Reincarnated into a Game as the Hero’s Friend - Chapter 2

Note: From this chapter, POV shifts to the MC who has yet to face the battle with demons and has just been accepted to the academy. This is NOT from the POV of MC from chapter 1 who has already won the first battle against demons.

…

I used to be an average Japanese citizen. I was born into a common family, graduated from school and college, and then became an office worker.

I had my fair share of problems. All of them were probably something that every office worker had also experienced. Like a low salary that barely increased over the years or an annoying superior that I wanted to teach a lesson just once.

I also don’t have any savings because I spent most of my salary on my hobby.

Then I reincarnated into this world. I don’t know how or why it all happened. What I know is I’m currently in a medieval Europe-like world as Welner von Zeavert, a count’s son with memories of a Japanese man.

Actually, my past life memories used to be hazy. It only became clearer after an accident.

But before that, these memories were a confusing mess. Despite that, I still understood…or rather I had no choice but to understand the fact that I reincarnated into this world.

Of course, back when I just sorted out these confusing memories into ‘my past life’ I was surprised. After that, I thought ‘since it has already happened it’s useless to be surprised’ and just accepted the fact. That’s why I don’t bother to search for how and why I reincarnated.

I did feel guilty to my parents in Japan for thinking like that, though.

As for the accident that made my hazy memories clear, it happened when I was seven years old. When I and my family were on the way to the capital, the carriage I was in got flipped over. I hit my head and my elder brother, who was riding on the same carriage as me, unfortunately lost his life. I received treatment in the capital and thanks to the power of magic that this world has, I recovered in just a day.

By the way, the accident was not caused by something grand like some other noble’s scheme or a bandit attack. It was a pure unfortunate accident.

After that accident, my family stayed in the capital for several days longer because of my brother’s funeral and after we returned to our manor, I started training both my body and martial arts like a madman.

At that time, I remember receiving looks of pity from my parents and all other adults in the manor. They probably thought I started training because my brother’s death made me feel a sense of responsibility as a new heir.

Of course, the truth is different. I did feel sad because I lost a brother that always pampered me, but that’s all. The actual reason why I started to train so hard was my past life memories which had just become clear not long ago.

This world is in fact the world of a game that I have played before and it was in the timeline before the game started.

The game was called ‘What is a Just Path?’

It was not a big hit. It also received several criticisms like “Can’t you be more creative in creating the game setting?” or “The music and design of characters are bad” or “The story is boring” but I heard that the company was still making some profit from it so it was not a big flop either. Not something that will receive a sequel, but had its player base and hardcore players.

Well, I’m not one of the hardcore gamers… Anyway, the community often said that ‘it’s better than playing games filled with landmines’.

(T/L: Landmine is a term for games that have something that triggers or enrages the players. Like games filled with annoying tropes, bad control, etc.)

The problem that I have as someone inside this game was its storyline.

Around the latter part of the game storyline when the hero and his party were fighting three of the Four Heavenly Kings, the last Heavenly King led his army and attacked the royal castle. The castle which became a battlefield along with the capital was destroyed, while all members of the royal family were killed. The only survivor was the second princess who was a member of the hero party.

The event of the hero party’s victorious return only to see the ruined capital was quite impactful. Though, it was an obvious plot device to make the hero marry the second princess and become a king.

When I saw that event I nonchalantly thought ‘it’s good that he becomes a king but isn’t the repair work going to be troublesome?’

But now that I’m inside the game I realized that if I was in the capital at that time, as a noble, the heavenly king’s army would have killed me too.

Of course, there’s also a chance that I won’t die.

First, there’s no exact description in the game about Welner von Zeavert’s death.

The game only had a description of ‘many knights and ministers that’s inside of the capital died one after another’ but the description of what happened to any other noble, like me, was not explained. I can think of two reasons why.  One, the developer thought that description is not relevant for the game development so they omitted it, or two, the game is just not that detailed.

Or maybe I’m just not in the capital at that time.

They all are possible, but I can’t afford to gamble my own life based on some possibility.

My life, I should be the one that protects it. To do so, I need to arm myself with an acceptable level of martial arts, so I can face the eventual start of the story.

I remember thinking like that while putting my most desperate effort into training my martial arts.

Those efforts produced results because at the age of twelve I succeeded in enrolling into an academy in the capital, not because of my status but because of my ability. In the academy, I will be able to learn the basics of my class.

Yes, this world, like how a game is, has both skill and class. Skill is something that one is born with. Skill and class complement each other and will decide someone’s combat ability particularly in regard to fighting monsters.

For example, if someone has a [Mage] class along with skill [Magic Talent], then that person’s output of magic will be far more powerful than others.

Also, both skill and class could be leveled up. No matter how powerful a skill someone has is, if the class is not leveled, then that person could be defeated by a weaker opponent. Though, leveling a class is far harder than leveling a skill.

As for me, my skill is [Spearmanship], a common skill.

Well, thanks to my efforts, I am able to enter this academy’s top class so I should be able to survive.

While lamenting my fate, I am once again reminded of the fact that the game story had already started when I saw Mazell Hearthing, the protagonist of this world, become my classmate.

T/L Notes:

Note 1: As mentioned at the top of chapter, from this chapter, POV shifts to the MC who has yet to face the battle with demons. This is NOT from the POV of MC from chapter 1 who has already won the first battle against demons.

Note 2: For clarification, it’s still unknown if a class is also something that a person is born with, like a skill.