A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

"And the raising of those further two hundred men?" Oliver asked.

"It's coming along, no need to worry on that," Greeves said. "The first trickle might start arriving next week, if we're counting ourselves lucky… And then if we hire some outside builders from Ernest, we might be able to see our walls extended before winter, and we'll have the rest of the repairs complete as well. Not bad going, I'd say."

"Are meetings such as this a common occurrence?" Oliver asked. "It strikes me that it could have gone quite strongly in the opposite direction, given that was their intention from the start… They were looking to strangle the village, and we would have been strangled without your manoeuvring… Have you been doing this all the years that I am away?"

"Do not get so impressed so quickly, Oliver," Nila said. "He enjoys doing it. He's a terrible man, for certain. He enjoys pulling the wool over their eyes, and making them believe in the lies and half-truths that he puts in front of them. It is just as sickening to watch as it always is."

"She's a cruel little thing," Greeves said, shaking his head. "And after all I've suffered, to keep this village from the shackles that other provinces would see it in. I can't even get a bit of acknowledgement from my underling that I've trained for so long?"

"I'm not your underling," Nila said, folding her arms, and turning away her head in refusal. "I will admit that I have learned much from you, but I refuse to copy your methods. Straightforwardness is the best policy."

"Hah! Try your straightforwardness with those old bastards, see where it gets you," Greeves said. "You still have much to learn."

"…But you have already gone far enough on your straightforwardness already, haven't you, Nila?" Oliver said thoughtfully. "Do you not suppose that it limits you, even after all you've seen Greeves achieve with his way?"

Nila pulled a face, the question evidently catching her off guard. "I don't know where this is coming from, Oliver… But why would I wish to be like Greeves? Sure enough, I have to admit, he knows what he's doing, but what's the point in matching him, if I become as dirty as he is in the process?"

"You know I'm sat right here, don't you, girl?" Greeves said, though he was already halfway through his second biscuit, and he didn't seem to have a care in the world.

Oliver smiled. 'I suppose even in this, there's more than one path that a person can take.'

"I'll be waiting for the day that you overtake Greeves, with your own methods," Oliver said.

The little huntress seemed to realize that there was more meaning in the words for him, beyond just their simple conversation. She studied his eyes, as if trying to pin down the exact target that she needed to aim for, but she mustn't have been able to find it, for she gave a small smile instead, and she raised her fist. "Isn't that obvious? It shall not be long. I'll swear to that."

"Aye, aye," Greeves said. "Children, both of you still. How much blood does it take to change the picture you have of the world, eh? Not that it's any of my business. As long as I'm getting paid for it, I suppose I don't mind cleaning up after your messes."

They were due to meet again, Nila knew. It wasn't for a couple of hours, but they'd still be meeting. They often enough met in the company of others, and she would never try to get herself worked up then, so why was it that she found herself getting worked up now?

The reason had become something simple enough. At first, she'd found defence in the vagueness of its appearances. She was allowed to hide behind the curtain that it offered her, without addressing it directly. As the weeks went on, however, the problem became clear. Even if she hadn't wanted to think about it, her mind still processed information that she would have rather avoided.

The problem, she knew, was her. She saw the troubled look on Oliver's face every time she met him, and she was unable to interact normally. And now she felt the gap beginning to widen. He would tense too, when the others left them, expecting her to maintain her distance. And now her own options as far as fixing it were beginning to grow limited.

She watched the village children play, as she took her lunch in the market square. For them, it was simple enough. The boys played just as roughly with the girls as they did with the other boys. They were the same size, after all. Only when the girls began to complain did they seem to realize that it should be any other way.

But there was no awkwardness to them, none of the stolen glances and double takes that arose in adulthood, where some men would blush, merely to take the look of a beautiful woman. And some women would do the same - she'd seen it enough in business.

A handsome merchant would leverage his looks to his advantage wherever he could, wheedling out just the tiniest bit of extra profit because of it, but in business, those tiny extra profit margins were important. They'd grow, and they'd build, and soon enough they'd allow a certain calibre of merchant to separate himself from the men below him.

Nila never thought that she and Oliver would be at all like the bumbling adults, so self-conscious and unsure of themselves. Nila had always had one thing that she could rely on, and that was her skill in the bow. It allowed her confidence enough not to doubt, even as her other skills were called into question. Oliver seemed to have a different perspective from that.

She'd seen his doubt at time, but that doubt never seemed to weaken him around other people.