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

Chapter 801 The Last Dragon Rider
Roland's surprise stemmed from the fact that he had used honor points to acquire the McDougal family. Compared to the one-off purchase of a legion, a family with a legacy was clearly more cost-effective and better suited to the kingdom's current needs, and of course, its price was exceptionally attractive! 20 honor points was no small sum!

Among the random items in the store, Roland was incredibly lucky to find the McDougal family, which was once ranked alongside the Anthony family as a Dragon Knight Commander family. Moreover, the 20 honor points that were both high-quality and inexpensive just happened to hit Roland's sweet spot, who had 25 honor points!

However, Roland had already prepared for the worst. After all, the McDougal family was a family with a clear history of decline. During the Imperial Civil War, as an Eastern family caught up in the conflict, the McDougal family suffered heavy casualties. The powerful Southern nobles were engulfed in a frenzied civil war, and the survival time of knights on the battlefield was measured in minutes. Dragon knights who showed their faces on the battlefield were immediately targeted by forbidden spells... Almost all of the McDougal family's dragon knights and guardian dragons were killed in battle. The entire family fell directly from the top tier of dragon knight families and never returned to its peak. Of course, it could never compare with the Anthony family! (The Anthony family's ancestral lands were in the North, while the McDougal family was in the Eastern Empire. During the Imperial Civil War, the Lagrange Plains and the North were the only areas that were not affected.)
"How did you know?" Roland asked, looking utterly astonished.

"I am a member of the McDougal family! My name is Maple Forest Ice Orchid McDougal! I am a direct descendant of the McDougal family, and I just received a plea for help from the family..." Maple Forest Ice Orchid covered her forehead, somewhat speechless. The magical intuition engraved in her soul allowed every member of the family to feel the plea for help from their family.

"Huh? And you?" Roland looked at Maple Forest Orchid again.

“Yes, I am also a member of the McDougal family. Strictly speaking, I should be the head of the McDougal family…” Maple Forest Orchid gave a wry smile.

"Our McDoug family should have been wiped out, right?" Maple Forest Orchid asked, somewhat puzzled, since in the end, all the members of the McDoug family were gone.

"..." Roland's lips twitched, his eyes filled with a hint of speechlessness. Is it okay for you to say your family is extinct so seriously?
“It’s possible that the last remaining members of the clan entered the Fire Seed Project!” Maple Forest Ice Orchid shook her head. Although the McDougal family had declined, their connections still extended throughout the empire. No matter where they went, other families would lend a helping hand. It was very likely that the last remaining members of the clan had successfully survived. As for whether any members of the clan had entered the Fire Seed Project before, according to Ice Orchid and Youlan’s memories, it seemed that there had never been a large-scale selection.

"I see!" Roland nodded. No wonder the McDougal family could acquire it with only 20 honor points; it must have been a crippled family. It didn't make sense that a powerful Dragon Knight family was so worthless. After all, the McDougal and Anthony families were known as the Dragon Commander Dukes, and these two ducal families were not far behind the King's Landing Lions. (The two families combined were roughly equivalent to the King's Landing family.)
“So do you know where they are?” Roland asked, looking up.

“Of course!” Maple Forest Orchid and Maple Forest Ice Orchid exchanged a glance and nodded. Their family’s secret technique allowed them to sense each other.

“Then go find them! The entire Ice Orchid Lady Knights are at your command. Caslo, Weiss! Help them, go!” Roland nodded to the two.

"Huh? No? The McDougal family, such a decadent old relic, still exists?" Darian Nightblade looked completely bewildered.

"Decline? Have you ever seen a declining family with a Dragon Knight Commander? Their so-called decline is only in their own eyes." Roland shook his head with some emotion. What family has declined to the point that after the annihilation of their guardian dragons and dragon knights, they could still produce a Dragon Knight Commander a hundred years later? And it's the McDougal family, specializing in light dragons! (The Anthony family specializes in fire dragons, while the McDougal family specializes in light dragons.)
“That makes sense…” Darian Nightblade nodded in deep agreement. Indeed, even a centipede with a hundred legs doesn't die easily! They were almost wiped out by internal strife, yet they still managed to scrape together a dragon knight's legacy and send it to the dragon knight commander… “Don't underestimate those dragon knight families in the Empire! Although their power isn't like that of the grand dukes, their foundations aren't much weaker!” Roland said with a profound gaze. He never underestimated any dragon knight family, even those that no longer had dragon knights or guardian dragons—they were still formidable forces! Who knows, these seemingly precarious families might just pull out an astonishing treasure from their crotch and deliver a devastating blow! After all, external enemies were often shocked by the powerful artifacts pulled out by those fallen dragon knight families, so Roland dared not underestimate any dragon knight family!
……

"Chase the light! Look where we are!" Maple Forest Xilan whispered to her dragon mount high in the sky. Beneath her was a thousand-strong Lagrange City Guard, escorting tens of thousands of Lagrange civilians as they moved westward.

"Where have we been teleported to? Is this still the Empire?" Maple Forest Xilan asked in a panic as she unfolded the dragon skin map. Maps made from dragon skin can be preserved for eternity without fading or becoming moldy, and most importantly, they can be enchanted to enhance the user's convenience.

"Let's compare..." Fenglin Xilan hurriedly started comparing things high in the air, her panic barely concealed.

"My little darling, be careful! There are no dragon-hunting crossbows here! And no forbidden spells aimed at us!" The Twilight Dragon beneath Maple Forest Xilan said with a hint of helplessness, but the doting in its words was obvious. As the little princess of the McDoug family, the family's last hope, the star-like Maple Forest Xilan McDoug was the family's last dragon knight after Maple Forest Youlan McDoug. Of course, she also had an even more tragic achievement: she was also the last dragon knight of the Lagrange Empire...

"I'm just a trainee knight! Ahhh! It's so high!" Maple Forest Xilan looked down and almost fell off the dragon saddle.

"My dragon god! I must have owed the McDougal family something in my past life! Otherwise, why would I make you my knight!" The Twilight Dragon Chaser was about to explode. Maple Forest Xilan's actions almost gave him a stroke. To be honest, if Chaser wasn't the guardian dragon of the McDougal family, and the only surviving family heirloom dragon, why would a first-tier apprentice knight ride on his back? Rather than saying that Chaser had made a knight contract, it would be more accurate to say that he was protecting the last bloodline of the McDougal family and raising their child.

After all, he was a giant dragon raised from a dragon egg by the McDoug family. He lived with the McDoug family for thousands of years, sharing their glory and disgrace. He experienced countless wars and hardships, and accompanied the family through the chaos of the empire's internal strife. It is no exaggeration to say that he made great contributions. Even the fact that Maple Forest Orchid was able to reconnect with the Light Dragon Clan of Dragon Island was thanks to the help of Chasing Light!
"I'm sorry, Senior Chasing Light, I'm still too useless..." Fenglin Xilan pouted, feeling a little aggrieved. After all, she was still a child under sixteen years old. Successfully avoiding the destruction of the empire without collapsing was already a testament to her good mental fortitude.

"No! It's my fault..." Twilight Dragon said weakly, and then began to search on its own.

(End of this chapter)