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

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“Khahaha! If you’re alive, kill! If you’re left, eliminate! Show the power of the Demon King’s Army to these weak humans!”

Beyond the slowly closing door, the Gargoyle Queen shouted hysterically as a high-ranking member of the Demon King’s Army. Walter, sword at his waist, joined forces with Rose to slam the heavy gate shut with all his might.

At that moment, Jeongjae felt something flying very quickly toward the back door from inside the castle. Simultaneously, Rose, sensing the same urgency, pushed Walter towards the castle wall and swiftly closed the gate with both hands.

Boom! With a loud crash, something inside the castle collided violently against the gate. From the sound, it seemed like the impact would have completely shattered the gate if Rose hadn’t managed to hold it back with all her strength.

“Looks like this charge just smashed the castle wall.”

Walter said, a hint of fear etched on his face. Jeongjae was turning pale, utterly exhausted.

Rose Caprice, with both hands firmly blocking the gate, absorbed the force of the impact.

A bit of the wound on the Iron Wall Princess’s face opened wider. The shock just now was so terrifying that it had worsened her injury.

“It’s solid! As expected, an iron wall! Completely solid!”

The laughter of the Gargoyle Queen echoed, and in the next moment, there was another powerful shock from inside the gate. Rose seemed to struggle with her hands alone and turned to slam her body against the gate to prevent it from breaking.

“Jeongjae, I’ll give you orders now.”

Walter, gravely staring at the widening wound on Rose’s face, stated. Jeongjae nodded, knowing the urgency of the situation.

“Just say it.”

“Draw the fire magic circle above the castle and pour flames down upon it. Burn everything inside thoroughly, leaving nothing behind.”

Jeongjae, who had rolled up his sleeves, ready to follow any orders, momentarily froze in place. Rose, who was barely holding the gate, opened her mouth wide.

“Wait, Walter. Is that really the best option?”

Rose asked. Inside, the chaotic destruction and screaming were still audible. Yes, there were screams.

That meant there were still people trapped inside who hadn’t escaped. While closing the gate was unavoidable, still…

“I don’t know if this is the best option or not… But at least, within what I can do, this is my best. Trust me. The people trapped inside, no matter what we do, we can’t save them. But with this method, we can at least deal a blow to the enemies that have invaded the castle.”

“Ha… But isn’t the lives of those inside more precious than just hitting the enemies?”

Jeongjae hesitated to counter, but Walter answered, adjusting his glasses irritably.

“Do you think I’m doing this because I don’t realize that? Breaking the enemies’ morale here means making those vulnerable refugees out there unable to chase after them, along with the few soldiers we have. The Gargoyle Queen, being ignorant, doesn’t even realize she’s stepped into a death trap, but after a little more time, she’ll lose interest in slaughter as they’ll run out of things to kill inside the castle. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“I see, Walter. If Margaret were here, she would have fainted from shock.”

Rose sighed as she replied. Jeongjae also understood the essence of what Walter was saying. And he couldn’t refute it. Walter’s judgment was almost always correct. That’s the most important reason he was called a ‘Sage’ and ‘Hero.’

“That’s why I sent Margaret as far away as possible. Damn it. But even Margaret would understand that there’s nothing to be done in this situation. I’ve tried to save people too.”

Walter’s words held truth. If he truly disregarded human lives and focused solely on expanding his territory, there would have been no need to awkwardly push party members into the castle for just a short time to hold off the enemies while saving people.

In fact, the process of evacuating refugees through the back door was also dangerously risky, where demon kin could easily mix with them. For Walter Hellhound, who despised taking risks, it could be said that he had shown his best intentions.

“Alright, I’ll carry it out.”

“Prepare thoroughly and finish it in one go. Even an idiot like a Gargoyle would understand what’s going to happen the moment a massive magic circle appears in the sky.”

Jeongjae steeled himself and rolled up his sleeves. The fire magic circle. Hellfire that cannot be extinguished without the caster’s permission, unless a certain amount of damage is dealt to the caster.

Just throwing a small spark of hellfire would earn the person immense recognition as a great sorcerer.

The moment Jeongjae waved his hand toward the sky, a large red circular magic circle unveiled itself in the air. Inside the magic circle, various geometric shapes, which were hard to categorize in three dimensions, twisted together in a complex manner, forming sharp mana circuits.

As if everyone inside the castle had their eyes drawn to the sky, the raucous shouts that had been echoing inside subsided to a calm silence.

Survivors within the castle noticed the nature of the magic circle before the monsters did.

“Then, please incinerate us with the hellfire instead of torturing us like this! Long live the Grand Mage! Long live the Hero!”

“I-I don’t want to die! You can save me! I’m still alive!”

“Uh, mom, what’s that? Mom? Mom? There’s something strange in the sky! Mom? Open your eyes, mom?”

Reactions varied, but Jeongjae listened carefully, realizing the weight of the orders he had received. He looked back at Walter with a pale expression. Walter shook his head with sincerest sympathy.

“I won’t say I’ll take full responsibility.”

Walter said.

“It was just an order, and that’s why I have no responsibility. But you’re not someone who can just accept such a nice excuse, Jeongjae. But you must do it. Even if I can’t take everyone’s place…”

Walter placed a hand on Jeongjae’s shoulder, who hesitated just one step away from activating the magic circle.

“As a friend, I’ll share the responsibility with you.”

“Fire, descend.”

A beam of lightning shot straight down from the red magic circle. Where the blue lightning fell, a massive storm of hellfire swirled, spread, and filled the castle.

There was no turning back now. The Grand Mage poured down as much hellfire as he could muster. The maximum pain a human could feel, the burning agony was unleashed toward those left inside, as quickly as possible, so they would burn away as fast as possible.

At last, when no more screams or chaos could be heard within the castle, the magic circle that appeared in the sky began to fade and dissipate.

“Good work.”

Walter Hellhound said. Jeongjae didn’t respond. Rose Caprice, who had been holding the gate with all her might, collapsed and took a moment to catch her breath. Jeongjae pretended not to see her take out a handkerchief from her pocket and softly wipe her tears.

“What do we do now?”

Jeongjae asked. The gray smoke wafting up in the now silent castle signified that it had become a place where no living being could survive.

“For now, we need to check inside. I suspect the Gargoyle Queen is still alive. I think she would have run away alone, leaving her subordinates behind, but if I can confirm a corpse, that would be a big success. If she hasn’t died and is just injured, I will finish her off myself.”

“The castle, huh?”

Jeongjae said dryly. Walter looked up suddenly, as if realizing something, and stared at Jeongjae.

“Ah, no. You don’t need to bear that much burden. You head south and join Margaret and Bernard. Checking the castle will be left to Rose and me.”

“Thanks for that.”

Honestly, Jeongjae didn’t have the courage to open the door and witness the carnage he had caused.

Yeah, he fought quite a bit. He got used to living here. But he was definitely not someone who was born and raised in this world. A human couldn’t get accustomed to a daily life full of war against demon kin.

At first, he couldn’t even bear to look at the goblin corpses skewered on poles. Now, he had become somewhat numb in front of the corpses of demon kin, but facing a large number of human corpses, especially those who died from his own unleashed hellfire, he felt he wouldn’t be able to endure it with his sanity intact.

The moment Rose carefully opened the castle gate, Jeongjae hurriedly moved his steps, chasing after the group of refugees that had gone south. With so many people, they couldn’t have gone too far. He was not the least bit curious about what had transpired inside. On the contrary, he wanted to avoid it.

Just a small crack in the open castle gate was a sight he didn’t want to behold. A scene he had never even seen before threatened to become a nightmare, and the Great Mage hurriedly cast rapid spells on himself as he made his way down south.

His assumption that they hadn’t gone too far was right. After walking barely a kilometer, Jeongjae encountered a group of refugees marching sluggishly south.

“Oh, it’s you, the sorcerer.”

Margaret, who was guarding the rear of the line, noticed Jeongjae with a rather unwelcoming expression. Jeongjae replied with a smile as welcoming as he could muster toward Margaret.

“Uh, the situation inside the castle has been dealt with, and it seems Walter and Rose have something to attend to. I came down first.”

“I didn’t really ask what happened. Your manner of speaking is a bit disjointed, and your face doesn’t look good. What happened?”

Margaret asked casually. Jeongjae shrugged.

“Well, I haven’t had anything that would make me feel good. Is Bernard leading the way?”

“Didn’t you just ask what happened? This isn’t a joke.”

Margaret replied in a tone that held a slight pressure, her indifference more evident. Jeongjae hesitated to respond.

Margaret was a noble figure. Even though humans and elves could hardly claim to be in a friendly relationship, she had taken the lead in forming an alliance and resolved to fight alongside humans. Such actions clearly displayed her character.

In that sense, she despised injustice and was outraged at the tragedy of those who were unjustly murdered. Another thing she loathed was fire, especially hellfire.

A fire powerful enough to obliterate an entire forest, she, who was once a princess of the forest, deeply resented and feared.

There was a good reason Walter had sent her far away before burning the castle down.

“Um, I’ve dealt with the situation inside the castle.”

“There couldn’t have been many ways to have done so in that situation.”

Margaret glared at Jeongjae. Realizing it was pointless to stall, he resolved to tell the truth.

“I used hellfire. Burned the whole castle. Is that enough?”

“Tch.”

As expected, Margaret clicked her tongue in disgust and turned away from Jeongjae as if she found it repulsive. Jeongjae was not surprised by her expected reaction. As Walter had said, he couldn’t escape responsibility. No matter how much he believed it was the best decision, he could not evade responsibility for what followed. He shouldn’t even attempt to evade it. Margaret’s disdain towards him was merely a small part of that burden.

As they walked forward in silence for a bit, the elven princess softly spoke up.

“You did well.”

“Huh? Me?”

“Who else would it be?”

“No, I mean… I didn’t really… contribute much in this battle. While everyone was busily saving people, I was just standing aside, and then, towards those who couldn’t be saved… Nah, never mind. Thank you, Margaret. Even though you must hate what I did, you still say that.”

“I hate hellfire. In fact, I abhor those sorcerers who test their power by burning entire forests for no reason or just to develop or cultivate the land.”

Margaret said. Jeongjae already knew this from hearing it several times before. Among sorcerers, there were many who, without any reason or just for the sake of developing land, would set fire and arouse the elves’ anger.

“I guess that would be the case.”

“But I know you’re not someone who would pour hellfire onto a person’s head without any thought or feeling. I’ve seen enough in a short time to know that much.”

Why? For a moment, Jeongjae felt a mix of compassion and pity in the eyes of the elven princess, who should be disgusted by him. Just a little, or perhaps more than that. No, quite a lot…

“Is that a compliment?”

“So, I’m saying you did well. I had a hard time in this fight, but you must have had it worse. Their suffering cannot compare. So, you endured more than I did.”

“T-Thank you.”

Indeed, Margaret was noble. Setting aside personal feelings, she could evaluate and empathetically judge fairly and compassionately.

That day, Jeongjae thought that perhaps somewhat extreme measures might be necessary to turn the current situation around.

And if those measures were reasonable enough, when the time came to use them, Margaret would certainly become a trustworthy ally.