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

Chapter 515 Alarm
Sure enough, Roland nodded repeatedly after hearing Yunfeng's plan. If he had to worry about everything himself, being a king would be too boring. He was the King of Lagrange, not the nanny of the nobles. At least the nobles with real power should learn to be self-reliant, not the court nobles who live by sucking up to the king.

"Tell him via magical communication that Apophis Breo should send his own men to recruit soldiers. The kingdom can't do everything itself." Roland shook his head. After all, no one had ever heard of a king covering up for the nobles. Roland didn't want to waste his own forces fighting the orcs in the distant Misty Mountains. If it weren't for the dragon rider general rewarded by the system, Roland wouldn't have participated in the Moria expedition...

"Wait! System! Why didn't you issue a mission this time? Am I, Duke Junlin, not worthy? Or did you embezzle my reward?" Roland finally realized that the system would usually give a small reward for such events, but this time it had embezzled it all!
"Host, please have some self-respect. There is no activation mission this time. Please complete the main quest as soon as possible!" the system's cold, mechanical voice announced.

"Damn it!" Roland was speechless. Was the main quest really that easy?
After a fruitless struggle with the system, Roland gave up in despair. Oh well, no reward is no reward. It just means Roland will have to wait a little longer to get the highest title of Emperor.

……

“Perhaps you should take a look at this!” Olaf handed Apophis Breo a roll of parchment.

"Huh? Is this true?" Apophis Breo looked at the record with surprise. It was Roland's decision. What Roland didn't know was that his decision had already made Apophis Breo extremely grateful.

“Yes, Your Highness has allowed us to recruit and train soldiers, which is a great thing! Those commoners who were loyal to their families back then should continue to follow you!” the Grand Knight pondered.

"Your Highness has no limit on the number of people?" Apophis Breo asked, dumbfounded by his overwhelming surprise.

"What, sir? You're planning to recruit tens of thousands of people?" Olaf rolled his eyes at Apophis Breo, thinking, "With our meager resources, does the king need to impose restrictions? Don't you have any idea how many phalanxes you can support?"
"Heh." As if he could see Olaf's strange and disdainful look, Apophis Breo immediately scratched the back of his head and chuckled.

……

“Speaking of which, I’ve sensed quite a few dark auras along the way!” Caslo said worriedly, patting his dragon mount.

“Those are the descendants of the Angolians! Those enormous spiders and demonic spiders!” Kaldo exhaled a puff of white breath from his nostrils without speaking, but his voice resonated in Caslo’s mind.

“They will be an obstacle to the kingdom, Old Forest Road is unusable! We need to find a way to get rid of them!” Caslo frowned, thinking about how to quickly eliminate the insects.

"You're overthinking it! That's something the Empire should be concerned with. The current Kingdom of Lagrange is not qualified to touch this decaying forest!" Kaldor said calmly, looking at the spiders crawling below.

“Yes, I was too hasty. The kingdom’s reach is indeed not yet able to extend to this area!” Caslo said dejectedly. Although this area was once the core of the empire’s territory, even the Kingdom of Lomanian, the source of Roland’s bloodline, was founded here!
“However, you could consider having King Roland plant a few spies here, to make it easier for him to set foot here in the future!” Cardo’s voice was calm and distant.

“I will consider whether to offer my advice to Your Highness.” Caslo’s heart stirred, but he forcibly suppressed his wandering thoughts, after all, the kingdom was currently unable to spare any troops to manage and conquer this place.

If Roland knew what these two dragon riders were thinking, he would be moved to tears. Would he dare to move? He wouldn't dare! Roland's only thought right now is to restore the royal family and return the old capital. The charioteers wandering in the east are already enough of a headache for Roland, a poor king whose army is mostly infantry. And to conquer the dark forests of the west? What? A Middle-earth version of Germany III? The last art student who did that was reduced to ashes. Fighting on two fronts and getting beaten to a pulp... Roland thinks he can't afford to mess with them. Rather than playing hide-and-seek with spiders the size of cars in the forest, he would rather have his swift infantry form a square and charge at the chariots.

……

"Hee-hee!" In the stables on the first floor of the Lion Keep's secondary fortress, dozens of warhorses were restlessly shaking their heads and tails, making anxious noises. "What's going on? This has never happened before..." The knight who was feeding the horses was just wondering, but in an instant, he seemed to realize something. His pupils shrank instantly, and he dropped the soybeans in his hand and ran away.

"Monster invasion! Monsters are about to attack!" The knight, disheveled and disarmed, stumbled towards the alarm bell in the courtyard and rang it. The clanging of the bell echoed throughout the small castle.

"Enemy attack?" Apophis Breo quickly pushed aside the people blocking his way and ran outside.

"Damn it!" Olaf gritted his teeth, grabbed his longsword, and chased after them.

"Back to the city! Back to the city!" The soldiers stationed outside rushed towards Lion Fortress.

"Close the gate! Close the gate!" roared the centurion guarding the city.

"Our brothers are still down there!" The soldiers at the city gate were dumbfounded.

"Close the door! Close the door! Execute the order!" the centurion roared.

Amid the centurion's roar, the city gate was pushed up with all their might. As the heavy bolts were secured to the gate, iron bars were lowered from the gate opening to form a double layer of security.

"Quick! Throw the rope down! Bring our men back!" The centurion grabbed a bundle of rope and quickly threw it down. He wasn't just letting the soldiers outside fend for themselves, but he didn't want the city gate to fall because of a few soldiers outside. After all, Lion Keep only had one gate.

"What's going on!" Apophis Breo rushed out and grabbed the soldier who was pulling the alarm bell, asking.

"The warhorses are all restless, all the warhorses in the stables are agitated! In this situation, I can only..." The knight was frightened by Apophis Breo, who looked like he was about to devour someone, and he said tremblingly.

"You saw it when you encountered the dragon in Swiftstream City, right..." Apophis Breo said in a deep voice, his gaze instantly sweeping towards the sky. There were no high-level professionals in Lion Keep, so their perception of the pressure from top-level magical beasts was very weak, far less sensitive than that of these livestock at the bottom of the food chain. Therefore, the warhorses must have sensed the dragon's might or some other top-level magical beast's pressure coming from afar...

"Keep quiet! Don't make a sound!" Olaf tackled the knight who was about to hit the alarm bell and threw him to the ground. Having just understood the cause and effect, he immediately stopped the knight's reckless behavior.

"Damn it, how could a top-tier magical beast come here?" Apophis Breo gritted his teeth. Faced with such an existence, they could only wait to die! No! They still had a chance! Apophis Breo gritted his teeth and took out an ancient scroll from his spatial ring, ready to tear it open at any time.

"I hope it's just a top-tier magical beast passing by, Your Highness!" The Grand Knight, noticing Apophis Breo's actions, offered words of comfort.

(End of this chapter)