A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

Chapter 684 The Blaze Forward - Part 5

He had nine positions on a sheet in front of Oliver, all of them comprising equal amounts of pieces for both warring sides, but all of them were completely different in who was winning or not.

"If I were to hide this one, would you remember it?" Volguard asked, his hand covering a position in which the white pieces had been forced to play a considerably more defensive battle, It was an odd situation, in which, despite black having far more attackers active, white was in a mightily advantageous position.

"Mm," Oliver said. "That is the defensive one..."

"Indeed. Do you remember where each piece was placed?" The professor pressed. "Set it up on the board if you remember."

Oliver began to, murmuring to himself all the while. "No... Needs to be one big wave in the counterattack, that wouldn't work..."

It took him a minute or two of fiddling, but after rerunning the model in his mind, he was confident it could be no other position but this.

The professor was smiling a sage smile. "Bravo," he said. Oliver had a feeling that he wasn't complimenting the position. "You didn't remember what the position was, did you?"

"What? But I managed to set it up, didn't I?" Oliver replied, a little too quickly, thinking that he was being accused of not paying attention, or something of the like.

He'd managed to beat Dominus in Battle after only a few weeks of playing it.

"Do not let that go to your head, though," Volguard said. "Talent though you might have, you do not have time, and you are still behind. It will make your life easier, for I shall change the way that I teach you. By the end of the year, if you apply yourself with this much vigour, I am confident that you should be able to match your coursemates." Continue your journey on My Virtual Library Empire

"Good," Oliver said, clenching his fist. "Good... Now for the others."

That was just one subject amongst many, though. All his subjects were beginning to take on a more academic focus, now that he was being taught alone. He had strategy along with his mathematics, and he'd even begun to take on alchemy – in which he was like a fish trying to swim on dry land, unable to make heads or tales of it – and there was field medicine as well.

He was meant to be having archery lessons too, though he'd only had one, given how tight Professor Yoreholder's schedule was. That lesson had been particularly tense, given her husband's decision to remain impartial at Oliver's trial, a decision which the man had apparently come to after much thought on the matter.

Given how things had ended, Oliver did not blame the man, though it did make him somewhat wary of him, not knowing which side he stood on.

"I imagine improving your strategy, and developing a proper taste for it as the academic subject that it is, that might be just what you need to improve your reading and writing. One needs a reason to do things before the mind starts to take them in – your mind especially," Volguard said. "If you had a reason to write and read more often, you should be able to close that unbridgeable gap."

Oliver nodded deeply, taking the words to heart. Moreso than any of his other professors, Volguard seemed to want the absolute best for him. His advice was always salient, and the best that he could offer.

It was one thing amongst many that had stopped Oliver from giving up hope on his academics entirely – and now that decision seemed to be bearing some fruit, with a potential new way in which he might attack his strategic learning and catch up with his peers.