Reincarnated into a Game As the Hero’s Friend

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince Hubert asked, “Regarding Count Gramlich, what do you know about his situation?”

“I have not heard anything other than that the Count has died of illness. His family also fell ill. And that my family might be in danger.” 

“It’s only us here. You may refrain from using roundabout phrases.”

Frankly, I did appreciate that. I shall do so without hesitation. As I was thinking that, His Highness continued.

“And I assure you, you are not under any suspicion.”

“I see.”

If anything, I was the one who would have been attacked by Count Gramlich, considering his possible resentment toward me. It felt strange knowing that the person I had been so wary of suddenly disappeared.

The first thing that came to my mind was the suspicion that the Coltrezis House had something to do with it, but I couldn’t say anything concrete at this point.

“Is the cause of death known?”

“It seems that the wine was poisoned. The Count, his wife, his brother and his brother’s wife, as well as his son, who was the heir to the Count’s family, and the Count’s nephew, all died. The youngest daughter of the Count was the only one who survived and is currently being treated by the royal court’s medical team.”

That brother was the one who dueled with me, I believe. Six dead, one in critical condition, and all in a nobleman’s mansion. That was a terrible tragedy.

It wasn’t hard to get poison in this world. Biological poisons from snakes, plant poisons from certain types of mushrooms, and mineral poisons such as arsenic were well known in aristocratic society, and there were even demon poisons.

However, there existed antidote magic in this world. It could detoxify any kind of poison, so aristocratic families were less likely to die from poison accidents… Well, there were some cases where people got bitten by snakes during a night camp and couldn’t make it to the temple in time.

However, I had doubts about this “antidote magic” like whether it had some kind of side effects. Right now, that was not the main topic, so I should think about it later.

In any case, it was also not surprising if an aristocrat used the poison to commit suicide. Though, even if he did become crazed, there was no reason for him to kill himself in the first place.

As I have concluded, I would understand if it was people involved with Count Gramlich’s side that poisoned him. I could understand if those people would also be holding a grudge against me because their image had been damaged by the duel trial. But with the prince revealing that it was staged made things really questionable. Also, no nobleman would be so weak that they would commit suicide over something as trivial as this.

So, I guess it was a murder disguised as a suicide.

“Did you know that there was something unnatural about the other side during that duel?” (Welner)

“I have known. I also planned to investigate that in detail, but the investigation was delayed because of other priorities. It was a misjudgment from my side.”

I think that was inevitable. After I won the duel trial, it was inevitable that the order of priority would be assigned to dealing with Delitzdam first, then the church, and Gramlich would come after that.

Of course, if I had lost to a crazed person, he would have been killed on the spot, and that would have changed the order of priorities.

“At the time of getting the report of Count Gramlich’s death, we just finished dealing with the other matters, so Sir Seyfart was mortified.”

“That is understandable.”

Certainly the investigation should have led to the mastermind behind all this, or perhaps this was to make sure that the connection with Coltrezis House was cut off.

“Currently, the head of the family, the Count, and his brother, the head of the House of Knights, have died suddenly, while the youngest daughter in the direct line is still alive.”

“Right.”

“In other words, the youngest daughter, who is not yet ten years old, will become the head of the Count Gramlich’s knighthood. Whoever becomes her representative would be working for the Count’s family, but only as a force that would defend the Royal Capital, so the position of her army would be similar to that of a volunteer army…”

“Ah…”

That was a blind spot. If that was the aim, then it would be quite obvious. Our Zeavert house was able to mobilize about 100 men during the emergency of the monster stampede. Usually, Count Gramlich’s side would be able to mobilize about the same number of people as our side.

But with the change of commander and the drop in morale, that group could no longer be included in the calculations as a proper army. If the entire family had died, it might have been possible to dismantle the entire unit and reorganize it, but that was not possible since the youngest daughter was still alive.

If you look at it carefully, Marquis Knapp was lost at Fort Veriza, Count Friedheim of Valeritz whose palace fell before Finnoi, Count Bachem who joined forces with Leslatga after the Finnoi offensive, and Count Gramlich this time, even if limited to counts and above after the monster stampede, there were four noble families that were neutralized or even extinguished.

Naturally, these noble knight orders would be reorganized at best and disbanded at worst. However, that would not make them that useful in war efforts. Thinking about it, these battles in the Hildare Plains, Finnoi, the fights with demons inside the Royal Capital, the battle at Anheim, and other battles where I wasn’t present, I’d say that we’d lost close to 10,000 men in force compared to just after the monster stampede.

Regardless of whether the opponents were demons or  humans in those battles, the domestic forces were slowly being reduced, whereas demons were still springing up out of nowhere without any decline. It was as if we were being forced to fight a war of attrition against an opponent with nearly unlimited resilience.

I sighed. I see, His Highness’ idea of putting as few restrictions on Mazell’s actions as possible was correct. International relations today were like an inviolable alliance in the face of a common enemy, the Demon King. To put it another way, if our actual forces were exhausted when the Demon King died, there would be no telling what other countries would do next.

And since the Royal Capital had already been attacked, it was certain that our country would continue to be a target of the Demon Army, and we would need Mazell to kill the Demon King and stop the demons from going berserk as soon as possible, even after the Demon King was defeated.

In the game, there were no involvement from other countries. Although there was no interference from the government in the game, I wonder if there was similar support behind the scenes. It was a bit far-fetched.

“The royal family will continue to investigate Count Gramlich’s case, but for the time being, please take care of yourself.”

“Yes, sir.”

Wait a minute. As I recalled, Rafed was the one who investigated the blood relationship (explained in next para) between those houses. I pulled out the memory of their connections as I remembered.

Count Gramlich’s wife was Count Yerring’s sister, while Count Yerring’s wife was a woman from the Coltrezis House, and because of Count Yerring’s guardianship as a relative of Count Gramlich, they would be able to indirectly absorb the Gramlich house’s knights into the Coltrezis House’ faction.

“Should we also be wary of Count Yerring?”

“I have already informed your father, and you are right, Sir. I’m surprised you noticed.”

I was impressed as well, but not too happy. But still, the other party was a noble family. It was not just me who should be careful, but my whole family.

I was ready to bite back if they came, but what should I do in order to prepare for that?

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