A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor
Chapter 1369 - 1369: Change - Part 6

"Don't make it sound like something profound!" Nila fumed.

"I will see you at the top, Lord Patrick. Rock to rock," Lasha said, saluting.

"And don't you join in!" Nila fired back at her. "The sickness is spreading… Whatever it is, I'm quite sure it's catching… You've ruined poor Lord Blackthorn's daughter. He's going to be furious."

"I think she's always been like this," Oliver said. "We've just had the misfortune of peeling back a few of her layers."

"Can you not talk about peeling back a woman's layers?" Nila said, finding an opportunity for a counterattack, and seizing it.

"My Lord, would you like me to call for the Lady Blackthorn's retainers?" Lysa asked from the doorway, after having delivered their rabbits to the kitchen.

"Please, if you would," Oliver said.

"No…" Blackthorn said weakly.

"If you were going to stop her, you should have spoken up at least a bit," Nila said. "Are you that drawn in by the fire?" She dared to try and pull on Lasha's hand testingly, to drag her away from the flames, but the woman turned near feral in her refusal. She threw up a kick to Nila's head.

"Woah! What!?" Nila said, only barely managing to dodge. Her eyes were as round as saucers, and she was crouched a short distance away, looking like the fox that she very much was.

"Remember who her father is, Nila," Oliver said by way of explanation. "Can you imagine trying to shift him from a fire when he was trying to enjoy himself? He wouldn't stop at a kick, he'd burn an entire village down."

"T-true enough," Nila said, wary now. "I suppose… I had better leave Lasha to her flames then. I hadn't realized that she was quite so comfortable."

"I am," Lasha said, docile again.

With Lasha captured by the flames, Nila carefully skirted around her to find a degree of refuge in the form of Oliver. "Well… If she's happy… Hmm. What are all these books? Are they the dusty ones you brought back from the Capital."

"They are," Oliver agreed.

"I thought you said you had no interest in them? How long were you looking at them before we came?" Nila asked.

"Well, I do remember the sun being a good deal brighter," Oliver admitted.

"Hours, then," Nila said. "Are they really so interesting?" She traced a tentative hand across the page, so carefully it was as if she expected that it might fall apart at any moment.

"I don't really know," Oliver said. "I didn't think they would be. Skullic had read me some quotes from it, and I haven't ever found myself being overly interested… But he'd left it out on the table earlier, and I had nothing to do whilst I was eating—"

"Please tell me that you didn't get crumbs on ancient treasures…" Nila said, horrified.

"How bad do you think I am? I at least made sure that none of the food got on them," Oliver said. "Though you didn't seem to mind putting rabbit blood quite so close by."

"If I had known… I wouldn't have… I just thought it would be funny," Nila said, hanging her head.

Oliver put a hand on her head, and gave her a smile. "It was, I was only teasing. Anyway… These books are quite a read, and I couldn't tell you why."

"There's been nothing in them that's caught your attention?" Nila said.

"Oh, I'm sure there has been… Just nothing that I could think to tell anyone else," Oliver said. "I lose track of time reading these things. The First King doesn't seem to say anything interesting at all, but I just can't manage to pull myself away from them. It's as if the man is in the room.

Someone who achieved the kinds of deeds that he did, it sort of doesn't matter what they say, they have a presence."

Nila nodded her understanding. "I could feel the same thing from General Blackthorn… And something different from Queen Asabel."

"Right? I suppose it to be something like that… But somehow, this is through ink on a page. Skullic assures me that it is different for him too in reading the originals – and he's read the copied versions of them many times," Oliver said. "The First King… He's just an extraordinarily fascinating man."

"What do you suppose he was like?" Nila said. "From what you've read thus far."

"Well… It's strange," Oliver said, frowning. "He isn't what I expected, that's for certain. I expected someone refined… Uptight… Sort of like Lancelot, of Queen Asabel's guards. You've met him, haven't you?"

"I have. I thought him to be very polite," Nila said.

Oliver pulled a face. "Maybe to you. I can't stand the man, really… But I suppose he isn't as bad as he used to be, and maybe we're even starting to see eye to eye. Actually, never mind. I still hate him."

"I hate him too," Lasha volunteered from the fireplace.

"And what's your reasoning behind that, Lasha?" Nila dared to ask.

"…He's too girly," Lasha said, quite cruelly. It was a sword slice that could likely be felt all the way across the Kingdom. Oliver wondered if somewhere, Lancelot was letting out an unexpected groan of agony.

"Well… I suppose that's true," Nila said, only adding to the wound. "But he did seem like a true knight, the sort of storybook knight. It was strange seeing him in our village… and of course the Queen along with him."

"Mm," Oliver said. "Lancelot has had it bred into him. He's the product of generations of nobility. He's like a separate creature. The First King, however… I don't get that sense from him. I don't know how he began, but he certainly wasn't royalty.

He was a General, and somehow, he ended up as King… But this isn't a kingly sort of man, nor even really a serious General sort of man."

"You're making yourself sound silly," Nila teased. "Is he really that hard to describe?"

"He enjoys it too much," Oliver said finally. "I have only managed to read a short section of his life, and in it, has shared a few battles with the Yarmdon. But I can tell you that I wouldn't have described any of my own battles in the way that he did."