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

Chapter 855 Dragon Rider Contract
"Roar!" The purple chain carrying Fenglin Shulan flew steadily in the sky. It wasn't that it couldn't fly fast, but rather that Fenglin Shulan couldn't accept it. After all, the training Fenglin Shulan received was simply insufficient for her to ride a giant dragon now. Without a dragon rider contract, the giant dragon could not connect with the rider's dragon power to form a wind-breaking barrier to protect the rider from the effects of turbulent air currents.

"Dragon! It's a dragon from Lagrange!" Assef, like the other soldiers, looked up at the dragon riders soaring in the sky. The few hundred meters in height seemed so unreachable to them. The sky and the earth were like an insurmountable chasm separating their world. These Gondorians could only stand there and watch the flying dragons with envy.

"When will we have our own dragons?" a Gondor militiaman asked wistfully. Upon hearing this, Assef's face instantly darkened. After all, Gondor couldn't even touch a dragon's scales! They couldn't even find dragons anywhere; the only wyverns in the kingdom were incredibly slippery. This left Denethor II, whose ambitious plans to advise his grandfather and father to form a dragon rider order, utterly dejected. (A dragon rider order? He really dared to dream...)
Denessol II was forced to settle for a less desirable option: arming a dragon knight order. However, he lacked the resources to gather the dragons, so the plan was temporarily shelved.

"It will happen!" Assef clenched his fist and said firmly.

"Stand still, you bunch of trash!" The voices of the Romanian Royal Knights interrupted Arthur's thoughts. He looked up and saw a group of Lagrange Knights on horseback whipping the fleeing militia. Arthur couldn't help but blush. As a soldier, he knew what that action meant; to put it bluntly, even within Gondor, the overseers had already moved in…

"Lord Assef, I expect you to keep a close eye on your soldiers! After all, they belong to Gondor, and we are merely training them! I don't want another incident like this, no matter the reason!" The leading knight approached with a dark face, reprimanding Assef without any politeness. These headless militiamen had almost stormed the palace! Fortunately, after a volley of warning shots from the Royal Crossbowmen, these clearly frightened militiamen regained some composure; otherwise, the Royal Guards would have shown them true cruelty!

"Of course I'm sorry, I've caused you trouble!" Assef apologized awkwardly, his foot almost digging into a fortress.

"You'd better watch yourself!" The knight said nothing more, simply abandoning the soldiers who had been brought back and turning to leave.

“You… sigh!” Assef raised his hand and then dejectedly lowered it. After all, these were just farmers who had just laid down their weapons. They had no soldiers’ discipline at all, and Assef couldn’t be too harsh on them.

……

"The camp has been rioted?" Roland asked with interest as he looked at the Gondorian camp from the city wall.

“Yes, the sudden appearance of the dragon terrified them!” Darian Nightblade shook his head with a smile.

"Did you figure it out?" Roland smiled.

"What?" Darian Nightblade asked, puzzled but impressed.

“These people are true farmers; their subconscious actions are so subtle that you can’t even detect a trace of militia! As for those professionals, they are alertly hiding and forming formations. Is there anything you want to say?” Roland pursed his lips and smiled.

"What?" Darian Nightblade asked, somewhat bewildered.

“This shows that Gondor has truly been at peace for a long time! You should know about their war mobilization! They've recruited a large number of militia from the farmers to assist the soldiers in battle, but look at their militia now... do they look like they've been trained?” Roland shrugged, the implication of which was self-evident.

“…Indeed, their militia doesn’t seem to be trained at all…” Darian Nightblade frowned. This wasn’t a good thing; it meant Gondor’s war mobilization capabilities had plummeted to rock bottom! Even their militia were of such poor quality… “It seems they’ve been at peace for too long!” Roland shook his head. This was exactly the situation Denethor II faced back then, only Roland discovered it earlier. No wonder Denethor II eventually collapsed in despair. What future could a country have that struggled even to mobilize?
"I'll give Denesor a heads-up when I get the chance, lest his own people get him killed!" Roland said calmly. Denesor II, who had the vast kingdom of Gondor, couldn't mobilize many soldiers during the War of the Ring. This was partly due to the attack from Mordor, but Gondor's own low mobilization capacity was also an undeniable fact!

……

"How do you feel?" Fenglin Youlan asked with a smile, gently rubbing Fenglin Shulan's face.

“Fear…” Fenglin Shulan’s face turned pale, and she shrank back in fear. She felt so isolated and helpless on the dragon saddle, and she felt like she was floating. If she hadn’t been holding on to the dragon reins tightly, she probably would have been thrown away by the wind.

"..." Zi Lian, sitting behind her, rolled her eyes in exasperation. What are you so afraid of?! Since ancient times, no dragon knight has ever died from falling off a dragon, not even from its back (except for those who were knocked off)!
"Just get used to it, you'll get used to it!" Weiss also came over to share his experience, while Fenglin Xilan stood aside quietly listening to their boasting. After all, among these dragon knights, she was the most unworthy of the title. She had the title of a real dragon knight, but her actual combat strength was so poor that even her own brother dared not trust her.

So Fenglin Xilan kept her opinions to herself, listening quietly and playing the role of a beautiful vase.

"Have you managed to get your hands on the contract text?" Caslo asked Maple Forest Orchid seriously. Because of the changes in the McDoug family, the McDoug family's dragon rider contract text was not passed down to Maple Forest Orchid, so the only solution to contract a dragon rider was to find other contract texts.

"No... If all else fails, we'll use His Majesty's!" Maple Forest Orchid gave a wry smile. Although King Romanian didn't have a dragon rider lineage, the dragon that King Roland in front of him rode was the famous Golden Holy Dragon! A dragon rider contract was a piece of cake for him!

"Forget it, don't bother Your Majesty! Use mine!" Caslo shook his head and presented a parchment sealed with dragon power.

“My contract is an Imperial standard contract! Although the initial contract was with a dragon, the terms of the contract are the same, only the object is different. It can be used after some modifications!” Caslo explained.

“Alright! Let’s take this one!” Maple Forest Orchid did not refuse. After all, the dragon rider contracts of various families were derived from the imperial standard contracts. Taking out the imperial standard contracts now is a return to basics, and at least we don’t have to trouble Roland.

……

"What are they doing? A whole bunch of them?" Roland lay on the battlements, idly tossing stones. Everyone else was busy, but he and Darian Nightblade, who was keeping him company, were doing nothing.

He pointed to the large square in the palace, where a group of people and dragons, including Caslo, were gathered, looking quite lively.

“Shall we go and take a look, Your Majesty?” Darian Nightblade suggested.

"Forget it! I'm lazy! I can't walk an inch!" Roland decisively refused. With his lazy nature taking hold, Roland didn't want to move at all and just wanted to turn into a puddle of mud and lie there.