Weapon seller in the world of magic

A few days later;

Thousands of citizens gathered on the sidewalks, watching a large number of troops walking in Genesis City. Every soldier was stripped of their armor and weapons and had their cultivation bases sealed.

King Qi, who alone had all of these intact, was leading the troop in the front with his head hung down just like his seventeen hundred soldiers. He was escorted by Alina alone without a single robot or any soldier of Eol's army.

Wearing pure white armor that Eol once wore when he was in the body of an Android, Alina led the prisoners in steady steps to the Palace gates, where Mark and his robotic army were waiting for them.

Upon reaching him, Alina went down to one of his knees and bowed, "Milord, your task is accomplished. Due to the resistance, I killed 4342 enemies and took the remaining enemies as prisoners after King Qi surrendered. However, on the way, some of them tried to escape. As a result, 62 more were killed, and escorted the remaining 1706 to the capital city. But, rest assured, not one enemy has escaped."

Mark stepped forward and patted Alina's shoulder, "Well done, Commander Alina. You broke the will of the enemies all by yourself. Escort the prisoners to the Detention Center and lock them up in the cells. We will see if I have to release them or destroy their cultivation and throw them in Blackstone prison."

"Understood, Milord." As Alina got up, Mark shifted his attention to the man standing beside her, "King Qi."

The man raised his head to look at Mark. His eyes seemed lifeless, as if he had lost the will to live and was prepared to get beheaded.

Mark then said, "Follow me. We have things to talk about."

After a while, at the Administration building,

In Mark's office, King Qi sat on the sofa; his eyes retained some hope to live but also extremely nervous, based on how his enemy was treating him so far. Nevertheless, he didn't have any plans to ambush a demigod like Mark.

Serving him the cup of coffee and then serving one for himself, Mark dragged the chair and sat before him, "I might have born a prince, and now I might be a King, but I have a businessman's heart, King Qi. So, don't worry. You won't die if you have something valuable to trade for it."

King Qi couldn't help but abruptly raise his head to look at Mark in surprise, "Trade my life with something? I will give you all the treasures I have in my storage ring and also our ancestral treasures lying in our treasury back at my palace." His eyes were now filled with hope. They were no longer lifeless. The nervousness also disappeared for a moment.

However, Mark shook his head with a smile, "I'm afraid that won't suffice." Taking a sip of coffee, Mark continued, "You are our prisoner, King Qi. The reason you weren't stripped of your powers and the weapons is because you have some use to me, and for that to happen, you need to keep your reputation. Regardless, as the winner, I already own everything that was on you, including the things in your storage ring. As for your ancestral treasures in your palace treasury, they would also be mine soon, anyway, once I defeat the Shi Dynasty."

"So, what is it that you want, then?" King Qi once again grew nervous.

Mark answered, "First things first, I need to know about the list of lords that are too loyal to Emperor Shi and the ones that are too selfish. Secondly, I need you to formally declare independence from Leon Empire and merge with ours. Of course, I will give you partial autonomy for the first ten years. After that, your state will attain full autonomy. As a bonus, I will also give you your surrounding territories once my conquest is over. This is the proposal from me. Accept it, and I'll let you return to your home. The imprisoned soldiers will return with respect once the declaration has been made."

"What if I deny?" King Qi asked nervously, just trying to probe Mark's line.

Mark calmly put down the cup and said, "I'll kill you and your army right now. Since your state is on the border with the forest, I'll first invade your land and raze everything to dust. Even if you return and don't fulfill the promise in the following 48 hours, I'll still do the same. If I have to kill all of your five hundred thousand soldiers waiting at your place and trying to protect it, I will do that without any hesitation.

I don't show mercy to my enemies who aren't useful to my objectives. And I never let go of the hand of my friends who stand behind me and support my decisions either. So, it is your choice, King Qi. Stand behind me, or you will find yourself standing against me. Be my friend or be my enemy. No third option here to choose."

It didn't take long for King Qi to decide at all. He agreed to the deal and left the city a day later. A rank-8 robot escorted him to the border and returned.

Meanwhile, at the imperial palace, Emperor Shi was holding a meeting with the Dwarven kingdom's prime minister and the crown prince, putting forth a formal alliance.

At first, the Dwarves felt tempted to form an alliance, but then the news of King Qi's return was received by them, and they held it off, asking for time to think about it, using an excuse that their King could not be easily convinced by Emperor Shi's proposal when no such threatening letter came from Genesis Federation. Not to mention the fact that the dwarves were never the adventuring type, they didn't have an issue with whether Bloodhill Forest was captured or stayed free.

Emperor Shi summoned King Qi to the palace to understand what happened. As soon as he got the news, the emperor sent his eunuch to summon him.

However, a day later, the eunuch returned alone with nothing but a letter.

The eunuch presented the letter to the Emperor in the assembly as he was told.

The letter was, shockingly, the Letter of Independence. The second largest region of the Empire rebelled against the throne. The letter also further demanded the head of the prince who dared to abduct the Queen of Golden Eagle Kingdom.

Early in the morning, Mark went for a walk to inspect the farming land that had just been created after clearing the wild trees and plants over there. As he was enriching the land with his divine energy, Alina appeared out of nowhere, teleporting right next to him with a piece of good news from Leon Empire.

Mark couldn't help but smile and mumble, "it looks like King Qi stayed true to his promise. Now, for the next thing… throwing the empire into chaos."