Chapter 149: Bad News and Good News

As Allen's fame spread throughout the Swadian army, coupled with the sudden death of Harlaus, the remaining matters suddenly became much simpler.

The cavalry units following Harlaus quickly calmed down once both the King and the Prince were dead; after all, the objects of their loyalty had no heirs left, and there was truly no need to fight to the death for revenge—such a thing would bring them no benefit whatsoever.

Dilinade, for his part, never once thought of wiping these cavalry units out; although these people had once joined Harlaus's camp and prepared to move against his family, Harlaus's death had already caused the primary conflict between the two sides to vanish like smoke, and preserving strength to deal with whatever might come next was the optimal choice.

Moreover, both sides knew that they were on enemy territory, and no one knew when Ragnar might appear behind them leading the Nord barbarians.

Under this tacit understanding, both sides chose different paths without incident and left the territory of the Nord barbarians.

As for Solton Yarl, who guarded Rudburg, seeing the large enemy force return once again, he finally could not suppress his opportunistic instincts and sent an envoy to begin negotiations with Dilinade; he knew that if he continued to hold out, the only outcome would be capture, and by seizing the initiative now, he could save a large sum in ransom.

As for how to explain things to King Ragnar? The fact that he had led several hundred men to block thousands of enemy troops for three full months was enough of an explanation; with reinforcements arriving so slowly, what else could he do—did they expect him to die at Rudburg?

In the end, Solton Yarl left the place with his soldiers and over a thousand peasants, taking a large amount of supplies with him and leaving only a ruined castle for Dilinade.

However, on the continent of Calradia, a castle is also an extremely important asset; building one requires a vast amount of manpower and resources, to say nothing of Rudburg, which guarded the border.

One month later, Dilinade used this castle as his main bargaining chip, along with a large amount of Dinar, to barely extinguish King Ragnar's fury and exchange it for a peace treaty lasting five years.

Thus, Swadia's external threats were temporarily resolved, but the internal troubles were growing increasingly severe.

Those minor lords who had lost their family infantry units, upon returning to their territories, one after another sent envoys to quietly submit their pledges of allegiance, exchanging them for their family troops from Dilinade, as well as decent compensation; after all, some soldiers had died during the infighting, and Dilinade, needing to win them over, had to show some gesture for it.

Those die-hard loyalists of Harlaus, the so-called royal relatives, gathered over a hundred members of the Lion Cavalry Regiment in Praven, along with the original garrison, and openly raised their flags against Dilinade's ascension to the throne, even sending envoys to demand that all lords avenge the King—but nearly a month had passed, and not a single person had responded.

These were nothing; what surprised Allen was that a Lady Isolla from Sunor, claiming to be the daughter of the former King, had occupied the weakly defended Sunor with the help of an unknown faction, taken in the family members of Count Craggs, and was the first to declare herself Queen locally, reportedly possessing the strength of a thousand warriors.

This scene felt extremely familiar to Allen, but within his own Simulator, he did not believe there was any intervention from other players in this world; perhaps this Isolla had swindled investment from somewhere and was preparing to stage a "chestnut-pulling from the fire" drama during Swadia's turbulent times.

As for all of this, Allen's cheap old man indicated that none of it was much of a problem; the family would handle all the discord, and Allen only needed to secure his inheritance at the upcoming family council.

Allen also took this opportunity to return to his own territory, Wincode Castle, to recuperate for a period of time, claiming externally that it was because of heavy injuries sustained in battle, but the real reason was that his mental state at this time was truly too poor; after all, he had been following Harlaus the whole time, maintaining an extremely tense mental state while surrounded by enemies, and the long-term activation of the Simulator had also ravaged his brain—Allen was already struggling to hold on.

However, this time, in addition to his development on the Calradia continent, Allen had also gained an income of over ten thousand Dinar and as many as 260 points of renown; what made Allen laugh and cry the most was that in the simulation where he killed Harlaus and his son, he had actually gained one point of Honor—he could only guess it was contributed by Prince Edward; surely regicide wouldn't grant Honor, not losing any was already good enough.

At this moment, Wilderness Town had already entered the Sun Month; several months had passed, and the Dúnedain had still not replied to Allen, which made him slightly restless; he did not know if these people had given up on reclaiming their family's treasures, or if they were still hesitating about whether to participate in a large-scale war with extremely high risks.

But no news was, after all, not the worst news; it was better than a letter refusing to meet.

Although there was no news from Eriador, a team of envoys from Rohan delivered letters from Sengel and James; in the letter, James briefly described the illness of the King of Rohan, Fengel, and regarding this rapidly erupting acute disease, James stated that he could not cure it, especially since by the time he took over, the King was already paralyzed in bed, barely able to eat some liquid food to hang onto life.

However, under his careful treatment, Fengel's condition had finally stabilized and shown gratifying improvement; at the very least, the man could barely speak, no longer needing Sengel to guess what his father meant amidst the gibberish sounds.

James told Allen that he still needed to stay in Edoras for a period of time and could only return once Fengel's condition was completely stable; finally, he specifically urged Allen in the letter not to force himself for the sake of pursuing power—although his abilities were very powerful, the damage to his spirit was extremely severe, and he should pay more attention to his health.

As for Sengel's letter, it made Allen's mood heavy.

In addition to thanking Allen, Sengel described in detail the war situation between Gondor and Mordor at this time.

After abandoning the territory of Ithilien, the garrison of Minas Tirith placed the focus of their defense on Cair Andros and the western part of Osgiliath, where they fought many fierce battles with the Orcish armies, successfully repelling the invading enemy and buying precious time for the Kingdom of Gondor to muster its troops.

However, this situation did not last long; Sengel stated in the letter that the garrison of Cair Andros suffered an extremely fierce attack one night; in addition to the boundless Orcs, there were also giant beasts flying in the sky, their cries chilling the hearts of most soldiers, and under such circumstances, Cair Andros, with its numerous defenders, still fell.

At that time, most of the ordinary Gondorian soldiers, under the protection of two companies of the Imperial Guard and the Ithilien Rangers, barely escaped the pursuit of the Orcish army and, in an extremely disheveled state, hid in Anorien, where they regrouped to resist the Orcish invasion.

At the end of the letter, Sengel earnestly hoped that Allen could lend a helping hand to Gondor's current crisis; if not for Gondor's sacrifice, then neither Rohan, nor Eriador, nor the Rhovanion where Allen resided, would be able to enjoy a stable life in the days to come.

In fact, after sending the letter, Sengel, in his capacity as Steward Prince and Second Marshal of the Riddermark, had already led over three thousand cavalry of the Kingdom of Rohan to Anorien; since Cair Andros had already been breached by the Orcish army, the human territories west of the Anduin River would no longer be safe.

Facing such a threat, Sengel had to rush to the battlefield before his forces were fully mustered, while the heavy responsibility of Edoras's state affairs and caring for King Fengel fell upon his wife, Morwen of Lossarnach; she was a lady with high Númenórean blood, and as a descendant of the lords of Gondor, Mowen won the recognition of the Rohirrim in a short time with her superior ability; the elegance and dignity she possessed as a Gondorian made the Rohirrim look on in awe, and they all respectfully addressed her as "Steel-Gaze" Mowen.

And the reason Sengel was able to have the authority to command the army of the Kingdom of Rohan was also because King Fengel, after recovering slightly, personally spoke to grant Sengel recognition; otherwise, having returned to Rohan for less than a year, he could not have gained the recognition of other lords so quickly.

Facing Sengel's plea for help, Allen's brows furrowed; he naturally understood the logic of "when the lips are gone, the teeth are cold," but a fierce wolf was also lurking at his own doorstep at this time, and before driving this wolf away, he could do nothing, so Allen could only silently put Sengel's letter into the cabinet and turn to write a reply to James, urging him to take care of himself while away.

In fact, Allen had long intended to drive away the Easterlings, but relying solely on his current strength, fighting would be very strenuous, and if not handled well, it would become a protracted war, which was an extremely dangerous thing for Rhovanion, which had a very poor foundation.

Therefore, Allen had been trying to find ways to secure reinforcements, but his original targets, Rohan and Gondor, were already facing even greater crises at this time and naturally could not help him repel the Easterlings, while the Elves of Lindon, Rivendell, and Lothlorien always upheld the principle of not taking action until the enemy reached their doorstep; if Allen were facing a crisis of national extinction, they might still send some troops to assist Allen in resisting the invasion, but if he wanted to demand they send troops to assist him in actively attacking the enemy, it would be extremely difficult.

In fact, at the last White Council meeting, Allen had proposed the idea of wanting to obtain support to Lady Galadriel, but the Lady did not directly answer Allen's request; silence naturally represented refusal.

On the way back to Wilderness Town, Allen also told Elrond and Cirdan about the predicament he was facing; if the two elders had any thoughts of providing help, they should have shown some sign, but Allen had not received even a trace of a response; facing such a situation, Allen no longer counted on help from the Elves.

And the army he himself could currently muster should be nearly five thousand men, of which 1,400 were veterans who had followed him in battle for many years and had already transitioned into professional soldiers; their equipment was quite fine, and their combat experience was very rich; at this time, they were guarding the safety of the territory at key locations in Rhovanion; a very small portion of them had become Knight apprentices, and this missing portion had been filled by members of the previous reserve team.

The other three thousand were conscripts recruited after Allen adjusted the military service system more than a year ago; the combat effectiveness of these people was not very high, and although they had been equipped with weapons like Spears and Short Swords, the rate of wearing armor was very low; even for the lowest-level Leather Armor, only about one-third of them possessed it; Allen's income from the Simulator over the past two years, apart from some necessary expenses, had almost all been invested in them; even if a set of armor for them only cost a few hundred Dinar, three thousand people meant a terrifying hundreds of thousands or even millions.

Such a huge sum, even though Allen now had a stable income of Dinar, could not be raised in the short term; this was the concrete manifestation of an insufficient foundation; Allen was still considered lucky, as he could buy directly from the Simulator; if he really relied on craftsmen to make them, then who knew how long it would take for three thousand sets of armor to be completed, and even if there were enough craftsmen, obtaining raw materials was also an extremely troublesome matter.

However, fortunately, the development on the Calradia continent was going quite well; according to his cheap old man, after the Swadian civil war ended, Dilinade would become King with the support of his clansmen and would definitely settle in Praven in the future; as a royal city, it was quite good, with vast land around it and a decent seaport; you only need to look at the fact that there was a standing cavalry regiment of five hundred men under Harlaus to know how wealthy it was, knowing that the wages of these Swadian Heavy Cavalry and Swadian Knights were ridiculously high.

And to compensate Allen's cheap older brother Rafad, Uxhal would become his territory, while Allen would get control of Sunor; as for other villages and territories like Wincode Castle, they would be rewarded to other members of the family.

If Allen could get Sunor as his territory, then his monthly income in the future would likely increase to tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of Dinar; in a year, just equipment like Chain Mail could be bought by the hundreds, and after becoming King in the future, his income would be even higher.

It was just that what Allen found absurd was that after he activated the Simulator, the time spent on the Calradia continent would not increase the Dinar in his little treasury; otherwise, he could have exploited this bug to the extreme and obtained a large amount of wealth in a short time.

However, even so, Allen continued to activate the Simulator in the time that followed to push the development of the Calradia continent, hoping to obtain Sunor as his fief as soon as possible; finally, in the Heat Month, that is, in August of the year 2944 of the Third Age, he finally got his wish.

And the good news was not just this one; the Dúnedain also finally sent a letter at this time, stating in the letter that Lady Gilraen would come to Rhovanion to visit Allen before October.