeting was for my lord, he decided that even losing my entire unit would be worth it as long as I could pass the several requests that he deemed to be of absolute priority if you wish to keep an ally in the Commonwealth hinterlands.”
This kind of sentences was nothing but a wild guess on my end. While the fact that the enemy diplomatic mission outnumbered my soldiers by far didn't mean that I could just go with a less risky route. In the end, everyone that I was talking with right now, would end up dying by the end of the day. Outside of the envoy himself, even a single enemy soldier operating behind my lines could generate great costs once he would turn efficient in sabotage kind of war. That's why I didn't really mind if my words would miss the mark by a margin great enough to alert the envoy. One could say that it was nothing more and nothing less than your simple high-risk, high-reward play on my side!
Shaking his head with visible regret, the young man in front of me looked around the area. For some reason, this simple scan of the surroundings suddenly turned his attention up a notch, as if something somehow alerted his vigilance.
”Where are the lookouts?”
Just a simple change of tone was all that this man had to do to alert his entire group. In one instant, muscovite soldiers drew their weapons, instantly sparking the same reaction from my soldiers. At least, given how my people knew from the very beginning that this entire meeting was nothing more but a smart scheme, their weapons were already prepared, hidden under their coats rather than being held in the natural carrying position as it was the case for the muscovites.
”I would advise you to not make any rash decisions.”
Finally reaching towards the cup of my beer that I hid below my chair, I openly brought it to my lips and took a hefty sip. Once the glass left my face alone, the envoy could see a wide smile formed on my face, as I stared at him with pity.
”What is the meaning of this?! Who are you?!”
As flustered as the man was, something that I could observe from the rapid changes appearing on his face, he remained sane enough to remain perfectly still at his seat. Maybe it was just me, or maybe the sight of several guns pointed directly at his face had a similar calming effect to even the strongest calming drugs that in the future I knew, unruly mental patients would get tanked into their veins.
”Since you already realised the truth, let me explain your situation properly.”
With a single gesture at one of my aides, a young man who had the balls to volunteer for this mission despite never holding a gun in his hand, quickly brough my preferred crane of choice, allowing me to stand up without forcefully ignoring the insane pain that would come close to paralyzing my leg.