"'Long live General Alexios!　Long live General Alexios!　Long live General Alexios!

　Alexios makes a triumphant return on horseback through the main streets of the capital city of Rosais.
　Behind Alexios, 9,000 soldiers looked in confidence at the general for his brilliant victory.

　The citizens of Rosais greeted them with cheers of joy.
　Flower petals danced and trumpets and applause dominated the main street.

　There was no longer a single citizen who would belittle Alexios as a foreigner or anything else.
　The man there was not a foreigner, but a great general who had successfully brought down a country.

　Alexios was welcomed into the Kingdom of Romalia in both name and reality.





　One month later.........

　Finally, all of Zordias is under control.

　I looked up from Bartolo's report.
　Now I breathe.

　'Your food rations have paid off. You've allowed me to welcome them relatively uneventfully.

　The Zordians did not initially welcome Almus and the other Romalians.
　No people would welcome an invader.

　But as soon as Almus distributed food to the Zordias, exempted them from taxes, and released the captives they had captured, they became more cooperative with the Romarians.
　Many Zordias have had their families killed by the Romalian army.
　But they can't feed on hatred.

　Many Zordias chose to shake off their hatred and grab the hand that Romalia had extended to them.

　Of course, there are many who cannot forget their hatred.
　But they were quickly diminishing in number.

　This was because Bartolo and Alexios squashed the seeds of rebellion one by one.

　Thus, the country of King Zoldias was absorbed by the Kingdom of Romalia peacefully, even though it had been invaded.

　'So how will Zoldias rule?　Do you want to send out tax collection contractors and local officials to conduct censuses and population surveys as you do at home?

　Ial asked me about the policy of governing the occupied territories.
　Up until now, the occupied territories had been delivered under the same system as the Kingdom of Romalia, even if a bit forcefully. It would ultimately make things easier later on.　
　But.........

　'I intend to follow the system of King Zoldias' country as it is. And apparently, Zordias is a rather quirky country.

　King Zordias' country is the poorest land in the country in the areas he has occupied so far.
　On top of that, the local influential people are very powerful.
　If they were to turn against them, it would take years to level Zordias.

　If that happens, Alexios' efforts will be for naught.

　So, for a while, we won't be much different from Zordias.
　Well, unlike Zordias, our country has a lot of financial resources, so we don't have to collect heavy taxes.

　Stability is best.

　No matter how, the land is not very profitable for agriculture and cattle farming.
　We should try to prevent a big deficit.

　Well, we'll do a census of the land.

　Your Majesty, by the way. What will we do in response to King Gilbeth?　It's due today, but...
　...I've seen that happen.

　A week after the capture of the royal city of Zordias.
　A letter of intent arrived from King Gilbed's country. The contents are simple.

　Since I helped in the economic blockade, give me a third of your territory.

　And you should give us a third of your territory.

　Well, I understand what they want.
　This victory is about 30 percent thanks to Gilbed. It's true that giving away a third of the concessions is the way to go.

　But.....
　First the soldiers will complain. They'll wonder why we have to do a third to a gil bed that hasn't bled when we've bled.

　And I don't like it personally either.
　For a start, I've been stalling on answering because I haven't leveled the whole area yet, but....

　That was also due today.

　'What do you think we should do?　Speak your mind.
　'I think we should split the ends a little. A third is a lot, but maybe a quarter.

　A land that is not very fruitful anyway. It doesn't hurt at all.
　So that's it?

　I certainly want to get along with Gilbed as much as possible, though.
　Do we have to give them territory to get along with us?

　I'm about to end my relationship with these guys, okay?　Does that make sense?

　'It was to split Gilbed, Fardham and Domorgal. .........because Faldum and Domorgal have accused me of doing so.

　I knew it was wrong to destroy one of the Seven Kingdoms, and statements of condemnation flew in from Fardham and Domorgal.
　It's like Civilization V.

　'We should avoid isolation after all. Bringing Gilbed into the fold will lessen the diplomatic pressure a bit. Besides, the bad Romalia, who destroyed one of the Seven Kingdoms, ceded the territory of the Seven Kingdoms to Gilbed, and he's a bad guy. We should also be able to recognize that.

　Yeah, you're good. Let's do it that way.

　More and more, the relationship between Fardham and Gilbed is going to get worse and worse.
　I can't stop laughing.

　Now, we can discuss Zordias' method of governance and future diplomacy separately.
　For now.....

　Copper mine. We're gonna develop it as soon as possible.

　The Land of King Zoldias.
　The only thing that could be said to be of value was the Zordias copper mine.

　This was to be developed on a large scale by bringing in Cilician engineers.

　'So I've brought in a guy who knows his stuff.

　I clapped my hands to signal them, and the door slowly opened to reveal two figures.

　'Thank you for inviting us in. I'll leave the geological survey to you!

　One is Nikolaos, a court scholar of the Kingdom of Romalia.
　And the other one....

　Well, I can give you some advice. That's what my great-grandson's husband asks of me.

　The former Pretender of Gehenna.
　A man who once developed the gold mine in Gehenna. Abraham.

　'So, what does a mining development have to look out for?

　Of course, I'm not asking you how to dig for minerals, but I'm not asking you how to dig for minerals, because I'm the king and I don't have to worry about that.
　I'm not asking you how to dig for minerals, but I'm the king, and I don't need to worry about that. You can leave all that to the technicians.

　That's not what I'm saying.

　'In the process of developing the mine, they cut down the mountain. So the mountain vegetation will be destroyed. ........If we do it without a plan, the people will resent us. However, it's impossible to avoid it. We should prepare for a guarantee. When I was developing Jinshan, I prepared land for the inhabitants of the surrounding villages to settle on.

　Abraham talks about his experience in a matter-of-fact way.
　Well, it's the same with rock salt around here. Since we're cutting down the mountain, it can't help but be an environmental disaster.

　''But the copper mines are dangerous, Your Majesty. It seems that copper is poisonous, and when you dig for copper, the water is poisoned. Moreover, the copper refining process also produces a large amount of poison. The villages around the copper mine would still be better off if they were to be forcibly relocated.

　I've heard about the copper mine poisoning at Ashio.
　So, I guess we can't avoid mineral poisoning after all.

　Well, it's inevitable.

　The people living around the copper mine need to get out.
　That's a hell of a lot better than dying of poisoning.

　Soil contamination....
　Well, it just makes the originally trashy yielding land more trashy, but it doesn't change the point that it's a trashy yielding land after all....

　There's no need to worry about it.

　It wouldn't affect the grain fields of Romalia.

　Afterwards, I asked Abraham and Nikolaos about their various mining expertise, and then I sent them back.

　Then I call Raimondo over.

　"Raimondo. "Raimondo," he said, "I have a special budget of five hundred tarrant. "Raimondo, I want you to make a special budget of five hundred tarrant for the development of the copper mines and the construction of the coin manufactory.
　Five hundred? You're spending a lot of money.

　Abraham chattered in from the side.
　Incidentally, the current revenue of our country is about 5,000 tarrant.

　This is a large-scale project that requires 10% of the national budget.

　The current situation of relying on imports for currency is not good. First of all, we will mint gold and copper coins.

　Gold coins, the highest currency of the country, and copper coins, the most necessary for daily life.
　The advantage of issuing these two coins is great.

　"It's a good time to have my face in it.　It's good publicity. Also, the crest........oh!
　What's going on?
　Julius, of the House of Julius, not making a royal coat of arms!

　What I did was....
　You're still Rosais.

　

　........I'm in trouble. Is there an artist out there somewhere?
　That being said, though, when it comes to flags and royal emblems, I wouldn't put it in the hands of a bad artist.

　The truth is that we were supposed to have it all before the founding of the country, but we didn't have a skilled artist.
　Adelnians seek ease of use and cheapness in things, but not design, which makes it difficult for them to develop artists in the first place.

　Recently, with the spread of the money economy, the nobles have begun to buy art, and so the demand has risen, but....

　I'd like to invite you from Cilicia. Would anyone like to move to the Adelian peninsula?






　Kuchun!
　Master, are you okay?
　No, I'm fine, I'm fine. ...Is someone gossiping about me?　Well, anyway, now that we're on the Adelunian peninsula, let's get on with building the naked statue!
　Is there a demand for it?