Reincarnated into a Game As the Hero’s Friend

On the days when Welner was engaged in public affairs, Lily would sometimes help with minor paperwork, but more often she would study various aristocratic subjects at the Count Zeavert’s mansion.

In this world where women were more socially active than in Welner’s former medieval life, there were many things to learn in addition to manners, such as dancing, embroidery, rules for meals and tea ceremonies, attention to aristocratic phrases, and topics related to fashion, estate’s income and size, the condition of the farms, the water mill and forests, the relationship with neighboring estates, etc.

During a short break in the office, Norbert placed a cup of tea in front of Lily, as expected, exhaled a sigh of relief.

“Oh, thank you for the tea. And, also sorry for the trouble.”

“No, don’t mind it. Lily’s doing very well.”

Norbert was not just flattering her, but he honestly appreciated Lily’s seriousness in her studies. He then commented, “Welner-sama’s memory is better than mine when I was his age,” which Lily didn’t know if he was serious or not with his comment.

Lily, who had taken a break to drink a cup of tea, looked at Norbert as if she had remembered something.

“Um…”

“What is it?”

From Lily’s point of view, the most familiar noblewoman to her would certainly be Claudia. Lily had an honest respect for how she was doing her job as a Noble Lady. The way she conducted herself was way different from that of other noblewomen.

Lily asked casually out of curiosity, but Norbert’s response was somewhat unexpected.

“Come to think of it, you don’t know about this Lily, do you? The relationship between the Count and his wife, well, it might be closer to what people call a stolen marriage, you see.”

“…Eh?”

Lily had a puzzled expression on her face. She understood the meaning of the words, but she couldn’t make the connection between the Count and Countess Lily knew and a stolen marriage.

Norbert continued as he watched Lily with a slightly amused look in his eyes.

“At that time, they were not married yet when it happened. It is very rare for an aristocrat to take someone away from their fiancée even if they have feelings for them.”

“Eh, um, who of the two?”

“The Count, of course.”

“…Um, what?”

The Ingo that Lily saw was a man of few words, but he was calm and thoughtful, and as the Minister of Ceremonies, a member of the Civil Officers’ Court, he was a man with the dignity of a respectable person. She could not for the life of her imagine the count doing it, after all.

She turned her gaze to Norbert with a more confused expression on her face than when learning the manners of a nobleman.

Norbert started to explain while looking amused at Lily. Originally, Claudia was the eldest daughter of a Viscount. Although the family was a Viscount, it had fallen quite far, owning only a single village and, worse, a family that was inferior to even a rich baronet.

Since the Viscountess Claudia had a younger brother, she came to the royal capital to establish herself as a female knight. She then met Ingo, the Count’s son, while working as an apprentice female knight and assisting with security duties at the school.

“It was love at first sight for the Count.”

“Oh, ooooh.”

Whenever Ingo came to visit her, she would turn him away, saying that she was a female knight, that she was not worthy of being a noble, and that she could not dance and did not know much about manners and etiquette.

At first, the previous Count Zeavert, Ingo’s father, was tolerant of the fact that his son was playing with fire, but after a year or two of this, his father started to get annoyed.

At that time, Zeavert House was only one of the local counts, and even among the counts, it was on the minority side. Ingo’s father wanted him to have a relationship with a woman from a better family, closer to the center of the country, if possible, so he was puzzled by the attitude of his legitimate son.

Claudia’s parents also wanted a relationship with a military family, as was the case with most noble families in Bain Kingdom, and partly because Claudia herself was not really interested in who she was married to, but also because she did not want to be seen as someone playing with fire with a Civil Count.

“So Count Ingo’s father discussed the matter with Claudia-sama’s parents. Count Ingo’s father agreed to help Viscount in finding a good partner for Claudia-sama in order to ensure that Count Ingo would not sully the name of his house.”

That partner was the third son of a military Count family, and he had made himself a distinguished knight. It would indeed be a lie to say that he did not intend to connect with the viscount’s family to solidify his own position, even if the viscount’s family was a weak one. He may even have a chance to inherit the Viscount family as Claudia’s partner.

Although Claudia herself resisted, the Count on the other side was also pushing for this engagement with the help of the viscount’ debts.

However, Ingo acted more vehemently when he heard of his family’s actions. He himself first went to the viscount’s house and challenged Claudia’s father, the previous viscount, to a duel in order to get him to agree to marry his daughter.

“Um, the Count, did that?”

Perhaps her brain refused to comprehend. Lily’s words had been muffled, but Norbert didn’t seem bothered and continued talking.

“Yes, apparently so. He had a fistfight with his own father, but he convinced him, and finally he fought a duel with the then head of the viscount’s family, the partner they have engaged Claudia-sama to, and even Claudia-sama herself, to prove that he was capable as a knight, and finally he got them to agree to marry her.”

On the day of the wedding, Claudia said, “I only gave you the victory at that time”. Only Claudia herself would know if this was true or not.

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