A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

Chapter 598 General Skullic - Part 5

"You did not answer my question," Skullic noted.

"I had intended to do them alone, for the most part," Oliver agreed, with a slight bit of hesitation. "Though, there seems to be a good opportunity in them for training my retainers when they are ready."

"Wrong," Skullic said firmly, shaking his head. It was certainly a little surprising for Oliver to be so firmly refuted on a point that he was sure was quite well worked out.

"How do you mean?"

"You correctly interpreted these missions as opportunities. Indeed, they are, once you ignore the fact that you could die on any one of them. But you've misinterpreted what kind of opportunities that they provide," Skullic said, just as Mary arrived back with a tray full of tea. Oliver noticed that she'd made a third cup for herself as she set the tray down on Skullic's desk.

Skullic made no comment on it.

"Martial ones, surely? These are meant to be fights, after all," Oliver frowned. "Perhaps the opportunity to build power, if I raise a force strongly enough..."

"You hear him, Mary? You'd think the Patrick's only knew steel from the way he talks," Skullic said. "It doesn't surprise me that you're having political trouble."

"Leave him be," Mary said, "you know his circumstances. No need to rub it in."

"What opportunities?" Oliver repeated.

"Do consider it," Skullic said. "The Academy Ministers expect me to teach you, but that seems like a waste of both of our time. They're too old to remember it in themselves, but I am young enough that I remember how much worth I thought I had as a youth. My own thoughts might have been... delusional... but their sentiment was not wrong.

A boy you may be, but a cooperative relationship I believe we can establish. You have enough worth, despite your age, that you can be of a benefit to me. I have experience and position that can be of benefit to you, but you must decide what you wish to know and how to bargain for it. Such is the way of the world."

"Bargain?" Oliver said. "Well, you already know what I want. I want to know what it means to be a General. I want to learn what it means to lead, and what this talk of Command is truly about. I'd thought that, because the Generals were of lower boundaries to my father, that they were all weaker."

"Oh, no, they are most certainly not weaker," Skullic tutted. "A Sword needs a General, but not every General needs a Sword. A mediocre General and his army could overpower even the greatest Sword. That is simply the reality of commanding thousands of men."

"Yes, there's numbers," Oliver agreed, "but you do something different, don't you? There's something that brings the best out of men, that makes them stronger... Some sort of connection."

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Skullic tutted. "I'd forgotten that you'd already led those villagers in Solgrim. Thus what you describe is what you've already felt. A feeling of Command... That's the first step. Some joke that it's as hard as a mage sensing mana to get that far. It isn't, but it's similarly tough... Gods damn it, how irritating is that?" He drained off the rest of his tea with a frown on his face.

"Don't you blame the tea," Mary warned from across the room. "Oliver, you'd better drink yours too before it gets cold."

"It's not the tea," Skullic said quickly. "Hah... You've already got a sense for Command, boy. It is merely irritating to realize that."

"I thought it worked in your favour," Oliver noted. "Given that cooperative relationship you were talking about."