A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

"No," Oliver replied. "A hundred of the veteran men will be staying to train the new infantry, and I'll keep a few Sergeants with them. The rest of you, however, will be coming – along with that new Serving Class cavalry."

Jorah smiled. "Then I am doubly content, my Lord."

With Jorah reassuring Oliver that all was going as planned, Oliver went into the village, with the light of the sun still out.

The guardsmen saluted him at the gate, crisp and attentive in their duties. Oliver was pleased to see that there was a good amount of traffic coming in and out of the walls. That traffic was the very lifeblood of what made Solgrim function – and it was also the lifeblood that kept Oliver and his armies fed.

On occasion, he would still hunt a rare monster, if he had the time, and he would have those ingredients made into potions through Nebular – the two had kept in touch, despite his graduation – but the coin he made in that was far lesser than the coin he made running Solgrim. Greeves told him that it ought to be the case.

That was how most nobles made their money – they ran the lands that they governed, and accepted taxes. It was a very small portion that operated businesses on top of that.

"Do you have a date from Greeves as to when this new work on the walls will be beginning?" Oliver asked.

"It has begun already, my Lord," Jorah said, pointing to the other side of the village. "Just beyond those walls, they've begun digging the trenches required for the expansion."

"We won't have weaknesses whilst the work is going on, will we?" Oliver asked. He'd made certain to press that point home with Greeves when they were discussing the prospects of expansion, and he checked it once more through Jorah, to ensure that the point had been listened to.

Jorah shook his head. "Not at all, my Lord. If anything, the trenches will make it harder for any attackers. And the old walls shall be kept up until the new walls are put in place. Then they shall be removed, completing the expansion."

"Mm," Oliver said. It seemed that the matter of the expansion was proceeding smoothly as well. That couldn't have been the source of his growing unease either. He was increasingly certain that it was merely just nerves getting to him – and then he remembered what the walls in the Capital had been like.

"I wonder if it would be better to leave the inner wall permanently up… There ought to be no reason to dismantle it, is there?"

"Ah, I see what you mean," Jorah said. "It would make for a sector, rather than a unified expansion. It would certainly give us more options in a defence if we needed it. It will also save the construction team time. The only disadvantage will be the slight lack of space, from where the inner wall continues to occupy."

"It should be fine," Oliver said. "If we need to expand our walls further in future, then we can do just that."

The villagers greeted them as they passed, speaking with as much politeness as they possibly could.

"Good afternoon, Lord Patrick," one woman said, bowing as he passed. He acknowledged her greeting with a smile, and bid her the same that she bid him. The woman's face lit up at his friendly return.

"Afternoon m'Lord," another man said. He looked to be a construction worker to Oliver, from the state of his grubby hands.

"Working on the construction of the new walls?" Oliver asked.

"Ah, no m'Lord, I'm on the houses. We're laying foundations down, for when the walls get strung up. So people will be able to move in quickly, see?" The man said. He looked at the ground as he spoke, clearly nervous that a noble was asking him questions directly.

"Oh? Was it Greeves who ordered that?" Oliver asked. He didn't anticipate that they'd move so quickly.

The man froze. "It was… Is there a problem, m'Lord?" He said.

"Not at all. It's an improvement on the original plan. I would not call that a problem in the least," Oliver assured him. "Thank you for your hard work."

The man's expression softened, and he grinned a smile missing more than a few teeth. "Thank you for paying me!" He said, scratching the back of his head, before adding a hurried "m'Lord," upon realizing that he had forgotten to say it.

Their walk brought them to the marketplace soon enough. Oliver observed carefully, looking at it with fresh eyes. It was the same scene that he'd seen for the last three years, but he saw it differently now that he was to leave so soon. He looked at it through a set of eyes that tried to search for any problems that might need correcting.

It was certainly busier than Oliver remembered it being. When has it gotten like that? The stalls that he had been so used to when he'd first arrived into the village – hardly anything more than a bench, with the occasional bit of waxed cloth tented over the top of it to save from rain – had transformed into more permanent establishments.

With the Patrick soldiers that patrolled the square, the merchants were confident enough to leave more permanent fixtures behind. It was less tented stalls these days, and more solid crafted squares of wood, with a little space inside for the merchant to carry out his business.

Of course, such squares came at hefty prices, and it was a prime position that the merchants would need to pay to keep. Those that could not afford it stuck to the tented stalls, but even those tented stalls seemed to be of higher quality than they had been in the past. Everyone seemed cleaner, and better presented, as if the new excess of competition had forced those cleanliness standards on them.

Amongst the stalls, Oliver saw a particularly lavish establishment, bluntly named 'Felder's Meat'.

Oliver had commented on the name a few years ago, expressing that it ought to have a bit more flair to it, but both Nila and Greeves had looked at him as though he was stupid, and the name had stayed the same ever since.