"Thank you..." Nyx gently picked up the Silent Sea Scepter and held it to her chest, tears in her eyes.
"It's okay. Why are you crying? Who has offended my Grand Duke again?" Roland smiled and reached out to wipe away the tears.
…
"Gold coins are above! It's over now!" Jesse Ava said in pain, covering his head.
"This is trouble. There's a big problem with our supplies!" Lance's face looked extremely ugly.
Just as they were sailing through the Loningrad region, an unknown water monster whipped up a massive wave in the river. Thanks to the battle spirit of the accompanying Lordaeron Rangers, they managed to avoid being overturned by the waves, but water still splashed into the cabin. The Beorn's shipbuilding technology was not very advanced, and the boats they built were only suitable for inland rivers with slow currents. As a result, all the flour they carried was soaked...
"We need to go ashore and rescue the food!" Lance's eyes showed some helplessness. He was really afraid of natural disasters rather than man-made disasters!
"Dock at the west coast!" Lance said, holding his forehead.
Further inland on the east coast is Dogoldo. Although the orcs there had been severely damaged by the coalition forces, there were still many remnants, which were simply beyond the ability of Lance's small force to deal with.
"Let's bake this soaked flour first, and then we'll go look for a village or something to replenish it!" Lance adjusted the longsword at his waist.
"As you command, my lord!"
"Sir Lance, are we going ashore? Oh my God!" Jesse Ava said in horror. The goblin was already full of fear of the surface, and now he was about to set foot on the land next to the Misty Mountains, which made his legs tremble.
"No way? I have the impression that goblins are quite brave!" Lance said to Jesse Ava.
"Indeed, he is really brave when stealing things!" Lance muttered to himself.
"Well, our goblin warriors are also very brave and tenacious!" Jesseava stood up and patted his chest, which had only two ounces of meat more than spare ribs.
"Goblin warriors..." Lance couldn't bear to imagine that scene anymore. Just imagine a bunch of green-skinned cuties, about 1.34 meters tall, wearing thin steel armor... Who would harm them? It's better to believe that the skeletons will rise up than to believe that the goblin warriors will fight back! At least the necromancer still has undead attack spells.
"Okay, I believe you, but we need to save our precious food now!" Lance calculated the distance they were traveling. They still needed ten days or half a month's worth of food. The consumption of food and horse munching for these one hundred people was terrifying. At least half of the flour had just dissolved in the water. Lance couldn't take everyone on a hunting life, could he? Besides, the real grasslands and plains below didn't have enough prey to feed so many people.
"It seems we need to find a town or village to replenish supplies, otherwise we won't be able to reach Rohan." Jesseava looked at the flour bags that were dragged out for rescue and the mess in the cabin and sighed. He originally planned to replenish supplies in Rohan, but now he probably can't reach Rohan.
"Let's make these into bread first!" Lance felt a headache.
…
Half a day later, the Lance army, having placed their ships, set out towards the sunset on the road to find the village. A few pieces of bread, which could barely be considered bread, were hung on each warhorse. If there were no supplies or prey, these would be their food for the next few days.
"Damn, I just realized there's a waterfall here?" Lance studied the map and suddenly discovered something he hadn't noticed before. A waterfall downstream of the Anduin River? This meant they couldn't go straight down to Gondor's capital.
"Does that mean we need to abandon those ships and walk south to Gondor?" Jesse Ava's mouth twitched.
"I'm afraid so!" Lance was also a little worried. After all, there was still a long way to go. Although they wouldn't pass through the territory of the Orcs along the way, if they traveled by land, it would take at least a month to reach the border of Gondor...
…
"Good news, sir! There is a village ahead!" After walking along the river for dozens of miles, the Lordaeron rangers who were conducting radiation reconnaissance ahead finally brought the best news of the day.
"Let's go visit him!" Lance straightened his clothes to make himself look a little more energetic.
"I hope they have a tavern. I can't wait to treat myself to a beer!" Jesse Ava wiped the sweat from his head. Although he was riding a horse, the bumpy ride still made the delicate Jesse Ava feel tired.
"If there is any, I'll treat everyone to a drink!" The rustling of gold coins in the purse on Lance's waist highlighted Lance's strong capital. He was worthy of being a noble lord, right?
…
"Ding ding ding!" Some worn-out bronze bells were rung by the militiamen standing on the earthen wall. A dozen ugly militiamen held rusty and twisted spears in their hands, their eyes filled with panic. At the end of their vision, a torrent of steel was rushing towards them.
…
"Outsiders...outsiders...natives...stop...stop!" Finally, a militiaman spoke stutteringly to Lance and his group who were standing at the entrance of the village.
Looking at his current appearance, Lance was much more imposing than when Roland first entered the village. One hundred heavy cavalry and fifty Lordaeron rangers gave him the confidence to despise these militiamen.
"We are the regular army from the northern Kingdom of Raglan. We hope to get supplies and a place to rest in your village. Of course we will pay! Let your lord come out to see me!" Lance took out a small bag of gold coins and shook it. The ten gold coins inside made a crisp and pleasant sound.
These militiamen who grew up in the wilderness had never seen such a scene. Lance's innate aristocratic temperament had suppressed them. Although Lance was just sitting quietly on the horse, his deterrent power was not weak at all.
"Village chief! Village chief! A noble lord has come to our village!" A militiaman cried and crawled into a square full of people to stop the village chief who was about to give an order.
"What? Noble sir?" The village chief's brain buzzed, and his hands and feet felt cold. Could it be the nobles sent by the Kingdom of Rohan to collect taxes? You know, the human villages north of Rohan, big and small, are almost all independent. They don't swear allegiance to anyone, and their lords are the village chiefs or elders, people of prestige or power.
"Where did you come from, sir?" The village chief, who had finally reached the wall and seen Lance's formation, lost his temper completely. Putting aside those frail soldiers (Ranger of Lordaeron: I didn't expect that in the eyes of these people, I'm not as deadly as the heavy cavalry?), just the charge of these guys in tin cans could flatten the village...
"Let them in..." the village chief said dejectedly. They couldn't even struggle in the face of such absolute strength...
"Excuse me, we just want to find a place to rest and have a good rest, and replenish our supplies. You know those goblins often like to wake people up in the middle of the night!" Lance shrugged at the village chief.
"It's okay, it's okay! Let everyone come in, but we don't have that many empty rooms, so we can only ask you to camp and rest in the village square." The village chief said hurriedly.
"No problem, as long as there's a place to stay!" Lance nodded in satisfaction. He was lucky to have found the village, and the people seemed easy to get along with. (How could they not get along with a hundred heavy cavalrymen around?)
"Oh my God! What are you doing?" Jesse Ava suddenly screamed.
His scream instantly alerted Lance. He immediately drew his sword, resting it on his arm shield, and nervously stared at the village chief. He was already beginning to feel nervous. Perhaps he had been careless, entering unfamiliar territory without any preparation. Perhaps they were planning an ambush? Lance thought uncertainly, thinking of the embroidered spears that were about to break.
"What happened to His Highness Jesseava?" Lance looked around with a sword in hand. The village chief was so scared that he raised his hands and knelt on the ground.
"Oh! Lord Lance, you should come and see! What are these unruly people, worse than beasts, doing?" Jesse Ava's angry voice came from the square in front.
Lance walked briskly to Jessieava's side and was immediately shocked by the scene in front of him. He saw a ragged girl tied up and pressed on a wooden block. The girl's body was covered with scars, and a few strands of blood were spiraling down her thin legs and dripping into the soil... There was also a pile of firewood next to her.
"What are you doing?" Lance could feel the magical fluctuations on the girl without taking the initiative to explore. These self-awakened self-taught magicians had no control over their magic power at all, so the magical elements around them were very strong.
"My noble lord! She is a disaster! She is an ominous sign! She even attracted monsters to attack the village yesterday!" The village chief pointed at the girl kneeling on the ground.
"Bullshit!" Jesse Ava couldn't help but exclaim. Although his rank wasn't high, he was still a spellcaster, and he was instantly enraged by this pedantic, pathetic, and superstitious old man! The dark red wooden block and the firewood pile clearly indicated that the girl was about to be beheaded as a witch and burned to ashes...
"Damn it! I can't believe there are places so backward that still believe in stories that witches will bring bad luck!" Jesse Ava gritted his teeth after using a knife to cut the rope and freed the girl.
The executioner carrying the axe was obviously dissatisfied with Jesse Ava's behavior, but soon the lances lying flat taught him how to communicate correctly: throw down the weapon and kneel down!
"Let's take this girl away!" Jesse Ava gave the village chief a cold look and ordered everyone to carry the scarred girl to their temporary residence.
"Human nature is truly despicable!" Jessava was filled with righteous indignation as he watched the girl sleeping in the tent. He couldn't understand why anyone would mistake a spellcaster's natural awakening for a cholera-inducing witch in a knight's novel...
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