A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor-Chapter 732: Ideas of Gold - Part 6

Oliver allowed himself another mouthful of food, and a sip of the sweet berry tea before he began to formulate his answer.

"I suppose it’s a measure of returns, no? Can my reputation get any worse? Any nobleman with sense doesn’t want to touch me. Any noblemen close enough that talk of me buying up slaves would cause them problems are noblemen close enough to know that I am offering them opportunity, rather than proliferating their enslavement," Oliver said.

"Fine, my Lord," Verdant said, more iron in his voice than he’d normally talk to Oliver with. "Let us talk, indeed, of returns. What would be the positive returns of stooping as low as slaves? Surely this Greeves can find you peasants to work just as cheaply? And even if you do, what is the real worth of owning slaves and peasants, when they can not perform the job required of them?

After all, its years of training these soldiers endure before anyone hires them. A peasant fresh from the fields isn’t worth nearly as much."

"I might… say something foolish," Oliver said, tilting his head, debating whether he should say it. "I wonder if I ought to?"

"Please," Verdant said. "If you judge it to be worth saying, then I would listen. Help me to understand. You were disappointed that I saw through the merits of the wall issue so quickly, but you failed to realize just how unconventional the rest of your thought process is. This, for instance, is something I cannot even begin to grasp."

"Those villagers Verdant, when the Yarmdon came, they stood strong," Oliver said, his eyes distant, as he remembered back to the battle. "Gods, Verdant. Hardly a handful of them had ever held a weapon in anger in their lives, and yet against those Yarmdon men – strong men, too, amongst the elite – they held strong."

Verdant’s eyes were wide. "I sense… Some sort of profundity in what you’re saying. Not the words themselves, but how they apply to you… There’s some well of meaning here, enough to make even Behomothia stir as he senses wisdom. But what is it, my Lord? Why did those villages manage it?"

"I do not know, Verdant," Oliver said. "I simply know that they did. In the heart of battle, we were in agreement. They wanted survival, I wanted victory. There was a unity I fail to grasp, and they almost matched the Yarmdon with it. Of course, they weren’t quite as strong as them – not even Lombard’s soldiers were – but they were effective enough.

Those villagers make me believe in the might of the peasantry. Of the downtrodden. They seem easier for me to reach than anyone else. In seeing them again, I realize that their hearts are closer aligned to mine."

"…My Lord," Verdant said, struggling to find the words to say. He felt shaken by something. He understood, better than anyone else ever could, that he was in the presence of something significant. That reflective look in Oliver’s eyes, so natural to him that he likely didn’t notice it – and yet, he could tell. The boy had grasped on something that held a frightening amount of power.

"You’ve hit upon something again, my Lord," Verdant said passionately.

"I think I might have. I wonder If I could understand those same people, the slaves and the peasantry that Greeves brings in, and whether I could raise them into a force equal to that of the villagers, on that day. No, with training, they should be even greater. After all, it isn’t as if a mere few years at the Academy suddenly turns these students all into master spearmen. Explore new worlds at novelbuddy

There are still things missing from their training – practical experience for one," Oliver said.

"That is very true," Verdant agreed. "Now that I hear your true thoughts on the matter, I’m inclined to agree. For the amount of coin that you currently have on hand, they would certainly be better suited than trying to fill your ranks with Serving Class men. Though, if I might offer a suggestion, if it’s coin that you worry about.

Why not have a few Serving Class men amongst them, so they can learn the proper way of doing things?"

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"Mm…" Oliver said, considering it, as he took another long sip of tea. "I suppose we can manage that. There really would not be many though, I warn you. Maybe a tenth of our number, if we’re lucky…"

"Do you still intend to raise a force here, in the Academy?" Verdant asked. "That seemed to be the difficulty with gold before – trying to set aside a year’s wages for Academy recruits. If you were to do it monthly instead, trusting on your income, then you would be able to expand our number considerably, even here."

"It’s difficult not to be reckless in that regard, though…" Oliver said. "If I pushed for it, I could comfortably accommodate twenty men in the Academy, but is that the right thing to do, putting my coin pouch in a risky place when the rewards might be minimal? For that same twenty, I could likely raise fifty on the outside, given how much cheaper their wages would be."

"True enough, but there are things that only Academy students can do, just as there are things that only men on the outside can do. I think, at the very least, it would be worth you having at least ten men on the inside if you can manage it. Now that Jorah, Karesh and Kaya have been training with us for a while, they should be able to welcome any newcomers into the fold," Verdant said.

"I guess it’s worth pushing for, then," Oliver said. "Gods, who would have thought 100 golds a week would still leave me so hard-pressed? Ah, wait… No. I could exceed that number now with a 100… I was still doing 60 golds in my head. Maybe I could even push all the way to a hundred men on the outside, and ten on the inside…"

"A hundred golds, my Lord? I’d thought your arrangement with Nebular netted you sixty?"

"Greeves has intervened there," Oliver told him. "Being the merchant that he is, he’s quite confident that he could raise that number up past a hundred, with the agreement that he keep the excess."