A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

"Oh… Verdant. I wondered where you were. I stopped by your cabin earlier in the evening, and Peter said you hadn't been back all day," Oliver said.

"Hah," Verdant proclaimed, pulling a piece of rolled parchment from his belt. "The fruits of my endeavours," he said, handing it to Oliver.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

It took Oliver longer than he would have liked to glance over the glyphs, and discern the true meaning. He saw words that he recognised, like 'expedition' and 'approval' and drew his conclusion from that.

"It went well then?" He asked.

From the look on Verdant's face, that didn't seem to be quite the most accurate way of describing it. "It was… a battle, my Lord," Verdant said, choosing his words carefully. "Such an expedition would have been a problem to arrange, without the constraints we already put on it. There would have already been much discussion."

"The constraints?" Oliver asked.

"The time constraint, and the numbers constraint. It took nearly half a day of meetings to get them to agree to let you go ahead with the expedition, despite your party being primarily composed of you and myself. Then I mentioned the time constraint, and they stopped seeing me.

My success is only because I happened to see the Minister of Blades passing by, and I chanced asking him, despite the social repercussions that is likely to have… Blessedly, the Minister agreed, and with his agreement, there was nothing more the Expedition Counsel could do," Verdant said.

Oliver was once again struck by the fact that things ended up being a lot more complicated than he had anticipated. He went pale, as he realized what he had inadvertently put his retainer through. Could Oliver have sat through a day of meetings? Not likely. Until very recently, he avoided strictly formal social matters like that entirely.

He hadn't realized it would be such an effort to clear just the first hurdle.

"Sorry, Verdant," he said. "And thank you. Does that mean Gavlin will be accompanying us at the weekend?"

"Indeed it does, my Lord. For King level monsters of the type that you indicated, we would have needed an instructor of the third boundary or higher. The Minister of Blades is of the Fourth Boundary, so with his agreement, there was nothing they could do to complain.

They mentioned again and again the risk of death, but I can't help but feel some of them were merely being awkward for the sake of it," Verdant said with a frown. "How did your day go, my Lord? Did you manage any sort of solution for your coin troubles?"

"I think we might have, Verdant," Oliver said. "Though, apparently, my accounting of coin is quite terrible, there is a plan in motion to deal with that. If all works well, then these expeditions into the Grand Forest will be quite profitable indeed. I've employed the services of an alchemist named Troy Nebular, and he seems keen."

"Nebular," Verdant said with a nod. "A good, ancient house. Loyal. You would be hard-pressed to find better company than them."

"I'm glad you approve," Oliver said.

"With the matter of coin soon to be resolved, have you given any more thought to the issue of retainers, my Lord? I do not wish to rush you, but the Games approach, if you still have interest in them. The top contenders will be fielding armies of a hundred men, and they will be practised and well-trained together."

Oliver frowned, considering it. He still had a good chunk of his coin left. Well, he basically had the full amount, he'd only spent half a gold on odd things through Verdant.

With that sort of money, he could easily afford to hire some porters for his expeditions out into the forest, and he'd feel comfortable doing so… but to go into a long-term contract with retainers, without consistent and reliable income… It seemed to be too much of a risk.

"Blackthorn bought me a coat today," Oliver said instead. "Should I be worried about that?"

"A coat?" Verdant asked with a smile. He showed no indication that he was annoyed by the change of topic. "No, a present is a thing to be celebrated, is it not? Even Bohemothia does not begrudge gifts. The sea gives the people plenty, as well as its wrath. It should not confuse you too greatly to receive both."

"I was more wondering how worried I need to be about paying her back," Oliver said. "It was 6 whole golds, Verdant. That's insane. And she did it without asking. It makes my hand shake just thinking about it. That's the sort of money that could change a village."

"To a girl like Lasha Blackthorn, it would not have seemed such a weighty thing. I think you would be fine not worrying about it, my Lord. Your gratitude should be enough," Verdant said.

Gratitude… Lasha. He pictured the two together in his head. Somehow, they didn't seem to go. He was quite sure the woman would have a sword at his back, demanding some inexplicable favour if he didn't remove himself from her goodwill as soon as possible. She'd managed to do that with their teaching situation, and she'd done that with hardly any leverage.

He shuddered to think what she'd do with the upper hand.

But maybe he could afford to ignore it for a week, or two, until he received some of the profits from the alchemists? Dare he try that?

"Alright, we'll hire some porters this weekend then, I think, just to break the ice a bit, in regards to retainership. Maybe if students see that I'm hiring, and that I've got the money to pay, they'll be more receptive to me when the time comes to build an army," Oliver said.

As Oliver waited in the cold outside the Central Castle, he once more scanned the note in his hand. Read latest stories on empire

"The experimentation was a success... in the end. I ended up using more organ tissue than I suspected. I've sold the remaining 4 potions to the medical department, as you requested. We received 12 golds for the effort. Ten of which are yours, and waiting for you at your earliest convenience.

– Troy Nebular.