A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

"Missions..?" Amelia murmured. "Our Lady is joining them, is she not?"@@novelbin@@

Verdant looked at Oliver to check. "I do think so, though the situation with Princess Asabel has been somewhat… tenuous, has it not, my Lord? You have not spoken to her since that last meeting, have you?"

He stiffened in response to the question. "No, I haven't," he admitted, before rushing to dispel the worried look in Blackthorn's eyes. "Relax. Regardless of what happens, she'll keep her promises. She said as much. You needn't worry about it."

"So I'm still going?" Blackthorn asked.

"If your father doesn't raise hell over it, then yes," Oliver said.

"Are we going?" Amelia asked.

It was a point that no one had seemed to consider until then. To bring Blackthorn and not bring her retainers. That had been the initial assumption. After all, the girls couldn't defend themselves. They didn't need liabilities when they were riding into battle.

"I am… unsure," Oliver said, honestly appraising them. "Cutting up monsters is well and good, but I am not sure we can afford to bring you when the stakes are higher."

The girl twisted her lips. The earlier argumentativeness was gone. She too seemed to be getting an understanding of her worth. She couldn't keep up even on these marches – what good would she be on a battlefield? True, she could make her Lady her meals, and tend to her clothes, but was that a useful enough skill that they would increase their burden over it?

"I'll make you take me," she decided after a moment, with a considerable amount of plucker.

"How do you intend to do that?" Oliver said, his smile less than inviting. When the challenge was put to him like that, even a trace of gold flecks rose up into his eyes. Of course, that wasn't a look that an untested retainer like Amelia could easily stand. She stuttered her words without realizing why she was doing so.

"I-I'll just h-have to c-come up with something," she said, desperately wanting to avert her eyes, but being unable to.

"Then you had better think quickly. Though Verdant said a month, by now it's closer to three weeks. I don't know what you could do to convince me before then," he said. "You understand that too, don't you, Blackthorn?"

He saddled her with the same look that he'd shot at Amelia, forcing her to admit what they all knew to be true. She wrung her hands and glanced at the retainers out of the corners of her eye. She seemed to find it difficult to outright voice that she would have to leave them. "If… If that is what you decide, I will have to accept it."

That was the nail in the coffin for them. "My Lady…" Amelia all but gasped.

"Don't look so offended," Oliver said. "If she didn't care for you, she'd bring you without hesitation. We're going to be killing people, and people are going to be trying to kill us. Have you not thought that there might be duties in the Academy that you would be better suited to doing for your Lady, rather than insisting on sticking with her?

"That's…"

"Anyway, just think about it. I think it's time for me to go. How am I looking timewise, Verdant?" Oliver said.

Verdant glanced at his pocket watch. "I think you're right on time, my Lord," he said, with a relaxed smile. In his company, Oliver knew that the rest of them would be fine, even if tempers were getting heated. Alone amongst them, as they all seemed to be responding to the tension in one way or another, Verdant remained as cool and as calm as the God that he worshipped.

"Excellent," Oliver said, stretching the fingers of his hand. "Well then, I leave the rest to you."

Within the hour, Oliver Patrick had changed into a fresh set of clothes, and was sat on the front of a carriage, heading home towards Solgrim.

The blood of his earlier pursuits had been washed away and his hair had been combed. The clothes that he wore were his finest, with the coat that Blackthorn had given him wrapped around him and his boots freshly cleaned and polished.

One would never have guessed how he spent his morning. Not when he was now faced with such a long journey across the country. It was almost certain to be dark by the time that they arrived, even though Verdant had put extra coin down towards hiring Oliver for a faster carriage.

This carriage was smaller than the ones he was accustomed to seeing nobility riding. The space at the back seemed only large enough for one person, really. The horses too, by nature of the weight they were carrying, were different. They were leaner and more spritely animals. They seemed to have a true bounce in their step as they went.

One was fastened to the carriage – that was all that was needed to pull the light contraction at the moment – whilst the other one jogged alongside it, enjoying the temporary rest. In an effort to cover distance faster, the driver would push one horse for a couple of hours, before switching it out with the next horse, giving it a time to rest and run free of the load.

Once more, just like with Petyr, this carriage driver seemed thoroughly discomforted by the fact that Oliver had chosen to sit next to him as they rode. Though, this gentleman took it in his stride far better, likely due to his far older age, though it was hard to tell exactly what kind of expression he was making behind that thick scarf of his.

As Oliver rode, he attempted to pick apart different features of the landscape, comparing them to what he'd seen on his way towards the Academy. He didn't have much to look at in that. Back then, the snow had been a thinner layer, if it was there at all. Now, it was a blanket of white wherever they looked and no matter how far they travelled. Continue your adventure at My Virtual Library Empire