Road To The Crown 90 Pleasant Meeting

9th April 1574

"It's an honour to have you visit our poor place!"

Despite being hungover a bit, when seeing the Korybut banner hanging above a set of carriages, I didn't waste any time but grabbed a small barrel of the finest beer I brough with me to the Pilzno and went outside to greet this major n.o.ble myself while sending a servant to prepare the best lodging in the entire palace after the master chambers. While it wasn't necessary to do so, being able to start on a good foot with such an important figure could mean the world for me later on!

"Oh, I didn't expect you to come to greet us so soon! A pleasant surprise, I must say!"

As we were exchanging our greetings, I had few guards moving around the queue leading to the gates, forcing everyone to give way to this major figure. While some n.o.bles were bound to get angry at this unfair treatment given to them despite being equal to any other n.o.ble, with how they were ordered to claim an important person of the city owner family came to visit with the official matter at hand, at least a part of the troublemakers would give way instead of proving to be troublesome.

After all, no one wanted to anger me at this very moment. While n.o.ble myself, I couldn't really punish them for using the road that ultimately belonged to the crown itself, it was well within my ability to forbid them entry to the town, rendering all their wares worthless, and forcing them to incur the additional costs and risks of bringing them even further.

"Here, I hope you will accept this modest gift that I prepared as soon as I saw your glorious banners hanging at the air."

Pa.s.sing the barrel with the beer produced in my own breweries, I made sure to act kind, but in a way someone familiar would, rather than overflowing with respect like a subordinate would. Considering how I was already almost sure that I would push myself under the umbrella of the Jan Bone protection, I had to be careful to not make Michal Cherrie, one of the most powerful people in the entire country mistake my kindness for the attempt to sneak into his service!

"Oh? Is that the famous beer that I heard quite a lot from Jan Bone? Considering how much he praised it, I certainly will have expectations towards drinking it!"

While those sentences might sound like nothing but small talk, I could already derive two important political moves in it. Starting from the fact that by showing his familiarity to my own protector, this shrewd man made sure I wouldn't dare to gift him with any kind of poison, he also made sure to corner me in case I would attempt to buy his favours with something of a lesser quality than the beer that was surprisingly already gaining traction in the higher echelons of the n.o.ble society!

"Yes, this is indeed the same brew, made with the same kind of base resources, held in the same barrels and brewed using exactly the same method. Obviously, the taste might differ a tiny bit, but overall, it's still this beer of mine!"

Considering how well the promotion of my beer went, I suddenly realised a great mistake I made. The first batch of resources bought with the money gained through the sales of the beer was used to simply double its production, while I should actually use it to create a brewing line for the beer of even higher quality!

With how there was still a few days before the wedding would start, I could produce a few barrels with my system myself, but if some of the more influential n.o.bles would pressure me to give them a tour through the brewery capable of producing such a quality drink, I would end up in a corner!

But speaking of the beer, as soon as I pa.s.sed the barrel to the hands of the servant that was honoured enough to travel with the Michal, the patriarch of this insanely rich and powerful clan, took it from my hands, opened it up and poured about half the gla.s.s worth before pa.s.sing the container to his lord.

Riding on my horse alongside their carriage, I could see how this powerful figure firstly watched the colour of the drink, before smelling it a bit only to finally wet his lips with the drink, only to suddenly raise the gla.s.s higher just like Jan Bone did, and gulp the entire thing down!

"Ah! So that's what he meant when he called it unparalleled!"

"With all due respect sir, if my retainers won't f.u.c.k up the delivery, by the time of the wedding, a new product of my breweries, hopefully even better than this brand should arrive in the city! Considering how all the matters are already prepared for the grand day, I wouldn't mind going to my home city myself to ensure it would be brough in a perfect state for the grand festival!"

With my mind spinning around on its maximum speed despite the residual alcohol in my bloodstream doing its best to slow this process down, I could already see me galloping all the way back to the Tarnow, demolis.h.i.+ng some less profitable workshops in the city and turning their building materials into the next production line for the fruit beer so that I could justify its presence on the wedding table a few days later in Pilzno!

"Ah, sir, I wouldn't dare to order you to rush matters just a few days before you will inevitably lose your freedom as a man!"

Content with my responses and respectful yet distant att.i.tude, Michal only smiled, throwing in a joke so popular and realistic, that it remained in use to the days during which I was originally living.

"Don't worry sir. To be honest, I was only looking for an excuse to go ride with the wind like in the old days, before I would be inevitably bound to my chambers, forced to squeeze my lands dry to provide for more and more jewellery for the greatest jewel that would ever be present in my lands!"