RUMBLE!
Thunder rolled past as heavy rain poured down.
"You have quite a keen eye, friend."
In a small town built by Haradrim in the Harnen River basin south of Gondor, a wine merchant was promoting his wares.
Across from him sat a mysterious customer draped in linen robes, with a wide hat and wool scarf covering most of his face.
Looks like a nomad from the desert regions.
The customer nodded and pointed to a wine barrel on the ground. So the wine merchant moved that barrel onto the counter.
"This is indeed the strongest barrel of date wine I have here."
The merchant said: "I'm curious. You haven't tasted or smelled it, so how did you discern its quality?"
"Trade secret."
The man replied thus. After all, he could hardly say it was system-labeled.
After paying, he easily lifted the barrel full of strong wine with one hand, found a small corner where no one could see, and made the barrel disappear into his pack like magic. Levi then continued wandering the market empty-handed.
A gust of wind swept by, blowing droplets of water into the market.
"Quite an unusual downpour."
A bronze-skinned resident glanced outside, shook his head, and chose to retreat and wait it out. Probably due to climate and geography, everyone here had basically this skin tone.
West from here lay the ports of Umbar; east was the great Harad desert, a vast desert larger even than Mordor. North was the Harnen ford; beyond the ford lay Harondor, the battleground between Umbar and Gondor.
The River Harnen was historically the boundary between Gondor and Umbar. Harondor was once called 'South Gondor' and belonged to Gondor, though now, due to Gondor's declining power and Haradric incursions, it no longer directly belonged to Gondor but existed in a disputed state.
Haradrim and Gondorians constantly clashed over this land, with border forces from both sides remaining vigilant against each other. Levi had passed through this region.
In this market built of black stone bricks and red clay tiles with distinctive regional character, many rain-soaked people hurried in to avoid getting completely drenched.
Levi didn't fear water, but he hadn't gone outside either. He hadn't finished browsing. Lemons, dates, bananas, pomegranates, oranges, olives... this market had many things unseen in the north. He'd take whatever he could get.
At this moment, Levi had transformed into a discerning traveling merchant, seriously considering what items were worth bringing back. Levi's Selection, only the finest. Nothing that didn't taste good would end up in his pack.
"Where are the watermelons?"
"Why don't I see any watermelons?"
At a fruit vendor's stall, Levi looked left and right but couldn't find what he wanted.
"I've seen people selling watermelon wine. How can there be no watermelons?"
The stall owner stared at Levi for a while, speechless. He pointed behind Levi.
Following his gesture, Levi turned to see a pile of large melons with pale green stripes stacked on the ground. What else could they be but watermelons?
"Ahem."
Levi picked up a watermelon, tapped it twice, then held it to his ear to listen to the sound. Good, a fine melon.
"How much for this melon?"
"Two silver coins per pound."
Levi's movements stopped.
"Interesting. Are the seeds made of gold, or is the rind made of silver?"
The fruit merchant clearly understood Levi's meaning and said on the spot: "Buy it or don't, but I'll tell you, you won't find a second seller of watermelons in this entire market."
"Fine."
Levi put down the watermelon and was about to pull out silver coins when suddenly a commotion arose outside the market.
Clang!
Wooden wheels rolled over a pebble, making the entire cart bounce. Numerous gazes pierced through the rain toward the source of the sound.
A cart, or rather, a prison cart, was being escorted by seven or eight soldiers toward the town center. Inside was someone covered in blood with arrows still stuck in his shoulder and leg. His skin tone differed from everyone here. It was pale.
He wore silver-white armor engraved with a tree-like pattern topped with seven stars. That was Gondor's symbol, the White Tree of Gondor.
A Gondorian. What's he doing here?
The prison cart stopped before the market, soldiers spreading out to fully display the apparently unconscious Gondorian.
One of them shouted to the crowd gathered in the market: "Yesterday we achieved a great victory in battle against Gondor! This is an enemy commander we captured!"
"Oh!"
The crowd immediately erupted in cheers, with many throwing objects from their hands at the cage. But no matter how much they threw, the person inside remained collapsed, not even an eyelid twitching.
"Kill him! Kill him!"
Many shouted loudly.
The speaking soldier shook his head, pressing his hand downward to signal people not to get excited yet.
"Regrettably, we cannot kill him."
"Why?" someone demanded.
"Because he's already dead!"
The crowd exploded again in cheers.
Crack!
Squeezed in the excited crowd, Levi unconsciously split the watermelon in his hands and began eating a piece.
"You're splitting my melon?"
This sound directly startled the fruit stall owner, who suddenly turned around to discover that in the time it took to watch the excitement, his melon was gone.
"I'll pay you."
Levi casually tossed over a handful of silver coins. The owner's anger immediately turned to smiles as he quickly pocketed the coins without counting. There were more coins than needed. If he counted them and had to make change, that would be awkward.
Not dead yet.
Levi finished one piece of melon, stored the rest in his pack, and pushed through the crowd to step forward.
Someone pushed to the outside and getting rained on angrily glared back at Levi, but when meeting the cold gaze from under his wide hood, the person suddenly shuddered and slunk away with lowered head.
Levi raised his head, looking at the "Gondorian commander" in the cage. After the escorting soldier announced his death, people put away their stones and rotten fruit, no longer throwing them.
But... not dead yet.
Levi took another step forward, his gaze not leaving the cage. The Gondorian commander in the cage still had one drop of health keeping him alive. He wasn't dead.
But that was only for now. If this continued, it was hard to say. He might suddenly die the next second. No time to waste.
"Hey, you there!"
Having announced the news, the soldiers were preparing to escort this 'corpse' somewhere when suddenly one frowned and looked sideways at the figure emerging from the market.
"Can't you see we need to get through?"
He pointed at the linen-robed figure whose face couldn't be seen clearly and scolded: "I'm talking to you. If you don't want trouble, step back and don't block our path!"
"Trouble?"
Levi smiled. The next moment, his sword was drawn. Falling rainwater was briefly parted, and the linen robe was also swept aside by this motion, revealing black armor beneath.
Thud!
Alarm bells rang in the soldier's heart as he felt inexplicably panicked.
"Who are you!?"
The group of soldiers immediately drew their weapons and entered a defensive stance.
"A passerby."
Wild wind carrying rainwater swept past, blowing the hood slightly askew. And blowing that eastern battle that had spread like wildfire into people's minds.
The ruthless one who had trapped tens of thousands of orcs and Easterling armies, brought the King of Khand to his knees, successively killed the Nazgûl lieutenant 'Eastern Shadow' and several other Nazgûl, and easily slew Haradric commanders while tearing apart war-mammoths amid ten thousand surrounding troops, the legendary [Shadow of War].
The rumored image overlapped with the figure before them, and soldiers felt a surge of absurd unreality.
Could it be him? No way, right?