Reincarnated into a Game As the Hero’s Friend

“Welner, what are you thinking about?” (Mazell)

“Ah, no, it’s nothing.” (Welner)

In the carriage heading to the Zeavert mansion, my thoughts were interrupted by Mazell who was sitting in front of me. There was a lot of stuff that had been bugging me, but I didn’t have enough information. Hell, I didn’t even have enough information to find out about stuff that just a while ago I thought was only a game gimmick but ended up actually existing in this world, like ‘origin mana’ that was similar to the EXP system in the game.

Let’s put those complicated thoughts away for the time being.

“Our situation sure has changed a lot.” (Welner)

“Right.”

Mazell and I exchanged a look and smiled wryly. Just a year ago we were just a student doing stuff in the classroom but now Mazell was the hero while I, as much as I find it annoying, was a proper Viscount. Too much stuff changed in just a year.

I think it would be harder for Mazell than me to return to the academy. He was a celebrity now. In this sense, it could be said that the demon king was a nuisance for our peaceful everyday life.

This time, it was Mazell who fell into thought.

“We still need to deal with three Heavenly Kings. Now there is this problem with the church and stuff…”

“Mazell, you don’t need to worry about that.” (Welner)

“But the Prime Minister came all the way here to meet us. How can I just…” (Mazell)

“He just came here to warn you, so that you don’t get tangled with that sort of political mess unknowingly.” (Welner)

In addition, the Prime Minister also met Mazell in order to appeal indirectly that the country was on his side. Sly, but typical of the noble.

I reached out my fist toward Mazell who stared at it with a still troubled expression on his face. Then, using the light-hearted tone I often used back when we were still studying in the academy, I said, “I’ve no choice but to leave the most troublesome part of defeating the demon king to you. As for the rest, I’ll handle it.”

Mazell looked surprised but soon let out a smile.

“Somehow I have a feeling that I am shoving a lot of annoying stuff to you, Welner.”

“You’ll take care of the troublesome stuff while I’ll take care of the annoying stuff. It’s fair, right?”

“Haha. I guess you’re right.”

After that, Mazell bumped my fist and we both laughed. It felt good to somehow go back to the time when we were students without any worry.

***

“Welcome home, Welner-sama. I am glad to see your safe return.” (Lily)

“Ah, I’m home.” (Welner)

When I arrived at the mansion, Lily greeted me with a bright smile. It was a little embarrassing since Mazell, Lily’s brother, was right behind me.

“Where are Luguentz and the others?” (Welner)

“Lazer-sama and Kluger-sama are both inside, while a messenger from the palace came earlier and said that Her Highness and Almsick-sama have returned to the palace.” (Lily)

So, Luguentz and Elrich had arrived in the mansion, while Feli probably went to the orphanage. Still, hearing all of them being called by their family name was a bit confusing for me. Norbert who was standing behind Lily nodded. It seemed like Lily passed Norbert’s evaluation.

“Where’s Frenssen?” (Welner)

“He is waiting inside your office, Welner-sama.” (Lily)

“Okay. Mazell, sorry but there’s some stuff I need to take care of, so you rest first.” (Welner)

“Okay.”

I left Mazell with Lily while I signaled Norbert to follow me with my gaze.

“Did the church do something while I wasn’t in the mansion?” (Welner)

While walking in the corridor, I asked Norbert.

“Yes. People from the church came here and said that they would like to take care of Lily in the church.”

“Lily knows that?”

“Yes, she refused them directly once. After that, the Mistress has been handling the people who came from the church.”

Since Lily was officially the servant of the Count household, she was under Mother’s jurisdiction. It would create trouble if Father, a minister, confronted the people from the church himself, but as long as it was Mother, the church wouldn’t be able to make a fuss because Lily was under her jurisdiction. Sorry for putting a burden on you, Mother.

Furthermore, it seemed like the leader of the people from church was being quite forceful about this matter.

“Do we know the identities of the people who came from the church?”

“Their identities are still under investigation.”

As expected of the butler of a Count family, he was fast. I bet he ordered the investigation before Father ordered him to. Since this was a matter related to church, I could ask Elrich about this later.

“Give me the result of the investigation later. How is Father?”

“He sent a message that he will be returning a bit late. He also mentioned that he wanted to invite Hearthing-sama (Mazell) and the rest of the hero party for a meal later.”

“If that happened, I hope Father can ignore the table manners and such since Feli will also be there.”

“I will deliver your message to the Count.”

After finishing my conversation with Norbert, I entered the office and found Frenssen standing up to greet me. I signaled him to sit back down. Ah, my old nemesis paperwork was here as I expected. Although the amount wasn’t as huge as before, the paperwork still formed small mountains. Damn.

“Thank you for your hard work. Which one is the paperwork related to Anheim?” (Welner)

“It is this pile.” (Frenssen)

Elder Uwe’s sudden request seemed to have increased my paperwork.

No matter how good Sir Behnke was in handling the paperwork, I still needed to personally deal with important paperwork.

“Is there something else for me?” (Frenssen)

“It’s nothing. Frenssen, you can go and rest now. Unlike us, you’re not that used to traveling, right?”

Me, Mazell, and the rest of the hero party were quite used to traveling, while Neurath and Schunzel were knights so they had good stamina, but Frenssen was just a civil officer. I didn’t want him to collapse, so I told him to rest. I also gave Neurath and Schunzel a two day holiday though.

“I appreciate your concern, but…”

“Rest. That’s an order. Rest tomorrow too. There’s only paperwork left anyway.”

After forcing Frenssen to take a rest, I looked through the documents. The documents from Sir Behnke were clearly made with an assumption that I wouldn’t return to Anheim.

Since Sir Behnke wasn’t one of the Grand Duke’s subordinates, he was most likely one of the Prime Minister’s subordinates. No wonder he was so good at his job. The Grand Duke sure brought me quite a person.

As I kept doing the paperwork, someone knocked on the door of my office.

“Who?”

“It is Lily. I brought some tea.”

“Ah, come in.”

“Excuse me.”

She came at a perfect time. After Lily entered my office, she started to pour tea. Her movements look more refined than before.

“What happened to Mazell?”

“Brother is currently talking with Lazer-sama and the members of the hero party… Please, enjoy.”

“Thank you, about this tea and also about your gift in Anheim.”

I said that as I took the tea, and Lily looked surprised. Just like Mazell, she also blinked three times when surprised. As expected of siblings, they both have the same habit.

“Didn’t you send the letter and the gift to Anheim while taking account of my feelings? Thank you for that.”

“Ah..No..Um…I mean… I was just hoping you will be safe so I just…”

Seeing Lily become flustered made me almost want to burst out laughing. She even blushed, somehow that made me also feel embarrassed. Let’s just… continue the conversation to save us both from further embarrassment.

“Actually, I wanted to send you a return gift as soon as you sent me that gift but I’ve been busy, so I can only give you the return gift now. Sorry.”

I then took out a wooden carved box and handed it to Lily. She then received it with a surprised look on her face.

“May I open it?”

“Of course.”

“Wow…”

There was nothing good in Anheim, so I had a craftsman make this flower shaped brooch. Since it seemed like a showy brooch didn’t suit Lily, I had the craftsman make this simple yet beautiful and elegant flower-shaped silver brooch.

In a provincial town like Anheim, it was hard to find elaborate jewelries in the market. Not to mention that Anheim was a military town created to protect the border.

If Triot still existed, there might be merchants who sold beautiful things made of silver which was one of the specialities of Triot, but well Triot was destroyed.

“I will treasure this! Thank you very much.”

“I’m glad that you liked it.”

It was a natural courtesy to give a return gift when a woman gave you a gift but when I saw how happy she was with this gift, I felt that I should have given her something better. If I had the chance, I would prepare her a much better gift.

After that, I returned to working with my paperwork. I needed to finish this before dinner time since I was sure I would just want to sleep after having dinner.

….That was what I thought at that time.

***

That night, we had dinner with my parents. My stomach hurt as I felt nervous with Feli’s dining manners. After the dinner, Father asked me and Mazell, and for some reason Lily too to stay in the room. He then took an envelope from Norbert’s hand and handed it to Mazell.

“Mazell-kun, this is an invitation to an evening party for you.”

Here it came.

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