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

Chapter 881 Great Harvest

“That shouldn’t be the case! There’s nothing unusual happening in the north, so how could they possibly go back north?” Thorin shook his head and personally poured a glass of wine for the two of them.

"Stop talking nonsense! King Roland has been exploring the east for a long time! There aren't many dragon knights left here! Where did this bunch come from?" Thorin waved his hand, guessing that these two silly kids had mistaken the birds in the sky for dragons!

“It really is Prince Thorin! I swear on my honor! You'd better go and see the border! The dragon knights of the Kingdom of Lagrange have indeed marched north today!” Legolas said solemnly.

"..." Thorin was taken aback. Seeing Legolas's confident expression, he couldn't refute him, after all, Legolas had even brought up his reputation!

"Go check on the merchants who came and went to Lagrange City today! See if they saw them!" Thorin couldn't ignore Legolas's words. Although he felt that the two men were probably not in their right minds, Thorin decided to ask anyway.

……

"Your Highness!"

"Your Highness!"

Two different soldiers ran in, causing Thorin to raise an eyebrow and glance back at Legolas, wondering if this guy was really going to jinx things by mentioning the North! After all, Thorin could tell which soldiers belonged to which side; the soldier behind was clearly a guard from the northern border!
"What's wrong in the North?" Thorin asked.

"Your Highness, General Devalin asked me to report that King Roland has personally arrived in the North with eight dragons! He has gone to the Grey Mountains!" The soldier from the northern outpost said, panting. He had been riding his argali without stopping for a moment, speeding back on his argali.

"Alright... Congratulations, Your Highness Prince Legolas, your intelligence is true!" Thorin glanced back at Legolas, waved his hand to signal his guards to leave. The guards from the north had all returned, so there was no need to ask about the information they had just gathered.

Thorin was such a clever man! After learning that Roland was personally leading the team to the Grey Mountains, he understood why! There was no other possibility but the griffin flock that countless people coveted. However, Thorin was not jealous, because he knew his own limitations. According to the idea that "if I gain it, I am fortunate; if I lose it, it is my fate," Thorin had some interest in these griffins, but it was clearly not something he could handle!

Of course, Thorin should be grateful for his caution and understanding. If he had really greedily chosen to capture those griffins, he would probably have soon faced the tragic situation of his entire air knight army being wiped out. Although dragon eagles are powerful as sub-dragons, they are obviously no match for hundreds of griffins!
"Has anything changed in the north?" Legolas pressed.

"No! King Roland is just busy with his own affairs!" Thorin waved his hand, not going into details with Legolas. After all, those griffins had nothing to do with the woodland elves; only the dwarves and the Kingdom of Lagrange truly knew about them! Of course, what he didn't know was that everyone knew more or less about the Grey Mountain griffins. Following the principle of avoiding trouble, Thorin just laughed it off.

However, everyone is a cunning fox. Although Aragorn and Legolas guessed that Roland might be going to take action against the griffins, the two, who shared the same idea as Thorin, pretended to be ignorant. They all tacitly avoided mentioning this open secret, thinking about whether they could get a piece of the pie later. After all, no matter how hard Thorin and Legolas racked their brains, they would never have imagined that the great King Roland would take everything, soup and all!
……

"Phew! It's so good to be back!" Roland smiled as he looked at the familiar castle.

“Let’s go! I’ll cook for you!” Nyx affectionately took Roland’s arm.

"Don't leave today, okay?" Nyx looked at Roland with tenderness and reluctance in his eyes. Roland was naturally unable to resist Nyx's eyes, which could even soften a lion. Thinking that since Maple Forest and Orchid and Adolf Heinrich were supporting Lagrange City, it wouldn't be a big deal for him to stay a day longer. So Roland decided to stay.

"...Is everything going well for Your Majesty?" Although Yun Feng disapproved of Roland treating him like a slave, he was still very dedicated to his work. He and Duke Joelster approached Roland together.

“Not bad! Quite a haul! You need to set up an anti-air and anti-magic array here! Otherwise, I won’t be able to release them!” Roland pointed to the courtyard behind Yunfeng, the spacious courtyard where he kept these griffins.

"Okay! In a moment!" Yun Feng nodded and then began to set up. Since he was the only one working on it, Roland watched as Yun Feng, in pursuit of efficiency, took out a handful of magic crystals and began to draw magic circles. As each magic crystal disappeared into the void, a strange fluctuation began to reverberate throughout the space!

"Alright, Your Majesty!" After a long while, Yun Feng finally raised his head and nodded to Roland.

“Okay!” Roland touched his right wrist with his left hand, pretending to use the spatial equipment to release the griffins that he had stored in the system space.

"One!"

"Two!"

Roland counted silently. He hadn't counted the number of griffins when he collected them, but he could still sense that there were probably over a hundred!
"Hiss! So many? You think you can stop them?"

At first, Yun Feng's expression remained calm. However, after a while, as Roland retrieved more and more griffins—some bound, paralyzed, or stunned (time was frozen within the system space, so they retained their state from when they were first captured)—Roland took them out. Many griffins managed to break free of the vines after a short while. After all, within the magic-blocking array, the vines that absorbed magic power were also annihilated into specks of light and dissipated in the air. However, under the suppression of the magic-blocking and air-blocking array, these griffins could only stagger a few steps! Finally, Yun Feng couldn't help but cry out!

"Well, we were lucky! We almost let them get away!" Roland tapped the head of the dazed griffin on the ground.

"...You think you can stop these griffins with your life? One hundred and thirteen griffins...even a pig would take half a day to catch them, right? These things can fly! Do you think you can stop them?" Yun Feng and Joelsteria exchanged a glance.

After all, it's understandable for a dragon to fight ten or so griffins, but for a dragon to capture ten or so griffins is going too far, isn't it? Could it be that Roland sold the ditch to the griffin leader? Yun Feng thought to himself with a sinister look.

"No way! It took several powerful forbidden spells and a whole bunch of forbidden spells to trap them. If it weren't for the Light Chaser's Space-Time Forbidden Spell, I'd be lucky if half of them survived!" Roland was in high spirits. 113 griffins! There were 31 adults, 65 juveniles, and only 17 juveniles! Adding to the kingdom's original 5 griffins, the kingdom now has a total of 118 griffins!
"We've hit the jackpot!" Roland chuckled, his eyes practically glowing with greed! These griffins belonged to the royal family! At most, the dragon rider families could only get a share! Unlike the griffon flocks of the Lagrange Empire, which belonged to the noble council, requiring the emperor's permission to form a griffon fleet!

“I suggest you slow down the formation of the Griffin Knights!” Joelster said calmly to Roland.

"Huh?" Roland was stunned and hadn't reacted yet.

“Although Knight Commander Nogai is the instructor knight of the dragon knights, there are actually only two types of air knights: dragon knights and air knights. Most other air knights are interchangeable. Although Lord Nogai can train a group of apprentice air knights, I think you should try to expand the population of air knight mounts first!” Joelsteria suggested.

"Of course! I won't do something that kills the goose that lays the golden eggs! Both the dragon and griffin clans need time to reproduce. We don't lack air knights right now, but we can have Nogai train a batch of reserve air knights first. For now, we can make do with warhorses, and they can become real air knights at any time in the future!" Roland proposed a talent reserve plan. After all, the knight profession is essentially interconnected. Does a dragon knight not need a dragon to ride a horse and not be a knight?