Chapter 77: Some of Allen's Conjectures

In deep winter, the season when all things wither, the first snow of the Lonely Mountain had already begun to drift in the sky when Allen left Dale.

Because the Misty Mountains and the Grey Mountains blocked most of the incoming cold air, the temperature in the Anduin Valley was much better than that of the Lonely Mountain.

Even in December, approaching the New Year, the river flowed ceaselessly, though the current was far less abundant than in the warmer seasons.

During this period when the grass was withered and yellow, Allen took most of his army and the wealth gifted to him by Thorin along the road, returning to Wilderness Town.

By the time he led the army back to the east gate of Wilderness Town, it was already the afternoon of December 3rd.

In fact, Allen did not bring back all the wealth, only a small portion of it.

It was less than a third, yet even so, it had already emptied the containers available at the Lonely Mountain.

Yamila, who was waiting for Allen outside the town, looked at the piles of crates and bags and felt somewhat troubled.

She knew what was inside, but up to now, Wilderness Town did not have a place to store gold and treasures, so they could only be placed in the storehouse for the time being.

Later, Allen would also arrange for Alayen to lead heavy guards to watch the warehouse to prevent any untoward incidents.

However, this situation would not last long; having learned the specific situation from Alayen, Yamila had already arranged for Tier to begin designing a treasury, as Dwarves were very skilled in this regard.

Meanwhile, another engineer of Wilderness Town had already led a portion of the soldiers to Dale; with the Lonely Mountain now covered in ice and snow, the old man Artimenner might have to suffer a bit.

Since there was only one good road from Wilderness Town to the Lonely Mountain, the teams of Allen and Artimenner inevitably met while in the Woodland Realm.

Regarding the construction of Dale, Allen spoke with Artimenner personally.

Allen mainly instructed Artimenner that he only needed to observe and record more in Dale, did not need to be responsible for specific work, and should not point fingers at the arrangements made by Bard.

He only needed to act as a pair of eyes for Allen.

At the beginning, Allen had not considered arranging for Artimenner to be by Bard's side.

Allen trusted Bard's character; after giving those treasures to Bard, Allen believed that Bard could do a good job of rebuilding both Dale and Long Lake Town.

It was just that with the end of the war, a large number of merchants and laborers flooded into Dale, and with them came a large number of affairs that needed to be handled.

Thus, in this situation, Bard's familiar friends naturally became his subordinates, beginning to serve the new Lord of Dale.

Facing this result, Allen thought about it carefully again and felt that he could not do that; after all, he was not Bilbo Baggins, he was an individual entity.

Bilbo could throw money at Bard, then turn around and leave, returning to Bag End in the Shire to live his own little life; he only needed to be responsible for himself.

Allen was a lord who needed to consider problems from all aspects; at the very least, he should arrange for someone to be on-site to keep watch and express his own stance.

To let Bard and his subordinates know that there was still a king above them, and they could not do whatever they pleased.

So Allen sent Artimenner.

On the other hand, Allen felt that Bard and Yamila were different.

Through these years of observation, Allen had also vaguely summarized some patterns of the Simulator.

The subordinates who followed Allen to Middle-earth at the beginning, as well as the soldiers and subjects he summoned later.

As long as Allen could ensure they had a decent life, did not force or exploit them, and always led them to win battles.

Then these people would be far more obedient in their daily lives than the Woodland Residents; they would not have any resistance to the orders issued by Allen, and as long as it did not affect their direct interests, they would do whatever they were told—even if taxes were raised, they were more cooperative than the Woodland Residents.

And on the battlefield, the morale of these warriors was far higher than that of the Woodland Residents, and extremely stable; facing enemies several times their number, they dared to step forward and fight to the death.

As for the few main subordinates close to Allen, besides being influenced by this morale.

There should also be an invisible favorability bonus; because there were not many people or events to refer to, Allen had not yet fully grasped the laws of favorability.

But Allen knew that with his current state, he did not need to worry about their loyalty.

Actually, Allen also trusted Bard's loyalty, but he still had to put on a show for Bard and his subordinates to see, so as not to let them think he was a generous person who could be bullied.

Allen could not say he was skilled or unskilled at these power struggles; he just particularly liked to ponder them.

And he particularly liked to ponder his subordinates, often thinking about what they cared about, what they wanted, and how to make them obedient.

For example, Alayen; Allen knew that this young man was already quite satisfied as long as he was by his side before.

Now, he was full of thoughts about following him to build a career, especially after fighting this battle; Alayen was full of enthusiasm for military affairs and war.

This could be considered a good phenomenon; after all, Middle-earth did not lack war, and even at this stage, some friction was unavoidable.

Allen planned to wait until Fatis went to Long Lake Town to serve as Governor, then try to let Alayen be his deputy.

Allen still had some confidence in whether Fatis would be willing to accept the arrangement and go to Long Lake Town.

Allen knew Fatis would not refuse; this noble youth, not yet thirty, was not without desire for power, but he had his own code of conduct, and his bottom line was quite high.

Now Fatis was committed to Allen, believing that his journey of redemption lay with his lord and friend, so he would not refuse Allen's orders.

Allen also knew that as long as he upheld his consistent philosophy of conduct, he would never need to worry about the issue of Fatis's loyalty.

Of course, there were many people in Allen's little notebook.

For example, there was Desaiwei, who was dutiful and responsible and wanted a comfortable life;

Cress, who was fun-loving and liked to make friends;

Artimenner, who was pragmatic, fame-seeking, and possessed extremely strong professional knowledge;

James, who was keen on research and was righteous and kind;

And Yamila, who dreamed of becoming a warrior but was now heading toward the position of Hand of the King.

These people were all important subordinates of Allen, assisting him in managing all the affairs of Wilderness Town.

Therefore, only by fully understanding them could he arrange more suitable work and platforms for them, and give them rewards that were very much to their liking.

Only in this way could he ensure that their favorability would only rise and not fall, and that morale would always be maintained at a high or excellent state.