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

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As the sun set, the day turned to a dim twilight. The Empire’s forces inside the castle and the Demon King’s army outside moved with equal agility. Inside Walter’s House, there were merely 3,000 soldiers available from a single legion. They were all that remained within the castle.

The vastness of the city’s fortress was a double-edged sword for the defenders. As predicted by Walter, the Shadow Knight, acting as a proxy for the Succubus Queen, initiated a complete siege on the No-Member. Walter had to position the entire legion atop the city walls to monitor all directions.

Torches were planted on the walls, and the Demon King’s army, led by the Shadow Knights, swiftly encircled No-Member. The ogres, brought as siege weapons, remained stationary in the north without any movement, while the remaining forces managed to thinly encircle the fortress in preparation for dawn.

Throughout the night, the Succubus Queen had managed to recover her strength and awakened the next morning, rubbing her eyes as she came to. The first thing she confirmed was the deployment status of her forces.

The Shadow Knight, serving as the Queen’s aide, proudly responded to the Grand Commander inquiring about the legion’s status.

“Since we couldn’t let the legion remain idle all night, I immediately issued orders to besiege the castle. Now, all that remains is to batter down the fortress and seize it!”

“Ah… So we’ve besieged the castle…”

Nodding while gazing at the battlefield layout, which surrounded the castle in the east, west, south, and north. The Succubus Queen, who momentarily wore a puzzled expression while staring at the layout chart, suddenly seized the Shadow Knight by the neck with one hand.

Even the Shadow Knight, a being clad in pitch-black armor with no expression or gaze, visibly showed signs of panic.

“M-my lady, what on earth…”

“Who granted you permission to move the army without my orders?”

The Succubus Queen growled, lifting the knight up with her bare hands. The knight, gasping for breath and bewildered, flailed helplessly. She threw him to the ground like a ragdoll, glaring at the deployment chart, visibly irritated.

“You fool. There’s a massive lake adjacent to the eastern wall, preventing any troop placement there. How can that be a complete siege?”

“However… that’s because that guy expanded the castle’s size while rebuilding No-Member. Besides, even if the eastern side is open, it shouldn’t be a problem, right? There’s no gate and it’s blocked by water, so the enemy can’t escape!”

“But because of this lake, the legion couldn’t gather and got split apart. Dividing our forces while fighting Hellhounds isn’t a smart choice. That guy always overcomes numerical disadvantages by splitting our legion into bits and then surrounding us. While it’s largely our fault for falling for it every time, his ability to seize any gap that appears is the most dangerous weapon.”

“It’s just a small gap. And even if we were to split up, our allies aren’t numerous enough to be surrounded by the enemy. The siege network is still intact!”

The Shadow Knight protested, as if he felt it was unfair having just been scolded. The Succubus Queen glared at him with fierce eyes, overpowering his spirit, and then overturned the deployment chart, shouting.

“From the very start, constructing that siege network was against my intentions! Did we bring a million troops or a hundred thousand? How do you expect us to siege such a large city with only twenty thousand? Our objective is to force the enemy to withdraw before the Empire sends reinforcements, not to slaughter every enemy holed up inside!”

“The reinforcements won’t arrive. The enemy lacks any forces to dispatch as reinforcements.”

“I’ve heard that same report hundreds of times while fighting that vile creature for the past seven years! And that guy pulls reinforcements from his coin pouch as effortlessly as taking out gold coins. Do you get it? When fighting the Hero, prioritizing to show no gaps is the most crucial! Even if we lose, we must at least avoid being completely annihilated!”

Clearly filled with dread for Walter. This was a common fear shared among the high-ranking Demon King’s army officials who directly faced Walter.

Except for that reckless and foolish Gargoyle Queen, of course. She had always played the role of a charge commander at critical moments but never faced the Hero in actual battle.

“Then should we regroup the army at the north gate after all?”

The Shadow Knight, realizing that if he continued to oppose, he would end up without the chance to fight the Hero and lose his life, asked anxiously. The Succubus Queen shook her head with a calm yet disappointed expression.

“Since they are already positioned, it can’t be helped. Moving around in a fluster will only expose more weaknesses. Strike! Let them attack wildly from the east, west, south, and north simultaneously!”

“Yes, my lady. I will relay your orders immediately.”

The Shadow Knight, eager to avoid further reprimand from the Succubus Queen, hurried out of the tent. The Succubus Queen let out a dissatisfied sigh and stealthily stepped out of the tent.

And finally, the battle began in earnest.

The main forces of both the Demon King’s army and the Empire were aimed at the north gate. On the south gate side, it was practically the Empire’s forces sent as a mobile unit centered around the Shadow Knight, intended to delay and hinder the Empire’s reinforcements.

The east was blocked by a lake, with almost no troops deployed, and in the west, the Iron-Walled Princess had solidly barricaded it, making it hard to penetrate even if the Demon King himself came with an army. Ultimately, the fate of the battle could only be decided at the north gate, where Walter and the Succubus Queen would confront each other directly.

Understanding that he had drawn Commander’s wrath by foolishly besieging the fortress, the Shadow Knight had not dispersed the ogre units, instead consolidating them all to the north.

“Siege units, advance! Break down the gate and clear the path!”

At the command of the knight mounted on his shadow mount, a dozen ogres began to trudge heavily toward the castle walls. Behind the giants, thousands of orcs maintained a staggered formation as they approached the gate. Walter, observing the situation from the walls, looked down at the ogres and issued commands.

“Fire!”

Immediately, dozens of arrows rained down upon the advancing ogres. But not a single ogre fell from the first volley. While they were treated as de facto siege weapons, the demon race wasn’t weak enough to fall to arrow attacks.

“I’ll have to descend from the walls.”

Walter murmured worriedly, observing the ogres drawing closer. The most needed talent in such a situation was currently lodged in the Southern Region, held by Walter himself. As long as he could prevent the ogres from advancing, it wouldn’t be too difficult to fend off the orcs’ ladder attack, who lacked the strength to break the gate. Walter had no choice but to unsheathe the Holy Sword himself.

“Be careful, Commander!”

An Imperial officer warned after catching Walter’s muttering. Walter turned to the officer and pointed his finger toward the sky.

“Don’t shoot at the ground, aim for the sky. Have them shoot all at once, thinking to shoot as far as possible. We have enough arrows, so there’s no need to worry about wasting them.”

“Are you worried about being hit by our own arrows? If that’s the case, there are better methods than shooting up into the air.”

“No, prevent the Succubus Queen from taking to the skies. My only concern when I descend from the walls is that winged monstrosities might fly up and sweep the soldiers away. We need to fire at a rapid pace to ensure she doesn’t dare ascend.”

“Understood.”

Following the Imperial officer’s orders, the archers began to adjust their angles and released arrows into the sky, diverting fire away from the ogres and orcs on the ground. Walter confirmed the soldiers were executing his orders correctly before leaping from the walls to land in front of the gate.

For an ordinary human, one would either die from falling headfirst or suffer severe injuries even if they executed a proper roll, but of course, the Hero was no ordinary human.

Sensing the direction of arrows raining from above while preparing to take off from a distance, the Succubus Queen furrowed her brow.

“It seems the Hero has descended from the walls. The arc of the enemy’s arrows appears odd.”

The Empire’s archers were plentiful, but not enough to cover the sky. Despite the plethora of arrows, her intent to block the Succubus Queen’s flight was evident from the angle and trajectory, but the Queen considered that she might be able to break through and get closer. However, she soon shook her head, reconsidering her approach.

The battle had only just begun. There was little reason to take the risk of getting caught in the enemy’s anti-air barrage by flying up early.

The Hero, having anticipated that the Succubus Queen would abandon her thoughts of taking off simply by observing the arrow storm, felt at ease as he drew the Holy Sword and approached an ogre that got closest to him.

Ogres were an annoying adversary and a challenging foe to deal with.

The reason this humanoid race, which seemingly followed a similar evolutionary path as humans, had not developed a civilization like humans was that they were as self-destructive as orcs yet simple-minded and foolish as mice.

Demon races had originally been severely affected by the evil mana during their evolution, failing to develop normally and twisting into abominable beings. Unlike most demon races, who at least learned ways to think only to become warped, the ogres had diverged from humans too quickly, making them even more ignorant than the apes and completely fearless.

While their complete ignorance was advantageous from the perspective of the opponent, their lack of fear made it impossible to intimidate and drive them away as a tactic.

However, today, Walter had no intention of intimidating or sparing them. The more they flooded in, the better. Wiping out enemies in a short time with maximum efficiency was the best way to conserve the Holy Sword’s divine energy.

The first ogre, seeing the suddenly appearing Hero, let out a roaring scream and charged. Dodging the club that was almost as tall as Walter, he dashed toward the giant and swung his sword, aiming for the massive thighs.

Even a skilled butcher couldn’t slice meat with such precision. The brilliant glint of his sword cut cleanly through the ogre’s leg. The ogre cried out in pain, toppling backward. Seizing the moment, the Hero climbed onto the fallen giant’s body, driving his sword into its neck.

The ogre’s grotesque head was severed from its torso, rolling away. The Hero, intending to conserve the Holy Sword’s power, sheathed his sword while standing on top of the ogre’s body. However, seeing the Hero unarmed, the advancing orcs dared not challenge him.

Even though they were ignorant, the cleverer orcs understood that confronting a man armed with a sword would only result in death.

Whether the orcs halted or advanced was no concern; they quietly shifted their focus toward the gate or the Hero. Just then, the Succubus Queen, stepping forward to assess the battlefield, gasped and shouted upon seeing the situation.

“What are you doing! Who let the precious ogres advance even when the Hero stepped forward? Pull the giants back and let the orcs take the lead!”

It was a perfectly rational action. The ogres, with their excessive brutality, had been justifiably preserved as a rare species only due to their management under the Demon King after they decimated each other. Even the civilized and thoughtful giants could only remember that they had led a revolt against the First Demon King a millennium ago, ending in the entire species’ annihilation; ogres were indeed a rare and precious existence within the current Demon King’s army.

In contrast, although orcs matched ogres in brutality, their reproductive instincts were exceedingly prominent, and they preferred slaughtering pure-blooded races over pointing weapons at their own kind. Thus, their numbers were incredibly abundant. To counter Walter, who would inevitably dwindle in power as he swung his sword, it was only logical to sacrifice the orcs as offerings while letting the precious ogres fall, which was utterly nonsensical.

Walter, seeing the Succubus Queen stepping forward to issue common-sense orders, clicked his tongue and leaped toward a nearby ogre.

With a slight motion of the Holy Sword’s blade directed downward during his leap, the ogre’s head was once again severed. This time the Succubus Queen gasped in astonishment as she finally unfurled her wings and rushed toward Walter. Although the Queen’s order had been conveyed to the army, and some ogres slowly began to withdraw, the orcs still trembled, fearing to advance.

Walter seemed set on killing as many ogres as possible before they retreated, evidently thinking that the tactical need required them to lose as fewer numbers as possible. At that moment, the only being capable of momentarily stopping Walter’s actions was the Succubus Queen herself.

To slow Walter down, the Succubus Queen began pouring out her alluring pheromones madly as she charged forward. Walter, armed not only with unyielding mental fortitude but also with the Holy Sword’s sacred aura, easily resisted her enchanting magic. Still, once they got that close, it was impossible for him not to be affected, even a little.

The reason Rose had been sent ahead as the general to confront the Succubus Queen before the battle began was that there were no adult men who could utterly disregard her magic.

After all, believing that he had achieved his goal, Walter slipped away, backing toward the walls instead of choosing to confront the Succubus Queen. Since ogres were a troublesome and temperamental race, it would be difficult to regroup and send them out again immediately after receiving the retreat order.

At least it would take time to reassemble the withdrawing ogres. For Walter, there was no reason to clash with the Succubus Queen here and waste the Holy Sword’s power.

Easily dodging the Succubus Queen’s furious claw attacks, Walter sheathed his sword and slowly backed away. The Succubus Queen seemed hesitant to chase Walter, perhaps feeling the pressure of a one-on-one confrontation with the Hero.

As Walter opened the castle gate and slipped inside, this skirmish also concluded favorably for the Empire. For the Demon King’s army, there was no way to compress this unassailable fortress just a day after the siege had begun, leading them to a troubling contemplation.