A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor
Chapter 1374 - 1374: Secrets of the Past - Part 4

"General Skullic?" Nila said, looking around the room. "I'm not sure. If I had to guess, he hasn't been here a while. You were even more dead to the world reading than you were yesterday. It must be a realllly good book, huh?"

"It is," Oliver said. "Though I couldn't tell you why. He's not an amazing writer… He makes mistakes more often than you can count, but I suppose he's so charming that it's easy to overlook them."

"Charming?" Nila said, raising her eyebrow.

"Mm. That does seem like a strange thing to describe him as… But I can't think of anything else," Oliver said. "He seems sort of like if a dog could write."

"W-wait, wait, Oliver!?" Nila said, outraged. "You know that's the First King you're describing, right? The foremost of Stormfront's heroes?"

"I mean it in a good way, naturally," Oliver said. "He seems like he was writing with his tail wagging the whole time. It's not like it's enough to describe him as optimistic… But he's sort of like a dog that had been chasing a stick in some way or another his whole life. I'm sort of envious."

"I'm sort of horrified," Nila said, turning his words back at him. "Uhmm… If you're going to talk about the First King with someone else, can you find some other way to describe him?" She pleaded.

Oliver grinned. "Y'know, I said much the same thing to Skullic earlier, about something entirely different."

"Oh? What did he say?" Nila said.

Oliver told her, and he watched the shift in her face with delight. Her curiosity turned to repulsion in an instant, as her lips twisted and her eyebrows fell.

"That's something crude enough that Greeves would say it," she said. "…But I do wonder how true it is."

The look she gave Oliver was a testing one. "Do you genuinely want me to answer?" Oliver asked. "Or is this some kind of trap?"

"A room full of men certainly has a smell, but I don't think pointing that out to be as cruel, do you?" Nila said.

"Certainly there's a smell," Oliver said. "Wait, why am I letting both of you trick me into this? Are you both animals?"

"You were just describing the First King as a dog. You are in no position to complain," Nila said. "If you're to smell anything, then at least smell the rabbit stew the servants brought you. You didn't even look up to say thank you."

Oliver had wondered why Nila was so at ease with him. He could say emphatically that things had improved between the two of them when they were alone, but there was still an undeniable tension that he had to carefully navigate. Today, there was none of that.

She was as free as she was at her best – and the reason seemed to be in the servant girl Lysa waiting with a tray in the corner of the room, to see if they wanted anything more with their meal.

"Ah, apologies, Lysa. I'll see it eaten now," Oliver said.

"You need not apologize, my Lord. We exist to serve," she said.

Nila watched him with an uncomfortable amount of scrutiny as he brought the wooden spoon to his mouth, and gave his first bite. "Well?" She prodded.

"The cooks have done a good job," Oliver said, knowing full well that wasn't what Nila was asking. She hit him in the arm in retaliation.

"I meant the rabbit," she said.

"Ah, that… Mm. Well, it's a good tender meat, I'd say," Oliver said. "As expected of miss Nila Felder, I suppose."

Nila nodded her satisfaction, and only then, did she reach for her own bowl of stew, and take a bite. "Maybe this'll take away some of the tiredness from your face, Oliver. You stayed up until late reading, didn't you, despite what I said?"

"I might have…" Oliver said, keeping his gaze focused on the stew.

"You look a wreck," Nila said. "You would have looked better if you'd spent the entire night in the forest..."

"You know full well I would prefer to sleep there," Oliver said.

"I suppose for you that example has entirely the opposite effect," Nila giggled. "How did you lessons with Professor Volguard go, when you were this tired?"

"Hm… Lessons?" Oliver said, only just then realizing that he hadn't attended them.

"You don't mean..?" Nila said, dismayed. "Really, Oliver? You forgot to go? The man came all the way from the Capital just to help you! You can't be so rude!"

"…You're not wrong," Oliver said guiltily. "It seems I lost track of time."

"You're going to have to reallllyy apologize," Nila said. "He'll think you're taking him lightly. You have to show your gratitude to him, or he'll not know it."

Oliver nodded. "True… Though, I think the best I can do for Volguard is to see my strategy actually improved. Not that I have any better idea as how to go about doing that than I did yesterday. I'm in a deadlock, just spinning around and around."

"Have you not got anything from reading so much about the First King?" Nila asked.

"Only that I can never be him," Oliver said.

"Because he's a dog, and you're a human boy?" Nila teased.

Oliver had to crack a smile at that. He thought he could hear a giggle as well – from someone other than Nila. Only when he concentrated on the source of the noise did he identify Claudia. She seemed to be enjoying listening in. And even Ingolsol, strangely, was quiet.

"I'm sure you'll discover something eventually," Nila said.

"And I'm sure this rabbit stew will help in that," Oliver said. "Perhaps I bother you for all the rabbit meat in the world, I'll eventually get there?"

"That seems a small price to pay," Nila said. "I'll do what I can."

"You're going to be busy," Oliver said.

"It's only all the rabbit meat in the world – it shouldn't be that hard, should it?" Nila said.