A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor
Chapter 1380 - 1380: Secrets of the Past - Part 10

"…It's hard to tell who is winning," Nila said. "But hasn't Oliver suddenly lost an awful number of pieces?"

She seemed to be able to tell, with Volguard's grave silences, that his position was a difficult one, despite the speed with which Oliver's pieces were flying off the board.

"If the Professor is thinking, then that's good enough for me," Oliver said. "He used to play me, whilst checking the homework of other students. Do you have any idea how annoying that is, Nila? For that to happen, and for you to still lose?"

"I don't, obviously," Nila said. She was giving him the intentional cold shoulder, ever since his childish attempt at destroying her hunting tactics.

"It wasn't great," Oliver said, pressing on, undeterred. Unlike Volguard, he didn't think that he had a great deal of thought put into the position. The only target he had in mind were the remnants of Nila's strategy on the board. He could see her in each of them, and he at least wanted to destroy all the fragments of it that he could, before he ultimately succumbed to his defeat. "Anyway, Professor.

You didn't answer my earlier question?"

"About what?" Volguard said, quite clearly wishing to focus his mental efforts on the board, rather than further questions.

"About why Claudia chose the First King, and the Stormfront," Oliver said. "What is it about us that makes the Goddess of Progress so likely to choose us?"

"…Our values, I suppose," Volguard said. "That is typically the case.. The culture evolves, and it influences the people within the country, giving them a sort of country-wide personality.

Of course, to us it might seem that we're all different, but to outsiders, from other lands, they all report distinct commonalities in Stormfront behaviours, just as we Stormfronters quite universally accuse the Yarmdon of being barbaric and violent, because of the seeds of the culture that they were brought up in.

So, I'd say, beginning with the First King, there has arisen a Stormfront culture that has attracted Claudia to our people."

"But what?" Oliver pressed. He knew that it was to his advantage to distract Volguard however he could, but he also had to admit he was genuinely curious about the answer. He didn't understand it. "The First King… He seems the most distant from Claudia out of everyone – and yet somehow, it was he that brought Claudia to the Stormfront."

"He embodied the values of Claudia most purely," Volguard said absentmindedly.

"What?" Oliver said.

Volguard looked up. "Did I say something you disagree with, Ser Patrick?"

"I mean…" Oliver frowned. "The First King, of all people? Not someone like Arthur? I'd have to disagree with you. Arthur reached the Fifth Boundary with what could be described as ease… Isn't he perfection, as far as Claudia was concerned?"

"Is that how your father described Arthur?" Volguard asked, taking his attention away from his calculation entirely by now. "That he'd reached the Boundaries with ease?" The question was genuine, it seemed. Not like one of the leading questions Volguard often asked, for the purposes of teaching. This time, Volguard seemed genuinely curious of the result.

"It was…" Oliver said.

"They were very different sorts of people, your father, Arthur, and the First King," Volguard said. "Arthur was selfless, he acted for other people, rather than himself. Your father… Well, I would leave the description of your father to you, for you know him better than any. As for the First King, I'd say he was prone to whimsy.

It's hard to say whether he truly desired what he gained in the end, or whether it was just the natural course of what he enjoyed."

"The natural course of what he enjoyed…" Oliver murmured. Something about those words seemed significant, but he didn't know how to put the pieces together yet.

"When your father breached the Sixth Boundary, what changes do you suppose were had in him?" Volguard said. "Or were there any?"

"…No, I suppose, towards the end, he was quicker to joke," Oliver said. "The pain in his arm from the Pandora Goblin wound had kept him strict before that. But before his breakthrough, when he wasn't training, he would smile more often."

"Perhaps there is something there," Volguard said. "The First King, certainly, from his writings, seemed to have smiled quite often. Though we know nothing of what Boundaries the First King broke.

Only that he crushed his foes, without a question, and that he heralded the arrival of Claudia as the patron Goddess of the Stormfront, bringing all Stormfront men closer into reach of her powers in doing so."

"Who would you say then, understood Claudia better?" Oliver said. "The First King, in the fact that he brought her to us in the first place?"

"Or he who crossed the highest Boundary, through Claudia's mechanisms?" Volguard said, stroking his chin. "Perhaps those aren't the same problem, Ser Patrick. Perhaps one is the personality of Claudia, and perhaps the other is the natural whims of progress."

"Aren't they the same?" Oliver said.

"You tell me," Volguard said, finally making his move, shattering what remained of Oliver's spearmen.

Immediately, Oliver began his counterattack with his archers in turn. He had a good dice roll, killing four of the five bowmen of Volguard's that he'd targeted, eliciting a frown from the Professor, as he quickly shifted what remained of them backwards, in order to make up for the losses.

"The encirclement is broken, Nila," Oliver grinned, pointing out Volguard's retreat. "Looks like our hunter is getting hunted now."

"Can't you just enjoy playing normally?" Nila said, folding her arms, and pretending that she didn't care.

"Not a chance," Oliver said back. "There's still signs of your hunting on the board, and I'll have to hunt it down before Volguard gets to me."

"Are you sure you can manage it?" Nila challenged. "The Professor is better than you at strategy, isn't he? Won't he just cut your legs out from under you if you go around stomping on everything but him?"