A week has passed since the Lemurian Empire announced the return of all prisoners of war. ......
　Indeed, all the prisoners were able to return to the Kingdom of Bulgaron.

　At the same time, all the Bulgarons were shaken up.

　It was ......


　What the hell is this?

　The King of Bulgaron said, his face turning pale.
　The prisoners of war returning from the Lemurian Empire were spread out below King Bulgalon.

　The prisoners of war were grouped in groups of a hundred, totaling about two hundred.
　In other words, there were 20,000 of them.

　This huge number of prisoners were walked from the border of Lemuria to the border of Bulgalon. ......
　The horror was in their faces.

　From the faces of the prisoners, ......



　The eyeballs were missing.




　"Hee ......

　King Bourgaron was stunned.
　A face without eyeballs, which should be there, is extremely grotesque, and 20,000 of them are walking in a row.
　It's very hard to keep a normal mind.

　"Oh yeah, ......, where's the telerig?　Where's Terelig?

　King Bulgalon is looking for his beloved son, Telerig.
　Fortunately, he found Terelig.

　But ......

　"Father, is it ......?
　"Oh, Telerig!

　King Bulgalon embraced Terelig.
　Without exception, Terelig had his eyes gouged out.

　
　Afterwards, the prisoners were identified and ......
　It was firmly confirmed that all the prisoners had been returned to the Kingdom of Bulgalon.

　But this was not good news.
　But this was not good news, because it meant that the eyes of all the prisoners had been gouged out.

　"Your Majesty, the confirmation is complete. It appears that only one in a hundred has one eye left.
　"Well, ......

　It's not a mercy.
　It was just to show him the way.

　And, Your Majesty, there's something I'd like you to see. ......
　What is it?
　No, it's nothing urgent, and it can wait until you're more comfortable. ......
　Show me now.

　When King Bulgalon said this to his men, ......
　The man's face twitched with fear as he brought out several of his captives.

　They were prisoners with only one eye gouged out.

　The prisoners turned their backs on King Bulgalon and took off their tattered clothes.
　Their backs were branded with the Lemurian language.

　"To the enemies of my country and God, and to the bats who still refuse to reveal their position. You're next.

　Something to that effect was written on it.

　I checked and all the one-eyed prisoners had this inscription on them. Can we really send them back to their families or not ...... Your Majesty?　Your Majesty the King?　Your Majesty!

　King Bulgalon was so shocked that he collapsed with the whites of his eyes.






　Hercule's "return of the prisoners" went around the entire Bulgaron Kingdom.
　The burden of feeding more than 20,000 blind people weighed heavily on the Kotormir clan and its allied tribes.

　The prelude to the fall of the Kingdom of Bulgalon was when the neutral faction, led by the Territorial Clans, which had until now remained neutral, decided to vassalize with the Lemurian Empire and began attacking the Kotormir Clan and its allied tribes.

　Although the military power of the Kotormir clan was still intact, they were unable to deal with it in unison due to low morale and the absence of a commander-in-chief, and suffered defeat after defeat.

　The defeats themselves were small and not enough to diminish the power of the Kotormir clan. ......
　The psychological impact was so great that the tribes of the Cothrumia faction, feeling uneasy, left one after another and came under Lemuria's sway.
　As if the teeth of a comb were falling out, the Kotormian clan began to collapse.

　And then, as if to put a stop to it, the allied forces of the Lemurian Empire and the Crom Clan invaded the Kingdom of Bulgalon once again.
　In this expedition, the Lemurian army did not stop and approached the capital straight away.

　Sandwiched between Lemuria and the Territorial Clans, and betrayed by numerous allied tribes, ......
　King Bulgalon finally collapsed from the heartache.

　The blind Telerig could not succeed to the throne, and the second and third sons of the Bulgaron royal family competed for the throne.
　The third son enlisted the help of the Lemurian army to defeat the second son and became the chieftain of the Kotormir clan.
　However, he soon fell into disfavor with Hercule and was imprisoned and executed a few days later.

　His eldest son, Telerig, secretly fled with his men.

　With the destruction of the royal and clan families, the Kotormir clan was effectively destroyed.
　The Kingdom of Bulgalon effectively collapsed and the Kotormia clan was placed under the control of the Lemurian Empire.

　It was four years after the war between the Bulgaron Kingdom and the Lemurian Empire began.

　Thereafter, a small remnant group led by Telerig had been operating as guerrillas in the Kingdom of Bulgalon, but Telerig and the Kotormir clan already had no power to attract the people of Bulgalon.

　With the help of Alicia, who knew Terelig very well, the ex-Cotrumia Bulgarons who had contacts that Terelig could rely on, Nia and Jebe who were skilled in raiding, and Hercule's relentless pursuit, ......

　In the end, Terelig was captured by Jebe and taken to Nova Lemuria before being executed.

　It was one year after the Bulgaron Kingdom had practically collapsed, and with Terelig's execution, the Bulgaron Kingdom was destroyed in both name and reality.


　Thus ended the Lemurian-Bulgarian War, which lasted about five years.







　So, now the three hundred and fifty thousand people of the Bulgaron Kingdom are newly under our control.

　Hercule muttered as he looked at the results of the population survey conducted in the Kingdom of Bulgalon.
　The exact population of each clan had been determined.

　Hercule ordered the heads of the clans that had come under his control to report the population of their clans.
　At the moment, the clans are deeply afraid of Hercule, so it is safe to assume that the figures are highly accurate.

　However, people's memories fade.


　At some point, some clans will think, "If I underreport the population, they won't notice.

　But we can take care of that later.
　For now, the fact that we have a population of 350,000 is significant.

　"That's a lot of people. I didn't think you could drink an entire country dry, Master Hercule.

　The one who praised Hercule was Cecilia, who was now twenty-two years old.
　Cecilia, now twenty-two years old, had already graduated from being a girl to becoming a respectable woman.

　However, her appearance does not seem to have changed much since she was eighteen.

　Cecilia's physical peak was at eighteen, and the inherited magic of the Medium has slowed her aging process.

　Cecilia will probably maintain this appearance for about a hundred years.

　Incidentally, her breasts have grown, but her back has not grown much.
　She is concerned about this, and measures her height every morning, but she has not grown any more.

　My lack of exercise has not changed.

　I hear they call you the 'Bulgurgeon Killer'.　
　Yeah.
　I don't think that's a very good title. ......

　It's not a very good title, I'm afraid." Cecilia couldn't help but chuckle at the proud expression on Hercule's face.
　I'm not sure if it's a good idea, but it's a good idea.

　"So what is it you want to talk about, Mr. Hercule?
　"I intend to divide Bulgaron into several provinces, and I want to establish an archbishopric and a bishopric. I need your help with that.
　"That means you'll be proselytizing to the Bulgarons!

　Cecilia looked pleased.
　It's not only the spread of Messianism among the Bulgars, but also the offensive of the orthodox Messianic High Priestesses (Mediums).

　Yeah, I'm going to go ahead and do a mass conversion of the Bulgaron clan leaders.
　A little from the top and a little from the bottom, you mean!
　I see.

　Forced conversion from the top by Hercule and urged conversion from the bottom by the preacher sent by Cecilia.
　It was an attempt to convert the Bulgars into Messianics.

　In addition to religion, we're going to have a gradual assimilation policy. At first, we'll ask them to keep their traditional way of life.

　If you suddenly ask them to change their lifestyle, they will not do so.
　Therefore, we will continue the assimilation policy little by little.

　For a while, the military and civilian governments will coexist.

　After that, we'll build some new cities, build roads, ports, ...... you name it.
　"Please rule as moderately as possible. Now that the war is over, we don't need to hate each other anymore, do we?

　Cecilia said, and Hercule shrugged his shoulders.

　I can only say that it depends on their attitude. But, well, I have no intention of oppressing them.

　If they start a rebellion again, we won't be able to handle it.
　But the problem is that they don't know how to live.

　But the problem is that their lifestyle does not match with the Messianic religion.
　Is that so?
　They are always on the move, but the Church cannot. They can't travel all the way to a church in the city just for the Sabbath. Missionary work might be difficult.

　This was also the reason why Messianism had not spread in the Bulgalon Kingdom until now.
　Messianism is a religion that has developed to fit the lifestyle of the Lemurians, so it cannot be applied to the Bulgars.

　Hercule is in trouble: ......
　I'm not sure what to do.

　So why don't we just move the church?　
　"...... What are you talking about?
　If the house moves, the church moves.　If the house is mobile, there is no reason why the church should not be mobile. Let's have one church per tribe.

　Hercule didn't know what Cecilia was talking about for a moment, but ......
　He thought about it for a while and finally realized what she meant.

　For Hercule, a church was a building. 　
　But to Cecilia, a church is just a facility, and she has no problem with it being a yurt.

　It's a shame ...... that you don't realize how easy it is for me to do something like that.

　Hercule couldn't help but laugh.