Road to the Crown

Chapter 328: Elia's question

15th November 1574

Rejecting the Senate's idea of joining hands with Muscovy through marriage was something that I simply had to do. Even if it was in my best interests for this solution to take place.

"I'm sorry"

As we walked out of the Senate hall, Elia was clearly in a foul mood. Her head hanging down, her hands caressing her rounded up belly in a sign of worry.

"I have no idea what you are supposed to be sorry about."

This wasn't exactly the truth. It wasn't that hard to figure out what was plaguing my wife at this moment. But even by acknowledging that this kind of fault had any right to existence, I would already fail to act like a proper husband and lover. 

"I know that you are not really interested. In you know what, but still. If not for me, your chances at winning would be way greater!"

At this point, I was struck with a simple realisation of how much Elia changed during our marriage. Starting as that rowdy and kind of arrogant girl, she quickly turned into a fiery court lady once I provided her with the proper tools for her revenge But after that, an irreversible process of turning meek took place. It seemed that the longer she spent with me, the longer she wielded the role of queen of my insane lands, the greater the influence this position had over her personality.

I couldn't imagine the Elia that I meet all those months ago to just take the insult and hang her head before the humiliation. The girl that I met would spit at the people that would dare to even bring up something like this to the Senate, before storming out of place in an act of defiance.

But the reality was greatly different. Right now, Elia looked as if she just took a beating, and was heading for her execution. For some reason, the weight of all the responsibility that pinned her down made this once energetic girl unable to defend against the cruelty of the world.

And as a proper husband No, as someone who loved her to no ends, I couldn't allow for this situation to linger.

"Elia I think we seriously need to have a talk"

Muttering those words to my wife's ear, I only realised what she could think about the meaning behind those sentences of mine once her entire body started to shake.

"No, no! I didn't mean that in this way!"

I wanted to comfort her and help her to carry the burden that was putting her down, but I achieved something completely opposite! As pleasant as it would be for any man to hold his dear wife closely while trying to calm her down, the fact that I was responsible for her trembling was enough to make me consider suicide as the way to atone for my sin.

"What?"

Turning her head up and to the side to look in my eyes, Elia's face revealed itself to me. With the tears lingering in her huge eyes, I felt my heart taking a sharp, critical hit. Her soft, delicate and obviously trembling voice only increased my internal suffering.

"Listen I don't really know how to put it in words, but I just realised what a great failure of a man I am."

Grabbing Elia by her shoulders, I turned her around to make her face me properly. Surprised by my sudden actions, Elia could only obediently follow my movements, shyly raising her face to look me in the eyes in order to gauge my intentions.

"A moment ago, I lied to you. I think I know perfectly what's going through this silly head of yours, but I wasn't willing to acknowledge that you would be so burdened to even consider it as a possibility. Only when I saw how you reacted, did the reality dawned up on me."

Ignoring the fact that we were standing in the middle of the corridor, I held Elia's in place while staring intensely into her eyes still brimming with tears.

"Okay"

Responding to my voice with just a single, fleeting world, Elia's face cleared out from the sadness, now replaced by the curiosity. From underneath loads of anxiety, I could once again see the sparks that made me interested in her all the way back when we first met!

Pulling my wife by her hand, I slowly walked towards one of the chambers of the castle. Given my new status, no one would really mind if I were to borrow one of the empty places in the building, so I smashed the doors open without even a shred of hesitation. 

After securing the doors and bringing Elia all the way to the huge window as to make looking at each other easier with no other source of light in the room, I could finally sit her on the edge of a bed that just so happened to be there, kneeling in front of her right after.

"My love, I once again neglected you. Never in my worst nightmares, I wanted you to take the burden of our current standing. I didn't realise how big of a toll helping me manage our lands would be on you, especially now that you are in a blessed state. But all of this aside, I would never ever even consider an option of divorcing you just to get more chances at reaching for the crown!"

Given how both of us knew that I never intended to strive for the royal throne, this last sentence of mine had a bit different but still clear meaning.

"What's more, I feel guilty for the situation where you can consider being my wife, something that would burden me. Even if I was given a choice right now, to unify the entire commonwealth under my absolute rule but for the cost of losing you, I wouldn't even hesitate when throwing the prospect of power away."

Even though it wasn't even a year since I appeared in this world, to say that everything was happening quicker and quicker wouldn't be an overstatement. The times where I could calmly develop my lands were now gone, replaced by the reality of the ongoing court intrigues and politic schemes. While this was an inevitable outcome of the situation where my personal power and wealth would grow, it wasn't something that I was willing to cater to all that much.

Outside of securing my essential interests, the entire politic of the country could just go and fuck itself. Given my current development stage and rate at which it was improving, just the waves that I created in the country would elevate it to a position where for the next one or two hundred years no one would dare to challenge Commonwealth's standing, saving it from the turbulent ages that were about to come. With that secured, no one would have any right to blame me if I were to soon withdraw from the court and politics completely, focusing just on living off the spoils of all the work that I did so far!

Sadly, I already fell into the trap that caused the very first great economical depression across the world. Given the current rate of growth, the amounts of products that could be created within a single time-frame only continued to skyrocket. While the new markets of Commonwealth middle and high class just opened to me, if my expansion wouldn't stop, then even the entire Europe would soon be too small to cater to the production capability of what I had right now and what I would obtain in the future. At some point, there just wouldn't be enough gold in the entire continent to buy all my products at a satisfactory rate, nor there would be any customers looking to stock on the products they already bought!

Thankfully, this kind of problem was something that descendants of my descendants could teach their own grandkids how to deal with. For now, just by sitting back, pushing two or three reforms that would strengthen the power of the country and keeping up the innovation rate was enough to turn my lands into the golden cities of the world!

"If that's what you say"

Looking at my face with a strange expression, Elia brought her hand up to gently caress my cheek.

"But have you ever thought about what would happen if your own scheme were to fail?"