A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor
Chapter 1744 - 1744: A Long Slumber - Part 1

Oliver stared at him dumbly for a few moments, clutching it. He'd been so invested in the command that he'd been given that it felt strange thinking about anything but it. Especially when the battle was still going down. But when he looked to the sky, he could indeed see that the sun was going down. And so, it made a degree of sense that Tavar would likely set his army to retreating.

"Did you not hear me? It's done. Be gone with you," Blackthorn said.

"What of the others? I don't wish to dine without my men," Oliver said.

"You can dine whenever you wish, but I order you to leave this wall. Your men will be following you soon enough," Blackthorn said.

With a clear restlessness, Oliver still did what he was told, though he didn't fail to look back over his shoulder a few times.

"He held the walls," Blackthorn said to Reid, almost impressed.

"Did you not give them to him because you knew that he would?" Reid asked.

Blackthorn thought about it, but never really answered the question entirely. "Well," he said. "I suppose I'll be able to rely on him more in future. That will be useful."

"Indeed."

"Your opinion?" Blackthorn said. "You seem to have something to say, and it's irritating standing next to such a restless man."

"I suppose he did well, though I never really understand what he was up to from start to finish. His use of Lady Felder and Lady Yoreholder in particular stood out. He managed to lessen the effects of Tavar's unharassed archers by a good amount, and he did it with a mere hundred men. But in other areas, he did struggle. He had to charge forth himself to see an effect done."

"There's no shame in that," Blackthorn said. "A General can still play himself as a piece. Though it does depend on how he does it."

"…Perhaps you might be the only man in the Kingdom that would agree with that," Reid said. "The rest of us would prefer to see our Generals keep themselves a good deal safer."

The first two days passed without incident. Tavar withdrew his army at sunset, and made camp a good distance from the walls of Ernest. It was a very conventional approach to what was proving to be a very conventional siege battle.

On the second day, Oliver made a request of General Blackthorn to allow him the freedom to move more willingly. He wanted to exert his presence on the rest of his peasant army as he had done on the first day.

He stated that, though he knew it to be reckless, and a rather free-handed approach to a battle with an enemy of the highest sort, he thought he could exercise some degree of improvement amongst them, if he was allowed to.

Blackthorn allowed him that surprisingly quickly. The prospect of once more assuming command entirely alone didn't phase him in the least. He only added one addendum. "You can do what you wish, until the moment King Germanicus begins to move."

Oliver, naturally, had nodded in agreement at that. They'd seen the terror that King Germanicus was capable of inflicting just the day before. General Blackthorn still ached in walking. A fact that his own daughter seemed to take a degree of rather cruel amusement in. It was only that which seemed to have cheered her up after she had been seemingly left out of Oliver's battle plans on the previous day.

But the truth was – as Oliver argued – he had still been able to use her effectively for information gathering. She simply wasn't the sort of person that would very much have enjoyed commanding an entire wall. She still hated having to watch out for her hundred men whenever was necessary. Only after a considerable amount of argument – which with Blackthorn contained only a small handful of rather cold words – did they manage to reach a settlement. Even then, it was with Nila's interference.

"Do you wish to be given more responsibility, Lasha?" She asked, not unkindly. "Oliver is silly at times, so it's worth telling him exactly what you think."

"What do you think, General Patrick?" Lasha asked icily. "Apparently, I can't handle it."

Oliver had pulled a face at that. "Quite the contrary. I've always thought you would be a capable Commander and even Captain if ever you wished to apply yourself in that regard. It is you that has continually fought against that, and decided that you preferred the sword."

"…Oh," Lasha said, as if just remembering. "I suppose. Okay. That's fine."

"Uhhh," Oliver had looked to Nila to intervene again.

"Does that mean you wish to be given more command?" Nila pressed.

"Yes," Lasha said simply.

Oliver had held his head in his hands, but had agreed to do that regardless, whenever the opportunity did once again present itself. And on the second day, as far as the rearrangements of command, there was none to be done.

He went around, and focused his attention again on the peasantry. He had them beat back the enemy on all fronts. He made them hold their ground better than they had for the entirety of the day previously. It got to the point where the enemy struggled to land a single ladder on that wall at all.

And King Germanicus, throughout Oliver's small victories, did nothing. He simply stayed down below by the southern wall, with his arms folded, next to General Tavar, just watching the proceedings with a keen eye.

It was with a sense of victory that the defenders of Ernest left the walls at sunset on the second day. There was a real feeling that, after all, they would manage to hold on. At the very least, until help arrived. They had managed to beat the enemy that day handily enough that their troops could rest in between waves. It seemed a rather promising thing indeed.