A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

Chapter 492 Preparations - Part 5

"What are you looking at, rock face?" She asked. Kaya immediately blushed and turned away.

"C'mon Amelia, be nice," Oliver said. "He mistakenly took interest in your pretty face. He didn't know that you were an absolute sea of darkness underneath."

"I'm not— wait..?" Amelia cut off, and went a bright shade of red, as she fished out the lone complement of Oliver's in what otherwise was a sea of insults. Oliver grinned at the unexpected weakness.

"So, Jorah, the pay is settled, right?" Oliver asked.

"Right..." Jorah said hesitantly.

"But you're still not happy," Oliver noted. "What is it you want? I can do better with the pay, if you need it. I think I will do that regardless. Next year your worth as soldiers will be far above what it is now. Your pay will reflect that."

"Uhm... Ser Oliver?" Pauline said, raising a hand as though they were in class. It was an unexpectedly endearing gesture.

"Yes, Pauline?"

"Uhm, you know that their current wages are reaaally, high, right?" She said.

"Apparently," Oliver nodded.

"Okay, just checking, Ser," she said, lowering her hand. Apparently, that was it.

"What troubles you, Jorah?" Verdant asked. He'd picked up on the boy's name during the course of their discussion, and he used it to the fullest effect, affixing him with that pale-eyed stare that he had, the sort of stare that saw straight into the heart of your soul.

"Perhaps a master like that would not be so bad to serve..." Jorah said carefully, eyeing the reactions of those around it as he said it, to see if he could uncover any discrete.

But Oliver just shrugged. "If that's good enough for you. I can also swear to a God of your choosing to give you the sort of freedom that you asked for. Whatever it takes to get a retainer with your sort of mind on my side, I think I'd be able to do it."

"Does that settle your concerns, Jorah?" Verdant asked, a small smile on his lips as he watched his Lord work.

"Part of them," Jorah said, though he didn't exactly look content. "Sooner or later, I would be forced to swear to a noble anyway... I'd hoped to do it later, after I had more time to negotiate a better contract for myself. But am I likely to get better than this?"

He still seemed immensely doubtful, and that was understandable.

Verdant turned to Oliver. "Will you proceed with the swearing of oaths?"

"Here?" Oliver asked, surprised. "I thought we'd be doing it in a shrine, like we did with yours."

"That was merely my preference," Verdant said. "There are no strict measures that say that it has to be so."

"What do you three think?" Oliver said, turning to ask the three boys sitting next to him.

"Uhm, I'm fine doing it whenever... The sooner the better, I think?" Kaya said. "Aren't you going on a big expedition this weekend?"

"I am indeed," Oliver said, noticing how Blackthorn perked up. He still hadn't said any of the proper details to her yet.

"Me as well. I'm fine swearing wherever," Karesh said. "This place is kinda like a shrine to me, what with how nice it is."

It was impossible to dismiss Peter's smile when Karesh praised his cabin. He puffed out like a mother hearing her child praised.