Attack on the Sorcerer Kingdom's Transport

Attack on the Sorcerer Kingdom's Transport was an attack orchestrated by the Re-Estize Kingdom's New Faction on a merchant carriage from the Sorcerer Kingdom, in hopes of eliminating their competition. However, it instead became the spark that would lead to war between the two nations.

Background
Due to the Annual Wars, the Re-Estize Kingdom has long been facing potential food shortages. After the Massacre at Katze Plains, which resulted in the loss of a sizable margin of their labor force and the ceding of the vital food-production region of E-Rantel to the Sorcerer Kingdom, the Kingdom was all but guaranteed to face famine in the future.

The Sorcerer Kingdom offered the Kingdom humanitarian aid, which they were in no position to refuse. However, this had the side effect of deflating the Kingdom's food prices, preventing nobles from making a profit off their product. While the Kingdom remained wary of the Sorcerer Kingdom, the Royal Army having been devastated during the Massacre at Katze Plains. They thus had no choice but to avoid any sort of conflict while their nation recovered it's strength.

As the Kingdom suspected, the Sorcerer Kingdom's graciousness was merely a front while they prepared the complete conquest of their nation. While on a diplomatic visit to the Kingdom, the Sorcerer Kingdom's Prime Minister, Albedo, met a low-ranking noble named Philip Dayton L'Eyre Montserrat, who was attempting to forge ties with the Sorcerer Kingdom. Seeing this young man was easy to manipulate, Albedo planned to use him in her plans. To this end, she had Eight Fingers gather upstart nobles who came to power after their elder siblings were killed in the Massacre at Katze Plains to form an entirely New Faction that would support the Sorcerer Kingdom.

However, once Philip learned of the influx of food from the Sorcerer Kingdom, which interfered with his plans to inflate his product's price, he immediately turned on his benefactors. Noticing that the Sorcerer Kingdom's transports travel through his domain, Philip plotted with fellow New Faction members Wayne Delvin and Igor Rokerson to rob the carriages and sell their contents as their own, without even considering the potential consequences. While two initially did not want to participate, seeing the foolishness of the plan, they calculated that the Sorcerer Kingdom shouldn't have the manpower to conquer the Kingdom. Which would force the nation to only annex the regions close to the border in case of the war of retribution, far away from their domains.

In preparation for the attack, Philip drafted 50 peasants of his domain while Wayne and Igor both drafted 75, bringing their total fighting force to 200 strong. As planned, Philip and his men would be the main attack force, while Wayne and Igor stayed back with their men. In reality, unbeknownst to Philip, this was so the two could minimize their own losses by having him serve as the brunt of the attack.

Attack
The "attack" was over before it even began, as the merchants and mercenaries transporting the carriages felt no loyalty to the Sorcerer Kingdom. Thus, upon seeing Philip and his force, they immediately gave into his demand to stop and hand over the transport. They then fled the scene, leaving Philip to bask in the "glory" of being the first noble of the Re-Estize Kingdom to "win" a "battle" against the Sorcerer Kingdom.

Aftermath
Not long after the "battle," Wayne and Igor arrived at the scene and expressed shock at how easy it went. As promised beforehand, Philip would take 80% of the caravans' contents while Wayne and Igor each got 10%. However, Wayne and Igor wanted nothing to do with an incident that could spark a war and offered to have Philp have all the spoils. Philip though, oblivious to their true intentions, insisted they have their share.

Likely due to all of the transport's passengers surviving and them all being members of Eight Fingers, news of the attack soon reached the Sorcerer Kingdom. Albedo has blamed the organization for losing control of such an easily-manipulatable pawn. Philip's overseer, Hilma Cygnaeus, was brought in for questioning before Sorcerer King Ainz Ooal Gown himself. However, he ultimately led her and the organization off without punishment once it became clear they had no involvement in the attack.

Albedo and Demiurge believed Philip was being manipulated by the Kingdom's leadership and that the attack was part of a larger plot. However, when Ainz brought up the notion that Philip acted alone and simply hadn't thought the consequences through, the Floor Guardians immediately sided with their master's "deduction." Regardless, the Sorcerer Kingdom now had a casus belli to invade the Kingdom and send them a declaration of war. The Baharuth Empire, Roble Holy Kingdom, Dragon Kingdom, and Dwarf Kingdom also backed them.

After receiving the declaration of war, the Re-Estize Kingdom's leadership gathered for an emergency meeting. Although they tracked the attack back to Philip, they believed he was brainwashed by the Sorcerer Kingdom. Thus, rather then punish him, he was placed under protection. The only one who believed Philip should still be executed, or at least taken to court, was Second Prince Zanac, who hoped the death of the attack's instigator might appease the Sorcerer Kingdom. However, this idea was quickly shot down by King Ramposa III.