A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor-Chapter 1122 An Army in need of Improvement - Part 9
1122: An Army in need of Improvement – Part 9
1122: An Army in need of Improvement – Part 9
“…The lack of respect for a Serving Class man in his dealings with a nobleman.
Is that not grounds enough?” Verdant said.
“In the city, it might be.
Here, where every life matters?
I think not.
Three men of pure repute they might be, but they are three men, regardless.
Even if they were useless on the battlefield, the very presence of their flesh will buy us time,” Samuel said.
“Or, are you saying that you have something else, worthy of at least three lives?” His eyes twinkled, as he seemed to see through the heart of the matter.
Oliver shuddered.
An attendant to Karstly, he might have been, but Samuel was certainly not a man to be taken lightly. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ
“You do not speak, Captain Patrick,” Samuel said.
“I sense a reluctance from you.
So on whose motivation have you strode all the way here, mm?
Lord Idris?
Lady Blackthorn?
Or is it the two of you?
I ask again – what do you want?
If you do not say something with enough gumption to keep me quiet, I will consider my time wasted.”
With that, Verdant took the initiative.
“My Lord is set to reach for further, Ser Samuel.
We believe him to be ready to begin the preparations for an entry into the Four Boundary.”
Samuel’s eyebrow twitched, but indeed, he was forced into silence.
His mouth did not open, but his fingers lightly tapped the desk, as he processed that information.
“Clear the tent,” he said suddenly.
The other men looked up from the paperwork that they were dealing with, and the guards looked doubtful.
The order was given again, this time with enough force to get them moving.
“Clear it, I said!”
The men shifted at that.
It didn’t matter what they were doing.
They began to scamper, as if it was a General that had commanded them, and not some simple nameless attendant that none had heard of until Karstly had presented him to them.
“You’ve said something outlandish, Lord Idris,” Samuel said.
“Do you believe the Boundaries to be such solid things that a man can grasp them at will?
An entrance into the Fourth Boundary indeed – by what principles do you make that prediction?
Eh?
Lord Idris?
Ser Patrick?”
“…By the principles of experience,” Oliver said eventually.
“Ah, so on this matter at least, the Lord finds agreement with his servants,” Samuel said.
“There’s certainty in your voice.
Certainty that doesn’t belong there for a discussion of this matter.
Indeed, if you can enter into the Fourth Boundary, that is a matter worthy of particular weight.
A weight that I don’t think even you seem to understand.
But here you have delivered it to me, and I am listening.
What reason do I have to believe you?
And more importantly, what is it that you want from me?”
“You have no reason to,” Oliver said with a shrug.
“I can offer no reassurances, either.
It is a gamble.
However, it does seem to be a possibility.
Enough that I cannot even feel embarrassed at having come all the way here to declare it, despite my lack of willingness.
I think the odds to be fifty-fifty.”
“That high?” Samuel said.
“What understanding do you have of these Boundaries you can make the odds that high in your favour?”
“He is the youngest Boundary Breaker in history, Ser Samuel, and the youngest man to cross through the Third Boundary on top of that,” Verdant said.
“He is also the reason that I was able to cross through the Second Boundary so young, and the reason that Nila Felder was able to do the same,” Blackthorn said.
Samuel wrinkles his brow.
“Yes, I have heard these things… And I suppose there are too many coincidences in a row to really be called a matter of chance.
However… It is a difficult thing to believe.
The nature of the Fourth Boundary is far different from the nature of the Second.
It’s the first step of a man into the upper-tiers.
It separates him from all the warriors around him.
Even if you never slew an enemy again, that would be achievement enough to put you on par with a Colonel, or a General.
No.
Most Colonels are only of the Third Boundary, just as I am.”
“It would change the nature of our defence here significantly…” Samuel continued, pointing at Oliver with a finger.
“If you especially had access to it.
The quality of your blade is different.
It stinks of a Sword, but for different reasons.
I do recall hearing a story, that as a mere Second Boundary man, you were capable of dealing with foes in the Third Boundaries… And more than once, as a Third Boundary man, you have cut down foes in the Fourth.”
“You know an awful lot about me,” Oliver said.
“I know only rumour, but the fact of your response there confirms it,” Samuel said.
“There is something off about you.
I suppose that is what intrigues my Lord so.
Very well.
Suppose I take this gamble of yours, given that the odds are so high already, what is it you want from me?”
“Freedom for my Lord to train,” Verdant said.
“The matter of this morning, when my Lord is pursuing the Fourth Boundary, it is completely unacceptable.”
“Now, when you state the circumstances like that, indeed, I find myself in agreement,” Samuel said.
“If we were robbed of another Fourth Boundary man for the sake of a soldier’s pranks, then we would find ourselves considerably worse off.
So, you want justice inflicted on these men, and you want your peace…?”
“I would agree to those terms,” Oliver said.
“Though I don’t particularly care what happens to those men.
If you can guarantee me a shred of peace, though, so I can practice without worry of intrusion, that would be beneficial.”
“That is within my means,” Samuel said.
“However, the option there seems simple, does it not?
There is no point in having the camp change its ways to fit around you.
Rather, it would be more efficient to have you leave the camp, and train in the forests beneath the mountain.
You would have your peace, and we would have another scout in the process.
I can see no problems with that.”
