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

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“Hehehe… Hehehehehe….”

Jeongjae was slightly irritated by the strange laughter coming from his assistant, which had been distracting him since the morning breeze. After tolerating Jenis’s bizarre behavior for about 15 minutes, Jeongjae could no longer hold back, stood up from his seat, and spoke to Jenis.

“What’s wrong? Why have you been acting like that since earlier?”

“Oh? Huh? What have I done?”

Jenis’s eyes widened in genuine confusion. Jeongjae, dumbfounded, pushed aside the documents he had been reviewing and made a disgruntled expression.

“For 15 minutes, you’ve been making that weird laugh and glancing this way. There’s obviously something you’re proud of, right? You might as well just tell me.”

Perhaps Jeongjae’s words struck a chord, as Jenis made a slightly frustrated face. She walked over to Jeongjae with a pout and complained.

“The fact that I discovered the hideout of the bandits was a surprise gift!”

“I didn’t guess that far. Well, I had an inkling. So, what happened?”

“Honestly, I just did what the professor instructed me. The power of the stealth magic was definitely reliable. I wasn’t even trying to be stealthy, yet they didn’t notice me at all. I could explain the whole tracking process in detail, but that wouldn’t be necessary, right?”

For a moment, Jeongjae considered narrating some ‘unnecessary’ details, fearing Jenis might be disappointed if he said it was unneeded, but ultimately he found listening to irrelevant information bothersome and requested her to skip the details.

Fortunately, Jenis, who seemed excited about her achievement, took Jeongjae’s request without offense.

“So, it’s right at this point on the map. I’ve used the dense foliage to hide the very existence of the cave, so it would be difficult to find with the naked eye. But if you go near the marked point and activate your detection magic, the presence of the empty space will be clearly revealed.”

“Good job. Truly well done, Jenis. That’s a significant contribution.”

“Hehe. I’m so glad I was able to succeed without any issues. It’s modest, but I’m gradually making my practical debut!”

It’s modest, but that wasn’t entirely wrong. Jeongjae, for instance, had terrifying magical traits since his arrival in this world, but his first real combat experience must have been a fierce encounter with two goblins.

“Then, I’ll go there myself. It’s better not to drag this out.”

Jeongjae said as he retrieved a personal robe from the drawer and draped it over himself. Similar to the white cross emblazoned on Jenis’s robe, his robe also displayed the emblem of the Harriet family.

Unlike Jenis’s emblem, this robe didn’t have any special enhancement magic placed on it. It wasn’t something Jeongjae needed at the moment.

“What do you plan to do? You’re not thinking about launching an attack, are you?”

“Primarily, it’ll be a conversation. However, I believe conversation is also a form of an excellent attack strategy.”

Draped in a blue robe, Jeongjae stepped outside the castle, masking his presence with powerful concealment magic so as not to appear suspicious to those around him when he left the borders of his territory.

People with high alertness, like those in hero parties, could easily sense Jeongjae’s presence even with his powerful stealth magic, but none of the ordinary citizens in this territory could do such a thing.

Even George, who was patrolling around the territory, and the guards, Sammy and Peter, were no exception. If Jeongjae attempted to slip past the elite Imperial soldiers using just simple concealment magic, he would be immediately detected, but these two clueless guards continued to stare ahead without paying any attention to Jeongjae passing by.

Despite Huck’s proper training, their demeanor was commendable, yet their skill was lacking.

For now, Jeongjae did benefit from their somewhat dull-wittedness, but as a lord, he felt a bit complicated about it too.

“Should I have given them a tool to pierce through magic?”

As Jeongjae muttered, Sammy turned his head around, as if he noticed something.

“What’s wrong, Sammy?”

Peter asked with a sleepy expression. Sammy tilted his head and shrugged, seeming not to have seen anything.

“I thought I heard some talk. What did you say?”

“No, I didn’t say anything.”

“Then it must have been my imagination.”

“Wake up a bit. During duty, please.”

“You’re not the person I want to hear that from.”

What the two foolish guards were saying didn’t matter much. Jeongjae, thinking that being too relaxed might expose him, shifted his steps toward the location that Jenis had indicated.

Since it was supposed to be a 15-minute walk under normal circumstances, the bandits’ hideout didn’t seem far away. Though the poorly maintained path and thick foliage obstructed his view, Jeongjae managed to find his way to the location Jenis had pointed out.

Considering the location, it seemed like it wouldn’t be too hard to communicate with the village and transfer supplies. Since there was enough distance for a change of guards, the soldiers wouldn’t likely arrive here for supply transfers.

If he encountered guards here, it would lead to a rather troublesome situation for both sides. In such a case, Jeongjae would have no choice but to discipline the guards for their carelessness in not noticing that he had slipped by while cooperating with the bandits.

“Alright. So there’s an entrance somewhere near this thicket…”

Jeongjae cast a small scouting magic circle that wouldn’t draw attention. The surroundings appeared mostly like ordinary thickets, but he distinctly sensed an empty space beyond the dense bushes to the left.

“This must be it.”

Jeongjae retracted the magic circle he had cast in his hands, and as he adjusted his robe tightly around him, he released the stealth magic. He needed to reveal himself to engage in conversation.

Without hesitation, he moved toward the thicket. With a crunching sound, branches parted to clear a path, revealing the concealed interior of the cave beyond the obstructing leaves.

The atmosphere of the cave fit the term ‘hideout’ perfectly.

It was not too large, but there seemed to be enough space to comfortably accommodate about ten people. The light illuminating the cave came from a few candles placed between the rock crevices.

Gathered around a large table in the center were five or six individuals, snacking on what looked like food brought from the territory and dried meat that seemed freshly hunted. Some appeared to have weapons that resembled basic armaments, while others lay sprawled out on the stone floor with nothing to occupy them.

In one corner of the cave, a few pieces of bread and two apples sat in a basket, and hanging from the ceiling were a rabbit and what looked like chunks of wild boar meat. It seemed they were exchanging for supplies from the village by gathering foods and hunting.

Their attire was quite far from ‘armed.’ It looked as though they were wearing tattered, patched-up clothes that wouldn’t distinguish them from ordinary citizens of the territory.

As Jeongjae confirmed with his own eyes that the group of bandits were all young adults in their twenties to forties, he was convinced his deduction was correct.

These were draftees refusing enlistment. Otherwise, there was no way the Imperial Assembly, which was frantically trying to gather young men, would allow such healthy individuals to be overlooked.

“W-who are you?”

As the members seated around the table realized Jeongjae’s presence, they blinked in surprise. When Jeongjae first emerged from the thicket, they likely thought a friend or village guard had arrived, but seeing a stranger wrapped in a robe, they couldn’t help but be startled.

“I-is this an ambush?”

“Weapons, grab your weapons!”

Without giving Jeongjae a chance to respond, around ten young men began to aim their weapons at him. Jeongjae didn’t feel threatened at all; instead, he felt a sense of pity.

What they raised as weapons were nothing but a butcher’s knife, farm tools that looked like hoes, a stone axe, and wooden clubs.

He felt compelled to inform them that there were proper weapons stacked high in the castle’s armory. Even after giving 100 spears to the village chief, there were still nearly 200 remaining.

“I’ve come to talk. I’m here to encourage your voluntary surrender. I don’t intend to fight. That wouldn’t help either of us.”

Jeongjae spoke in a calm voice. However, even with weapons aimed at him, his composed tone might have instilled more fear in them.

One bandit, holding a rather convincing hunting bow, started trembling and accidentally let go of the bowstring. An arrow flew toward Jeongjae, who lightly lifted his right hand and deflected the incoming arrow.

The sight of a Grand Mage batting away an arrow with his bare hands left the bandits in shock. At the same time, perhaps thinking they could no longer avoid a fight after attacking first, the roughly ten young men charged towards Jeongjae altogether.

Sighing lightly, Jeongjae realized he had to reciprocate. If he couldn’t engage in conversation, demonstrating overwhelming strength to convey a willingness to listen was also a form of strategy.

Jeongjae flicked his robe and sent the man holding the butcher’s knife soaring into the air. The man, propelled by psychokinesis, was gently deposited on the table.

As one wielding a club lunged at him from the left, Jeongjae grabbed the club with his bare hand without even deploying a magic circle, smashing it like a piece of wood.

The bandit, dumbfounded that his weapon was destroyed, was swiftly taken down by a binding spell that sent him sprawling to the ground.

In the next moment, with a light flick of his finger, Jeongjae turned the hoe blade that came flying at him into a pile of feathers. From that feather pile, he conjured a dove, and then sent it flying off towards the bandit charging at him.

While the white dove pecked the young man’s head mercilessly, Jeongjae commanded the branches outside to come and subdue other bandits.

Two branches that had previously concealed the cave swiftly grew and stretched into the interior like vine tendrils, binding two bandits tightly like ropes.

The branches then pressed the captured bandits against the cave walls, rendering them immobile. In truth, even without being tightly bound, they would have struggled to move any further due to the fear that paralyzed their will.

When the young man being mobbed by the dove cried out for help, Jeongjae hurriedly flicked his finger again, returning the dove back into the hoe.

The bandit, now smacked on the head by the hoe handle after being subjected to the dove, fell flat on the ground.

“A-a Mage. It’s a Mage!”

“He must be insane. They sent a Mage to capture us!”

“Is it that common to have a Mage? That they’d send one to this backwater? We’re all done for!”

Those with even a bit of magic knowledge would have realized, just from the recently displayed power over ten young men without breaking a sweat and using minimal magic consumption, that Jeongjae was no ordinary individual. But to the ignorant commoners here, all Mages were equally strange and mystifying, and they had no perception of the level difference.

They probably assumed the Empire had sent a low-level Mage to deal with bandit eradication, quaking in fear as Jeongjae, now removing his robe, slowly approached them.

“I said I came to talk. I hope you’re feeling a bit more inclined to converse now.”

“C-could I ask for your name?”

One bandit, appearing more rational than the others, asked. Jeongjae nodded and pulled off his robe, revealing the ‘VR’ emblem etched onto his back.

“My name is Park Jeongjae. Baron Harriet, the new lord of this territory.”

As he brushed by the bewildered bandits, Jeongjae laid his robe on the central table and dragged a chair over to sit near it.

“If you feel ready to talk, let one of you come forward, and we can begin discussing the terms of your surrender. It seems evident that you’ve lost to me, so it’s only fair for the winning side and the losing side to negotiate the conditions of surrender according to the laws of war.”