Road to the Crown 209 Distant and near future

"What do you mean by that?!"

Just like I guessed, hearing about the downfall of the current powerhouse of the entire continent if not the whole world, especially after speaking about the reaches it would achieve, was not taken lightly by Elia.

"Let me put this in this way. Right now, we are in the opening times of the golden era of the Commonwealth. Despite numerous conflicts that await us, from most of them, we would manage to come out victorious or at least, not as bad as others would want us. But with a few exceptions, we would be plagued… By a streak of incompetent rulers."

Saying those words made me feel exactly the same emotion I did back when I learned about the pinnacle of stupidity and wits to follow up on the ambitions that many of the elected Polish Kings had. Just like later rulers from the Waza's dynasty, one of them would lay the foundations of recovering the personal union with its mother country of Sweden… Only to give up before making any real move, and allowing this ambitious country to later turn into Commonwealthian bane!

"But let's not speak about the future that I know. Do you remember what I said about the butterfly effects? Even the smallest change can affect the outcome in a great way. That's why wiser by the knowledge that I have about what would happen next, I want to aim to fix the problems that lead to the downfall of our country before they turn lethal!"

As I clenched my fists in determination to prove my words true, I felt Elia's hand suddenly resting on my chin. Raising my eyes only to be met with nothing more than the outline of her face that I could barely make through the darkness, I could see two, slightly brighter points breaking through this barrier of lacking light.

"Dear… I can feel how frustrated you are while speaking about it. This alone is enough to convince me that you are telling the truth. After all, it's impossible for someone to be so emotional over something that has yet to happen unless it had a direct influence over them already."

Feeling the warmth of her fingers as she caressed my cheek, I realised that her touch alone was enough for all those negative emotions of powerlessness to disappear. After all, everything that I just spoke about, has yet to happen! As long as I could guide both my lands and later the King himself to take proper steps, most of the reasons why this entire great nation would be turned into unofficial slaves for the rest of the world could be destroyed before they would have any real effect!

"Listen, when speaking about the future, I could tell you both about great events that changed the entire humanity for the better, but I couldn't avoid elaborating on the conflicts and discoveries more bloody and devastating than all the evil you could imagine combined and multiplied many times over. That's why, in all my honesty, I would like to keep how the future looked for me, solely to myself. This way, we can avoid aiming for the results that were already proven to be faulty in the times that I lived in!"

This was something that I decided on by myself. If I were to tell her about biological weapons, nukes, how banks robbed entire nations and continents, forcing massive swathes of people to go bankrupt… How could she enjoy the stories about computers, fashion or music if that would be the background for her?

And to be quite frank, while being someone from modern times, I could put a value to stuff like phones or computers, could Elia do the same? How could she understand the value of games? How could she enjoy the fact that everyone in the future would have access to the entirety of human knowledge with just one or two clicks away on their phones if it was long confirmed that it wasn't the lack of access to the knowledge that was the reason behind the majority of the human race being simply dumb?

"I think that's fairly… a reasonable approach, but how about the nearest future? Will Henry return? If not, who will be the next king?"

Right off the bat, rather than sticking to the stuff that would take tens if not hundreds of years to be achieved, Elia focused on the matters that had direct influence over our lives. After all, as a mother-in-waiting, it was given that she would turn all her attention to the stuff that would directly influence our nearest future!

"Well, once again I will come back to what I said before. The butterfly effect, you remember? Starting with my presence, it already altered the course of history. As far as I remember, originally, after the death of my father, there would be no heir to this land, turning it into yet another dominion of Ostros family. I don't know if the fact that they are so keen on recovering those lands is just the fate trying to put the line of events back on its track or just a simple coincidence caused by our blood colligation. That's why, I have no idea whether or not my actions already changed this part of the future, but if not…"

Taking a short break here, I took a deep breath to sort my thoughts. It was only now that I thought about the matter with Ostros in this way. Was there some force fighting against me and wishing to put me back in place as to stop me from changing how the history of the world would go?

Well, if that will turn out to be the case, then I can only say one thing. FUCK THIS KIND OF FATE!

"If not, then Henry won't return to the country. He will get too engrossed with governing the affairs of France, finally forcing our noble brothers and sisters to make our move. In the end, there would be two candidates, one of the Habsburg family supported by the Zboros family, and the other one, reason why I was soo happy to implement this trading outpost at the Hungarian border… Stephan Bathory!"

Chapter end