A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor-Chapter 1103 Movements of the Battle Board - Part 6

If audio player doesn't work, press Reset or reload the page.

1103: Movements of the Battle Board – Part 6

1103: Movements of the Battle Board – Part 6

When it came to Lady Blackthorn, however, she was even more inclined to sleep than most.

She had that sort of cat-like quality to her that enabled her to nap whenever she pleased.

Oftentimes, that was in the middle of the day, in locations that a noblewoman shouldn’t be caught napping in, like beneath a tree in broad daylight at the Academy.

It had caused no shortage of problems for Amelia and Pauline in the past as they endlessly searched for her sleeping locations.

That morning seemed to be no different.

They made it as far as the door of Lady Blackthorns’ tent before Amelia stopped them.

“Captain, the Lady is still asleep,” she warned, using her formal tone.

“It would be inappropriate to disturb her now.”

“And where is Pauline?” Oliver asked.

“She is preparing breakfast,” Amelia replied.

“Then you expect Lasha to be rising any minute now?” Oliver said.

Those two attendants had a better grasp on Lady Blackthorn’s sleeping habits than any other, so he supposed it to be a fair guess.

“It is possible,” Amelia said slowly.

“But she will not wish to see anyone for the first hour of her awakening.

She can be rather… grumpy.”

She put it delicately, which had to be praised for the ever uncouth Amelia, but the fact that she was trying to get rid of the two of them wasn’t lost on either Oliver or Verdant.

Considering the matter, Oliver realized that there was little to be had in forcing it.

Amelia had her arms folded, and her lips were almost pouting.

She was most stubborn at the strangest of things.

There would be no getting past her without causing a scene, and besides, Oliver wasn’t sure he wanted to stumble upon a sleeping Blackthorn either.

She was very much a different creature when she had yet to have her rest.

The two of them made to leave, thanking Amelia briefly for her time.

That was when the door to the tent stirred, and a head of messy hair poked its way out, with eyes narrowed like a hawk’s, sensing that she’d missed something.

“Captain Patrick,” she said, slowing them, still hiding all but her head from behind the flap of her tent.

“Did you wish to speak with me?”

“Apologies for waking you,” Oliver said, noticing the redness about her eyes.

She shook her head.

“I was already up,” she said.

It was clearly a lie.

“What did you wish of me?”

“The men are beginning their training,” Oliver said.

“We’ve been left out of the patrol, as you well know, so it is only to be expected that they would find something to do.

I would have you gather your Blackthorn men and join in the training.”

“Join in?” Blackthorn repeated.

“You wish for them to train together?”

“I do,” Oliver said.

“I do not care which part of our army they train with, whether Yorick’s men, Jorah’s, or Firyr’s.

But they need to train together.”

“My Lady, your breakfast will be ready in a moment,” Amelia said.

“I shall hurry to dress you, if you would return inside…”

“I will be ready in a moment,” Lasha said to Oliver, speaking over her attendant.

She said as much, though all could see that she was far from being ready.

Oliver was beginning to regret having come that early at all.

Especially now that Amelia was shooting him one of those intense glares that she wielded.

Only when Lasha ducked back inside did the little blonde attendant give voice to her complaints.

“You’ve caused trouble, Ser Patrick,” she said, her voice cool.

“You’ve missed your formalities, attendant Amelia,” Verdant said, with equal iciness.

“It would seem that Captain Patrick was more attune with the wants of your Lady than you were.

Can you fault him for that?”

“Grr…” That was the best that the flustered Amelia could manage.

All thoughts of formalities were forgotten, and she resorted to a simple growl of the sort that she would have delivered when she was still a student back at the Academy.

Against Verdant, as always, she was defenceless.

“If only Pauline were here… She would have scolded you properly.”

“Somehow, I think not,” Verdant said.

Pauline wasn’t exactly famed for her scolding.

She was most certainly the tamer of the two attendants.

Leaving a disgruntled Amelia to help her Lady, Verdant and Oliver took themselves to a different part of their encampment, in search of another Commander, as they sought to organize all their men.

“We will pursue unity through it, Verdant,” Oliver announced confidently.

“We all have an ideal to train for.

We have seen what it is that we wish to achieve.

It will be a good opportunity to more solidly forge the chain links between all our men, just as Karstly has tried to do with the army as a whole.”

Verdant nodded.

It wasn’t a new strategy for the Patrick men to do such things, but rarely had he seen Oliver announce it with such excitement.

He seemed as much inspired by Karstly had he had been by the enemies that he’d found resistance against.

They found their way to Jorah’s encampment soon enough, and in the process, they ended up discovering the lost Pauline, who still had her arms full with the basket containing her Lady’s breakfast.

She was busily engaged in a stammering conversation with Kaya.

“R-right, I accept, then,” they heard Kaya say, a tinge of red in his cheeks as he accepted a small bundle from Pauline, whose face was even redder.

“T-t-thank you,” she stammered, hurriedly bowing.

She noticed Oliver and Verdant out of the corner of her eye, and she made her retreat all the more hurriedly, growing redder still by the second.

“Breakfast?” Oliver asked lightly, nodding at the bundle Kaya was holding.

“I believe so, Captain,” Kaya said, though he was cradling it like something far more impressive than breakfast.

“That she would come out here… Does it not seem reckless to you, Captain?

Is there no way that we might send them back?”