"Sir, aren't we being too arrogant..." Renault, who had made all the arrangements, mustered up the courage to come forward.
"There's nothing I can do. I need to know where Rivendell is. Who has nothing better to do than that?" Roland shrugged helplessly.
"Oh, I hope there won't be any misunderstanding with the elves..." Renault glanced at the elves who were tied up and still struggling.
"I'll take a nap first. The elves will come and call me later." Roland waved his hand and went back to lie down comfortably under the shade of a tree.
…
Rivendell at this time...
"King Ailon! Lind and his reconnaissance team are missing!" An elf came to report.
"Hmm? When did they leave?" Elrond narrowed his eyes.
"They set out early in the morning. Lind said they were going to patrol the kingdom to prevent the orcs from the north from causing damage. But half a day has passed, and there's still no news from them..."
"Take our men and go find Lind!" Elrond said solemnly.
"God, please protect them from harm..." Elrond prayed in a low voice.
…
"Sir, something's not right..." Caslo woke Roland up.
"What..." Roland looked up and was stunned.
"How the hell are we surrounded by the elven army?" Roland asked Renault in disbelief.
"Well, maybe there's some misunderstanding here." Renault pointed at Lind and the others who were still tied up nearby.
"Good heavens! This doesn't match my expectations!" Roland was stunned. In his imagination, even if this small group disappeared, the elves would only send out a hundred cavalry to investigate. Who knew they would directly attract the elven army...
Unbeknownst to Roland, the Orcs had learned of the Dwarf Expedition and had organized several Wolf Riders to march south to intercept them. The encounter they had encountered yesterday was just one of these groups. Elrond, believing the Orc army was marching south, had hurriedly led his army out to search for the enemy. Instead, they spotted a small group of humans resting in the shade of a tree. Looking again, they saw a group of humans, oh my! Lind and the others were tied up nearby. Elrond thought the humans were planning a war with the elves.
Three thousand elven archers formed up in the rear, preceded by a thousand elven cavalrymen mounted on moon deer. Judging by the surging magical energy behind them, there were probably a dozen or so elven mages. Roland's hundred swift infantrymen slammed their shields to the ground. Only then did Roland realize they weren't iron-plated shields, but rather leather-wrapped iron shields! Five-meter-long chevaux de frise pointed obliquely at the sky. Behind them came the Badanien archers, abandoning their mounts and hiding behind the infantry. This effectively protected their fragile bodies (compared to the fragility of the heavily armored classes) once the battle began. The knights also mounted their horses and gathered together, ready to activate their fighting spirit and form combined attacks.
"Let's go!" Roland knew that good fortune comes easily and disaster is inevitable, so he went to meet them with Renault and Caslo.
On the opposite side, Elrond also came over riding a moon deer.
"Why did you invade the elves' territory without reason and capture our people?" Elrond's tone was not very good.
"King Elrond?" Roland recognized Elrond in front of him at a glance. Not to mention that he really looked like the one in the movie.
"Huh? You know me? But I've never seen you? Where are you from? Where are you going?" Elrond was surprised, his eyes shining, obviously casting some kind of detection spell.
"Damn! A Tyrant! This half-elf is actually a Tyrant..." Roland was also shocked. After all, elves are famous for their archers, mages, and rangers, and the warriors in the elf group are really hard to describe.
"We are from the remnants of the Lagrang Empire in the East. Our homeland was destroyed by the Dongyi people..." Roland did not continue this sad topic. After all, to a certain extent, Roland did not lie. After all, the Lagrang Empire was indeed dismembered.
"We are looking for you, King Elrond!" Roland bowed and said respectfully to Elrond.
"Looking for me?" Elrond asked doubtfully.
"To be precise, we are looking for the group of dwarves, humans and Gandalf who entered Rivendell!" Roland said.
"Hmm?" Elrond looked at Roland warily.
"Um, you misunderstood. We are a knight group hired by Thorin Oakenshield. We still have 10 brothers with them. We don't know how to get to Rivendell, so we can only resort to this last resort." Roland shrugged and explained.
"Won't you ask Lind and the others?" Elrond pointed at the elves with bruised faces and noses in disbelief.
"Uh... maybe we scared them. They were ready to attack as soon as they saw us, so we had no choice but to capture them first." Roland rolled his eyes and started to lie.
"..." Elrond was speechless.
"Then can you let them go now?" Elrond asked with a dark face.
"Of course! Why don't you go and release them, Caslo?" Roland pretended to be angry.
"Yes, sir!" Caslo hurried to release the man.
"You bastard! I'll kill you!" Lind's howling voice was heard from the other side.
…
"What? Thorin and the others left first? My people stayed behind?" Elrond told Roland the news on the way to Rivendell.
"Well, the soldiers under your command are very loyal. They insisted on waiting for you to come back before they set off. Thorin and his men did not want to waste time and set off first." Elrond said.
"Outrageous!" Roland was stunned. Thorin was completely limp. Was he going to run away without admitting his mistake? Wait! The afterglow of Turin's Day! Holy crap! I woke up in shock from my dying illness! I was the idiot!
"King Ailon, I need your help! I have to catch up with them!" Roland said hurriedly.
"What's going on?" Elrond asked puzzled.
"Our whereabouts have been exposed! The orcs should know that the dwarves are going to Lonely Mountain. The orcs in the Misty Mountains will definitely stop them. Without our help, they will all die in the Misty Mountains. Durin's bloodline will soon come to an end!" Roland said seriously.
"We were attacked by the wolves of Gundabad and the orcs from Mount Gundabad! They are targeting us!" Seeing that Elrond didn't believe it, Roland quickly added.
Elrond looked at Roland deeply and quickened his pace: "Follow me!"
…
"Sir! We are so happy to see that you are safe and sound!" A Bataniyan archer stood up.
"Thank you, Lagran! Our lord is safe and sound!"
"Okay, leave now." Roland waved his hand.
"King Airon! Where are the dwarves going?" Roland asked anxiously.
"There." Elrond pointed to a path in the mountains in the distance.
"Are you... kidding me? You can ride a horse there?" Roland looked at the one-person-wide path in disbelief.
"In fact, they abandoned their horses. They left secretly last night." Elrond shrugged.
"Damn it! They are seeking death! The orcs will tear them apart! Where is Gandalf?" Roland said angrily.
"They even left Gandalf behind..." Elrond spread his hands.
Roland forced himself to calm down. Damn Thorin, this stubborn and arrogant dwarf, had successfully disrupted Roland's plan. There must be a lot of orcs chasing them. Without the wizard Gandalf, with just these half-hearted orcs... Roland wanted to ask if it was too late to go back to the Shire now.
"It's getting late, you should go to bed early." Elrond glanced at Roland and turned to leave.
Roland watched him leave without saying a word. The situation was now chaotic... Gandalf should have gone to Dol Guldur as he remembered. The dwarves who entered the mountains would likely fall into the goblin town, and Bilber would still obtain the Ring as history had shown...
"It seems that the tide of history is really hard to change..." Roland couldn't help but feel depressed.
Seeing the moon rising above the treetops, Roland couldn't fall asleep. Finally, he got out of bed and found Caslo and Renault.
"Gather the troops! Let's go!" Roland said firmly. He was determined to take the treasure of Lonely Mountain! Maybe he could even take Riverdale City into his own hands.
"Yes!" The two looked at each other and turned away.
"System! Sign in! I hope you can give me something useful!" Roland sighed.
"Successful sign-in! Reward: 100 Lagran Empire Flood Infantrymen!"
"Another 100 Swiftstream Infantrymen?" Roland asked in surprise.
…
"King Elrond, they took the path you pointed out." Lind came behind Elrond who was standing on the platform.
"Yes, they are gone... the shadows in the north and the shadows in the south... Alas! I have a feeling that the peace in Middle-earth will not last long." Elrond sighed.