Reincarnated into a Game As the Hero’s Friend

♦

I brought the two of them to the Royal Mages Research Laboratory. The exterior resembles a spiral tower, but the inner structure is said to be more complex. It’s straight out of fantasy.

Well, I guess there are many structures in games that make you feel like saying, “How the hell did people build this!?”

For instance, there were isolated rooms that seemed to be floating in the air. There were even more bizarre structures in the dungeon. I wonder if those structures were created with magic.

To begin with, neither Royal Mages nor research institutes appeared in the game, so thinking about them is useless. Still, the construction method of this lab itself is mysterious. It is so curved that it would be more believable if it’s created by using aluminium or something.

At the entrance, the guard questioned my name and title. I gave them and asked the guard to call Fogto-san. Even the gatekeeper of the lab is an armed soldier. Well, it could be for visual impact. After all, anyone carrying a weapon feels dangerous. By the way, I barely saw any mages among guards, maybe that’s because of how few mages there are?

That being said, we are in the royal palace. I doubt there will be many suspicious people here, so that’s maybe why the rare mages won’t be put into guard duty. In that light, it may seem like the guarding duty is useless, but I guess the palace has some consideration to still put guards like this.

“Please come in. He will be waiting for you in the silver laboratory on the third floor.”

“Thank you.”

After greeting the guards and asking for the exact location of the silver laboratory at the entrance, I make my way up the stairs. Since I barely visit the mages laboratory, it’s a new experience for me. Despite the laboratory itself being inside the palace, the atmosphere here is different from other places. This place radiated an academic-like feeling.

It seems like the ‘Silver’ in “Silver Laboratory” is referring to the colour of the plates on the door. The Doors design here are the same, what differentiates them is the colour of their plates, such as red or white. When we see the silver plate, Neurath knocks on the door, then we wait for a response from inside before opening the door.

“Long time no see, Sir Welner.”

“It has indeed been a long time.”

Yeah, it’s been a long time since I saw him when we reported the incident in the Veritza Fortress to the palace. Even so, Fogto-san was smiling at me, saying, “I have heard about your busy schedule.” Yup. Damn handsome man.

He led us to a spacious room. It seems like this room isn’t his lab. Though I called it a lab, this place isn’t filled with strange looking jars, but rather is filled with chairs. This place is more like a group meeting room in a science laboratory where researchers can do complicated calculations, draw some diagrams, or debate their views.

“How is the progress of area magic countermeasures coming along?”

“I cannot say that it has been smooth, but we are starting to get a sense of the direction we’re headed.”

After that, Fogto-san explained some technical knowledge to me. Something about an efficient method of gathering mana and how to keep the gathered mana from being wasted, but I honestly have no idea what he’s talking about.

I am not even a student of the magic department to begin with and I’ve also been particularly neglecting the school for a while. To put it bluntly, I am unskilled at anything that doesn’t involve knowledge from my past life.

“Can’t the magical power be stored somewhere?”

“Perhaps it would be possible if we had a large enough magic stone. However, it is difficult to experiment with magic stones as they break once their original magical power is exhausted.”

“I see.”

Unexpectedly, Schunzel is keeping up with the conversation fairly well. That reminds me, the game didn’t have anyone use offensive magic items. I believe some items could be categorized as tools to use magic, though. The staff of sweltering heat, for instance. It was convenient to use since it won’t cost any MP, but it’s only effective to fight demons until the mid stage of the fame.

Right. The conversation made me remember something. Let me ask Fogto-san about it.

“Speaking of which…”

“Is there something else you are curious about area magic countermeasures?”

“Ah, no, it’s not about that.”

I remembered about the ‘drop item’ that Mazell mentioned, the black gem. If I’m not wrong, it was being researched by the mages. I wondered if he had any idea about the item, which I had no memory of at all.

“Oh, you know. Come to think of it, you were also close to the hero.”

Fogti-san told me that the mages are indeed conducting research about the gem here, but he was not involved in that research. Well, it makes sense that one person won’t do all the research.

“How about I ask Pückler?”

“I would like to keep Mazell updated on the progress, too, so could you please do that for me?”

“Of course.”

I followed Fogt-san who agreed to my request to another laboratory. This lab is probably where the research on gem is being conducted. But really, what the hell is this building? It’s inside is actually so different from the outside.

While I was wondering about that, Fogto-san knocked on the door.

“Pückler, are you there?”

“Hang on a second.”

Not long after a muffled voice sounded, the door opened and a slightly familiar face came from the inside of the room. He will look good with glasses… Ah! I also saw this guy back when I was reporting about the Veritza Fortress incident to the palace. We didn’t talk or anything, though.

“What is it, Fogto?”

“Ah, this is Viscount Zeavert.”

His eyes fell on me and I gave him a bow. His eyes were icy. Did he feel irritated because I interrupted his research? 

“If you have any findings about the black gem, I would like to know.”

“So that’s what this is all about.”

He nods at Fogto-san before turning to me. I am not good with dealing with this kind of smart type, but nevertheless, I can’t help but notice the way he stares at me.

“My name is Roger Pückler. This is my first meeting with you, Viscount Zeavert.”

“Pleased to meet you, Sir Roger. I am Welner von Zeavert. These are my subordinates, Schunzel and Neurath.”

Sir Pückler bows to both of them as well. Following that, he turned to me and spoke. He seems strange, but Fogto-san didn’t seem like he noticed anything so it’s probably just my feeling.

“I am sorry you had taken the trouble to come all the way here, but I have not been able to progress very far with the research. Besides, I have a visitor at the moment.”

“Excuse me for that. Let’s talk about it another day.”

Since the expression on his face and his demeanour suggested that we were not welcomed, we decided to leave at once. It looks like Schunzel and the others want to complain , but I silenced them with a gaze. After we were some distance away from the lab, Fogto-san bowed to me.

“I apologise, Viscount Zeavert. He wasn’t so unsociable before.”

“Please don’t mind it.”

I don’t like his cold attitude, but it’s not something worth getting angry with. I don’t feel good about it, though.

“To be honest, I have some questions regarding his attitude.”

Neurath said this, and to be honest, I have also felt the same. I wonder if his cold attitude was because he had a visitor when he was busy, or he didn’t like me because I’m part of the civil factor, or he didn’t like the Zeavert house, or he has something against me personally.

Frankly speaking, all of these reasons are troubling for me. I’m also not an innocent person. Furthermore, there are certainly people that kept their distance from the nobles just because they are from a commoner family. I don’t know his reason for giving me that cold attitude, but if I forced my way to talk to him, his feelings toward me might worsen.

Well, I can’t let Fogto-san know that I thought of his colleague like this, so I’ll consult with Neurath and Schunzel later on. It would be good if I can get the development of the gem research via Fogto-san.

Afterward, I was able to ask for information about the magic used in the production of magical tools and equipment. Although there was not much to be learned directly, it was wonderful to find out that they are earnestly working on countermeasures against area magic.

That being said, we have a time limit. The countermeasure needed to be completed before Mazell defeated the 3 Generals and 2 of the Four Heavenly Kings. I hope that we make it in time.

♦

T/N: Hi, everyone. We have a sad news to announce today. You may not know that we were barely breaking even our costs for this novel till last month. However, we lost half of our patreon at the start of this month, meaning that we are going to start incurring losses. This was also the reason we put so much efforts in editing the chapters. We were hoping that more readers will support us on patreon so we will not have to reduce release rate. However, things did not go as planned. This month is almost over but we did not see even one new patreon. We will no longer be able to release 3 chapter per week in our current. We will be reducing it to 2 chapters per week. We have made new patreon goals. If we manage to reach them, we will increase release rate again.

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