"Okay, then I have a question." King Gazel declared at Edgar, releasing a bit of his Hero's Aura at him, which Edgar was clearly too tired to care about enough to be intimidated by. "If you're not going to keep yourselves afloat by demanding outrageous taxes from passing traders, then how does New Farminus expect to keep itself afloat?"
Edgar's head lolled. Normally, he was really high-strung, and would've passed unconscious from panic about four times by now, but he was currently so tired that he didn't care at all. "Explain it, Luka."
"Soo… tired." Luka sighed, but he followed his king's order. "Agriculture."
"And normal culture, too." Flora added.
"Yeah. Normal culture, too. That clear things up? I'm so tired…" Luka nearly fell out of his chair, but he managed to fall onto Edgar's half-asleep figure instead of the floor.
"Umm… No. It did not." Fuze said, but the trio was already asleep.
"I can clear things up, if you don't mind. Risa and I've already discussed this in detail. It actually goes well in hand with the main reason for our little summit, here." I offered.
"What are you talking about, Rimuru?" Gazel asked.
"He's up to something. He's definitely up to something." Fuze already knew me well. With a smirk, I began laying the facts down, as Risa and I had discussed. I wanted to see what everyone thought about what I was about to say.
"Alright. Before we get into that, we all need to understand something. We're here because I slaughtered the Farmus army. Because Farmus attacked Tempest out of the blue." I began with that. Something we were all fully aware of.
"Yeah, we know that." Yohm replied, "But what are you getting at, Rimuru?"
"It may have been out of the blue, but it wasn't a random attack." Risa chimed in on my behalf.
"Yeah. When he had Mjurran create that second barrier around Tempest, Demon Lord Clayman admitted to setting the whole Farmus attack up. It was his maneuvering that started that war." I explained to them. Nobody was surprised by that. We'd already been over that.
Risa took over for the next part of the explanation. This was information that the rest of the room wasn't completely aware of. "But that wasn't the only attack. There were three attacks that happened simultaneously. Coordinated."
"Yes. First, there was the attack on Milord." Diablo said, "By Miss Hinata Sakaguchi."
"While I was fighting with Hinata, I learned that she attacked me because someone gave her certain confidential information about me. First off, someone told her that I killed Shizu." I explained, making eye contact with Fuze as I explained. He blinked, taken aback. Kabal, Elen, and Gido looked shocked by that, too.
"Shizu was an old friend… I only told a few people that she visited you at all. And I trust them, they wouldn't have blabbed about something so… inconsequential, in the grand scheme of things." Fuze muttered to himself.
"And we only told you, Fuze." Kabal agreed.
"Yeah. I figured that was about the size of it. Out of respect for her, you guys wouldn't have spread that kind of information. But Hinata had details." She knew that I'd been the one to deal the final blow. "Whoever told her that I killed Shizu also knew that I was an otherworlder from Japan."
"I see. You have someone in mind, don't you?" Fuze had a sharp eye.
"She also caught me at the exact moment that I'd left Englesia. She knew not only my schedule, but that Risa wouldn't be with me. She cut me off from the outside world with a barrier before appearing before me, meaning that she knew that I could contact Risa from everywhere, and use Spatial Motion." I ticked my points off on my hand. "Plus, she threatened Tempest. Even though Risa wasn't with me inside of that barrier." That was the big one, but nobody else seemed to be understanding the importance of that. Except Benimaru. Benimaru completely understood my reasoning there.
"So whoever informed Miss Sakaguchi of all of this… they honestly believed that Lady Risa would be too… Risa… to step in, when Tempest was attacked?" Benimaru hit the nail on the head.
"Exactly. They genuinely believed that Risa was too much of a flake to care about, or keep an eye on, her friends." Risa was the epitome of Curiosity.
But she'd never just forget about her friends. Under any circumstances. The only one who Risa had led to believe that was Yuuki, to whom I'd complained over and over again about how Risa just up and disappeared, during my time teaching at Freedom Academy in Englesia.
The same Yuuki who knew that Risa had already left Englesia weeks prior to my own return home, and knew that she'd be dropped off the map for who-knows-how-long.
The same Yuuki who knew my exact schedule, and that Risa was too dangerous to attempt to kill, even if it was Hinata.
The same Yuuki who knew Hinata exceptionally well, as one of her closest friends. He'd know exactly what buttons to push and what to say to put Hinata onto the warpath.
And the same Yuuki who knew that I was the otherworlder who'd 'killed' the dying Shizu.
"Putting it all together, the only person who could've possibly sent Hinata after me was Yuuki Kagarazaka. And he did it in coordination with the other two attacks. In fact, I'd bet that he used the same merchants to misinform Hinata that Clayman used to incite Farmus into attacking." I said.
Everyone from the various other nations was absolutely shocked by the revelation. After all, in the Western Nations, Yuuki Kagarazaka was a big deal. He had a ton of influence. Hell, he literally created the Free Guild organization that Fuze worked for. Without the Free Guild, many of the small countries that composed the Council of the West would literally implode. The idea that he'd conspire with Clayman to set Farmus and Tempest against each other was incredibly shocking.
But it was the truth.
And it changed the entire world's power balance.