A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor
Chapter 1564 - 1564: Shifting Tides - Part 7

Her urgency was obvious from a distance, but as soon as she saw Oliver poised so languidly, the tenseness about her face faded, and her pacing slowed ever so slightly, replaced by a more tender look.

"Nila," Oliver said, turning his head without raising it, to acknowledge her with a smile. "So you've brought the message. And what about you, Judas? Has Greeves not given you anything to do?"

"He asked me to hear what it said, Boss," Judas said awkwardly. "'Cos Nila wouldn't let us open it without you. It's got Blackwell's seal on, and apparently it's rude to open it."

"It's not only rude, it's dangerous," Nila said crossly. "You ought to know that by now, Judas. You can't go around opening messages that aren't meant for you. What if they end up in the wrong hands, and a spy gets hold of the information? You could cost us the war."

"I mean… Isn't that bound to happen eventually?" Judas said. "If that's all it takes, maybes we're done for."

"Judas!" Nila said sharply, her voice cracking like a whip. Anyone would have thought that she was the mother of the large man with how easily she ordered him around. Judas cowered from her raised voice, and twisted his lips, stepping back a step.

When she spoke to Oliver, her voice was a far more level thing, with a far gentler hint in it, enough to make Judas' irritation spike even higher from the contrast. "You've been watching the men train?" She asked. "How are they doing?"

"Mhm," Oliver agreed. "Not really sure. We'll see."

Nila's eyebrow twitched from the casualness of the response. "…I thought with you getting so comfortable, you'd have seen something that you liked."

"Oh, I have," Oliver corrected her. "But I'm not sure whether it's a good thing. It's curious, is what it is, and I'm bored waiting for them to get back, so I can watch a bit more. But it's probably too much to ask that it solve all our problems."

"You don't seem to be particularly worried about that," Nila noted.

"What's to be done?" Oliver said. "This one might well be beyond me."

From those words, said so easily, the souls of four people practically poured out of their eyes. They couldn't have looked more alarmed.

Oliver continued, oblivious. "For this one, I really don't see a solution. I'm not sure if it's at all possible. I can't even think of where to begin. I think it's probably arrogant of me to suppose that I can solve it. So I suppose we'll just do all we can, and see what happens…"

"But Oliver! You were so against retreating before," Nila pointed out in a worry. "What happened?"

"I don't particularly want to retreat, and I'd rather not," Oliver told her. "But I think I'm defeated by this problem. I'm not equal to it."

Now even Verdant was beginning to grow worried. He'd enjoyed seeing his Lord relaxed earlier, but no retainer could hear their Lord admit defeat and feel easy about it. "Are you certain, my Lord? That you wish to give up? This isn't like you at all… Surely there's something you have in mind, something you wish to try?"

"…Like I usually do, right?" Oliver said, hefting himself up onto his elbow, so he was ever so slightly more upright. He lifted his hand, and he clenched his fist. "Just like this," he said, squeezing it tightly, his eyes flashing briefly to gold, and his presence, briefly, flaring enough to make Judas cower, and make the rest flinch. "Just like that, I could crush it, and make everything go my way, do you suppose?"

"You have always found a way, my Lord," Verdant said. "By your will, you have shattered through every obstacle that comes up in front of you."

"And it tires me, Verdant," Oliver said. "Speaking to those men, and bringing them to Blackwell's cause, that tired me as well. I operate too forcefully. I try to operate forcefully here again, to smash through this boulder that has been set in front of us, but I am reminded of nothing but how small I am. Oliver Patrick is not sufficient to match it. They will send an army of twenty thousand, Blackwell supposes, and they'll likely have multiple Generals amongst them. Who am I compared to them, when I can hardly be called a General myself? We do not have the numbers, and we do not even have a trained amount of men that we can rely on. There is nothing in particular to draw hope from, so why would I force you to operate in falseness?"

"Is that an excuse not to try, my Lord?" Verdant said. "Is it not all a man can do, to try, despite everything?"

"This is too weighty a problem to try on, Verdant," Oliver said. "If I am to try, it means I must use strength to move it. This is a problem so much larger than I, that no amount of strength that I summon can even put a dent in it. If I am to force a path where I must try, I will be defeated regardless. So, is it not better not to try?"

"Then you give up?" Nila asked hotly. "You would throw it all away, your duty, just like that, after it has been given to you?"

"I give up," Oliver agreed calmly, turning, and standing, but lazily, with his back leaned against the wall, so he might face them. There was a quietness to him as he spoke. He was a man that always responded to fire with fire of his own. He was always so easily riled up. But that fire was absent from him then. There was another quality to him instead. "But I do not forsake my duty. I shall not try, for I do nothing but weaken myself through hit, but I do not give up."

"Is that not a contradiction..?" Nila said, but she did so with far less certainty than before.