A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

"I refuse," Nila said. "I can barely tolerate you teasing me, never mind anyone else."

"…True enough. And I've never been particularly good at sharing," Oliver said.

"Shush, enough of this," Nila said. "You've already said you're going, so go."

"Alright. Make sure you talk to Lasha when the two of you have the time," Oliver said. "You were good friends before the campaign. It would be a shame to lose that."

"Yes, yes, I know," Nila said. "Go on now. Enjoy your day, Ser Patrick."

"You're certainly in a good mood this morning, Ser Patrick," Professor Volguard observed, when Oliver gently knocked on the door of his borrowed room, and strolled in. "I recall that, back at the Academy, our early morning lessons tended to be the least productive, give how much you disliked waking up. Has all that changed, I wonder?"

"I wonder," Oliver echoed. "At the very least, I feel rather good this morning."

"Have you eaten?" Volguard asked.

"Not yet," Oliver said.

"Good, eating will dull your thinking – it will strip away the blood from your brain, and push it to your stomach. I would evaluate your current level now, while we have the chance. There seems to be little for it, than simply playing a good game of Battle. Will you be my opponent, Ser Patrick?"

Oliver could see that the man had already set up his board on the table. It was a magnificent thing of solid white marble, with the pieces of each side being gold and silver respectively. It would have sold for quite the fortune if Professor Volguard ever felt the urge to part with it.

But Oliver knew that to be unlikely – he hadn't even been able to leave it at the Academy in his absence, after all, and had opted to travel with it, despite its weight.

"I hope you're content with the army composition and formation that I picked out for you," Volguard said. "I don't suppose you're still of the more eccentric beginner's persuasion?"

There was a time when Oliver was fond of experimenting with the highest of extremes in army composition, in the form of fielding an entire force of spearmen, or a half a force of bowmen, with no cavalry, and having his formation be riddled with gaps, rather than as a flat line. But the more he had played against Volguard, the less he had begun to focus on those starting proceedings.

The true heart of strategy began after the battle started – at least, that was the case for the Battle board, where the pieces were inclined to be equal regardless. And he knew no matter what tricks he might pull in composition, he wouldn't beat Volguard.

"It will do," Oliver said, taking a seat opposite him. He knew there wasn't a chance of him beating Professor Volguard, especially not now, and he wasn't inclined to let his good mood go to waste. He was still very much enjoying the teasing that he'd done to Nila, and he didn't want to waste that positive well-spring of warm emotion. He wondered if he could tease Volguard a little bit as well.

He played a long cavalry move to start off with, right in the range of Volguard's archers. It was as teasing a move as any. Two archers could currently hit him, provided the roll of the dice was favourable for the Professor.

Volguard frowned his disapproval at him. Oliver knew it to be a little disrespectful. The Professor had come all the way here from the Academy to see him taught, after all, and this was the sort of play that Oliver gave him.

"…I will not be pulling any punches," the Professor said gravely. "If you have awoken this morning with a childish mindset, then I will quickly point out the error in playing childishly."

He rolled the dice once. Oliver's piece survived. He rolled the dice again, and once more, did it live.

"Now that is a shame, Professor," Oliver said, holding back his laugh. The chances of failing a double dice roll like that were one in four. It wasn't anything particularly good that he'd done – and still it put the Professor on the back foot.

"Very well, chance has allowed your foolish cavalry move to become a good foothold, let us see how you—" Volguard started to say, but Oliver had already driven his well placed cavalry unit straight into the line of archers.

He rolled his dice, eliminating one piece.

"…What a waste," Volguard tutted. "I had taught you better than that. To know the value of your pieces. The good fortune that you were granted there. You could have exerted a good amount of pressure on the left flank for all the turns to come, but you threw that away in an instant."

It was Volguard's turn again. Naturally, with the cavalry unit being surrounded, his next course of action was simply to take it. He pushed his spear unit forward, and with a single roll of the dice, the cavalry unit was spent.

Oliver paid it no mind, and he continued to focus on teasing the Professor. The truth was, that he was indeed hungry. He wondered if the maids had managed to find any of the dried fruit that they had claimed would have at the marketplace this morning.

'The hour is perhaps too early to hope for that,' he cautioned himself, as he sent one of his archer units in just as deep as his cavalry unit had been.

"…Reckless," Volguard said. "You have been accused of being that on the battlefield. Perhaps this childish way of fighting that you've taken up is a better reflection of that, then."

He moved his cavalry unit forward, and rolled the dice to take Oliver's isolated archer. But, as luck would have it, once more, the dice did not favour him.

"W-what!" Volguard said. The chances of a dice roll, for cavalry on archer, being a miss, were 1-in-6. Unlike with the archers, where every attack was a 1-in-2 chance of hitting. Each unit, depending on their effectiveness against other units, had varying chances of taking another unit out in a single turn.