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

Chapter 399 Starting with Road Signs: Embarrassment

Roland eventually left the government hall looking dejected. Yun Feng was still angry, so she decided not to provoke him, lest he give her that creepy stare...

"You were sent back?" Nyx was watering the flowers with the help of the maids when he saw Roland come in looking disheveled. He knew that Roland must have been scolded back by Yunfeng.

"It's just exploiting labor a little, isn't it?" Roland muttered under his breath. I know I'm wrong, but I just won't change!

“Sigh…” Nyx rolled her eyes helplessly.

"I'm going out for a walk. Don't bother saving me lunch!" Roland waved and turned to leave.

"Eat something hot outside! Don't just keep eating dry bread!" Nyx instructed. According to his informant, a certain unscrupulous king not only liked to exploit his subordinates, but was also extremely harsh on himself. When traveling, he and his knights "shared weal and woe" by eating dry bread and drinking plain water! Some of these idiots wouldn't even bother to boil a kettle of hot water sometimes!
Nyx was truly afraid that one day he wouldn't hear the news of some king who loved to lead his troops into battle dying on the battlefield, but rather that he would suddenly die on horseback due to irregular eating and sleeping habits...

"What do you mean?" Roland started lying through his teeth, as if he wasn't the one who used to eat dry bread, drink plain water, and eat dried meat.

"Sigh... Lavian! Keep an eye on His Highness! Make sure he eats properly!" Nyx followed Roland down the third floor, and at the top of the stairs on the second floor, he called out. Instantly, a small purple whirlwind swept past Roland and appeared in front of Nyx, kneeling on one knee.

“Yes, Your Highness!” Ravi said, patting his chest.

"Holy crap! What are you doing here?" Roland was startled by the large silver rat that suddenly appeared, and almost drew his sword to hit it.

"Alright, take Lavian with you! I don't need his protection in the castle anyway, and he can keep an eye on you!" Nyx shrugged.

"..." Roland glanced at Lavian sideways. "So this guy's got a tail too?"
……

"Ahem!" Roland coughed twice. He felt uneasy about Ravian behind him, after all, he was sent by his wife to spy on him...

Tsk! I have to curse the damned Western world here. The Middle Kingdom is also a damned Western feudal monarchy. This vassal of mine is not my vassal, it's really disgusting... No! It's my wife's vassal who is not my vassal... Roland was in tears.

"Your Highness, where are we going?" Lavian faithfully carried out Nyx's orders, staying by Roland's side at all times.

"Let's go out for a walk!" Roland turned and went to the equipment room to put on his gear, intending to go for a stroll.

"Click-clack~" Ravian didn't speak, but calmly followed Roland's footsteps.

……

"Tsk! The North doesn't look so desolate after all!" Roland looked at the harvested wheat stubble, golden straws scattered across the fields, and farmers were constantly gathering the straws together with their tools, burning them and scattering the ashes back into the fields.

"There are still too few oxen!" Roland frowned. As far as he knew, there were only about a hundred oxen in Jiliu City, which was still very few compared to the total number of residents! After all, Roland's oxen were all drawn from the system.

“There’s nothing we can do. We don’t produce oxen. If we want oxen, we can only buy them from Rohan and Gondor in the south!” Ravian rarely said anything.

"Hmm...it will be alright!" Roland said after a moment of silence. "Let's go!" Roland waved his hand, and the knights behind him quickly followed. The group of more than ten people swiftly traversed the open field. At this moment, the advantage of having roads became apparent; at least they wouldn't get lost or go astray...

……

"Sigh... I almost missed it... It seems that building roads is a very necessary thing!" Roland made excuses for his lack of skill, after all, it was quite a story to talk about a king getting lost in his own kingdom.

Behind him, Ravian's face, hidden beneath his armor, was twitching uncontrollably. It was clear he was enduring a lot of pain. He had been like this ever since he learned that the king was going to Delwin... After all, if he hadn't said anything, Roland probably wouldn't have realized it until they reached Mordor.

"That can't be! Didn't I have someone put up road signs here to indicate directions? There should be at least three or four along the way, right? How could I not have seen a single one?" Roland asked, puzzled. He understood the later signs, but how could he not have seen any earlier ones either?
“…” Ravian gritted his teeth, slowly looked at Roland, and said in as calm a voice as possible.

"Your Highness...is it possible that during our last major battle with the Chariot People, you ordered the removal of all road signs...to prevent the Chariot People from finding Swiftstream City based on those road signs?"

"Cough cough!" Roland coughed twice, almost choking on his own saliva. Damn it... He really embarrassed himself.

"I'll have them fix it when we get back!" Roland awkwardly touched his nose, only to find the mask that had been removed... Well! Luckily he had the mask, otherwise this damn embarrassment would have been impossible to hide.

"As you wish!" Lavian and the others hurriedly replied, knowing how to back down gracefully, after all, they couldn't really throw the king's face on the ground... even though Roland himself was always doing it.

"Alright, let's take a break and have something to eat..." Roland could only shake his head and say. Under his completely misguided command, the result was nothing short of pathetic... What was supposed to be a 20-mile journey had probably become more than 20 kilometers... Heaven knows how Roland managed to speed all the way southeast.

"Sigh..." Roland took out the bread he had prepared in advance from the system space and distributed it to everyone.

“Your Highness! The Grand Duke instructed me to make sure you don’t eat dry bread!” Ravian reached out to stop Roland.

“Keep it simple, it’s already too late!” Roland shook his head.

“No! Now is not the time for war, there is no need for this. I suggest you heed the Grand Duke’s advice…” Lavian remained unmoved, as if Nyx’s words were a royal decree.

"Alright! Alright!" Roland, his head throbbing, took a pot out of his spatial storage.

Knights went to find firewood, and some even went hunting together... making it seem like a picnic.

Roland added water to the pot and took out the clean vegetables she had stored in her spatial dimension. After all, there was no concept of time in the spatial dimension, and they wouldn't spoil even after being washed. With a flick of Roland's knife, strips of vegetables, just like lotus root on Earth, quickly fell into the pot...

"Glug glug!" The water in the pot started to boil, so I lifted the lid.

"Holy crap! Did it foam up?" Roland scratched his head as he looked at the soup that was already covered in white foam.

“…” Lavian suddenly realized that it wasn’t that His Majesty the King didn’t take care of his health, it was that he really couldn’t cook!
(End of this chapter)