The Lord of the Rings: Lords of Middle-earth.

Chapter 130 The Shadow of War
"Why do I feel so uneasy?" said Lavian, the Knight Commander of the Bauhinia Knights, as he walked through the camp, his brow furrowed as he held the longsword at his waist.

"My lord, stop being so paranoid! With so many troops around us, how could those barbarians from the East possibly defeat us!" said a knight with a cross and a bauhinia flower, rolling up his exquisite cloak.

“Those alien races driving chariots today worry me greatly. As you can see, they were only a few dozen strong, yet they managed to break through our army of 5000! And our casualty ratio is even higher than theirs!” Ravian said worriedly. He had already realized the problem with this eastern expedition; they knew nothing about the enemy!
"Alright! Wake up! Come with me to scout ahead! We need to get somewhere far away!" Ravian put on his helmet, his eyes filled with determination.

"No way! Knight Commander... We fought and walked for a whole day..." The Bauhinia Knight, who had been recruited by Ravian, twitched at the corner of his mouth.

"What nonsense! Come with me!" Ravian casually grabbed the knight by the back of the collar.

"If the Grand Duchess wakes up later, remember to tell her that I'll take a knight to scout ahead. You all be on guard!" Ravian carefully instructed.

……

“The Grey River!” Lance looked at the wide river in front of him with great excitement.

"My lord! Follow this river down and you'll reach the Anduin River!" The Lagrange heavy cavalryman beside him spread out a map from his robes.

"Alright, lads, we need to find a boat to cross the river!" Lance looked at the wide river. If they could just go downstream, that would be perfect, since traveling by water is convenient and fast!
"Yes, sir!" The group quickly dispersed to search for any possible villages.

Although the north is sparsely populated and this area is even more remote, it does not mean that no humans live here. There are still humans living here under the protection of the druids.

“Maybe we should try our luck at Karl Rock!” Jesse Ava rubbed his hands together.

“Perhaps you are right!” Lance glanced at Jessie Ava, then turned his horse and galloped north. Indeed, if there was no ferry at Carly Rock Ferry, then there would be no ferry in the entire Grey River upstream of the Anduin.

"Hopefully, there are still druids holding out at Karl Rock!" Lance sighed. The population of the entire north was dwindling, and it was really not easy to find a few humans.

“I think the chances are slim. After all, the entire north is in a terrible state of decay. The druids won’t just stay there to die!” said a ranger from Lordaeron.

“At least we have to go and see! If they’ve already left, we’ll have to think of something else. Hopefully they haven’t! We need them!” Lance sighed. To be honest, even if this group of druids had migrated, Lance wouldn’t blame them. The north was in such a terrible state that it was already quite an achievement for these druids to have stayed here for so long.

"Speed ​​up! We're heading to Carl Rock Ferry!" Lance cracked his whip.

……

"What a turbulent time!" Roland vented to Caslo beside him as he sat on horseback, quietly watching the busy crowd in the distance.

"A great struggle! We are all pawns! If we don't want to be eliminated, we have no choice but to keep fighting!" Caslo saw things very clearly.

“My lord, believe in yourself! Believe in your soldiers! The glory of Lagrange will follow you and me!” Caslo said humbly. “Heh, all I want now is to quietly finish this year’s spring planting. Don’t make me wield any more swords and spears! And tell those cooks to take those monstrous dishes away from me!” Roland said irritably.

"By the way, sir, shouldn't your castle be expanded?" Caslo pointed to the cramped-looking lord's castle, since King Roland was currently living in the open space between the castles.

"Let's wait until spring planting is over, and everyone has some free time before expanding the castle. Right now, the main task is to stockpile food!" Roland felt uneasy for some reason.

“You must be terrified by the famine. There shouldn’t be any enemies now. After all, orcs need to rest and recuperate. The orcs we killed in the two battles are enough for them to rest for a while! Even the orcs can’t organize an attack of that scale many times!” Caslo smiled. He felt that Roland was making a mountain out of a molehill.

"Alright! Caslo! Be serious! His Highness isn't joking! We can't let our guard down! Don't forget that although we've severed the tentacles of the northern orcs moving south, they're far from being crippled! They can still muster tens of thousands of troops and march south at any time!" Renault scolded. Caslo had underestimated the northern orcs! The well-equipped northern orcs were far superior to those pitiful wasteland orcs. Their bravery and skill in battle were evident from their ability to fight the monstrous centaur race to a standstill.

"Forget it, Renault. Stay alert. Double the operational range of our outposts. I need to know every single movement within a hundred miles of Swiftstream City! Oh, and focus our reconnaissance on the east!" Roland said calmly, his eyes filled with deep apprehension. Heaven knows what unpredictable consequences this Crusade he had triggered would bring. In Roland's mind, this Crusade was doomed. After all, the historical Crusade of 100,000 men was annihilated even against primitive barbarians. How much more so when they faced fully armed and highly motivated Charioteers! Roland was determined to get thoroughly thrashed!

However, one has to admire the tenacious fighting spirit of this crusader of the Duchy of Nyx. After all, not everyone can fight to the point of total annihilation after their own duke has been captured and killed. At least this army, which was pieced together by the entire Duchy of Nyx, did not betray the trust that the duke placed in them, and they also demonstrated their loyalty to the duchy with their lives.

"The East? Aren't centaurs stationed in the Tuput Forest?" Renault asked, puzzled. He didn't understand why his king would suddenly pay attention to the East.

“A remnant army of a duchy loyal to the Empire has launched an eastern expedition. I fear they will attract enemies from the east, and we are completely unaware of this!” Roland had no choice but to explain, after all, he had to tell them these things, otherwise his men would be caught off guard in the face of such a sudden event.

"...There are still duchies that are loyal to the Empire?"

"Which principality? Can we still contact them? How many soldiers do they have?"

It was clear that Renault and Caslo's attention was not on the matter at all, but rather on the duchy itself.

"Don't even think about it, it's just a remnant army from the Duchy of Nyx," Roland sighed.

"What? The Principality of Nyx? That's hopeless... They probably won't even make it to our rescue." Renault declared that they could give up on treatment.

“The Principality of Nyx… they probably don’t have many soldiers. Forget it, let’s think about how to defend ourselves!” Caslo shook his head as well.

Both of them said that if it were a duchy under the rule of another empire, they could try to save it, but as for the Duchy of Nyx with its weak fighting power... let it be.

"Hopefully they won't bring the eastern tribes over..." Renault had considerable distrust of the fighting capabilities of this duchy, which consisted of only three cities.

"Alright, maybe things aren't so bad. The shadow of war won't always loom over us. Instead of wasting time worrying about Lord Lance's safety, we should be concerned about that!" Roland had no choice but to change the subject, since the topic of the fighting strength of the soldiers of the Duchy of Nyx was a bit too heavy.

(End of this chapter)