A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

Chapter 459 Looking for Gold - Part 4

Despite his difficulty finding the class, when he entered, it seemed that it still had not begun yet.

Immediately, before noticing anything else, he saw Lasha Blackthorn resting her chin on her hand, as she sat at one of the many square tables, waiting for the lecture to start. She heard the door open, and glanced at him. She didn't make a noise, but he could hear a sigh from the expression on her face.

He felt much the same. Their training together was going fine... It was even a welcome distraction, at this point. It took very little of Oliver's time – a few minutes at lunchtime was all it required – and it allowed him a different perspective on his own swordsmanship, as he strove to teach someone else. Besides that, Lasha herself was good... Interesting, even.

There was a slyness to her, that she seemed to want to hide.

Regardless, whilst their company and time together were going fine, neither particularly wanted to see that much of the other. Or at least, that was the case with Oliver. It still required effort on his part to wear the right mask well enough to present it to nobility.

And so, he chose a square table of his own.

It was a different sort of classroom from all the others that he'd been in. Those were what the other students had called lecture halls, with slanted benches positioned in a semicircle, like half of a coliseum, but the only violence being done was on the chalkboard.

This, to him, seemed more like a restaurant in its orientation. Perhaps restaurant was the right word, but Oliver had nothing else to compare it to. The square tables were positioned such that eight or so groups could be formed, with the participants all facing each other.

She settled down next to him. There were only a handful of other students in the room, and they were all looking their way. It was impressive how Blackthorn seemed to shift her posture so aggressively that it made it seem like they were the odd ones for staring at her.

They did have that agreement in place, that Blackthorn would make herself be seen within Oliver's company, to try and deter any sort of attacks that might come as a result of his house's isolation. But they were already sitting together at lunch, and they could already be found walking through the gardens together around the same time. That was more than enough, or so Oliver thought.

But clearly, Lasha was of a different mind.

She was sitting right next to him, but somehow managed to position herself in her seat so that her back was to him.

'What in the world must they be thinking?' Oliver wondered, thinking of the students that stole glances in their direction. How do you puzzle out what had just happened? You'd perhaps guess that they were close, with Blackthorn shifting her own seat to sit next to him, but then as soon as you saw the discontented expression she was wearing, that seemed like an impossibility.

Oliver sighed again. It might have been easy to just ask the woman what she was up to, and perhaps dismiss her back to what she was attending to herself, but even if he did speak, she'd likely just ignore him. With the way she'd positioned herself with her back to him, she seemed to be screaming that.

The classroom gradually began to fill up, as Oliver was forced to endure several tense minutes with Blackthorn still on the edge of her seat right next to him. It was like trying to relax by a tree, when you could clearly see a tiger stalking you through the long grass.

By necessity, others began to join their table. Many of these turned out by acquaintances of Blackthorn.