Reincarnated into a Game As the Hero’s Friend

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After I disbanded the meeting, I talked with Max. As expected, if all experienced military engineers left us, camping at night will become more difficult.

“I guess we can only have the refugees to help us.”

“Yes, that will be the only choice we have.”

After exchanging glances with Max, I can only sigh.

“This is all that damn idiot’s fault.”

I’m allowed to complain at least this much, right?

“Even though Marquis Knap is a member of a different faction than Ingo-sama, he was not a fool. To think that his son is this bad…”

The reason why Max chooses to stop there is probably that he’s a knight. It’s taboo for a knight to criticize a noble with a peerage, though both I and Father didn’t really care about this rule. Despite his bold appearance, Max is quite sensible in this kind of rule.

“Right. I can do that.”

Asking Father for more information is one of the things that I can do. I should let one of the scouts go to the capital.

“It would be best if nothing happened until we arrived at the capital.”

“It will be even better if that bastard, Mangold, just died in a ditch.”

Technically that bastard is my superior. Both of us are vice-count, but he’s a marquis son and he’s also older than me. Still, there’s only Max and me here so it should be fine for me to say this. Max also nodded and didn’t say anything anyway.

“You don’t need to tell the soldiers about this yet, but do make sure that none of the soldiers are sick.”

“Understood.”

“Also, I want you to find the central figure among the refugees.”

“I will ask the opinion of the soldiers, adventurers, and mercenaries for that.”

“I’ll be counting on you.”

I will leave these things to Max and will go consult with Count Vogler about other things later. Especially regarding protecting the transportation corps and how to handle the refugees from now on.

Recently, there have been refugees that think that demons around here are weak. Well, since all demons are killed by the adventurers and mercenaries, they didn’t get the chance to actually fight the demons. Though it’s also true that this is the area where the game just started so only weak demons will appear here.

Still, it will be troublesome if any of the refugees get injured because they underestimate the demons. It’s also going to be trouble if any of the refugees desert us and become bandits. Come to think about it, in the games do bandits get attacked by demons? Hm… I don’t know. I guess I don’t need to think about that.

It’s better for me to think about a more useful thing. As I was thinking about various means to handle the demons, an idea suddenly came into my head.

“If I’m not mistaken, the army in Veritza Fortress is an army of death, right?”

In some aspects, an army of death is probably easier to deal with compared to demonic beasts. I mean basically, they only attacked anything that moved, while demonic beasts have their own wisdom or instinct. Wait, does that mean…

“… I can use that?”

I blurted out that without thinking. This idea is useless to tackle my current problem, but it’s a shame to just throw it away.

Hm… It will be better if I hurry and consult other people regarding this. There might be many holes in this plan that I didn’t notice myself after all. Ho-Ren-So is important (1)

(Note: Ho-Ren-So is a Japanese business abbreviation for ‘Hokoku, Renraku, Soudan’ it’s like a Japanese business mantra. The English translation is ‘Report, Inform, Consult’. It’s memorable because it’s a homonym for the Japanese word for spinach)

After drawing a rough sketch, I left my camp and went to the headquarters.

After waiting for a couple of hours, I finally got to meet the Duke. He must be busy. The sight of the Duke moving his pen as he finished a mountain of documents greeted me the second I entered the headquarters. 

I put my hand on my chest as I give a military salute to the Duke. It’s like a simple version of a gentleman bow, or rather it’s quite impossible to do a gentleman bow while wearing metal armor, so I naturally did this instead. The duke gave me a light nod and said, “Sir Welner, have you run into any trouble?”

“There has been no trouble. I am here to ask for your permission and to offer a suggestion.”

The Duke gave me a puzzled look. I first asked for his permission to send a messenger to the capital.

“I don’t mind, but I want you to also share the information you will get with me. After all, it will be better to have as much information as possible.”

“Understood.”

Of course, I will, it’s not like I’m planning to have a secret communication or something. In any case, I’m glad that the Duke gave me his permission.

“Other than that, I also have the suggestion in case our enemy attacks the capital…”

“Hm?”

The reason I’ve made a drawing before coming here is that it’s troublesome and difficult to explain my plan with words. Duke, pardon the dirty drawing, that’s the ink’s fault, not mine. This world only has black ink after all, plus a drawing of military formation is bound to be dirty. I spread the drawing on the desk and started my explanation. I’m sure with this step-by-step explanation, the Duke will understand. 

After I finished the explanation, the Duke looked at me strangely.

“I understand your explanation. It is quite an interesting plan. Sir, did you think of this plan by yourself?”

“Yes, though there might be other battles who had used this plan previously.”

The truth is I know very little about this world’s military history. Most people of this world are basically muscle brains so most military records of this world only contain information about which war we won and which war we lost.

This plan is just something I based on a battle in my previous life. It’s also just a theoretical plan since I never used it on an actual battlefield. Still, I believe that this plan might work for the battle against the demons of Veritza Fortress.

“The demons in Veritza Fortress are moving corpses. I believe that even the devil that leads them isn’t a military specialist. That is why I thought perhaps they will be having a hard time handling an unexpected situation.”

“You have a point. Alright. I will send this plan of yours via messenger.”

“Thank you very much. But, will it be possible to say that this plan was created by you, Duke?”

“Why do you want to do that?”

“Well, if this plan is sent under the name of a youngster like myself, I worry that it might be discarded.”

I’m just a student, and my position is only as my father’s representative. I’m worried that people will ignore this plan.

“Hm… But you will lose the credit for it, will that be fine with you?”

“If this plan gets discarded before it can be used, then it will be useless.”

“I see, so you mean that eliminating our enemy is more important. Alright, I will send this plan under my name, but even with that there’s no guarantee that it will be accepted.”

“Of course, I understand that.”

It’s fine as long as people will listen and don’t just ignore it. If the plan is actually accepted and will be used on an actual battlefield I’m sure the commanders there can make the proper adjustment. I don’t have the duty or authority to make adjustments myself anyway.

Still, I guess I’m lucky to be noble, at least I can still deliver my plan to the capital. It will be impossible if I’m an adventurer. If I’m a mercenary… maybe it will also be possible if I’m a veteran mercenary?

While thinking about that, I left the headquarters. My next destination is Count Vogler’s camp. Since he’s my superior, I need to be the one that comes to meet him. I feel like all the walking makes my legs almost give out.

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T/N: I accidentally deleted the entire chapter when I was editing it. Good thing undo button exists.

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