"Your grace as you've ordered all soldiers were stationed around medina sidonia with sir stalin overseeing them as the commander and the appointmed lieutenant commanders appointed by your grace personally to help convey the orders of your grace and to also oversee the soldiers." Said sebastian calmly while bowing.
"Good, we can't have mice thinking they can just freely come in and out of my territory as they please." I said calmly while noticing a couple of sealed letters and documents in sebastian's hand and held my hand out, gesturing for him to give them to me.
Sebastian came up to my desk and handed me the documents and letters while saying with a worried look on his face "Your grace I actually have something important to report."
"What is it." I said calmly while looking at each and everyone of the 5 sealed letters on my desk with unique seals on them, completely ignoring the documents for now since the letters seem of more importance.
Sebastian looked down a little bit with a nervous look on his face and looked back up at me and said "It's about the peasants your grace."
"What about them." I asked calmly, still waiting for him to just spit out whatever he had to report.
"They seem to be starting another riot but this one is more bigger than the previous ones." Said sebastian with a still very worried look on his face.
I stared at him for a moment and sat the envelopes down on my desk and interlocked my fingers and asked calmly "Why are you reporting this to me."
Sebastian flinched slightly and immediately dropped to his knees and kowtowed and said loudly with large amounts of sweat dripping onto the floor from his forehead "PLEASE YOUR GRACE DON'T EXECUTE MY NEPHEW HE IS STUPID AND HAS NEVER BEEN PROPERLY EDUCATED."
"How come he isn't educated when I pay them well" I thought with a slight sigh but immediately threw that thought out of my head since it's none of my business what my servants do in their personal lives are like.
"Is he apart of the riot." I asked calmly, but simply since nothing more needs to be said than what I already have asked.
"Y…yes your grace, I've never had any children of my own and he is all I have left in this peasant life of mine." Said sebastian stutteringly while still kowtowed on the floor.
I rubbed my stubble bearded chin for a moment and said calmly while leaning back in my seat "Get up, I won't execute your nephew."
Sebastian slowly got up from the floor and said immediately with a smile on his face "Rea…"
"Only if he isn't the leader or one of the people commanding the riot." I said calmly, but immediately shutting all of his down in a instant.
Sebastian face fell immediately into despair like all the blood in it had immediately been drained from it and passed out onto the floor.
*Boom*
"Huh." I said with my eyes widening in surprise from the comical cinderella like faint that he just displayed from only just hearing my words.
I sighed and grabbed the bell on my desk and wrung it.
*DING* *DING* *DING*
*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*
"Your grace." Said a woman's voice out of nowhere from outside my study.
"You may enter." I said calmly while waiting for her to enter.
The door opened and a beautiful tall woman in a maid uniform entered the study and bowed with her eyes closed and said calmly "Your grace."
"Take sebastian to his chambers and make sure to call the physician for him." I said calmly while willing my tobacco pipe in my hand under my desk from my storage and put it by the lit luxerious candle on my desk and lit it and put it into my mouth and inhaled it and exhaled the smoke from my nose.
"Yes your grace." Said the maid calmly while bending down and picked up sebastian like he weighed nothing and was about to leave, but froze from hearing my last words.
"Tell the duchess to stop prying into affairs that don't concern her, lest she wishes to be punished again for it." I said calmly while exhaling smoke from my mouth.
"Y…yes your…g…grace as you wish." Said the servant woman stutteringly while leaving the study with sebastian on her shoulder.
I watched as the servant woman left with sebastian on her shoulder in a hurry and thought with squinted eyes "My disobedient wife sure has a lot of assassins everywhere"
I put the tobacco pipe on my desk and picked up one of the envelopes with the seal of the duchy of luthuania on it and opened it and read the letter which was in simple terms a marriage proposal from king henry II of france who is offering his sister, marguerite de france's hand in exchange for an alliance with andalusia, obviously beating me to it since I eventually planned to try and form a alliance with them since we both will benefit immensely from this and I don't mind taking a new wife so fuck the pope I'd rather have a woman over this fucked up old greasy religion in this war plagued century were everyone only think about what they can gain.
I chuckled and rubbed my stubble beared chin agains and thought while scooting my chair back and slouching back in my chair again while looking at the letter on my desk from france, not even remembering when i leaned forward and thought while spreading my legs wide apart in a comfortable position to let my little brother get some fresh air and breathe "While I'm on this topic about allying myself with france I should most definitely break away from the catholic church since their most likely corrupt and will definitely be a problem to me in the future and I know by doing so I will most likely have even more riots and staged rebellions from the peasants who will challenge me with their faith so I'll kindly introduce them to a new one which will be my own created religion that will be named solarianism that will preach about the sun as the name itself entails."
"Yes, I should most definitely do this since it would be the most beneficial in my goal of achieving a absolute monarchy where I have the final say and I should also, after fully conquering cadiz declare myself a archduke, instead of a grand duke since I am after all a habsburg and it's my right by blood to do so and anyone wouldn't even be able to do or say anything since my name speaks volumes for itself." I said to myself with a wide grin forming on my face, which resembled the architect statue in the solo leveling anime that would make any man or woman faint and shit themselves in fear.
I chuckled again and leaned forward and grabbed another envelope from the table and seen that the seal was of the grand duchy of lithuania and thought "I'm guessing they also want to form a alliance with me so that they could extend their influence into andalusia and also do business with me like france who benefits the most from out of them both."
"But what do I get out of this is the real question since andalusia is now mines and I'm a very picky man so it'll be hard to satisfy my needs." I said calmly with a dead non bullshitting look on my face while continuing opening the envelope and took out a piece of paper and started to read it which told that king sigismund II augustus would provide eastern calvary's and mercenaries, grant access to baltic trade ports, and offer his sister anna jagiellon's hand in marriage.
I grinned very widely again and started laughing out of nowhere, but immediately stopped like i was never laughing from the start and said calmly while looking back at the letter in my hand "I need to take a look at the old roman drainage systems in cordoba and seville and I'm fully aware that they are in partial use but I could upgrade them and get the waste out of my cities and stop people from throwing their shit in my rivers because that's how diseases form and when it becomes winter and the rivers freeze it traps the bacteria and isn't able to fully decomposes on it's own and that's how the rivers form diseases and get contaminated which eventually spreads throughout cities and empires like the black death in the 15th century which was caused by the bacterium yersinia pestis"
I threw the letter onto my desk and grabbed all three of the envelopes that were left and seen they were from the ottoman, england and safavid empire which are also forces that I'm guessing wants to form a alliance with me and I'ma also guess that england sent a letter to make sure that our alliance and agreements are still valid, which are for now that is until they try to pull some devious shit on me.
*KNOCK* *KNOCK*
"Your grace it's me advisor coleman and advisor andres, may we enter." Asked advisor coleman from outside the study.
"You may." I said calmly while setting the envelopes to the side while wondering who the hell was advisor andres on the inside.
The door opened and advisor coleman made his way inside with the construction advisor which made my face turn sour and suddenly feel nauseous from the stench that walked into my study.
"Your g…" Said advisor coleman, only to be immediately interrupted.
"What the hell is that smell, it smells like waste." I said calmly while covering my nose with a handkerchief that was made by our of so beloved duchess.
Advisor andres face looked oblivious for a second and suddenly had a pooo of realization and chuckled and said while rubbing the back of his head "Oh, that is me your grace, I was examining the layout of the drainage system underground and hadn't had time to wash."
My eyes widened in surprise up and said immediately with a grin being hidden by the handkerchief "Good, very good so you already have the whole system memorized, correct."
"Indeed your grace, but if I may be so bold as to ask, why do you ask." Said advisor andres with a confused look on his face.
The grin grew even wider behind the handkerchief to the point that a doctor of the 21st century would freak out and immediately resort to surgery and said calmly ominously "Then I'll leave it to you to draw the whole layout of cordoba's and seville's drainage system and see if you could exend it's use to all throughout andalusia and after you get done with your work I'll personally send you a tub to wash yourself because no woman wants a man that smells like utter shit." I said calmly while gesturing for him to get the hell out of my study immediately.
"Huh…" Said advisor andres with a innocent, but confused look on his face, not registering that a huge amount of work was dumped on his shoulders in a instant as he took his leave.
I took the handkerchief away from my nose and smelled fresh air again and looked at advisor coleman and said with a sigh "What."
"Your grace were you already informed of the peasants staged riots." Asked advisor coleman with sweat forming on his forehead from clear stress.
"I'm aware but it's not really something to be concerned over unless they are taking it to my castle and didn't I already solve their food shortage problem, what is it now, faith, poverty, or their rejection to my rule." I asked calmly while looking advisor coleman straight into his eyes.
Advisor coleman's forehead started forming even more large beads of sweat and said with a sigh that spoke of his honesty to my question "Your grace, I'm sure it's overall poverty and their rejection to your rule because no person accepts change easily."
I rubbed my stubble bearded chin for a moment and said calmly "While we work on the drainage systems I will also be building new homes and places for the peasants to find work."
Advisor coleman's eyes widened in surprise and said immediately "But your grace wouldn't that affect your wealth."
"Indeed it will, but It won't be a problem once I obtain cadiz." I said calmly while grabbing the quill pen that was dipped inside the ink on my desk and started writing some ingredients on a blank piece of paper that I pulled in front of me.
After I was done writing on the blank piece of paper that was now full of ingredients, I put the quill pen back into the small luxerious ink cup and handed the blank piece of paper to advisor coleman and said calmly "Give this to the duchess's maid and tell her than I want her to make what is is drawn on the paper, she'll understand what I mean."
Advisor coleman bowed a little while grabbing the paper and glanced at it and seen the drawing of a object with a weird symbol on it and was confused and asked "Pardon my rudeness your grace, but if I may speak boldly, what is this object on the paper that you created because it looks like soap but with a weird symbol in the middle of it."
I picked up the tobacco pipe off my desk and put it into my mouth and inhaled and exhaled a smoke ring and said calmly "Indeed it is soap but a better version for the skin, it is called dove soap and the duchess being a knowledgeable herbalist will know how to create it."
Advisor coleman's eyes widened in disbelief from the sudden shock and said immediately "Your grace this is a occasion to celebrate, do you know how many kings will covet such a creation and how much wealth you can amass with this."
"Don't get to excited now advisor coleman lest it turns into greed and we wouldn't want that now would we." I said calmly while exhaling smoke from my nose.
The expression on advisor coleman's face Immediately fell and said stutteringly quickly while dropping to his knees, prostrating himself on the floor "I…I wouldn't dare have such thoughts your grace, I am your most humble servant at your every beck and call, you order and I shall see to it that is is done with utmost care and swiftness."
"Good, very good, then run along." I said calmly while setting the tobacco pipe back onto my desk, watching advisor coleman get back up from the floor while adjusting his luxerious attire.
"Yes your grace." Said advisor coleman with a bow and lot of sweat dripping down his face from his forehead while immediately taking his leave to do as he was ordered.
Advisor coleman opened the door, only to come face to face with a tall beautiful maid and glanced down at the tray full of sweets with a tea set in her hands with squinted eyes and glanced back up at her eyes and said calmly "Step aside maid, I have urgent matters that I must attend to immediately."
"Yes lord coleman." Said the maid softly with her head bowed and stepped aside for him to walk past.
Advisor coleman walk past her and left to attend to his duties.
The maid watched advisor coleman as he left and clicked her teeth softly while glancing at his luxerious attire that he was wearing and suddenly a picture of herself flashed across her mind with herself sitting on the chained advisor coleman's back with a whip in her hand and licked her lips with a wretched wide grin appearing on her face but immediately regained her composure and starting entering into my study.
I stared at the paper in my hand that details of the new religion that I plan to create for my future arch dukedom and thought "I'll inform advisor coleman of this when he's done with his tasks"
*Knock* *Knock*
"Your grace I am entering." Said a soothing woman's voice out of nowhere.
I looked up from the paper in my hand and seen the same rather tall maid that is about 5'10, who I had dismissed earlier due to my wife's meddling in my affairs that she should have no concern for or business in.
"What is it that the duchess wants." I asked calmly while facing the piece of paper face down on my desk and putting my interlocked hands over it.
"Your grace the duchess has ordered me to prepare you some tea and sweets." Said the maid while setting the tray full of sweets and a tea set on my desk.
"Well tell the duchess that she has my thanks." I said calmly while looking at the tray full of sweets with a tea set.
The maid bowed and picked up the luxerious tea pot and started pouring it into the into the tea cup while preparing the sweets along with it.
I watched the maid as she finished preparing and set the plate next to my paperwork and bowed and said while taking her leave "Your grace."
I raised my hand a little, indicating that she was excused and looked back at the plate full of sweets and the tea cup and thought while grabbing the tea cup and putting it up by my nose to sniff it "This is definitely poisoned."
[DING!]
[Conndition: Survive 20 assassinations]
[Calculating….]
[Calculating….]
[Calculating….]
[Calculating….]
[Calculating….]
[DING!]
[Condition survive 20 assassinations have been met]
[DING!]
[You have obtained the perk: Insight]
…
THE END…