Chapter 145: The Meeting

By wearing the Star of the Dunedain to Wilderness Town, Abinas had not intended to completely conceal his identity. The specific meaning represented by this silver brooch was actually known to very few people during this period; even the Hobbits living in the Shire or the Humans living in Bree did not know what it signified. In fact, they acted with such excessive secrecy to hide their identities that they instead aroused the suspicion of the locals, who always contemptuously referred to them as wanderers.

Aside from themselves, the only ones who understood the Star of the Dunedain were a very small number of factions and individuals on good terms with them, such as the Elves living in Rivendell, or a certain Grey Wizard who traveled throughout Middle-earth.

In Abinas's view, if the master of this place was truly, as Lord Elrond said, of the same bloodline of the Númenóreans and had always been very concerned about the plight of the Dunedain, then it made no difference whether he had proactively revealed his identity at the start. Moreover, he was merely an advance scout; the person who would truly negotiate with the King of Rhovanion was Aragorn's mother, Lady Gilraen.

The lives of the Dunedain were not particularly easy right now. The previous chieftain had long since passed away, and the current chieftain was still a young boy. Thus, as the widow of the former chieftain, Lady Gilraen, who lived in Rivendell, naturally held the right and obligation to manage the clansmen.

Gilraen, having learned the news from Lord Elrond, did not make a rash decision but instead summoned the various Dunedain elders living in Eriador.

Due to the great distance, simply waiting for the Dunedain elders living in various places to gather in Rivendell took a significant amount of time. Abinas was one of them; despite his middle-aged appearance, he was actually nearly one hundred years old.

During the meeting, Abinas, as one of the elders, advised Lady Gilraen to act with caution and not rashly go to the Wilderland to meet a stranger she had only encountered once. Gilraen, however, felt that since there was a recommendation from Lord Elrond, Allen should be a trustworthy clansman. Furthermore, making this trip was to retrieve the symbol of royal authority belonging to the Kingdom of Arnor, which was extremely important to the Dunedain. It was just that the current situation of the Dunedain made it truly difficult to produce wealth to match it; one had to know that they had paid the Snowmen quite a lot to redeem the Barahir Ring.

At the end of the meeting, most of the elders agreed on a compromise: to first arrange for a few people to go to Allen's territory to observe, and to analyze Allen's character based on the actual living conditions of the residents of Wilderness Town. If they were recognized, that would be even better, as direct contact would allow for a better understanding of a person's character.

If they were not recognized, then it would mean that this person was not as concerned about the current living conditions of the Dunedain as Lord Elrond had said.

Abinas, who had been worried about Lady Gilraen's safety from the start, eagerly volunteered. Subsequently, with the lady's consent, he arrived at Wilderness Town ahead of the others with two elite subordinates.

Initially, Abinas's plan was to stay at an inn in the town, observe for a few days, and then decide whether to meet the master of this place. If the master of this place was truly, as Lady Gilraen described, a benevolent and wise king, then the lives of the subjects should be peaceful and prosperous; conversely, the territory would likely be filled with chaos and cruelty.

Just having entered Wilderness Town, Abinas did not yet have enough information to analyze how the residents here lived, but he did discover that the management of public order here was quite good.

In Abinas's observation, anyone entering the city would comply with the law and hand over their weapons to the guards at the gate, and those leaving could retrieve their own weapons from the guards without needing to pay any fees. Moreover, for several days, no one had clashed with the guards over weapons. This attention to detail indicated that the local lord possessed both highly recognized prestige and an iron-fisted approach.

At the same time, after entering the city, Abinas found that the sanitary conditions were excellent, which must have required great effort to maintain. The flowers by the roadside and the patrol squads that could be seen from time to time all represented that the residents here at least had a stable and comfortable living environment. This made Abinas very satisfied, so in the evening, he readily accepted Allen's invitation; after all, since the master here had recognized him, it meant that Lord Elrond's words were not false.

In fact, what Abinas did not know was that just half a year ago, the management of weapons in Wilderness Town had not been so strict, and there had not been so many patrol squads on the road. At that time, ordinary people could still keep personal weapons when entering the town, such as daggers or short knives. However, due to the prosperous development of commerce within the city, several gangs fighting for territory had actually appeared on the streets, and they had begun to openly collect protection fees from incoming caravans. For this reason, several bloody incidents had broken out between the gangs.

Such vicious incidents ignited a blazing fury in Allen's heart when he first received the news. He knew that with the prosperity of commerce, such disgusting things would inevitably appear, but he had not expected it to happen so quickly, nor had he expected these people to be so bold.

Allen understood that such matters could only be resolved quickly with thunderous means. Therefore, he scattered his secret agents as quickly as possible, ordered Bandak to investigate the course of events with all his might, and began to strictly control the weapons that might appear in the city.

In Wilderness Town, it was actually very simple for Allen to do something. It took only three days for Bandak to arrest all the gang members in Wilderness Town, and a report was delivered to Allen's study.

Through the contents of the report, Allen discovered that these gangs had actually existed for some time. Half of the members were unemployed wanderers from other places, or to put it bluntly, local ruffians, while the remaining half were locals, basically half-grown boys who were unwilling to study or join the army. And the caravans that were extorted, because there were locals in these gangs, did not have a single person who dared to report it to the officials or the patrolling soldiers. These things were only discovered after a local child died in a bloody incident, and it was only after his mother cried to the patrol squad that the whole thing was uncovered.

Subsequently, Wilderness Town began the largest execution in its history. Those foreign ruffians were all hanged after their crimes were read out, numbering as many as fifty or sixty. After being hanged, they were displayed in the square for three days, and finally, under the arrangement of the Cabinet officials, they were buried in desolate graves outside the city without even a tombstone.

As for those local children who joined the gangs, besides confiscating their illegal gains and having their parents pay a large fine, each of them received ten lashes and had to mine in Stier Mining Town for a year, so that they could truly experience how precious freedom was and how important it was to obey the law.

In fact, many of these children had lost their fathers on the battlefield. Lacking love and discipline, they were easily led onto the path of ruffians by those outsiders using small favors. For the sake of these children, the number of officers who had come to plead with Allen over the past six months was countless, all hoping that their King could show mercy and give these children a chance. Allen explained to his subordinates tirelessly every time that he was precisely giving these children a chance; as long as they performed well, after leaving the mining town, they could still receive fair treatment from him and would not be discriminated against or restricted in status because of this.

Just a short while ago, Fatis, who was far away in Long Lake Town, also arranged for a subordinate to send a Letter, hoping that Allen would not be too harsh on these children and would end their punishment early. After receiving the Letter, Allen was quite depressed. Had he already become a cruel and unbenevolent tyrant in the eyes of these subordinates? Just as Allen had finished writing a reply to Fatis in his frustration, Bandak brought news about Saruman's secret agents and the Dunedain.

Regarding those five secret agents, Allen and Bandak had long since reached a conclusion: as long as they were strictly guarded, they could find an opportunity to carry out counter-espionage. Even if they couldn't, it didn't matter; they had already been exposed under his nose and couldn't stir up any big waves.

The arrival of those three Dunedain, however, restored Allen's mood somewhat. In fact, he had long begun to estimate all the forces he could gather to see when he could launch a counterattack against the Easterlings entrenched in the eastern part of Rhovanion. Because the tug-of-war between Mordor and Gondor over these years would surely attract most of Sauron's attention, it was the best opportunity Allen could grasp at present, and the arrival of these people would likely effectively increase his strength to counterattack the Easterlings.

That night, the banquet was set in the dining room of Allen's residence. To show the importance he placed on this meeting, Allen had the kitchen prepare a wide variety of food. Whether it was culinary skills from the Shire, barbecue from the Kujit, or desserts from the Skin-changers, these foods filled the table. In addition, Allen also prepared a great deal of liquor; Wine, beer, and Honey Mead were all available.

Regardless of the identities of these three people, as the first batch of Dunedain to come to Wilderness Town, Allen had to show a good attitude toward them. Just like Thorin's Company in Rivendell, even though the Dwarves were noisy and restless, and acted rudely and without etiquette, Lord Elrond still treated them with a very good attitude. This behavior could effectively allow the guests to feel the host's enthusiasm at the first moment, so as to narrow the distance between the two sides.

Faced with such grand hospitality from Allen, the three of Abinas were still somewhat surprised, and at the same time, they naturally felt a glimmer of goodwill toward Allen in their hearts, because they felt the importance Allen placed on them.

Therefore, before the banquet began, they very solemnly thanked Allen for his hospitality. Although the Kingdom of Arnor had declined, the actions of the three of Abinas were still quite polite. They remained quite quiet while eating and did not leave any bad impression because of facing the delicious food and Wine.

Allen, sitting in the main seat holding a glass of Wine, waited for the three to finish their meal while thinking about the topic to be discussed next. On the table in front of him sat a wooden box, inside of which was the symbol of royal authority of the Kingdom of Arnor, the Star of Earendil.

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"Thank you again for your hospitality, Lord Allen."

The three, having finished their meal, had Abinas act as their representative to thank Allen again for the invitation. Afterward, the eyes of the three shifted to the wooden box in front of Allen; it was clear that they had already guessed what was inside the box.

Allen nodded and said with a smile, "You're welcome. Have a pouch of Old Toby from the Shire. I think you all must have your own tobacco pouches."

After speaking, Allen waved his hand to let the maid on the side take away the leftovers on the table, while also sending over lighting tools and a wooden box containing tobacco, while he himself had already begun to fill his tobacco pouch.

In fact, as long as they were male residents living in the Shire or near Bree, especially Hobbits, the vast majority were heavy smokers. Abinas and his companions, as Dunedain, were no exception. To relieve the tense life of being Rangers, they would smoke a pouch of tobacco to rest whenever they had time. In fact, even Aragorn, after reaching adulthood, had not escaped this tobacco habit and was a veteran smoker.

Amidst the swirling smoke, the relationship between the few seemed to draw closer quickly. In less than half a pouch of tobacco, they had already begun to chat about family matters. Allen told the three of Abinas that during an adventure, he had seen Estel and Lady Gilraen in Rivendell. He praised Estel's intelligence and diligence profusely, expressing that this boy would surely be an outstanding chieftain in the future.

After hearing these things, Abinas thought that the news about Estel had been revealed to Allen by Lord Elrond for some reason, so the guard in his heart was let down in an instant. Because this was a very important secret, Elrond would absolutely not reveal it to ordinary people. Since Allen already understood them to this extent, many things naturally did not need to be avoided.

"My Lord, I think you must be well aware of the purpose of our visit here, so I won't beat around the bush. What price do you need us to pay to return the Star of Earendil to us? I think you also know that this treasure is very important to us. Since it has appeared, we have every reason to bring it back to the clan."

After speaking, Abinas took a light puff from his tobacco pouch, exhaled the swirling smoke, and spoke again: "In fact, I have another presumptuous request. Can you let me take a look at the object inside the box? You also know that this treasure has been away from the Kingdom of Arnor for a long time."

"Certainly, that is just a normal request."

Allen gently pushed the box not far from Abinas. Soon, the three Dunedain opened the box and widened their eyes in the light of the Eldil's Star.

When Allen filled his second pouch of Old Toby, the three of Abinas finally recovered from their daze, and at the same time, with lingering reluctance in their eyes, they pushed the box back in front of Allen.

"This, it is not false. I think you can already put forward your conditions, my Lord. Although I cannot give an answer right here and now, I can convey it to Lady Gilraen. Please rest assured, we will do our best to prepare."

Before arriving, Abinas had not thought that things would progress so quickly, and at the same time, he had not thought that he could really admire this beautiful treasure at close range. Now that he had confirmed that the Star of Earendil before him was no different from the records passed down in the family, the rest was naturally how to exchange for this treasure from Allen's hands.

Allen gently closed the box under the gaze of the three, while organizing his next words in his heart.

"In fact, in order to exchange this treasure from Saruman's hands, I paid a huge price. I do not want to use this treasure as a bargaining chip to ask anything of you. I can return it to you unconditionally. Rest assured, when I see Lady Gilraen, I will personally return this treasure to her; you do not need to pay any price."

Allen sighed lightly when he said this and continued: "Of course, there are indeed some things I hope to get your help with, and that is the war between my kingdom and the Easterlings. Now I have an opportunity that I may never encounter again, and I am in urgent need of a large amount of combat power. I hope to talk to Lady Gilraen about this aspect. However, I can promise that no matter the result, I will return the Star of Earendil to you. As for the reward for assisting in the battle, I can pay other prices."

Just as Abinas said, for such an important matter as participating in a large-scale war, he naturally could not make a decision for the Dunedain clan without authorization. Perhaps only Lady Gilraen could decide after convening the council of elders again.

Hearing Allen's words, Abinas stood up, saluted Allen, and said:

"I have already noted your thoughts. Then please allow me to take my leave, because I will set off early tomorrow morning to return to Imladris to report this matter to Lady Gilraen. I hope we have the opportunity to meet again, King Allen."

Allen nodded and said with a smile, "I think there will certainly be an opportunity, and you are also welcome to come to Wilderness Town as a guest again."