Chapter 247: The Curtain Falls

"I... I don't know why things turned out this way. I thought they were just some ordinary ornaments. To keep this business afloat, I haven't even raised the prices for such a long time. Who could have known that these fellows were from the dark lands of the East? I... I..."

Allen looked at Tiehaer, who was trying to explain but couldn't make anything clear, and waved his hand with unusual decisiveness, cutting off the dwarf who wanted to continue speaking.

"You and your kin are not to leave Fislate until you have my permission. However, you may write a letter to Thorin, telling him everything that happened here and the role you played in it. At the same time, I will also send a letter to the Lonely Mountain. Rest for now."

Allen calmly decided on Tiehaer's immediate arrangements and gave Manid a look, signaling him to take the dwarf away.

Afterward, even though there was a vast disparity in physical strength, Tiehaer was still dragged away by Manid, extremely unwilling.

Perhaps he also knew that no matter how much he said, it would not be of the slightest use in resolving the headache-inducing situation before him.

Allen did not implement punishment immediately because he had sufficient confidence that Tiehaer was merely a pawn in the entire religious incident.

If this dwarf were truly a dark believer, he would never have stood there with his mouth agape in shock, watching the duel end without knowing to flee.

Anyone with even a shred of intelligence should know that the outcome of staying behind would certainly not be good.

Even if he were truly so stupid that he didn't know to flee, he should have found a weapon to help his "Great Emperor" gain an advantage on the field; Sauron's personality certainly wouldn't tolerate such inaction.

Therefore, the act of standing there blankly watching for the entire night was enough to prove Tiehaer's innocence. After all, in this day and age, relying on the limited acting talent of dwarves, one truly couldn't pull off high-difficulty operations like deep-cover infiltration.

There was a sense of innocence to Tiehaer, because in the enemy's calculations, even if they hadn't chosen him, it would have been someone like Yinhaer or Jinhaer. Ultimately, it came down to the limitations of this era, which made precise prevention and control impossible.

And the enemy was so cunning; this tiny ornament merely stirred up people's greed and would not cause the citizens to exhibit any abnormal behavior in the short term.

As for the proselytizing that followed, that was even more precisely targeted, using the relatively sophisticated method of "to take, one must first give."

Allen's young personal guard had once said himself that the proselytizer promised his mother that believing in the darkness would surely bring wealth.

As a result, on a morning shortly thereafter, a small piece of glittering gold "coincidentally" appeared on the street near his home and was "coincidentally" picked up by his mother.

Things like this, not to mention in this region where the general literacy rate was not high, would deceive many people into trusting them even in other places.

And Sauron had played this set of tricks to death in the past. When he was in Eregion fooling the Elves, he taught those craftsmen how to forge the Rings of Power, and as a result, Eregion ceased to exist.

When he served as the Royal Advisor in Numenor, he relied on his own strength to raise the national power of the entire island, and then the whole island ceased to exist.

If Allen hadn't pierced this vicious, hidden abscess the moment he grasped the information,

then given time, most of the humans in Rhovanion would likely have fallen into darkness, and all the fruits of Allen's hard work in construction might have been plucked away by one of Sauron's subordinates.

But now, things finally had a result that was barely acceptable.

Actually, according to Allen's original plan, he thought that as long as he gathered the bewitched citizens together and then summoned a heavy rain capable of suppressing the dark power, collecting and destroying those ornaments would be the end of it.

If there were truly any die-hard believers, at most he would just throw them into Sidier Mining Town to dig for ore. Given his reputation in Fislate, there wouldn't be too many such people.

It was just that he never expected things to be this troublesome. After an exhausting and extremely dangerous battle, there was still the possibility of paying the price of over six hundred citizens' lives. This cost was truly a bit too high for Allen.

He could only hope that James's ideas would have a good result. After all, his old friend was able to perform brain surgery back in the ignorant era of Calradia, and he even knew how to provide anti-inflammatory treatment for patients.

As for Tiehaer, who played a role in fanning the flames throughout the event, Allen did not intend to let him off so lightly.

Even if, from the bottom of his heart, Allen determined that Tiehaer was innocent, a mistake was a mistake. Even if only to give all the residents an explanation, he had to take certain punitive measures to reflect the clear rewards and punishments of himself and the Cabinet.

It was just that Allen didn't have any particularly good ideas in the short term. After all, Tiehaer was neither his own subordinate nor a human.

Therefore, Allen intended to throw this difficult problem to Thorin to see what compensation plan the current King under the Mountain could come up with. If he wasn't satisfied, he would just haggle. He would keep Tiehaer and his kin in his territory to forge iron, and only when he was satisfied would he let them return.

In any case, Allen was currently short of blacksmiths, especially for exquisite plate armor, but there was no rush for this; he could chat with Thorin slowly.

As for the most urgent matter at hand, it was still to arrange for officials to briefly explain this crisis to the citizens. If he let this matter ferment freely among the populace, heaven knows what it would turn into in the end. Moreover, Allen, Gandalf, and Sauron had caused quite a stir during their duel.

With clouds, lightning, fire, and light, it was inherently a topic of great discussion.

Then there was the collection and destruction of the remaining black gemstone ornaments in Rhovanion; this matter was not complicated.

Allen felt that as long as he detailed the dangers of the ornaments, offered a bounty higher than the price of the ornaments, and guaranteed no prosecution, he should be able to recover the vast majority.

As for the tiny remaining portion, Allen could completely use his abilities to ferret them out bit by bit. He still had time for that, and he wouldn't mind a few more people going to the Misty Mountains to dig for ore.

The next day, after Fislate had survived a thrilling and exciting night, a light drizzle began to fall from the sky. A large number of messengers carrying proclamations left Winterburg, preparing to send the King's orders to all the villages, towns, and checkpoints in Rhovanion.

Allen, after waking up, went to the overcrowded hospital at the first opportunity. He wanted to check on the progress of James's experiments and, incidentally, understand whether the patients' conditions were stable.

Amidst a pile of bottles and jars, James was holding a transparent test tube with an excited look on his face, muttering to himself about something, until he heard the sound of the door being pushed open.

"Didn't I say not to come and disturb me? How... oh, Allen, come, come, come, look at the results of my research from the whole night."

James held up the pale green potion that was shimmering with a faint golden light, the expression on his face extremely confident.

"I have personally drunk the Elixir of Longevity; its effect is to restore youth to the body to a certain extent and slightly increase physical fitness. I don't know what the formula for this potion is, but I diluted a bottle of the potion last night and fed a small amount to the patients. The effect was immediate; the patients' bodies improved very quickly, as if a damaged water bucket had been repaired, and there was already a possibility of recovering health."

"Of course, repair alone is far from enough. They still need to obtain a great deal of energy in a short period to maintain the complete state of the water bucket. Relying solely on eating is not enough for this point, so I used existing herbs to brew this potion. It contains the vitality they urgently need. A small vial is enough for the patients to persist for a long time. If supplemented with eating, theoretically, they can recover their health within a certain period, and their bodies might even exceed what they were before, hmm, just a little bit."

"Furthermore, do you see this faint golden light? That is the effect of Miruvor. I thought about it and decided to add it at the end of the potion. You must know that people's mental state often changes along with their physical condition. Right now, the physical state of these patients is very poor, which has also led to their poor mental state. Many of them have no desire to live at all, intent only on dying to avoid being a burden to their families. The effect of Miruvor can greatly improve this; the sense of happiness produced after drinking it can provide people with hope and vitality. At this time, the medicinal power can also be fully absorbed within the body. I have to say, this is a magnificent liquid; it has surpassed all fine wines. Even the alcohol you brought cannot compare to it."

As the medical and research personnel, James chattered on about his results from the night. Allen listened to his old friend's ideas from the side, and his tense face relaxed a little.

Even though he had full confidence in James, there was an old saying in Allen's hometown: "Better safe than sorry." If James's method didn't work, Allen would have to find Elves who were better at treating injuries and illnesses to think of a way.

He couldn't just stand by and watch hundreds of people die.

It was just that the location of Lothlorien was too far away; a round trip would take at least two months. Some patients simply couldn't wait that long. Since James's method worked, Allen naturally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Since it works, then go ahead and do it. I will give you the greatest support." Allen looked at James, whose eyes were a bit dark, and said with some concern: "You also need to pay attention to rest. Right now, those hundreds of patients are waiting for you to treat them. If even you collapse, they will have no hope left."

Unfortunately, James automatically ignored Allen's words of concern.

"The greatest support? Then provide a few more bottles of the Elixir of Longevity. Also, go and urge Beorn; the production of Miruvor is really too low. For this kind of medicine that is beneficial to the spirit, the reserve in the hospital is really too small. This is not conducive to my research. Oh, no, no, no, it has a great impact on the recovery of the patients. Alright, I won't see you off. I have to go and verify the effect of the potion to see if the formula needs to be adjusted."

James, whose eyes were shining, didn't give Allen a chance to speak after stating his needs. He turned and left the potion room, which was full of transparent glass, and walked quickly toward the hospital ward.

Allen could only shake his head with a bitter smile. Both of these things were fundamentally difficult to obtain. That Miruvor could appear as a finished product in such a short time could already be said to be Beorn's greatest effort.

As for the Elixir of Longevity, that would have to wait for those scholars obsessed with magic to refine the potion. Allen didn't have much stock left. Over the years, as rewards, Allen had given out quite a lot to his subordinates; roughly counting, there must have been more than a dozen bottles.

In Winterburg, on the desk in the King's study, there was a pile of black powder, a gold ring with an exquisite design inlaid with a circle of rubies, a golden battle axe, and a somewhat twisted golden circlet.

Besides these, in the castle square, there were also several opened wooden crates containing ingots of copper and carved black gemstones.

These were all the decent spoils Holimion had in the cave. As for those broken corpses, dirty and tattered clothes, and the furnaces that couldn't be moved, they had already been buried by cartload after cartload of slag.

That kind of secret place absolutely could not be left around the city, especially a place that the Great Eye already knew about. If Sauron found time to build it into a stronghold like Dol Guldur, then it would be impossible to deal with in the short term.

Bury it, it absolutely had to be buried at the first opportunity.

In the study, a young King and an old Wizard were sitting opposite each other, drinking black tea with milk, honey, and a little bit of fruit wine added. This was a brewing method that had spread from the Shire; nobody knew which Hobbit obsessed with eating and drinking had invented it, but it was now very popular.

Gandalf, blowing a smoke ring, had a serious expression on his face, his grey-white beard trembling slightly.

"In any case, I need to take that ring away. If it stays here, it will bring disaster to you and your people. That is the enemy's sharpest weapon; he will certainly stop at nothing to take it back."

After only a simple verification, Gandalf determined that the ruby ring was one of the "Seven Rings of the Dwarves," the main ring of the Rings of Power, and by no means one of those inferior products that were easily obtained, such as the one currently in the Shire.

"No, this ring might be of some use to me. Simply put, I need it to help me overcome a difficult hurdle."

Allen, who was also blowing clouds and puffing smoke, very rarely refused Gandalf's request. His words were not an excuse; in the process of learning Rune Magic, Allen had indeed encountered some difficulties.

According to what Allen knew, the Rings of Power could enhance the abilities of Dwarves. He wanted to test which aspect of ability it was. If it was in the aspect of craftsmanship, then it would likely bring him help. Even if it wasn't, it was still an ability related to wealth. Allen intended to keep this ring.

The Qi within Allen's body had the effect of offsetting the side effects of the ring. As long as it was used properly, he could completely "freeload" off Sauron's ring. Why not do it? ===== CHAPTER 248 =====