Reincarnated into a Game As the Hero’s Friend

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As everyone here continued their discussion about the weapon, His Highness opened his mouth.

“I understand how the weapon works. Sir Welner, you want to mass-produce them, right?”

“Yes. If it was possible, I hope the kingdom would be able to provide them to the capital knights and palace garrison.”

I wanted this weapon to be put into practical use as soon as possible. That was why I said this and yet everyone looked at me strangely while Father was smiling bitterly. DId I do something wrong?

“For the capital knights and the palace garrison, not for the Zeavert family?”

“Although I know how the weapon works, I don’t have any confidence that my family would be able to use them to its full capability.”

Bows were weapons especially hard to use. A person needed a long training to use them properly on the battlefield. In fact, it was said that the accuracy of throwing rock was higher compared to shooting an arrow if the soldiers were untrained. The Zeavert family had never intensively trained archers because it wasn’t needed. Now, we didn’t have enough time to train archers from scratch.

Crossbow and bullet crossbow (one that throws metal balls) were easier to use compared to normal bows, but I still judged that it would be impossible for the current Zeavert family to use them efficiently.

With an expression as if he had given up, Grand Duke Seyfart commented so. 

Grand Duke, you were wrong. Because I was born as a noble in this life, I didn’t have to work hard to get what I wanted, unlike in my previous life. Maybe that was why my desire for materialistic things had decreased, but I still had greed. I wanted to eat delicious food and drink the best alcohol. Wasn’t that considered greedy?

I did understand where the Grand Duke was coming from. This world was a world where power was valued above all else so I understand that if the people of this world got their hands on an amazing weapon they would monopolize it so only them and their family know how to produce it. 

However, my priority now was practicality. The military strength of the Zeavert house was only a small part of the capital’s military strength, so the Zeavert house alone wouldn’t be able to protect the entire capital. That was why I felt it would be better for me to give this weapon to His Highness so he could use it to strengthen the entire army. It looked like His Highness also understood my intention.

“Alright then. I will accept this. I will consult with the Duke and arrange for the metal caster you mentioned here too. Thank you for your hard work today.”

“Yes, sir.”

“A…Um… Excuse me…”

While I was bowing to the Crown Prince, I heard a small voice from the side. Ah, it was Prince Louwen, the Royal Grandson, who has been watching me intensely from the side.

“Prince Louwen, is there some problem?”

“Ah, no, I just want to ask you about what happened at Finnoi…”

The people who looked at our conversation all showed an uncomfortable face. Ah, I see. I’ve also been scolded about that by Lily.

“So… Um… What I want to ask is…”

“First, would you be willing to listen to my request, Your Highness?”

My question made the Prince dumbfounded. It seemed like he didn’t realize it himself. Cutting him mid-sentence was a bit rude, but I had no other choice here.

“Your Highness, a royalty should not use that kind of tone with his subject. I am your subject. All you need to do is to order me as you deem fit.”

(T/N: Louwen used polite Japanese with Welner here, that’s why Welner said this.)

“Huh? But…”

This time, he hesitated. I guess he wasn’t raised like royalty. I never knew that. In the game, he was only mentioned as a victim of the demon outbreak and I also didn’t have any interest in the affair of the royalty.

“When your esteemed Father, His Highness the Crown Prince, talked to His Excellency the Prime Minister, he had ordered His Excellency despite the fact that His Highness was younger than His Excellency. I hoped Your Highness would also be able to talk like His Highness the Crown Prince.”

“Ah, Um…”

He still looked troubled. I should find a middle ground here.

“If Your Highness still finds it difficult, how about you practice it with me?”

“Practice?”

“Eventually, Your Highness would be in the position where you will need to give orders to many people. As such, it would be best if you practice now.”

“I understand.”

He finally nodded. Well, he would get used to it, eventually. Though, it would be a problem if he became too bossy in the future. I doubt that would happen. Looking at his personality now and his environment, I highly doubted he would grow up to be a tyrant or a foolish king.

“Alright. Then Viscount, tell me about the battle in Finnoi. I heard our enemy got played around by you?”

(T/N: Here, Louwen switched to a kind of imperative Japanese, like the one used by The Crown Prince.)

Who the heck said something like that!?

“I did not play around with them, Your Highness. I simply gave them what they wanted.”

“What do you mean?”

“A taste of victory, Your Highness. Be it human or demon, when they feel that victory is already in their grasp, they will let down their guard. I simply made use of that mentality to lure them into the trap.”

Well, the trap only succeeded because Mazell was there. I wondered what would happen if Mazell wasn’t there… Since we had already succeeded, let’s stop thinking about a hypothetical gloomy situation!

“Is that how it is?”

“Yes. Not only in a war, I believe that in all other aspects the moment you thought you had achieved victory was the most dangerous.”

The ancient people said, ‘tighten your helmet when you win’ and I agree with that… Wait a minute. Using that logic, now when we had just achieved victory against the infiltrating demon was the most dangerous moment for us.

With that realization in my mind, I looked in the Crown Prince’s direction and he nodded. We had a silent consensus.

“I see. So you purposely made your opponent let down their guard.”

“That is correct.”

As I was talking with the Royal Grandson,His Highness and the rest of the crowd silently left the training ground. Well then, should I also be prepared…

After talking with the Royal Grandson for a while, I returned to the office, but Father still hadn’t returned. I decided to kill some time by sorting the paperwork and… what was this? Letter asking if I had some time to spare? Ah, well, let’s just tidy it up too. 

When Father finally returned to the office, he gave a kind of indescribable expression.

“First, good work with the prototype thing. However, thanks to that proposal you asked me to submit, I was bombarded with many questions.”

“I am sorry for your trouble, Father, and thank you very much.”

I bowed to Father. Then, I saw he seemed to have something else that he wanted to say to me.

“Is there anything else you want me to do, Father?”

“That should be my question. What exactly do you want to do?”

That was pretty sudden. What I wanted to do… Survive, I think? To be honest, all I had in my head for now was how to survive. I couldn’t just tell this straight out to Father.

Come to think of it, this might be a good time to give out some hints to people here that the capital was going to get attacked. While I was lost in my thoughts, I heard father sigh. His expression was a mix of a bitter and disappointed expression.

“Well, fine. Prepare yourself, Welner.”

“Pardon?”

What did he mean by that? 

But Father didn’t answer my question. He just went to the stack of paperwork that I had organized earlier and started to inspect them. I was confused, but in the end, I decided to leave. I bowed to Father and returned to my office.

Honestly, just what happened earlier?

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