Teleportation Dagger: Depending on the amount of mana imbued, it can teleport a target to any location at any time. Quality: A+
Very interesting. Its ability alone made it a national-treasure-level item. However, I wasn’t surprised to discover that it existed here in the Reauxgard Empire. Why? Because this was a dungeon. With the DP Catalog, you could buy almost anything as long as you had the DP to spend. Meaning someone had the basic authority to control this dungeon, which was why they’d bought both the monsters and the dagger...
No, wait. That didn’t feel right. I was almost positive that no one other than the long line of emperors had the power to control the DP Catalog. None of them had ever given anyone basic authority like I had with my peeps because the empire had a system in place where only the emperor could wield that power. So one of the previous emperors must’ve bought all this. Then was the information leaked, or did someone find out somehow?
A dagger that size could’ve been discreetly hidden among supplies, and the crime could’ve been committed even without the culprit being nearby. Upon closer inspection, I realized I was right. The dagger was stuck in one of the supplies, placed in just the right spot so it wouldn’t draw anyone’s attention. It must’ve been there when everything had been brought in.
As for the monsters... The only thing I was sure about was that they’d been summoned or something through a dungeon function. When I’d inherited the Reauxgard Empire, the number of monsters under my command had actually increased. They’d been bought or created by Shendra and all the emperors who preceded him. Except I hadn’t wanted any more pets, and unlike the undead in the phantom ship dungeon, the monsters in this country were normal creatures that needed looking after, so I’d left everything to the imperial unit known as the monster guard. They controlled them, and I didn’t interfere.
They had fought in the war on the empire’s side but had been stymied by the Demon King’s tactics. Still, the fact that they’d established a means to control monsters completely meant neighboring countries viewed them as a serious threat. In reality, though, they were just the demon lord’s subordinates. Maybe someone had exploited that feature this time. Despite technically being under my command, they could still somehow disobey me if they wanted to. The two had looked legitimately scared when they’d seen me, and if they’d just bowed down, I wouldn’t have killed them.
“Good eyes, En.”
“Not...really. I just sensed something weird.”
She beamed at me when I gently patted her head. So cute. I continued thinking while stroking her hair.
Let me put together all the data I have so far. First, this incident was caused by a dungeon item or function. Since only past emperors had the authority to use DP, one of them must’ve been responsible. Was it in preparation for the Great War and just never used? Or did it exist for an entirely different reason? I wouldn’t know for sure without questioning the culprit, but one thing was certain: There was an enemy out there somewhere who wasn’t a fan of this tournament. Dollars to DP that someone was from this country.
I couldn’t say for sure, but it should’ve been difficult, if not impossible, for anyone other than those with a certain level of power in this country to obtain and use DP-related items. After all, the ordinary masses didn’t even know this was a dungeon. The human supremacists immediately popped into my head as suspects. For whatever reason, though, they didn’t quite fit in this case.
I didn’t have any basis for it, but something about this felt different from before. Without knowing their goal, the whole thing just seemed more...calculated. Deliberate. Like there was some kind of specific purpose.
Sure, the human supremacists I’d met in the Kingdom of Alisia had been pretty crafty with their long-term mindsets. Their goal had been to fan the flames of human animosity toward other races, which was how I’d unluckily gotten myself into a bit of trouble a while ago. Thanks to the other rulers working together, and especially Reyd’s full cooperation, they’d managed to bring the situation under control and restore a tentative peace. But without them, those flames would’ve definitely turned into a firestorm.
As far as the ones who came after went, though, they acted for more shortsighted reasons. Just because they didn’t like other races. Just because other races aggravated them. Just because other races had taken their jobs from them. For people like them, turning to human supremacy as the outlet to vent their frustrations had been inevitable. That was how shortsighted people operated, after all. They were happy as long as they could relieve their frustrations.
I had no clue if I was on the right track with any of this, but the smartest and safest thing to do was determine the enemy’s identity. A big question mark in all this was why they’d chosen to do something now. Since they’d let the monsters rampage here, they must’ve wanted to disrupt the Games. However, if total domination was their aim, the most effective time would’ve been during the actual tournament. The chaos and damage would’ve been so much worse.
So why had they acted now, in this awkward period when nothing of note was going down? We’d have to tighten security even more thanks to this incident, but people would be even more hyped now to make sure the Games actually took place. How much meaning did this action have? Had the mastermind not expected us to go as far as killing the monsters? Had they thought the stadium would suffer more damage? Still, just like I’d thought before, there were other occasions where a terrorist attack would’ve had more impact... No, wait. If something like this had happened when all the countries had gathered and countless spectators were in the stands, Reauxgard’s position would’ve weakened to the point that it would’ve been impossible to move forward.
This world was nowhere near as kind as the one in my previous life. An enemy that didn’t even benefit their own race would simply be crushed. Now that this country belonged to me, I personally wouldn’t take things to such an extreme, but I doubted my enemy thought that way. I was another race, and a demon lord at that. No wonder, then, that some folks might see me as the first to take advantage of them. So did my opponent only want to disrupt the tournament but avoid escalating the situation even more? Was I ultimately right about the culprit being an imperial citizen?
“...”
I studied the layout on the Maps screen. It was an incredibly useful function. I’d say a demon lord’s greatest power was probably the ability to do anything with DP, but Maps was the next best thing. It allowed me to check where hostiles were and what they were doing at any given time, as well as view their threat level in detail. In this case, though, while I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was useless, I didn’t think it’d be very effective either. Because aside from my family, it basically labeled everyone else as an intruder. In other words, an enemy. So it was impossible to find a specific enemy. Would be nice to do, though, huh?
“Ugggh. Why can’t things just be easy for once?”
Maybe because enemies could appear anywhere, anytime? This whole thing was shaping up to be a giant pain in the ass. But I wasn’t gonna lose. No matter what their intentions, I’d fight them off and make the tournament a success.