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

Chapter 212 Welcome home
"Welcome home! Your Excellency the Baron and all the brave and fearless soldiers of Lagrange!" Roland stood outside the city gate to welcome his expeditionary troops.

“Thank you for welcoming me, Your Highness. Before I report to you, please allow me to introduce our newest member—Nina Bonn!” Lance smiled as he introduced the magical girl they had rescued.

"Naturally Awakened Mage?" Yun Feng suddenly appeared.

"God! How did you appear out of nowhere? You scared me!" Lance was startled, and even Roland's eyelids twitched a few times.

"Good aptitude! Still young, has a chance to reach the sixth rank, although the hope is slim. It's a pity that he was delayed! If he had been nurtured from a young age, there should have been a 50% chance of him reaching the sixth rank..." Yun Feng said with some regret. It was hard to find a good seedling of a spellcaster, but it turned out that he was a self-taught individual with no foundation at all.

"Where did you find her?" Roland expressed his admiration for Lance's ability to bring back a mage just by leaving his house.

……

"Oh! Those fools really deserve to die!" Before Roland could even speak after hearing Lance's account, Yun Feng jumped up. When did noble mages become slaughtered like pigs and sheep? The behavior of these fools enraged Yun Feng.

“That was indeed excessive, but we can’t blame them. Uninformed people naturally have a sense of awe towards these supernatural abilities,” Roland comforted them.

"And who is this?" Lance looked at Nyx, who was behaving intimately beside Roland, with a puzzled expression. Although he did not want to stop his king from having certain hobbies, Lance, who was loyal to Roland, did not want Roland to be played with by those seductive women of the night.

"This is the Grand Duchy of Nyx! My fiancée!" Roland said happily, embracing Nyx.

“The Grand Duchy of Nyx no longer exists; only the Kingdom of Lagrand remains.” Nyx chuckled as she linked arms with Roland, but a hint of sadness lingered in her eyes.

"I apologize, Your Highness, I did not mean to offend you." Lance, who was good at reading people, immediately realized that he had said the wrong thing and quickly apologized.

“Greetings! Baron Lance! I am Apophis Breo, heir to the Lion House of King's Landing, and I am still a commoner.” Apophis Breo also nodded in greeting in a friendly manner.

"Greetings! Heir of the noble Lion House! May you, like your ancestors, wield your sword to protect the plough of Lagrange! I believe you will restore the glory of the Lion House of King's Landing!" Lance flattered. Good heavens! The Lion House of King's Landing actually still has direct descendants! This greatly shocked Lance. You must know that the royal family was wiped out, with only the direct royal family members and dukes who were enfeoffed and whose bloodlines survived. As the guardians of the royal family, the Lion House of King's Landing did not perish with the royal family. This was truly unexpected for Lance.

"Well, the kingdom can't afford to give him a dukedom right now. We're too weak to grant him another dukedom," Roland explained apologetically to Lance.

Lance immediately understood Roland's meaning. He had just been wondering why the heir of the Lion House of King's Landing was still a commoner, but after hearing Roland's explanation, Lance immediately understood the awkward situation. Logically speaking, the King's Landing family had been loyal for generations and had always been hereditary dukes, but now the kingdom's pitiful national strength... was probably not even as good as an earl in its heyday.

"By the way, tell me about the outcome of your mission. Did you deliver Jessie Ava safely? Did you meet the Regent of Gondor?" Roland thought of Lance's group's mission. "I'm sorry, Your Highness, I failed in my mission," Lance sighed.

"Prince Jessie Ava is gone?" Roland exclaimed in shock. Had the Goblin King been outmaneuvered?

“No, no, no! We successfully escorted him to the border between Gondor and Rohan, but we were attacked by a large number of roaming orcs. We got separated from him while holding off one orc. For the safety of the soldiers, I chose to come back. Fortunately, we did not suffer any casualties along the way,” Lance explained.

"The orcs are restless! The Black Knights are out stretching their muscles too! It seems Sauron is about to make a comeback." Roland sighed. Even Gondor and Rohan had been infiltrated by the orcs. No wonder Sauron's army entered Gondor so easily 60 years later.

"Darkness is coming! Your Highness, we must prepare early!" Yunfeng glanced worriedly at Mordor in the south. He could only hope that the darkness would not focus its main force on the north, as the Ringwraiths were not something the North could withstand in its current state.

“Yes, this summer I will work with the dwarves to open up Moria, so that we can at least contact reinforcements from the Shire and Rivendell.” Roland rubbed his temples.

“Yes, it’s always good to have more allies! At least the elven rangers in Rivendell are quite reliable,” Omske said. After all, the elven rangers have a great reputation, and many of them have participated in the final alliance war. They are all at least Tier 3 professionals. Roland would be doing himself a disservice if he didn’t use such a powerful force.

"The humans in the Shire... should be able to rely on them, right..." Caslo rubbed his nose. Regarding that paradise, one of the few pure lands in Middle-earth, Caslo was worried about the fighting strength there.

“But we can choose to trust the hobbits!” Roland winked and smiled at Caslow; the strong and simple hobbit Bilbo Baggins had left a very good impression on them.

"Come on! Halflings can be cooks and fight? Don't be ridiculous!" Yun Feng said disdainfully. He looked down on those little guys. It was a miracle that halflings, who had no physical advantages or spellcasting talents, could survive in the Central Plains.

"Inform the kitchen that I'm hosting a banquet today to welcome our soldiers home!" Roland loudly ordered the servants behind him.

"Oh! Your Highness, I am so grateful for this! We were almost sick of eating dry bread! At the worst times, we could only eat some fried flour to fill our stomachs! Massive migrations of people have occurred throughout eastern Rohan! It seems the orcs' influence has reached the borders of Rohan. Our supplies are very difficult! It's truly a case of having money but not being able to buy food!" Lance was almost in tears. Who could understand the pain of holding gold coins but being unable to buy food?

"You've worked hard! Treat yourself to a good meal today!" Roland patted Lance on the shoulder, looking at the weary nobleman with admiration.

Roland looked at the soldiers entering the city, all ragged and pale, and could only sigh that it was fortunate Lance hadn't taken too many people; if he had, most of them would probably have starved to death on the way… This also made Roland realize the dire situation in Middle-earth. And this was just after the War of the Five Armies, yet the Orcs were already so active! It seemed the seeds of the War of the Ring sixty years later had already been sown!

"Notify Lulong Fortress to maintain the highest level of alert! I don't want to find out about the orcs reaching the outskirts of Swiftstream before I even know it!" Roland commanded.

(End of this chapter)