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

Chapter 872 The Face-Changing Master!

"Are you sure about this in the dead of winter?" Maple Forest Orchid asked Roland in disbelief. "Listen to what this guy is saying! Gather all the dragon knights, wyvern knights, and griffin knights in the kingdom and go to the Gray Mountains to capture griffins?"
“Most wild griffins hibernate in winter!” Roland said calmly. According to the habits of griffins in the game, most griffins hibernate in winter to reduce energy consumption, leaving only a few adults to keep watch. After all, there is very little food available for them in the vast northern wasteland! Although bulls are big enough, don't forget that bulls are alive! These things have legs and can run on their own!
If you let a flock of griffins eat freely, a herd of a hundred bulls would probably only be enough for them for a few months!
Therefore, when hunting is difficult in winter, griffins will choose to hibernate to reduce their energy consumption, since the territory of any flying magical beast race is incredibly vast! Magical beasts understand the dangers of overexploiting resources better than humans, and some highly intelligent magical beasts even raise their own food populations!

"Hibernation? And that's incredibly impulsive! All the Sky Knights? Abandoning Lagrange?" Maple Forest Orchid's eyes widened. What kind of family background do you have?! Planning to go all in? Do you think you're starting a business? The Orcs and Chariot Peoples may have been beaten into submission, but it's not impossible that they'll harbor resentment towards Lagrange after learning the Sky Knights have left! Don't forget, Roland's eastern gate is just across a river from them! In the transcendental world, a river isn't an insurmountable barrier! Plus, our Sauron is a confirmed Middle-earth version of "Khorne"—do you expect him to value the lives of the Orcs or the Chariot Peoples?
“It’s alright! Adolf Heinrich and the Knights aren’t leaving! There won’t be any major problems with me taking the Dragon Knights back to Swiftstream City!” Roland tapped the letter on the table.

“Take a look for yourself. Our reconnaissance team has investigated, and the frequency of griffin attacks on the ranches has dropped to freezing point since the beginning of winter! Griffins rarely visit the ranches of the Lonely Mountain Dwarves and the River Valley State!” Roland gestured for Maple Forest Orchid to look at the letter on the table, which contained intelligence compiled by Swiftstream City. This was Roland’s main basis for judging that the griffins were hibernating.

"Let me see!" Maple Forest Orchid pulled over the letter and began to read it. Like most of the kingdom's nobles, he didn't know that griffins hibernate. After all, wild griffins could no longer be seen in the empire, and domesticated griffins naturally did not need to hibernate. So Maple Forest Orchid was quite surprised to rediscover this secret.

"Good heavens! It really is! These things hibernate? I thought they worked year-round!" Maple Forest Orchid exclaimed, rubbing her chin in surprise. The records clearly showed the number of times the dwarves and the River Valley ranch had been attacked. The griffins were clever enough not to harm the dwarves and humans, but they were very interested in cattle and sheep. Before, there were several raids every month, each time involving only a few cattle and sheep! But in autumn, it became so rampant that they were visiting almost every two or three days! The dwarves tried to drive them away, but the griffins were clever enough to choose the gaps in the dwarves' defenses and strike and leave...

"These things actually know not to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs?" Maple Forest Orchid's lips twitched a few times. These griffins are actually quite nice; they even know to share their spoils equally.

“Griffins are very intelligent! Don’t really think of them as animals… These high-level magical beasts are no less intelligent than us!” Roland shook his head. Basically all high-level magical beasts possess intelligence that is no less than that of humans. Otherwise, why do you think they are classified as intelligent species?
"Alright, but I feel it's still very risky to go there like this... After all, if something goes wrong, we don't have anything that can quickly get to the battlefield! The teleportation array in the country hasn't been successfully repaired yet..." Maple Forest Orchid said worriedly. If it were just some small fry, that would be better; with the city's shield, we could at least hold out until higher-level reinforcements arrived! But I'm afraid the other side will also come out in full force! Last time, that group of Tier 6 warriors and orcs really gave Maple Forest Orchid a psychological trauma!

"The dragon knights can't leave! At least not all of them! I've discovered charioteers and orc scouts on the other side of the river. We can't completely eliminate them, but we can confuse their vision! Dragon knights are taking off and landing in Lagrange City every day. If you really intend to take the team, you must leave at least one dragon knight behind!" Maple Forest Orchid said decisively. After all, the kingdom's dragon knights are now operating like a dedicated line, taking off from Lagrange City and landing in Dragon Cliff Fortress every day, following a straight line between two points. If there is a sudden change, it is inevitable that the enemy will notice.

"Hmm...that makes sense!" Roland nodded. Although his tactical command skills weren't great, Roland's main strength was listening to advice! Weren't his generals far more experienced in command than he was? Roland wasn't the principal; he didn't need that kind of vibrant energy, with everything flourishing right before his eyes, nor did he need to pop champagne halfway through the game and shout that the Knights had the advantage over the Chariots!

“Then you stay here to confuse them!” Roland decided. Lagrange City needed a heavyweight high-level professional to oversee things. It wasn’t that Adolf Heinrich was incompetent, but the sages were at a huge disadvantage when it came to real military training! Shouldn’t true sages be hiding in the city or the thick shell of the mage tower, frantically casting forbidden spells? The truly intimidating single-target classes are actually knights. Mages lack single-target killing ability. No proper mage learns single-target forbidden spells. Forbidden spell mages almost always start with an area-of-effect forbidden spell. Against low-level enemies, they can easily cut them down, but against high-level enemies, they might face the embarrassing situation of only scratching the surface.

"??? Me?" Maple Forest Orchid pointed to herself and stared at Roland in disbelief. Wasn't it her, a Holy Dragon Knight, who was left to guard the gate?
"Otherwise what? You're the only useless dragon knight here, aren't you? You wouldn't want your dragon to get hurt, would you?" Since no one was around, Roland launched into a colonel-style speech. "..." Maple Forest Orchid pursed her lips; to be honest, that was a bit hurtful!

"Besides, isn't your wife Lilith right here? You go out for a stroll during the day and show your face, then come back to spend time with your wife at night. Isn't that the kind of life you like?" Roland shrugged. He realized that Maple Forest Orchid had some of the characteristics of a two-dimensional otaku. If he could choose between fighting and exploration, this guy would prefer spending time with his wife and kids in a cozy bed.

"You convinced me with your sincere feelings!" Before Roland could continue, Maple Forest Orchid bowed respectfully with her hand on her chest.

"Go ahead and capture the blueprints for the future of the empire, and I, your loyal Dragon Rider Commander, will stand guard in Lagrange City and await your triumphant return!" Maple Forest Orchid declared passionately.

"..." Roland's eye twitched. No, brother, you weren't like this just now...

The sound of the door opening startled Roland and the other person.

"Um...did I come at the wrong time?" Adolf Heinrich looked at Roland and Maple Forest Orchid with some apology, expressing his regret for interrupting the two of them's intimate moment.

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(End of this chapter)