A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor-Chapter 897: Those That Anger - Part 4

"Well I suppose that's tha—" Nila began to say, but Lasha cut her off.

"I'll go regardless!" She said.

"My Lady!?" Pauline said, horrified. "You mustn't! The Passing Scroll is of the utmost importance. Please consider your position as a Lady. Its absence will affect your future marriage prospects – people will accuse you of being a fool."

"Let them say what they will," Lasha declared. "I'll prove that I am otherwise on the battlefield."

"But…" Pauline started to say, biting her lip.

"I do not mean to force the choice on you, Pauline," Lasha said gently. "In fact, I would order the opposite. Do not give up your own Passing Scrolls for my sake."

Her retainers were the same age as their mistress. For them to join her would be to resign themselves to the same fate – and that of Oliver.

Pauline heaved a sigh, and shook her head, smiling. "No, my Lady. We shall follow you, and trust that your choice is the right one."

"She says we without asking me, but I'm in agreement," Amelia said, folding her arms. "Though, I am wondering why she was so quick to agree… Could it perhaps be because Kaya shall be going along as well?" She smiled a mischievous smile, and Pauline immediately went red.

She waved her hands in front of her face, more embarrassed than Oliver had seen any human in his life. Her attempt at a response ended up in a choking cough, as she failed to get the words out.

"Amelia, do not be cruel," Blackthorn chided. "It is uncouth to bring up something like that in a meeting."

"Apologies, my Lady…" Amelia said. She genuinely seemed regretful, now that she had to stomach both the hurt look from Pauline and the disappointed look from her mistress.

"…As entertaining as it is to see pretty young things embarrassed at the mere suggestion of love, I've a feelin' we're done here. Or at least, we've finished everything we can say with the lot of us together," Greeves said.

Oliver could take the hint, just as well and Blackthorn could. "Lasha," Oliver said. She nodded, and stood.

"Come, Amelia, Pauline. This is not meant for the ears of us outsiders," Blackthorn said, swiftly drawing them out the door.

Only when he heard the heavy wood slam shoot did Greeves breathe a sigh of relief. He looked at his hand again. "I ain't steady," he said. "I thought I could tow the line with nobility, but it's suffocating."

"What do you have for me, Greeves?" Oliver asked.

"You sure you want her to be listening to this?" Greeves said, nodding towards Nila.

"I've the jist of it anyway," Nila said. "You aren't as cunning as you seem to think you are. Your little attempts at being discreet don't escape me."

The merchant snorted through his nose. "I suppose that's too much to ask, eh? When you could see a vole in the long grass from a few hundred metres away, you're going to be able to see through the likes of me."

"Greeves," Oliver said, speaking strongly to draw him back to the topic. "You've seen it dealt with?"

"Judas did," Greeves said. "They were just low-level smugglers, but yer suspicions were right. The slave stock they had was from nearby. Barely fifty miles from here. And ol' Bella's disappearance seemed to work its way back there."

"You found her?" Oliver said, daring to cling to hope. He clenched the arms of his chair tightly.

The merchant shook his head. "She didn't make it. She didn't die well. They became animals that forgot even about the coin. I'll spare you the details, but it's as you can guess, being the pretty young girl that she was."

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"Tsch," Oliver tutted, the flames of his anger swirling. She'd barely been a girl of sixteen – a survivor of the Battle of Solgrim. One day, she'd simply disappeared. An alarming fact, given the history that Solgrim had for disappearances. Oliver had pursued the event like a bloodhound, but his efforts seemed to be for nought. "How many were there, Judas?"

"Twenty, all told," Judas said, a grim look on his face. He had two children of his own now, a little girl and a boy. "We didn't torture em', but we didn't let them go easily either. There wasn't much mercy there. They weren't good men."

"Neither are we," Greeves said, looking at the ceiling, shaking his head. "Neither are we…"

Nila sighed as well. "We knew that this would happen eventually. You predicted it yourself, Greeves. Wherever there's the opportunity for money to be made, criminals will inevitably come sniffing. We've had more than a few thieves looking into our butcher's houses. We've barely been able to chase them away."

"What do we need to do?" Oliver said, asking no one in particular. "I would have thought with the garrison that we have, crimes would be low."

"Make no mistake, they are low," Greeves said. "Ernest has far more problems of this sort than we ever will."

"But they're still happening. The fact that thieves are still trying it must mean something," Oliver said.

"…He's got a point, Oliver," Nila said. "I've two store buildings in Solgrim, and they've only ever been looked into, never stolen from. The three stores that I have in Ernest though, each has been broken into at least twice, and the richer cuts have been bagged up and run off with."

"That many times?" Oliver said. It was the first he was hearing of it. He'd heard Nila say once or twice that there'd been a robbery, but she had mentioned it so lightly that he never thought it to be a big deal.

"Lord Blackwell is away, what do you expect?" Greeves said.

"…Is that a warning?" Oliver said. "You mean to say that with me being away, activity will only increase?"

"Of course it will. Just look at the forest. As soon as a bear disappears, wolves and foxes will move in to take over the territory," Greeves said.