Imperial Colosseum Incident

The Imperial Colosseum Incident was a duel between Sorcerer King Ainz Ooal Gown and Martial Lord Go Gin at the Grand Arena. While only meant to be a public spectacle, it became an incident with major political ramifications.

Background
After finally securing E-Rantel from the Re-Estize Kingdom, Ainz Ooal Gown and the Sorcerer Kingdom moved into the city to establish a strong foothold in the New World. Ainz used his supernatural abilities to benefit the citizens of E-Rantel, intending to change their perceptions about him. However, despite ruling the city with benevolence, Ainz felt something was amiss. During a stroll across the city, he came upon the Adventurer's Guild. Once inside, he saw much of the building has become empty. It was there he learned that his good intentions has left many people deprived of jobs, particularly the Adventurers.

This did not sit well for Ainz who had great respect towards the Adventurers who reminded him of the treasured times he had playing YGGDRASIL with his guild members. After a discussion with Moknach, the Sorcerer King decided to rectify the matter by changing the systems of the Adventurers, from hired mercenaries that kill monsters to explorers of the unknown. It was public knowledge that the Empire have established an alliance with the Sorcerer Kingdom and help play a role in setting up the foundation for their newly-founded nation.

Jircniv had planned to use that war in the Katze Plains to mount an investigation, but it had ended in a truly horrific manner, leading to a terrible tragedy which he did not foresee. He understands that there is very little to no information surrounding the capabilities of the Sorcerer King and his subordinates. If he knew what they could and could not do, his response might have changed. Jircniv admits that if only he knew more about the limits of their powers, he might not have mounted so many investigations and preparations. Meanwhile, at some point in time, before the Sorcerer King set off on his quest to convince the Adventurer's Guild, Ainz was often observing and studying Jircniv from a distance using surveillance magic of how to truly become a proper ruler undetected by the latter.

Conspiracy
For Jircniv, the first problem concerned the casualties among the Imperial Army from the Massacre at Katze Plains. There were only 143 deaths; a trivial number, for a direct clash with the enemy. However, the losses at the Katze Plains had been entirely self-inflicted. In addition, 3,788 people had expressed their desire to leave the army upon their return to the Imperial Capital. In other words, over 6% of the 60,000 men of the Imperial Knight Corps had lost their courage. Also, there were thousands of people who complained of uneasiness and night terrors. According to the reports, there were at least 200 mentally unstable people as well. Because of the bad turn of events plaguing their nation, the Empire would need to spend a great deal to fill the shortfall in the number of knights. The problem lies in the fact that Jircniv doesn't know how to secure the funds for those expenditures.

At this critical moment in time, he acknowledges that it was too risky to purge the nobles and seize their assets to make up the required amount. The reason for that was because of the second problem namely, the recent petitions which the Imperial Knights themselves had submitted to Jircniv. From reading the various letters sent in to him, Jircniv realized his decision of allowing the Sorcerer King to cast his strongest magic spell was met with harsh criticisms and negative feedback. The reason why the Imperial Army had tendered such a petition was because they had lost their faith in Jircniv. They laid the blame for that massacre solely on Jircniv alone as a scapegoat to shoulder responsibility for. When Jircniv learned this, he was both furious and frustrated in the extreme. These petitions, from the upper echelons of the army's command structure, expressed their desire to avoid warfare with the Sorcerer Kingdom from now on.

In the end, according to Jircniv, if he had known that such magic existed, he would never have decided to let the Sorcerer King cast it from the start. The reason why Jircniv had asked the Sorcerer King to use his strongest spell in the first place was to verify how powerful his magic really was. Originally, it should have been the other way around. "Thank you for drawing out part of the Sorcerer King's power. Now we know better than to act recklessly around him," they should have said while expressing their gratitude. However, the Imperial Army did not see things that way. It was because they felt that Jircniv was a splendid Emperor that they believed he had asked for the use of that magic, knowing full well what it did. Thus, many suspicious gazes now fell upon Jircniv. This was the first time Jircniv had been so disgusted by his own reputation. He reasons with himself that perhaps everything which had transpired until now including the negative state of the Empire was a conspiracy orchestrated by the Sorcerer King to weaken and break their nation.

According to Jircniv himself, such conspiracy have been masterfully calculated by the Sorcerer King to the point where it had even influence the Imperial Colosseum Incident to occur. It led to secret talks of negotiations to broke down between the Empire and Theocracy, failing to successfully create an alliance to combat the Sorcerer Kingdom. As a result of this turn of event happening before Jircniv, the Empire was no longer in a position of being part of an alliance with neither the Theocracy nor the Sorcerer Kingdom. Instead, his Empire was left with no other choice but seek to become a vassal state rule under the Sorcerer Kingdom and their directions moving forward. To Jircniv, this was his only card left he can play to save the Empire from total destruction by the Sorcerer Kingdom even if it means betraying the rest of humanity in the process. He acknowledge the fact that conspiracies included, there was no possible way to actually beat Ainz in a battle of wits after experiencing the undead's supposed keen intellect and foresight.

Incident
Due to Jircniv's paranoia of being secretly observe by the Sorcerer King or his minions, he orders many people to do an investigation over it, but found no observers. Despite the result and setting up anti-spying countermeasures, he could not get rid of the sense of foreboding that came from being watched by the Sorcerer King. Knowing this, he is utterly restless and antsy to the point that it was badly affecting his health and well-being mentally. Jircniv's stomach ached and strands of his fallen hair adorned his pillow every morning he woke up. As the days rolled by, he starts to show signs of going bald and having thin hair left since suffering from hair loss. He believes the culprit, the main perpetrator responsible for all of the bad things happening to him lately was none other than the Sorcerer King, Ainz Ooal Gown himself. He tries his best to take medicines and drink potions occasionally as a way to ward off stomach-pain creeping up on him from inside. He didn't ask assistance from the Temple of the Four Great Gods, afraid that by coming into contact with a group of undead haters could warrant risk of upsetting the Sorcerer King who may harm the Empire in the process.

Jircniv operate under the assumption that spies from the Sorcerer Kingdom had already infiltrated the Imperial Capital. Therefore, all policies concerning important matters for the Empire needed their own codewords to avoid exposing the secret alliance being planned against the Sorcerer King, Ainz Ooal Gown. At some point in time, Jircniv had sent undisclosed messages to emissaries from the Slane Theocracy in order to arrange a private meeting discussion with them which they accepted. Aiming to improve his chances of defeating the Sorcerer King behind close doors, one of the measures he had taken was to forge the secret alliance with the Theocracy as a basis. Not only that but seek guidance from them by finding a way to deal with the powerful undead. He thinks they might be able to find a weapon that can slay the undead in one blow. By just sharing information with them, he thought this will allow the Empire to keep persistently fighting on and not give up without surrendering to the Sorcerer Kingdom. The Empire's alliance with the Sorcerer Kingdom was only a mask served to conceal this aim from being discovered by their enemy nation. The political meeting between the two human nations was scheduled to take place in two weeks time at Arwintar, Grand Arena of the Empire.

Jircniv had chosen the Grand Arena because he had heard that it often hired priests to heal the wounded. With that in mind, he was thinking of bringing the emissaries from the Theocracy over in the guise of those priests. On the surface, he seemed to be going to the arena to watch a fight, but in truth, he was there to enter into an agreement with emissaries of the Theocracy and high-ranking priests of the Empire. Considering how overly excited and entertained people are when attending the Grand Arena to watch the gladiator battles, Jircniv presumes this would be enough to make eavesdropping very difficult, which was why he had chosen this time and this place. To prevent himself from standing out, Jircniv didn't bring along any imperial guardsmen but two of the Four Imperial Knights, Baziwood Peshmel and Nimble Arc Dale Anoch for the sake of maintaining protection at all times. He also hired the adamantite adventurer team, Silver Thread Bird not only as a security detail but also to be tasked with the main objective of seeking out and identifying any spies from the Sorcerer Kingdom.

Two weeks later, he arrived at the Grand Arena accompanied by them. Despite having set up anti-divination magic countermeasures in place, he still had the adventurer team detect any use of divination magic on that area. After checking that it was it safe and untouched from spies, he and his two knights proceeded to enter inside the VIP room while the adventurer team stands on guard outside, waiting for the Theocracy's envoys to arrive. Once the emissaries of Theocracy join them in their meeting, they begin private talks of negotiations with the Empire. Diplomatically, they also question Jircniv's motive for deciding to let the Sorcerer King use his powerful magic, his position on the matter, and how much he knew about the Sorcerer Kingdom. However, before the discussion between both sides continue any further, they were left baffled and stupefied by the presence of the Sorcerer King being announced out in the open publicly much to their ignorance. In the first place, the Empire had been keeping an eye on the Sorcerer Kingdom's movements. If the Sorcerer King had entered the Empire, that matter would have been treated as an absolute top priority arranged to reach Jircniv's ears immediately whether he was in his harem or in some other place. If such news had not reached him despite all these efforts, Jircniv concluded that the Sorcerer King must have secretly entered the country unnoticed.

At the same time, Jircniv starts supposedly realizing that maybe the Sorcerer King had already caught on to his schemes and secret plans being done by the latter's back. Seeing that the Sorcerer King is within their vicinity, the Theocracy's emissaries believed that Jircniv had betrayed them by calling Ainz Ooal Gown to the Grand Arena. Although Jircniv told them that this was a carefully laid trap employed by the Sorcerer Kingdom, the envoys refuse to think that is the case and felt the Bloody Emperor was in cahoots with Ainz. Jircniv attempts to reason with the emissaries that he had no idea the Sorcerer King would come to the Grand Arena, explaining how the undead must have employ magical domination on his servants to reveal information about their meeting. Of course, none of them believe a word he say. Jircniv wonders if everything which he had been silently planning against the Sorcerer King was in the palm of the latter's hands all along without the former noticing. Spook by the Sorcerer King's sudden arrival at the meeting, Jircniv can't help but fearfully feel that Ainz had set up a bait and waited for him to take the hook. Just he was to tell the Theocracy's envoys to leave, it was already far too late for Jircniv to act when Ainz suddenly appear in their meeting room and greeted him.

Seeing the undead before him, Jircniv was certain that it is all part of Ainz's grand scheme being work against his own. In Jircniv's mind, by Ainz taking control of the secret talks with the Theocracy, the Sorcerer King would simultaneously apply pressure on both himself and the Theocracy. This way, it prevents them from allying with each other. When Jircniv was questioned by Ainz who the Theocracy's envoys are from, he sees it as a test of loyalty and his intentions. Troubled with whether to lie to Ainz in order to protect the people of the Theocracy or sell them out as a friend of the Sorcerer Kingdom, he couldn't find ways on how to answer the undead's question. In the end, the Sorcerer King decided to leave the VIP room and begin his match with Go Gin after introducing himself to the envoys. Once Ainz sets off to fight Go Gin one-on-one, the envoys express their anger at how Jircniv had set up their meeting together as a trap by the Sorcerer King to barge in. In the end, they reach the conclusion that Jircniv had gave away important information about their meeting to the Sorcerer King and betray them to save his Empire. Realizing that Jircniv's entire operation was completely compromised by the Sorcerer King from start to end, the envoys were about to leave until Jircniv stops them in their tracks.

Even though all hope was lost for Jircniv, he still convinces the Theocracy's envoys to stay behind and watch the Sorcerer King's duel with Go Gin until the very end. This was in hopes of letting them find a way to defeat the powerful undead that is Ainz.

Aftermath
The Sorcerer King had struck a magnificent blow at the moment when the meeting between the Empire and the Theocracy was most effective. It was one which would utterly cripple the Empire if they do not make a choice to side with the Sorcerer Kingdom in the long term. To Jircniv, this tells him that the Empire will have to betray humanity in order to ensure his Empire survive and thrive for the future to come. The envoys of the Theocracy and priest of the Empire began seeing Jircniv in a negative light, the Bloody Emperor who was seduced by the power of evil according to them. This also in turn, led to the fallout in the Empire's deteriorating relationship with the Theocracy and Temple of the Four Great Gods as they are supportive of the undead's rule over them. Now that others thought he had betrayed humanity to work with the undead, there was nothing Jircniv could offer them to show trust. Although the Empire no longer have any friendly ties with the Theocracy or the Temple, this sets precedence for Jircniv to go on and build friendship with the Sorcerer Kingdom while maintaining everlasting servitude to them.