"Damn it!" Adolf Heinrich furiously rushed up to Roland, gritting his teeth as he spoke.
"I knew those dwarves were unreliable! They let an Orc army through! Those Northern Territory Orcs came through their lands! They intercepted and killed most of the Orc infantry, but they never informed Flowing City!" The fury in Adolf Heinrich's eyes could have set Thorin ablaze. This intelligence was important. Though it would not change the kingdom's strategy, it could at least have allowed Caslo to greet them with a Draconic Forbidden Spell before they arrived, weakening their troop strength instead of realizing it only after the enemy had already reached their doorstep.
"Forget it. Those dwarves couldn't have stopped the Orcs anyway! It was already doing their duty to intercept some of the infantry, and they didn't know the Orcs were coming for us!" Roland shook his head, taking it in stride. With their limited numbers, the dwarves had already helped the kingdom fight two battles against the Orcs in the Northern Territory and weaken them. That was enough to honor the alliance. How did that saying go? Firing three arrows before battle was enough to show loyalty to the emperor! The dwarves had at least fought two real battles with steel and blood!
"Even so... sigh!" Adolf Heinrich sighed and helplessly shook his head. The poor coordination between dwarves and humans had cost the kingdom a chance to inflict greater losses on the Orcs. Thorin himself probably never expected that he had merely wanted to avoid troubling the Lagrange Kingdom, only to create such an enormous problem.
"Have all the soldiers made it onto the walls?" Roland asked, watching the troops stream up onto the ramparts.
"They are all moving into position!" Duke Joelster calmly replied, flicking his sleeve.
"Fine. The command is