Originally, I had no intention of caring about or intervening in other countries" internal wars.However, the chaos in San Antonio was destined to have far-reaching consequences.
At the very least, there would also be a great deal of trouble for me.
I was currently searching around for the Sun G.o.d"s ruin in an empty desert. I indeed managed to discover the ruin recorded on the map in an area filled with sandy hills. I directly opened up a large pit, and somehow managed to find the ancient ruin that had sunk deep into the sand.
But soon, I discovered that I had found the wrong ruin.
"This is some Snake G.o.d"s ruin instead?"
Although I could write a lot more here in order to jack up the word count, I was no expert archaeologist. Still, the abandoned ruin in front of me didn"t require me to have much archeological knowledge.
The most valuable place in any ancient ruin would be either the graves or the temple. Such locations typically contained many treasures and magic items. Graverobbers… ahem, adventurers would typically be able to easily find anything valuable by using simple spells which could search for traces of magic.
"It seems that I"ve wasted my time here."
But when I saw that the temple"s walls were filled with drawings over various snake-headed humanoids, along with random objects like straw figures, wooden spears, and witchcraft cauldrons lying around, I knew that I had found the wrong place without even needing to take a closer look around.
Still, I could faintly sense magical reactions within this ruin. It was evident that there were some magical items here that hadn"t been discovered before.
In the past, I would have been quite eager to adventure in an abandoned temple since a lot of G.o.d Equipment, miraculous treasures, and ancient magic had all been unearthed in such a manner before. Graverobbing… ahem, adventuring in ruins was always such a profitable business.
However, adventuring in a ruin would require plenty of patience and limitless time, neither of which I had.
There were so many troublesome issues waiting for me in the mortal plane right now. I didn"t have the mind to idly stay around here.
I had previously determined that there were three likely locations for the ruin: one each in Maria"s and Winston"s territory, and one in the middle of nowhere in San Antonio. Since I had already confirmed that this location in the desolate desert wasn"t the ruin I was searching for, nor was the ruin in Maria"s territory, the final location in Prince Winston"s territory was the most likely one now.
"For me to travel through half of San Antonio at this time…"
Just thinking about it gave me a headache. I was now the most wanted person in all of San Antonio. Although no higher-up in San Antonio would treat this seriously, the lower-level knights and guards would treat this with utmost seriousness.
It would likely bring me nothing but trouble for me to expose my ident.i.ty in San Antonio now.
However, there were some things that I absolutely had to do. Things were becoming ever more chaotic. It seemed likely that the G.o.ds would soon descend in person. If I couldn"t break through to the next power level quickly enough… As I recalled, I had plenty of enemies amongst the G.o.ds. I had antagonized quite a few G.o.ds back when I was Yongye, so if the G.o.ds really all started descending…
"…Will I become the first mortal the G.o.ds team up against for a major raid? That will probably be more than enough for me to achieve fame for eons to come. However, I"d rather not have such a glory…"
I had antagonized quite a number of G.o.ds back in the day. Back then, I had antagonized them as much as I wanted since I figured that they wouldn"t really descend in their true form to deal with me, and also because their incarnations weren"t strong enough to beat me.
I had eradicated several G.o.ds" churches, meaning that I had cut off all of their source of belief. The ones who didn"t die from this would be the more powerful G.o.ds. The G.o.ds would hold a grudge against me that was even greater than if I had killed their fathers for this.
As for which specific G.o.ds were my enemies… I really couldn"t remember—who would bother to count how many ants one would casually walk over? I had also killed quite a large number of True G.o.ds" priests along the way.
"I should keep a low profile…"
I kept thinking about things, but could only conclude that I would have to hide for the time being, at least until I obtained several of my planned magic swords. It would be unwise to directly fight against the G.o.ds before then.
That was right, as long as my planned magic swords had the effects that I wanted, I wouldn"t even fear the G.o.ds descending in their true bodies.
I had sacrificed everything back then for my current reincarnation. It would be quite foolish of me if I was unable to become stronger.
According to my theoretical blueprint, as long as I had a single fully completed magic sword, I would be able to at least stay alive when fighting against any G.o.d. If I was instead able to complete my most dangerous magic sword, the death magic sword, it likely wouldn"t be that difficult to even do some G.o.d-slaying.
"It"s time for me to head out."
I put on a cape and used my time ring to fake my age. I also put on a fake beard along with some tattered chain mail. This time, I chose to disguise myself as a middle-aged adventurer who was rather poor.
Middle-aged mercenaries who weren"t doing well were quite common amongst adventurers. As long as I was careful, I doubted that I would be exposed.
I was also personally immune to the great majority of inspection magic spells. I didn"t need to worry that I would suddenly be surrounded before I realized it.
Now that I thought back on it, if I hadn"t exposed my own whereabouts by appearing in public at Prince Winston"s palace, my enemies wouldn"t have possibly gotten a lock on my current location in order to make their preparations against me.
I felt quite the headache as I thought about the long and slow journey I would have to take on my way back.
I wouldn"t be able to fly in the sky as I liked. Although flying would be more than seven times faster than walking, San Antonio was no small country. There were all sorts of aerial knights patrolling the skies everywhere. It would be quite troublesome if I suddenly became surrounded.
Although it was quite simple enough for me to exit the desert in a single day as I could still fly here since n.o.body was around, the rest of my journey would obviously be far more difficult.
I felt even more depressed about how I would likely have to camp outside rather than enter any city along the way. I really wanted to simply fly past everything despite the risks.
I indeed took a risk and entered a city along the way in order to obtain information from information brokers. What I learned made me even more depressed.
Apparently, it was a definite in Maria"s faction"s portion of San Antonio that I was the prime suspect in Maria"s a.s.sa.s.sination. What made me even more displeased was the ridiculous idea that I had been working together with the Holy Church in this. All of the news here was blaming the Holy Church for having instigated all of this chaos. Prince Winston was branded as nothing more than the Holy Church"s loyal dog, while I was supposedly the a.s.sa.s.sin that they had sent.
I could understand that political propaganda was made up more than half the time, but this propaganda"s being so ridiculous was probably hard on those who had to say it this time.
Roland, the worst enemy of the Holy Church, would actually work together with the Holy Church? All in order to a.s.sa.s.sinate some empress who was thousands of kilometers away from their bases? Just how ridiculous was this? Who would manage to believe such a ridiculous story?
Yet no matter which city I went to, I could see wanted posters with my face plastered everywhere. I could only helplessly avoid going into cities as much as I possibly could.
I found a random store and purchased some food which wouldn"t spoil but tasted disgusting to replenish my supplies before heading out again.
I considered whether or not I should find some merchant group or adventurer group to join up with as traveling with them would be better concealment than going about by myself. But when I thought about the fact that ordinary groups would move at turtle speed, I helplessly gave up the thought and continued by myself.
Everywhere I went, I could see soldiers who were training in a tense atmosphere and knights patrolling everywhere. It was as if the shadow of civil war had already shrouded San Antonio.
When I was soon about to reach Prince Winston"s territory, at a place near the Taro River, I received some news which was absolutely confirmed.
The civil war suddenly erupted one day ago.
Duke Barrot"s personal knight squadron ambushed Tardin, a border city between Maria"s and Winston"s territories, in the middle of the night. Not only that, they slaughtered everyone who resisted.
This fortress city was so tiny that it would be difficult to locate it on a map. Its standing army was less than 2,000 soldiers. Yet, this location had now attracted the attention of everyone, even including the G.o.ds. That was because this attack represented one thing: the San Antonio civil war was now fully reignited.
Rather inconceivable was that demons and ogres even appeared in Duke Barrot"s army. Maria"s former worst enemies had now become her faction"s allies.
When thinking about how Maria been killed by Karwenz, who was a demon himself, she would likely die of anger upon hearing that her faction was now working with demons if she were suddenly to be revived.
I checked my maps and discovered that the city of Tardin was actually quite close to my current location. I hesitated for a moment, and then decided to take a longer path around.
Unfortunately, I had acted a bit too late. My pursuers had already caught up.