Second World

Jeanny left soon. She had many things to do in the guild. She could now practically be said to be the only leader in Everlasting Heavenly Legends. Jack was always too busy doing his own things, John was now too absorbed after getting a new plaything. Between managing a country and managing a guild, there was no contest as to which one John preferred.

Before Jeanny left, Jack asked her to deliver the pills of growth she had copied to Jonathan and Amy.

Those who were selected as royal agents. Aside from getting access to freely use the city's zone portals, Jack could also send mental messages to them.

Jack instructed both Jonathan and Amy to come to Thereath's zone portal and meet Jeanny there. Jeanny would give the two the pills of growth to increase both their grades to rare elite.

Jack went out to the capital and imprinted the Themisphere King's Sword for his magic weapon spell. He also took the time to visit Samantha and talked about Amy. Samantha was relieved that Jack had appointed Amy as his royal agent instead of leaving her as a common foot soldier. Jack also picked up the profit from his restaurant and bakery.

When he returned to the palace in the evening, John had left.

Jack decided to head to the East-wing basement that Thaergood mentioned before. As he was walking toward the basement, he received a message.

"Oh? Wilted? Why did she message me?" Jack asked after seeing the name of the sender. "Didn't she complain that long-range message was expensive?"

"Maybe she wants to ask for refuge?" Peniel offered her opinion. "She did lose in Liguritudum. Maybe World Maker and the Liguritudum army were hunting her now and she got nowhere to go."

"Hm, let's just check her message," Jack said and opened her message.

"Is it true?! Do you truly become a king?" Wilted's message asked.

Jack didn't think her finding out about the news to be strange. The formal diplomatic messages he had sent to the other countries might not arrive yet, but the outworlders in those countries should have known already.

Nowadays, most players who chose to be adventurers had access to other countries, and players' messaging system was instant. So, since Jack's coronation was broadcasted to all of Themisphere, some players in this country might have sent messages about the news to the players in the other countries.

"Hehe, surprised, aren't you? I'm the first player to have become a monarch," Jack said proudly. He knew it was so because the system told him so and also gave him a bonus of 100 ruling points.

"You bet I'm surprised. I don't even know it's possible," Wilted replied. "Probably because this is not a real game anymore, so everything is possible now like the real world."

"Huh? Really? Then what about the monarch system?" Jack asked.

The monarch system was clearly a game system. If it was following the real world, Jack would've ruled in an old-fashioned way, by giving manual instructions to the court officers to carry out tasks, not by giving them via 3D holographic screens.

"How do you know about the monarch system?" Wilted asked.

"Duh! Because I'm a king now, remember? Didn't we just establish that in our first conversation?" Jack asked back. He felt like he was talking to a retard.

"Describe everything about the monarch system to me!" Wilted commanded.

"Lady, this will take a long message," Jack said. But since he was loaded with coins, he didn't mind paying for the messaging fees. He described each of the overview screens one by one to Wilted.

After a long messaging period, Jack finally completed his narration. "There. That's all to it. Now that we are talking about the system, is there any secret feature that I might have missed?"

Instead of responding to Jack's question, Wilted gave him a message that seemed to be muttering, "It is exactly like the system we designed…"

"Lady, won't it be weird if it is not like the system you designed? You ARE the designer of this game world, aren't you?"

"No, you don't understand. Although my partner and I did design the monarch system, we never actually implemented it into the game. We are just having it as an idea. We agreed that having one player become a ruler of a country will ruin the whole balance thing, so the idea is scrapped."

"Huh? It looks pretty implemented to me," Jack said. "Maybe it's Apollyon who activated it back?"

"No, Apollyon can't activate it because it is never in the system. My partner and I stored the simulated program in a separate drive, which he kept. After his death, I take all his belongings, including that drive. So, Apollyon never lay a hand on it."

"Then, maybe your partner secretly installed the monarch system behind your back?" Jack offered his guess.

"He won't do that… We always shared everything about the game," Wilted said.

'Really? I do remember he kept some secrets like the Valley of Tempus from you,' Jack thought but he didn't voice it out. He could sense the sadness in Wilted's message due to them bringing up her partner, so Jack tried to change the subject.

"Well, the reality is that the monarch system exists. Let's talk about a more important issue. How are you doing? I understand the civil war in Liguritudum is over and the rebel prince won. Are you still in that country?"

"I am still in the Liguritudum. I am in hiding, though. I am working with the insurgents. Remnants of the old ruler's loyalists who didn't accept the rebel prince as the legitimate ruler. We tried to cause as much disturbance as possible to halt their advance."

"Oh? You can do that? It's good then. If their plan can be delayed, it will give me enough time to build my force. How about Syndrillis? Is she okay?"

"The old ruler was killed when we lost. Syndrillis stopped fighting and left."

"So, she survives? Good! Do you know where she had gone to?" Jack asked. If he could find Syndrillis, probably he could persuade that dragon to be his country's guardian."

"I don't know. She is not in the mood to tell us her plan when she left," Wilted replied.

"Oh, that's too bad. Well, at least we know World Maker's side also doesn't have a country guardian."

"Also? Are you saying Themisphere loses Tiemezzys? What happened?"

"I angered him."

"… I don't even wanna ask how you do that."

"Anyway, if you need any place to escape to, please know Themisphere is open to you. Come here and we can work together to face World Maker."

"That's good to know. I might do that. But I will try to do what I can here first."

"Okay, be safe," Jack said and ended the message.

He had been messaging while walking around the so-called forbidden zone of the palace. The guards didn't prevent his entry since he was the king. After wandering while talking with Wilted, he found himself in front of an enormous locked door when he ended the conversation.