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

Chapter 841 I fooled you, and you stole my girlfriend?

“Weak yet powerful!” Holfa said after a moment of silence.

“Yes, weak…and strong!” Denessol II exclaimed. How could these two completely opposite words be put together? Perhaps only the two who witnessed it firsthand had the right to say so.

The Kingdom of Lagrange was weak; based on what Denesor II had seen along his journey, it seemed to have no ability to withstand risks. However, strangely, this kingdom also possessed an elite army that was virtually invincible in the north. This incongruity and contrast surrounding the mysterious northern kingdom made Denesor II want to uncover its secrets.

"Their dragons are quite impressive..." Holfa murmured. The powerful dragon knights filled him with awe. The sight of these ancient, legendary creatures appearing in droves before him was undoubtedly a shock to Holfa!

"Yes! The mighty dragon kingdom!" King Denesor II said with great envy. Gondor has many forests, but unfortunately, there are no dragons, not even wyverns. For Gondor, having dragon riders is simply a pipe dream.

"You should rest early, Your Highness." Holfa saw Denethor II's longing and sighed helplessly. As the foundation of the Northern Kingdom, Holfa did not believe they would give Gondor a dragon.

Try it out – that's nonsense! Even if the Lagrange Empire were to become unshakeable in the game, the Royal Dragon's Nest wouldn't be open to players. The wild dragons there could only be challenged by NPC families. Besides, the Lagrange Empire at that time didn't lack wild dragons at all! Not to mention that Roland only has one wild dragon at his disposal right now.

……

"Good morning, Your Majesty! I apologize for disturbing you..." Denesor II's posture was very humble.

"What is it, Your Highness Denesor? Is there something you need?" Roland asked knowingly. Coming to see him so early in the morning probably meant he had something to ask of him... Could it be that he planned to send Roland south now to keep the orcs occupied?

Thinking of this, Roland's eyes began to twitch. He came here to trick her into taking a bullet for Lagrange, and she actually wanted him to take a bullet for her? How could a time traveler who knows history be fooled by her?

"Forgive my impertinence, but does your country have any plans to sell its dragons? Gondor is willing to pay a price to acquire one," Denethor II probed. After all, given Gondor's national strength, buying a dragon wouldn't be difficult, and with a dragon rider, it could directly defend the entire eastern border. For Denethor II, this money was well spent.

"..." Roland stared at Denetor II for a long time without saying a word, his eyes filled with emotion. Good heavens! You know you're being presumptuous! Dude, I just wanted to trick you into going to Mordor to fight and draw attention away from the enemy, and you came here and started digging up my foundation!
"I'm sorry, but dragons aren't creatures that can be measured in money. They are our partners, and we have no right to sell them! They fight alongside us solely out of trust and friendship!" Roland said solemnly.
Selling dragons is a bizarre practice that has never been done in the history of the Lagrange Empire. However, it's not entirely unheard of. But the dragons sold are all wild dragons captured in the wild. Families without the strength to train dragons would choose to sell the dragon to a dragon rider family if they accidentally captured a wild dragon, or nobles with ambitions to become dragon riders would choose to sell the dragon. However, there are very few such cases in history. After all, most people who can capture dragons can afford to raise them. How many lucky ones are there?
"I apologize, it was my rudeness!" Denesor II shook his head with some regret. Although Roland's righteous refusal was within his expectations, it still left him somewhat disappointed.

Only Horpha, standing nearby, displayed the expected expression. In Horpha's view, if King Roland of Lagrange were to actually sell the dragons to Gondor, he would truly have lost his mind! ...

"What insights have you gained from this trip?" Roland casually asked Denesor II, who was sitting next to him, at lunch.

“I have many feelings about this! To be honest, I didn’t really trust your country before, because the North had been stagnant for too long! This trip to the North has changed my mind. The North is still the same resilient North!” Denesor II remarked.

"We have always been tenacious!" Roland chuckled and raised his glass to those people of the Vale Kingdom who held out to the death in the North! They illuminated the last vestige of dignity for the people of the North!

"Clink!" Denesor II also raised his silver cup and gently clinked it with Roland's.

"The situation on the border of Gondor is not good, you should be careful!" After talking with Denethor II about the North, Roland steered the conversation to Gondor, since the situation in the North was much better than in Gondor at the moment!

Historically, after Thorin and Dain reclaimed the Lonely Mountain, the North entered a long period of recuperation. Before the War of the Ring, the North was relatively peaceful. At that time, Sauron had already set his sights entirely on Gondor. After all, with the dwarves weakened and the humans barely surviving in the North, there was nothing he needed to pay attention to. In fact, during the War of the Ring, the army of the Eastern Barbarian charioteers almost wiped out the North (Justice Halo: Hehehe!). Hmm! Almost again! (doge)
However, Roland can't guarantee that Thorin won't be so foolish as to turn his attention to the North instead of Gondor. After all, compared to the sheep-like Gondor, the murderous Northern Alliance has already slapped him a few times. If Thorin gets angry and thinks that the North is a higher priority than Gondor, then Roland will be in real trouble!

“Yes! Orcs are appearing more and more frequently! Those bastards are everywhere! The kingdom’s borders are like sieves in their eyes!” Denethor II clenched his fists angrily, and the young Denethor II quickly got into Roland’s rhythm.

"However, I'm afraid your kingdom's current army would be no match for those orcs..." Roland shrugged regretfully. Gondor, having enjoyed peace for so long, had extremely low control over its military. Apart from the occasional incursions by orcs, there were only the Umba pirates in the south left! So, apart from the navy and a small number of border troops, Gondor's military strength in other regions was pitiful. It wasn't that Gondor was weak, but rather that their mobilization capacity was simply not being utilized. Coupled with the insignificant wandering orcs, only the Umba pirates made Gondor take them seriously!
"Those nobles have absolutely no desire to invest money in the army! My God! Do they really want to use conscripted farmers to defeat the orcs?" Denethor II remarked, somewhat speechless.

"..." Roland's expression froze. You know what?! You really do know what?! Those strong, conscripted farmers could easily overpower orcs! Keep in mind they're orcs, not greenskins! A wandering orc's individual combat strength is even weaker than a human woman! But the elite orcs and the powerful orcs of the biologist "Teacher Sa" are a different story!

Actually, the decisions made by the Gondor nobles weren't entirely wrong. After all, those infested orcs were endless. Rather than maintaining a regular army that was always on standby, it was better to rely on the farmers in the villages and towns to wipe them out with their own weapons. This was fine in the year 2951, but decades later, the reorganized and strengthened Mordor orc army would be a different story.

"Shortsighted!" Roland quickly nodded in agreement.