Reincarnated into a Game As the Hero’s Friend

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After I had gotten all the information I needed from Duke Grunding and Grand Duke Seyfart, they both returned to the headquarters posing as Neurath and Schunzel’s subordinates. I prayed that they would also get a stomach ache…. AHAHAHAHA.

…No, I knew that praying stuff like that wouldn’t help.

The two people who replaced the Duke and Grand Duke as the prison guards looked normal on surface but once I looked more carefully, I could tell that they had a different bearing than normal soldiers. They were most likely the direct subordinates of either the Duke or the Grand Duke.

By the way, the military prison for normal soldiers was just a cage above a cart but the military prison for nobles was inside a building or tent. The tent was actually quite sturdy too since it was made from a demon’s skin. It was much sturdier than the tent used by normal soldiers.

The reason why a sturdy tent was used was also to prevent the prisoner from escaping since, in a war between countries, this kind of military prison would also be used to imprison the nobles of other countries.

As I lay down while looking up, I sighed. Really, just whose fault was it that I got involved with this kind of trouble… Wait, in the game, the kingdom knights were annihilated so the priority of all nobles was to protect their territory and they didn’t have any time to care about courting Laura.

Meaning since I was the one that prevented the destruction of the kingdom knights… everything was my own fault? Damn, I wanted to cry…

Well, it was not like I could change the past.

The trigger that made Laura join the hero party was the partial destruction of Finnoi but now since Finnoi was still safe and sound, I couldn’t count on that trigger anymore. Other than this trigger, I needed to fulfill a condition for Laura to join the hero party. That condition was for me and Mazell to get the highest contribution in war only with the cards I currently have. That was pretty hard.

If Mazell didn’t get recognition then Laura might not be allowed to join the hero party. I couldn’t let that happen not just because my friend’s future love life would be impacted but also because there were events that the hero party wouldn’t be able to clear without Laura’s help. For better or worse, they were both currently in Finnoi so at the very least they probably had become friends. I hoped so.

On the other hand, if I didn’t get recognition then some other nobles might become Laura’s fiancee candidate and that might make Laura have to stay in the capital or in that potential fiancee’s territory for an ‘introduction’. That also meant Laura wouldn’t be able to join the hero party. 

Of course, even if this condition was fulfilled, it was going to be useless if we lost this war. In the game, the hero battled one on one with Beliulace as he saved Laura but that was going to be pretty much impossible in reality. I mean, Beliulace was definitely surrounded by his army so Mazell couldn’t cut through the entire army and then fight one-on-one with Beliulace without being bothered by his soldiers.

I also needed to make sure Beliulace died here. If we won but failed to kill Beliulace here, Beliulace might rearrange his army and then attack the capital. I couldn’t let that happen.

Long story short, I needed to defeat Beliulace’s army and kill Beliulace here while making sure that  I and Mazell become the 1st and 2nd ranked contributors in this war. Crazy.

While sighing, I checked the placement of the army on both our and the demon’s side. If, for example, Finnoi was the joint pin of the paper fan, then the demon army was placed at the fan’s stick while the kingdom’s army was placed at the outer side of the fan where the paper and clothes were usually located. Fortunately, because of the terrain, our enemy wouldn’t be able to attack from the outside of this fan.

Finnoi was located in the mountains, the demon army near the plain, while the kingdom’s army was located on the border between the forest and the plain. With this positioning, wouldn’t we be attacked from both sides once the forest demons were respawned?

(T/N: Just in case you forgot, the forest demons were killed in the demon outbreak incident.)

Maybe that was actually Beliulace’s aim? Our number was superior but once the forest demons respawned and attacked us then our number might become equal to demons. If that happened, the soldiers would be forced to fight one-on-one with demons. They wouldn’t be able to win since a one-on-one fight with a demon was dangerous for even a knight.

Even with our current advantage in numbers, Beliulace’s direct subordinates were definitely stronger than normal demons and yet the demon army didn’t take an offensive stance against our army. Maybe the reason for that was they were trying to buy time until the forest demons respawned? I didn’t know but it was highly possible. Still, would the demons’ food supply actually last till then?

Anyway, currently, our army was half encircling the demon army with the cavalry and the 1st and 2nd division of the kingdom knights positioned in right and left flanks. There was nothing wrong with this arrangement but maybe because there were a lot of people in the army, the formation looks stretched out.

This world didn’t have good communication devices. There was also little to no unity in the army since one side was motivated not to defeat the demon but to court the princess while the other side had no will to fight because of the crushing defeat in their first attack. Furthermore, the allied nobles regarded each other as a rival for Laura’s hand in marriage so they would definitely try to pull each other down secretly.

“Sigh… what should I do?”

Complaining was useless so I needed to think. I couldn’t find ways to break the stalemate by only focusing on our shortcomings and being frightened by our opponent’s advantage so I needed to think about a way to use our advantage to attack the enemy’s weakness.

After all, my time was limited. Time waits for no one and it definitely wouldn’t wait until I thought of a way to overcome our weakness.

What was our advantage? Hmm… Number. No matter what, there was strength in superior numbers. Then, what was our opponent’s weakness? Hmm… AH!

I got up and sat cross-legged then began to sort my thoughts. There was one common thing between Beliulace’s line in the game, the tone that the demon in Veritza Fortress used on us, and the attitude of the Lizard Magician that kidnapped Lily-san. They all seemed to look down on humans. You would never think the people that you looked down on were trying to lure you into a trap. 

In the game, the map of the Great Temple was unlocked just as the player defeated Beliulace. That meant Beliulace didn’t have any subordinates that acted as his second-in-command or anything like that. I only needed to focus on killing Beliulace then.

If possible, I wanted to carefully plan this strategy until the minute details but I didn’t think there was time for that. In any case, I’d got confirmation from the Duke that we could contact the people in Finnoi.

I was glad that we could communicate even during a siege like this. I also heard that we were supplying food to Finnoi using magic bags. In any case, as long as I could tell people in Finnoi about my plan, it could work. Probably.

With this plan, it would be Mazell, not me, that becomes the number 1 contributor in this war but that was fine. Or rather, that was better. Although the Duke said that he would become my backing, I didn’t know if he would keep his word. No, to be more specific, even if he did keep his words, as a mere viscount, I was still afraid about how other nobles who aimed to marry Laura would retaliate against me later.

On the other hand, Mazell was someone with the recommendation of the royal family so with a good follow-up, he would be fine. I only needed to make sure that I and Mazell got the number 1 and 2 contributors in this war. Which one of us was the number 1 and which one was number 2 didn’t really matter.

“I need to consult with either His Excellency the Duke or His Excellency the Grand Duke tonight. I’m sorry but can you make a trip to tell them?”

I talked to the guards who were silently watching me mumbling on the floor. They both nodded and then one of them left his post. I knew it. They were either the Duke or the Grand Duke’s direct subordinates.

That night, using the gift of a soldier’s uniform that the Grand Duke gave me via the prison guard, I left the prison and met both the Duke and the Grand Duke to explain my plan. Fortunately, I had all the tools necessary to carry out my plan stored in my blue box. After answering a few questions from both of them, I returned to the prison.

Now my plan was in motion and the rest depends on the situation in the frontline tomorrow. How was I going to earn achievements… urgh… my stomach hurts.

Tomorrow, when I get out of this prison, I would eat only soft things like wheat porridge for a while… Sigh…

T/N: Hi, Nisarah here! So I’ve been using present tenses for 1st POV chapter since chapter 1 but I changed it to past tenses in this chapter for grammatical reasons (kudo to Fleeting, mr. editor!) So I wanted to hear your opinion about which is better, past tenses or present tenses? Here to vote!

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