Earl Y Ostavi: Stvoriti

I hired a man to drive me to the vacation palace, since no one trusted me enough to let me rent a horse. Some guy even tried selling me the horse. Of course, he said it in a very 'different' way, so it was pretty hard figuring out his intentions.

"I'll let you rent this horse forever, at the price of ten taels of silver.", my ass.

Anyways, he wasn't trying to scam me, since the horse was pretty decent for its price. Instead, he was trying to shove the horse onto me, permanently, so he wouldn't incur any losses in case I ran away with the horse. Unfortunately, other people weren't as smart as him...

I didn't take the shrine to go back, since I remembered how risky it was. Even though I say 'remembered', I actually always knew how risky it was. I just always chose to forget it, because it was very convenient for me. Anyways, the reason I hired an amateur with a half decent horse was because I couldn't count on the shrines aligning perfectly, again, what I would say, but only the trip here was risky. The return trip is very safe, and basically guaranteed.

Of course, taking the horse would be faster. You might wonder why it wouldn't be faster, if I went on horse to the city, and why I didn't, but there's a very good reason for that; it's the terrain. Somewhere around the path from the town to the vacation palace, there's a steep mountain slope going downwards. Obviously, going from the palace on horse meant (a) going around the mountain, (b) dealing with the terrain, (c) take a huge risk, and (d) go with the king, back to the city.

All those options are viable, but everything except (c) takes way too long. Especially (d) and (a). If I remember correctly, the king gave me ten days, which by the time I got to the city using (a) or (b), the king would already be there, using his shrine and influence. Then, returning with the king is the best idea, no? Well, wrong. First of all, I don't like the king. Second, I could always go to a shrine in the capital, and take a horse from there, and ride for five consecutive months, and finally arrive at the city. So, yeah. The only options really were (c) and (d)... even then, the former was really risky. It had the highest return, of course, but it had the highest risk.

Anyways, the downward slope is a very good... thing? Basically, the horse can use that to pick up momentum, and run faster, so we'll arrive there around two three hours earlier than what would take from the other side to the city.

(meaning, city to palace = X hours. palace to city = X+2~3 hours [estimate] )

So, if I think about it in a way, not only did I complete the high commander's mission perfectly with months to spare, I also finished king's errand in less than a day, even though doing it in ten days should have been impossible, in any ordinary circumstances. He must've assumed I'd go with him, and then negotiate with the ambassador.

Within two days, I arrived at the summer palace. I made sure to pay the driver exactly what he asked for, when I started the journey. In the beginning, I said the driver was an amateur, right? Well, amateurs wouldn't be able to control three horses for two days, with around ten consecutive hours of travel at a time. I called him a novice, because when I was hiring people to get me to the palace, I asked for a fixed payment with high opportunity for bonuses. It's the kind of thing you offer someone you wanna hire permanently. The guy obviously didn't realize how suspicious my payment method was, and decided to take me where ever, without even knowing my destination. Honestly, I've seen tons and tons of people worse than him at riding, but they all saw the trap I had set.

Basically, I used this scam to legally get someone to turn a hundred (silver) taels worth of a ride into a mere fifty (silver) taels worth of a ride. The man probably realized what I had done after he realized my destination, but unfortunately, he took my safety deposit of twenty (silver) taels, and even accepted a starting bonus, which cut down the amount I saved by scamming him, but not by a lot.

After paying him the fifty (silver) taels we agreed upon, he left, seeing as there was no profit in bringing me back (not that he was obliged to bring me back in the first place).

"inflammation sucks." I muttered, before going into the palace.

After walking around the huge palace for a while, I found the king and co. entertaining some guests. Of course, by entertaining, I mean they were just being served tea and given an audience.

"ah, Panji'er! Come greet the earl of Herzegovina! He's a very important friend of mine, and I hope you'll treat him well."

"of course I will. And it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, earl Herzegovina."

"oh, kiddo. There's one thing you got wrong. I'm not earl Herzegovina. I'm earl OF Herzegovina. But you can call me Ostavi Stvoriti, or Osta for short."

"then, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, earl Ostavi. And, king. About the business we talked about before? The ambassador has agreed, and I will be leaving the west, because of that."

"totally understandable! I'll make the preparations right away!"

I thanked the king and left the room. Calling him 'your majesty' felt... too disgusting to do.