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

Chapter 997 The Burning Rohan!
As the curtains by the window swayed in the breeze, the dragon's blood on the table vanished quietly after a ray of sunlight swept across it, and everything returned to calm...

……

"This isn't right, is it? Is this Rohan?" Grand Duke Okrian Yasor stared in shock at the burning village before him, the raging flames seeming to spread and devour everything around him as if the orcs' ambitions were rampant.

“That’s right! We’ve landed in the Kingdom of Rohan!” Oakrian Ryukin nodded blankly.

"But why are the villages in the heart of Rohan being plundered?" Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso asked in shock. The heartland being destroyed?
"Could they be bandits?" Oakrian Ryukin wondered.

“It’s an egg! I can smell the stench of orcs! It must have been done by orcs!” Grand Duke Okrian Yasso waved his hand.

"Orcs? This is the heartland of the Kingdom of Rohan..." Oakrian Ryukin exclaimed in shock.

"Doesn't this just prove how thoroughly rotten Rohan is! While rural villages are attacked, noble lords are hiding in their thick castles, singing and dancing!" Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso could guess what was going on with his bare hands; after all, such things were bound to happen in a decadent kingdom!

“Um, you’re also a nobleman…” Oakrian Ryukin said, his lips pursed and his eyes darting around.

"If I could manage to turn this territory upside down, the viscounts and barons below would be coming for me with their swords drawn! How can I be compared to such trash?" Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso's eyes twitched. What kind of rotten fish could be compared to him?
The nobles of Lagrange dared to treat their fiefdoms like this; soon the emperor's edict to strip them of their fiefdoms will surely be issued! After all, although nobles enjoy high power, they still have the obligation to guard the borders and protect the people. They lead the people to pay taxes, and the nobles organize armies to be loyal to the king and protect the borders. This is a stable structure, and Rohan has clearly broken this cycle.

"Where are the local troops?" Oakrian Ryukin gritted his teeth. It was understandable that the kingdom's army couldn't arrive immediately, but the nobles' private soldiers and local militia should have arrived first!
"No need to look anymore! The militia are all dead!" Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso rode up to the burning village and spoke in a cold voice.

“The militia must have fought to the last moment. Their fatal wounds were all on the front, which means they didn’t die on the way back! Their frontal formation was broken!” Oakrian Ryukin concluded as he examined the wounds of the corpses.

"Where are the regular troops? Where are their off-duty soldiers? Why are they all militiamen?" Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso examined the corpses and found only civilians and militiamen dressed in simple cloth armor and leather clothing. There were no real armored troops at all!

"The devastation on the western front is tolerable, given the constant harassment from the savages of the Blacklands. But what's with the orcs on the eastern front? The Anduin River is a natural barrier! How did they manage to let the orcs cross that formidable chasm? Either the Lorian elves in the north are incompetent, or the Gondorian border troops in the south are lacking in wisdom!" Grand Duke Ocrean Yaso had also learned about the situation here from Roland. After all, Roland only hoped he would become a man of light, not that he would become light itself…

“I’m more convinced that the humans in the south are stupid than that the elves are incompetent!” Oakrian Ryukin raised his hand.

“That makes sense!” Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso nodded in agreement.

"Disperse!" Oakrian Ryukin and Archduke Oakrian Yasso simultaneously unleashed their battle aura, and the howling wind instantly extinguished the raging fire!

“This village is finished… there are no survivors!” Oakrian Ryukin’s face was grim. The village had been burned to a skeleton. There were no survivors, and even the corpses in the houses might not have been intact!

“I don’t think so!” Archduke Oakrian Yaso raised an eyebrow and turned to walk toward a house.

"Boom!" Archduke Oakrian Yaso kicked the collapsed beam a long way, then picked up the fallen support and casually tossed it aside.

"No, Your Highness... isn't this a bit unnecessary to desecrate a corpse?" Okrian Yasuo's face turned green; the man was practically burned to a crisp...

"Screw you, come and save people!" said Archduke Oakrian Yaso.

“People? Where are people?” Oakrian Ryukin asked in surprise. “The wind will tell you!” Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso pointed to his heart.

"..." Okrian Ryukin.

“You’re just too impetuous. If you just carefully sensed the wind elements flowing in the air, you would know there are two children in the cellar below!” Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso’s lips twitched.

Besides its terrifying cutting and destructive power, the wind element also possesses an all-pervasive reconnaissance ability! Compared to the innate attribute of mental power, wind elementalists can use the natural wind to gather intelligence! This is evidenced by the Wind Listening Blade—Garuda—that Darion Nightblade always carries in his hand. Do you think he has nothing better to do than carry around a broken blade all day without getting tired? That's just a cover for some light assassin using the Wind Listening Blade's elemental talent to gather intelligence!

"Holy crap! There really are people here?" Oakrian Ryukin dug open the cellar and saw two dusty little faces.

"Two kids?" Oakrian Ryukin gave a "kind" smile, his military uniform making him look more like a bandit about to kidnap people!

"Ah! Whoa~ Waaaaaah!" The two children were suddenly startled by the sudden opening of the skylight. As sunlight streamed through Okrian Liujin's back, his face appeared incredibly sinister, and the blinding sunlight made it impossible to see his features clearly, only his gaping mouth revealing his teeth! The terrifying sight nearly made the two children faint...

"Get out of the way! You're scaring the child!" Grand Duke Oakrian Yasso shoved Oakrian Ryukin aside and then jumped down.

“Don’t be afraid, we are human!” Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso knelt down and said kindly.

"Take this!" Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso then picked up a child and handed it to Oakrian Ryukin.

"Aww! By the Dragon God!" Oakrian Ryukin stepped on a humanoid charred body and immediately deduced its identity.

“Good boy, let’s go and leave this place. Uncle will take you to get some candy!” Okrian Ryujin turned his back to the remains on the ground without saying a word and carried the child out of the ruins.

……

"Only two people survived in this village of over a hundred!" Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso said in a deep voice, looking at the two children who were eating heartily by the campfire. Just now, Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso had managed to get some information out of the two children's mother, who had hidden them in the cellar, which allowed them to escape this calamity.

"You'd better think about how to deal with these two mommy-wanting kids!" Oakrian Ryukin said with a headache. They'd been gagged with roast meat, but he figured they'd be asking for their mommy again soon!

"Let's get them out of here first!" Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso rubbed his temples. King Roland had sent him to perform a miracle, but he hadn't gathered any intelligence and hadn't succeeded in his miracle either. Now he had two more burdens to deal with! (Caslo: Finally, someone understands me! Doesn't he know how difficult it is to manage dragon knights who are like blank slates?!)
"Holy crap, this efficiency! Shouldn't the commander-in-chief be fired for this kind of speed in the Imperial Army?" Okrian Ryukin didn't reply, but instead gestured towards the distance with his chin.

“Hiss… Whoa~ The corpse-collecting team is here!” Archduke Oakrian Yaso taunted.

On the distant horizon, a cavalry unit carrying the banner of Rohan finally appeared in their field of vision. They paused for a few seconds, then rode towards the village ruins still emitting black smoke.

"You're courting death! The enemy situation is unclear, yet you're charging in a wedge formation?" Grand Duke Oakrian Yasso was stunned. Have you even seen the enemy? And you're already charging in a wedge formation? Even a small ambush would send this hundred-strong cavalry unit packing and retreating to the city!
"Huh? Unbelievable! No scouts! Split into two? Who taught them this?" Oakrian Ryukin watched as the cavalry, which had shown no intention of sending out scouts, suddenly made a large loop and split into two groups to flank the enemy from the left and right.

Family, I'm alive!