Reincarnated into a Game As the Hero’s Friend

“If things were going to end up like this, we should have just killed them.” (Knott)

“We couldn’t really help it. We can’t just kill a noble and his subordinates. After all, that would have given the upper hand to other church factions.” (Leppe)

Knowing that there were factions within the church, Welner had no doubt that this would have resulted in the other side using this situation to their advantage.

The three men standing as their guards had their shields up and formed a wall to block Welner, while Welner was gradually approaching to get closer to Leppe and Lily.

“Even so, I didn’t expect you to catch up with us so quickly. It’s one of the worst times I’ve ever expected to be caught up while in the middle of something, but…”

“I guess you could say that the timing was favorable for me, huh?”

“I didn’t expect you to find the way out so quickly, either. I even let a suspicious-looking carriage leave the church.”

“Well, it’s because I set fire to the church head’s office.”

“…What?”

“There wasn’t supposed to be any way to set fire in that room.”

“With the sunlight coming through the window, a crystal ball on the display in the room, and some dry paper, I could at least start a fire.”

Welner may have been fortunate that some of the papers sent from the provinces had inexpensive, highly flammable ink made from magic beast material. After using a crystal ball as his lens to gather sunlight and set the old papers on fire, he waited until the fire spread as far as possible. Next he took out his spear from his magic bag, smashed the window, and jumped out of it.

Then, by shouting that the church head’s office was on fire and that High Priest Leppe was there, even Leppe’s men, who had been trying to convey false information about Welner that he had left in a carriage, inadvertently allowed him to escape because of their panic.

The fire in the church head’s office was certainly a bigger problem for them than securing Welner, as they had only been told to stay behind and had not been told the details of what was going on.

Leppe looked stunned.

“How could you have thought that far ahead?”

“I won’t deny that I was in a rush, to be honest. I didn’t know what you wanted me there for, or why it was now, or any other reason.”

“How did you trace us?”

“Markings and notes asking for help, but it was written in a coded way that can’t be read by just anyone. Fortunately, I can understand it even if it was unreadable to anyone else.”

It was not a lie, but also not the whole truth. Lily and Welner had come up with many ways to deal with such emergencies.

“I see, anyway, it’s certainly true that you are here. I will ask you to stay quiet, or something bad will happen.”

While saying this, Leppe turned his gaze for a moment to Lily, who was being held captive behind a wall of shields and people.

“You know, I actually thought that this was all just some kind of joke until you decided to kidnap Lily. Will you tell me why you did this?”

“Well, no. Anyway, you guys know what you need to do.”

As Leppe said this, the three men with shields who were standing in front of Welner, as well as the two men behind them, drew their swords. Even though it was an underground tunnel, it was wide enough for the three of them to stand side by side, and Welner carefully readjusted his spear.

“Since we have a hostage, why don’t we just make him surrender?” (Knott)

“I don’t think it would be wise to give him such an opening.”

Leppe coldly responded to Knott’s statement with a glance at Lily. It was already a miscalculation to allow Welner to catch up with them here, but Leppe was more alarmed at how he was able to read their intentions to this point and still come after them on his own.

He decided not to allow Welner to play any more tricks on top of this.

“Besides…”

Before Leppe could open his mouth, the guards in front of Welner slashed at him.

All three slashed with such force that Welner ducked to avoid two of them and caught the last one with the hilt of his spear, but the sword of one of the guards struck the stone wall of the tunnel, shattering the stone and digging deep into the wall.

“What?”

“That sword, once pulled out, won’t be stopped.”

Leppe spoke calmly to Knott, who looked surprised. Welner, on the other hand, barely parried the sword of the guard who was showing his monstrous strength. After that, Welner immediately moved backwards to make some distance and regain his stance.

“Sword of Doom, huh?”

“…I must say, Lord Welner can be tricky. I didn’t realize you even knew about the cursed weapons.”

“It’s nothing important.”

Welner’s expression of holding back his wry laughter was probably due to his remorse at having said something he shouldn’t have.

The Sword of Doom, as Welner remembered it in the game, was one of those cursed items that, when equipped, would just attack repeatedly without accepting any controls during battle, but despite the uncontrollable nature of the item, it was still one of the most powerful weapons in the game.

At the same time, Welner also knew that the curse on those armaments could be removed at the church. However, once the curse was removed, the equipment would also disappear. And knowing this, Welner was convinced that the same would happen even in this world.

“I never thought the church would be keeping these things.” (Welner)

“It’s normal for the church to store dangerous items.”

Cursed equipment could be found in treasure chests or when dismantling monsters to strip them of their materials because, for some reason, the monsters carried them inside their bodies. It was widely believed that the discovery of cursed weapons mixed in with useful weapons may have been a trap set by the Demon King.

However, since they were dangerous and unusable as equipment and could only be sold for one to ten gold coins, most of them were discarded instead of being treasured.

In the game, you could only encounter them through the Hero’s Party as they were the only playable characters, but in this world there were numerous adventurers, so it was not uncommon for other parties to discover cursed weapons, including protective gear.

“There are sometimes adventurers who wield weapons they picked up in the labyrinth, and they are brought into the church occasionally.”

“What a nuisance!”

Welner received and repelled the incoming attacks and, conversely, sometimes counterattacked to injure his opponents, but his opponents repeated their attacks without regard to injury. Welner cursed as he and the three vanguard guards exchanged blows.

The quality of the weapons was so good, not to mention the skill of the opponents, that Welner had no choice but to be cautious.

All of a sudden, one of the guards cut down the other guard next to him. The guard who was cut ignored the wound and continued attacking Welner as if nothing had happened, causing blood to spread on the floor from the wound.

Wary of his wet and slippery footing, Welner avoided the attack of the injured guard and managed to land a hit with his spear on the other guard. However, the slippery footing and the fact that the attacker was wearing a shield and heavy armor limited the areas that could be targeted, so it was far from a fatal blow.

“There are also some who make their living by picking up the discarded goods of previous adventurers, you know.”

“That just made it a pain to deal with!”

In the game, once abandoned, armaments and tools could never be picked up again. However, in real life, there were actually adventurers who specialized in collecting such discarded items. Some of the equipment may have been discarded by the Hero Mazell and his friends.

Welner never paid attention to this aspect.

Leppe said, “However, I really didn’t want to use those cursed weapons in a narrow place like this.”

Someone who would not hesitate to not only aim at their enemies but also their allies would be extremely dangerous.

Knott, who was standing next to Leppe, responded with a sullen expression, “I imagine so.”

Leppe continued rather calmly, “It can’t be helped. It may not be the best outcome, but it’s better to let Lord Welner die here even if it means sacrificing some of our guards.”

“If that is your decision, then I guess it’s all right for me to be reckless, as well.”

It was Lily, not Knott, who responded to Leppe’s statement. She was not yet able to move properly, but she kept wriggling and tried to shake off the two guards who were restraining her.

Knott responded sarcastically to Lily, “Don’t waste your time and watch quietly.”

“…”

Welner caught the blow from one of the church guards, and while shifting his body halfway to deflect his opponent’s momentum, Welner thrust sharply toward the other guard.

As soon as the spear tip pierced the guard’s armor and dug into his side, Welner pulled out his spear and, while preparing himself for another attack from the other two guards, Welner asked Leppe again, “Why did you do all of this?”

The reply was unexpected for Welner.

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