A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

"Fifteen minutes ago," Greeves called out to him, before Judas could respond. "There's no rush, though. If you want breakfast, I can send some girls in with some food, if you'll get that door open. I heard Judas' woman sent something your way too."

"Ehhh!? Don't drop me in it!" Judas shouted.

"I'll be down in a minute," Oliver told him, retreating from the window.

"If he says a minute, it'll at least be ten. You know what the nobles are like getting ready," he heard someone say. It was a voice he didn't recognize, but he found that he agreed with it. All the nobles that he'd interacted with – even the Serving Class boys – took a strangely long time to get ready. Oliver could understand it.

He threw open his pack and pulled out a change of clothes – which really just amounted to a fresh shirt, trousers and underclothes, he kept his coat and the like the same – throwing them on with the same haste that he usually did.

He didn't mistreat his clothes. He wouldn't dare to, not with how much they cost. Even the lesser clothes felt wasteful to mistreat. But that didn't mean he afforded the whole process of getting ready the same sort of ritualisticness that the upper classes did. It was still the same process for him as it had been when he was living in the mountains.

Throw the damn things on, and fasten them where they needed to be fastened.

In half a minute, he was done. His improved speed worked for all kinds of things and getting ready was amongst them. He himself wasn't even aware of how quickly he'd changed those clothes, he'd merely been going at it at the same pace that he normally did.

What really took the time was searching for a basin of water to wash his face in. He opened one door after the other, somehow finding bedrooms even bigger and even more richly decorated than the one he'd spent the night in. One was of blue and gold that he didn't spend nearly enough time admiring in his rush.

Soon enough, he found a tiled room that could only have been the washroom. A large bronze bath dominated the majority of the space, as did an even larger fire for heating water.

He saw several large containers that were no doubt meant for carrying water – or whatever else the nobles were likely to use in a bathroom – but he quickly realized how optimistic he'd been in hoping that they'd be full. After all, the nobles wouldn't exactly be using water that wasn't freshly drawn used on their washing. Explore more at My Virtual Library Empire

His luck prevailed, though, and one of the large wooden containers was still half full. The water looked clean enough, and so Oliver drew himself a good amount into a wash bowl, and gave his face a thorough rinse.

For his teeth, he found a generous amount of herbs left over from Ferdinand – those would certainly be appreciated, if they were left from one noble to another. He chewed up some mint leaves and used his tooth stick to brush away the grime from his teeth.

Really, his wash routine was no different at all from when he'd lived in the forest. Back then, a chewed stick worked just as well as the tooth stick that he'd bought in the Academy, and the mint leaves that grew in the woods were even better for freshening up his mouth than this dried stuff that Ferdinand had left behind.

With that done, he moved back towards the stairs. The house was large enough to get lost in. There were three corridors on the top floor, and he had to wind his way through the maze of them to get back to the central set of stairs.

Then, it was down to the second floor, before he hit yet another set of stairs and ended up on the ground floor. The middle floor was meant to be servant's quarters apparently, and there were a further six bedrooms there, though Oliver didn't have the time to check them out.

It was the sort of excess of luxury that it took time to fully appreciate. Oliver figured that he'd need to live there for a whole month before he finally got the hang of what each room was for, and where everything was, and even then, there'd no doubt be hidden little secrets that he hadn't picked on.

Apparently, there was a cellar too – he didn't doubt that there'd be a few little storage secrets down there that he could delight in.

His boots echoed over the floorboards as he marched towards the door, pulling back the two sets of bolts, twisting the key, and then flicking open the latch, he pushed it open, surprising a Judas that was just in the midst of conversation.

"And then I'll go and just—Er?! You're ready already?"

"Ready already, I am," Oliver replied with a smile. "It's still odd seeing you dressed so well, Judas."

The man was dressed just as well as he had been the day before, and his hair was carefully combed too, making his balding seem less jarring. He almost seemed a handsome man, if not for that aura of thuggishness that he just couldn't seem to shake off.

That thuggishness might have worked to his benefit though, for it invited with it a clumsiness when he tried to hide it and act more refined, making for a more endearing man than he had the right to be. It didn't surprise Oliver too much that he'd found a wife.

"It's odd seeing the same for you," Judas said, a little too quickly. He pulled a face, realizing what he'd said, frowning, wondering how much more politely he could have said it. "Just, before, you didn't even have a hunter's boots, and now you've got those polished noble leathers, and a fur coat that probably costs as much as a horse."

"Things have certainly changed," Oliver agreed.

"That they have," Judas said, nodding sagely.