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

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Jeongjae drew the Holy Sword and remained vigilant. Margaret, with her firearm loaded, slowly approached the Demon King.

In their eyes, a starkly bright white gate appeared. Behind the gate stood thousands of glass tubes, supported by a Moriarty Machine the size of an elephant.

It was complete. A mana machine that could render the entire war meaningless.

“Don’t come any closer!”

Violet shouted, gripping a scroll in her hand. Jeongjae and Margaret froze in place for a moment.

“This is a scroll developed by you. And behind me, there’s a device capable of storing magic power! If you come closer, I’ll blow everything here to smithereens, including you and your precious self. It would be wise not to approach!”

Thinking back, Walter had two ‘Manhattan’ scrolls taken by the Demon King. It wasn’t strange that one was still in her possession.

Jeongjae nodded at Margaret.

It wasn’t a signal to follow her orders. What Jeongjae sent to Margaret was, without a doubt, an attack signal.

“You picked the wrong person to try and intimidate, you fool!”

Jeongjae charged at the Demon King, swinging the Holy Sword. It wasn’t a lie that the King could use that scroll. If only they had enough time.

The Manhattan scroll was complex and powerful enough that even Jeongjae had to concentrate all his mind to use it. Considering the distance between the two factions, it was impossible to use the scroll while Jeongjae or Margaret charged, making it a hollow threat. No, it was a compelling reason to rush and snatch it from the Demon King’s hands.

The Demon King waved her arms defensively, still clutching the scroll. The blade of the Holy Sword flashed and severed one of her arms. Violet screamed in pain and dodged toward the gate.

“Prevent them from crossing that door!”

Margaret fired her gun in response to Jeongjae’s order. This time, the bullet embedded itself in Violet’s heart, causing her to crumple to the ground. Jeongjae reached out to pull Violet closer, but no magic came from his hands.

Indeed, his magical power, capable of casting true magic, had temporarily run dry.

“Ugh, I can’t do anything.”

“Ahhhhh!”

Violet extended her remaining arm and shot a bolt of black lightning at Jeongjae. Struck by the Demon King’s dark magic, the Hero flew back, crashing to the ground, while Margaret once again hit the Demon King with gunfire before tearing open a powder bag and reloading.

Yet even during this, the Demon King continued to crawl toward the gate, still seated on the floor.

With much effort, Jeongjae propped himself up and shouted.

“Look at your current state, Violet! All alone, without a friend or your empire, what are you even trying to do with that pitiful body of yours? What the hell are you moving toward with that!”

“This gate is the portal to the dimension you came from!”

Violet bellowed.

“I don’t care what this world is like. But I know this: once I cross over, all its resources will be mine. Just crossing over means I can rise once again. Just crossing over, if I can trick those who don’t know magic, I will reclaim the world and even obtain another world! I have fought for this from the start, and now I’m right here! It’s over! You’ve lost!”

Violet crawled closer to the dimensional gate. Margaret threw down her gun and unsheathed her twin swords, asking Jeongjae.

“Is that true, Park Jeongjae?”

“What do you mean?”

“If she crosses over, or if the existence of our world crosses over there, she could conquer your world. Is that really possible?”

Jeongjae paused for a moment, thinking.

Normally speaking, there’s no way that a half-crippled idiot could cross over to Earth and conquer the world. But if it’s Violet Moriarty… If she utilizes her innate magical power, her thirst for revenge, her intelligence, and her cunning…

Could he assert that there’s no possibility?

“It’s possible.”

“Then we must break the gate.”

Margaret stated. It was determined that merely stopping Violet wasn’t enough. With much effort, Jeongjae’s eyes fell upon the magic scroll of catastrophic explosion nestled inside the Demon King’s severed arm.

Jeongjae was drawn toward that arm, entranced, and seized the Manhattan scroll.

“That’s fundamentally a rift between universes composed of magical power. It’s a rift, but at the same time, a hole. A delicately constructed energy field. No, I won’t explain in detail. To eliminate such a thing, a correspondingly explosive magical force is needed. A force so powerful, fierce, and wild that it can collapse the gate itself.”

“Manhattan.”

“Nothing else will do.”

At that moment, the Demon King reached out toward the gate, getting close. Margaret hesitated, torn between whether to charge at her to buy time or make a different decision, glancing between Jeongjae and the Demon King.

In the end, the Elf Lord made a decision.

“Grand Mage, look this way.”

“Uh, why?”

At that moment, Jeongjae’s bewildered mouth was sealed shut by the fairy’s lips. Forcing its way between the slightly parted lips was Margaret’s tongue, which was as long as her ears. What seeped through that gap was the fairy’s sacred saliva.

For a brief moment, Jeongjae wondered if she was trying to give him a farewell kiss, but it was too deep and intense to be a mere goodbye or even a first kiss between lovers.

Moreover, something else was mixed in with the spit.

Despite being overly shocked and flustered, Jeongjae couldn’t protest against Margaret’s sweet kiss as she held the back of his head and continued to kiss him. But there was so much magical power leaking from her body toward him.

Really, far, far too much. Eventually, Jeongjae couldn’t hold back anymore and pushed Margaret away, shouting.

“What the hell is this! What the hell are you doing!”

“Did you dislike it? Sorry, but…”

“There’s no way I could dislike it! No, that’s not it, what’s with all that magic…”

“The compatibility of mana isn’t innate, it’s established. Now at last, the mana rejection between you and me has nearly vanished. And finally, I can live and die the same way you do.”

“What?”

For a moment, Jeongjae was confused by Margaret’s words, his eyes blinking in surprise.

And shortly after, as he understood her words, shock spread across his face.

“Wait a minute, you…”

“There was one book I confiscated from you.”

The Fairy Lord slightly smiled.

“Don’t worry. I left you with at least 60 years. Now, before it becomes too late.”

Jeongjae couldn’t simply brush off what Margaret had done.

But that was that and this was this.

Thanks to her converting a lifespan worth over 500 years into magical power, Jeongjae barely secured enough magical power to use the Manhattan spell once.

His life force alone, entirely transformed by the Elf’s magical power.

The risk of confusing the coordinates of the Manhattan spell lay in the ‘mixing of mana’. However, what now filled Jeongjae’s body was purely Margaret’s magical power. Therefore, the risk of this spell causing a mistake was non-existent at this moment.

With all his strength, he hurled the scroll toward the gate and shouted.

“I am now death itself, the destroyer of worlds.”

“What?”

The Demon King, nearly at the gate, turned to Jeongjae with an expression of disbelief upon hearing the strange incantation.

“Manhattan.”

A beam of light shot into the gate. That light, deep in a place unseen to their eyes, nestled into the passage connecting this dimension and another, slowly taking form.

“No, no, no, that can’t be, no!”

“Explode!”

The explosion was invisible. It occurred inside the gate, and naturally, no mushroom cloud, flames, or smoke rose.

But seeing the gate suddenly begin to expand and contract, Jeongjae realized that his magic had succeeded.

“These damn bugs! These goddamn things! This, this, this—”

The Demon King, with a face red as a tomato, trembled, unable to find the curses to hurl at the two. At that moment, the gate, having swelled ominously, attempted to grab part of the Demon King’s body, pulling it toward itself.

“Uh, uh?”

Jeongjae was momentarily alarmed, fearing the King might be sucked in, but moments later, the contracting gate swallowed only part of the Demon King’s body, spitting out the rest. The Demon King screamed in agony, having lost even her remaining arm.

“The state of the gate is strange. Is it functioning properly?”

Margaret asked. Jeongjae nodded.

“It’s probably correct. Right now, it’s in a state close to collapse. But what the results will be…”

Once again, the Demon King was drawn into the gate at its whim. However, this time the gate swallowed her whole lower body, and once again, it spat her out intact, except for her arms and wings.

Violet moved her body feebly, still unable to feel any pain.

“With this… like this…”

“I can’t watch this.”

Unable to bear it any longer, Jeongjae took the Holy Sword and walked toward the Demon King.

In her final moments of life, the Demon King glanced up at the Hero, who was descending the blade toward her.

She ended her life by the very sword that killed her mother.

The moment the Demon King died, the appearance of the gate stabilized miraculously.

It had shrunk significantly from when it was first created, yet, for a brief moment, the gate maintained a stable condition.

Jeongjae approached Margaret, visibly angered.

“What the hell were you thinking! 400 years? No, 500 years? How many years of life did you throw away?”

“It’ll be a bit over 500 years. Probably.”

“When I said I’d do something similar, you got furious!”

“Well, that’s true.”

Margaret nodded.

“But isn’t it fine? You won’t be able to see more of me than that.”

“You, you, make sure to talk to me when you return.”

“If I return, where to?”

At Margaret’s question, Jeongjae hesitated for a moment.

If he returned, where to?

The logical answer was, of course, the Empire.

Outside, the Empire’s Heroes were still battling against the enemy. To return home. Home. Jeongjae now had a home in the Audrich Empire.

However…

Right now, another—no, a true home was wide open, welcoming him.

“Is that gate alright as it is?”

“The rapid collapse process has passed, and it seems to be stable now. But it won’t last long. Maybe about 15 minutes? After that, it will begin to shrink entirely.”

“It seems both of us can still pass through.”

“Wait a minute, Margaret, you.”

“There’s already a successor capable of replacing me in my homeland, and the moment I wore the Leaf Crown of the Great Hero, I decided to leave my country and live my life.”

Margaret moved closer to Jeongjae. Their heights and eye levels were similar, and among them, Margaret…

Was radiantly beautiful. That’s what Jeongjae thought.

“I sacrificed everything to be with you in the world you desired. I was angry with you for wanting to no longer stand by me. If you want to be with me, I don’t care which world it is.”

“Margaret…”

“Will you go? If you do, could you take me there?”

And this time, Jeongjae kissed her first.

It wasn’t as dense and intense as before but truly pure—a kiss meant to express affection.

Margaret accepted it as a complete sign of acceptance. She took Jeongjae’s hand and pointed toward the gate.

“Let’s go. The world will be fine without us. But we won’t be fine without each other.”

.

.

.

Time passed, and Jeongjae opened his eyes on a fluffy bed.

Thanks to having charged overnight, his phone, now fully charged at 100%, was ringing its alarm at 7 AM. Though it was Saturday, Jeongjae, still struggling to adapt to the world, had forgotten that he didn’t even need to set the alarm on weekends.

Suddenly sitting up from bed, tears streamed from his eyes. She asked.

“Why are you crying?”

“So many have died. Precious people, too many have died. It hurts to live in a world like that.”

“Then why are you smiling?”

“Because I just saw the most precious person lying beside me, waking up. It’s hard to bear living in such a world.”

A pair of long ears. Shimmering blonde hair and sapphire-bright blue eyes.

Not Margaret of Eramenia, just Margaret, smiled contentedly upon hearing Jeongjae’s answer.