Reincarnated into a Game As the Hero’s Friend

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“Viscount Zeavert, well done.”

“You too, Baron Zabel. My apologies for causing you trouble.”

Baron Zabel was a man who just turned thirty. He was rather young for a governor, but ironically, because of Welner’s existence, he didn’t stand out.

The three-meter long halbert held by him was more eye-catching than the baron himself. The baron had a Skill that made it possible for him to swing the halbert freely. The sight of the baron, who had a tall stature, wielding a halbert was quite intimidating. He was a type of noble who preferred military activity rather than politics.

Of the three assigned to the former Marquisate Knap, Viscount Grellman was the overall leader, so it could be said that Welner and Baron Zabel were colleagues. Welner had a higher status as a Viscount, but Baron Zabel was older and more experienced compared to him. Because of the personalities of the two, Baron Zabel’s tone was more informal compared to Welner’s.

Welner remembered the headache he had when the Baron suddenly requested a friendly spar with him back in the capital, but after the spar, Baron seemed to have acknowledged Welner’s ability, and in turn, his attitude toward Welner became friendly. You could say that Welner and Baron Zabel were friends despite the large difference in age.

“Don’t mention it. We only got an easy job of fighting the remnants of the bandits’ groups. By the way, your military operation hasn’t finished yet, right?”

“Yes. There is one bandits’ group left. This group of bandits is staying in a quite troublesome place.”

“Do you need me to lend you some soldiers?”

“No need. Incidentally, how are things going on your side?”

“I have gathered sufficient food, arrows, and horses, just like the plan. Even if the knights from the capital came here without bringing anything, it would be fine.”

“Thank you. How is the situation of the soldiers?”

“A troop made up of the nobility and soldiers from Triot has been made. I heard Viscount Grellman has also created a similar troop. Still…”

The Baron looked at Welner with a questioning gaze and Welner replied to Baron’s gaze with an innocent smile.

“Since you are going to stand at the very front, your side should need more soldiers. Is it fine to give these people from Triot to me and Viscount Grellman?”

“It’s fine. After all, I have no plan to do maneuver warfare.”

At one time, Welner had thought of creating a troop composed of people from Triot who had combat experience, since he would be able to save time training them, but Welner later scrapped that idea. After all, people from Triot were still foreigners and there was a risk that they might ignore his order on the actual battlefield.

To put it bluntly, Welner deliberately sent the people from Triot to Baron Zabel or Viscount Grellman to save himself from potential headaches.

After that, the two continued to exchange information. In particular, they talked about the cooperation with Viscount Grellman, who was currently overseeing the Knap house’s former stronghold. They also discussed the basic arrangement for the plan and the war supplies.

When their topic shifted to Rafed, the Baron laughed while saying, “I understand your circumstances but be careful to not be assassinated in the middle of the night” to which Welner smiled bitterly in reply.

“No matter how many times I see it, that map is very well done. I hope I can meet the person who created that map and ask for his cooperation in the future.”

“That’s the matter for later.”

The Baron nodded lightly. Welner’s reply to the Baron’s probing remark was tinged with a bitter expression. Welner only roughly copied the map shown in the game, but for the standard of this world, Welner’s map was quite impressive. To save himself from the complicated situation, Welner deliberately didn’t mention he was the person who created the map for Baron Zabel.

“Well then, I and my troop will be going back to beat up the remnants of the bandits’ groups. Be careful on your way, Viscount.”

“You too, Baron.”

The Baron then returned to his army. Seeing that the conversation between the two had finished, Neurath and Schunzel approached Welner. While seeing the uniform movements of the Baron’s army, Schunzel muttered, “The command of his army seems to be quite impressive.”

“Well, if things went south, he’s going to be supporting us in the war with demons, after all.”

That’s all Welner said, but inside, he also thought that the kingdom must have sent Baron Zabel to the former Marquisate Knap territory on purpose, so the Baron could act as a second line of defense in case he failed to protect the Anheim region.

It made more sense for the kingdom to have prepared Plan B and Plan C rather than putting their hope in Welner alone. Of course, Welner planned to do all he could to defend Anheim.

“Alright. We’ll rest a bit and take care of the corpses before moving again.”

No one had ever seen a corpse turn into an undead, but it was generally believed that if left alone, corpses could turn into demons. Even if that belief was false, leaving corpses around could lead to a disease outbreak.

Because they had been fighting the bandits while pursuing them, the bandits’ corpses were scattered around in a rather wide area and they must be cleaned up. Unfortunately here, demons could attack you while you were taking care of the corpses, so the post-battle clean up must also be done by combatants, unlike in Welner’s previous life.

“Take only their metal equipment. As for armor, you can take them if they are in good condition, but don’t expect too much. The bandits’ valuables will be a reward to the person who defeated them. As for the rest of the items that the bandits’ have, burn them along with the corpses.”

“Yes, sir.”

The post-war clean up was more tiring than the war itself. Welner sighed and then proceeded to do his share of clean up work.

After several days of rest and clean up, Welner and his army moved to a village near the base of the last bandits’ group. There, they met up with the adventurers who had arrived at the village earlier while transporting some stuff necessary for the upcoming battle.

When they saw the stuff brought by the adventurers, the soldiers’ faces stiffened. Well, that sort of reaction made sense. Leaving only a ‘be careful with them’ words, Welner skipped greeting the village head and went straight to talk with the members of Iron Hammer.

“Huh… I don’t want to accept any of your commissions anymore, Viscount-sama.”

“Sorry for the trouble.”

To the complaint of one of the members of Iron Hammer, Welner responded with a wry smile. Welner couldn’t blame him for complaining, since it might be easier for the adventurers to exterminate some demons than completing his commissions. Though, as a noble, this attitude was not something he could show the public.

For the time being, Welner handed the reward to the Iron Hammer party. Then, he asked the party about recent information regarding the bandits.

“Did those bandits attack the village recently?”

“They did not. We have about 20 adventurers here, so I doubt they have the courage to do that.”

The bandits might be able to procure water outside of the village, but not food. Although there might be some edible wild grass outside of the village, the amount of those wild grass would be far from enough to feed the entire bandits’ group, so they must be starving. Inwardly, Welner breathed a sigh of relief since it looked like his army made it in time before the bandit started to rampage because of hunger.

“We also went to the hill where the bandits stayed. They seem to have built some kind of fort.”

“I hope they didn’t mess with the hill too much.”

Welner replied while shrugging his shoulders. He still had use of that hill. That was why he was hoping the bandits didn’t ruin it.

“Neurath, Schunzel. Go get Sir Holzdeppe and Sir Gekke for me.”

“Understood.”

“Sorry, but can you continue guarding the village for a bit?”

“Okay. We will leave the war to you, Viscount.”

The adventurers should be able to protect the village well or rather, protecting a village should be easier compared to moving this much stuff here, thought Welner.

It would be troublesome if the bandits did too many unnecessary things, plus the creatures Welner had brought here seemed to be getting restless, so Welner decided to start the preparation.

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