Chapter 83: Mordor

Once the Anduin Valley enters the Frost Moon, the temperature drops day by day; as the final month of each year, this situation generally continues until after the New Year, when the temperature finally improves.

Today, the Maia Arien seems absent-minded, piloting the ship that carries the sun, dodging and weaving through the clouds.

Lacking the sun's rays, the temperature in Wilderness Town is far lower than in days past, and under normal circumstances, most people are not very willing to step out of their homes.

But now, the town of Wilderness Town is filled with busy crowds everywhere, forming a lively scene amidst the biting cold wind.

Because the annual New Year's banquet is to be held in a few days.

Yamila, who is primarily responsible for this matter, issued the order to prepare for the New Year's banquet in the name of the Cabinet several days ago.

Under the call of the Lord's order, a large number of villagers eagerly signed up and began assisting the officials under the Cabinet in making various preparations for the start of the banquet.

In the cold wind, they wear thick clothes, their faces brimming with enthusiastic smiles, cooperating with each other to set up a large number of tents around the venue.

From time to time, people drive horse-drawn or ox-drawn carts, bringing large amounts of firewood from outside the town to pile into the brick-built bonfires.

Judging from the work enthusiasm of these subjects and the expressions on their faces, their moods are quite good.

It is hard to say whether this good mood is for the reward Allen gave, or for the upcoming revelry.

It must have started the year before last; on the day of the New Year's banquet, the residents of Wilderness Town would all wear their best clothes to attend the banquet held by the Lord.

Some talented residents would even set up a performance stage at the banquet site, performing programs they organized themselves under the illumination of the rising bonfires, making the banquet appear even more lively.

This year, because the Lord of Wilderness Town has a fuller purse, in order to reward this positive attitude, he has even taken out some silver coins, preparing to award them to those residents who prepared their performances with care.

From these various signs, it can be seen that the liveliness of this year's banquet will reach a new level.

And what makes the residents even happier is that on this day, their Lord will treat all the subjects attending the banquet to a meal; such opportunities are rare, generally occurring only once a year.

Although mellow wine cannot be drunk freely under the Lord's regulations, delicious food can be eaten to one's heart's content.

As long as you like it, as long as you do not waste it, and as long as it is available at the banquet, you can eat whatever you want and for as long as you want, right up until midnight when the banquet ends.

In previous years, the food prepared by Allen was never meager; beef, mutton, venison, and fish—all kinds of meat could be eaten openly, and food cooked by various methods like pan-frying, roasting, stewing, and boiling could be chosen at will by the subjects attending the banquet.

This year's banquet might even have many different flavors, such as dried meat, sausages, and delicacies from the Hobbits of the Shire.

There are also many varieties of staple foods; the chefs will prepare some honey bread, meat pies, steamed buns, and so on, but these staple foods might not be particularly liked by the residents, so they will just prepare a little less, otherwise they would have to distribute them door-to-door after the banquet.

The dazzling array of delicacies Allen prepared at the banquet is simply a rare treat for the townspeople of Wilderness Town who have just struggled above the subsistence line; most residents understand that this is the Lord's kindness and mercy.

And what is different this year is that the banquet for the great victory in the Battle of the Lonely Mountain is to be held together with the New Year's banquet.

Allen's plan is to hold it from noon until night, which for most people in Wilderness Town is simply double the happiness.

Originally, Allen intended to distribute medals to the soldiers who participated in the battle, or to the families of fallen soldiers, during the afternoon of the banquet day, holding a ceremony in front of all the townspeople to increase the soldiers' sense of honor and loyalty.

But the Dwarves are too rigorous regarding gold-carved ornaments; according to Fulei's own words, "Things that go out from our Dwarves' hands must all be masterpieces."

The result was that when Allen asked how much time it would take, the reply Fulei gave was that it would take at least until next summer.

So this matter could only be temporarily shelved, but the medals must certainly be issued, so Allen ordered Fatis to arrange for all officers to issue relevant notifications to the soldiers, and once the medals are made, a ceremony will be held to award them.

"Lads, speed it up! Lord Allen has already given instructions; as long as the venue is set up, pick a warm day and the banquet can begin."

"Good!"

"!"

Following the officers' shouts, there was a loud response from below; these were the soldiers who had already returned from Mirkwood.

Their operation this time did not discover any abnormal situations in Mirkwood, and Allen, upon receiving the news, felt somewhat at ease.

And after these soldiers returned, they immediately participated in the work of setting up the venue under the leadership of the officers.

With their help, the speed of setting up the venue was greatly accelerated; it might not take two days before it is completely finished, and then it will be time for revelry.

And in the far southeast of Wilderness Town, there is also a place that is very busy; it is the land of darkness wrapped by the Ash Mountains and the Shadow Mountains.

This is Mordor, the base camp painstakingly managed by the Dark Lord Sauron; the sky here is filled with rolling dark clouds all year round, an evil land where even the sun cannot shine in.

The northwest of this place is an extremely desolate plain, which is known by people as Gorgoroth.

In this plain, there is smoke everywhere, a desert full of ash; because the sun is never seen all year round, it is extremely difficult to see any beautiful life here, apart from pitch-black stones and gravel visible everywhere.

However, this place that makes good people fearful is inhabited by a large number of Orcish, who have built large areas of dilapidated houses here.

They are either tents made of various fabrics, or simple outposts built of wood or stone; these various, crisscrossing houses combine into one ugly Orcish gathering point after another.

And those countless gray-black Orcish live as if they were fish in water in this environment without sun and with foul air.

Truly worthy of being the minions of the Dark Lord, and truly worthy of being the life forms specifically modified by Morgoth to destroy beautiful things.

And the Ash Mountains and Shadow Mountains surrounding Mordor have very high terrain, which protects this evil land very well.

If anyone wants to dispatch a large army to crusade against the Dark Lord Sauron, who has threatened Middle-earth for two ages, then the Udun Valley between these two mountain ranges might be their only choice.

But what makes people despair is that the outer perimeter of the Udun Valley is the Morannon gate, built by Sauron using the power of the One Ring.

It is also often called the Black Gate; it is a huge metal gate, with the sinister and terrifying Teeth of Mordor on both sides.

Sauron's minions patrol it day and night, overlooking the Dead Marshes and the Dagorlad outside the Black Gate.

If one wants to pass through here to attack Sauron's base camp, one must either produce flying units to rely on a surprise attack to seize control of the gate, or be prepared to use the lives of soldiers to fill the enemy to death.

If it is a small number of people, they can also climb all the way through Minas Morgul to Cirith Ungol and enter Mordor from there, which is the route Frodo chose in the movie.

Besides this, the Haradrim in the south and the Rhun in the north hold fast to the two sides of Mordor; as long as one attacks either side, one will very likely be caught in a pincer attack by at least two groups of enemies. It must be said that Sauron has managed this place like an iron bucket.

And the Ash Mountains and Shadow Mountains are covered with snow all year round, making it extremely difficult for ordinary people to pass through; these snows, when it is warm, also turn into snowmelt and flow down the slopes, eventually merging into the Sea of Nurnen.

Of course, if one were to say it is a pitch-black and huge lake, it might be more accurate.

Around this lake is a large area of quite fertile land, which is called Nurn, located in the southern part of Mordor.

Here, a large number of scantily clad, emaciated Human slaves till the land; Sauron uses the vast majority of the food they produce to support the army he has assembled, and what is left for those Human slaves is merely enough to ensure they do not starve to death—or perhaps, what does it matter if some starve to death? Sauron does not care.

Starving to death is actually not the most desperate thing; what is more desperate is that if this world does not change, then the descendants of these Human slaves will also be Sauron's slaves, forever.

And the number of these Human slaves has also been constantly increasing over these years; most of them come from the territory of Gondor.

However, the only thing that gives these Humans some comfort in their despair is that the land of Nurn is one of the few places in Mordor where the sun can be seen.

And nowadays, there are some pitiful Humans who have come to the Gorgoroth plain where even the sun cannot be seen; they have been driven by the Orcish to the end of the long slope of the Ash Mountains, where the old site of Barad-dur is located; it has another name that is more well-known, and that is the Dark Tower, or Sauron's Great Eye.

This is the base camp from which the Dark Lord rules the Mordor region, from where one can overlook the entire Gorgoroth plain and the vast land outside the Black Gate.

At the end of the Second Age, during the Siege of Barad-dûr, after the One Ring was cut from Sauron's hand by a single sword stroke from Isildur, Sauron's form was destroyed, and Barad-dûr was destroyed along with it; however, because the One Ring was not cast into the fires of Doom by Isildur, the foundations of Barad-dûr have remained to this day.

Sauron's loyal servants, those nine Nazgul, have been silently preparing for their master's return for these past few hundred years, and now the time has come.

In fact, Sauron's original body had long since been buried along with the entire island when the Star Island of Numenor sank; only his spirit escaped from the sea at that time.

As for the form Sauron used to kill Gil-galad and Elendil at the end of the Second Age, it was formed by the power of the One Ring, so when the One Ring was just cut off by Isildur, Sauron's spirit could not sustain it and suffered heavy damage.

Now, having returned to Mordor, Sauron urgently needs the power of Barad-dûr to help his spirit maintain a stable form.

It is just that those Human slaves driven here will soon die in such an extremely harsh environment, compounded by the inhumane lashing of the Uruk, and fall into the mouths of certain evil things.

"Snap!" "Snap!" "Snap!"

"Scum, move faster, did you not eat?"

The Uruk overseers, shouting and cursing, wantonly swung the leather whips in their hands, lashing those Human slaves who were working.

And their own kind, those common Orcish whom they mockingly called Snaga, could not escape the fate of being whipped either.

It turned out that in order to speed up the construction, the nine Nazgul had also summoned a considerable number of Snaga to join the Human slaves in building the Tower of Barad-dûr, so as to avoid their master drifting about in the sky like a wisp of black smoke all day long.

At this moment, this wisp of black smoke was darting back and forth violently in the high altitude near Barad-dûr, and shrouded within the black smoke was a Wolf Rider troop reporting the situation to him.

Clearly, only the news of Azog's defeat and death at the Lonely Mountain could make Sauron so agitated.

Waves of gloomy voices accompanied the drifting of the black smoke as they spread to the surroundings from the sky,

"The plan has failed, Azog is already dead; the foolish Humans, the greedy Dwarf, the fragile Elf, they shall all perish."

And as Sauron's thoughts turned, Khamul among the Ringwraiths drove the flying beast beneath him and flew toward the northeast, where the people of Rhun lived.

This Ringwraith would follow his master's orders to go and summon the leader of an Easterling tribe; Khamul knew that soon, the eastern part of Rhovanion would no longer be peaceful.

Allen knew nothing of the movements in Mordor; he was currently sitting opposite Cress, thinking about how to bring it up.

At this moment, Cress, sitting upright, was frantically thinking in her mind whether she had done anything recently that would make Allen angry.

"Could it be that the matter of pranking Artimenner earlier was found out by Allen? That can't be, he should have scolded me long ago if that were the case!"

"Could it be that someone saw me secretly wearing that Necklace of Sister Yamila? That's not right either, I returned it immediately? I remember there was no one around?"

Sitting on the chair, Cress searched through all her recent memories but could not find the reason why she was suddenly summoned alone by Allen.

This special treatment made her feel a tiny bit of fear in her heart.

Having lived a life of hardship since childhood, Cress had actually seen quite a lot of the dark side of human nature; in her early years, the ugly faces of her relatives when they snatched her family's land left a deep impression on her young heart.

As she grew up bit by bit, and even began helping the lord do some shady things, the dark side of human nature she saw became even more and more complex.

At that time, Cress believed that all lords, or rather nobles, were the kind of guys who were glamorous on the surface but filthy and unbearable on the inside.

Fortunately, however, this life of hers did not last long; that day, in the back alley of a tavern in Veluca, she ran into Allen, who was being besieged.

The lord at that time was just the leader of a small Mercenary Group, and his combat power was far from as formidable as it is now.

In the back alley of the tavern, Allen held a gleaming, sharp Curved Blade, entangled with several masked assassins in the snow.

Led by someone with ulterior motives, the clamor inside the tavern even drowned out the sounds of their fierce battle.

Cress, who was passing by, could tell at a glance that the young man being besieged was already unable to hold on much longer, and his life could vanish on this snow-covered ground at any moment.

Originally, according to Cress's personality at the time, she most likely would not have bothered with such meddlesome business.

Allen's attire at the time made it clear at a glance that he was a youth from a noble family; the continent of Calradia was so chaotic that the number of nobles who died in assassinations was countless.

Rescuing a noble youth? Cress had little interest in that.

However, fate clearly had a little arrangement for this young girl; of course, it was also possible that the actions of those few masked assassins were too despicable, touching the sense of justice hidden deep within Cress's heart.

With the help of a few Flying Daggers, Allen quickly finished off the enemies before him; ever since then, Cress had followed by Allen's side, and she was not even 14 years old at the time.

And that top-quality sharp Curved Blade in Allen's hand, as well as that top-quality steed later named "Sapphire," were also given to Cress by Allen as a token of gratitude at the time.

From then on, Cress, following by Allen's side, began a different life.

Under Allen's care and reprimands, the young girl changed a great deal, but years of accumulation also made this daring young girl have lingering fears about Allen's reprimands.

Therefore, whenever Allen summoned her alone, she would feel that she was already on the verge of being scolded.

"Cress, I heard from Beorn that you have mastered the ability to communicate with animals, is that so?"

"Ah? Ah! Yes, Boss, is there something you want me to do?"

Cress's somewhat anxious heart immediately became cheerful again; as long as Allen was not scolding her, anything could be discussed.