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

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Bernard Silverpoint, a human hunter and Walter’s hammer, figured out the situation as soon as he received the order.

He had witnessed Margaret running around in tears, and assumed they had their complicated issues back then, so he let it be. However, the moment he received the direct ‘hunt’ command from Walter, he could guess that Jeongjae had gotten into some trouble with Margaret.

“Anyway, it’s really annoying that I have to do this.”

With his lightly tanned skin and strikingly bright blonde hair, Bernard looked like someone who could easily commit very bad deeds; nevertheless, he was a disciplined and meticulous top hunter for Audrich.

Chasing Jeongjae, who always left a trail behind him, it was no trouble at all to tie him up.

“Whoa, what the hell?!”

Jeongjae, waking up from a nap in the school dormitory, was startled to find his whole body tied up with ropes and spat out curses. As he feared he might have been kidnapped by the Demon King’s army, he noticed that the ropes tying him up felt oddly familiar, leading him to sigh in resignation.

“Excuse me, what kind of prank is this?”

Jeongjae lifted his head slightly and looked at the hunter who was perched on his bed. Bernard tucked the dagger he had been fiddling with into his belt and turned his gaze towards Jeongjae.

“Hey bro, have you ever seen me tie someone up for fun?”

“Ah, I actually hoped it was just a prank…”

Having a bit of knowledge about subculture when he lived on Earth, Jeongjae felt an odd sense of anxiety and fear at Bernard’s appearance. At least, the color of his skin was not the result of tanning. If that was a comfort, it was minimal.

“I heard the Hero told you to bring him in. What on earth have you done to deserve being captured like this?”

“Ah, damn.”

Jeongjae flinched and sat up on the bed. Bernard helped him sit up on the bed instead of pinning him down. Jeongjae sighed as he spoke.

“What else did Walter say?”

“He didn’t say much, but I did see something with my own eyes.”

“Yeah? What did you see…?”

“I saw Princess Margaret crying and running away. And you trying to chase after her. Although you couldn’t catch her because it was your opponent, you still didn’t manage to keep up. What did you do?”

Jeongjae vaguely imagined the event that had unfolded. If Margaret ran away like that and reported the incident to Walter… Jeongjae probably had now been branded as a suicide hope by Walter and captured.

“Well, I didn’t really do that terrible of a thing…”

Jeongjae stammered, trying to offer a not-so-convincing excuse. Bernard waved him off, showing little interest, then stood Jeongjae up. Feeling the blood cut off in his arm, Jeongjae pleaded earnestly.

“Um, could you loosen these ropes a bit? It hurts more than I expected.”

“I received orders to capture you without letting you escape, so how could I tie you loosely? Wizards can do anything as long as their hands are free. And you, bro, are among the strongest of them.”

Jeongjae remembered reading ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms,’ where the general Lü Bu, when led before Cao Cao, would merely plead for a “looser rope,” and thought it seemed incredibly foolish.

Today, he could truly sympathize with Lü Bu’s plight. The very thought of being taken to Walter for questioning, while bound by these ropes, worried him the most.

“Alright. But you aren’t seriously going to drag me around the city like this, right? Where’s Walter?”

“Don’t worry about that. The Hero is inside this building. Since you slept like a log without realizing you were tied up, I had enough time to get your letter.”

“Oh, so Walter is in the dormitory building.”

That was a relief. Even if not in the city, being dragged around the campus by the continent’s top hunter would be humiliating in its own right.

While it felt like an unnecessary measure, it wasn’t entirely unreasonable if Jeongjae was indeed being treated as a suicide hope.

He was a man in his late twenties and had military experience from his original world. He understood that if there was someone in the same unit who seemed likely to commit suicide, it would be quite the headache for a commanding officer.

Jeongjae quietly followed Bernard down to the first floor, to the dormitory common room. Walter sat in a plush chair with a displeased expression, legs crossed.

When Walter saw Bernard and Jeongjae enter, he jumped up from his seat and glared at Jeongjae over his glasses.

“Uh, hey?”

“You can’t be saying hello, thanks to you.”

Walter replied gruffly to Jeongjae’s light greeting. Walter Hellhound adjusted his glasses slightly and gestured to Bernard to untie Jeongjae. In true expert hunter fashion, Bernard easily undid the knots and freed Jeongjae.

Jeongjae rubbed his numb arms and sat across from Walter.

“So, what’s this about tying me up and capturing me?”

“Are you asking because you don’t know or just trying to feel me out?”

At Walter’s words, Jeongjae shrugged. After all, there was no way he had the verbal wit to stand up to Walter.

“What do you know already?”

“Everything you said to Princess Margaret.”

Jeongjae sighed. Walter sighed in response. A brief silence passed before Walter spoke first.

“Why on earth did you do something like that?”

“I thought Margaret would understand. Honestly, I never imagined she would run away crying.”

“That’s an important issue, but there’s something more pressing, you punk.”

Walter adjusted his glasses, his expression thick with annoyance. Jeongjae tilted his head.

“What exactly are you trying to say?”

“First of all, why did you come up with a plan that risked your life to cause great harm to the enemy? No, why would you carry out that plan rather than refrain from it? Did you really think it was a good idea? You didn’t even consider how it would affect the people around you?”

“There are countless people who die, Walter. We never consider the situations of those around us when we recruit them. We don’t consider the circumstances of ordinary folks and throw them into the fray.”

“We never send anyone off to die. It’s basic; we’re sending soldiers to kill the enemy. No commander hopes for their subordinates to die.”

“My goal is to kill the enemy. And if I can survive, of course I want to. But that doesn’t always happen.”

“It was a 100% death magic. Not even a 70% or 99% risk; it was 100%! I will never send my comrades or subordinates into a plan where they are guaranteed to die. It’s the same whether it’s our five-man team or a mere conscript!”

Of course, Walter’s words made sense. Jeongjae recalled the barbaric Japanese Imperial ‘Kamikaze’ tactics that existed in his original world.

A tactic where pilots were sent into planes, not to drop bombs but to sacrifice themselves to damage enemy vessels—a downright insane strategy. While ordinary bombing missions run the risk of being shot down by the enemy, it was this very nature of complete elimination of return that made Kamikaze tactics deemed barbaric.

But isn’t this similar? This would mean giving up one’s life to kill just a few orcs and hundreds of goblins.

“I was just an ordinary person back in the real world, with no powers and pretty normal. Although I didn’t have the risk of dying on the battlefield, I was once just a plain infantryman. When put in a worthless position before the storm of war, distinctions like that don’t matter. The battlefield is only a place to send people to die, and their position only makes them expendable numbers in death. I feel as though I cared more for the people around me in that world. That was… my world.”

“I don’t say I don’t understand your loneliness. It’s not something I can claim to understand, but I don’t mean to say I don’t get it.”

Walter murmured bitterly. Jeongjae shrugged.

“It can’t be helped; I’m an outsider.”

“You’re as much of an outsider as my ancestors. My friend, if you were simply a passerby, hardly anyone would be sad if you died. But you’re… a good person. Fundamentally, you have a decent human nature. There are people here who already care about you and love you. Just… take a look around you. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“Ha…”

Jeongjae felt a bit touched, but he didn’t have the mindset to fully accept Walter’s words. Walter, looking tired, took off his glasses and rested them on his knees.

An awkward silence hung between the two for a moment. Walter put his glasses back on and closed his eyes. Jeongjae realized Walter was once again straining to look into the future.

A moment later, the Hero’s body twitched a few times, and Walter opened his eyes wide. Hurriedly removing his glasses, Walter Hellhound put them away in his pocket with an expression that seemed somewhat afraid.

“What the hell?”

Jeongjae, sensing something was off, asked Walter. Walter waved his hands with an expression that seemed to be a forced smile.

“Oh? No. Sometimes when I look into the future, I see strange scenes. But don’t worry; it’s not a confirmed future.”

His statements were somewhat disjointed, babbling on without much context. This wasn’t characteristic of Walter. Jeongjae, with a perplexed expression, asked again.

“What did you see? What happened?”

“If a powerful explosion occurs… I mean, a very powerful explosion that wouldn’t happen without the intervention of magic.”

Walter suddenly spouted out something unexpected. Jeongjae listened closely to the Hero’s words. The Hero’s words right after he saw the future were always significant. In other words, it was akin to an actual oracle from the Delphi Shrine.

“You saw such an explosion?”

“For such an explosion to produce a mushroom-shaped cloud, just how powerful would it have to be? To create an explosion that completely vacuums the surrounding space and makes the flames shoot up into the sky.”

“It would… have to be quite powerful. It wouldn’t be possible with just the gunpowder from this world.”

What on Earth had he seen? Judging from his tone, it sounded as if he was talking about Jeongjae actually using that magic. Walter pulled out a handkerchief to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead.

“Hey, Park Jeongjae.”

“Uh, what’s up?”

“Bring it to me right now. That scroll. The one you developed, the original. Bring it all out here in front of me.”

Hearing the mention of the original, Jeongjae felt a wave of pressure wash over him. In fact, after Margaret had torn up a copy, Jeongjae had prepared a few duplicates in case of an emergency. While it could definitely be a serious issue if duplicates got leaked, the number he had was sufficient to cover for any damage.

That meant he could pretend to bring several copies without Walter noticing…

“Don’t think about anything funny, you. If I couldn’t see through your lies, I wouldn’t even be able to hold titles like Hero or Sage at the same time from the beginning.”

Walter took out his glasses again. The sharp gaze from behind those lenses was scarier than staring down a rampaging werewolf up close.

Jeongjae instinctively shivered and nodded his head.

After a moment, he dashed to his study, retrieved all the ‘Manhattan’ scroll duplicates and the original, and presented them before Walter.