9 Gutsy girl (1/2)
”Forgive me, young miss, but I'm a superstitious man. Meeting a beautiful woman right after being assaulted by a band of brigands seems like a bad omen for the future, doesn't it?”
In fact, this statement couldn't be further from the truth. How could someone born in the damned twenty-first century by superstitious as per late medieval standards? If I were to say those words in Western Europe, the lady in front of me would most likely start fearing if I wouldn't put her on the stake, but with the holy status of nobility in the commonwealth and the uncommon freedom of faith in the country, my words held quite a different meaning in our culture, as opposed to the rest of the continent.
”It's a duty for nobles to protect the damsels! Should I put your name into suspicion if you refuse to recognise our knightly origin?'
Just like in the rest of the feudal monarchies, Poland and the rest of its federation state was currently in the process of transition from the field nobles to the court nobles. With the origin of the status still being important if not to say, an integral part of the nobles spirituality, the law of three words still was in power.
To put it bluntly, without a proper system to organise the people and continuous dilution of the blood in both the major and smaller households, it was impossible to keep a track of every single noble out there. While western Europe managed to best the Commonwealth in this field by allowing only the landed nobles to keep the hereditary status of their titles, in this wild east of the continent, as long as you weren't born as a bastard child of a noble, you would live in the upper part of the social circle.
As the number of knights grew uncontrollably, there was a need to implement a system to control the process. And just like that, with the exception of people who inherited land from their parents or were gifted a piece of it from the King, as long as even a single noble put your nobility into doubt, you would enter a complicated and annoying process of clearing your name, where it was your own responsibility to prove yourself, instead of the accuser to prove you were usurping the title!
On the other hand, as long as one was crafty enough, just by finding three 'trusty' nobles that would vouch for said person nobility… One could become noble, even if the entire process was just a ruse!
”Put my name into suspicion? I would like to see you try! Men, shoot that commoner!”
”STOP!”
Before my subordinates could even take move their muzzles towards the haughty warrior at the front, the young woman that stayed by his side until now, suddenly kicked the sides of her horse, forcing it to jump forward and put her at the line of the fire.
”I'm sorry for my retainer. It wasn't his intention to spark the conflict with honourable sir.”
”I won't ask you to give up your weapons, but I don't want even a single firearm aimed at my people. Lower your weapons and come out to the light, and I will order my people to stand down.”