Distant Kin! Brothers as Long as We Can Join Forces Against the Demon Lord Sauron

"Are you... descendants of the Númenóreans?"

After hearing Wang Zhen's words and seeing the ancient ritual he performed, a strange look flashed through Aragorn's blue eyes, and he could not help asking in return.

From his appearance, Aragorn—the future Human Emperor—looked no more than forty, in the prime of his life, a mature middle-aged man. Combined with that peculiar air of weathered sorrow, melancholy, resilience, determination, and nobility, along with his tall, powerful frame and handsome, sharply sculpted face, he was the kind of man whose unique charm and bearing could never be concealed, even if he wore the ragged clothes of a beggar.

He was just like that classic line from a well-known movie: "Do you think hiding means no one can find you? Useless! A stylish man like you, wherever you go, is like a firefly in the dead of night—so vivid, so outstanding. Your melancholy eyes, your unshaven stubble, your peerless swordsmanship, and that unique Ring of Barahir have all thoroughly given you away."

This was Aragorn. Even in a remote, shabby old tavern, even with his face hidden beneath a worn hood, his distinctive temperament and the little slips he revealed without meaning to still made him utterly incompatible with the crude, ugly atmosphere of the entire tavern. And that was before he removed his hood and revealed his true face.

Although Aragorn knew full well that Wang Zhen and the others' claim to be northern descendants of the Númenóreans was almost certainly false, after pondering for a few seconds, he still returned Wang Zhen's salute with the same ancient Númenórean ritual.

"Greetings, my brothers by blood!"

"Frodo has already told me what happened. You met them in the mountains and forests outside the Shire, and you stepped in to save them out of righteousness. You