Chapter 256: The King's Choice

Mirkwood is also known as the Black Forest; it is the largest forest in the North and also the home of the Silvan Elves.

As the favorites of the Creator God, although most of the Elf race possess an arrogant nature, they are mostly kind-hearted and in a state of absolute hostility toward the dark forces.

Half a month after the tragedy of Lake-town, after a brief consultation, His Majesty King Thranduil of the Woodland Realm temporarily took in the refugees who had survived Lake-town, letting them stay temporarily in the territory of the Woodland Realm, and provided them with the corresponding supplies for living.

Of course, this was not free. Although the Silvan Elves did not raise any request for payment, as the temporary leader of these refugees, Wayne still insisted on paying the corresponding compensation.

As for where this money came from, it was naturally obtained from that Lake-town Mayor who had once preyed on the people and hoarded wealth.

This pot-bellied fellow was not so lucky in this disaster; he and some of his subordinate officials were attacked by Orcs at the very first moment, and before they could even escape, they died under the Orcs' butcher knives.

Thus, the wealth that this Mayor had hoarded throughout his life naturally became ownerless property. After digging this wealth out from the ruins, Wayne did not choose to keep it all for himself; he used it as funds for the Lake-town refugees to rebuild their homes. This move undoubtedly won the gratitude of all the refugees once again.

This afternoon, Wayne was discussing how to rebuild Lake-town with several personnel responsible for management among the Lake-town survivors when the Wood-elf Prince Legolas came looking for him.

This handsome Elf Prince bowed to Wayne very politely and then said: "Mr. Wayne, my father invites you to participate in a meeting tonight. The Grey Wizard Gandalf is preparing to head to Dol Guldur tomorrow. This is the most important consultation before dealing with Smaug."

Wayne nodded upon hearing this, returned the bow to the Elf Prince, and agreed to participate in the evening's consultation.

After his record of rescuing the Lake-town captives was exposed last time, he had gained the favor and admiration of the entire Silvan Elf race. As the Woodland Realm that had been fighting against the Orcs in the Black Forest for thousands of years, there was no one who did not hold extreme hatred for Orcs. Moreover, powerful people are welcomed everywhere; Wayne gladly accepted such goodwill.

After Legolas left, Wayne turned his head to look at the few people gathered around him: the archer Bard, the Guard Captain Jerry, the ship captain and merchant Old William, and the scribe Wingert.

These four were the four with the most outstanding ability and prestige among the Lake-town survivors. After the Orc raid, almost half of the townsfolk had died in this war, and the remaining survivors were mostly the elderly, weak, women, and children. Those who truly dared to resist had all died under the Orcs' butcher knives in the previous confrontation.

Even Bard, whose family was able to survive in the original work, had his wife sacrifice herself to protect the children. Now, only he remained, struggling to survive with a few children.

"Lord Wayne, I wonder how you have considered it?"

The former Guard Captain, now serving as the militia captain of the refugee camp, Jerry, asked somewhat nervously: "After our consultation, we want to nominate you as our King to lead us in rebuilding our homes."

Wayne sighed slightly in his heart upon hearing this. The expression on his face did not change. After exchanging glances with the four, he said somewhat helplessly: "Sorry, regarding this matter, I need to consider it carefully because, not long from now, I will be participating in the operation to hunt the evil dragon Smaug."

"After Smaug is eliminated, I will give you an answer."

Upon hearing Wayne's answer, the four opposite him could not help but reveal expressions of disappointment. After Bard the archer struggled with his expression for a few seconds, he let out a breath and said:

"Lord Wayne, if you are going to hunt Smaug, I have a piece of intelligence here that might be of some use."

Wayne nodded slightly. He had roughly guessed the intelligence the other party was going to tell him. To be honest, regarding whether to accept becoming the King of Lake-town, he was indeed somewhat hesitant.

Currently, Lake-town had a population of about five hundred. Such a force could not be considered powerful, but it did have a certain value. The only pity was that the portal to the Middle-earth world was in the Shire; he could not stay here for a long time to manage this country.

And this place was too far from the Shire; a round trip would take at least two or three months, giving him a feeling that it was tasteless to keep but a pity to discard, which was quite melancholy.

Sure enough, as Bard recounted, the story of how his ancestor, the King of Dale, had once used a Black Arrow to shoot down a dragon scale of Smaug made everyone marvel.

Regarding this news, although Wayne had known it long ago, he still expressed his gratitude. At the very least, this Mr. Bard was not an ungrateful person and had not forgotten his life-saving grace, nor had he concealed anything, which meant he was still worth trusting.

The pity was that the remaining Black Arrow in Bard's old house had also gone missing due to the destruction of Lake-town. If one wanted to find it, it would likely take a fair amount of effort.

After finishing his conversation with the four, Wayne, led by a Wood-elf, entered the palace of the Woodland Realm. Unlike the elegant and artistic architectural style of Rivendell, the architectural style of the Silvan Elves was closer to being magnificent and practical.

Since thousands of years ago, Mirkwood had been suffering from the encroachment of dark forces. The long-term pollution directly turned this forest, once known as the Great Green Forest, into the current Black Forest.

Not only were there spiders, Orcs, twisted creatures, and all sorts of messy monsters breeding here, but even the environment here had undergone tremendous changes due to the distortion of dark forces.

And the territory of the Silvan Elves had also been compressed from the entire forest of the past to a corner of the forest.

This was not due to the low combat effectiveness of the Woodland Realm. Compared to the speed at which Orcs could breed a batch every few years, almost all Elves in the Middle-earth world were immortal.

Long lives also led to their low fertility rate. Even if one Elf could kill ten Orcs, for most Elf forces, the losses from long-term wars were something that no one could bear.

After entering the palace, the others were already waiting there. King Thranduil, whose appearance was as handsome as a work of art, sat on the throne, wearing a magnificent light green robe. Prince Legolas stood at his side, also very handsome.

Prince Thorin and the old Dwarf Balin sat in the seats on his right, while the Grey Wizard Gandalf sat opposite the Dwarves, smoking a pipe, his expression somewhat heavy.

Seeing Wayne enter, everyone nodded slightly to him. After he sat in his seat, Gandalf, the only one who had no conflict of interest with the three parties, stood up, cleared his throat, and said:

"Everyone, since everyone has arrived, let us begin our consultation regarding the relevant matters of dealing with Smaug this time."

Seeing that no one had any objections, he stroked his beard and continued:

"According to the results of our previous consultation, this time in dealing with Smaug, the first strategy we will adopt is the theft strategy."

"The Hobbit Bilbo will sneak into the palace of the Lonely Mountain to find the Arkenstone from the treasures of the Lonely Mountain, ensuring the safety of this treasure."

"If the evil dragon wakes up halfway, then Mr. Wayne will hunt it down, and they will fight inside the Lonely Mountain."

Speaking of this, Gandalf's tone paused slightly, then he said:

"At this step, if the hunt is successful, then the crusade against the evil dragon Smaug will be our victory."

"If Mr. Wayne unfortunately fails the hunt, we must be prepared to deal with Smaug's retaliation."

"According to the intelligence we have obtained, the Orc clans within the Grey Mountains seem to have received some kind of order and are secretly gathering."

"And Prince Thorin has also written to inform the Dwarf Kingdom of the Iron Hills. Not long from now, we will welcome Dwarf reinforcements."

"His Majesty Thranduil is also willing to dispatch troops to deal with the Orcs together."

"We must work together to prevent the alliance between the evil dragon Smaug and the Orcs of the Grey Mountains; we cannot let these two evil forces collude."

"The best case is to concentrate our forces to eliminate one side before the two sides have any contact."

"And regardless of the outcome, His Excellency Prince Thorin will return His Majesty Thranduil's necklace and is also willing to take out a portion of the treasures of the Lonely Mountain as compensation for this operation."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 257 =====