A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor-Chapter 1115 An Army in need of Improvement - Part 2
1115: An Army in need of Improvement – Part 2
1115: An Army in need of Improvement – Part 2
“They insisted on some innocuous nonsense.
It did no more than interrupt me,” Oliver said.
“But they still interrupted you…” Lasha said.
Her eyes flashed.
There was anger there.
Oliver had known her long enough by now to recognize it.
Now his eyes furrowed in surprise, and his own flames of wrath fell ever so slightly.
“How foolish do they have to be?
Do they have no want for victory?”
“Whatever do you mean, Lasha?”
“Is it not obvious?” Lasha said.
“You are one of our strongest Captains.
No.
You are the strongest Captain that we have.
How can they wander over to you and even dare to speak?
Worse still, to interrupt you whilst you are busy training – you, a key condition in our victory?
Do they not understand how a battle works?
If they could go around interrupting all the training of all our key figures, just how will our combat strength be reduced?”
“I doubt they thought it through that far,” Oliver said.
“I doubt anyone places that much significance on a single training session.”
“But you do,” Lasha said, gripping Oliver’s shoulder.
“You’re the one that taught me the value of a single training session.
Here, today, just with our soldiers, we’ve seen the value of a single training session.
What could you have achieved if they had not interrupted you?
I hardly want to think about it… When you’re so close to something new that you’re striving for, to think that some worms have forced themselves in the way…”
She drew her sword.
“I shall kill them on your behalf, Ser Patrick.
Point me to them.”
“Woah, woah,” Oliver said, alarmed.
He thought that of all people, his own officers would be wise enough to tell him that his anger was foolish, and that it would be best to calm down.
Yet Blackthorn seemed even more inclined to murder than he did.
“Calm yourself, Blackthorn, you’re only going to make matters worse.
We can’t get away with murdering the infantry.”
“They’ve disrespected a Captain!
Mere footsoldiers!
I doubt they were even Sergeants,” Lasha said.
“They were Serving Class men, dishonouring nobility.
Am I wrong in that?
Have I painted a false picture in my mind?”
“You haven’t, but if you let yourself paint it in any more strong colours, you’ll fly off the handle, and I won’t be able to stop you,” Oliver said.
“Leave it.
I already let myself go too far with it.”
Seeing Lasha grow angrier and angrier only brought Oliver closer to his calm.
He had to shake his head.
Who would have thought that going along with him would have been a far more effective method of calming him down than merely counselling him towards that calm, as any sane person would have?
“I cannot stand it,” Lasha insisted.
“To have stolen time from you.
I should have known when you came back earlier.
You tend to train for far longer than this.”
“You still realized that I was going out to train, though,” Oliver noted.
“I had intended to slip away unnoticed.”
“Of course I did.
I saw you leave, and after our conversation the other night, I would have to be a fool to realize what you were up to,” Lasha said.
“For all the difficulty that you are pressing through… for such a foolish problem to come up…”
“You’re right indeed, Lasha, it is a foolish problem,” Oliver agreed.
“And for me to have grown wrathful over it, that was more foolish too.”
“Oliver,” Lasha said.
“What if that stopped you from reaching something?”
“Progress does not work that way, Lasha,” Oliver said, truly calm now, breathing out a final breath to rid himself of the last of his rage.
“If I was close to something today, then I will be close to it tomorrow as well.
And if not tomorrow, perhaps the day after.
I will find my place to break through.”
Her sword was still out of its scabbard.
“I do not like this,” she said.
“I am glad to see you so worked up on my behalf,” Oliver said, smiling, and putting a hand on her head.
“But it’s fine now.
I went too far.
I am sorry for bothering you.”
He hardly realized what he was doing until after he did it.
It was a symptom of Oliver Patrick that only those who had spent a considerable amount of time would have honed in on.
For a man of such intelligence and such talent – he was riddled with an almost alarming impulsiveness.
It was a gesture that he would have hesitated to deliver to Nila, at even the best of times.
Nevertheless, it was a gesture that Nila had demonstrated a begrudging degree of fondness for, and so it was an action that Oliver had at least thought, on some unspoken level, would be appropriate.
Now as his hand sat there, petting the shining black hair of Blackthorn’s head, and he saw her mouth slowly part in the most alarming level of surprise, he realized that he might have made an error.
Whenever one could see emotions truly on Blackthorn’s face, it was wise to assume as such.
The wrath in her eyes, just as she had managed to do for Oliver, had been replaced with surprise.
Her lips trembled, as she struggled for something to say.
“Apologies,” Oliver said, removing the hand with a swiftness. frёewebηovel.cѳm
“That was… Unwise.”
Lasha shook her head, but no further words came out.
She looked more dazed than Oliver had ever seen her.
It was enough to make him feel guilty.
“What you’ve done here…” Oliver said, turning his attention to his battling men in an effort to change the subject.
“It’s to be praised, Lady Blackthorn.
They’re really at work.”
By now, on an ordinary day, Verdant would have come over to greet his Captain.
The fact that even he had not noticed Oliver’s return seemed to demonstrate the level of concentration that he was delivering to the battling in front of him, as he warred against Jorah’s strategies.
On both sides, Blackthorn men and Firyr men fought against each other, and faced off against each other.
Every major unit had been split into two, and been made to work with groups that they were unfamiliar with.
