Changing history

Chapter 2

Kristina the loyal servant of princess Sophia stared at her mistress who was talking with her father. The young princess was explaining the rules of her game to her father and the rest of her family who listened intensely.

It all had begun a few days ago when her mistress had ordered her to get a few things. When she got them she started drawing a square which she added even more squares into. She drew other things and when the princess was done with her drawing she handed Kristina a list of things she wanted her to get. The lady in waiting went through a lot of trouble to get them. She had needed permission from the king who payed a bit too much attention of this new board game that princess had invented.

"So do you understand now?" the princess asked her family who nodded. "If you don't you can read the paper over there. That's where all the rules and instructions is written".

And so the game began. Although Kristina didn't have any right to join them she was invited by the princess. She had intended to not to join but the princess insisted.

The game became quite hot as the king and queen rivaled each other, trying to buy each others' properties. It also became quite tense between her brother Eric XIV and Charles IX. Although Katarina Gustavsdotter had intended to use that to win she had not expected the big twist. It had turned out that Eric and Charles had been working with each other behind the others' backs. Thanks to that Katarina lost every single penny to her cheating brothers. And she promised she would get her revenge next time. And she wasn't so keen on letting them not knowing that. The game continued for a very long time and Magnus Vasa had been expected to win when suddenly the game shifted big and his brothers made him bankrupt to the core. He too swore revenge and it turned out Katarina and him became best buddies, their friendship had been established by revenge towards their brothers. The King who pretended like he was losing found that he got slapped by his wife when she ended up making him really lose.

When the third hour had gone by the only ones left were Anna, Elisabet and Cecilia

Gustavsdotter, who were working in team and their brothers, The Queen and Sophia.

And the one who won was The Queen Katarina Gustavsdotter Stenbock. The King who normally were a bad loser found himself congratulating his wife while thinking of revenge the next time they played. Although he tried hiding his intentions The Queen saw through him and promised she wouldn't back down so easily.

The game Monopol was a fun family game that soon spread between all the nobles who all seemed to enjoy it. Because of that Gustav Vasa talked with his life long friend, now a famous merchant, to produce this game. After playing the game the friend did not doubt that this game would sell and they would gain profits.

As they had espected they had earned a lot of profits. Within a month they had already gained an amount of two hundred thousand crowns. And expected that within a year they would at least earn a bit over two million crowns.

Because of this game the financial state of Sweden improved a little and Sweden earned a lot more influential allies, like the king of Rome who had found himself loving the game after playing it. He also earned even more allies in Russia and France as noble families also fell in love with Monopol.

A year went by and an eight year old Sophia, although her father tried to hide it, knew that he had used her game to earn some money. When she had confronted The King about it he had tried to escape but found himself at her mercy. He apologized for not saying anything to her. She did of course forgive him but made him at least give her ten percent of the profits.

Because of that money she now could buy some stuff needed. With the money she had she bought oil, some ginger spices and citrus fruits. Although her family were aware of what she was doing it wasn't like they intended to stop her. Though The Queen wanted her to learn more about embroidery and music she let her little daughter do as she wanted after Sophia played the most beautiful music she had ever heard off. Also when The Queen asked for the princess to study for how to read and write she got surprised over what beautiful poetry her little princess could make. And it was clear no one complained anymore about her behavior. And no one said anymore that she was too small or to young to do things.

The lady-in-waiting, Kristina had been tasked to find a glass maker who could make the bottle based on the princess's drawing. Eventually she did found Henrik, a glass maker and smith who had been helping his father's business since he was six. When Kristina mentioned the pay he would get there was no doubt he would make it.

Five days later when the perfume bottle was done the servant brought it to the princess who used a cheesecloth to cover the jar with her medley of smelling flowers, fruits and spices, which she had waited about a week to be ready. She then poured it into a bowl. After squezzing the cloth through from the liquid she poured the bowl into the the little perfume bottle.

Kristina who had been watching in fascination and taking notes when the princess explained the about how to make perfume she was overjoyed to get to test it. She sprayed it onto her arm wrist and smelled the heavenly smell. It wasn't too strong smell like most perfumes were and didn't have the same uncomfortable feeling either.

Since the two of them were in the kitchen making this the other servants watched in admire. Sophia let them to try it and boy were they happy about it.

Sophia introduced the perfume along with a few others by wrapping them as presents given to her mother and sisters.

Her father became stunned by this. His little girl was such a a smart child after all. He talked with his merchant friend who had also shared the same idea as him when he found out. Gustav Vasa yet again tried again to start planning of selling the perfume without his daugher's consent. But got caught by her and she only allowed him to sell it if she was allowed to have a building where her employees could work in. He allowed it and Sophia had hired about fifteen people to make it, most of them were girls. She was though careful about hiring them and only chose those she knew she could trust. And the one in charge of handling them was Kristina and her sister Hilda. When princess Sophia made all of them sign a contract she knew she had already started to change history.

The employees working under Kristina and Hilda really were happy. And couldn't imagine how blissful their lives were at that moment. Their working conditions weren't that hard. They only worked eight hours and they even got food to eat during the meal times. Not to mention the pay was good. They also got to rest during Saturday and Sunday. Some of the employees had children who princess Sophia had by the contract ordered to get schooled. Though some of them were against this as were many nobles she got through them by explaining to her father by what education to the commoners could change Sweden. And she explained it so well and convincing that even the nobles had a hard time complaining. They after all existed to also make the country grow, or had they forgotten that. So Gustav let his daughter establish The Vasa Institut which was a school owned by her, and would still in the future be owned by the royal blood line of Sophia and tbe local. But on one condition. That also som children of the upper class families would be allowed to join, which she agreed too. Though she thought it was a pain in the ass having to deal with stuck up brats.

At first Gustav wanted to build a grand building for her but was turned down by Sophia who didn't want to waste to much money. Instead Sophia traveled around the city to find some sort of abondoned building. She did found an abondoned mansion, perfect for a school building, but it was quite far from the city. Therefore she came up with the idea of a wagon picking up the children like a school bus. It was also fine if the students wanted to there by their own carriage.

Sophia and Kristina hired some workers to fix the building in the inside and a little bit on the outside. Money wasn't really a problem since she had earned a lot more than she had expected from the selling of her game and perfumes. They also sought out to different furniture companies to make chairs and tables and other stuff.