"Your Majesty!" Duke Apophis Breo bowed calmly. He was neither as fawning as Marquis Al-Teglang-Franz nor as perfunctory as Lavien had once been. All he showed was a noble's reserve and perfect propriety.
"You did very well—far better than I expected!" Roland did not stint on his praise. He understood that everyone liked to be flattered.
"That was all thanks to Your Majesty's support!" Duke Apophis Breo did not grow smug. After all, he had not forgotten how Roland had gathered people to help him fight a Forbidden Spell War. If they had failed to hold out that time, there would have been no need to wait for Leo Braeu's return—they could have simply washed up and found a cool place to lie down, at least dying with some dignity.
"How are things? It looks like you've managed Lion Territory quite well!" Roland said, his eyes full of approval and admiration. After all, there was not much help he could give Apophis Breo. At most, he could provide emergency aid; the rest depended entirely on Apophis Breo himself.
"It was hard at first, but things got much better after Junlin Fortress was basically completed. We've spent these past years repairing, patching, and expanding the fortress, and things have mostly stabilized now!" Apophis Breo smiled.
"Judging by you, you must have done quite a bit of begging over at Rivendell?" Roland glanced at Apophis Breo's face and roughly figured out what had happened. The elves of Hidden Valley were quite wealthy, after all. Once they established ties with them, supporting a territory would not be a problem.
"Not just Rivendell. I begged my way through southern Moria and the Beornings to the west as well!" Apophis Breo said with feeling.
"And what about Balin? How has he been?" Roland looked up.