Reincarnated into a Game As the Hero’s Friend

While Mazell was showing a confused expression, I turned to Father and asked, “Is the party hosted by the royal family?”

“Yeah. It’s a party to celebrate His Highness Louwen’s birthday.”

Damn. I couldn’t refuse the invitation then. But honestly, the royal family’s move was a ball, huh? I lowkey didn’t want to attend but… sigh… I didn’t have any choice, right?

But the Zeavert house would stand on the ‘frontline’ in this party. Would you be fine with that, Father?

“Ah…Um…” (Mazell)

“First of all, Mazell, this party will be different from the party in your imagination.” (Welner)

“Huh?” (Mazell)

The party Mazell had the experience of attending was the previous victory banquet, but this party would be on a far grander scale than the victory party.

“Although it depends on how many guests will be invited, generally the host needs to prepare tons of things for such a party which is impossible to do in just a few days. Moreover, guests also need a long time to choose the right gift and such.” (Welner)

“Plus, the evening party is also often used for many hidden agendas. For example, there is this rule that in such a banquet, the guest will do the first dance with their families, fiancee, or lover.”

Because of this unspoken rule, the topic of ‘who would get Her Highness the Second Princess’s first dance in the banquet that the hero was invited to?’ would become a hot topic.

Nobles who were aiming to get Laura’s hand-in-marriage would definitely make their move and the church might also involve itself. The nobles who had been holed up in their territories would also use the party as a pretext to finally come to the capital.

The more those nobles move, the more they would stick out like a sore thumb. In short, the kingdom used Prince Louwen’s birthday banquet as a pretext to once again fish out nobles who were aiming for no good. To use their own princess as a bait again, this move was pretty vicious.

Anyway, let’s put that aside for now and return to reassure the still confused Mazell.

“Mazell, you just need to remember that you have to return to the capital on that day to attend the evening party. Just focus on defeating the demon king, no need to think about the complicated stuff.” (Welner)

“Really?” (Mazell)

“Yeah” (Welner)

Since Laura was now the member of the hero party, if Mazell was away from the capital that meant Laura would also be away. The fact that Laura would only return to the capital close or maybe even on the day of the party meant that no one would be able to approach her before the party. That might, no, that would definitely invite the suspicion of some nobles and that might also be the royal family’s aim. So the royal family’s goal was not only to lure those nobles who were aiming for Laura, but also to fan the flame, huh.

It was probably the royal family’s way of warning the nobles. Like, ‘we still haven’t even defeated the demon king so don’t mess around’ or something around that line… I just hope that was all the royal family’s intention but… if there were more… In any case, I was just glad that I didn’t need to stick out my neck to be Laura’s shield this time around.

After our conversation was finished, Lily opened her mouth with a confused tone.

“Um… Why am I also called here, then?” (Laura)

“Ah, as I said before, the first dance can also be with your family.”

The nobles would probably wonder who would be the partner of the acclaimed hero’s first dance, as his sister Lily and the second princess Laura would also be attending the party. Some might also think that it might be other noble ladies. In short, the kingdom might be trying to cause confusion here.

Still, even though Lily was the hero’s little sister, it was very uncommon for a commoner to attend the nobles’ night party. The country might be using this chance to effectively show to everyone that Mazell would be bestowed a noble title soon. There were too many possibilities, so let’s just stop thinking about it.

“But I cannot dance.” (Lily)

“Me too, actually.” (Mazell)

“Well, considering the fact both Prince Louwen and his fiancee, Miss Scrhamm, are young, the song of the first dance shouldn’t be difficult. You both should be fine with just the basics of dancing.” (Welner)

Probably. To be honest I also wasn’t that knowledgeable about dance.

In addition, I got the feeling that Mazell, the protagonist, would be able to dance even at a difficult song with just half a day of training. I mean, the specs of the protagonist were just different.

Lily looked nervous, but well, that was to be expected. I would need to follow up on these two in the night party later. Ah, right, there was something I wanted to confirm with Father.

“Then, will the Zeavert house appoint a public representative to attend the party?”

Well, Father was the Minister of Ceremonies, so that was to be expected.

Public representative was someone who held the crest of a certain noble house and participated in a banquet on their behalf. Like, if the plan was for the entire family to attend the banquet but for some reason the family head couldn’t attend, then the host of the party would appoint a public representative to attend the banquet on their behalf to fill the gap for couple dance.

By the way, if the banquet was hosted by a noble family, not a royal family, this representative was often the butler. Maybe this was the origin of a common plot device of ‘a handsome butler that was good at dancing’ but who knew.

Anyway, the position of my partner for the first dance was still empty, so there was a chance that I might be dancing with Laura. If that happened… Urgh… Thinking about the aftermath made my stomach churn. The country most likely had even considered this possibility and might even try to incite the nobles aiming for Laura using it.

Other than these things… Was there anything else that the country was planning? If the person who made all these plans was the Crown Prince, it was possible that he had several other objectives, although the main objective was most likely a ‘counter attack’ against the church and nobles aiming for Laura.

When I was lost in my thoughts for a bit, Father pulled me back to reality.

“Welner. You go to the palace tomorrow morning, then make the arrangement for Lily’s dress in the afternoon. The count house would take care of the money needed.” (Ingo)

“Huh?”

I still needed to finish my duty as the governor of Anheim… While I wanted to complain like that, Father gave me a sharp gaze, so I stopped myself.

“A noble won’t die because of debt, but a rumor can kill him. Act in a way that would prevent people from saying that you’re here to run away from your debt.” (Ingo)

Critical hit. Well, I did this to myself but I see, a reputation like that could affect me much more worse than I expected. I never thought that things would become like this.

Also, you say something like that Father, but weren’t you just simply angry because I purposely built a reputation as a debt-ridden noble?

“So Prince Louwen’s birthday party would be held in a bit over 100 days?” (Welner)

“The party will be held in exactly 107 days.” (Ingo)

Whoah. With Mazell’s current pace, he would probably kill the second Heavenly King in 100 days. That meant… the attack on the capital event might happen before the party. I also had stuff I needed to research… Damn, the time I had was too tight.

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