Reincarnated into a Game As the Hero’s Friend

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The next day, I invited many people to the mansion for a meeting. I didn’t expect that my decision to investigate the geography of the former Marquisate Knap before was going to be useful now.

I asked the scouts that I hired to investigate the former Marquisate Knap to come to the mansion and explain the topography, road conditions, and geographical features of the Anheim region. The meeting would probably go for a while since the number of scouts was pretty large.

Despite the long continuous meeting, maybe because they understood my circumstances or perhaps because they had already agreed to accompany me to Anheim, Neurath, Schunzel, and Frenssen were constantly asking questions and confirming things that even I had missed.

By the way, in this mansion, there were rooms designed to keep the voices of people inside from leaking outside, and conversely, there were also rooms designed so the voices inside could be heard in the next room. Not all noble mansions had these rooms though.

The latter type of room was created so that soldiers could be prepared in the next room when a suspicious guest arrived at the mansion. If that guest turned out to be a criminal or something, the owner of the house could just say ‘Come out, folks!’ so that the soldiers would surround the suspicious guest… Why did this description sound like noble houses were some kind of mafia hideout shown in the movies?

In any case, that kind of room existed in this mansion, but I had Lily, not soldiers, listen to us from the next room.

If possible, I would have Lily stay in this room with us since she was going to draw a map of Anheim based on the scouts’ report, but it would have been strange to have a girl in a maid’s uniform stay in the room for a long time plus it was unbecoming as a noble. Honestly, it was just a pain in the neck.

Proper contour maps didn’t exist in this medieval world. When I explained the contour map to Lily, she showed a ‘somehow understand but somehow didn’t understand’ expression. It may be because she had never come into contact with one before. I should show it to her by making one.

Well, there were gradient maps in this world. They showed differences in ground elevation of certain places using color differences. However, only a few people had the ability to accurately measure the difference in ground elevation in this world, and national projects to measure the height of all mountains didn’t exist in this world because maps were mainly used for the military. As a result, there were many inaccurate maps available which were only enough for everyday life.

That was why, when people were explaining an area for a report, they usually used simple expressions like ‘the hill on the left is taller than the hill on the right’ or ‘there is a road between the valley on the left and the hill on the right’. Because of that, depending on where the person who was reporting stood when he surveyed the area, the directions such as left-right, tall-short, and up-down could become jumbled. Therefore, the person who received that report must be careful.

There were proper rules for directions for Capital Knights, but the people I asked to investigate the former Marquisate Knap were adventurers, not knights. We couldn’t exactly call them again later, so Frenssen and the others had to double-check everything. Really, sorry for the trouble everyone.

“Haaah…”

“It was tiring…”

By the time we had finished listening to the reports of about 20 scouts, we were all exhausted. Lily, who had been listening from the next room, came to our room and poured us some tea even though she looked tired herself. Thank you, Lily.

Perhaps being considerate of us, the tea that Lily made was lukewarm so we could immediately drink it. We all drank our first cup of tea in one gulp.

“May I have another cup?”

“I would like to have another cup of tea, too, please.”

”Me too. And Lily, take a break. Enjoy some tea with us too.” (Welner)

”Yes. Thank you very much.” (Lily)

Everyone, including me, asked for a second cup of tea. After Lily served our second cup of tea, I took it and sipped the tea while looking at the notes and the rough drawing we had made earlier. Finally, I felt that I had a rough understanding of Anheim’s land.

“Frenssen, is everything that I asked you this morning ready?”

“Yes. The wheat has been brought to a separate room.”

“All right. After we have some rest, let’s go to that room.”

Haaah… this was the kind of time when I wanted some chocolates and candies.

After a long rest, we all moved to another room. We cleaned up the room filled with various things and we also brought in a small table that could seat about six people, then we set up a large tray-like board in the middle of the table, and lastly, we placed frames around that board to prevent it from falling. Perfect.

“What are you going to do with this, sir?”

“There’s something that I want to create. I’m planning to create it based on information given by scouts, so if you notice I’m making some mistakes, feel free to speak up.”

Without wasting any time, I scooped up the Keite wheat from a bag with a bowl and dumped it directly onto the board. Everyone here was surprised. Well, I planned to just show them all how it worked rather than giving them any explanation.

After dumping some more Keite wheat on top of the board, I spread it out roughly so it would act as a surface. Then, I dumped more Keite wheat on top of that surface and created a hill and valley made of Keite wheat. Lily was the first person who caught on to what I was planning to create.

“Um… Welner-sama, the hill you’re making now should be a little higher.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Because if you create it of that size, it will not match the height of the hill that should be on this side.”

“Is this size okay?”

“Yes, and this area should be a little higher.”

After hearing our conversation, everyone else seemed to finally understand what we were doing. Frenssen’s expression changed and he left the room after saying “Pardon me!”

Ah, right, the Keite wheat I had here was lacking.

Neurath and Schunzel also started working together with me, and with the notes and rough drawing they had made earlier in hand, they began to make various changes to the board. As expected, it was better for me to directly show them how to do it first, then let them learn by themselves rather than giving them some explanation.

After Frenssen returned to the room, we worked together to make a 3-dimensional model of the scouts’ report. With this, I finally understood the detailed topography of Anheim including the mountainous areas, valleys, hills, places where I could easily hide soldiers, and also roads to take for the army to move efficiently.

“Alright. We’re finally finished!” (Welner)

“Wow. This really made the scouts’ report more understandable.” (Lily)

Lily was impressed with my work. I felt flattered by her praise, but you know Lily, this was actually nothing much. You only felt impressed because you didn’t have the memory of past life like me. Neurath and Schunzel, who had only known flat maps used by the military for their entire life, were dumbstruck as they were gazing at the completed model. Since maps themselves were rare, three-dimensional topographic models could be called a wonder in this world, so I guess their reaction made sense.

“Lily, could I trouble you to make 3 maps based on this? It’s fine even if you take 2 days to finish it. I’d also like to see a drawing of the view from this side at this height and a view from that side at about the same height.”

“Understood.”

Thank you for your cheerful reply with a smile, Lily. I felt sorry for her because I’d constantly asked her to draw for me. I also got a feeling that Mother would complain soon if I kept asking Lily to draw.

In any case, now that I could observe the completed model, it was hard to say that Anheim’s terrain was easy to defend. I think it would be better to improve the defensive facilities in Anheim rather than relying on the terrain. No, I’d rather use….

“Welner-sama, where did you get the idea to make this?”

“Hmm? Well, from nowhere. I just wanted to make the report easier to understand for myself.”

I responded to Frenssen’s question. The information I had was definitely lacking, so at least I wanted to make sure that I could use every bit of information I had. I didn’t think I would be assigned as the governor of Anheim though.

“I’ll create a hazard map of the County in the future..”

“Ha…sard mops?”

Lily replied doubtfully to my mumbling. I really should fix my bad habit of speaking what I was thinking out loud. I mean since this world didn’t have a topography model, there was no way it had something like a hazard map… Wait.

“Lily, I’ll be counting on you for the drawing. Frennsen, don’t let anyone clean this room until Lily finishes her drawing. Neurath and Schunzel help Lily when she has any trouble.”

“Ye..yes, sir.”

“Welner-sama?”

Everyone looked at me with confused expressions because I suddenly spoke without pause, but I couldn’t care less about that now. I needed to check that immediately.

“There’s something that I need to check, so I’m going first. I’ll leave the rest to all of you.”

Without waiting for their replies, I left the room. Then I went to the butlers’ chambers to look for Norbert. I got a feeling that the maids were looking at me strangely because I was walking too fast.

“Norbert, I need the key to the archive.”

As soon as I found Norbert, I immediately asked him.

“My, Welner-sama, I had heard you were in the midst of your work. Is there anything you need from the archive?”

He must have noticed that I was acting a bit strange, but he answered my question in his usual tone. As expected of Count house’s butler. Of course, I had already thought of a good lie to answer this question on my way here.

“As you know, I have been appointed as a governor. So I was hoping that I could use the record of the previous Counts as a reference for my new job as a governor.”

“Ah, you wish to read the administration records of the previous Counts.”

He said that while taking out the keychain with various keys. Then, he took a magic lamp and we went to the archive together. After we had reached there, Norbert used one of the keys in his hand and opened the archive’s door.

Wow. The archive was about an eight-tatami mat room. Not too large, but was still pretty impressive. Bookshelves covered almost all the walls of the room except for the doors and windows. As expected of the archive of a minister’s house. Browsing all the records here would take me a really long time. I should start with the record closest to me then.

(T/N: 8 tatami mat is roughly equal to 12.4 m² / 133.4 ft²)

“Then, I will leave first. Please be careful.”

“I know.”

By ‘be careful’, Norbert was telling me to handle precious records carefully so as not to damage them. Well then, let’s start with the record of agricultural administration. I may also need to search the diaries of the previous Counts to find what I needed.

I didn’t really need to read these records in detail, so I just skimmed through the pages. After checking nearly ten books, I was stunned to confirm that my memory was correct.

Why was there no record of large-scale natural disasters in this world?

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