A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

Verdant moved things behind the scenes as efficiently as ten men could. He seemed to be able to anticipate Oliver's wants, even before he truly knew them himself. It freed Oliver from the pains and bounds of the administrative world, and of the noble convention. Rarely did he need to worry about such restrictions – he had need merely find a solution, and Verdant would enact it for him.

That came when Nebular requested more specifics in regard to how they might sell those potions that they were planning to concoct. Oliver had glanced at the list of monsters, and then referenced them in the book that Verdant had given him, seeing where their habitats lay and what strength they had, and then he had firmly set them from his mind.

Nebular needed more than that though. He wanted dates, and times, when those ingredients would be arriving. The alchemist was planning his own sorts of expansion. Inspired – or more forced – by the pressure that Oliver had put on him, he was striving to live up to the challenge and reposition his shop, with the coin that he'd earned, and then even hire an assistant.

Apparently, he'd spent much of his days merely observing the marketplace and the comings and goings of students, referencing what they were buying, and how he might use that information to make his potion selling more appealing to them. Experience tales at My Virtual Library Empire

In other words, the man's hands were full. He couldn't afford to not know the exact dates and times of their dealings. Specifics needed to be hashed out. That should have been Oliver's task, given that he'd pushed the whole thing forward himself, out of a want to bring in a certain amount of gold each week – but with Verdant there, he needed not worry.

The man helped to make the complexities of it into a reality.

Before Oliver could even catch a breath, the weekend arrived once again, with all the excitement that was beginning to become commonplace for it.

Once more, he and his retainers were on track to the Grand Forest and once more they were armed to the teeth for that very purpose.

Of course, Lady Blackthorn had again insisted on joining them, though Oliver had advised against bringing her retainers, given the pace he intended to move at that day. As Verdant had so pointedly put it, "Oliver does not have the time to spare on your training today, Lady Blackthorn. You might find yourself disappointed if you were to come."

She'd come regardless, sharing the usual carriage with Pauline and Amelia, trailing behind Oliver and Verdant's, on their way to the forest.

"Is that the list?" Verdant asked, as the carriage rattled about them, seeing the bit of crumpled parchment in Oliver's hand.

They'd narrowed it down to five monsters of a Hobgoblin-level rarity that would serve to net them the sort of profits that they wanted. Of which, two Oliver was already familiar with – Gorebeasts and Konbreakers. They, apparently, were the weaker two of the list, with Hobgoblins being the strongest, and the Moonbears and Wood Sprites being just beneath them.

Of course, it would have been a lie to say that Oliver wasn't excited. Though they weren't exactly strong creatures, they were new ones, and he'd just had the best week of training that he'd likely ever had in his life, combined with the progress made on the mission the week before – he was at the strongest he'd ever been, by a good margin, and he was excited to test it.

"It is," Oliver said, handing it over.

Verdant checked it, just to be sure, but Oliver knew that the man had likely heard what they would be hunting a thousand times before.

"The route is planned as it should be," he said, running his finger along them. "Two hours at most, my Lord. I think that is all it should require, if you merely throw yourself into the hunt."

"I already feel bad about how it's going to affect those girls," Oliver said. "But they did say that they'd come… I hope they at least have a plan in place for when they inevitably get exhausted."

"You may leave such concerns to me, my Lord. You had only need worry about getting this complete in a timely manner, so that you can take your carriage to Solgrim," Verdant said.

"I suppose so," Oliver said. No matter how much the Idris heir reassured him, he still felt more than a little bad at leaving the cleanup in the hands of the others, whilst he travelled the length of the country in a leisurely carriage in return.

The gamekeeper met them at the gate as usual, and gave them the same warnings that he'd always given them, about the different zones to avoid and species that they weren't allowed to hunt whilst their numbers recovered, whilst at the same time pointing to their store of equipment with its outrageous prices designed to catch the forgetful adventurer and make a profit off him.

They listened as they always did, even though both parties knew that they'd already heard the same thing many times over. Only once he'd finished, did he seem to revert to being a human again, and give them a new bit of advice, rather than something he was forced to say as part of his job.

"By the way," he said, "the number of goblins you've been killing hasn't gone unnoticed. There isn't an official warning yet, but the higher-ups will probably issue one if you want to keep going. I'd take it easy if I were you."@@novelbin@@

"Worry not," Verdant assured him. "The Minister of Blades already made that suggestion the last we were here. We plan to diversify our hunting a good deal more, since we plan to make a regular habit of it."

The gameskeeper perked up at that. "Well, I can't tell you what a relief that is, Lord Idris. It would have been tough to make you stop, given your position, and your pay – you've as much right to them as any… but I can say that it certainly makes my job easier when you're more of a gardener than a forest fire."