Chapter 4: The first scheme
As time passed, Mustafa began to walk, talk, and read. Yes, four years passed by quickly—four years in an alt timeline! He began to worry a little more about the sword hanging over his head and the stability of the timeline as he had lived here so long, but he hadn't had a single chance to change anything at all.
But there literally isn't anything a 4-year-old can change except eliminating himself… which, given some of the theoretical features of the system, Mustafa never considered testing their reliability before, but if the situation reaches a critical point, it is his wild card against the time laws.
On a hot day in mid-June, in an elegant residence within the palace complex of Edirne, our young Sezade sat quietly at a desk with a quill and paper.
In this relatively large room compared to the few Dozen other rooms within this mansion located within the palace grounds, only smaller than two other rooms, those belonging to his grandmother and mother, respectively.
Within this semi-luxurious room, Mustafa worked hard on his first project. Whilst his two overseers sat on two pillows next to each other in the corner, chatting away, paying him no mind.
Mustafa was designing a simple children's playground, he is hoping to place it somewhere close to the harem. The children here have begun to get on his last nerve over the past 2 years, he has spent countless hours basically raising these bastards.
Why would one teach at a college if they wanted to be accompanied by the germ-carrying creatures referred to as children?
So he sat here for a few hours sketching this rough draft of a wooden and steel playground for the kids to expend their energy after their training.
Even whilst he was busy working so hard, his terrible assistants chatting away never even bothered to stop these brats from running in and out of his room at will.
This only motivated him more! With fire burning in his eyes, his passion for playgrounds burned brightly. If there was any chance the children would abandon the playground for his company after getting this encouragement from the snot-filled critters, he has achieved his goal!
Mustafa has now created, maybe not the first but the best, playground to ever exist for humankind's young! This playground will have a nice and smooth, polished wooden slide, connected to a beautiful steel and wood jungle gym.
This jungle gym will be stacked with all the amenities known to most modern children, including several hollow steel ladders, plenty of stairs for running and hopefully not falling.
The grounds will be packed with mulch for a soft, safe landing and lots of playful scrapes and splinters. Mustafa wants to find mulch freshly cut as to avoid it being mixed with dung, but if it can't be helped, well, no issue as he won't be there I'm sure these little guys can get over the smell.
There will also be a few different sizes of monkey bars and many different assorted fun side constructions like a swing set, a tower with, hopefully, a telescope or two.
He even went crazy trying to add things like a small swimming pool with a wooden diving board. Drawing the entire thing too "blueprint" like a new construction board, you'd see in front of any modern construction site.
He even added many tables inside an entire pavilion to the drawing, with the woman there playing and talking whilst the kids played on his playground.
Now that his design is done, now comes the hardest part comes… He planned hard for this moment, and he now has all the necessary materials to conquer this task.
Standing up and fixing his little clothes, he let out a low cough, awakening his servants from their world.
The servants stood, and Elif, the woman a few years ago referred to as the "head scholar," began looking around, scanning for the highnesses picture.
She didn't see it, so she asked, "Young lord, where is the picture you drew for your Babaanne? you worked so hard, I'm sure it's nice enough for her…"
Before she could finish her sentence, their lady walked in. She immediately walked to her son, who in return somehow revealed such a childlike laugh and ran and hugged the servant's matron, his mother.
The servants were now mum, lowering their heads, waiting for the mom and son to finish their greetings. Mustafa, now fully melded in his starring role of a 4-year-old Sezade, gave a persuasive performance for his mother.
Following their initial hug where he screamed "Ana Ana Ana". He was waiting for his mother to say her regular spiel "my brave, special, handsome boy and love this and that blah blah".
He excitedly expressed his interest in their plans today… looking up to his mother's face while she cradled his face beaming with excitement in her hands.
He said with his jaw now somewhat restricted so sounding even more childish " I get to see babaanne today! We haven't had a chance in forever, I made something special for her Ana, she will be soooo surprised she will have to love me now!"
Following his words he made a sad smile, showing the complicated relationship he held with the reigning Valide Sultan his grandma.
Looking away from his mother and even managing to wipe his now reddened eyes and even adding a muffled sniff. Though he's only four, any actor witnessing such a performance would be extremely jealous.
His mother already overprotective of her child, had a thread snap in her head in this moment. She knows Her mother in law is a tough woman raised by the times, leading to an extremely hard to love personality even to her own children.
But her precious and innocent boy just wants his own grandma to show him a little attention a little love at that not even much… her stiff demeanor and cold questions she asked about his studies when they would meet must have lead him to believe he did something wrong or wasn't good enough for his grandma!
Gulnus Sultan, Mustafa's mother continued her frenzied thoughts. This frigid bitch, it's one thing to have ruined my husband and I's entire childhood but now she dares infringe on my boys feelings I will trash this hag once and for all.
Looking back toward her dutiful and loyal servants eyes blazing with hatred and murderous energy. Gulnus seething with anger, due to her rigorous training she received from the same woman she's now burying in her head.
Gulnus was able to still calmly and quietly say to her servant Elif "Bring all that has been prepared by Mustafa and I, we will leave for the Valide Sultan quarters immediately…"
She eeked the next few words with difficulty her emotions still somehow bubbling to the surface "Mustafa is just overjoyed to visit his Babaanna, and we shall not hold him back."
Hearing his mother's words and noticing her slight abnormalities he knew his act has worked as intended. He already understood his grandmother, she was a political animal plain and simple.
There wasn't a single thing he could do that would tug that ladies heart strings and he didn't plan to. I mean who would attempt to coax a woman with emotional manipulation when they most likely played apart of their own husband's assassination. Only making matters worse
she then placed her own six year old son on the throne A SIX YEAR OLD, Mustafa thought.
Obviously the only option is to either give her something she can use and get something in return or make the thing you want something she can benefit from.
I know this is all so much just for a playground, but you must understand this is Mustafa's way of training and readying himself for future battles to come. What better way to train in politics of this era than as a four year old face off against one of the pillars of the Ottoman Empire the Mother of the reigning sultan, the once regent of this mighty empire his grandmother.
Leaving his thoughts behind Mustafa looked at his mother and said "You go first mother Elif and I must prepare everything together, I'm sure you'll have a few things to talk about that I can't hear anyways!" Crossing his arms and trying to mimic a pout after finishing his words.
His mother a fanatical follower of his agreed, and left swiftly leaving trails of flame behind her as she walked out into the corridor and disappeared into the distance.
This is the first part of his plan, he's been working this angle for weeks, slowly showing signs of excitement and mentioning over and over how he can please his grandmother with a gift.
While also giving clear signs that he believes his grandmother hates him because he isn't up to her standards. Leaving his mother on the edge for quite sometime, holding back her feelings about his grandmother was clearly already hard for his mom, but he knew this could spark the war he wanted.
Because the Valide who holds a lot of power, and is only gaining more and more influence along with her son the sultan now participating heavily in affairs of state and even more importantly military affairs.
So to have an internal war within the harem with her daughter in law, especially one who just gave birth to a fresh heir is not something she desires. It is nothing she can gain from such internal strife, she has all the cards what could she gain from defeating her own heir?
Thus sending my already angry mother off first, is imperative to his operation. His ever loyal and dutiful Elif with assist in his scheme as well, playing a great role I might add.
She will make sure there is a nice flame burning in the room, meaning an argument is already brewing before Mustafa arrives just in time to stumble upon the chaos.
Just as Mustafa had planned, as he approached the grand quarters his grandmother stayed. He observed multiple servants briefly stopping near the entrance watching the drama before speeding off realizing the two powerful figures duking it out.
He knew it was time to strike when Elif just outside the doorway turned around toward him saying "young lord the ladies are still busy, let's wait a little before presenting yourself to them okay?"
He quickly without second thought dodged her hand grab before quickly running toward the room where his schemes have now begun bearing fruit.
Gulnas and the Valide Sultan were having heated discussion, but they never raised their voices or showed their true feelings in their body language.
Just expressing it through shaded words and hollow platitudes. Before the spat reached a fever pitch Mustafa reached the room and following the procedure he was taught greeted the Valide before arriving in front of her and kissing her hand then also doing the same to his mother.
His mother still seething hid her anger and greeted her son with a light hug and the Valide also took a step forward and gave the boy a light hug. This hug came to the surprise of those present including Gulnas who was just chewing her mother in law out over this exact issue.
No one expected the Valide to concede, especially when she had no need to. But these are the thoughts of petty servants they know nothing of politics, concede easy concessions, whilst holding the lions share for yourself pleasing your constituents in the process.
This hag knew exactly how to play the game, it's like pimping plain and simple. Mustafa long being wise to the ways of the world, gleefully played along giving his grandma a big hug!
Wriggling herself loose the Valide asked him how he had been lately? Mustafa brushed the question off with a quick answer "good."
Following it up with a "I have brought gifts for you would you like to see them? I made it myself with no help!" Puffing his chest up in pride like any other child his age would before presenting their scribbles to their parents.