<<Welp, once again we will be having an war.>>
<<But this time we are not the attackers, but the defenders.>>
<<Our enemies are the holy empire.>>
<<This…. Will be way bigger than before.>>
<<It is not like one powerful kingdom, one trickly kingdom or just bunch kingdoms having an brawl, but instead an giant and solid empire.>>
<<Their military will be no joke at all.>>
<<And here is annoying part, there are religions group.>>
<<AND they had not made public statement or anything about the "vampire extermination".>>
<<This… Put us in annoying situation.>>
<<We cannot really attack them in the open because they are still "peaceful".>>
<<In other words, political situation.>>
<<" Kid" is saying he will trick the holy empire into being "aggressors", resulting in us being able to attack them.>>
<<However, he also said that the holy empire are…. Well, a lot of them are hard on fanatics.>>
<<There is good chance that they may not care about political situation and just attack us from get go.>>
<<And there is also problem with starting battlefield.>>
<<Sea.>>
<<We can produce battleships, but here are two problems.>>
<<The vampire kingdom, the one above ground that nobody knows about should not be the to make the ships in order to not look suspicious.>>
<<The one that should make the ships should be the "new" vampire kingdom…. But that kingdom is cut off from the sea.>>
<<" Kid" told me to prepare the cannons that can be attached to the ships…. But how would he even get ships anyway without revealing some of his cards and lies?>>
<<And also, how we would even deal with the empire?>>
<<Would we just aim to block them off again and again, destroying all of their forces?>>
<<But what if they would just recover and then repeat the attacks again?>>
<<To makes matters worse, the light attribute is one of vampires main weaknesses.>>
<<Having an head on fight on the land would be bit problematic for us.>>
<<That means we need to focus on dragging this war on the seas…. But how do we do it?>>
<<If we were to take over one of the kingdoms near the sea on this continent, we would be seen as "bad guys".>>
<<…. I've considered maybe asking dragons to "Return" the favor… But I guess it is impossible right now since they are more than busy enough with their own share of problems.>>
<<Welp…. Fuck me.>>
<<I obviously did what I was doing before while also starting the production of new weapons that could be deployed against the holy empire, while both Thanatos and Maparapara were focused on leveling up alongside the girls…. This is pretty much everything we could do.>>
<<And like that, the time went by….. The holy empire sent out their "emissaries" to this continent.>>
<<However, obviously the kingdom that is under vampire control had send out their own emissaries.>>
"What are you talking about?! That monster is dangerous!" – said the paladin as he slowly reached for his sword.
"And that so called monster is working for me like any average person, getting paid and stuff without any problems at all." – said the knight.
"True, he does needs blood, so as all the vampires."
"Look. This guy has been working for us for long time and there was no accidents with him even once."
"I know that some vampires can be dangerous…. But the ones we know are good people…."
"…"
"I'm going to make myself clear again."
"Get out."
"You have already stated your real purpose behind your visit."
"You are allowed to come back here after doing an official request, without bringing an army with you."
"If you wish to talk this out peacefully."
"Now, if you are done then get out."
"Unless you want- "
Suddenly, an arrow pierced right thoroughly the knight head, killing him on the spot right in front of paladin.
"!?"
"W-what!? – paladin stared at the corpse of the knight.
"!"
"CAPITAN!" – shouted kingdom soldier.
"THOSE BASTARDS! THEY KILLED THE CAPITAN!"
"FUCKING BASTARDS! SO, THEY WERE PLANNING ON ATTACKING US!"
"!"
"Wait! Stop! We didn't do it!" – said the panicking paladin as he saw kingdom soldier taking out their weapons.
"SHUT IT! IF NOT THEN WHY THE HELL ARROW CAME FROM YOUR DIRECTION!?" – said pissed off soldier.
<<And so, the so called "envoy" of the holy empire had launched an attack and murdered the knight capitan who tried to defend the vampire working on the ship.>>
<<The holy empire soldiers attacked the kingdom ships out in the open and resisted arrest when they tried to "prove their innocents" by kill everybody on the kingdom ships.>>
<<To make things interesting, the kingdom ships had installed the recording device that saw the entire situation unfold, showing off how the paladins "attacked" and lied.>>
<<This obviously resulted in the big scandal against the holy empire, saying stuff that their were using an "envoy" as an excuse to launch a terrorist attack which was aimed to put blame on the empire.>>
<<Not only that, a rumors also started circuiting around about why the holy empire did it…. And here comes the "Evil goodness of burned flesh and lies" and her connection to the "holy mother of light".>>
<<This resulted in the holy empire being seen as "aggressors" in the conflict.>>
<<Obviously holy empire tried to say that "they were the ones that got attacked" or that they were "framed", but apparently the rumors and "Evidence" had already been spreading around even in their continent.>>
<<So that was "Kid" plan, eh? Nasty bastard. I can probably guess that he ordered Shadow Mask to sneak into the holy empire ship and fire arrow from it in order to start up the fight.>>
<<Simple, but extremely effective.>>
<<Now we have excuses to "worry about our safety" and start showing "hostility" towards the holy empire.>>
<<With this, the holy empire won't be able to set foot on the continent without fight.>>
<<Obviously there were few political "clashes" here and there regarding this situation and what not, but things were going nowhere.>>
<<The holy empire started to think that maybe the vampires were behind everything. Saying stuff that they were manipulating everybody into "US" going to the war between each other.>>
<<However, the video evidence points out to a different outcome, proving that the holy empire were the true aggressors and vampires did not even lifted a finger.>>
<<This conflict raged on and on…. Before it then reached the boiling point and the war… Before then the empire realized that the talk would never work out.>>
<<With the "talk" being now out of the questions, the empire had two options.>>
<<Give up and go home.>>
<<Or declare the war.>>
<<Obviously this put the holy empire in tough spot since they want to be seen as "GOOD GUYS" and if they were to declare war on the vampires it would be instead seen as an excuse to stage invasion on our continent.>>
<<I've….. That bastard "Kid" had fucking lied to me!>>
<<He said that we would be going to the war 100%!>>
<<So I've went and asked him about it.>>
"Oh, the war will come." – said "Kid" while checking different documents.
"The holy empire are dead set on invading this continent."
"True."
"They are "good guys" and they want to keep up that image."
"But they are also mad and they would come up with some excuse."
"We lied, but is there rule that only we can lie?"
"Let me tell you something."
"So many "good guys" in history often were not such "pure" good guys."
"They often lied or maybe staged their own cause, for example by lying to the public about "great danger" or they may stage a "attack" that was done by "Evil"."
"This is how world works buddy."
"The war will break out no matter what we do."
"….Then why haven't they done it yet or anything?" – asked Phantasia.
"Simple put, they want to avoid using "lie", since if exposed, it could cause huge damage to the empire reputation." – replied "Kid".
"But they are already setting up the said lie by spreading false rumors and miss informations."
"They are trying to manipulate their own people."
"I'm trying to delay this war as much as possible in order for our troops to prepare and stuff…. But that is it."
"The war will come and there is no way to stop it."
"…"
<<" Kid" was right.>>
<<There was truly no way of stopping the war from happening.>>
<<The holy empire had finally declared the war.>>