I Planned a Su*cide Mission and Got Kicked Out of the Party

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After finishing dinner without incident, Jeongjae received brief guidance on the way to Harriet’s Territory and concluded to depart the County Territory early the next morning.

“I’ll give you a two-wheeled carriage as a coming-of-age gift,” said the Count.

Though it was an extremely valuable gift for just receiving it, there was no way to make Jenis walk all the way, so Jeongjae thought of it as a present from the Count to his daughter and decided to accept it on her behalf.

Maybe Jenis thought that the small carriage was a gift just for her because she was excited and casting various magic spells on it from early in the morning.

After greeting the Count and stepping outside the castle gates, Jeongjae spotted Jenis and approached her.

“What are you doing?”

“Oh, Baron! You’re here! I’m almost done. Just hold on a moment…”

Jeongjae walked closer to the carriage and watched Jenis struggle to fit together the intricate links between multiple complex magic circles. Considering whether to lend a hand, he recalled how disappointed Jenis looked when he accidentally ruined her magic the day before and decided to just keep watching.

He didn’t know when she had started this task, but he was impressed that she had neatly organized defensive magic like magic refraction and automatic counterattack, as well as convenience spells like cleanliness maintenance and space expansion. Since Jenis was currently working on it and hadn’t hidden the magic circles, Jeongjae felt no need to use scouting magic to check the carriage.

At the moment, Jenis was fully focused on linking the spells between the speed-enhancing and automatic counterattack magic for safety. It was a necessary task to prevent either side from experiencing catastrophic failures.

“Just wait a moment, hmm, okay, found it! Done.”

“When did you start this? At this rate, it would have taken me at least 30 minutes.”

“I’ve been at it for three hours.”

Jenis replied with a slightly wounded tone. Jeongjae, hiding his slight embarrassment, decided to go all out instead.

“Even just the fact that you’re not much younger than me is impressive. There are hardly any people like that in this world.”

“Haha, of course, I know. I don’t get hurt by such things anymore.”

Her tone implied that she had previously been hurt by such comments. It’s common for mages, who often dedicate their lives solely to magical research, to have a sense of pride in their skills. Especially for a genius like Jenis, who is multi-talented and among the best of her peers, having such pride must be the norm.

Regardless, Jeongjae was aware that his very existence was poking at the pride of many people.

“Got it! Finished! How about it? Please take a look! With this, it’s not an exaggeration to say it’s perfect, right?”

Jeongjae leaned forward to take a quick look at the completed magic circle Jenis had made, and there seemed to be no flaw at first glance. He gently patted her shoulder to encourage her, then lifted her from her spot.

“That’s enough to say that. By the way, the coachman should…”

“Oh, I can do that myself!”

Jenis raised her hand eagerly. Jeongjae widened his eyes in surprise. A noble lady volunteering to play the role of a coachman? He had never heard of such a thing.

“Really? It’s not like Harker would lack a coachman to drive us.”

“This carriage is now ours, so what do we do when we come back? I can’t just kidnap the coachman and make them stay in our territory.”

Jenis casually mentioned as if her affiliation had already completely shifted from Harker’s to Harriet’s Territory, which Jeongjae decided to overlook. He still tilted his head, struggling to understand.

“Is that really okay? Do you have a lot of experience driving a carriage? Besides, this is your first time going to Harriet’s, right? You have to navigate without getting lost.”

“I’ve driven a carriage a few times. This is a small two-wheeled one, so it shouldn’t be too difficult. I’ve already enchanted it with speed-enhancing magic and directed magic at the same time! And well, if I have any issues, the professor can take over for me, right?”

“That’s not difficult but…”

Jeongjae had some experience behind the reins himself. During long travels with the Hero party, it was practically impossible for just one person to handle the reins, so learning the basics of driving was necessary.

Of course, since most of the chores were taken care of by Bernard, the one who had to drive the longest was always Bernard Silverpoint.

“Then that’s settled! To tell you the truth, I have this character where I can’t fully enjoy speaking when the coachman is paying attention to me in the carriage. Um, some people think a coachman is like an invisible person, but I’m not really like that.”

That made some sense. Among people, there are those who get into a taxi and chat freely with the person next to them as if the taxi driver isn’t there at all, while some are aware of the driver’s existence.

Jenis was clearly the latter. It seemed she didn’t want to be conscious of the coachman while excitedly chatting away with Jeongjae.

“If that’s the case, I’ll help out a bit. Anyway, you’re in charge of the reins, right?”

“Don’t worry! All you have to do is help out a little, Baron! This is a great opportunity to show how capable an aide to the lord is before we even arrive!”

The moment Jenis snapped her fingers, a blue fabric came fluttering down to cover the carriage body and windows.

However, the design drawn on the fabric was something other than the white cross symbol of Walter’s House.

“This is…”

Jeongjae spoke, running his hand over the red circular pattern drawn on the cloth. The red circle itself seemed unremarkable, but the design within the circle was undoubtedly something special.

Jeongjae recognized the shape. It was clearly a handwritten pattern that read ‘VR’ in the alphabet.

“It’s the symbol of the Harriet family. Simon Harriet himself defined it, but of course, he has only one daughter, and he disappeared without a trace, so the second generation Harriet’s Baron hasn’t appeared yet.”

This was also why Walter, with the Hellhound’s stronghold, should have been a descendant of the Harriet family, and Jeongjae knew it well.

However, today was the first time he had seen the Harriet family crest up close, and coming across the familiar alphabet again gave Jeongjae an oddly warm feeling.

“It looks like some kind of letters; do you know what it is, Baron?”

“It’s the most commonly used letters in the world I lived in. It wasn’t used in our country, but there are practically no people who can’t read it.”

Jeongjae gave a brief explanation, and Jenis nodded.

“Then… it must be the letters of a vassal state or a significantly powerful hegemonic country. So? Can you read it? What does it say?”

“V, R… I can’t accurately determine the meaning just from these letters…”

Of course, the first thing that popped to mind was the term ‘virtual reality,’ which arose in modern times. But it was hard to believe that someone from hundreds of years ago like Simon Harriet would have had that in mind when defining his family crest.

Combining everything he knew about the former hero, Jeongjae was able to produce the most plausible answer.

“Long live Victoria…”

“Huh? What are you saying long live about?”

“Oh, never mind. Only the deceased former hero would know the exact meaning. Anyway, I’m impressed that you’re already prepared this far for the flag of our territory. Thank you.”

At Jeongjae’s praise, Jenis beamed with joy. She bounced over toward the coachman’s seat, sat down, and took hold of the reins.

“Get in! I want to leave quickly!”

Seeing Jenis, who looked as excited as a child, Jeongjae slowly made his way toward the carriage. He slightly lifted the fabric and opened the carriage door, feeling satisfied with the carriage’s atmosphere, which was much more comfortable than the previous four-wheeled one, considering he was riding alone.

After confirming that Jenis had safely closed the door, she gave a swift whack on the reins to announce their departure.

“Alright, let’s go! To our new Harriet Territory!”

With a strong shout from Jenis.

From then on, the journey continued smoothly without any problems. Jenis seemed to prove her awareness of the people around her by constantly talking and chatting with Jeongjae.

Though Jenis wasn’t originally a person of many words, Jeongjae felt she was greatly enjoying the current situation and seemed much more excited than usual.

“I hope we don’t get ambushed by enemies on the way?”

While take hold of the reins in place of Jenis, Jeongjae glanced around and said. Jenis shook her head while comfortably leaning against the carriage seat.

“It’d just be a hassle if we were ambushed by bandits. Even if we consider the magic attached to the carriage, who is inside?”

“That’s true. Honestly, I’d rather experience an ambush at least once.”

Jeongjae said sincerely. Just as the Count mentioned, if the Harriet Territory had urgent matters to address regarding the bandit group, getting ambushed would be a good opportunity to gauge the level of danger.

Deliberately choosing a rough shortcut through which the carriage would pass, Jeongjae took a road that was more prone to ambush than a safer route, but apparently, the sight of a “big carriage adorned with noble symbols” scared off any bandits, as not a single encounter like that occurred.

In fact, barely a presence they could keep an eye on even emerged.

“At this speed, we might arrive overnight…”

“We’ll be sleeping in the carriage tonight and enter tomorrow morning. It wouldn’t be polite to suddenly show up in the middle of the night to the young nobles, after all.”

“That’s true. If they heard that the new lord had appeared while they were asleep, it would surely confuse everyone.”

Jeongjae agreed as they continued their incredible and uneventful journey, and the two gradually shifted the topic to the territory they would soon dominate.

“Harriet Territory probably couldn’t avoid the effects of the conscription either. Fortunately, I hear the village isn’t entirely agriculture-focused.”

“It’s by the sea, and they said fishing is the main source of income. But that doesn’t mean it needs fewer men. In fact, there are many things that need physical strength, which makes it hard for women to substitute.”

“Still, they say there’s enough manpower left to maintain the village’s livelihood at least. There should be quite a few people who could be used as guards, right?”

“Not really. Without the main industry running in the village, there isn’t much use for manpower. To conscript fishermen is quite excessive.”

Jeongjae shook his head. Jenis puffed out her cheeks, as if to say that wasn’t what she meant.

“No! Of course, that’s not what I meant. We should designate them as guards under direct lordship and allow them to continue pursuing their livelihoods. Instead, we should set up a system where they can wear armor whenever there’s an emergency.”

“I’ve heard of soldiers farming, but I’ve never heard of them going fishing.”

Thinking back, Jeongjae remembered hearing how General Yi Sun-sin had the navy fish while stationed at their stronghold, but that must not have been common as compared to tilling the fields.

After a moment of contemplation, Jeongjae nodded with a somewhat satisfied expression.

“Still, with just the two of us here, it’s hard to know what sort of changes we can bring to that territory. If we end up having to deal with bandits, it might be better to supplement the forces even through such methods.”

Hearing Jeongjae’s agreement, Jenis straightened her back proudly, displaying her spirited demeanor, and glanced back at Jeongjae, confirming his expression with a grin.

As expected, the carriage came to the boundaries of the territory just as the day was losing its light.

According to Jenis’s proposal, Jeongjae and Jenis spent that night inside the carriage without notifying anyone of their arrival.

As the wizard dozed off in the carriage, the hero sat up in bed, wide awake.