Reincarnated into a Game As the Hero’s Friend

When we finally arrived at the mansion, Father hadn’t returned. Father was probably in the middle of receiving an explanation about the trial in the palace.

Because I had sent a messenger to the mansion earlier, Frenssen, Neurath, and Schunzel had been waiting for me in the mansion. I asked Norbert to prepare commoner clothes then I took a break while waiting for the clothes. Tirulla brewed me tea. As always, Tirulla’s tea was really delicious.

“I never expected for things to become like this.” (Neurath)

“But with this, we know who our opponents are, so we can plan a counterattack.” (Schunzel)

“Just a counterattack? Do you really think His Highness is that soft?” (Welner)

As I said that, everyone in the room looked at me with surprise. Their faces clearly showed that they didn’t understand my meaning. Well, it also took me quite a bit of thinking, to the point that I felt like my brain was going to melt before I finally understood the plan of His Highness and His Excellency the Prime Minister.

“Let’s see, where should I begin my explanation… Hmm… First, why do you all think His Highness took the trouble to make the trial into a trial by combat?”

Frenssen was the one that answered my question.

“Hmm…Well, first of all, the matter has already spread to the public.” (Frenssen)

“With how big the matter has become, it’s impossible for anyone to just bury it.” (Neurath)

“Right. Although it was mostly because of an accident, everyone now knew someone was trying to scheme against Mazell and Laura.”

No one, including Delitzdam, would even imagine that Cardinal Kaempfer would use the accusation for his own greed. Furthermore, no one even imagined that the accusation would end up leaking to the public because someone from a different department accidentally saw the document. If anyone could predict these two things that person was a God, not human.

“If this big trial that everyone knew about was held as a trial by combat with a large audience rather than a closed door trial, what do you all think will happen?” (Welner)

“The news of the trial based on false accusations against the hero would spread… Ah, I see. The news would spread not only among the citizens of this kingdom but even to the foreign kingdoms.”

“You’re right, Frenssen. With this, our kingdom made a declaration to other kingdoms that whoever tried to use Mazell for their own benefit, our kingdom will use all of its power to fight them. Even if we have to expose the foolishness of a noble from our own country to the world.”

In short, this trial by combat served as a warning to other kingdoms that anyone who tried to get in the way of Mazell’s journey to defeat the demon king by pulling tricks like Delitzdam would have Bain Kingdom as their opponent. In addition…

“If Mazell and the rest of the hero party heard about this incident, what do you think they all will think?”

After hearing about the incident, they would soon realize that Delitzdam was trying to take advantage of them. Laura and Elrich both had a good political ability, while Feli had an extraordinary intuition. The hero party’s impression of Delitzdam would also deteriorate considerably.

In a worst case scenario, Delitzdam might even have to face the hero party head to head if they tried to pull a similar trick toward Bain Kingdom even after the demon king was defeated.

“Then there’s also one other thing. Well, I know that I shouldn’t say this as someone who will be fighting in the trial by combat, but do you think someone like His Highness will challenge a fight he knows he can’t win?”

This was the crux of the matter. If I thought about it again, the fact His Highness was able to deduce Delitzdam’s real intention even though the trial hadn’t even started yet meant that His Highness had already done some investigation. He might even already have evidence that Delitzdam was involved in this whole trial.

Rather, seeing how confident His Highness was before, it made more sense for him to already have evidence about Delitzdam’s involvement.

In short, the reason why His Highness stepped forward in this matter and took the trouble of arranging trial by combat was to use Delitzdam to declare to the entire continent that the hero was under the protection of the Bain Kingdom.

If you want to try taking the hero away from our kingdom, you must prepare to pay the price.

Also, no one would be able to do anything even if I lost the trial since the kingdom could just announce that the trial was done with a false charge.

This also served as an attack on the church who kept saying that the hero shouldn’t be monopolized by a single country. I mean, there was no way that the church could keep saying that if it was proven that the church had a connection to a false accusation brought to the hero himself. I could imagine the headache the church’s upper echelon was having right now because of the stupidity of their people.

As for the people of Delitzdam… I could imagine they have it worse than me or the church. They stepped on a tiger’s tail.

“Then, will the person responsible for accusing the hero immediately be judged?”

“No, I don’t think that will happen.”

I replied to Neurath’s question. For this matter…I felt kinda complicated since I was the person who would take part in the trial by combat.

“The trial was made into a trial by combat for the sake of the internal of our kingdom. Before I explain that, I’ll give a hint. In a serious political scene, people would be on high alert, but if it’s in a festive event, like the trial by combat, people would let down their guard. And if this particular event might end up getting rid of their long-time enemy… what do you think they will do?”

“They will gather their friends to see the sight of the fall of their enemy with their own eyes.”

Frenssen muttered and it seemed like everyone finally understood.

“Are you saying that…”

“Yeah. Eyes of His Highness and His Excellency would also be in the duel, but rather than watching the duel, those eyes would be watching carefully who were the people that gathered around High Priest Malavoi and the Coltrezis house’s people.”

Then, His Highness and His Excellency would put an eye on those people and take a note on who else they were meeting with. With this, the list of people who were the members of the Marchioness and the High Priest’s faction could be neatly created. In the end, the kingdom could take care of them all in one fell swoop.

Since the duel was just a means for the kingdom to build that list, it didn’t matter if I won or lost. By the time the whole event was over, His Highness would already have the list of troublemakers that didn’t understand the gravity of the situation.

“Probably, at first the kingdom would behave as the whole trial was a problem created by the Coltrezis family alone. Then, when the kingdom gathered sufficient evidence, it would clean all troublemakers in one fell swoop.”

Back when Mazell and I were summoned to meet the Prime Minister and the Grand Duke, the Prime Minister said when the time is ripe, we will handle at least half of the matter. He must be talking about this cleaning up.

As mentioned earlier, Prince Louwen’s birthday party was arranged to agitate nobles with certain intentions.

The reason His Highness said that the trial was caused by his carelessness was that he never expected Coltrezis house to dance to another country’s tune before all preparations were ready.

If the kingdom punished the Coltrezis house here, the kingdom would only be able to catch some of the people involved while the rest would go hide deeply. In order for the kingdom to be able to handle at least half of the matter just like the Prime Minister said, the kingdom was using a sensational event like this trial by combat to make a list of all nobles involved.

For His Highness to use this incident to that extent…His Highness was really a scary person.

In short, this upcoming duel was essentially nothing but a political fishing pond for idiot nobles and I was just the bait. It was kinda sad.

They probably had plans in case I lost the duel, but I had my own reason to not lose.

“Welner-sama, the commoner clothes are ready.”

“Okay. Neurath, Schunzel, come with me.”

“Yes, sir.”

Well then, so far my achievement in war seemed to have become useful, but let’s make another move, just in case.