37 Dead Men Tell No Tales

I saw Sveta almost every day, but only after a week she said that despite my warnings she still wanted to call him Michał ... I was hoping that she would be more reasonable, but I promised that I would agree and I wasn't going to change it.

I returned to my office, on my desk there were prepared documents concerning Sveta's son, I added the name Michał and called the Ensign Olszewski to me ... a few minutes later he showed up.

"You will come with me to the Brzozowski family and we will deal with the coat of arms ... do you know something more about them?" (MC)

"The Brzozowski family of the Belina coat of arms, nothing special. The older brother died in Livonia, the younger one inherited everything ... he and his wife have a small farm, for 300 ducats they agreed to the whole thing with the coat of arms ... how are we going to do it?" (Ensign Olszewski)

"I will give them 300 ducats, they will sign documents and a declaration that Michał Piotr Brzozowski, born on August 5, 1623, of the Belina coat of arms, will be given for the upbringing of Prince Wilkomir Michał Jazlowiecki-Ostrogski, of the Abdnak coat of arms, any more questions?" (MC)

We left immediately and two days later we were there, the seat of the Brzozowski family was an ordinary farm, a wooden house, five hectares of land, some pets and no servants or pesants to help. We went inside.

"Let Jesus Christ be praised. Greetings." (MC)

"A guest at home, God at home. What brings you to me?" (Piotr Brzozowski)

"A few days ago, Mister Olszewski was here with a proposal regarding the coat of arms." (MC)

From the bag I took a bag which contained three hundred ducats, documents, a pen and ink. I put everything on the table. Brzozowski picked up the documents, read them carefully, took the pen and signed them. His wife was watching everything from the side.

"Ooo ... the prince's bastard will now bear my last name ..." (Piotr Brzozowski)

I quickly grabbed the saber and with one stroke I split his head open, he did not even react, then I headed towards his wife, she was so surprised and shocked that she did not defend herself ... I pierced her with my saber. I looked at Olszewski who watched the whole event without any emotions.

"If you want to keep a secret between three people, two of them must be dead." (MC)

"I know that secret too." (Ensign Olszewski)

"There is no secret anymore, the documents make it clear what happened. Second, you still have some value for me." (MC)

I grabbed the purse with ducats and threw it to Olszewski.

"Your fortune will grow with mine." (MC)

I searched the house and took all the other papers and documents in it. Sveta's son will be entitled to this property in the future. Then I laid the bodies of the Brzozowski family on the bed and set their house on fire.

"Nothing here for us, we're going back to Jazłowiec." (MC)

After traveling a few kilometers, I stopped my horse, turned towards the farm ... you could see smoke rising in the sky. Olszewski looked at me and moved on, and after a dozen or so seconds I did it too. Soon after, I almost caught up with Olszewski's horse ... I took the gun from my belt and shot him in the back. His horse tangled, Olszewski fell to the ground. I stopped my horse, dismounted and took out the second pistol I had on my saddle ... he looked at me with surprise and hatred.

"Dead men tell no tales." (MC)

And I shot him in the head, to be sure I stabbed him a few more times with a saber ... the animals will take care of the rest. I left the ducats there, even if someone finds it, 300 ducats is a lot of money. Better to keep them than to trouble yourself.

The following days and weeks were rather boring, not many interesting things happened. Sveta recovered after giving birth, the baby looked and developed rather healthy, since he was born I saw him twice, the first time right after his birth, the second time during his baptism ... it only confirmed my belief that not everyone is suitable to be father, especially me.

Summer is over and the long-awaited fall has come, and I also received the long-awaited reply from the Zamoyski family. Although they no longer owned land in the Voivodship of Bracław, they expressed their interest in my proposal ... a few weeks later we finally made a deal.

In exchange for my land in the Voivodship of Bracław and 150,000 ducats, I obtained the Zamoyski lands in Podolia. Which made me the largest landowner in this region. Initially, the Jazłowiecki family had 700 square kilometers, I inherited another 800 square kilometers from my grandfather, and now I have acquired an additional 1,300 square kilometers ... one seventh of the entire province was my property. The rest of the land belonged to the lesser nobility and the king, but I already had my head on how to get more of it. My main goal was to gain total control over Podolia and Volhynia.

However, my main problem in the future will be the population, only about 400,000 people lived on a little over 19,000 square kilometers ... so I hoped that my delegation to the Kingdom of Bohemia would have some effect, the second option was to buy slaves from the Ottoman Empire or kidnap people from other countries, probably from the Principality of Moscow.

The year 1623 came to an end and it was one of the most peaceful years I have experienced, everything was going well. My plans were slowly gaining momentum. However, the next year will not be so calm, in 1624 the Tatars will attack the Polish Kingdom ... I will have to go out and greet them warmly.

At the beginning of January, my grandfather's wife, Teofila Tarło, came to Jazlowiec. She decided to take advantage of the invitation I issued in Tarnów ... there could be several possibilities for this, she spent all the money and she had nowhere to go, or she wanted something from me or it was a simple family visit. I didn't suspect her of malicious intent, but a bit of paranoia hasn't hurt anyone yet ... as they say, even paranoids have enemies.