Reincarnated into a Game As the Hero’s Friend

I departed the capital to a plain that’s located between the Veritza Fortress and the capital as a centurion. On a weekday. Yey! Finally an excuse to skip class… to battle. Not exactly a safer choice isn’t it?

The plain I’m going to is a nameless plain in the game but in this world, it’s called Hildea Plain. Another difference compared to the game. I suppose the developer doesn’t want the game size to be too big by putting unnecessary data.

I departed with a 300 men regular army. Though I said ‘regular army’ it’s still composed of knights and orderlies. According to my arrangement with the Crown Prince, this army is deployed in the name of training. The training period is 1 week.

(Info dump warning! Here to skip. Summary: Even an army of only 300 men need large amount of supply like food, weapons, armors, rain gear, and snow gear)

Even though 300 men army might seem small, the number of supplies needed is quite large. Let’s say we give 1 piece of bread per person for every meal. That means for 3 meals/day we need 3 pieces of bread and a total of 900 pieces of bread/day for the entire army.

For a week that means 6300 pieces of bread. If we also count cheese, meat, and wines, the number of foods alone is already big.

Adding to that the horses feed, and if the army has supply corps or officially transportation corps then you also need to feed them. Then, since the people of the transportation corps are generally bad at fighting, you also need to prepare a team of guards for them. Those guards also need to eat.

The amount of food alone is already enormous. Other than food an arm also needs weapons, armor, rain gear, and snow gear. That’s why an army is essentially a money leech.

People who never thought about how to get that much money and manpower won’t bother to think about this. Ah, right, I remember there are some idiots in my past life who love to say ‘won’t we be able to do anything if we print more bills?’ this world uses silver and gold coins though not bills.

Well, that’s not important. What’s important is the purpose of this training. The training itself is real, not just a front to help Veritza Fortress. I want the army to train in group battles and I also want to do an area magic experiment.

If we only looked at the knights and soldiers of this world, then this world can be categorized as a medieval world or at most an early modern world. But the power of area magic of this world is close to the power of modern weapons like hand grenades, napalm bombs, or flamethrowers.

Small fry demons in the vicinity of the capital won’t use area magic but in the dungeon where the boss is one of 4 Heavenly King then even the small fry will use area magic. I need to prepare in case the armies of the 4 Heavenly King attacked the royal palace.

In other words, one of the purposes of this training is to prevent the destruction of the royal palace and to minimize the victims against area magic.

All this time I only thought about how to escape the capital if it gets attacked but since I now have another goal, I need to also think about how to fight.

Still, creating a way to tackle area magic is difficult. Maybe if the battlefield is an open field or a trench I can do something. Though making the knights dig some trench is another separate problem.

But what if the battlefield is in the palace? There’s no way the army can dig a hole in the royal palace’s floor right? Though magic nullifies other magic, a.k.a counter magic did exist but the number of human mages that can use it pales in comparison to the number of demon mages.

In the past week, I burned my brain cells to think of a way to handle it. I researched the magic system of this world and consulted with both great mages of the royal court and the kingdom’s influential people.

The Prime Minister even put an expectation on me, saying that if I succeeded then it means I have contributed to the advance of the Bain Kingdom. I just hope His Excellency stops putting that kind of expectation on me. It’s not like I was doing it for the kingdom’s advancement either.

“Then, I wish to begin the experiment.”

“Alright, I’ll be counting on you all.”

Mage Fogto is the name of the person who first said to begin the experiment. He’s a member of the royal court’s mage division and a young but excellent mage. Though they call him young he’s about 10 years older than me. No, it was me who was too young.

Count Cres George Shandel is the name of the person who answered Fogto. The Count is in his mid-forties. He’s a quite handsome man. No! I’m not envious in the slightest!

As for me, I’m here as a centurion but since the men I led, the Zeavert army is considered an expert in group fighting (Though I very much want to deny it) so they become the core of the whole army.

My title is a ‘centurion’  but the number of people I actually led is only 60, not 100. The 220 men out of remaining 240 men are composed of the subordinate of Count Shandel and other nobles.

10 out of the remaining 20 men are members of the royal court mage division with various levels of ability, while the last 10 men are civil officers who work as ‘Battlefield Secretary Officers’ here to record what we are doing.

The team of 10 mages faced the prepared marked plain ground and shoot their offensive magic simultaneously. The sound of impact, the flash, and the blast told us the fact that the attack has reached the marked place. The sight of completely destroyed mark is quite something.

In this world, even if the mages used the same magic there is bound to be a difference in the spell’s power and this also happens even if the same mage uses the same magic.

This randomness might be one of the game’s faults. Besides me who’s filled with thought are Count Shandel and his aide, Viscount Grellman. They both nodded while looking at the destroyed mark.

“The spell has a splendid destructive power is it not?”

“Yeah. The mage must’ve studied quite a bit.”

Count Shandel answered Viscount Grellman’s question and I also nodded along with them. But my real evaluation of the magic is just ‘not too bad’. Of course, it has destructive power. It was better than my crude magic.

But in comparison to the magic used by the hero party, I feel like it isn’t r enough to fight the demon army. I’m the only person who knows that fact though.

Still, I might be wrong as my judgment is only of the level ‘I feel it’s might be weaker than the magic of the hero’s party’ . I also don’t really remember the exact strength of the game’s opponent so I don’t have enough ability to precisely appraise the level of these mages.

This is the time that I wish I have some kind of cheat ability.

As I was hoping for the impossible, the secretary officers finished putting another mark.

“Start the second experiment!”

“Mage team, prepare!”

“Every unit, go to your position! Prepare the magic tools!”

I also raised my voice. The experiment itself isn’t anything difficult. A bit of mistake is fine as long as it didn’t exceed the already calculated margin of error. As for a large-scale experiment, if there’s a chance it will be done later.

“Everyone is already in their position!”

“Activate the magic tools!”

“Magic tools activation complete!”

People who surrounded both the mage team and the mark activated the magic tools simultaneously. Most magic tools are just normal magic tools used for daily activity. Well, our only concern when gathering the magic tools is their amount so that’s normal.

It does look like a funny sight. I mean, soldiers carrying magic lamps that are used at night are normal but soldiers carrying magic tools that look like clothes iron, and magic tool that uses magic stone to release heat that looks like a portable stove?

“Shoot!”

With an order from the Count, the mage team shoots the same magic as before in the direction of the mark. Once again, an explosion occurred but this time both the sound and the blast are considerably weaker than before.

After the smoke cleared up, the sight of the mark that is a bit worn out but still keeping its original shape filled everyone’s gaze.

“Ah…”

“It’s a success.”

“Unbelievable…”

Surprise, admiration, and dumbfounded voices filled my ears. Some of the voices belonged to the knights who stared at the iron in their hands. It’s dangerous so I hope they didn’t forget to turn the iron off before touching it.

A further experiment is still needed but it seems like my hypothesis is correct.