Gondor, the Grassland Tavern, trembled faintly.
A shower of dust fell through the gaps between the ceiling boards. The empty wooden tankards trembled slightly on the tables, while the full ones only rippled with rings of wine. Aside from that, a serving girl's trembling hand spilled a cup of wine onto an adventurer's shoes, and she hurriedly apologized again and again.
A faint rumble rolled in. By the time it reached here, it had already become a continuous roar, though it was not especially loud.
This place was already far from Dol Guldur.
"Was that thunder?" someone asked with a frown.
"You really are an idiot. Have you ever seen thunder during the bitter winter? I really wonder if you were born in a pigsty, and then your mother accidentally killed a person and brought home a pig instead!" The man viciously rapped the young man on the head.
The young man grew angry and immediately slapped the table and stood up, but after calming down a little, he still did not dare make a move.
"Then you tell me what this is, Fret!"
"Obviously, it's an earthquake!"
At that moment, the astonished voice of a burly man beside them rang throughout the tavern. "This is the commotion caused by Sauron... the Dark Lord's downfall. The rumors were true! The Dark Lord's soul revived, only to be killed by that god so that Middle-earth could focus on dealing with the impending calamity..."
"My god!" Fret, who had just said it was an earthquake, suddenly came to his senses and muttered blankly.
The other people in the tavern reacted much the same way. Most wore looks of shock as they recalled the rumors that had swept through the entire kingdom in such a short time. Yet some still refused to believe