A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor-Chapter 1120 An Army in need of Improvement - Part 7
1120: An Army in need of Improvement – Part 7
1120: An Army in need of Improvement – Part 7
“You’ve certainly pushed, Verdant,” Oliver said with a sigh.
It wasn’t at all what he’d had in mind as far as his plans went.
The incremental process of improving his army’s unity, that was what he’d bet on… but his greed was tickled the more the Fourth Boundary was mentioned, and both Ingolsol and Claudia pushed him towards it with a heartiness, just as Lasha and Verdant did.
“Are you in agreement, my Lord?” Verdant said.
“Think of the rewards.
How could Lord Blackwell or Lord Karstly wish for anything more than another Fourth Boundary man amongst their ranks?
It would be a mighty drop in this pond of war.
The ripples would be overwhelming.”
Oliver shook his head.
He was being forced into considering what ought to have been an impossible proposition.
To cross the Fourth Boundary in a week?
What sort of hubris did one need to have to suppose that such a thing was possible?
He knew it to be the height of foolishness.
He opened his mouth to say that very same thing again to Verdant, to dismiss this all as a folly… And yet, the words just didn’t quite seem to fall out.
Both their wants – Lasha’s, and Verdant’s – were slowly melting the ice of his heart, forcing him towards what he himself wanted.
The intensity of Lasha’s gaze was difficult to believe.
From that quiet doll-like student that had been the subject of many conversations in the Academy for her cool emotionlessness, to be directing that sort of desire towards him, urging him onwards, as if it would be her victory, just as much as his… it hardly seemed right.
Verdant too, with those pale blue eyes.
He looked at Oliver like he could already see the future in him.
He wouldn’t take no for an answer.
The two of them were resolute.
As the rest of the Patrick forces took their rest, and the other Commanders partook in their refreshments, he was being pressed into making a decision that would decide their very future.
“You get what you want,” Ingolsol told him.
“Just as we get what we want.
You’re playing coy – but you’ve wanted them to ask you this, haven’t you?
You’ve wanted it from the start.”
The Fragment of Despair always knew exactly what buttons to press to make Oliver’s wrath begin to drift towards the surface.
There was always a degree of truth in whatever he said, which only served to make matters worse.
Had he wanted this?
Of course he had.
There was no way he would have gone off to train with his sword if he hadn’t wished for the sweet allure of the Fourth Boundary.
However, that, and this very situation were two different things.
They were proposing a commitment to Oliver that seemed unnecessary.
It was a risk that they didn’t have to take.
Time would pass, and their forces would continue to get incrementally stronger, even without them taking such a risk.
Was there really any need to go out of their way, and dive in towards the unknown?
Was there ever a need for that sort of impatience?
“Always,” Ingolsol said.
“There’s always a need for more.”
“It is a part of you, Oliver,” Claudia said gently.
“You’ve always sprinted as fast as you can.
These past years you’ve been measured, for fear of the state of your wounds.
You wished not to bother Queen Asabel any further.
You need worry no more.
Those wounds have healed.
There’s no fear to be had.
If you wish to reach for more, if you wish to sprint as you once did, then you have my support.”
“Your support?” Ingolsol chortled.
“Who needs such a thing?
If yer want it, boy, take it.”
“I’ll take it,” Oliver said, his eyes flashing gold as he jabbed a finger at the two of them.
“But I warn you, it was you two that started this.
We could have gone about this campaign with sensibleness.
I could have trained in the quiet, when time allowed it.
We didn’t need to commit all the way like this.”
“Ah, but that is exactly what makes you what you are,” Verdant said, saying much the same thing as Claudia, as a large smile blossomed on his face.
Even Lasha Blackthorn was smiling.
A beautiful smile, for as rare as it was.
A smile that could capture any man’s heart.
Yet there was no capturing Oliver’s heart then.
His heart had been thoroughly conquered by another desire, making him blind to everything else.
For the first time in three years, his feet returned firmly to a path that Beam had once treaded – a path that Dominus had set him on.
“I will commit entirely then,” Oliver said.
“Every waking moment for the next week whilst this patrol is away, I shall train as if the world is on fire.
As if everything important is about to be taken away from me.
Even then, I warn you, it might not be enough.
There’s no guarantee when it comes to progress, nor the Boundaries.”
“It is a risk that I am quite willing to take,” Verdant said.
“And I think the rest of the men will be in agreement.
There is no fire that will warm us more than the ascension of our Lord.
This will be news that shall travel far.
All of Solgrim shall celebrate it.
Queen Asabel shall celebrate it too.
Nay, I say, the whole of the Stormfront shall celebrate it!
The youngest Boundary Breaker in history, and you already had them whispering, and their hearts stirring.
When you crossed the Third, they whispered some more.
Now, as well known as you have become, and as significant as the Fourth Boundary is, the people of Stormfront shall know to celebrate.
They will see that this is not just a prodigious candle flame likely to go out, as so many have before, but this is a great Tiger, that will carve his name into the history of the continent forever.”
“You have sold me already, Verdant,” Oliver said, sighing once more.
“There is no need to try and win me around with further speeches.”
