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

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Not long after driving Dracula away, Jeongjae felt a strange sensation once again.

“Didn’t I just come this way?”

Jeongjae murmured, tilting his head as he suddenly stopped in his tracks. It wasn’t like he had wandered around; he was sure he had walked in a straight line, yet the familiar sight and path he had traveled welcomed him back once more.

The Grand Mage landed and placed one hand on the ground, squinting his eyes tightly.

“That damn mosquito…”

From the hand that Jeongjae had placed on the ground, blue mana circuits spread out, wrapping around him like a spider’s web in all directions—skyward and underground.

The densely spreading mana circuits tangled together, enveloping him and forming a mana dome.

As the space visible through the gaps of the mana covering him slowly warped and then suddenly darkened like a snuffed candle flame, the only thing visible to the Grand Mage, in the enveloping dark void of the universe, was the intricately complicated mana circuits that had overturned him.

Jeongjae immediately recognized the spell. Mental domain magic, a trap in a virtual space. Moreover, it was a spell meticulously detailed to the point of being twisted.

“You crazy bastard…”

Jeongjae muttered as he poked at the mana circuits that had overturned him. He regretted not giving Dracula a proper hit this time. This spell was a curse that injected powerful mana circuits into the opponent’s brain, enveloping their entire consciousness and trapping them within a virtual space created by the caster.

Jeongjae’s mana resistance was among the very best across the continent. If someone were to casually cast mental domain magic on such a being, it would be a matter of moments before they were either broken or trapped in the very magic they cast.

Realizing he might have fallen prey to a lowly spell, Jeongjae was on the verge of being enraged until he observed the tightness of the mana circuits surrounding him and thought, ‘I guess it was to be expected.’

Even if it was Dracula, there was no way he could create such magic in that brief encounter. He must have hidden a pre-completed magic circle from the moment he revealed himself and activated it during their scuffle.

It was perhaps only because of Jeongjae’s level that he felt a discomfort not even thirty minutes after being ensnared by the curse. For an ordinary person, it would be a powerful magic capable of trapping them in a virtual space for a lifetime, leading them to grow old and die there.

“Well then, shall I start dismantling it…”

Jeongjae slumped down in the empty space and pulled as hard as he could at one of the mana circuits. While it wasn’t difficult to rip out a string, being careful not to bring the entire web crashing down while dismantling this spell was taking more time than he had anticipated.

As Jeongjae quietly peeled away the wicked spell that enveloped his mind, he sighed and muttered.

“This is such a hassle. At this rate, I won’t be done before sunset.”

At that moment, Jeongjae’s hands, busy with the dismantling work, suddenly came to a halt. Before sunset. He couldn’t get out of here before sunset… before sunset…?

“Dammit!”

Once again, Jeongjae cursed as he frantically began to speed up his work. That bloodsucker was exuding a considerable amount of power even during the day. Jeongjae couldn’t even imagine how powerful the vampire lord would be once night fell.

Late at night, under the moonlight, how difficult of an opponent would the vampire lord be for an unprepared novice girl unaware of the impending danger?

While Jeongjae was desperately working to dismantle the prison constraining him, in Harriet’s territory, the assistant Jenis Harker was carrying out the duties of the lord’s agent, fervently doing her work.

The restoration work on the beach was proceeding smoothly. The task of breaking apart the ash that had hardened like sediment due to the bombardments and restoring the beach was nearing completion.

The work of removing the orc corpses that had rotted in the water, giving off a foul stench without sinking to a somewhat safe depth, hadn’t even begun yet, but just the fact that the shoreline was slowly being restored brought a glimmer of hope to the people, demonstrating their active efforts to overcome the aftermath of the short battle.

Given the constant threat of enemies coming from the sea, they couldn’t rely solely on fishing, so the experimental cultivation of a small turnip patch had also been added to Jenis’s list of duties. Investing manpower and resources into constructing fishing vessels needed for the removal of corpses and the gear required to catch krakens was also her responsibility.

In fact, the duties of acting lord were not difficult for Jenis at all. Jeongjae, with no previous administrative experience, had long delegated the specific tasks to Jenis, handling only the conceptual management. Jenis, already familiar with the affairs of the territory over the past few days, was capable of carrying out her duties without any issues.

That night, with a calm heart anticipating Jeongjae’s return, Jenis would have finished the acting lord duties without incident had she not felt an ominous premonition and woken up.

“Professor! P-professor!”

Jenis jumped out of bed, shouting. Of course, Jeongjae was absent from the room. That was to be expected. Even if Jeongjae weren’t absent from the territory, the two didn’t sleep in the same room in the first place.

However, as she woke up groggy, Jenis hurriedly put on her battle robe and stepped outside to remember that the most powerful baron in the current world was absent from her territory.

Rushing out with barely enough time to change, wearing her combat robe over her pajamas, Jenis looked eastward toward the border of the territory.

Night had deepened, shrouding everything in darkness. All the diligent nobles who had worked hard during the day were now in slumber, leaving the territory dark without a single light. The half-full moon served as the only source of illumination.

But at this moment, the moonlight seemed to pale against the oppressive darkness settling over the territory.

A dark aura. To someone like Jenis, sensitive to mana, it felt unbearably hot and rotten, emanating from the depths of that darkness.

Although invisible to the eye, it felt like a giant current of mana was being laid over everything like a veil. Jenis once again experienced the magical fear she had felt when she first faced the kraken.

Without having yet confronted that mana. Not identifying the source of that mana, the terror had etched itself into every single cell of her being.

Gripping her robe tightly with both hands, Jenis trembled, taking labored steps forward. In her haste, the untied laces of her boots slipped down, getting under her trembling feet.

For a moment, Jenis nearly stumbled because she couldn’t maintain her balance, but she managed to avoid that humiliation and move forward.

Only after hastily using magic to tie her boot laces did Jenis finally make her way to the street of the baron’s domain. The closer she got to the southern border, the stronger the stench of the oppressive darkness became, and with each step she took, her heart swelled with fear.

“Don’t back down, don’t back down…”

Jenis reassured herself over and over. Now that Jeongjae wasn’t here, she was undoubtedly the strongest presence in the territory, at least among the benevolent beings.

If someone were to protect the innocent people from the sudden, unidentified threat that had arrived at midnight, it could only be her.

Not long ago, she had been engulfed in fear at the sight of hundreds of orcs charging. She had concluded that those ragtag orcs were nothing to be afraid of. They were only foes she could easily overwhelm.

Thinking that this fear, too, would become a challenge she could easily overcome, Jenis nearly lunged toward the territory border.

With only about 70 meters remaining to reach the territory’s border.

The two guards stationed at the entrance of Baron Harriet’s domain widened their eyes in surprise as they approached a strange visitor to verify his identity.

“Excuse me, what brings you here at this hour? Our lord is currently absent…”

One of the guards, anxious and gripping his spear tight, approached the man in the black robe. Just about 30 meters away from reaching the border, Jenis felt a dangerous killing intent from the robed figure and cried out loudly.

“Get away from that man! It’s dangerous!”

“This is all because your lord rejected my kind offer.”

Dracula mumbled as he revealed a pale hand from beneath the robe. In an instant, just as he clenched his hand in the air, the head of the guard who had approached him burst like a tomato dropped on the ground.

Bang! There was no time for pain or understanding what had just occurred. The guard’s body crumpled forward, and only his empty helmet fell with a clatter.

Though Jenis had already experienced a battle, this was the first time she had witnessed a person die so utterly without meaning. She swallowed her shock, unable to voice a scream, yet she didn’t stop her steps.

When Dracula extended his other hand toward the remaining guard, who was paralyzed in shock, Jenis hurriedly flared her robe, channeling all her telekinetic magic into both hands and unleashed it forward.

Whoosh! Along with the sound, a force capable of pushing back a charging rhinoceros surged towards Dracula. While Jenis’s feeble attempt succeeded in diverting the vampire lord’s attention away from the guard, it did not inflict any real damage on such a powerful demon lord.

Dracula removed the robe shrouding his face, revealing his pale visage. As Dracula wore a smile of confident ease, his fangs made Jenis shudder all over.

“Well now, a rather skilled witch, aren’t you? What is your name?”

“Jenis Harker. I am the lord’s assistant and acting lord on a provisional basis. A daughter of the Harker clan, and the one who will summon the guards to wake up all the nobles and declare a state of emergency!”

The last, seemingly unnecessary explanation was a directive aimed at the dazed guard. Fortunately, the guard named George was clever enough to understand Jenis’s meaning and soon rushed into the territory, shouting loudly to wake the people.

Regardless of that, Dracula lost interest in the guard, stroking his chin thoughtfully as he tilted his head.

“Harker. So you are a child of the Harker clan.”

“A familiar name?”

“Quite familiar. Perhaps we could become good friends.”

“Not a chance. I will refuse with all my might!”

Of course, Jenis wasn’t simply chatting while doing nothing. Amid the conversation with Dracula, she completed the twin magic circles of flame in both hands and unleashed them simultaneously, pouring massive flames towards the vampire.

Even though the scorching heat pouring forth could have easily been generated by a large flamethrower, Dracula simply raised one hand to effortlessly block Jenis’s magic.

Just as Jenis gasped in horror and began channeling even more mana into her flames, Dracula snatched the tip of her flame with a clenched fist.

As if pulling a piece of cloth toward himself, Dracula effortlessly snatched the magic circle Jenis had created for the first time. While she stood there dumbfounded by having her magic circle stolen, the vampire lord manipulated the hellfire into a black flame and poured it back at Jenis.

Hellfire of all hellfires, the most terrible of dreadful flames. As she witnessed the flames from hell rushing at her, Jenis felt the end approaching.

Why had she been unable to stall for even a moment? It wouldn’t take long for Jeongjae to return. She could disregard her own life, but if she had just held on for a short while, the territory and its people might have been saved.

In that moment, as thoughts of an utterly futile death flitted through her mind, Jenis’s necklace reacted.

A flash! A light burst forth from the powder of a unicorn’s horn, leaping from around Jenis’s neck to stand against the black flames. A magic circle in the shape of a Latin cross—no, a shield of divine power that was hard to call a magic circle—encircled Jenis and repelled Dracula’s dark magic.

The flames that collided with the giant cross vanished in an instant, and Jenis blinked in bewilderment, unable to comprehend why she was still alive. Dracula nodded slightly, looking somewhat surprised but still composed.

“Well, then, it appears Harker is always prepared.”

“Thank you, Father. When I get back, I’ll be sure to repay you!”

Holding her necklace vigorously, Jenis mumbled. Perhaps due to the impact of the powerful protective magic she just unleashed, the silver cross felt warm as if just taken out of a hot oven.

“This will take time. That’s not good for me.”

“That works for me. All I need is time, intruder.”

“Call me Count Dracula, Miss Countess.”

The vampire lord bowed politely. As Jenis instinctively twitched her eyebrows upon hearing that name.

“Given that look, my lady…”

Dracula grinned, revealing his sharp fangs.

“It seems you’ve heard my name before.”