A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

"They're all true, aren't they?" Karesh said giddily. "All the stories they tell about you?"

"Only the worst ones," Oliver said, ignoring Karesh's neglect of the proper titling.

Even Jorah was too shaken to correct him. "Pardon, Ser… But why do you need soldiers when you can do that?"

The Minister of Blades gave him his answer, in a gruff voice that pulled at the thick scar on his cheek. "The power of Command will always give the collective leverage over the individual, no matter how great," he said. He didn't seem exactly pleased by that fact.

That brought a frown to the faces of the serving class students. They knew not of Command. They weren't taught it in their classes, and likely for good reason. Even a yellow-shirted student could become a force to be reckoned with, should he hold Command over another hundred. Oliver reasoned that it would not have been strange for the nobility to fear that.

Gavlin did not elaborate, but instead turned to Oliver. "That was sloppy," he said, with unexpected harshness. "You missed a step as you ducked under the club. You almost got yourself killed, for the sake of speed and flash."

Experience tales with empire

"Ah…" Oliver scratched his cheek. Gavlin wasn't wrong. The deep snow had thrown off Oliver's usual pattern. He hadn't been able to step as well as he usually might, and that had almost cost him.

"Better sort that out. The Boulder Crab is not to be trifled with," the Minister of Blades said. "My job here today is to prevent anyone from getting killed. You've already caused an incident a couple of weeks ago – don't cause another one by dying. The General has enough on his plate with Blackwell biting at him as well."

"I'll do my best," Oliver said.

Gavlin grunted. "You'll do better. If I'm not confident that you won't get yourself killed fighting it, then you will not fight it."

There was nothing any of his retainers could do to help in an argument against someone as highly ranked as a Minister. Despite all the support that Oliver had tried to gather recently, there were some battles that he was forced to fight alone.

It wasn't clear what Gavlin wanted him to say, or what he wanted him to do. Oliver was hard-pressed to think of a response. The Minister of Blades seemed to anticipate that, for the usually quiet man continued to give orders.

"As for the rest of you, from here on out, you listen for my orders, and if they come, you obey them without asking," Gavlin said. "Don't count on me to protect you all. If something truly dangerous hits, then you're going to have to do a lot of protecting yourselves."

"""Yes, Minister!""" Came the response from much of the group, those that knew how to reply. But they all responded in one way or another, whether through respectful nods, or in Kaya's case, an awkward salute, which, amusingly, Amelia tried to copy, assuming that the boy knew what he was doing. She glared at him when she realized that he'd misled her, and he shrank into himself.

"Clean up here," Gavlin said to Oliver, eyeing the sky. "If you want to hunt this damn crab, then you had better go about it soon. Daylight is dropping."

"Alright," Oliver said. "Kaya, Jorah, Karesh, begin butchering this. Verdant, we're going to try and lure in another Hobgoblin for you to have a go at… Lasha, keep an eye on things as they're busy, would you?"

"You're awfully arrogant, giving my Lady orders," Amelia pointed out.

"We've got a chain of command going now," Oliver said with a smile. "The Minister has asserted that he is the highest authority, which I do not dispute. But, similarly, I'm also in charge of your protection, by bringing you out here. That makes me second in command. If you're here with me, then you'll obey."

She seemed surprised by such a forceful comeback, but with a hand on her shoulder from Lasha, who indicated that they should do as Oliver said, she merely harrumphed and relented.

Gavlin had already moved off to take up residence a distance away, making it clear that he would not interfere unless absolutely necessary. He watched Oliver through those dark eyes of his, as hard set as flint in a face framed by black hair and a black beard. Thinking of Professor Nyda Loreholder, and recalling that this was her husband, he found them to be an oddly good match.

"Uhm…" Pauline raised her hand, interrupting. "What about us two?" She asked. "You've given everyone a job… but we don't have anything to do."

Amelia looked like she wanted to protest, but she didn't. "If you don't mind getting your hands dirty, then it would be good if you could show this lot how to butcher an animal. Karesh seems to be making a bit of a mess."

Karesh looked up from the corpse that he was already hacking away at with his belt knife. "Huh? What did I miss?"

Pauline smiled and nodded her head. "Okay. I'll join them. Thank you, Ser Patrick."

Within minutes, after organizing the rest of them, Oliver and Verdant were rushing through the trees, doing their best to attract another Hobgoblin.

The priest looked like he wanted to say something. Oliver half expected to see fear on the man's face, but he was stoic as a cliff-face, as they dashed through the pine trees, making as much noise as they could.

Even Oliver didn't know if it was an especially good idea. After all, Verdant – self admittedly – was not the best fighter. But he had that blessing of Bohemothia to go with him, granting him a strength that far surpassed the rest of Oliver's retainers. Despite not being able to use Verdant in the Games, because he was not a student, he felt it was wrong to leave a knife like him unsharpened.

They heard a roar up ahead, and the two of them wordlessly came to a halt. Even now, Verdant did not appear to be nervous. He gripped his short spear, and stood still long enough for the Hobgoblin to come into range.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om