Reincarnated into a Game As the Hero’s Friend

I went to the duel arena amidst the fervent cheers and observed the arena. The referee’s seat was located where you have the best view of the center of the arena and around the referee’s seat were the seats for the nobility. Nobility made up roughly half of the audience and the commoners made up the other hal-..HUH!?

That was bad. I almost yelped in surprise. I heard that none of the royal family members would attend the duel, but wasn’t the person who sat at the front row of the commoners section His Highness Prince Louwen and the daughter of Marquis Schramm? They both seemed to be surrounded by disguised guards.

To bring your fiancée to a gruesome battle arena for a duel… Ah, no, maybe it was normal in this world? Ah, whatever.

It seemed like they both came in a disguise, so let’s also pretend that I didn’t notice anything.

The two horses were already in the arena. Neurath was holding the reins of my horse, while Schunzel went to the opponent’s side to check their horse. In this world, it was a rule for your knight to check your opponent’s horse before a duel, so there was also a knight from the opponent’s side who came to check my horse. This was to prevent participants from putting some kind of magic on their horses to make them stronger.

I knew this world had magic, but it still felt very strange to see someone checking a horse for magic. I guess this was what you call a generation… Ah, no, in my case, a world gap?

By the way, since my horse was a gift from the royal family, I couldn’t change its name, so the horse’s name remained Disbelt (Brave). Seriously naming a horse Brave? That sounded corny to be honest.

I then looked at Lily. I was relieved that Annette was by her side. It seemed like there was no incident, probably because Grand Duke Seyfart was also sitting near them.

After the inspection of the horse was finished, I entrusted my weapon to a knight, then went together with my opponent to the front of the referee’s seat and went down to one knee.

“Both sides will now be allowed to lay out their claims for the last time!”

High Priest Reppe’s words resounded throughout the venue. This… was the same thing that the Supreme Priest used back in Finnoi. I thought the sound amplification that time was the result of magic, but it seemed like it was a result of a magic tool… but…

I could still understand if the magic tool was used in Finnoi since that place was the religious center of this world but…here? To use something like that which wasn’t even used in an event that His Majesty attended like a military parade just for the sake of this duel… Did the temple have that much power?

Or maybe the sound amplification device was something that only the temple had, some sort of technology from the  ancient kingdom and that was why it was only used in events that involved the temple like this duel and the battle in Finnoi. If that was true, maybe I would be able to gain more information about the ancient kingdom if I went to the temple.

“…For Her Highness the Second Princess who was a member of the royal family…”

Ah, that was right. I was in the middle of listening to Count Gramlich’s claim. I was lost in my thoughts for a moment that I completely missed what the Count had said in the beginning.

In the first place, I wondered why we must announce our claims before the duel. Hmm… maybe to announce the reason why the losing side must be punished in advance? Rather than a closed door trial where people didn’t know what was going on, I felt this kind of open trial by combat was more fair, at least on the surface.

I was a bit surprised by the Count’s claim. I thought he would insult Mazell more, but his words were surprisingly restrained. I guess he wasn’t idiotic enough to insult the hero in this kind of place and risk the entire audience booing him.

“That is why, I, a noble, judged this situation to be a danger to the royal family. Thus I decided to sue the commoner…”

There was some applause from the noble audience, but most of the audience remained silent. I could also sense the commoners behind me staring dagger toward us. I mean, his accusation was too obviously false.

Also, he might be trying to intimate Lily by putting the emphasis on the fact that he was a noble, and Mazell and Lily were commoners but that wouldn’t work. Lily and I had seen His Highness getting angry with our own eyes after all.

“Proxy defendant, state your claim.”

“Yes.”

Now it was Lily’s turn. She looked nervous. I nodded when her eyes met mine, Lily nodded back, and stood up with a determined look on her face. In order to appeal for her brother’s innocence, Lily wore white clothes today. She stood out amongst the crowd of nobles who wore colorful cloth- Ah, I see.

“My name is Lily, Mazell Hearthing’s younger sister. On this occasion, I would like to tell everyone here something, in response to the slander against my brother.”

I barely managed to hold myself from clicking my tongue, as I came to the realization of the other reason Lily was made into the proxy defendant.

In this trial, a feeble young girl was forced to take a stand to protect her brother. That was the impression Lily would leave in other people’s minds.

“Both my brother and I have lost our home. The house we were born in was burned down because of the demon attack. Despite that, my brother still continues his journey to defeat the demon king.”

If the fact that the accusation against the hero was actually orchestrated by Coltrezis house were to be announced to the public…the story of a noble house falsely accusing the brave hero which forced his feeble younger sister to take a stand in a court would be spread. No, the royal family would definitely make that story spread. This would make the Coltrezis house a cowardly villain that hid behind another noble house.

Then, if the royal family announced that the Coltrezis house would be punished, the people would applaud the royal family’s action, thus painting the impression that ‘the royal family is protecting justice’.

“But we, siblings, are not the only people who lost something because of demons. Even now someone, somewhere, is losing their precious homes and even their precious people because of the demons. My brother is currently fighting in order to stop that.”

Respecting and honoring their wives and daughters was common sense even in this world. In other words, standing on Lily’s side and even protecting her was a matter of principle. But it can also become… a convenient excuse.

There was no way a noble could say, ‘It looks like the Coltrezis house is going to lose, so I would like to switch sides to the royal family’, but they certainly could say, ‘I could no longer stand with the Coltrezis house that has forced a young girl to endure such an ordeal.’

The other reason why Lily was made into a proxy defendant…was to prepare a convenient excuse for the nobles who supported the Coltrezis house to change sides. Other than being able to know the members of the Coltrezis’s house’s faction, the royal family would also be able to do that just with this one duel. Hah! Truly, killing two birds with one stone.

No, this duel would also serve as warning to others that aimed for Mazell, so it should be killing three birds with one stone. How very creative.

“Currently, my brother is still fighting with the demons alongside Her Highness and their companions, but my brother fought not for himself but for the sake of others. My brother would definitely not do anything that disrespect Her Highness. Please, believe Her Highness and my brother. Please, lend them your strength.”

Lily said that and did a deep bow, which was then followed by loud applause…but despite the seemingly happy atmosphere, my blood felt boiling. Still, I was able to nod and smile to Lily. This was the kind of time where I was grateful for my training in maintaining my expression.

This wasn’t a bad plan to create an impression that the Coltrezis house was evil. I also didn’t mind to become a bait but her-

It wasn’t like I didn’t understand that a kingdom had its own ways to do things, and I also understood that the situation might become worse if the kingdom just let them be. I knew that if this plan succeeded then it would become a stepping stone for the stabilization of this kingdom. I knew it in my head. I knew but-!

I took a deep breath. I had to calm down. I had a duel after this and losing control of my emotions in a duel might become my downfall.

(T/N: Oh, our Welner is angry.)