Second World

Chapter 1684 1684. A Rest before the Final Push

The Themisphere and Verremor soldiers released the Aurebor soldiers who had surrendered or captured earlier. The nature constructs, which werenʼt destroyed, stopped moving after Nova took the throne. The invading force was no longer considered hostile. The nature constructs just stood watch around the capital. They would continue to stand guard until their duration was over.

The Themisphere and Verremor troops stayed outside the capital while the Aurebor troops went into the capital to restore order. They went around telling the civilians that the war was over and it was okay to return to their activities. Luckily, none of the buildings within the capital was damaged. Lorethion only lost its defensive wall.

Reconstruction would take time. The enchantment made sure they couldnʼt start rebuilding the wall after one week passed. Aurebor also lost its entire kingdom mana. Nova was currently operating the monarch system. Peniel was giving her advice on how to use the system. The first order of business would be to build mana-generating buildings to recover the kingdom mana.

Themisphere and Verremor had won, but it was not without casualties. Verremor lost the most. They lost their grand chief and one of their war chiefs. It was a great demoralizing incident. Four Winds gathered the Verremor army and gave a speech to mourn the passing.

Quetzalcoatl didnʼt leave immediately after the battle was over. His one-day duration hadnʼt ended. He came to where Kabakaʼs body was and stayed there in silence. He didnʼt truly have a deep relationship with Kabaka. The ancestor he made a pact with was not even Kabakaʼs ancestor. Veremorʼs ruling head wasnʼt decided by blood but by election through combat.

However, since Kabaka had been a grand chief for a long time, there was still some bond between them. Quetzalcoatl couldnʼt help but feel sad. He knew that Kabaka had died when he was summoned into battle, but he didnʼt show his feelings then because the battle was still ongoing. He was now paying the former grand chief his respect in silence.

After Quetzalcoatl decided to leave, Kabaka and Katiliʼs bodies were wrapped with shrouds. A battalion of orc soldiers was ordered to take these bodies back into Verremmor to be given proper burials.

Verremor lost another 400,000 soldiers in the war. Their army that could continue with this campaign was down to 500,000 troops.

Themisphere lost 300,000 soldiers. They were still 1,100,000-strong. They lost some high-ranking officers in the war. But thanks to the mobile throne room inside the mobile fortress, Jack was able to appoint the decorated soldiers from this war to refill the empty ranks.

Four Winds couldnʼt do the same. He could only do that if he returned to Verremor. Learning this, Four Winds asked Jack the secret of getting a mobile fortress. Jack didnʼt hide the fact, he told Four Winds how he got it. Four Winds vowed to build a good relationship with the Blacksmith Circle once the war was over.

Aurebor lost 1,200,000 troops. Their remaining troops were 700,000 soldiers. It was good that Jack and Four Winds found out about the empty palace early. Otherwise, both sides would continue fighting and losing more soldiers. Right now, these Aurebor troops had become a part of their fighting force and would be joining them in their march toward Liguritudum.

A majority of the small beholders were killed. The ones that were still alive fled haphazardly when their brood mother was slain. Players chased them for exp points and loots. The chase was still ongoing by the end of the day.

The leaders of the Aurebor army were brought to Nova. Nova gave them the freedom to choose whether to serve her or leave. She wouldnʼt punish them if they chose to leave. But if they chose to serve, she expected obedience. She warned them she would punish them severely if they betrayed her after choosing to stay.

A few left, but most remained. Mistressʼ rule didnʼt truly give them much of an impression. Their loyalty points to her were not that high. Of course, Nova could see that these officers who chose to stay also didnʼt have high loyalty points to her. Nova would have to slowly gain their loyalties.

Like most countries that had just been conquered, Aurebor no longer had a country guardian. Nova asked Peniel how to get one, Peniel told her getting a country guardian was more about fate. She changed her question to asking how Master, Mistress, and Jack got theirs.

Peniel said he didnʼt know about Master and Mistress. In Jackʼs case, she said Nova would have to ask Jack on that one. She didnʼt know if it was right for her to tell Nova.

That evening during the gathered dinner, Nova asked Jack. Jack happily told everyone who gathered there the story about how he secured Broidriregʼs pact. He didnʼt consider it a secret to be kept from his allies. Plus, after hearing the story, Four Winds and Nova agreed that the method was very personal. Not something that could be imitated simply by knowing.

They speculated about Master and Mistressʼ methods. Since those two could get one before, there was a high chance that Master could get another country guardian to replace Suzaki. They agreed to march into Liguritudum with the assumption that was the case.

Aureborʼs only remaining Lord Protector, Ashira Sharpsight, survived the war. She chose to stay with the army when Mistress took the throne. She chose to do so again with Nova in the reign. All she wanted was to stay in the army. She didnʼt have real loyalty to the one on the throne. Nova, of course, planned to change that by building a better relationship with this Lord Protector. She used the monarch system to send gifts to Ashira to increase her loyalty.

The army decided to rest in Lorethion for three days before beginning their march into Liguritudum. Aside from rest, these three days were also used to refill the supplies. Lorethionʼs facilities were not damaged, so they easily secured the supplies.

John also ordered every soldier to fix their equipment to full durability during these three days. They needed to be in the best shape for their final push in this campaign.

Since the mobile fortress was not moving. Jack looked for an upgrade option that required only three days. He found one which was the option to upgrade the fortressʼ mechanical arms. This upgrade added an energy gun on the pincer at the end of the arm, giving the arms the ability to deliver range attacks. A veil covered the arms the same as the last time when he upgraded its legs.

Jack only had the time to check his gained loots at night after he retired to his sleeping quarter inside the mobile fortress. On his hand was a picture frame. Hatori gave it to him after the war was over. It was the picture frame Speedrun found in the warehouse inside Lorethion Palace.

He was flattered that Hatori gave this item to him because this item was beneficial to both natives and players. For Hatori to not keep this item showed that Hatoriʼs loyalty to him had grown throughout their time on the road.