I teleport out of the Great Ello Dungeon.
Since everyone probably thinks I'm dead by now, showing up out of nowhere would cause a panic, so this time I teleport to a location far from the city.
First, I use Clairvoyance to scope out the situation.
Hm?
Are there fewer soldiers than usual?
Fewer adventurers too.
Less than half the usual number.
What's going on?
Oh well. Whatever.
The vampire girl is doing the same as always.
Growing nicely inside her mansion.
My babies are growing faster, though.
But I really shouldn't compare her to them.
Oh?
The vampire girl's father, the city lord, isn't there either.
Hmm.
No soldiers, no adventurers.
No city lord either.
But the city is still functioning normally.
Is there a war going on somewhere?
If some powerful Monster appeared and they needed to go subjugate it, the city lord wouldn't necessarily need to deploy personally. From what I've seen, the city lord is fairly strong — for a human, anyway.
Which means it's possible he led a contingent of soldiers and some adventurers, departing in the capacity of a general. That's possible, but in that scenario, war seems more likely than a Monster subjugation.
Could it be that they've actually gone to war with the country of that guy I killed? There was that conversation about a potential attack by the Demon King before all this, but...
Was that serious? I figured it was just a threat to gain diplomatic leverage, but apparently it was real.
Religion is terrifying.
Still, this is all speculation. It's not confirmed that a war has actually broken out.
I want to verify, so I think I'll do a little information-gathering in the city. Time to activate my new Skill — Concealment.
This Skill evolved from Camouflage. It seems to have the effect of removing whatever I want to hide from other people's perception.
So if I use it on myself, my form won't be perceived by anyone.
The Stealth-type Skills that had been half dead thanks to my "Terror Bringer" Title are finally making a comeback.
The "Terror Bringer" Title's effect is to inflict fear on anyone who sees me. So if my form isn't visible, that effect doesn't trigger. It's been confirmed that "not perceiving" equals "not seeing."
Now I can go all out with my stealth operations.
I activate Concealment and Stealth, and turn off intimidation Skills like Emperor and the other passive skills I always have running.
I slip through the city's defenses with ease and infiltrate without anyone noticing.
I move along the rooftops and eavesdrop on the residents' conversations.
Yep, war has officially broken out.
It's all anyone's talking about.
Walk a little and you hear "war, war." There are actually fewer people talking about anything else.
Apparently, they're at war with a nation called the Outs Kingdom. And the Outs Kingdom — sure enough — is the country of the guy I assassinated.
And that country is where the exit to the Great Ello Dungeon is located.
For years, the Saliela Kingdom where I'm currently based and the Outs Kingdom have been at odds over religious differences. On top of that, the Monster that destroyed a fortress in the Outs Kingdom is now being worshipped as a Divine Beast in the enemy nation.
Yeah, I can see why the Outs Kingdom wouldn't be too happy about that.
The Outs Kingdom follows a religion called the Divine Word Faith.
The Saliela Kingdom follows the Goddess Faith.
In terms of scale, the Divine Word Faith has more believers worldwide, but the Saliela Kingdom has far greater national power than the Outs Kingdom.
This delicate balance of power had been holding steady — and then I showed up.
From the Outs Kingdom's perspective, I must have been a real headache.
National prestige was at stake, and they wanted to eliminate me, the Monster that had destroyed their fortress.
But I'm being worshipped as a Divine Beast in the enemy nation.
To eliminate me without causing a diplomatic incident, they'd first need to bring me into their own country.
That's why that guy was appointed as a negotiator.
Thinking about it, the negotiation probably didn't matter either way — success or failure, it was all the same to the Outs Kingdom's upper echelons.
They just wanted to use me as a pretext to start a war.
Otherwise, they wouldn't have put such an incompetent man in the role of negotiator. And having that guy serve as a goodwill ambassador to the enemy nation was bound to cause problems eventually.
If the Saliela Kingdom declared war based on that incident, it would be a bonus for the Outs Kingdom.
They could start a war under the banner of self-defense.
Everything was going according to plan.
But this time, because I killed that guy, both sides ended up in an awkward position.
The Saliela Kingdom could blame the Outs Kingdom for attempting to illegally harm a Divine Beast.
The Outs Kingdom could blame the Saliela Kingdom for having their diplomat killed by that Divine Beast.
It probably settled into a draw, but then I disappeared.
And apparently, it's been put out that I was killed by agents of the Divine Word Faith.
In reality, it was the Demon King who got me, but there's no way the common people would know that.
I don't know which side spread the false information, but at the very least, in the Saliela Kingdom, the momentum toward war seems to be going full speed ahead.
From what I can overhear from the residents, most of the talk is about "avenging our Divine Beast!"
They've been completely manipulated.
Ugh. I have no idea what the higher-ups in these countries are thinking, but it's clear that both nations were champing at the bit to start a war.
And I was the pawn they used to justify it.
That's annoying.
What are you all getting so fired up for when the person involved isn't even here?
And you didn't even bother to consider what I wanted.
If you wanted to start a war that badly, just go ahead and do it without making up some noble cause. Don't use me as your excuse.