The meeting continued for a few more hours, discussing the details of the defensive plan. Since Jack didn't join the capital defense, he excused himself. It was more beneficial for him to return immediately and started moving his army. Jeanny, Megan, Bowler, and Arthur stayed behind because they were joining the defense.
The Themisphere army that had previously been prepared near the border had been pulled back deeper into the country. Hence, it would take time to march them back to the border. They would then have to cross the expansive border region, before traversing their way through Hydrurond territory to reach the capital.
Jack estimated under normal circumstances, it might take his army three weeks to arrive at Messephyria.
It was about the same time for the enemy army to arrive in the capital even when the enemy was already inside Hydrurond territory. This was because he would only be marching with essential supplies. He won't be bringing any slow-moving siege weapons.
Even if Master had a method to increase the marching speed to only two weeks. He estimated his Runestone of Marching should help his army to arrive around the same time as well.
After saying his goodbye, Jack was escorted to the palace's teleportation chamber. From there, he teleported to a city near the border facing Themisphere. He then rode Pandora and crossed the border with haste.
Pandora took one day to cross the border region. After leaving the border region, Jack used Town Return Scroll to return to Thereath. He then headed directly to the palace.
Jack had sent a message to John the day before when he left Messphyria palace. John already sent the order for the army to march back to the border. Jack still had something to do so he came back to the palace first before joining the marching army.
The one-week cooldown for the Arcane Forge had ended. He could now use the monarch system to upgrade the enchantment to the max level.
More than two weeks had passed since Jack used this throne. He got 10 ruling powers from the Boundless Cache, bringing his ruling powers to 55.
Jack spent 2 ruling powers to complete the ongoing research of orichalcum forging. He then inserted 100 orichalcum ores from the kingdom's vault into the arcane forge. The enchantment, Arcane Armor and Weapon, increased to level 3. This enchantment now gave all Themisphere kingdom units a 15% increase in damage and defense.
He then spent another 20 ruling powers using Increase Population and War March.
Thereath's population was close to reaching ten million. It should not be long before it reached the required population count and became a megalopolis.
The War March he had used provided an increase to all soldiers' marching speed for three days. This should give the army a good starting speed. Too bad the ruling power usage was not an online feature. He couldn't use it on the road. He had to return to the palace again if he wanted to use another war march.
There was another sovereign's ability, War Rally, which increased all Themisphere soldiers' attributes for one day. He also won't be able to use this power because the battlefield would be in Hydrurond. He needed at least two days for the return trips through the border region. If it was a war within Themisphere, then this power was usable because he could utilize the teleport feature between cities.
Another way for this power to be useful was if he stayed out of the battlefield. To just stay inside the throne room and used the ruling power when the battle happened. But he was not a king who stayed back while his soldiers fought. He preferred to be on the front line, fighting together with his army.
After finishing with the monarch system, Jack had a meeting with Thaergood to settle whatever issues needed settling before he left tomorrow morning. John, Isabelle, and Armstrong had gone ahead and joined Emris. They were all joining the marching army.
During the meeting, Thaergood asked Jack, "Your Majesty, can you please talk with your friend, that old draconian, to tone down his activity in the palace?"
"What activity?" Jack asked.
Thaergood sighed. "He keeps playing pranks on us. Many of the palace inhabitants have complained already. Some soldiers even said that they are going to ignore Your Majesty's order and teach that draconian a lesson if he does another prank on them again."
"Thaergood. Please tell those soldiers that I didn't ask them to not lay a hand on Darmos for his protection. I did it for their protection."
Thaergood was confused hearing it. Jack then said to him. "I will just let you in on this, but please keep this a secret. That old draconian is simply a disguise. He is actually our country guardian, Broidrireg."
"What…?!" Thaergood's reaction was as Jack expected.
"Now you see why I told you all to give him proper respect, do you?"
A commotion was then heard outside the throne room. Some soldiers were shouting.
"I think it's the draconian, uh… Our country guardian again…," Thaergood said. He then added, "Your Majesty is not joking, right?"
"I'm not. I will talk to him," Jack replied and ran out.
Outside the throne room, he saw Darmos with two angry soldiers. The two seemed to be about to get into a physical altercation with Darmos, but they then spotted Jack approaching and they abandon their attempt. They still threw Darmos an angry glance, though.
Darmos himself was still laughing at the two soldiers, which irked them even more.
Jack saw the body of one of the soldiers was wet. His clothes that were not covered by armor were soaked. There was an empty bucket on the floor near an opened door. Jack could imagine Darmor must have filled the bucket full of water and placed it on top of the slightly opened door. The soldier that came out of the door was flushed by the water that fell from the bucket.
"Your Majesty," The two greeted Jack and adopted a soldier pose.
"I'm sorry about his prank. Please forgive him. I'll talk to him. Go and clean yourself," Jack said to them. He then said to Darmos, "You, follow me!"
"Kid, is that how you talk to your elder?" Darmos asked.
"Cut the crap, just come with me!" Jack chided.
