Cleaning up was more of a headache than the battle itself.
Specifically, it was the recovery of debris.
We used automated drones designed for debris collection to handle the process.
The actual combat, including the withdrawal, had lasted about half a day.
The debris recovery, however, was expected to take two weeks.
It wasn’t that the nearby sector was unusable, but even so, the effort didn’t feel like it quite balanced the books.
I recruited residents from the Former Magellan Territory—now part of the Grand Duchy of Chronos—to serve as workers, as unemployment was high there.
The Magellanic people weren’t as suited for this kind of work as those from the Galactic Empire. They were perpetually lackadaisical.
Consequently, I had to place strict Chronosian site supervisors over them to keep things moving.
Well, it was fine, I suppose.
Because Ozen had gone completely silent, the trade industry and its related companies had seen a massive spike in unemployment.
This project served as a way to absorb those jobless workers.
Of course, asking white-collar office workers to haul debris was a bit of a stretch.
But when you really think about it, most human labor consists of paperwork and sales anyway.
As for the logistics after collection, I could simply funnel the work to transport tanker companies.
We had a massive amount of wreckage from the Ozen battleships.
Only the cargo had changed.
While the recovery itself would take two weeks, this was a legitimate war between nations, unlike a skirmish with pirates. It was a mountain of treasure.
Dismantling the ships and recycling the components would take until the end of the year.
In the meantime, they just needed to find new trade work with Latarnia or Chronos.
Besides, we were going to be transporting massive quantities of rice to Chronos soon anyway.
Lately, I had been finding that things I never had to consider as a mere soldier were now part of my job description.
I felt as though the game board had grown larger than ever before.
Anyway, the day after the operation ended, we transitioned into the Magellan Recapture Operation.
We could have focused solely on defense, but I figured it would be safer to just seize Magellan while everyone was still in a state of confusion.
To be honest, I didn't really want the place.
But actions like this required a righteous cause.
We decided to frame it as an appeal for the protection of the Magellanic people.
First came the reconnaissance.
Kevin was busy with his shifts in internal medicine.
So, I left it to the Reconnaissance Squad this time.
The results were exactly what I had anticipated.
The commoners had been rounded up into camps and subjected to ethically abhorrent modification surgeries.
Without anesthetic, naturally.
Anyone over forty had been systematically slaughtered for industrial purposes.
I won't get into the grisly details, but they were essentially treated as "used parts."
Aside from the few currently alive, the Magellanic people—men, women, and children alike—had been exterminated.
That would have been our fate, too, if we had lost to Zork or the Proone.
We dispatched our soldiers.
Since we were publicly calling for their protection, we had to follow through with a rescue.
Because the Ozen Main Force had already retreated, the mission was a simple extraction.
At most, we ran into small skirmishes with security drones.
Even those were safely neutralized with EMP grenades.
Those drones weren't designed to fight off an external army; they were there to ensure the Magellanics didn't escape.
With the exception of a lucky few, there were no survivors.
Few people pressed the soldiers for answers or broke down in tears.
They simply stood there, paralyzed by despair.
They knew their lives had been unjustly stolen, yet they didn't seek revenge. They just remained hollow and still.
The people of the Ogre God Nation were absolutely livid about this.
To them, revenge was the highest moral act.
They believed every single Magellanic had a duty to retaliate against Ozen.
So, I had a talk with Saria.
Saria understood that the morality of the Ogre God Nation couldn't be forced upon people of other nations.
Thus, the two of us sat there, racking our brains.
A half-hearted resolution wouldn't do anyone any good.
Latarnia had been the ones to destroy the Proone, which had at least partially satisfied their old grudges.
We were the ones who had wiped out Zork.
The Ghouls still survived somewhere, but the extermination campaign was ongoing, involving the usual four nations plus the Battle Dome.
The one currently leading the charge for vengeance was Second Generation Saint Tatiana.
She was in the very thick of it.
However, the spirits of the Magellanic people had been utterly broken.
The outcome the Ogre God Nation wanted might be impossible to achieve.
"I wish there were some way to fix this," Saria sighed.
Actually, I did have a plan.
It was a way to govern the troublesome land of Magellan properly.
"Actually, I was thinking of letting an old family rule the Former Magellan Territory."
A descendant of the former Magellanic Nobles had been found.
A man in his thirties.
I could simply grant him the title of Chronosian Noble and shove Magellan off on him.
I’d leave the revenge and everything else for him to handle.
He could even declare independence in the future for all I cared.
I didn't particularly want Magellan.
Just keep the rice coming!
That was the kind of relationship I wanted.
The question was whether they even had the will to retaliate.
Chronos could handle it alone, of course.
But I wanted the Magellanic people to find their spirit again.
Revenge is a ritual for reclaiming one's self-esteem and pride.
The reason we in the Galactic Empire had so much mental bandwidth was because we had triumphed over Zork.
I didn't want to be responsible for a populace whose hearts had rotted away in brokenness.
I believed there were wounds of the soul that only victory and retribution could heal.
It was a very "brute-force" way of thinking, but what else could I do?
I wasn't arrogant enough to tell them to live in misery with their heads down forever.
The idea that there is growth to be found in defeat is something you only say after you've won a thousand times.
So, I put out a call for Magellanic soldiers.
If you want to destroy Ozen, sign up here!
A few days later, our fleet bypassed the debris field and began the march toward Ozen.
Now, here is a bit of unfortunate news.
The humor was gone...
A suffocating atmosphere had taken hold, the kind where a Jester couldn't even survive.
The people of the Ogre God Nation were smiling as they watched the Magellanic soldiers burning with the need for vengeance, but the Magellanics themselves looked like hollowed-out ghosts... It was stifling.
Tatiana caught a cold, and Alyssa, who had been in contact with her, went down too. She was likely infected.
Even I felt an ache through my entire body.
I knew what it was... I had fallen ill as well.
I took my medicine and tried to rest.
Since Kevin’s experience in internal medicine was lacking, I had an online consultation and took the prescribed meds.
My wives were barred from visiting me.
Yes... this was a phenomenon that hadn't even occurred during the Zork War.
Perhaps the very air of the place had tilted too far toward despair.
That was the depth of the hopelessness the Magellanic people felt.
As I lay in bed, Zashiki-warashi-chan appeared at my side.
"Ah, this feels like... when Alexander the Great was dying..."
A dark joke slipped from my lips.
"Don't give up," she said, placing a hand on my head.
"I'm not giving up. I have people waiting for me."
"I am waiting. And Lou is waiting, too."
"Yeah..."
I gave her a thumbs-up.
Then, I drifted off again.
When I finally woke up, a disaster was waiting for me.
Well, it was the kind of disaster I could at least laugh at... but we had reached a point where I seriously had to rethink the Jester.