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

Chapter 278




Casting a swift magic on himself, Jeongjae dashed southward but turned his head at the sound of hooves behind him. His guess was correct. The Elf Lord of Eramenia was fiercely chasing him mounted on a white horse.

In truth, the word “chasing” was inaccurate. Both were heading in the same direction; their paths simply overlapped. And Margaret, riding the steed of the elf forest, was much faster than Jeongjae. As Margaret caught up to him, she slowed her pace momentarily to ask,

“Did you receive it too?”

“Something ridiculous must have happened. Otherwise, this kind of order wouldn’t have come down. Is something going on in Eramenia?”

“It can’t be on our kingdom’s mainland. If my guess is right, the Magic Tower must have sent an urgent transmission to Eramenia. It makes sense that they would distribute a short command throughout our land.”

“Then something must be happening at the Magic Tower. We need to head to the Royal Family quickly, catch a ship, and get to the Magic Tower. We don’t know what kind of threat Jenis is facing right now.”

Margaret nodded in agreement. She patted the saddle of her horse and said,

“Get on.”

“Get on?”

“Are you not going to? You’ve been running hard, yet I still caught up to you. The distance we were fighting on the battlefield must have been several kilometers. This isn’t the time to be moving like a sluggish worm. Stop the chatter and get on.”

Feeling Margaret was right, Jeongjae pressed himself against her back and got on the horse. Because of their ambiguous relationship, Jeongjae felt an odd embarrassment, even though it was an inappropriate moment. Margaret said,

“I didn’t consider two people riding, so there isn’t much for you to hold onto. It can’t be helped; hold on tight. We’ll pick up speed since the situation is urgent.”

“What should I hold onto tightly?”

“My waist!”

Without waiting for his answer, Margaret rapidly increased her speed, galloping across the plain. Jeongjae was taken by surprise and caught hold of the Elf Lord’s waist in a panic. Although Margaret’s original intention wasn’t for him to cling that tightly, she felt a bit flustered, but she sighed in relief, knowing her back was turned, hiding her reddened face. Jeongjae stammered,

“S-sorry. Am I holding too tightly?”

“No, it’s fine to hold like that. If you don’t hold on that tightly, it would be quite troublesome.”

“But your ears are turning red…”

“Shut it. I’m going to run faster now.”

Elves were a long-eared race. Her emotions were conveyed not only by her facial color but also by the tips of her ears.

As the two heroes raced southwards, the Great Sage in the Magic Tower had a general idea of the situation he was in. Ever since the Demon King entered the land of the Dragon Lord, not even Reyna’s red eyes could spy on the circumstances. However, Jenis wasn’t foolish.

She could sufficiently imagine what kind of movements the Demon King, who conquered the Dragon Lord, would make. Because her thought process resembled that of the Demon King like siblings.

If Jenis were the Demon King, she wouldn’t allow herself to survive in this situation. She was isolated from the main forces on the frontline, a rare circumstance due to the uniqueness of the operation. The Great Sage proved her danger with this powerful operation, and with its failure, she found herself in a more vulnerable position than ever before.

And for the first time in a long while, she could command the troublesome Dragons at will. If she missed this opportunity, it wouldn’t be the Violet Moriarty she knew. Jenis immediately surmised that an assassination attempt on her life was imminent.

“It was my doing, and no one can save me.”

Taking out her cross necklace, Jenis briefly stared at it. Perhaps the Dragon Lord himself would come. The only ones in the coalition army who could confront that powerful being were the former Rose Caprice or the current Park Jeongjae.

She might be able to urgently request support from her mentor.

But Jenis reconsidered. Even if she set out right now, the Grand Mage wouldn’t be able to make it in time, and dragging Jeongjae into a direct confrontation with the Dragon Lord due to her own mistake would fill her with guilt.

She had failed. Even after fighting with everything she could muster, she ultimately failed.

If it was going to end up like this, what was the fight for? What was the reason for sacrificing the precious youths of the southern region under the Demon King’s gaze, totaling over ten thousand?

It felt like the ignored and forgotten things were finally coming into view. She had justified every step she took towards what she believed would be the final victory. But what if she lost here? If there truly was no way to turn things around?

In this moment, what should she do? Prepare to flee? No way. The only thing that lay ahead was the Empire’s mainland. That would be luring the Dragons into imperial territory, and even luring them wouldn’t be without complications, expanding the damage to the Empire.

More than ever, determination and resolve were needed. With her blood dripping from her fist that punched the ground so hard it cracked, she healed it with magic, licking the blood off her hand as she muttered,

“If this is my fate, and if I truly can’t return home alive…”

Jenisi’s choice was pen and paper.

“The world cannot fall to ruin because of my death. My absence must not splinter the Empire, exposing its weaknesses and allowing unprepared chaos to weaken our nation.”

Her hand, gripping the pen, trembled. A fox hiding its claws from a tiger. But whether tiger or fox, it was only natural to tremble in fear when death was at hand. It was only natural not to remain indifferent before an impending doom that seemed insurmountable.

Without being able to write even a single letter on the paper she neatly placed on the floor, Jenis dropped the pen.

“Brother.”

Jenis called out to the dead Walter.

“How on earth did you prepare for all of this? How… how could you plan for something so predicated on your own death? I can’t even remotely handle the fear of this unavoidable situation. Just preparing for a potential ruin has me trembling.”

What she was about to write was her will. Just the thought of it froze her body like ice and made it hard to breathe. It’s a hero’s duty to step onto the battlefield prepared for death, but it hadn’t been long since she’d leapt onto the battlefield with such immense strength; she had never seriously contemplated her end until now.

What would happen if she died? What should she prepare in advance, and what warnings should she leave behind? Above all… must she absolutely die? Was there truly no way left for her to survive? Would showing this resignation only increase her chances of death? Wouldn’t it be right to struggle harder to survive?

As she reached that thought, she tightly gripped her necklace and prepared to call Jeongjae again. Perhaps her mentor was rushing over already, having realized the anomaly as soon as he received the order to halt the operation. Even if he lacked genius, he was far from foolish or dull.

If the Grand Mage himself descended and coordinated with her, there might be a way to repel the Dragons. First and foremost, she had to survive. After surviving, the unseen methods would come to light.

She brought the cross necklace up to her lips to call for Jeongjae.

“Prof…”

And just before she could utter her first word, she quietly tucked the necklace back into her clothes.

“You were right.”

Jenis muttered to herself.

“My method was excessive, and it was only natural that it would crack somewhere along the way. If only I had been a bit more straightforward. If only I had been a bit less clever.”

Her hand, gripping the pen, moved quickly. The words she needed to leave behind poured onto the paper on their own.

The red orb at the tip of her staff warned her of the incoming threat. Jenis stopped writing her will and glanced up at the orb.

The Dragons had taken flight. A gigantic golden dragon, with wings spanning over 300 meters, led a total of seven dragons soaring across the sea towards the Magic Tower.

Jenis couldn’t help but smirk.

“Seven, it’s seven.”

She knew that even if the remaining dragon numbers were high, they would surely not exceed fifteen. Deploying seven dragons for this operation meant the Dragon Lord was desperate and must have secured a great reward for the success of this mission. Jenis let out a slight sigh of relief.

“Even if I don’t return alive, it wouldn’t be meaningless.”

In truth, it wasn’t particularly reassuring. If possible, she wanted to survive as much as she could. She wanted to keep her vows without relying on anyone else. But the result of that attempt was now this.

Despite making no tactical errors, the coalition army, receiving a sudden retreat order, was retreating helplessly. Betrayed twice by her promises, the rebel forces against the Demon King would never again accept offers of cooperation from the coalition. Now, due to this failure, any operations with local forces in the western territories of the Demon King’s army were almost entirely blocked. No matter how foolish the Demon King’s army might be, they wouldn’t ally with forces that have broken promises time and again.

Even if Jenis were to survive here, it had become a strategy that was hard to consider.

“Is there anyone else in the world as arrogant and foolish as I am?”

The Dragons were closing in rapidly. Instead of getting ready to fight them, Jenis increased her pace to finish her task on the paper before they arrived. She wrote, fixed, and wrote again with such fervor it almost made her sweat.

Yet, after all that effort, Jenis had only managed to fill out a mere two notes. She was not ready to embrace her end yet.

The Great Sage guarded the tower, and the seven dragons flew across the ocean. At this moment, as one horse carried the two heroes to the harbor, a decisive clash that would permanently alter the world was entering the super epoch.


Tip: You can use left, right, A and D keyboard keys to browse between chapters.