As the battle concluded, the king presented Esther with a report of the casualties within the capital. The fighting involved Jewish residents scattered throughout the city streets [אבן עזרא]. The destruction was absolute, as the fighters eliminated not only the men but also their children [אבן עזרא], uprooting entire families to ensure no one would remain to seek revenge [מגילת סתרים]. This resulted in total ruin for their enemies [אור חדש].
The king's underlying attitude as he delivered this report is a subject of varied interpretation. Some understand that he spoke from a place of anger and resentment over the heavy loss of life within his kingdom. By emphasizing the death toll, he intended to tell Esther that enough blood had been shed. His sudden shift to asking if she had any further requests was so uncharacteristic of an angry ruler that it is said an angel struck his mouth, forcing him to speak softly and offer her more [תורה תמימה, אור חדש]. Others suggest his words stemmed from love and sudden alarm. He realized the sheer magnitude of the danger his Jewish subjects faced. If five hundred enemies dared to rise up right in the heavily guarded capital, the threat in distant provinces must be exponentially worse. Consequently, he offered Esther further help to save her people [מלבי״ם, אבן עזרא].
A distinctly different approach argues the king was actually disappointed by the Jews' perceived weakness. Considering Mordecai's immense authority as viceroy, the king viewed the death of only five hundred men and Haman's already broken sons as an embarrassing failure. Assuming the Jews in the outer provinces had achieved even less, he offered Esther an additional day to execute a more thorough campaign and publicly hang Haman's sons [מנות הלוי]. Conversely, the king might have been thoroughly amazed by their success, noting that the fallen were powerful and important men. His wonder about what had occurred in the rest of the provinces was not a question of ignorance, but an exclamation of awe. If five hundred fell in a single city, the total across one hundred and twenty-seven provinces must be staggering [אבן עזרא, עמנואל הרומי, ביאור שטיינזלץ]. In this view, he was gently suggesting to Esther that her original request had been fully realized and she should be completely satisfied [יוסף אבן יחיא].
Despite the king's report, Esther recognized the need to extend the campaign. Because they lived under the immediate shadow of the monarchy, the Jews in the capital had stopped fighting by evening, unlike their brethren in the provinces who fought into the night [צאינה וראינה]. Moreover, the central focus of the battle was the eradication of Amalek's descendants. Seeing that a single day was insufficient to eliminate the large number of Amalekites still hiding within the capital, Esther knew an extension was absolutely necessary [מגילת סתרים].