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

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At that moment, she felt a comforting touch wrap around her from behind. When Margaret was about to turn her head in surprise, Jeongjae’s voice calmed her.

“Wait. Don’t move. I knew you’d be like this.”

Jeongjae carefully wrapped his arms around Margaret from behind and held her hands. Trembling, Margaret asked hesitantly.

“Why in the world are you here… You should be blocking the path to the west in case of an emergency…”

“This side is more important. Listen carefully, Margaret. The enemy is already on guard at this hill, and as I came up this hill, the mana in this area got too strong. I set up a concealment barrier, but they’ll notice it soon. So tell me quickly. Where should I aim?”

The shaking of Margaret’s hands finally stabilized. To be honest, just having the Elf Lord cuddle up to him from behind was enough to unsettle him, but it would be foolish to let such a silly reason cause them to miss a powerful target.

Margaret spoke cautiously, her voice trembling.

“A little more to the left.”

Jeongjae slightly moved her hands. She continued to direct him.

“Half an inch up.”

Once again, the arrowhead adjusted. Margaret made fine adjustments to correct the mistake Jeongjae had made. Through Harriet’s glasses, the Elf Lord’s azure eyes sparkled. The arrowhead gleamed as it aimed at their enemy, and the presence of two powerful beings radiated from the hilltop.

The Succubus Queen, cautiously advancing, sensed that presence as well.

“I just saw something flash up there…”

She mumbled while looking toward the top of the hill. At first, she thought it was sunlight reflecting off a weapon, but realizing the sun was far off in the sky, she opened her eyes wide and shouted.

“It’s an ambush! Stand guard! Protect me!”

“Now!”

Both queens shouted simultaneously, and the arrow that flew from Margaret’s hands sliced through the air, hurtling toward the Succubus Queen’s neck.

The concealment barrier was utterly shattered. The Shadow Knights couldn’t react in time to the suddenly fired arrow. The arrow flew past the knights, striking the demon lord hiding behind them.

“Gah!”

However, a slight difference determined the outcome. The moment the Succubus Queen became aware of the presence on the hill, she hastily turned her body, causing the arrow to merely graze her neck instead of piercing it.

Elios quickly pressed his hand against his neck to stem the flow of blood. The knights looked up toward the hill, protecting their lord. Jeongjae bit his lip and snapped his fingers.

“Now!”

At that moment, the magic embedded in the arrowhead activated with a loud pop. Blood gushed out, an amount that couldn’t be contained by a single hand. The Succubus Queen staggered back from the massive blood loss. Jeongjae immediately drew his holy sword and leapt down the hill. Margaret pulled the rifle off her back and poured gunpowder into it. The Elf Lord shouted.

“I’ll cover you! Charge!”

“I’m already doing it!”

The Shadow Knights hurriedly focused on moving the unconscious Succubus Queen. Some knights drew their weapons to block Jeongjae’s path, but Margaret stealthily descended from behind, firing bullets at the knights.

With her unwavering aim, the Elf Lord quickly dispatched two knights at once. Without hesitation, Margaret slowly advanced, tearing open a cartridge with her mouth to reload her gun. Jeongjae toppled a knight standing in his way with his holy sword.

The Black Knights blocked his view, obscuring the state of the Succubus Queen, but Jeongjae was aware that if her injuries received timely first aid, she could still be saved.

“If we let her go now, she’ll come back to life! We have to finish this!”

“There’s a limit. Should I assist with my sword?”

“No! You have bad memories with the Shadow Knights!”

Jeongjae rejected her. Margaret shouted back with a hint of anger in her voice.

“That won’t leave any trauma! I can fight just fine!”

“Stop talking nonsense! I saw your hands shaking just from holding a sword!”

“Damn it!”

Margaret couldn’t refute Jeongjae’s words, so she gave up on close combat with the Shadow Knights and kept targeting them with her rifle. However, she was running low on ammo. If things went awry, she might find herself in the awkward position of having to stab her dagger onto her rifle and charge at the heavily armored cavalry.

As Jeongjae fought with all his might to take down the knights, the enemies dedicated everything to blocking their view and delaying the time to protect the Succubus Queen.

Jeongjae formed a magic circle in one hand and aimed it ahead.

“I can’t expect total firepower, but…”

The Shadow Knights were not simply known as the Demon King’s elite troops for no reason. They inherently possessed powerful magic resistance. Of course, for someone like Jeongjae, a Grand Mage, dispatching them with lightning or flame wasn’t a challenge.

However, when these knights fully committed to guarding someone, breaching their defenses to reach the target was incredibly difficult.

A lightning spell pierced through several knights simultaneously, yet even after they evaporated into smoke, the Succubus Queen’s escape only grew faster.

“Is there no way to wipe them out with infinite barrage magic?”

“It consumes too much mana. We’ve already used quite a bit on this operation. It wouldn’t be an issue to use it now, but we’d lack energy for our pursuit…”

Currently, they were trying to chase down an entire legion with just the two of them.

Though the situation stemmed from the shock of the ambush, given their numerical disadvantage against elite enemies, it wouldn’t be surprising if they were countered and surrounded again. In other words, even though they were still hot on the trail of the Succubus Queen, they had to remain aware that she could give the signal to counterattack at any moment.

They had to kill the enemy commander before that could happen.

“If only we could trap the enemy’s retreat…”

At that moment, it was as if Jeongjae’s desperate prayer was heard, as a massive boulder fell onto the pathway their enemies were fleeing, suddenly blocking the escape route for the Shadow Knight Order.

Margaret cast a curious glance at Jeongjae, wondering if he had done something strange, but it was Jeongjae himself who looked genuinely perplexed.

The culprit was beyond that eastern pathway. Bernard, who had been watching from a distance, had hurriedly dropped a huge rock right in front of the fleeing enemies using the magical tools he possessed.

“I’ve cornered them.”

Noticing Bernard’s presence, Jeongjae nodded in satisfaction. However, Margaret’s expression grew more anxious.

“A cornered rat will bite even a cat. Hurry before they realize they’re not just rats, but a pack of them!”

“But there are so many of them. If only I knew where I could squeeze in…”

Once again, Bernard was quick to catch onto Jeongjae’s desires.

The hunter rummaging through his bag pulled out a brightly glowing magical flashbang and held it high into the sky. Jeongjae, who had been standing there in confusion, finally understood Bernard’s intention when he saw him throw the flashbang right amid the knights.

“There!”

Spotting the enemy commander’s location, Jeongjae cheered. With a revolver in one hand and a holy sword in the other, the hero quickly began chanting a spell for himself.

“Body enhancement. Speed increase. Automatic counterattack. Done. Margaret! Keep covering me!”

“I’m already doing it!”

Ignoring Margaret’s complaints as gray smoke continued to pour from the barrel, Jeongjae dashed madly toward the spot where the flashbang had dropped, knocking down enemies in his path.

He stepped onto an enemy’s horse, kicked off their helmet, jumped onto the saddle to shoot a knight, slashed, and knocked them down.

In the blink of an eye, the hero’s charge reached the knights who were flailing to clear the boulder that had blocked their escape. Jeongjae, who jumped high into the sky to survey the scene, caught sight of the Succubus Queen clinging to her wounds, surrounded by knights.

“Oh, my, gosh…”

Seeing Jeongjae leap upward with the holy sword pointing down, the Succubus Queen instinctively felt her demise approaching.

Jeongjae completely ignored her plight. The blade of the sword shone with the pure white light of holy energy as he chanted a devastating spell and dove into the midst of the knights.

“O blade, pierce not only the flesh but penetrate the earth itself.”

And then, the holy sword plunged into the heart of the Succubus.

With the shockwave from the ground impact, the Shadow Knights were sent flying in all directions. In fact, some knights vanished entirely, reduced to smoke from that single shockwave, and the boulder that had saved Jeongjae was shattered by the force he unleashed, clearing a path ahead.

Underneath the hero’s sword lay the lifeless body of the demon lord, her heart completely pierced. Jeongjae briefly knelt to check the pulse on the Succubus’s neck, feeling for a heartbeat.

Rising to his feet, Jeongjae sent an ‘OK sign’ to Margaret, who was retreating while waiting for his signal. It meant “mission accomplished, now we retreat.”

“What about the body?”

Bernard, who had approached Jeongjae by then, asked. Jeongjae noticed shadows closing in on him and urgently replied.

“Don’t worry about it. Let’s retreat. Quickly! Before the enemies close their encirclement!”

Jeongjae pulled the sword from the corpse of the target and sheathed it at his waist. The confusion in the enemy forces after losing their top commander was immense.

Without significant difficulty, Jeongjae, Margaret, and Bernard successfully completed the assassination mission against the Succubus Queen and managed to return to their base. Though it had progressed rather chaotically, it was undoubtedly a solid and tremendous achievement.

The outcome was so astounding that the Shadow Knights, who barely managed to secure the Succubus Queen’s corpse, couldn’t escape the Demon King’s wrath and were all executed on the spot.

It was an unjust treatment. Yet no one could point out that executing hundreds of precious elite knights in front of the Sorcerer Emperor was unfair or unreasonable.