Lake-town

"Swift River..." the group that rushed out of the woods murmured as they looked at the wide river before them.

"Splash!" Suddenly, a knight dismounted and knelt down.

Following that, Roland was surprised to find everyone kneeling down one after another. Reno, with red eyes, grabbed a handful of mud from the riverbank and placed it on his chest, crying uncontrollably.

"Swift River! The people of Lagrange have returned!" Reno said, tears streaming down his face.

The group was choked with sobs. In their memories, the empire had fallen, their homes were ruined, and the scattered remnants of the Lagrange Empire were like children without a home, wandering the continent. Today... they had finally returned to the land of the empire...

"Fight for the revival of the empire!" Suddenly, a Swift River Infantryman stood up and roared.

"For the empire!"

"Long live Lagrange!"

"For the Swift River that gave me birth and raised me..."

Roland fell silent seeing this scene. Although they were all living people, Roland had always felt a sense of distance from them, always viewing them as NPCs. But now, Roland suddenly felt that he had completely integrated into this world. Each of them had flesh and blood; they could get hurt, they could cry, they could die. Each of them was a living person, their own citizens, their own family. And he was the last... lord of Lagrange!

"Everyone, get up... Let us reclaim the pearl of the north of the empire – Lake-town!" Roland's eyes sharpened.

Note: Historically, Lake-town was the furthest city north of the Lagrange Empire. After Smaug destroyed Lake-town in the Third Age, its residents, led by King Bard, rebuilt Dale, and Lake-town was abandoned. In the middle of the Fourth Age, a vanguard team of what was then the Kingdom of Lagrange reoccupied and rebuilt Lake-town... Until the empire's final destruction, it remained a sanctuary and a key stronghold for the human inhabitants of the north.

Here, Roland twisted the concept. After all, Lake-town did not yet belong to Lagrange's territory at this time. But since Roland had the power, he shamelessly decided to occupy Lake-town first. After all, could a lord without territory be called a lord? Moreover, there were over a thousand humans there, who were the foundation for Roland's current development.

"Wait! Smaug's death should be imminent..." Roland suddenly broke out in a cold sweat. Knowing that Lake-town was now considered his territory, he certainly couldn't just stand by and watch Smaug destroy it.

"All troops, listen up! Force march!" Roland commanded sternly.

At this time, Thorin had arrived at Lake-town and was staying at Bard's home, having paid Bard in gold coins to procure weapons for his group.

"This is it? We paid in gold coins! We bought weapons! Iron swords and axes!" The dwarves grumbled as they looked at the weapons, which were modified iron hammers and harpoons.

The dwarves' agitated behavior startled Bard's son, Bain, and his two daughters.

"Thorin, perhaps we should just set out with these. After all, we've used worse before..." Balin comforted him.

"Swift River Infantry! Like the Swift River!" The Swift River Infantry, formed into a complete Swift River formation, dispersed a group of orcs, pursued them briefly, and then quickly put away their weapons and advanced along the Swift River.

"Die!" A Bannaria Archer pierced the eye socket of a wandering orc with an arrow.

"Pass quickly!" Roland directed the Swift River Infantry.

"Knights! Don't get separated! Disperse the orcs! Disrupt their formations! Leave the rest to the infantry!" Reno led the way, shouting loudly.

"Bannaria Archers, please pay attention to any orcs that cross the defensive line! Send them to see the dragon god! Don't delay, our time is running out!" Caslo remained the rear guard king.

"Clang!" Roland spurred his horse forward, casually slicing off an orc's head.

"My lord! Mirkwood has been corrupted! It's full of wandering orcs!" Reno said with a helpless expression.

"Then we'll fight our way through! No one can stop the Knights' advance, no one can stop the revival of Lagrange!" Roland was like a madman. He had been killing relentlessly. Throughout the fight, the black orc blood had smeared his mithril armor. The once beautiful golden-red plate armor was now unrecognizable, appearing purplish-black...

The exhausted Swift River Infantry formed a square formation, placing their anti-cavalry pikes on their shields and pointing them forward and to the left. All they had to do now was to charge forward...

"These orcs are really like cockroaches. We've killed hundreds on this journey, haven't we?" Caslo gasped for breath.

With the current strength of Roland's group, hundreds of orcs could be wiped out with a wave of their hands. However, the infantry couldn't withstand the boss's exploitation of labor. They had been traveling for several days, with forced marches every day. Being able to lift their weapons was already an achievement, and it was difficult enough to keep up with the cavalry. It was thanks to Roland and Reno taking turns casting the aura skill – Divine Inspiration – that they were able to keep up the pace.

Divine Inspiration: A special skill for Paladin or Priest classes, releasing an inspirational aura within a 100-meter radius of oneself. Units with the aura will continuously recover stamina and vitality, increasing their magic resistance and endurance. Lasts for 30 minutes.

"Divine Inspiration!" Roland rode his horse to the front of the Swift River Infantry and cast a group aura on everyone, continuing to exploit their labor.

"Bang, bang, bang!" The scattered steps of the Swift River Infantry gradually became orderly, and even their gasps of breath began to subside.

"Brothers! Keep it up! Lake-town is just ahead!" Roland encouraged them.

Before long, a silver light illuminated everyone. It turned out to be the sunlight reflecting off the shimmering Lake-town!

"Hoo! Lake-town!" someone exclaimed excitedly.

"It's Lake-town! The pearl of the north of the empire!"

"The busiest trade hub in the north!"

"We've made it!"

The group chattered excitedly about the shimmering Lake-town, everyone filled with excitement, and happiness spread among them.

"But how do we get across?" Suddenly, a voice drowned out their discussions.

Instantly, silence fell upon the entire scene...

"My lord, I hope you have a way for us to cross... To reach the land entrance of Lake-town, we need to cross the entire lake... We no longer have the stamina or time to accomplish this feat. Everyone's stamina has reached its limit," Reno said, looking at Roland with a solemn expression.

Hoo! Fortunately! Yesterday's sign-in gave me a means of transportation. Roland felt extremely fortunate. Roland waved his hand and released 10 galleons from the Ring System. Seeing the ships, the crowd immediately cheered.

Note: The reason why Roland's subordinates were not surprised by him conjuring 10 huge galleons out of thin air was that the system had implanted the memory that Roland possessed a storage artifact with a vast storage space. They would assume that Roland had prepared this long ago.

"Board the ships!" Roland waved his hand.

"Oh!" The crowd cheered and leaped into the lake, washing away the bloodstains while swimming towards the ships. After all, the ships had a draft. Since there were no professional docks here, they had to have some people swim over to start the ships.

"Chop some wood and build a simple dock. Don't forget, we still have warhorses!" Roland stopped his subordinates' revelry.

"Is everyone on board?" Roland looked towards the shore.

"Don't worry, my lord, not a single person was left behind!" Caslo patted his chest in assurance.

"Set sail!"

Under the sunlight, a city on the water appeared before everyone's eyes.

Lake-town, here I come! Roland murmured as he gazed ahead.

Second update, thank you for your support, readers. The first climax of this book—the Battle of Five Armies—is about to unfold (now it's a Battle of Six Armies). Welcome everyone to leave comments in the comment section. Lastly, I'm asking again for your recommendation votes, dear readers (ω)