Reincarnated into a Game As the Hero’s Friend

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“Team 3, Team 5, go around from the left!”

“Yes!”

Using flags and gold drums, I ordered the teams in front to obstruct the demons’ movement. the ground here is a bit hilly, it’s not to the point of obstructing our movement

Having detected our presence, the group of hunter wolves charged toward us. Eight of them, huh? Well, that’s within my expectation.

“Stay composed and work together with your group to defeat the enemies. After the enemies are defeated, I’ll leave the rest to each group’s commander. Leave the demons in the middle to me.”

“Understood!”

“Let’s go!”

As I advance to stand in front of them, the hunter wolves bear their fangs at me. On the other hand, I pause to catch my breath. Then…

“Push!”

“Hahh!’

“You ba*t*rd!”

When the demons entered our attack range, everyone moved in sync and thrust their weapons against the demons. With just a swing of my blade (or rather, my spear) I succeeded in killing an enemy.

As expected, this warrior’s spear that was only available in the intermediate stage of the game is enough to kill any foe in vicinity of the capital. After all, in the game, this weapon was usable even in the Poisa Dessert, a stage even further than the Counting Star Tower.

Next to me, Neurath is also killing the demons single-handedly. Schunzel seemed to be in a bit of a bind and it was only after the rest of his team joined in that the enemy was taken down. Well, different demons need different ways to be defeated, so I guess this much is good.

“Anyone injured?”

“Everyone is unharmed.”

“All right, make sure to retrieve the magic stone.”

“Yes.”

Taking out the magic stone is the work of the orderlies. As for the knights, it seems like they stayed alert without me reminding them. Good. They finally become used to battle like this.

The other day, well, technically it was about two weeks ago, I submitted my hastily drafted proposal to Father. My father said “You even try to poke your nose at this kind of unnecessary stuff.” with an amazed but tired expression.

Even so, I’m glad that he also said, “I will submit the proposal under our family name.” After all, the weight of a proposal created by a count’s family and a single viscount is like heaven and earth.

And now, I’m in the middle of ‘protecting the aqueduct construction site’ job

But, well, just standing around while guarding is bori…ahem I mean it’s time inefficient so I decided to use demon hunting as a battle exercise.

Currently, the knights of Zeavert house are divided into 4 major teams. The first team, under my command today, is a mobile force that actively hunts demons. The third team, led by Augen, is patrolling the vicinity of the aqueduct. The fourth team, led by Barkey, is on night shift tonight.

The second team, led by Max, who was on the night shift the other day, is on vacation today. The knights worked in a rotation schedule. Tomorrow is my team’s turn to patrol the vicinity of the aqueduct.

It seems like the phrase ‘falconry is an effective training for warfare’ said by.. Oda Nobunaga or Tokugawa Ieyasu… I forgot which one but anyway that phrase held some truth. Stuff like knowing whether your voice reaches your far away commander or whether your instructions are getting through can only be attained through experience.

There are many things I can learn by commanding a large number of people in this kind of vast field. Like the timing of cooperation between the cavalries and infantries, that’s something that I can only learn by experience. For a student like me this mission serves as a perfect training.

I have no compassion for the demons that are being used as educational materials. Still, I remember the demons always have some tendency to attack people but I noticed that tendency has become stronger and the demons have become more frenzied than before. Is this the effect of the Demon King’s revival?

By the way, we won’t receive any reward by attacking demons like this since the demons didn’t exactly invade the construction site but we are free to use the materials we got from hunting demons as we please. I don’t know if I should call the kingdom ‘stingy’ or ‘magnamious’ for this treatment.

Regarding the proposal about the refugees that I’ve offered to His Highness before, about half of it was approved while the other half was rejected. On this occasion, I’m grateful for the fact that some people from the refugees and slums are participating in the activities as support for the patrol team. The issue is that a certain number of the refugees lack sufficient battle skill but are burning with an excessive desire to fight because they want revenge. Until they familiarise themselves with the situation, I have requested the Adventurers’ Guild to assign them to patrol the area with an adventurer escort. Since we currently lack manpower, having a reserve force is a great advantage.

Well, this is the outcome of providing them with a decent meal for a few days and then telling them that they have to work if they want to continue to be fed.

Having been served bread, soup, and side dishes for a couple of days only to be told that from tomorrow you can only have a bowl of thin barley porridge if you did nothing, but if you are willing to work, nice food and a place to work will be provided, will motivate them to work. After having regained their strength with a satisfying meal, people would be more enthusiastic to work.

After all, no one wants to work while being exhausted.

Other than that, I saw some elementary construction work, like fences and mud walls in the vicinity of the capital. Though, I don’t know what the kingdom planned to create. Other than that, the kingdom has also gathered the refugees’ excrement in one building to create fertiliser. There’s also a plan to gather the excrement from farming animals like cattle and horses.

Although making fertiliser from excrement is actually extremely strenuous work, the job itself is safe and they pay well so some people are beginning to take on this work. Within a few years, the excrement might become saltpetre.

Talking about saltpetre, I’ve abandoned the idea of creating gunpowder and guns which is supposed to be the staple of isekai cheats quite early on because of the lack of sulphur.

This world has volcanoes but they are located in the vicinity of Demon King’s castle. There’s no way I can bring miners to a place with tons of fire giants, a type of demon that needs an entire group of knights to defeat. In the first place, it’s hard to approach the Demon King’s castle. If I search extensively, I might find a sulphur vein somewhere else but for now I don’t have enough time.

Since there is no point in asking the impossible, nor is there a guarantee that I can create a proper gun with my knowledge, giving up sooner is better. If I’m still alive after the demon king is slain, I’ll give creating guns another thought. Though with so many things I need to do I feel like I’m going to forget about it.

“Welner-sama, we have finished retrieving the magic stones.”

“All right, we should hunt a few more hordes while patrolling.”

“Yes.”

Plus, this demon’s extermination job is also beneficial for my training. I had grown strong to some degree. Perhaps my level rose a bit during my recent battle against the outbreak. That being said, I never want to experience another battle like the outbreak.

Even though it might be impossible for me to reach the level of Mazell and his party, I still want to become a bit stronger. That’s one of the reasons why I’ve been actively hunting demons.

Fortunately, my equipment is excellent so it’s easier for me to kill the demons. I’m thankful that Mazell and the others chose to wield swords instead of spears. If possible, I would have equipped all the members of the Zeavert army with this level of equipment, but I don’t have enough money to do that. I mean it’s impossible for me to even provide the entire Zeavert army with the good quality but normal sword like the one on my waist, let alone the high quality equipment.

Other than that, this demon hunting is also a perfect chance for me to train my horse riding. To tell the truth, because I don’t have the related skill, I’m not that good at horse riding. Mazell with his omnipotence [Hero] skill might be better than me in horse riding.

However, during the entire one month long journey to escort the refugees I was riding a horse so like it or not I became accustomed to horse riding. Well, I can only do basic things. I’m still not good on stuff sprinting with the horse. I guess if you train in something for like 8 hours a day every day you become pretty accustomed with it.

And this demonic beasts hunt is where I practise the movements such as sprinting, abrupt stopping, and turning back the horses. Even though I now have a bit of experience in horse riding, it’s still challenging. Caesar, who can ride around freely on a bareback horse without using stirrups and saddles, is the crazy one.

Pondering such things, I move around and patrol the area where demons are likely to appear so that I can hunt them while studying the terrain around here. Well, I don’t know if the knowledge of the terrain here will be useful. Still, I guess having some knowledge won’t hurt. 

From the distance I saw the aqueduct that’s in the midst of construction. The fact that the construction progressed this far in a short time is astonishing. It seems like the processing technology of stones is rather advanced in this world, huh?

“Welner-sama.”

“Yeah, I also noticed them.”

A bunch of hyena bats, huh. Dealing with them takes too much time and effort, so the hunt efficiency is not very good. I have to suck it up though since exterminating the demons itself is part of my job.

“Deploy Group 4 and Group 6 to the right. Have Group 3 and Group 5 take a wide detour. We’ll cut off their retreat route first.”

“Understood.”

“Group 1 and Group 2, prepare your crossbows.”

“Yes.”

After watching the messenger run off, I also prepare my crossbow. I’m not good at archery, but with a crossbow, I can land a decent shot no matter how bad my actual skill is. Still, there’s something on my mind.

Flickering lights flash in the corner of my vision while I aim and breathe. This is an experiment in communication using a mirror.  But glass is expensive and Morse code doesn’t exist in this world so I have to think of other ways to send signals. I used an experimental sheet chopper as a mirror since anything goes as long as it can reflect light. The tool is a prototype though but at least it can be used to send a ‘we’re ready’ signal. 

“Both flanks have given us the signal.”

“Fire!”

“Fire!”

At my signal, myriad arrows flew. A few of them are direct hits. Even though they hit, some of the enemies were still going strong. I knew it. Anyway, that’s good enough for now.

“Charge! Kill them before they fly too high and escape!”

“Yes!”

Simultaneously, with the incoming arrows, the right flank’s Group 4 and 6, which had been charging forward, were the first to meet the enemies in battle. After that under my leadership, Group 1 and  Group 2 also rushed to the battlefield. Looks like we can defeat them before they escape.

Following this, another three groups of demons are eradicated. Collecting the magic stones and materials may need more time. Also, the horse that was supposed to lower the reeking materials was in an extremely foul mood. I must request the stable boy to calm the horses down later.