Reincarnated into a Game As the Hero’s Friend

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

I had my share of problems.
All of them are probably something that every office worker has 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 becomes clear after an accident.

Before that, these memories are a confusing mess.
Despite that, I still understand…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 already happened it’s useless to be surprised’ and just accepted the fact.
That’s why I also don’t bother to search for how and why I reincarnated.

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

As for the accident that make my hazy memories clear, it happened when I was seven.
When I and my family are 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 is not caused by something grand like other noble schemes or bandit attacks.
It was a pure unfortunate accident.

After that accident, my family stayed for several days longer in the capital because of my brother’s funeral and after we returned to the 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 pamper me, but that’s all.
The actual reason I started my training is that I noticed something from the now clear memories of my past life.

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

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

It’s not a big hit.
It received several critics like ‘Can’t you be more creative in creating the game setting?” or “The music and design of character are bad” or “The story is boring” but I heard the company still make some profit so it’s 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 hard… Anyway, the community often said that ‘it’s better than playing games filled with landmine’*

The problem that I have as someone inside the game is its story.

Around the latter part when the hero and his party are fighting the Third of Four Heavenly King, the last Heavenly King led his army and attacked the royal castle.
The castle that becomes a battlefield along with the capital are destroyed, while all members of the royal family are killed.
The only survivor is the second princess who is a member of the hero party.

The event of the hero party’s victorious return, only to see the ruined capital is quite impactful.
Though, it was an obvious plot device to make the hero marry the second princess and became 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 will kill me.

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

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

The game only has 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, didn’t exist.
I can think of two reasons why.
 One, the developer thought that description is not needed 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 just a common [Spearmanship]

Well, thanks to my effort I was able to enter this academy’s top class so I should be able to survive….

While lamenting my fate, I once again reminded of the fact that the game story has already started.
As I saw Mazell Hearthing, the protagonist of this world becomes my classmate.

*Landmine is a term for games that have something that triggers or enrages the players.
Like games filled with annoying tropes, bad control, etc.

For clarification, it’s still unknown if a class is also something that a person is born with, like a skill or not