Road to the Crown

Chapter 281: Cheerio's Deputation

25th August 1574

"Sir, the delegate of the Cheerio family has arrived."

After knocking on the doors to my study and announcing the newly arriving party, this butler of mine stood to the side, allowing the group of four men to enter the room.

Watching those men from behind my desk, I pointed them at the nearby chairs. There was no need to say anything at this point, as the gesture was obvious in itself.

"Welcome to the New Tarnow. Would you mind telling me on what kind of occasion do I deserve such honours?"

Sadly, I didn't recognise anyone from the visiting group. Obviously, I couldn't expect for the house head that I met all the way back on my wedding to come with visit just to have some talk about business, yet I still couldn't help but regret that I would be forced to negotiate with people I knew literally nothing about.

"Spare us the formalities, noble sir. Or did we do something that would deserve such a cold treatment?"

Stepping up, it was surprisingly the youngest man of the entire group stepped forth, clearly indicating who was in charge of this deputation.

"Oh, please, that was just a silly habit of mine. As much as I personally hate all those wasteful, timeconsuming steps required by the etiquette, ever since my person was brought to the focus of the entire country, I just don't have any choice but to follow it."

Even before the topic of the negotiations, already obvious to me, would be introduced openly, I already started placing down my chips on the table. In fact, Cheerio was the first household outside of the strict group of my supporters that personally bothered to approach me. Given how they could profit a lot from my private war with the rebels, both in terms of land and potentially getting a deal to have their lands be the host for one of the train stations, it was fairly obvious that sooner or later, they would pay me a visit.

But they didn't need to know that my reputation have yet to permanent through the entire country!

Because before the prototype of the train would make its virgin journey from Tarnow to Krakow, I would only be known as the rebel or patriot, depending how far one lived from the source of the fresh information.

"I can wholeheartedly agree, sir. But to make it even easier, how about we share a Bruder?"

This proposition was as open as it was outrageous. But for me, it was just a small, little reminder that some of the traditions present in modern society actually had its roots all the way back in history long gone!

"Kilan, go bring some of the Tarnowian booze. Yeah, the stronger one."

Rather than replying directly to the question, I already issued the necessary orders to my butler. In what seemed like just a few seconds, he managed to get out of the room, find one of the stashes filled with alcohol hidden around the entire mansion and bring back with the already opened bottle and set of glasses!

"Respectable deputy, before we even go through with the ritual, I will have to beg for your forgiveness, but the latest matters"

"Sail straight to the shore, mister Sailor. There is no point for the lengthy explanations!"

With his eyes keenly watching as my butler filled the glasses with a strange, brownish liquid, the leader of the group quickly reinforced his point about ignoring the formalities.

"Okay then, sir. May I know your name first?"

For the first time in a long while, I was given the chance to drop the bomb. And there was little to say about how unexpected it was for the deputy!

"Ah, so that was your point earlier, mister Mike. I'm Constanty, of the cheerio family. You have the honour of meeting my father before."

As if the dams of the knowledge suddenly unlocked, all sorts of the information that I would otherwise never remember came flooding to my mind. From all the exploits of the man in front of me that would come to be in the near future, though how he was an uncle to Jeremi Cheerio, one of the figures that resounded with bold notes through Commonwealth's history, all the way to how he would die from being poisoned during a holy mass

Unsure about the source of this knowledge that momentarily overwhelmed me, I could only stand up and shake hands with the young man in front of me. 

"Once again, I apologise for not recognising such a great man like you, sir Constanty. Shall we?"

As soon as our hands detached, I pointed at the set of half-filled glasses resting peacefully on the table. 

"With pleasure."

Replying with a smile, Constantly grabbed one of the cups. Using this time, I circled around the table and picked my own portion as well.

"For the fortune!"

"For prosperity!"

Crossing our leading arms at the elbow height, we both raised the cups at the same time, following through with our actions and drinking the thick content all up in one go!

"Mike."

"Constanty."

Bruder, often called Brudsio, a word originating from german word Bruderschaft, that found its way in Polish culture as an act of breaking the ice and formally moving away from using respectable form of speech towards each other. That was also the meaning of the toast before drinking, and spelling our own names despite the two of us already knowing how we were both named!

"Okay then, now that we have this part out of the way, speak your mind. I think I can guess the purpose of your visit, but let me hear it from you first."

Right now, despite how developed my lands were, due to the lack of promotion of the solutions that I was using, I didn't have any hopes that I was known from anything else but allegedly rebelling against the country and producing quality drinks.

"With all due respect But I think I need a moment"

Only at this point, when looking at Constanty's flushed face, did I notice one bit of the information that flooded my head a moment ago. This young man in front of me was known for how much he abhorred drinking alcohol!

But being just a local noble, I had no way of knowing this in advance if not for this strange event, looking like a rare interference of the system! In fact, I used it so rarely due to the social constraints of the era, that I nearly forgot that it existed in the first place!

"I drank many different kinds of beverages But just what the heck is this? It tastes so good!"

Hearing the words of praise, I couldn't help but smile. This one drink was something that I developed in the moments where I just couldn't think about the problems related to the development of my lands and progress of laying down the train tracks. Basing its taste of what I remembered of a popular drinking brand from the future, Jagermaster, it took quite an extensive amount of time to find the proper ratios of proper herbs to replicate even a part of this sweet, familiar medicine!

"It's one of my newest drinks. Sadly, it's brewing process is just too damn complicated to let me mass-produce it, so for now, it's something one can drink only as my guest."

Despite how we openly dropped all the formalities, or even despite how I encouraged the group to just explain what aims they had by coming to my place, I just couldn't help myself from trying to play them a bit further. After all, if I could get Jarema's uncle addicted to a drink only I could produce, then swaying this future, famous warlord of Commonwealth to my side would be all the easier!

"It's a pity But can I hope to bring back some as to let my father taste it as well? And since we are speaking about drinks, my dearest father send us here to ask whether there are any chances of pushing forward the option of setting some breweries in his lands? While I'm sure you two had a lengthy talk about it with how quickly he introduced the topic, but in the case that you forgot, he ordered me to pass you this letter of good intent as well."

Suddenly tingling as if he remembered something, Constantly quickly patted himself all over, before a happy smile appeared on his face. With his face digging into his clothes for a moment, he quickly pulled out a rolled and sealed piece of paper before casually passing it to me.

"Oh? It would be a sign of disrespect if I were to talk with you guys, before reading your benevolent father's message!"

With how I highly doubted that Michael Cheerio whom I already met with would bother his son to go all the way to New Tarnow just to ask about such a small matter, I concluded that this letter held a huge chance of containing the true meaning of their visit.

And just by reading a few initial words, I managed to confirm my guess.

"I remember it all now."

Opening one of the desk's drawers, I made sure to stuff the letter inside before decisively closing it and raising my eyes. Only after a long period of staring directly at Constanty's eyes, did I continue.

"For now, it would be best if you would stay, at least for the day. I will see to have someone give you a tour of my lands. As for the message to your father, once you go back to him, you can tell that by the beginning of the October, I will surely pay him a visit and fulfil the promise I gave to him all this time in the past!"