Seeing their badly-shaped corpses, I couldn’t help but shake my head and commented, “Without mana, a Magus is no different than a mortal. Luckily, I’ve made sure not to damage their heads. Although maybe I should just electrocute them or poison them so it was less-damaging.”

Subconsciously, I had my eyes locked into the robot holding a box at the side. Observing the Magus earlier had given lots of data. By deducting the cause of the magic phenomenon, ATA had determined that the 3% unknown gas on the atmosphere which seemed to be called mana was the sole cause. With hasty, I made the box to countermeasure them. The box itself blocked the mana on the air from coming within 20 meters range. Thus, making the group of Magus unable to cast any spell.

“Sigh… Mana is something bizarre and alien to me. Fortunately, the observation on them prior discovered such a thing. If not, it would become troublesome to handle them.”

Without further ado, I ordered the robots to carry their body to the Mind Hall to have their memory extracted. Not forgetting to take their Interspatial Rings and other belongings.

Out of the blue, ATHENA commented cheerfully, [Master~! Did you not know that with advanced nanobots, Master could command the robots without saying any command?]

“Wait, what?! I can do that?” Intrigued, I got one of the robots near me to move by just thinking, and it worked. Annoyed by the late information, I rebuked, “If there’s such crucial information. You should have told me from earlier!”

[Master didn't ask… But I’ll keep that in mind or database to tell Master later.] Wait, did it… I mean she has just dodge my question? Just how much smart is she right now? Well, the smarter she’s the better, and I’ve got some ‘ways’ to deal with her in case she’s to rebel.

Not minding that any further, I stared around the battlefield. Bloodied corpses of soldiers and broken parts of robots were scattered over the charred ground. Dyeing the ground red and black at the same time. No matter how much I held back in this battle to prevent killing. Casualties are unavoidable. This is a cruelty of war, after all.

I felt my body trembled and nausea formed on my stomach when observing such a sight up-close. But then, monotone sounds of the robots echoed throughout the place. Pacifying the rest of the army that was still resisting in chaos.

“Surrender, and your lives will be spared. Surrender, and your lives will be spared. Surrender, and your lives will be spared.” They were repeating this line — again and again. It was effective, however, as the remaining soldiers dropped their weapons and surrendered.

After taking care of all the matter on the battlefield, I went back to the base. While going there, I asked ATHENA the result of the battle.

[Master~! Out of 6023 of their initial number, there's a total of 4,829 soldiers captured alive. 3,219 of them being unconscious caused by electrocution, 1,289 received light-medium injuries, and 321 had heavy injuries and needed immediate treatment.]

“Wow! That’s quite a lot. Treat the badly wounded immediately and have all of them consume a control nanobot. Just slightly brainwash them, no need to be excessive. Also, how many casualties we suffered?" Well, I’m not that cruel to control them alive, but a precaution is a must.

[From the 250 robots that we deployed, 128 had received damage, ranging from slightly damaged to broken into pieces. 34 among them had been reduced to dust by the plant monster, 9 had been blown by the Magus, 23 received a quite serious damaged and needed repair, and the rest suffered slight damage.]

Hmm… so there’s still around 184 fully functional robots that could be deployed. But the Brightmoon City is completely defenseless right now. Why would I waste this golden opportunity?

“Have the slightly broken robots to be repair and prepare the necessities to siege in one hour! I’ll be going to the base to check on things.”

[Your wish is my command.]

Afterward, I reached the base. There were bunkers built near the secluded side of the wall. I had evacuated the refugees to the bunkers ahead of the battle. While Lillie and Brown remained at the spaceship since it was safer. Because the battle had concluded, they were all standing orderly to go back to their settlement outside the base. A dozen robots were patrolling and leading the crowd in the meantime.

Finding that it worked fine, I went to the spaceship. Not a second after I went through the door, Lillie stared at me with eyes of worry before inquiring, “Victor, have the war finish?”

I nodded while patting her head. “No need to be so worried. Be it hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of enemies attacking, I would always protect you.”

"Hehe~, Lillie believes in Victor." She closed her eyes joyfully for my patting. Strangely enough, Brown was staring at me with a weird look.

“Ahem. Enough of that! Brown, Lillie, I want to show you something, follow me to the control room!” They nodded and followed me.

Just when we reached the control room, a robot came from behind and brought with it an unconscious shrewd looking plump middle-aged man. He was wearing a fancy outdoor outfit which obviously showed his status as someone influential.

Upon seeing the shrewd nobleman, Brown's initial carefree look changed into that of a furious old man. Not able to hold any longer, Brown shouted while emitting a murderous intent to him, “Andrei!” Figured, that he’ll be furious.

“Yeah, it’s the new lo…. I mean the bastard that had betrayed the former Lord of Brightmoon.” After saying that, I stared at the uncertain Lillie before asking a question that I had been curious about, “Lillie, is he your blood-related uncle?”

“No… he was father’s most trusted subordinate which father had regarded as his own brother. In the past, he had saved father’s life… To think that it was Uncle Andrei that had betrayed Lillie’s parent…” Sorrow and a trace of hatred were shown on her eyes. No wonder they didn’t look alike. That’s rare to see her show a hateful look, however.

“Anyway, I’ll launch an occupation operation on Brightmoon City in an hour. Would you want to stay in the base or—”

"Lillie want to follow as well." She clenched her fist while looking at me with a determined look.

“How could I possibly leave milady alone? Taking what was her right was also something that cannot be avoided.” Brown also stepped forward.

Finding that they wouldn’t budge no matter what, I nodded. “Okay then. Prepare what you need and we’ll go in one hour!”

““Yes!!””

The Spear Guard and The Red-Nosed Guard Perspectives

The sky was cloudy all over at the Brightmoon City, foretelling signs of misfortune that will come. The city’s air was heavy and reeked of gloom. All caused by the despair townspeople which could be seen on each of their faces. Above the wall of the city, inside a certain watchtower, two guards were lazing around. One of the guards that was sitting on a chair was cleaning his spear, while another with a red nose was staring lazily at the ceiling.

Bored by the quietness of the place, the guard with a spear struck up a conversation, "Fortunately for us, we didn't get conscripted to the army and managed to get away scot-free."

Despite the lure to say something, the red-nosed guard just went silent and kept staring at the ceiling with a lost mind. Irritated, the spear guard shouted, “Hey! Did you hear what I said?”

“What?! Huh? Oh… It’s just… I still feel guilty with the informer from before. The look of his family and him when…” As he said that, the red-nosed guard stared at his own trembling hands, unfocused.

“Don’t think about it too much! it’s not that we could do anything about it either. With a corrupt and evil lord like Andrei, our lives went worse and worse. I heard that Lisa, our childhood friend that works at the bakery had to sell herself to meet the crazy tax demand of the lord."

Usually, the red-nosed guard would reprimand his comrade's blunt words, but this time he didn't even grunt in disapproval. He only stayed silent for a moment, then he stood up and went to the square hole window to sightsee the scenery outside.

He sighed heavily before placing his hands on the wall. “Wouldn’t it be better if the previous lord were to rule again? Damn it! If only I have the power to protect the previous lord back then…." He cursed, gritting his teeth.

“That’s…. I couldn’t be more than agree with it. Strange for you to bring that out though. What kinda wind got into you?” The spear guard tilted his head, a bit confused by his comrade’s unexpected line.

“It’s not that I didn’t have any discontent in my heart. I’m just better holding it down, isn’t that right, Johny?” The red-nosed guard peeked to his comrade with a slight smile.

“Eh… isn’t you a bit cringy than usual, Ronnie?”

“Haha… Thanks for you that I—”

“What? Did you have a change of heart?” Johny was about to continue teasing, but the expression of his comrade made him stopped.

“N-no… it’s not that… B-behind you…” Not a second after that was uttered, Johny convulsed before he fell unconscious from his chair.

The cause of that was a group of faceless looking metal golems holding a strange tube in their hands. One of the golems then spoke with a monotone voice as they encircled the red-nosed guard, “Surrender or be killed.”

This action caused fear in Ronnie’s scalp, he swiftly kneeled and raised his arms.