The sun finally climbed lazily to the top of the tree, and the bright sunlight shone through the treetops, casting fragmented light on the ground. The soldiers, who had been nervous all night, could finally relax and take a breath.
"Is it over?" asked a dwarf, looking at the rising sun.
"Hahaha! Those damn dark-skinned people will have nowhere to hide in the daytime!"
"Huh? Where are our allied rangers? Let them check if those darkies have left?"
"Beard, I miss cheese, jerky, and liquor!"
…
"The sun is out!" Roland lifted the door curtain, and the soft sunlight instantly came in, making him feel warm and comfortable.
"It looks like this farce is over." Caslo stretched and walked out.
"I'll go and count the results of the battle, and let the rangers go out to search. Oh, and let the soldiers come back to eat something and have a nap." Caslo left in a hurry.
"King Roland, thank you for your hospitality. I should go back and get some sleep. My hands are sore from swinging the axe last night. Hahaha! I'm getting old!" Balin said goodbye to Roland with a big laugh.
"Goodbye, Lord Balin. Remember to have breakfast later! And don't oversleep! We have to travel in the afternoon." Roland waved goodbye to Balin and gave him a reminder.
"Hmm? Sir Omsk, do you have anything else to say?" Roland, who had lowered the door curtain and was about to go to bed, turned around and saw his first "Admiral" Omsk sitting in his seat enjoying his dessert as if he were at home. He was immediately angry and amused.
"Sure enough! Those cooks are biased... They put much more honey in the cakes made for the king than in ours." Omsk showed an expression of enjoyment, not caring about Roland's unhappy face at all.
"Um...that's my snack, and I think we all need a break." Roland frowned. Where had my mature and steady hero gone? Had he been led astray by Kaslo?
"It's okay, Your Highness. A good king always learns to share with the knights who are loyal to him." Omsk shook his head and savored Roland's exquisite snacks.
"Here! Get out! I'm going to sleep!" Roland, eyes red, shoved the snack plate into Omsk's hands and pointed at the door, shouting. After a night of fear and no rest, Roland was absolutely ready to devour anyone who tried to stop him from sleeping! That's right! He said it! Even a god wouldn't be able to stop him!
After pushing and dragging Omsk out of the tent, Roland immediately threw himself onto the hammock and lay flat on it like a dried salted fish.
【To be honest, I've been using it recently to keep up with updates. It has a variety of reading voices and is available on both Android and Apple devices.】
"Omsk actually likes desserts? How come such a tall and mighty hero has a hobby of eating food like a girl? The trolls won't attack easily. We must have hurt them last night! We will go west and we should reach the Carr Rock Ferry that Lance mentioned. He said that the place is occupied by the Druid's skin-changer Beorn, just as he knows. It is the only human paradise in the entire valley." Although his body was resting, Roland's brain was spinning rapidly. You know, all his decisions were related to the lives of more than 500 of his men!
"Let's sleep. Let's get some sleep. No matter how terrible the situation, no matter who comes, no one can stop me from sleeping. I'll just take the rest of the journey one step at a time!" Roland finally couldn't resist the gentle touch of the bed and soon fell into a deep sleep. As for his next plan? To hell with it!
…
"Your Highness, this is a big tribe!" Seeing Roland coming out of the tent, Caslo, who had been waiting for a long time, immediately surrounded him.
"What do you mean?" Roland said as he wiped his face with the towel handed to him by the guard.
"We killed nearly four hundred trolls last night! And they were all adult trolls! There were no old, weak, sick or disabled ones just to make up the numbers! You know, there are not many troll tribes in Middle-earth now that can muster an army of four hundred trolls!" Kaslo danced with excitement.
"How many casualties have we suffered?" Roland didn't care about the enemy's casualties. He just wanted to know if his people were safe and healthy.
"The Lordaeron rangers suffered heavy casualties, almost all of them were injured... Fortunately, no one was fatally injured. The Dorwinion heavy swordsmen... Those guys are a little exhausted. The city guards are in good condition. As for the royal guards... Their only casualty is that one unlucky guy sprained his ankle because of the heavy armor while cleaning the battlefield..." Caslo said with a strange look on his face.
"Oh my God! A sprained ankle? What a serious injury! What tragic casualties! So you said a lot of nonsense just to tell me that they are fine, right?" Roland said exaggeratedly.
"Next time, be brief and to the point! Don't breathe heavily when you talk! You make me think that half of my men were killed the moment I left the house!" Roland glanced at Caslo.
"Uh..." Caslo grinned and said nothing.
"By the way! How are our friends the dwarves doing?" Roland asked.
"Well... they look fine!" Roland, who had just spoken, took a few steps before he smelled the aroma of dwarven liquor and saw them singing and dancing.
"In fact, I think we didn't kill enough dwarves last night. Their heavy armor is enough to keep the trolls at bay for a long time even if they just stand still." Kaslo shrugged. The dwarves are famous in Middle-earth for their excellent ironware.
"Let our men eat and rest quickly! Tell Balin to control his men! We'll leave after lunch! I don't want to see a bunch of drunks!" Roland frowned as he looked at the group of dwarves drinking and singing. He was in a hurry to complete the mission and get the Dragon Rider. Besides, Nyx was waiting for him to come back and shoot. He didn't have time to waste with them.
"Okay, Your Highness!" Caslo nodded and left.
"Omsk! Are you a pig? Don't you want to eat? Where's my dessert? Where's the dessert that my dear Nix made specially for me? Where's such a big plate of it? All my desserts are gone?" Soon after, Roland's howling voice could be heard from afar.
"Ahem, ahem, Your Highness, that was a gift from you to me personally, a whole plate, yes! This morning!" Omsk gestured with his hands, his face full of grievance.
"Such a huge plate! You ate it all this morning? Are you a Behemoth?" Roland was still regretting losing Nyx's loving dessert. Looking at Omsk's aggrieved face, Roland felt like chopping off his own hand... What a traitor he had been! Why hadn't he noticed Omsk's fondness for desserts before? Roland thought in exasperation.
"Very good, knight! Thanks to your efforts, we will miss out on enjoying delicious desserts on the rest of the journey, because... you ate them all!" Roland praised sarcastically.
"Puff puff puff~" In the corner, looking at Omsk Kaslo who was being called a grandson by Roland, he laughed like a pig.
…
A few days later.
"Good guy! It finally came out!" Roland said with emotion as he looked at the plain in front of him.
"Damn it! I hate the jungle!" Balin also sighed.
"Caslo! Look at the map and find out where we are now?"
"Carl Rock Ferry?" Looking at the hand-drawn, graffiti-style map, Kaslo's mouth twitched. It was truly incredible for Lord Lance to have made it this far with such a crappy map. And the most miraculous thing was, he'd even made it back! Truly worthy of being the empire's finest noble, he could even find his way with such an abstract map.
"Hey! We've been here before! This is the territory of the Skin-Changers!" Balin looked at the familiar environment. They had been entertained here during the Lonely Mountain expedition, and Balin had an impression of it.
"That's good. It looks like we're in the right place, Kaslo! Let the rangers go and scout! The rest of you stay put!" Roland said.
"Carlyan Ferry? Ferry? So where is the river? Where did the huge Anduin River go?" Omsk was stunned for a while, and suddenly asked a soul-searching question.
"Yes, there is a river! I remember the scenery here. Although it is late autumn, I still remember the magnificent Anduin River! Wait... Anduin River? Where is the river..." Balin was stunned.
"Shit! Lost?" Roland was stunned.
"So we've strayed from the Old Forest Road, right? I remember Druyinbion's cabin should be right at the entrance to the Old Forest Road... which is our current exit..." Roland fell silent, pointing to the empty wasteland.
"Dragon God! Well done! You've led the way!" Patting Kaslo on the shoulder, Omsk expressed his "approval".