11th July 1574"You don"t know it, but you started with the worst type of question that you could. And the answer to it, is yes and no."
Twisting my lips in an ugly line, I had to stop myself from huge warfare of thoughts that was instantly born in my head. Rather than overcomplicating the situation by giving the elaborate explanation, I decided to go with the simplest answer I could.
"You see, if we go by the bloodline, then I was still of n.o.ble orgin. The family that I was born in traced its origins all the way back to the Tarnowski household. You could say, that right now, I"m one of my own ancestors. As for whether I was a n.o.ble… You see, in the future where I grew up, there was no such thing as n.o.bility anymore."
Taking a deep breath, I lightly pushed Elia away, so that rather than speaking towards the emptiness of the room, I could at least face her while explaining this complex situation.
"While I don"t want to go in details right now, due to the set of warfares, way bloodier than anything that had happened in the Commonwealth history so far, society at large has come through a set of… rather drastic changes. As such, in the time when I was born, even if the inst.i.tution of n.o.bility still existed in some places, it wasn"t something that anyone was ever bothered with. You could say, that in the future, everyone was born equal."
As much as I hated those words, it was the inevitable truth. Obviously, one could agree to how false this statement was due to all the fine details that made people born in the low-end families nearly incapable of ever reaching the point that some of the lucky bunch was born at, it didn"t change the fact that when speaking about the general concept, it still held true!
"Wait, how could that be? How could everyone be equal? What about the rulers then? How did countries govern themselves?"
Just as expected, while I was already happy with how willing Elia was to accept the fact that I wasn"t born in the current age, the changes that happened during the centuries to come wasn"t something that she could swallow just like that.
"Well, you could say that while people stopped calling themselves a n.o.ble and a commoner, outside of naming, nothing really changed that much. The one thing that you could say to be the most important marking of future times, was democracy. But seeing how it looked right before I was moved to this great age… It was nothing more than a shadow of the concept behind this word."
Just thinking about all the corruption, dirty political fights, frauds and all the other stigmas of the modernity was enough to make me once again insanely thankful to whatever force pushed me to move into this timeline. Even if it was way more dangerous and problematic at times, the rules of life were at least what they appeared to be!
"I think I get that… but democracy? Don"t we have it right now? Did you want to imply that our great invention of choosing our own king was adopted by the rest of the world?!"
Hearing how innocently Elia believed that in the future anyone had any regard for any of the many great polish inventions, I couldn"t help but let a wry smile surface on my mouth.
"Once again, it"s not that simple. The world that I lived in was a result of insane number of complex changes that turned in on its head. And by democracy… I meant the system where every single ruling party, from local leaders, through governors all the way to the parliament and the head of the state… Were chosen every five years in the national vote during which every single adult, be it man or woman, could cast a single vote."
To be honest, I wasn"t quite sure how would Elia receive such a message. On one side, it was in line with the standard of the n.o.bles" golden liberty that was one of the most important values to the common upper-cla.s.s members in the current times, yet accepting every single man in the country into said liberty? I could already guess what she would say about it!
"What?! Commoners has just as big right to vote as the n.o.bility did?! Wait, no, you said there will be no real n.o.bility in the future. So are you going to say that some lowlifes that never bothered to do anything in their life will have as much to say in regards to how the country would work as someone who spent his entire life studying politics? As much to say as the University graduates?!"
Just like I thought, she instantly brought one of the major concerns behind democracy. To be fair, even I couldn"t understand why someone who studied all kinds of crafts for longer than the current average life expectancy was, would have his vote worth as much as someone who lived his entire life on social help!
"Let"s not speak about it now, it pains me to even explain it. But you need to realise one thing. There is a phenomenon called the b.u.t.terfly effect. It was explained as the situation when a single flap of b.u.t.terfly"s wings now, can cause a devastating storm that would ravage the entire coastline a year from now. It meant to convey that even the smallest change could bring an insanely great effect in the far-off future. And just how it did happen with the society forced into the confines of the three great tyrannies and deprived of the liberty that Commonwealth was known from…"
Just as I was about to finish my words, I realised that I stepped on the landmine that I was supposed to avoid. Just how the heck I was supposed to explain her one of the most tragic events from the Polish history now?!
"What did you mean by that?!"
Maybe reading my own feelings by how I instantly tensed, or maybe reading between the lines of what I said, Elia instantly caught up on the hook that I unintentionally left in the open.
"Ehh… You see, in about two centuries… The Commonwealth would be no more."