A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

"You very much ought to attend," General Skullic said. He still had yet to leave. His stay had extended to over a week, and he showed no signs of leaving anytime soon. "The rewards will be significant enough."

"Lord Blackwell has already rewarded me," Oliver said.

"And the High King will be forced to award you again. You slew a General, Patrick," Skullic said. "That is a feat that the entire realm celebrates. The wider your name is known, the less blatantly your foes can move against you. To abandon this opportunity would be a folly, especially when pettiness is your only motivation."

"…There would only be a week to get there," Oliver said. "It would be a miserable journey."

"But there would be coin," Greeves ventured, as a whisper on the wind, just loudly enough that Oliver could hear, but not loudly enough that the other nobles could accuse him of intruding on their conversation.

"Would there be coin?" Oliver asked. "It seems strange to get reward from both Blackwell, and the High King…"

"You have served both of them," Skullic said. "In conquering, you do your duty to your General and to your Country. It is only natural that both would reward you. Whether it will be equivalent in value to what Blackwell sent your way, it would be hard to say… but at the very least, it will have to be enough that it doesn't stand out as being too poor."

"Perhaps it might serve as reparations, then," Oliver said, considering it. "For the damage that was done to our walls, and to our houses."

"You still had mention of a stone keep being built, my Lord," Verdant added. "That would be a very coin-costly endeavour. You can never have too much of it. It will only be a matter of hours that we would have to stay there – I would say it's worth the trip."

"I really do not want to," Oliver complained, but he could see the sympathy on the faces of his gathered companions slowly fading.

"That is not an argument likely to win me over," Skullic said. "If you would complain about leaving your village undefended whilst you are away, that is another argument that I will have to quash. I shall remain here, and see to its defence myself. I trust that you will not say it to be a post that I am beneath?"

"…Just how long are you going to stay, Skullic?" Oliver groaned. The first of his complaints had already started days before. Skullic was a rather overbearing guest. His requests, and his admonishments were frequent. It made Oliver feel as if he was at the Academy all over again. However, beneath all the complaining, he had to admit that there was a great deal of reassurance from the man's presence.

It was especially helpful to have someone he could question in matters of the martial. It made him feel less as if he was drifting aimlessly on a wide open sea.

"As long as it takes for me to be satisfied with where you stand," Skullic said. "I am not taken to leaving projects half finished."

"Am I a project?"

"You're a pet that I have a fleeting interest in," Skullic said, putting a hand on his head, and crushing it with an iron grip, without letting a trace of the effort show on his face. "Now I would have you cease your complaining. As you have already pointed out, it is not a particularly short journey to the Capital. Preparations will need to be made.

If you wish to see them done, then you ought to begin now."

"…I need to escort Harmon from Ernest as well," Oliver said.

"That would only be half a day's worth of work," Skullic said. "And besides, you can attend to that matter today, if you wished to. Or you could leave it in the hands of another. I still fail to see why you wish to do it yourself."

"Why is there suddenly so much that needs doing," Oliver murmured.

"And here you were, complaining, just a few days past, about the world around you being too quiet," Nila said.

"How did you manage to get in?" Oliver said, pulling a face. His living room had already begun to feel packed. Any room with Skullic in – especially when he walked around in some measure of armour constantly – was liable to feel cramped. Added in the other strong personalities that he called his comrades, it was almost suffocating.

"I am glad to see that you're pleased to see me," Nila said through gritted teeth. "I have heard what it is you're discussing, and for what it's worth, I shall throw in my own opinion. I think you ought to go."

"The matter is settled, then," Skullic said, as if Nila was the grand overseer, whose permission mattered above all others.

"Somehow, it seems like this matter has been settled without my input," Oliver said.

"Do you have complaints?" Skullic asked, in a tone that indicated complaints were the wrong thing to have.

"Does it sound like I don't?"

"Good, then you can speak your complaints to yourself in the carriage on the way there," Skullic said. He strode off, declaring the matter settled.

"When did this house cease to be mine?" Oliver complained.

…

…

With a knock at the door, Oliver announced his arrival. The shop itself seemed to be closed for the day. The equipment was cleaned away, with only the anvil remaining, and all the wares that had ordinarily been left out on display on the tables outside had been brought inside as well.

The street was busy with passersby, but then, Ernest was always busy. For a city so close to where Oliver lived, he'd only visited the Ernest market a handful of times. It was like a small town to him. Some of the buildings were big enough, and sturdily enough built, that they would have been called keeps elsewhere. It was such a lavish display of wealth as to make his eyebrow twitch.