Pope Augustus

"Good!" Katerina's answer was nothing short of perfect. Augustus already highly approved of her. The Prince was a work Augustus greatly admired, but due to his current status, he couldn't express his agreement.

In Augustus's eyes, Katerina had qualified, and the nature of their conversation subtly changed from a one-sided assessment to a mutual discussion.

"Do you highly praise The Prince?" Augustus gestured for Katerina to sit down, had someone pour her a glass of water, and asked earnestly. Faol very considerately found an excuse to leave and closed the door behind him.

"Not entirely. I believe Niccolò Machiavelli's evaluations of some people or events are still biased."

"Oh? For example?"

"For example, the new monarch paradigm that Niccolò Machiavelli repeatedly extolled in The Prince, Cesare Borgia.

Niccolò Machiavelli believed that for the noblest purpose, the basest means could be used. This in itself is not a problem, but while Cesare was doing this, he also let everyone witness his baseness, which was not clever.

I believe Cesare's failure was not, as the book suggests, solely due to his father's death, his own health problems, and his allowing Pope Julius II to be elected.

The measures praised by Niccolò Machiavelli in the book, such as employing the cruel and astute Remirro to restore local order and then cutting him in two and displaying his body in the square of Cesena to appease the populace, or annihilating the families of deposed rulers to prevent hostile forces from seizing opportunities.

Similar methods can be used once, or a few times, and might achieve very good results, but if used continuously without new means and follow-up measures, if that could succeed, then everyone else would have to be fools.

To use such a person as the subject of praise in the book lacks persuasiveness and makes its ideas more easily distorted. Of course, this has a certain relationship with Niccolò Machiavelli's situation at the time.

Because he was eager to gain Lorenzo's approval when writing this book, his purpose was too strong, even affecting the objectivity of his discourse. This is also one of the important reasons why this book has been criticized."

"Well said!" Augustus couldn't help but applaud after hearing Katerina's evaluation. Wasn't this exactly the kind of talent he needed? Whether it was right or wrong, Augustus couldn't judge, nor did he need to dwell on it. Having her own different insights into what she had read, and daring to express her thoughts—that was enough.

"You are a very thoughtful person. Have you ever tried writing a book yourself?"

"I've written some, but unfortunately, none of them have been published anywhere."

"How could that be?" European thought during this period was relatively free. After all, if one couldn't stay in one country, one could go to another. A thoughtful work should always find a place to be accommodated.

"Because the content of the books is too sharp and highly critical, no one is willing to risk publishing such a book. And more people, simply because of my gender, aren't even willing to understand the content of the book and directly reject it," Katerina said with a hint of bitterness.

"I'm sorry to make you recall painful memories."

In fact, Katerina's painful memories were far more than these.

Katerina was born into a noble family in Poland, the only daughter. Her mother passed away from excessive blood loss shortly after her birth. Her parents had been deeply in love, and Caitlin's father was heartbroken upon hearing the news, taking a long time to recover.

After her mother's death, Katerina's father vowed never to remarry and doted on her especially, giving her the best of everything he could. Especially her education: Katerina learned everything boys did at the time, not only reading, writing, horse riding, and fencing, but also extensively studying art, philosophy, and politics.

In this era, the education level of European women was generally very low. Even among nobles, most daughters were only taught etiquette and other useless pursuits.

Originally, Katerina's father was worried that this might make her an anomaly among her peers and cause her distress, but he quickly found his worries completely unnecessary.

Katerina integrated well into her environment, not only showing astonishing talent in her studies but also loving to wear men's clothes, spending her days with a group of young men, calling them brothers. She even once defeated three boys her age in a three-on-one fight.

This outcome left Katerina's father somewhat amused and exasperated, but what did it matter? As long as Katerina was happy.

On the other hand, Katerina's father was also a very benevolent lord, very gentle with the common people under his jurisdiction, minimizing their burdens as much as possible, and greatly concerned about their living conditions.

Katerina's father also often imparted his experience in governing his fief to Katerina, and although Katerina often asked questions he didn't know how to answer, she was subtly influenced.

However, good times did not last. That year, Katerina was 16 years old. Due to a natural disaster, a large-scale rebellion broke out, and Katerina's father's territory was among those affected. Those who armed themselves and became rioters were precisely those common people who had previously seemed harmless, many of whom had even received favors from Katerina's family.

Katerina's father tried his best to appease them and firmly refused to request troops from above for suppression, but the maddened rioters wouldn't listen to him. After robbing some who refused to join them, they finally turned their attention to Katerina's home. Katerina's father died in this riot, and everything in their home was plundered. The old butler fought to protect Katerina and helped her escape, then collapsed and died from exhaustion.

Katerina's father never understood, even in death, how the originally gentle and kind common people could turn into man-eating beasts. Katerina, who narrowly escaped death, also underwent a drastic change in her thinking due to this incident, even becoming extremely radical at one point, wanting to delve deeply into this area as if seeking revenge.

Soon after, the rebellion was suppressed, and the main culprits received their due punishment, allowing Katerina to return home. But Katerina's father, and the loyal old butler, could never come back. Facing the ruined everything before her, Katerina's heart was filled with extraordinary sorrow.

After Katerina's father's death, Katerina, as the first-in-line heir, naturally inherited everything her father had. Relatives from near and far came to offer condolences and congratulations, but Katerina soon realized that their intentions to seize the family property were blatantly obvious.

At this time, Katerina had neither the ability nor the inclination to continue managing these family properties. More importantly, she didn't know how to face the common people who had taken her father's life.

So, Katerina sold all her family property, left that place, and settled in a place where no one knew her, dedicating herself wholeheartedly to study and research, and later traveled to various European countries for academic pursuits.

This year, Katerina was 21 years old and completed her first book. This book vigorously criticized the drawbacks of Poland's elective monarchy, devaluing some traditionally regarded Polish enlightened monarchs as worthless. It even boldly asserted that if the elective monarchy was not abolished, Poland would perish.

However, not only was this book not published, but Katerina was also wanted by Poland because of it. Fortunately, Katerina had foresight and had already transferred most of her assets to a Venice bank, and she successfully escaped, but she could never return.

Subsequently, Katerina successively wrote several more books: about the Holy Roman Empire's electoral system, about France, England, Spain… The results were largely the same, encountering obstacles everywhere. Katerina disdained seeking support from the enemy countries of the countries she wrote about.

At this moment, Katerina carried warrants from nine countries.