Chapter 151: Transaction Completed, Gandalf's Visit

Ever since the Kingdom of Arnor was destroyed by the Witch-realm of Angmar, for nearly a thousand years, the remaining descendants of Arnor have lived in extreme seclusion, rarely revealing their identities in public. Even when they needed to trade with the inhabitants of the Shire or Bree, they mostly appeared before people as wanderers.

Tracing the specific reason for this, it is because they fear that the enemies of their ancestors would hunt down and exterminate this last remaining bloodline.

The great enemy of Isildur was, naturally, the Dark Lord Sauron. In the War of the Last Alliance, facing the siege of the alliance of Elves and Men, Sauron had no choice but to step out of Barad-dur, hoping to break the siege and reverse his side's decline. His participation in the battle did indeed deal a heavy blow to the alliance of Elves and Men; upon appearing, he personally slew two High Kings of the alliance.

Gil-galad, the High King of the Noldor, and Elendil, the High King of the Men of Numenor, both fell in this battle. Furthermore, Sauron also trampled and broke Elendil's sword, Narsil.

Originally, at this point, the outcome of the war was already obvious, but it was at this extremely critical moment that Isildur used the broken blade of Narsil at his side to cut off the finger on which Sauron wore the One Ring. Without the One Ring, Sauron suffered a heavy blow in an instant and exploded on the spot, and Isildur became the most brilliant hero of this campaign.

It is easy to imagine how much Sauron, having suffered such humiliation, hated Isildur and his descendants. Gondor has been locked in a bitter struggle with him for two thousand years. If he were to learn that there was still a surviving bloodline of the Kingdom of Arnor, he would likely dispatch his capable subordinates to wipe out all these Dunedain.

The Dunedain who are now in hiding also know this, so their daily movements are very secretive. Even Lady Gilraen, who now holds the authority of the Chieftain, brought only a dozen or so subordinates when she came to Wilderness Town, and they were disguised as a small merchant caravan.

Allen, of course, also knows the habits of the Dunedain, so he did not welcome Lady Gilraen's visit with great fanfare. Instead, he was very careful, waiting until the third day after the Dunedain arrived in Wilderness Town to send his personal attendant to invite the guests to visit his residence.

After all, Wilderness Town is currently a place where all sorts of people are mixed together; no one knows who might be associated with the forces fallen to darkness. Necessary caution should still be maintained.

This was not the first time Gilraen had seen Allen. Looking at this "young man" who was a few years older than her, saying, "My Lady, welcome to my domain, please sit," she suddenly felt a sense of disorientation.

Initially, through the introduction of Lord Elrond, Gilraen had thought Allen was merely a Numenorean living in exile whose situation was not too bad. At the time, she was even wondering whether to discuss with the elders of the clan about accepting Allen back into the fold, so he would not be wandering alone.

Yet, when they met again, Allen had transformed into a King of Men with a force of tens of thousands, and he had even retrieved the treasure belonging to the Kingdom of Arnor, the "Star of Earendil," from the renowned Saruman. This gave Lady Gilraen a sense of unreality.

"Thank you for your warm hospitality, King Allen." After struggling to dispel the strange thoughts in her mind, Gilraen responded to Allen's greeting with a bit of restraint, then sat down opposite the wooden table, with two solemn-looking Dunedain Rangers standing behind her.

"There is no need to be so restrained, my Lady. We have known each other for quite a long time. Did Estel not come? How is he doing lately?"

Allen saw that Gilraen was somewhat restrained, so he chose not to discuss business at the very beginning, but instead spoke to express concern for the young Aragorn. He should be thirteen years old now, right? There should still be seven years until he truly comes of age.

"Thank you for your concern. Estel did not come along. You know, he is not yet suited to participate in these matters. However, he misses you very much and has always hoped that you could find time to visit him in Rivendell."

Speaking of her son, Allen noticed a hint of pride on Gilraen's face. It is easy to imagine that Aragorn must have grown up quite well under his mother's education.

As for the words about missing him, Allen felt more that it was a polite gesture; after all, he and Aragorn had only met once.

This topic ended there, and the scene fell into a slightly awkward state. In the end, it was Allen who spoke first.

"My Lady, Abinas should have already conveyed my thoughts to you. So, to return the item to its rightful owner, please take this back."

After saying this, Allen waved his hand, and his maid Alice brought the wooden box containing the Star of Earendil to Gilraen.

Looking at the box before her, Lady Gilraen's expression became more serious, and she said: "I have already learned of your thoughts and have also communicated this matter with most of the clansmen. Our final decision is to dispatch five hundred warriors to participate in your war. It really took some time to settle this matter, and I have kept you waiting for a long time. I hope you do not think it is too few; this is already our limit."

Hearing that he could obtain five hundred experienced warriors, Allen was still quite surprised. He had not expected the Dunedain to be able to provide so much strength.

"Then what is the cost of hiring them?"

Upon hearing Allen's words, Gilraen shook her head and said: "No, you do not need to pay any extra price for this. Compared to the Star of Earendil, what we have paid is far from enough. However, I want to explain to you that these people will not come to Wilderness Town immediately. They will arrive in batches starting from October, and they will likely all be here by September of next year. You also know that we cannot launch large-scale operations during this period. Please understand, and I hope you will take good care of them during this time. Also..."

Speaking to this point, Gilraen's face seemed a bit embarrassed.

"Of these five hundred people, only three hundred are experienced warriors. They have full sets of weapons and equipment. The other two hundred are those we have rescued from the Orcs over the years. They do not know our identity, but they have been assisting us in maintaining peace in Eriador. Their status is only that of auxiliary troops, and I hope you will not send them to places that are too dangerous. By the way, Abinas will assist you in managing them."

"No problem, I will arrange all of this. Thank you again for your help." Allen nodded with a smile, indicating that he understood.

"You are too kind, King Allen. As fellow blood of Numenor, we should naturally help each other. Moreover, you have returned such an important treasure to us; this 'thank you' should be said by me instead."

Seeing that Allen did not have any displeased expression, Gilraen felt relieved and immediately rose to take her leave.

"King Allen, if there is nothing else, then please allow me to depart. I have been out for a bit too long this time."

Allen knew that Gilraen still needed to look after the thirteen-year-old Aragorn, so he had no intention of asking her to stay. He said: "Then have a safe journey, my Lady. If there is anything you need help with in the future, please do not hesitate to speak up. I will do my utmost to provide assistance."

"Thank you." Gilraen nodded, turned around, and left Allen's residence with the two Rangers.

Five hundred warriors was indeed the limit for the Dunedain. This was only possible because after the Battle of the Lonely Mountain, the Orcs of the Misty Mountains and Mount Gundabad had entered a state of dormancy, and even the dark minions of the Angmar Mountains and the Ettenmoors had slunk away and hidden themselves, having not come out to cause trouble for many years. Otherwise, they would never have been able to scrape together so many soldiers.

Compared to Allen's situation, the Dunedain were actually the group that needed help more. Rebuilding the Kingdom of Arnor was the consensus of all the Dunedain, but their strength at this time was too weak. It was impossible for them to rashly raise the flag of the Kingdom of Arnor in Eriador, but they had never given up on this idea.

The elders of the Dunedain were willing to do their utmost to help Allen at this moment, not only to exchange for their own "Star of Earendil" but also with the intention of building a good relationship with Allen, so that they could obtain more help when they had the opportunity to rebuild the kingdom in the future.

This point coincided with Allen's thoughts. His making contact with the Dunedain this time was also in the hope of being able to provide them with some help in the future, allowing the strength of the Dunedain to recover somewhat, so that they could provide a certain amount of power to resist Sauron's attack in the War of the Ring decades later, and not let Gondor face all of this alone.

However, in the dead of night, Allen would always think about whether he could prevent the arrival of the War of the Ring, and if he could buy more development time for the forces of the Free Peoples. But the key to this was Gollum, that poor Hobbit, because it was from Gollum that Sauron obtained Bilbo's identity, thereby starting the total war.

The moment Allen saw Gollum in Orc Town, the only thing that instantly came to his mind was the scene of two Hobbits struggling at Mount Doom. He always felt that Gollum would play a huge role in the days to come, so he let this poor fellow go.

In fact, Allen, who thought of this later, had personally gone to Stier Mining Town to search for Gollum's traces, but found nothing. Clearly, the Hobbit who had lost the Ring had already left this place. According to Gollum's habits, he would definitely not appear in front of crowds, and ordinary people would not be able to sense his existence at all.

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Having lost his target, Allen could only temporarily abandon this idea. Then he thought, how could the other forces of the Free Peoples compete with the Dark Lord Sauron in terms of development speed? Orcs seemed to have fallen from the sky, and only he, who possessed the Simulator, could conjure up warriors with combat effectiveness out of thin air, as well as the weapons and equipment to arm them. If he could catch Gollum, that would naturally be good; if he couldn't, he still needed to work harder himself.

Just as Allen was busily making preparations to launch an attack on the Easterlings, his old friend, the Grey Wizard Gandalf, ran to Wilderness Town. He was not specifically looking for Allen, but was going to the Woodland Realm to find Thranduil. He hoped that the Woodland Realm, which still possessed powerful strength, could send some Elf troops to help Gondor, which was facing a crisis. As a result, he was rejected by Thranduil on the grounds that the Easterlings were right at their doorstep. Not only the Woodland Realm, but Lothlorien also rejected Gandalf's request for aid; the threat lurking in the depths of Moria was still the matter Lady Galadriel was most concerned about.

Next, Gandalf prepared to go to Rivendell to seek the help of the Lord of the Golden Flower, Glorfindel. At the very least, this powerful Light Elf could suppress Sauron's servants on the battlefield; their aura of fear was too great a blow to the morale of the Gondor army. However, Glorfindel was not always staying in Rivendell, and Allen could only wish him good luck.

When the two were chatting, Gandalf mentioned that he had seen a strange figure in Mirkwood. That person seemed to have been eroded by darkness for a long time and had turned into an ugly monster. However, Gandalf did not feel the aura of dark minions on him, and at the same time, he was worried about the war in Gondor, so he did not pay attention to this strange creature at the time.

As soon as Allen heard this, he knew that Gollum must have been summoned by Mordor and had headed east. There, he should meet Shelob, the Great Spider. Decades later, he would even be captured by Sauron, thereby revealing Bilbo's whereabouts. At this point, Allen also knew that his idea of wanting to delay the War of the Ring had failed. In the vast Rhovanion, it was too difficult to find a tiny Gollum. Without the guidance of fate, even Desaiwei, who had maxed-out scouting and guiding skills, could not do this. At this time, the time left for Allen was just those few decades.

However, Allen did not show any of this in front of Gandalf. He asked Gandalf if he needed his help. Gandalf shook his head, but instead mentioned that if Allen had any thoughts of defeating the Easterlings in the near future, he should launch it as soon as possible, because Sauron's attention at this time was entirely focused on Anorien. The Cavalry of Rohan and the soldiers of Gondor had been maneuvering there with the Orc armies for nearly half a year, and both sides had suffered heavy losses.

Although the power of the Ringwraiths was very strong, there were always many fearless warriors among Humans who could regroup under the harassment of the Ringwraiths. Gandalf helped a lot in this; although he arrived a little late, he also defeated several Ringwraiths in battle, making them return to their master's side, greatly reducing the pressure on the Human side.

And the reason he was able to get away to come to Rhovanion to seek aid was also because Saruman in Orthanc, after several requests for aid from Gondor, had personally come to the front line to help. With his help, the soldiers of Gondor and Rohan could finally engage in battle with Mordor head-on.

Hearing such news, Allen was full of surprise. He would never have thought that Saruman would extend a helping hand to Gondor at this time. This did not quite fit the persona of the White Wizard at this moment.

In fact, Saruman was also full of helplessness. At this moment, he was an ally of Gondor in every sense. Facing the request for aid from the Steward of Gondor, Turgon, he simply could not refuse. Once he publicly refused, if the Council of Gondor wanted to take back Orthanc after the war, he would have no power to defend his base at this time. Therefore, the wise White Wizard had to stop his research, walk out of the tower, and rush to the battlefield with the Dunlendings he had won over in recent times.

Although the Dunlendings were extremely unwilling to work with the Rohirrim, Saruman paid too much. In addition to a large amount of money, the White Wizard even promised to take out a part of the land of Isengard for them to graze and farm. For them, who were poor, the reward was too generous to refuse.

Saruman could be considered to have paid a great price to maintain his face and pride.

And Allen, who could not figure all this out, always felt that "fate" was playing with everyone, and he himself could only try his best to deal with the upcoming war.