A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

Chapter 454 The Gravity of Competence - Part 5

"He didn't do it by juggling a family, a government, responsibilities, trying to run a shop, or starting different hobbies. No, he gave all he had to the blade, expecting that his devotion would be rewarded in return. As it turns out, he stagnated for a decade, despite that dedication... But I still can't help but think it's at least the first step.

If you really want something to change, the first and most obvious thing is to give everything you have to it. That should at least give you some progress," Oliver said.

"But I already have," Lasha protested. "The sword... It's all I'm good at."

"Something tells me that isn't true," Oliver said with a knowing smile. He looked to her retainers for confirmation, and reluctantly, Pauline agreed.

"My lady, in all your classes you're at least in the top three..." Pauline said.

Oliver nodded at that, smiling his agreement. "See, that's the difference between you and me, Lady Blackthorn – and my father. Before he taught me the sword, I had nothing."

He said that with such vehemence that it startled her. It was a terribly bitter statement, filled with raw emotion. Behind his eyes there seemed to lay the weight of incalculable experience, the likes of which she could not understand. Of course... Of course – his house had been destroyed when he was a boy. He had nothing. He'd lived with a father that the Stormfront did not even know was alive.

Just what kind of life must the two of them have lived together?

"The sword, for both my father and I, it was salvation. He chased it for salvation from Arthur's death, and I chased it because there was nothing else," Oliver said. "To come to me, looking for tutelage... I don't know, Lady Blackthorn. It seems like you're asking the wrong sort of people. You grasp everything well, and you have a number of options available to you.

Why don't you stop wearing that mask of yours, and show me what you can really do?"

Lasha did not know what to make of the talk of masks, but regardless the opportunity that she had wanted had presented itself. The time was short, and it had indeed been embarrassing revealing her desire, but that did not matter now. She would force him to teach her.

He indicated that he was ready, this time focusing on her with his full attention. He knew a little more of who she was now, after all. So in a sense, he could see more of her. She wasn't just the aggressive girl that had sparred him so furiously the day before, but someone striving for something. It made her far more understandable to him.

This time, Oliver went first. He saw Lasha's eyes widen at the sudden spring. Her style, after all, was based on furious attack. From Verdant's history of the Blackthorns – labelling them as a ruthless attacking force – he sought to see if that weakness extended to a lack of defence.

He didn't go all out with his speed. He didn't need to. His eyes were more on Lasha's booted feet. He wanted to see how her balance shifted when she was confronted.

Surprisingly, her step back was deft. Her balance was perfect. She must have had flexible hips, for she was able to move her feet close in at angles that he would have struggled with. It lent her a particular grace.

Now that she'd taken a step back, he pressed her, seeing what she could make of it.

He felt a sudden pang of danger. It hung in the air like a poison. It was the same sense that he'd gotten walking through goblin territory. He knew following her that a trap was likely waiting, though he didn't know what part of his sense told him that.

The counterattack game, as he had expected it. A sudden thrust, straight down the middle. From her favouring of rapiers, her thrusts were one of her best strikes, but this one was better than all the others that she had delivered. She did it with a fire in her eyes, a sneakiness.

Oliver grinned, seeing that same trickery in her that he'd enjoyed in him. "Not such a coddled young Lady after all, are you?"