By evening, after returning to his embassy, Manuel, whose stomach was full of fury, first dismissed his attendants and servants, including his trusted confidant, Georgia Mana, whom he had brought with him this time.
After confirming that no one else was in the room besides him, he finally shed the mask of respectful deference he had worn all day, angrily swept the utensils off the table, and began to rage to himself.
"That old fox Vytautas, that immortal old geezer, saying 'Kafir refers to you, not me,' 'just focus on managing your own territory,' 'you must be self-aware'—are the Tatars your close relatives? Is that why you indulge them so much?! And 'I held him when he was a child'—is Haji Giray your pagan, foreign-culture biological son?! I just cautiously asked a question and got a warning; is that how much you indulge your good Tatar son?! You Baltic barbarians pretending to convert!"
As he ranted into the void, a sense of sorrow and envy also clung to his heart, "Yes, yes, yes, Haji Giray is like a protagonist from a knightly novel—illustrious family background, impressive abilities, and a noble being revered as an 'angel' by his people; by all accounts, he's a winner in life.
His life is like the male lead in those novels I read in my previous life, full of ups and downs, but in the end, he gained everything: status, wealth, respect from within and without, and his unique place in history, like a victor.
He laid the foundation for the powerful Khanate that would dominate the Southern Russian Steppe in the future.
From a desperate situation to the Khan of the Khanate, with the flattery and appreciation of a pagan Duke, and support and help from the other side of the Black Sea, it looks like a perfect fairy tale or an epic story.
"And what about our Theodoro? A backdrop? An insignificant footnote in the future great military achievements of the Crimean Khanate? What a joke?! I don't accept such an outcome! If this is the fate of Theodoro, the fate of the Goths, the fate of the Tauris Romans, then I will smash all these damned fates to pieces!
I will prove to this damned fate and history that we Romans should not be swept into some historical garbage heap; it is clearly these nomadic barbarians who belong in the historical trash can!"
After venting so much, Manuel's heartbeat, which had just accelerated with anger, gradually calmed down.
He took a deep breath and said, "No matter what, I must prevent the rise of the Crimean Khanate, or we will be the ones to die."
After another deep breath, he began to take out paper and pen to analyze the situation, "First, before Vytautas dies, I absolutely cannot take any hostile actions against Haji Giray, because that immortal old man truly invested heavily in Giray.
But he shouldn't last too long; in my previous life's timeline, Vytautas died in 1430.
Here, I don't know if my butterfly effect will affect his lifespan.
But no matter what, he must die in 1430; if there's absolutely no other way, then I'll have to resort to some 'Byzantine' tricks."
"And according to the Lithuanian local faction, most of them do not approve of continuing to support Haji Giray, and their leader, King Sigismund, is very likely to be the next Grand Duke of Lithuania—well, the crown will arrive soon anyway, so let's call it the Kingdom of Lithuania from now on.
To bring my thoughts back, in the previous life's timeline, he was the one who ended the Lithuanian Civil War after Vytautas's death.
I've just connected with him now, so I'll try to get closer to him and see if I can win him over to Theodoro; if he can deter Giray, that would be even better."
"However, the opinions of the foreign faction, especially Švitrigaila, the younger brother of the King of Poland, are also very important.
Although my first impression of him was only average, and he has a track record of being fickle and unreliable, according to the intelligence gathered these days, many of the nobles in the Lithuanian Council lean towards him.
If he actively courts foreign countries in the early stages, as he did in my timeline, and then voluntarily cedes some interests to the nobles, then he is also very likely to become the next King of Lithuania.
It is also necessary to curry favor with him."
"So, let's first find a way to meet with Švitrigaila." Manuel made this decision after his analysis.
A few days later, Švitrigaila very pleasantly received Manuel, who had come to visit him.
Švitrigaila's residence was quite different from the style of the Lithuanian palace; if the Lithuanian palace was more than sixty percent Rus' style and less than forty percent Baltic style, then Švitrigaila's residence was fifty percent Rus' and fifty percent Polish style, with Lithuanian and even Baltic styles being far less than ten percent.
"This Grand Duchy of Lithuania is either Russified or Polonized, exactly like my preconceived notions of it from my previous life," Manuel muttered to himself.
However, he showed no outward reaction to this, but instead respectfully praised Švitrigaila for the arrangement of his residence.
After they exchanged pleasantries for a while, they finally got down to business.
"The Crimea region? Frankly, neither I, nor most Lithuanian nobles, nor Poland, nor Moscow, have much interest in it," Švitrigaila said very directly.
"So, what do you think of Haji Giray and his territory?" Manuel further asked.
"A waste of treasury, a waste of energy, and all to aid pagan Tatars of a foreign culture.
Vytautas really crushed me back then, Your Excellency; look, this is still a scar he left on me from one of those battles.
Alas, that fellow is truly old now." Švitrigaila couldn't help but sigh.
Indeed, while Vytautas's Eastern strategy did accelerate the collapse of the Golden Horde, what would be released by the collapse of the Khanate was completely unpredictable.
His response to this was to personally support a trustworthy Tatar Prince to remotely control the situation on the Eastern European Great Plains.
But Manuel, with knowledge of another timeline, knew that his actions would ultimately backfire, raising the cancerous growth of Crimea and giving rise to the gluttonous Russian Empire.
"Yes, Your Highness is absolutely right, His Duke's actions are indeed not very wise," Manuel respectfully agreed.
Manuel's agreement greatly pleased Švitrigaila, who felt that he had finally won a round against his old rival.
Manuel, too, felt a smile ripple in his heart, because he had now confirmed that no high-level figures, whether from the Lithuanian local faction, the Rus' nobles, or external forces in Eastern Europe, intended to further intervene in Crimean affairs.
"If history takes its course, Lithuania might even fight another civil war, and then Haji Giray's foreign aid would essentially be gone," Manuel accurately surmised.
By the time he returned to the embassy again, much of the pent-up frustration he had felt earlier had dissipated.
Facing the possible future situation, Manuel, after deducing and predicting with paper and pen, cast them aside, stood up, and said coldly:
"The dice have been cast.
Now, which side faces up and which side faces down is a choice of fate."