Without a knock, Lucius entered into Jack's Office, and took his seat, per the usual.
Jack looked at his laptop in thought for a moment, before keying a few more lines of spellwork, before pushing it to the side, to look up to Lucius.
"First off, I would like to thank you, Lucius." Jack began.
"I only do as I should, my Lord," Lucius spoke with confidence.
"Even so, know that I appreciate what you do, and how you take care of the Kingdom in my absences... Not to mention tolerating my high-jinx." Jack continued.
"Even gods need to relax and enjoy their conquests, I'm sure," Lucius spoke with a bit of humor, but he meant his words.
Jack nodded and then didn't press on, knowing that his appreciation wasn't lost on Lucius.
"Lucius, if you don't mind, can you bring me up to speed on the kingdom, and how prep for Bellum is coming along?"
"You will be excited to know the progress... Even I am shocked by the progress. It's just... I can't help but marvel at the faithful." Lucius, himself, became overly excited, as he began to ramble.
"This sounds good," Jack said in encouragement, as to hurry Lucius to tell him.
"It is! After your speech made it go through the kingdom last month... We have had a new high, an ALL time high for enlistment! almost a tenth of each city has signed up for the armies!"
"A tenth?!" Jack exclaimed as he did some quick math in his mind, "That's something like six million that have enlisted!!!" Jack stood up abruptly, with his hands braced on his desk, as his flaming eyes grew brighter and crackled with shock.
Lucius nodded repeatedly, "That's about right. We have the undead, but I haven't listed what armies to put them in, or if we need to make new armies of these undead. We also need more barracks, more food to provide, more supplies, more weapons, and much more funds to support a standing army of this magnitude!" Lucius exclaimed, but with a happy tone.
Jack while dazed, sat back down in his chair, and heard Lucius happy tone, "Ah, you must know of a solution to this. So, how do we deal with this, and utilize these new recruits in the meantime?"
Lucius folded his hands over his midsection, over his vestments as he plainly stated, "I have no clue."
Jack paused, as he looked over Lucius. It was, again, a good thing his face was bone and not flesh, least his expression give away more than just his posture.
"...I see..." Jack spoke slowly.
"See, I knew my Lord would know what to do," Lucius said with clear confidence, without sarcasm, but blind faith.
Jack leaned back in his chair, as he thought it over. He did indeed need an army of this size if what he wanted to do was to be accomplished. He then thought to ask, as he leaned forward back in his seat, "What about the supplies to Bellum's building site?"
"They'll arrive in the next few weeks. The merchants and suppliers of Deagoth are wiped into a frenzy. Almost all the undead of Deagoth have family here in Saigunrai... After what happened and your message that was heard... Well, they only hate they couldn't grow wings to bring it themselves."
"...I've been thinking small..." Jack said in a lower voice, as Lucius tilted his head in wonderment.
"Tux, reconfigure the current model for Bellum to accommodate five million undead," Jack spoke after another moment.
"Understood. Calculating time needed for project revision... Calculation complete. This task will take an estimated seven hours."
"Thank you, Tux." Jack looked back up to Lucius, "We are going to need much, much more resources."
Lucius clutched his skull, "There's no way we can have these resources in the time that's left! We only have a month left to FINISH the city by your command! It's impossible!" Lucius felt like his skull was going to roll off his body!
Jack thought for a moment, then spoke, "Remember your plan to bring pilgrims?"
"Yeah?"
"Have them put supplies out ready to be transported by me. I will assume my true form and carry all the needed supplies."
Lucius immediately slapped his femur, with a loud dull sound, as he shouted, "YOUR WILL BE DONE!"
[The faithful will love this display of power, I should also include orders for the church to hold mass outside for them to witness the power of the God-King.]
"Excellent! In addition, have all the recruits ready. I will pick them up as well and bring them to Bellum's construction site. Larger City will need more workers. We can use them in the meantime."
"Not a problem, but... what about the pay?"
"Clean out the vaults of all the Glowstone. It doesn't matter how much you throw at the project. It will just come back to Us with the introduction of the new currency." Jack nodded.
"Ah." Lucius nodded enlightened.
"Anything else?" Jack asked.
"There is court. Thankfully I accounted it was going to be next week, a while ago... If it was last week, wouldn't I look bad for it?" Lucius said with a serious tone.
"Ah... Yes... Thank you."
Lucius waved it off, "It will be next week on the second day of the seventh."
"Alright. Sounds good. I'll make sure not to get too involved with my... Hobbies." Jack said awkwardly.
"As the God-King, I'm sure you have a sense of responsibility," Lucius said with some advice.
"Or you're going to kick down my door?" Jack said with a lot of humor and laughed openly.
Lucius looked away while speaking, "Of course."
Jack chuckled a few more times, before asking finally, "Alright, what about Emily's coming of age ceremony?"
"Ah, well... I figure we could hold it in the garden. I can have the servants set it up for this afternoon since I wasn't really sure when you were going to be done with... What you were doing. I'm just thankful you were able to come back to the land of the unliving before next week's court session."
Jack disregarded that last scold, as he spoke, "Then this afternoon would be best. Alright... I have one last thing to inform you."
"Hmmmm?" Lucius wondered what this might be, as Jack's tone turned strange.
"Let me show you something," Jack spoke, as he pulled his upper robes apart to expose his ribcage.
Lucius wasn't sure until he seen a beating heart suspended within Jack's ribcage on Jack's right side, where hearts would reside in a normal body... Suspended by small gold chains...
"...Is that actually beating...?"
"Yup."
"Why... Do you have a beating heart?"
"It's Eris' heart."
"..." Lucius was speechless, as he didn't understand any of this.
One very odd conversation and explanation later...
"So, you're married to the Vampire Princess, and not even the ancient Vampire God can undo it per their vampire laws..."
"And there We have it." Jack nodded.
"And Consort Leslie's alright with this?"
"She took it... Surprisingly well..."
"Wait... How well?" Lucius asked as Jack went over the conversation.
"That's all the chastising she did?"
Jack nodded.
"Hmmmm... While Leslie is the most well-grounded lady I know, after all the years I've known her... I just can't help but say that she let you off a bit too easy."
"Too easy?"
"You just picked up another Consort without any prior agreement, even if Prin-Consort Eris, so to say, tricked you... She didn't press more? I feel she's either bottling that up or going to use it on you in the future."
"Use it on me?"
"You've never heard of a lady bringing something up from years ago to argue with their husband? Holdover their heads? What about just to guilt them?" Lucius made clearer his meaning.
"Oh... That might be a problem... Any suggestions?"
"Talk with her again but wait a while. That's all I'm going to say... I'm going to go get everything prepared. Until this event, my Lord." Lucius stood up, bowed, and took his leave without Jack getting a chance to detain him further.
Jack rapped his fingers on his desk a few times, "How long are you going to wait before you show yourself, my little pet?"
The window opened, and Eris crawled through.
[This is why the office didn't have a window, to begin with, isn't it...] Jack thought to himself about his choice of having installed a window.
Eris crawled over to Jack, and into his lap, as she purred, "You didn't come to see me first thing."