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

Chapter 42 Griffin Hatching
“Your Highness, perhaps you should take a look at this!” Radil suddenly burst into Roland’s tent at dawn, his words filled with excitement.

"Oh?" Roland's interest was immediately piqued.

"Chirp chirp chirp~" Pushing open the half-closed door, Roland immediately saw five baby griffins scrambling around in their straw nest. Their brown bodies, white heads, and fluttering yellowish-brown wings made them look incredibly cute, completely unlike their future fierce appearance! Having just opened their eyes, they were full of curiosity about everything. Seeing Roland enter, the baby griffins weren't afraid of strangers at all. Instead, they all stood up and came to the edge of the nest, opening their mouths and chirping eagerly for food.

"Lord Radil, they've actually hatched? Isn't this timing off?" In Roland's memory, griffins took at least four weeks to hatch, but these griffins hatched in less than two weeks. Roland even wondered if his griffins were fake...

"Hehe, it took me two weeks to get here..." Radil chuckled and stroked his beard.

"Oh, no wonder!" Roland suddenly realized.

"Your Highness should consider training griffin riders, and finding suitable riders for them should also be put on the agenda." Radil looked at Roland with admiration, his heart filled with satisfaction.

"Yes, it's time to consider the griffin knights," Roland said thoughtfully. After all, it's best to train griffin knights from a young age. Griffins are extremely loyal magical beasts; they usually only recognize their first master or the offspring entrusted to them by their master. In their hundreds of years of life, they will follow their original master, fighting and living alongside them. After their master's death, they will accompany their master's offspring, living and fighting until their own death. Therefore, a single griffin can often forge a family of sky knights that has lasted for hundreds of years. Thus, the selection of knights for these five griffins requires rigorous screening. Although the people and soldiers under his rule are now 5% loyal to Roland, things could change as the territory expands!

As an aside, the lifespan of the Lagranges is as long as that of the Númenóreans, though slightly shorter. Both can live for two or three hundred years, so barring unforeseen circumstances, one griffin is enough for a family of three generations of a Sky Knight.

"Caslo!" Roland found Caslo feeding the dragon. Caslo looked up and saw Roland walking happily toward him with an air of nonchalance.

"My lord! What happy thing has happened to you?" Caslo immediately noticed the excitement on Roland's face.

“The griffins have hatched; we can now find knights for them,” Roland said happily.

"That's great! In a year we'll have five griffin riders to use! Finally, I won't have to guard the sky all by myself." Caslo breathed a sigh of relief.

"You, as a dragon knight, should be able to train griffin knights, right?" Roland looked Caslo up and down with a scrutinizing gaze.

"My lord, you underestimate me... Aside from dragon knights, training other air knights is child's play!" Caslo immediately bristled. In the field of aerial combat, Caslo was second to none except for dragon knights. Who dared to say they could surpass him? Had they never experienced the despair of being overwhelmed by a flying dragon?
"So confident? As far as I know, the Holy Light Pegasus Knights are no weaker than the Wyvern Knights..." Roland suddenly said quietly.

"Damn it! How many years has it been since the Holy Light Pegasus went extinct? How could a creature whose bones are practically brittle still exist?" Caslo immediately objected. The Holy Light Pegasus's divine attribute made them no weaker than dragons, but unfortunately, their small population size was a fatal flaw. It seems they ended up driving themselves to extinction. The main reason was that wild Holy Light Pegasus were too scattered; they might never encounter another Holy Light Pegasus of the opposite sex in their entire lives...

"You know what, maybe the Holy Light Pegasus Knights will actually return in the future." Roland smiled mysteriously. He believed that with the system, he should... probably be able to gain the loyalty of the Holy Light Pegasus Knights.

“Uh…” Caslo scratched his head, unsure whether to agree or disagree. “Alright, go and choose a suitable candidate from among the villagers’ children first.” Roland assigned this task to Caslo, after all, it was a slow process.

After seeing Caslo off, Roland prepared to find some work to do, only to find that he had forgotten to sign in early this morning because Old Master Radil had dragged him out of bed. He could only sign in standing in the military camp.

"System sign in!"

"Sign-in successful! Congratulations, host, you have been granted 500 light infantry."

"Holy crap! Good heavens!" Roland was startled. The sudden appearance of a troop reward of 500 men stunned him. Roland had led 500 men into the Battle of Lonely Mountain. This was like a full recovery for Roland!
"Wait a minute? Recruit light infantry? Oh my god! Can the system change it? I'll even give you 100 Swift Infantry..." Roland took a closer look and was speechless with a bitter expression...

What does it mean to conscript light infantry? To put it nicely, it means urgently recruited light infantry; to put it bluntly, it means militia... If the rapid infantry are cannon fodder, then they can only be considered human obstacles on the battlefield. They have no combat experience and their weapons and equipment are extremely poor... Of course, what can you expect from an ordinary person who has been urgently recruited?

As Roland was pondering this, a sentry on the city wall behind him suddenly reported that a large wave of refugees was rushing towards the city. Several knights immediately rode out to intercept and scout. (Thanks to the military camp's location against the eastern city wall, the city's garrison could quickly scale the walls or leave the city to intercept them.)
"Giddy up!" The knight who had just left the city rode back.

"Your Highness! They are Imperial conscripted light infantry! I can't believe there are still organized Imperial conscripts wandering around!" The knight seemed very surprised.

……

"Boom!" With a series of chaotic crashes, the conscripted light infantry finally knelt on one knee before Roland. Roland's lips twitched. This was even worse than in the game! These weren't soldiers at all! What was the difference between them and armed refugees? No wonder the sentries mistook them for a refugee crisis…

Roland carefully examined the conscripted infantrymen before him, a look of disappointment creeping onto his face. First, their armor—not even leather armor, let alone iron armor…they were practically naked! They were poorer than Azog's orc legion. Their weapons were pitifully few; besides a 60-centimeter-long iron one-handed sword, they possessed absolutely nothing…

Roland couldn't help but look up at the sky. This was the ultimate example of light armor! Just how light armor was this?! In his memory, light armor at least included a leather suit of armor and an iron helmet, a longsword as a weapon, and a round leather shield...

On this day, Roland felt the system's malice and realized that the difference between being lightly equipped could be so great...

This is the last update of 21. Wishing all my readers a Happy New Year, all the best, and abundant wealth! Please also give me more recommendation votes since I'm still updating on New Year's Eve.

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(End of this chapter)