Reincarnated into a Game As the Hero’s Friend

T/N: Due to the complaint about the info dump in the previous chapter, I decided to add a skip button.

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After the awarding ceremony is done, next is a banquet. I really don’t know what these people are thinking to open a banquet in this kind of situation. Maybe the royal family or the nobles had some sort of plan? Who knows.

What I know is currently we had become a celebrity among our peers.

“Sigh… really, how did things become like this?”

“Welner, you’re the only person who will complain after being given a peerage you know.”

Mazell, whose contribution earned him third place in the award ceremony said. In the game, Mazell was the first place, not the Crown Prince. As I expected, deviation from the game scenario appeared.

A banquet like this also didn’t happen in the game. Well with the death of The Crown Prince, who is in the mood to open a banquet?

Even now, It’s actually not the time to open a banquet. The demon king is in the midst of his revival after all. Not that anyone knows. Even if I go on my way to announce it, I won’t be able to answer where I got this information.

Regarding the banquet itself, the Crown Prince and the King had already left. Maybe they need to take care of the kingdom’s matter or something, I don’t know.

While I and Mazell stayed here. That punk Mazell, why did he look more handsome wearing a student’s uniform compared to me who wears the gallant formal suit? God sure is unfair.

Not that I believe God exists.

“No way it’s just me! If you properly search…”

“If you properly search you’re only going to find that other students envied you.”

Mazell said. It makes sense that being bestowed on a peerage is an honor for others but for me, it’s the worst thing that can happen.

First of all, it’s already bad enough that it’s hard for me to left the capital for a long time as a student. Now, my chance of being in a castle, the heart of that event just increased.

“My stomach hurt…”

“Now you know how I felt yesterday, don’t you.”

Now that I looked closely, Mazell seems to be more relaxed compared to yesterday. Despite everything that I had said before, it seems like Mazell was really nervous yesterday because of his manner.

So he can converse that well with His Majesty yesterday despite being nervous, eh. I remember thinking, that the scene of Mazell conversing with His Majesty is good enough to be included in a future history book. Being able to do everything perfectly seems to be included in the protagonist’s cheat.

Well, my number one problem right now is this stomachache. It did come at a perfect time though since I had no intention to eat anything at this banquet.

(T/N info dump warning about medieval cuisine here to skip)

Talking about eating in many works that included reincarnated into another world theme, many of its protagonists speak about how bad the medieval cuisines are. Among those stories, some stories even make ‘cooking a more delicious food’ as its main theme. But, many stories got the information about cuisines of the medieval time wrong.

The wrong part is the descriptions of the food in medieval times are plain, or you can only taste the ingredients but nothing else. I don’t know food for commoner taste, but the food served to nobles or the royal isn’t like that.

Food eaten by the nobles and royals is quite lavish according to their standard. The problem is that standards suck.

The standard of lavish food is its price. In the north, that means dried fruit. That’s good. Dried fruits are delicious.

But for other nobles whose territories are mostly far from the sea, their standard of lavish food is ‘any food that uses most salt.’ The kind of food that will make your blood pressure shoot through the roof is the most expensive food here. The tradition of leaving a large container of salt near the dining table’s head seat must be because of this.

My guess is this kingdom hasn’t entered the age of sail. That’s why people cook with salt not spices. Spices are as expensive as gold after all.

There was a record of someone eating a food fully season with pepper and drinking wine that is also filled with pepper. When I read that record, I remember thinking ‘how did this guy’s tongue and stomach handle that much pepper?’

It must be because in medieval times people eat nothing but food seasoned with salt so the taste of a simple pepper must be really delicious for them.

By the way, the medieval period in Europe is around the Heian until the Edo Period [1] in Japan.

In the latter half of the medieval period, the taste of food must have gotten better while in the earlier half… I don’t even want to imagine it

As for the Bain Kingdom, the food here is at least not as bad as pepper-filled cuisine and wine. I know some cuisine that is called delicacy despite having a questionable taste, though. If there is one unique thing about food here, is that it’s normal for people to eat demon meat.

I’ve once had a soup made by demon innard seasons with self-created spices. The ingredients of that self-created spices were just…urgh. Let’s forget about it.

As I was thinking, a familiar man wearing a ceremonial suit approached me. It’s Marquis Norporth.

“Sir Welner von Zevert. First of all, let me extend my congratulation on your new peerage.”

“Thank you, Marquis Norporth.”

First of all. That means there’s more. Arghh… Is it about that? Let’s just apologize first.

“Also, Please accept my apology for my action in the previous battle.”

“Hm…”

Did he or did he not accept my apology? Anyway, I just lowered my head. I was the one who was in the wrong after all.

After I raised my head, I can see Mazell’s confused face.

I stayed silent and waited for Marquis Norporth’s next word. What I got is the low hearty laugh of this dandy uncle. He looks handsome when laughing. Why is the ratio of handsome men near me so high?

“It’s fine as long as you understand. I also need to honor His Highness’s request.

“His Highness’s request?”

“His Highness requested me not to be too harsh on you as you’re still young. Despite His Highness’ request, I came here prepared to scold you if you let your achievement go over your head but, it seems like it’s a needless worry.”

“I am thankful for your kind intention.”

Wha- Did I just enter His Highness good grace? What should I do…

“Count Zeavert is lucky to have such an excellent heir. I will be looking forward to your future.”

“Thank you for your praise.”

I bowed again. When I raised my head, Marquis Norporth is gone. Fyuh…

“So, what just happened?”

“Well, to put it simply…”

To Mazell, who had to repress his question until now I explained the situation at that time. After I noticed the enemy is using Tsuri-Nobuse I immediately went to the main camp to report to the Crown Prince. That’s the problem.

According to the army’s chain of command, I should have reported to the left flank commander, Marquis Norporth. Then, the marquis should be the one that contacted the Crown Prince.

“But if you did that, won’t it become more dangerous?”

“Yeah. That’s why I went straight to His Highness because I don’t have any time to persuade Marquis Norporth.”

Still, I ignored the rule. This is the same as I, a representative of the sectional manager skipped the department head and immediately reported to the CEO. That’s ignoring the proper procedure.

“But if someone is allowed to ignore the rule because that person had some achievement, the order of the army will collapse.”

“I see…”

Mazell stared at me like I was some kind of alien. Can I slap the ‘stop looking at me!’ meme on his face?

“Welner, are we really the same age? I understand why Marquis Norporth came here only after your explanation, so how did you…”

“That’s called the difference between our life experiences.”

Literally. That is If you count the experience from my past life.

As we were talking, other people started to gather around us. The nobles that want to form ties with the hero must have exhausted their patience.

We might get busy for a while…

…We did.

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[1] late 10th century-19th century↵