The next morning when he walked to the throne room, he saw John arguing with Thaergood at the entrance. Grace was also there.
"Jack!" Grace came to him. "I have something for you."
Grace handed Jack 5,500 mana cores.
"Where do you get this?" Jack asked in surprise.
"From one of Greed's portals, of course. I've been permitted to use the mana core portal continuously. The last time he let me use it only once a day. I used that portal multiple times these last two days to get this amount. I know you still lack this number to summon the archdemon lord."
Jack didn't know what to say. He now knew Grace had stayed back another night so that she could get these mana cores. He was very touched by her attention. In the end, he could simply say, "Thank you."
"See that? This is your future queen. How dare you bar her entry to the throne hall," John said to Thaergood.
"What the hell are you two arguing about?" Jack finally addressed the two.
John answered, "Grace came to look for you. I invited her into the throne room. Good Thaergood here said non-official personnel is not permitted into the throne room."
"We have a safety protocol in place for a reason," Thaergood argued. Then added, "It is bad enough we have one old draconian going around the palace like he owns the place."
"Speaking of that old draconian, have you seen him?" Jack asked while he grabbed Grace's hand and brought her into the throne room.
"I… I haven't seen him these past few days…" Thaergood wanted to say something about Jack taking Grace into the throne room but was unable to.
John walked past him with a smug grin.
In the end, he could only shake his head and followed them in.
"Wow, this throne room is very impressive," Grace uttered.
"Right, you weren't here during my coronation. You can come here any time you like," Jack said, which made John throw Thaergood another smug grin.
Jack spent an hour discussing with John the direction they were taking for the monarch system.
During that hour, John also briefed Jack in more detail about the incidents at the border.
After Themipshere and Verremor applied open border. Humans and Orcs were freed to cross over and visit the other country's settlements, provided they were able to cross the hostile zone. Hence, nowadays at the border settlements, it was common to see both races mingling together.
But during the past week, theft and vandalism had happened inside Themisphere's border towns. Eyewitnesses reported seeing orcs around the time the incident happened.
Accusations were thrown. Orcs could be peaceful but they were not a race that shied from conflicts. Hence, they returned the accusations using their fists.
Things would have been fine if this was a single incident, but it's not. It happened at almost every settlement near the border.
Luckily, no life was lost throughout those incidents, but what happened caused the people of those settlements to request the kingdom officials to again close the settlements' access to the orcs.
The officials tried calming the public down and increased security, but this of course displeased the orcs. It was as if the kingdom agreed that the accusations had been valid.
In short, things were not looking good for the peace effort between the two countries.
After Jack was done discussing with John, he said to Thaergood, "All right. Let's go meet these nobles."
The meeting was in another room. When Jack told Grace where he was going, she wanted to tag along. Jack let her. He never enjoyed this socializing session. He was glad if someone he was comfortable with accompanied him.
The meeting was held inside a formal meeting room. Inside the room, the nobles had been waiting. On the way, Thaergood explained to Jack. The nobles were representatives from the six families that held political powers in four settlements near the border with Verremor Nation.
They were the Ramos, Halward, Fafner, Orline, Delsodo, and Marken.
One thing that Thaergood warned Jack was these families were the ones who had the most conflict with the orcs in the past and were the most vocal in criticizing the currently implemented peace policy between Themisphere and Verremor.
"All six families had lost one or two family members to the orcs in the past," Thaergood said while he and Jack were on the way. "They were still trying to call for blood against the orcs. They just no longer had the kingdom's backing so they were powerless about it. The recent incidents gave them the chance to try to reignite the hatred of orcs in the masses, especially in the cities and towns where their families reside."
Jack and Grace listened to Thaergood's explanation in silence.
The representatives of the six families stood up and bowed at Jack when he entered the room.
There was a lord's chair inside the meeting room. This chair was meant for Jack, so he sat on it. Beside him were smaller chairs meant for his advisors. Thaergood and Grace sat on those chairs. Opposite them were rows of sofas. The representatives sat back down on those sofas after Jack and the others sat.
One of them stayed standing to introduce himself, "Your Majesty. Allow me to take the lead to introduce myself. I am Sean Ramos, the oldest son of Boan Ramos and heir to the Ramos family. My father was here during your coronation. He sent his regards."
Sean sat and the woman next to him stood. "I am Lisa Halward, the only daughter of Vlad Halward. I am also the heir to the Halward family. I've long to meet Your Majesty."
The rest of them also introduced themselves.
The representative from the Fafner family was Willem Fafner, the brother of Lord Fafner. From the Orline was Hans Orline, the lord himself. The Delsodo family also sent their heir, Julian Delsodo. The Marken was represented by Lord Marken's wife, Lucy Marken. She explained that Lord Marken couldn't come due to bad health.
Hans Orline, who was the most senior, decided to open the discussion, "Your Majesty, we are here to…"
"Let me cut you right there, Lord Orline," Jack said. "If what you want to suggest is to forbid orcs from entering our settlements. I can tell you now that it won't happen."
