06 Money, Money, Money

Three years later - 1620

"Soon you will be 15. I was thinking about sending you abroad to study, but your teacher thinks it's just a waste of time. So you will be studying at home for the next year, and then you will join the military." (Jazłowiecki)

"I understand, Father." (MC)

On the one hand, I regretted this decision a bit ... Young, handsome, wealthy, alone in Paris or Vienna. On the other hand, why should you look for problems in Europe when I have enough of them in my own country? As for the army, I was not particularly delighted with this prospect, but at least I will get out of Jazłowiec and I will be able to do something on my own.

"You are already at this age that you must have your own saber, tomorrow you, your teacher and I will go to Lwów." (Jazłowiecki)

Of course, I enjoyed the prospect of going out and having my own sword, but I had been thinking a lot about my future over the past three years, and one thing was for sure. No matter how well I fight ... Nec Hercules contra plures. To change something, I had to have money, power and most importantly ... have the will to do what others are afraid of. In a world where a dog eats a dog, you need to be a dog trainer.

"Did you want anything else? Why are you looking like an ox at a painted gate?" (Jazłowiecki)

"No, nothing. Thank you, Father." (MC)

I left my father's office and went to my room.

The next morning we went to Lwów ... beautiful nature, but infrastructure worse than on the third world level. I don't know how something like that can be called a road ... it took us four days to cover 180 kilometers.

Upon arrival, I felt cheated, maybe not as much as when it turns out that the woman is wearing a push up bra, I was disappointed. Our goal was not Lwów, but a small workshop two kilometers from the city, where supposedly the best sabers were made.

We got off the horses, Father and Jacek Dydyński entered the sword-maker workshop, and I stayed with the horses ... after about an hour, my father and Dydyński left the workshop, my teacher was holding the blade in his hand.

He wiped it on his robe to remove the grease, examined it closely in the daylight, walked over to the saddle and hit the seat with the side of the blade. He nodded to my father, and my father called the saber-maker, talked to him for a while, took out a purse and paid him 7 ducats ... that's 14 thalers ... that's what a carpenter earns for two months. Of course, it wasn't the payment for the blade itself, but also for the entire hilt and scabbard... We had to wait one day for the whole thing to be done. So my father decided that we would spend the night in the city ... so I will see Lwów after all.

I don't know if Weles and Perun are watching over me, I haven't met them yet ... but I don't believe in coincidences.

On the day I was in Lwowie, my grandfather, Prince Janusz Konstantynowicz Ostrogski, was also there. It was my late mother's father and it was our first meeting ... I have to make a good impression on him, as far as I remember, he only had two daughters and no male heir ... and he was damn rich. My father's fortune can be compared to someone who has 100 million dollars, my grandfather was several billion dollars. My mother was the older daughter ... I love you grandpa.

I wanted to remember everything I knew about him from history ... he died ... he died ... 1620. Fuck, my grandfather is going to die in a few months. His second daughter got all his fortune ... it doesn't matter. My grandfather was a royalist, but he was not as devoted to the Vasa dynasty as my father ... I have a starting point.

The meeting was held at the property of one of the nobles befriended by grandfather, it was a modest feast for seventy people. My father took me ... he didn't really have to take me, I wanted to pay my respects to my grandfather myself.

"You are Wilkomir, son of Eleanor ... you are like her, though your features are stronger." (Grandfather)

"Perhaps, I didn't have the opportunity to meet her. I wanted to say hello and pay my respects. Unfortunately, I have to go now, we are going back to Jazłowiec in the morning." (MC)

I will pretend to be hard to get, maybe I'll make him feel guilty that he hasn't visited me in 15 years ... and maybe his purse will open ... his heart will open.

"How old are you?" (Grandfather)

"I'll be 15 this summer. I really have to go, in the morning I pick up my saber and go back to Podolia with my father." (MC)

"Are you going to study abroad?" (Grandfather)

"No, next year I am joining the army, in this country a saber is more useful than a head." (MC)

"What do you mean?" (Grandfather)

"The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth resembles a piece of red cloth and anyone who can pull this piece of cloth towards their side ... sooner or later only scraps will be left." (MC)

"Are you not too young for politics?" (Grandfather)

"I have eyes and I can see, I have ears and I hear, I have reason and I think. Age has nothing to do with it ... Sweden, Moscow, Turks, Tatars, Cossacks, Prussia, the nobility and the king ... sorry I said too much. Really. I have to go now. If God allows us, we'll definitely see each other again. " (MC)

Without waiting any longer, I left my grandfather alone. I don't know if my performance has done anything and if I will gain anything from it ... but my acting deserved an Oscar ... well, maybe not an Oscar, after all, I'm a white heterosexual man.