Please Kill Me - Chapter 102
Now, even describing Dmitry’s demeanor as cold wasn’t sufficient. His face was etched with profound disgust.
‘The more time passes, the more repulsive it becomes.’
The spot where the ornament had struck throbbed painfully. However, Dmitry’s grimace was not from the pain but from the revulsion of having to ingratiate himself to such a loathsome man.
‘If it weren’t for my sister, I would have slit his throat by now.’
Yet, until he could retrieve Yekaterina, he couldn’t risk destabilizing Offenbach. Any chaos within Offenbach would only complicate the search for her.
Thus, Dmitry altered his initial plan of killing Sergei and then removing Ludmila. His top priority was Yekaterina’s safety.
And ensuring her return to Offenbach.
Dmitry leaned forward, pressing his forehead, now wrapped in a handkerchief, against the desk.
To an observer, it would appear as though he had collapsed onto the desk.
‘Sister.’
He turned his head to the side.
With a dull ache and vacant stare, fragments of the past replayed in his mind—the reason why he, who deceived even his own father and mother, was ever obedient only to Yekaterina.
— Dmitry, you and I are the same.
A memory from his childhood.
* * *
Dmitry did not like Yekaterina from the beginning. When she was first adopted, he often ignored and belittled her.
“Don’t think you’re the same as me just because you carry the Offenbach name! You’re just an orphan!”
Dmitry was an arrogant boy, without any endearing qualities. But his behavior was actually the rebellion of an unloved child.
To outsiders, Dmitry seemed like a privileged young master who monopolized Offenbach’s affection, but the reality was different. Sergei always looked at him with an appraising eye, and Ludmila, while stroking his head, would constantly watch for Sergei’s reaction.
Perhaps Dmitry could see things others couldn’t from a young age.
— You look happy today, Masha. Everything around you is pink.
— Pink… you say?
— Yes. Yesterday it was navy blue, but today it’s pink.
He could see an aura around people, an energy of sorts. He quickly realized it was something others couldn’t see.
Later, he understood this energy was mana—the natural, minuscule amount of mana that follows a person’s essence. It’s said that someone with a high affinity and significant reserves of mana can see it easily. But such people were rare, almost extinct.
Unless a mutation occurred every century or so.
By some stroke of fate.
Dmitry was one of those rare mutations.
He discovered this truth while secretly reading forbidden books in the basement library. Nonetheless, the important point was that Dmitry knew better than anyone that he wasn’t loved. The palpable neglect he felt and saw would drive any child astray.
In such circumstances, it was only natural for him to resent the sudden arrival of a girl who claimed to be his sister.
Young Dmitry didn’t want to lose the scarce affection he had to this newfound sister. So, he decided to do everything he could to prevent it. If he had been a bit older, he might not have thought this way.
But at that tender age, his methods were as childishly naive as one would expect.
“If I do better, maybe my parents will notice me too.”
His plan was to enter the monsters’ cage, despite being forbidden. His courage didn’t extend to tackling middle or high-grade monsters, so he chose a low-grade one.
“Always Yekaterina, Yekaterina… I can do that too.”
Ever since Yekaterina joined Offenbach and began receiving the same education as Dmitry, she had shown remarkable achievements in all areas. She even started to catch up to him in subjects she began learning later. Teachers constantly praised her accomplishments, and Sergei seemed pleased with her progress.
And all of this filled Dmitry with a sense of impending crisis.
Even at a young age, Dmitry knew how harsh Sergei could be towards failure. He feared losing the little attention he received to Yekaterina.
So, Dmitry entered the monsters’ cage with a determined heart.
‘I can do this too!’
But if it had been possible, he would have already received permission to freely enter the cage. The outcome was disastrous. The sword he had tightly gripped was never swung, and all he could do was tremble and retreat.
As the monster approached, drooling with hunger, Dmitry found himself utterly helpless. He had chosen a time when no one was around to sneak in, so no matter how much he screamed for help, there was no one to come to his rescue.
