A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor
Chapter 1375 - 1375: Secrets of the Past - Part 5

Oliver snorted at how ridiculous their conversation was growing. With how tired he was, he found it was the only sort of conversation he could find the energy to engage in. For it was the sort of conversation that required no energy at all.

As they finished up the last of their stew, there came a knock at the door.

"Ah, there you are," Professor Volguard said, a Battle board clutched under his arm. "I had thought I might find you here. Skullic had warned me that I would have difficulty moving you, given how absorbed you were in your reading. I thought I would leave you to it for a while."

"…Sorry about that, Professor," Oliver said, scratching his head. "You've made all this time for me. The least I can do is turn up to your lessons when we agree upon it."

Volguard waved a dismissive hand. "If regimented effort were enough to solve your issues, Patrick, then you would have solved them a long time ago. You're no stranger to exerting yourself when you need to, so as far as that goes, I do not find myself complaining. Besides, it's not as if you are playing in a field. You are reading, perhaps, one of the most important books for a Stormfronter to read.

How are you finding it?"

"I don't know why it is so interesting, but it is," Oliver said. Nila looked at him with a warning glance, as if willing him not to describe the First King in the same way that he had to her earlier.

"He was a unique individual," Volguard agreed. "Analysing his strategy, in his battles with the Yarmdon, from the accounts of the men at the time, one would think that his methods were primitive… But I dare not label him as such. He was able to found this country of ours for a reason, after all.

Even if theoretical strategy was less developed during his time, he still managed to stand far ahead of the competition."

"What do you suppose of him, Professor?" Oliver asked. "The way he's so willing to use his men, for what seems like… like just fun, really, at the heart of it… Do you not think that's a madness?"

"For fun, you say?" Volguard said, stroking his chin, after he found himself a seat nearby. "I suppose it could be seen as that."

"He kept the Yarmdon King alive more than once, just to battle him again, and risk thousands more lives," Oliver said.

"And what do you suppose of that?" Volguard said. "That he was wrong to do so?"

"I mean, evidently, right? He could have seized a victory, and dealt with the King in the first battle. The war would have been won," Oliver said.

"Can you be so sure, Ser Patrick? Strategy is not such a thing so easily understood. You correct one seeming 'mistake' and the entire tower of cards falls down. With your appreciation of progress, in its most general form, surely you can see that?" Volguard said.

"But the… the lack of seriousness, in handling human lives…" Oliver said. "It isn't right."

"You speak of the First King's whimsy? Do you suppose that to be a lack of seriousness, or just a different sort of seriousness to what you and I experience? Who is to say that our seriousness is the right form of it? We have not achieved what the High King has achieved," Volguard said. "He secured victory, time and time again.

You seem to disapprove of his attitude in that, but his attitude helped him win those results."

"I don't know…" Oliver said.

"Do you disapprove of how he won, then?" Volguard asked. "Do you suppose that he should have attempted to do it some other way? Or was the most important thing that he won the battle in the end?"

"It isn't as if he committed an atrocity, or anything of the like," Oliver said. "But it's just that, he didn't seem to regret seeing his men die for his cause. That's surely off."

"Is death always a reason for regret?" Volguard asked, provoking a swift frown from Oliver. The Professor hurried to elaborate. "After all, do soldiers not go to the battlefield knowing full well that death is a highly likely outcome? And in some battles, death might be likelier than living. Is every death a cause for despair?"

"If you peered into the lives of each and every man, then it would be," Oliver said. "They might have families waiting for them at home. A wife, a child. They might have made promises. That all vanishes when a spear gets thrust into their gut, and their life is taken from them."

"Perhaps. But why do we have structures of command then, if each and every life is equally as valuable? Is the purpose of an army not a devotion towards a single particular intention? Do we not leverage our lives for the good of the General – for the good of victory?" Volguard said.

"We pursue victory… but only as far as the individual is concerned. People don't go to battle forsaking their own wants," Oliver said. "The men fight for coin, for glory, for improvement. Loyalty is only a small part of that equation. They live lives outside of the soldiery, and they likely mean more to the men."

"And what do you suppose, Lady Felder?" Volguard said, turning his gaze to the quiet huntress, who had carefully kept her mouth sewn shut as the Professor launched into his lecture.

"I would… prefer if the fighting was done in a different way," Nila said. "I guess I understand that, it's natural that different groups and people will be at odds… And competition is a good way of solving that – it works for the animals. The strongest win, and grow big and strong and have lots of children. I just wish that we didn't have to put our lives on the line for the sake of competition."