A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

The Minister of Blades grunted in return, and motioned with his hand dismissively. "See to your people, then, boy," he said.

They were still breathing heavily, as they stood amongst the kills.

"Seems a shame to leave these," Kaya said, standing over all the goblin corpses. "How much do you think they'd all sell for?"

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"A few silvers. But they don't belong to us. They belong to Ser Patrick and Lady Blackthorn," Jorah pointed out.

"Oh… True," Oliver realized as he approached. "I suppose it wouldn't be so bad for you to sell some things yourself, if you wanted to. Lasha, do you have any interest in the corpses?"

Lasha shrugged dismissively, as she allowed Amelia to wipe the goblin blood away from her face with a handkerchief.

Jorah frowned at that. "I thought you wished for us to carry some things for you, Master," he said. "Hobgoblins and the like?"

"I do. But I won't stop you from collecting from the goblins on the way back, if you wish to. Provided that you're fine with carrying it yourselves," Oliver said.

Kaya perked up immensely at that. "We're going to be getting so rich…" he murmured. "I wonder if I can send any back home?" Oliver noted that the boy's hands were still quivering from battle.

"More coin, that sounds good to me," Karesh said enthusiastically. "What now, Ser Patrick? Another wave?"

He said that even whilst his chest was heaving up and down, and he was quite clearly exhausted. All three of them were. Blackthorn was breathing nearly as heavily, though she seemed to be attempting to try and hide it.

"We've been forbidden from taking any more goblins," Oliver said. "I think that's just as well, to be honest. It's time to branch out into different species. These are simply the foes that I know best, so it seemed like a safer training ground… For this week, though, I'd say you've done enough."

Jorah nodded in agreement, but Karesh was already opening his mouth to protest.

"Huh? Already? It's only been thirty minutes, hasn't it? I can go way longer," he said.

"Have you forgotten why we're here?" Jorah said pointedly. "This expedition isn't about us. The Minister of Blades wasn't dragged all the way here just to watch us train. The Master still managed to find time to train us, even though he ought to have been dedicating his attention to preparing for the Stone Crab."

It felt odd to see Jorah standing up for him so loyally. Indeed, they'd sworn their oaths, and Oliver had seen them do so, but he hadn't expected it to change their attitude towards him all that much. With Verdant, he'd basically remained the same, after all. The retainership was just an added formality that Oliver had requested without truly understanding what it meant.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Jorah, despite his heavy reluctance, seemed to take his oath the most seriously out of the other three. That might have just been his personality in general, though. He always seemed to have his head on right, and be considering things that the others ought to have been.

"Ah… True…" Karesh acknowledged his overstepping with a guilty scratch of his head. "Sorry 'bout that, Ser. I suppose I could do with a rest anyway."

"No, you're fine. All of you have done well today," Oliver said. "But it's not really the physical burden of combat that I'm bringing you here for. You've already trained with the spear on Academy grounds for years. The purpose of your training here is simply to apply those skills to real battle, and to train your mind to relax during it.

Physically, you could all likely go far longer today, but there's still hesitation in all your blades. That's not going to change until you can process the battle psychologically."

"And in that sense, it is better for you all to now rest," Verdant added. "Lest you injure yourselves."

Oliver nodded in agreement. "I'm looking to make you all stronger as quickly as I can. This is the fastest way I can think to do it, with what limited experience I have."

"You need not explain yourself to us, Master," Jorah said. "But I appreciate the explanation nonetheless."

"Jorah, you especially exceeded my expectations today," Oliver said. For some reason, Kaya puffed out his chest as though he was the one being praised. "You would have been wasted as a common footsoldier."

That comment seemed only to make Jorah uncomfortable. He turned away. "I'm… glad that you think so," he said, though he didn't sound particularly glad.

"What about me?" Karesh asked with a grin.

"I think we'll make a monster of you yet," Oliver told him.

"And me?" Kaya asked, but there was no confidence in his voice. "I'm too slow, aren't I..? I really didn't do all that much. If not for Jorah telling me where to stand, I'll have been useless."

"We'll see where you stand two weeks from now, Kaya," Oliver said. "For now, I withhold judgement, because I think you'll be fine, once you relax a little."

"And my Lady did most of the work," Amelia said proudly. "You can take all your praise and send it straight back to her, with two hundred percent interest."

"Isn't that a little much interest, Amelia?" Pauline asked meekly. "Besides, I'm not sure if our Lady would want that…"

"You make a good point, my Lady," Jorah said politely, dipping his head to Amelia. She seemed stunned to be shown that sort of respect. She opened her mouth to say something, but failed, going red instead. Jorah didn't catch her blush, for he was already turning to Blackthorn. "Your sword was even more powerful than I'd heard it rumoured to be, Lady Blackthorn. I appreciate your assistance greatly.

Had you decided not to fight with us, we would have had a considerably tougher time."

"Indeed, you killed what, thirteen?" Oliver said, nodding to Blackthorn. "That's a rather big improvement on last week."