Reincarnated into a Game As the Hero’s Friend

Chapter 99

His Highness smiled as if he wanted to change the atmosphere.

If Sir has any good ideas regarding Triot, dont hesitate to tell me. Speaking of which, I heard Sir needs some craftsmen?

Yes. I need some craftsmen to create some new, or rather, improvised, weapons and tools.

I was glad His Highness didnt immediately demand ideas about Triot and Gezarius, since I needed some time to organize the information. This time, the game knowledge might be useless.

I would appreciate it if Your Highness would give me some time to think about Triot.

Sure. I will see you again in 3 days then.

Thank you very much.

After His Highness glanced to the side, he nodded. I guess glance was to give an order to his assistant, who managed his schedule. Now that one matter was finished, there was another thing that I wanted to confirm with His Highness.

Incidentally, Your Highness, about the chief of the Alea Village

Ah, him.

His Highness showed me a rare wry smile. I wondered what happened?

Did something happen to the chief?

Well, I heard he sent a letter of protest to the palace. I didnt even see it though.

Yeah, it would be his staff, not His Highness himself, who handled the matter of a local village.

My younger sister, Laura, has also sent a letter to His Majesty regarding that incident.

Wait, what? Didnt the problem just get bigger somehow? I mean, usually a problem of a village would be handled by the local nobility. This time, the reason the matter of the Alea Village was handled in the capital was that this matter could affect the royal familys reputation since it was the royal family which supported the hero.

Now that the matter had somehow made its way to the Kings ear, that village chief wouldnt just get a light punishment. Of course, I didnt feel any trace of pity for him.

Laura is usually polite, but she also has afrank side.

Yes. I had also experienced that side of Her Highness when I talked with her in the courtyard.

(T/N: Right after the demon outbreak, Welner and Mazell met Laura and talked to her in the palaces courtyard.)

Or to be more specific, I experienced that side of Laura in the game. After all, she was set to be an approachable and friendly princess character in the game.

Her letter was written with beautiful penmanship and impeccable grammar, like it was an official document. The letter contained Lauras request for a polite but thorough investigation of the Alea Village. When His Majesty read that letter, he looked as if he was eating an overripe fruit.

Her Highness is quite fierce

As I inadvertently let out a rather rude comment, His Highness gave a bitter smile. Good thing he didnt mind it.

I could imagine the scene of Laura writing a letter filled with polite anger on each of its lines elegantly and full of smiles. Scary. The matter of Alea Village ended up becoming bigger than I expected. I think it was going to be troublesome if I butt in now.

It seems like I have troubled you with this matter. My apologies.

This matter is the countrys blunder. Theres no need for Sir to apologize. In any case, what did Sir make the orphans and the refugees do in the capital when you were away?

Urgh As expected, he knew about it. Well, by the time I returned to the capital from Finnoi, His Highness had already found out who was actually devils disguised as humans in the capital so his investigation capabilities were no joke. I guess it was only natural that he knew about it.

It wasnt something that I needed to hide anyway so this was a perfect time to explain it and ask for His Highnesss permission.

Your Highness, to tell you the truth, there has been something that I have thought of for quite some time now

After I finished my explanation, I returned to my office. I met Schunzel and Neurath there.

I sent Neurath on an errand and Schunzel to notify a certain person that I would visit him later. After that, I decided to change our schedule a bit today, so we went to the Royal Mage Building.

Seeing the enormous hole in the outer walls of the Royal Mage Research Laboratory made me let out a gasp of surprise. Unless it was some event, it was impossible for a player to destroy the building in the game. If Gezarius was the one who created that hole, it meant that his raw strength was quite crazy.

After asking the guards around the laboratory, we found that the person we were looking for wasnt there, so we went to the palaces treatment center instead. After we went through the procedure at the entrance, we entered the treatment center.

The procedure to enter here was quite strict since it would be a problem if someone entered here and ended up harming the nobles and the knights who were recovering. Sometimes, visitors might even need to be accompanied by a watchman throughout their visit. Security was important after all.

Our identity was clear, so we were able to get the permission to enter with no problem. After that, we headed to the room where Fogto-san was.

Sir Welner, you are here.

Sir Fogto. I am glad to see you.

I bowed slightly to him. I was glad that he didnt seem to suffer any heavy injury.

Well, I had quite a terrible experience. The entire building suddenly shook and things started to fall from shelves.

Oh, dear. I am sorry to hear that. I am glad to see that you did not suffer any heavy injury.

I responded while handing the visitation gift that Neurath had prepared for me. I see that the building shook when the outer wall was destroyed.

I was fine, but I heard the researchers who were researching potions suffered a lot.

They work with potions, after all. Those things were quite dangerous.

By the way, glass was expensive, but to tell you the truth, I was more glad that the fallen potions didnt cause some strange reaction by being mixed up on the floor. Of course, I wouldnt say all that and would just give a standard answer. Well then, how about I proceed to the main issue now

Speaking of which, I am sorry to say this while you are injured at all but

What is it?

He immediately responded to my words. I guess Fogto-san also didnt think I was here only to visit him.

Is it possible to make magic stones run out of control, such as by generating heat or sending a blast of wind?

Ever since I heard that the magic pump could run out of control from Grand Duke Seyfart, Ive been curious. Did the pump run out of control because of mechanical failure, or did it run out of control because of the trouble with the magic stone that powered the pump?

(T/N: The magic pump Welner was talking about was a magic pump that pumped water throughout the palace.)

Hearing my question, Fogto-san showed a confused expression. He then put his hand on his chin and started to think. If the answer was yes, it wouldnt impact my daily life too much since even if the magic stone which I usually used daily went out of control, it wouldnt cause any trouble since the stone was quite small. Still, knowing this answer might provide me with some insight.

I have never tried to make magic stones go out of control on purpose, but yes, it would be possible to do it.

If that is so Will it be possible to do something like this

After I told him my idea, Fogto-san, Neurath, and Schunzel gave me a look that seemed to say what the hell was this guy talking about!? But I think my idea might have a use later so lets ask to do some research about it.

After I finished my talk with Fogto-san, I went to the Royal Guard office to meet the captain of the Royal Guard and the lieutenant, Goretzka. I have never met with either of them since I never had a reason to, and yet they welcomed me warmly. They both were good people.

I didnt know how to react when they told me about what actually happened when the Royal Guards fought Gezarius.

Aparantelly, the man who was greedy for achievements that His Highness was talking about attacked Gezarius while shouting I cant let the Zeavert house take all the credit!. If possible, I would be more than happy to give you all these annoying credits or whatnot! They told me to not feel responsible but how could I do that? Sigh It felt complicated.

I also gave the tablet to the lieutenant, though it was unfinished. It was better if they never used it, but it would be useful if they did. The lieutenant looked at the tablet with a face full of interest. I smelled trouble so I used the excuse I am still in the middle of my experiment and ran off! With that, I spent an entire morning in the castle, finishing my task But why was the palace this huge? Damn, I was tired.

After I returned to my office, I quickly finished the urgent paperwork first. I still had many places that I needed to visit tomorrow, so I completed the paperwork as fast as possible. Honestly, confirming the location of the places I wanted to go was more troublesome compared to finishing this mountain of paperwork.

In between my paperwork, I checked the daily report from the orphanage. The handwriting in the report looked like a worm, and my head hurt while reading it. Just like I thought, it was near the slum.

After finishing as many documents as I could, I sent a notice to Father, then took an early leave from the office. I chose a scabbard that was usually used by the soldiers, not the ones I usually used, then hung it on my waist. I had things to do today so my wallet felt heavy. I used the Counts houses money for today so I could feel Fathers cold gaze.

Father nagged me not to return late. Father, I wasnt a child. I planned to return immediately after I found what I wanted. Starting tomorrow, I was going to get busy since I needed to take care of both military affairs and the affairs in the Zeaverts territory. It wouldnt be funny if the things that happened in the Alea Village also happened in the villages in the Zeavert territory. I had also proposed to Father that we should review the people in charge of inspecting and supervising the territory.

This was the sort of time when I felt the heavy duty of being Deputy Count.

Also, as I walked, I sometimes saw the nobles, servants, and maids that I passed by whispering around me, but I pretended I didnt notice. I didnt think they were spreading some malicious gossip, but I still felt uncomfortable.

I thought I might consider locking myself in the territory after Mazell defeated the Demon King.