The Lord of the Rings: Lords of Middle-earth.

Chapter 1037 A Casual Reprimand (He's Resurrected)

"It's not like he's the one going. Our Kingdom of Lagrange has territory here..." Roland said speechlessly. How come the Lion King's House is acting like the Yan Kingdom? Everyone thinks he's disappeared because he hasn't shown his face for a long time...

"Aww! Aww! I remember now, it's that..." Thorin remembered that there was a noble family from Lagrang who had provided great assistance in the founding and subsequent expansion of the Kingdom of Moria.

“The King’s House!” Roland said, exasperated. Thorin may be young, but he has a terrible memory! You yourself have dealt with Duke Apophis Breo quite a bit, and you forget everything as soon as you turn your back? Are you the kind of person who uses people only when you need them and forgets them when you don’t?
"Oh! It's them! I remember now! Their family has a sixth-tier hero!" Thorin slapped his forehead, finally recalling.

"Has Smaug's curse been cleansed?" Roland suddenly asked out of the blue.

"Huh? It's already clean! The Arkenstone has been purified! Thranduil even checked it, no problem!" Thorin said mysteriously, covering his mouth.

“…Ahem!” Thranduil, who was struggling with a salad not far away, twitched his ears, then put down his fork and coughed lightly with an embarrassed expression.

"..." Thorin looked over upon hearing the sound, gave a forced smile, and then turned around at lightning speed, the smile on his face vanishing instantly.

"Whoa!" Roland was taken aback. Sure enough, all the good actors have become politicians. Thorin, with his thick eyebrows and big eyes, wasn't like this before. These two can really fight over what you're looking at and how you're looking at them.

"Why do you ask that, Roland?" Thorin looked at Roland in confusion. Why did he suddenly bring up that beast Smaug? Thorin still had lingering fears about Smaug! He never imagined that the mutated dragon that invaded the Lonely Mountain Kingdom had become so powerful during the years it lurked there. If it weren't for Bard, who knows what the Battle of the Six Armies would have turned out like.

“I’m wondering if you’re being haunted by the dragon’s curse again. If so, I can exorcise it for free!” Roland said, pointing to his head.

"..." Thorin's lips twitched, and he shrugged speechlessly.

"So what do we do now?" Thorin and the others all turned their gazes to Roland.

"Should we organize a vanguard to assist the lord here?" Thranduil tentatively asked Roland after considering his words.

"Hey! You weren't like this back in Lonely Mountain!" Before Roland could even speak, Thorin chimed in sarcastically.

"..." Roland and Bard exchanged a glance, both seeing the helplessness in each other's eyes. As witnesses, they had seen firsthand the love and hate between the dwarves and elves at the foot of Lonely Mountain. The fact that the two kings could bicker peacefully here instead of fighting was already a result of the pressure from the orcs.

"...Hmph!" Thranduil grunted, a hint of embarrassment and annoyance flashing in his eyes at Thorin's exposure, which he quickly suppressed. "Don't be angry, don't be angry, dwarves are all idiots!" Thranduil kept telling himself.

“We’re not that merciful or have that much free time!” Roland waved his hand, rejecting Thranduil’s suggestion. He was joking! The Mutual Defense Agreement stipulated participating kingdoms, and the Beorn weren’t included. Or rather, when the alliance was signed, Beorn’s leader Pion was present, but they weren’t signed as a member of the Northern family. Was Roland the type to fawn over others? For Roland, the Beorn’s strategic value was minimal at this point. When the King’s Landing family advanced into the Misty Mountains, the Beorn’s last remaining value in uniting the forces was essentially gone. Roland’s tolerance of them drifting outside the alliance was already quite remarkable. In fact, if the Beorn were gone, the King’s Landing family could easily absorb and transform the resources there. Roland preferred to keep the spoils within the family rather than give them to outsiders. “Actually, I’ll also take care of the Beorn when I get back! They’ve created a huge mess!” Roland said, surprising everyone.

"..." The crowd froze for a moment, then looked up at Roland in shock, their fear almost palpable.

"No? Brother?" White Wing King shouted, "Not a brother? What are you trying to do? You mean, before the orcs are trampled to death, the allied forces should trample a Northern Free Territory to get a feel for it?"

"Well, to be fair... although I know the Beon people charge a bit much for ferrying, it shouldn't be that..." Although Thorin wasn't liked by the Beon people, he was still willing to stand up for Pion out of gratitude. The subtext was that although the guy charged a bit too much for the toll, we didn't need to get beaten up for it, right?

"..." Thranduil didn't speak, but he covered his face with one hand. Clearly, he was shocked by this makeshift coalition. Wasn't the mission supposed to be an expedition to the Misty Mountains to open up the Eastern Road and connect East and West? Wasn't it supposed to be a grand undertaking in the Western world? Wasn't it supposed to be a Middle-earth version of the Battle of Langjuxu? How did it turn into a pretext for a war?

“What are you thinking? We’re just going to give them a little talking-to when we return in triumph. Look at the ferry fees they charge… Even if the trade routes are open, merchants won’t come… The travel expenses are higher than the profits! This is no way to skin them alive!” Roland said helplessly.

"That makes sense!" Bard readily agreed. The Vale Kingdom was so poor it was causing disturbances in the North! What? You ask why they were so poor they were disturbing the peace? Because they were dirt poor! You could hear the Vale Kingdom's poverty even in Lagrange City! Plus, the Vale Kingdom didn't have much of a production industry, so Bard was hoping to sell some handicrafts and dried fish to fill its tiny treasury. With the Beorn people doing this, there was no point in selling anything; they might as well just dump it all into the Kingdom of Lagrange…

“That’s true…” King Whitewing nodded in agreement. They had a large amount of agricultural and pastoral products to trade, as well as a large amount of tea and other supplies. These were necessities that the various kingdoms in the North could not provide. It was true that the Kingdom of Lagrang could handle the agricultural trade, but there were many things they needed that the Kingdom of Lagrang could not provide at present. They had almost forgotten the taste of black tea!

"This..." Thorin hesitated for a moment. Everyone agreed, but out of conscience, he still wanted to say something. After all, the Skinflins had shed blood for them during the Battle of the Six Armies. Regardless of whether it was because of Gandalf's favor, they had indeed fought hard, regardless of their intentions! Thorin was grateful for that!

"And the drinks you need, even the dwarves can't afford to transport them in large quantities, right? You can't exactly use your spatial equipment to buy bars, can you?" Roland advised. After all, the Lagrange Kingdom's pioneering team brought their own ships, but the King's Landing family didn't run a ferry business; their focus was entirely on establishing themselves in this land. However, the Blue Mountain dwarves and other dwarves who returned home had been taking a lot of money from the Beorn, so theoretically the Beorn were now rolling in wealth!
"..." Thorin was taken aback at first, then fell silent.

"???"

"No way! You guys are really using space equipment to do long-distance trade to buy wine?" Roland exclaimed when Thorin remained silent.

"..." Thranduil was stunned and closed his eyes. Family, is there any hope for this alliance?
"Back when everyone was suffering from famine, you also went to buy wine?" Roland was stunned at first, then quickly realized something and asked for confirmation.

"..." Thorin remained silent.

"Brilliant!" The kings of the Northern Kingdom all gave a thumbs up.

　Family, I'm back from my budget trip! It was awesome! I almost flooded Nanning and Baise after almost a month of traveling.
　　(End of this chapter)