Please Kill Me - Chapter 11
Leonid gazed at Yekaterina as one would look at a tangled ball of yarn, needing to be unraveled. He reluctantly responded.
“We’re discussing what to do with you. Nothing has been decided yet.”
“For an attempted murder of a prince, wouldn’t execution be expected?”
“You talk as if it’s someone else’s problem. A high noble like you can’t be easily executed. Unless there’s solid evidence against you. As it stands, only your confession is there, so if no substantial evidence is found, you’ll likely be released soon.”
This was a more positive outlook than what the interrogators had offered so far. Of course, it was unlikely that someone as big as a Duke would personally come just to convey this message.
Observing Yekaterina who had remained silent, Leonid reached out and gently held her chin. He seemed to want to examine her face closely. His face was calm yet cold.
“You don’t seem happy even after hearing this.”
“……”
“In this place, I’ve seen many who have resigned to death. They usually have a look of utter lack of motivation, or they desperately look for some improbable stroke of luck.”
Hearing this, Yekaterina thought to herself.
Was she the former? Neither seems quite right. At that moment, Leonid spoke.
“I thought you were the former, but you’re neither.”
“Have you learned mind reading?”
“No.”
Leonid and Yekaterina’s eyes met in the air.
Leonid was the first to speak again.
“It’s the first time I’ve seen someone with such an indifferent expression.”
In other words, her thoughts were all over her face.
“I don’t believe you’re the real culprit. I’m almost certain now.”
“I am the culprit.”
“Offenbach often uses the tactic of cutting off the tail.”
“If it’s about cutting, you should be more concerned about your fingernails.”
“…..What?”
“Your nails are long.”
Immediately after she finished speaking, the heavy atmosphere lifted slightly.
Leonid seemed a bit startled, if only for a moment.
He carefully withdrew his hand. Due to his long nails, Yekaterina’s cheek had been slightly scratched.
It was so slight that it would be unnoticed by anyone but the person involved.
Leonid frowned a beat late as he withdrew his hand.
“Are you trying to change the subject?”
“I have nothing more to say to you.”
That was the only thing Yekaterina could say.
As per Sergei’s orders, she had to confess and ask to be killed.
But she wasn’t going to speak anyway.
Yekaterina couldn’t understand why he had come to tire her out.
“Don’t you want to live?”
Yekaterina tilted her tired eyes sideways, then looked back at Leonid.
“Is there a reason I should live?”
“Why should you die?”
Of course, there was no reason. But she hadn’t really thought about it either.
Life and death. Until then, Yekaterina’s life had existed solely for Offenbach. Her death was on the same trajectory.
Leonid’s question had given her a fresh shock.
“If you don’t want to live, then tell me. Why do you want to die?”
Why does she want to die? Yekaterina had never thought about it, but Leonid’s words strangely resonated with her.
But not knowing how to respond, she just blinked.
Seeing her silence, Leonid spoke again.
“Yekaterina Offenbach, don’t you have any wish?”
His voice was tinged with curiosity, almost annoyance.
“Those who want to die usually say similar things. They just want to rest now. They’re too exhausted to endure the endless wait for some good that might never come while they’re alive.”
It was odd. She had never thought about wanting to die, yet Leonid’s words struck her more deeply than anything else she had heard before.
But Leonid didn’t seem interested in continuing the conversation with the motionless Yekaterina.
He looked disinterested and stood up.
“I thought you were definitely the culprit since you’re Offenbach’s adopted daughter, but it seems I was wrong.”
With those words, Leonid left the interrogation room. The man who had uncovered the truth of the case without a single confession from her showed no hesitation.
Yekaterina was left alone in the dim interrogation room. She thought his method of trying to get a confession from her was not very effective.
Asking if she had any wishes. It would have been better if he had just grabbed her by the collar and shaken her.
‘But I still wouldn’t have spoken.’
Yekaterina pondered over this for a long time, absently tracing the small scratch on her chin with her fingertip.
Eventually, she was released due to insufficient evidence.
* * *
In the office of Duke Rostislav’s residence.
Thump. A cufflink fell from the hand of the man who appeared to be the owner of the office and rolled across the desk in a half a circle.
It was a flawless gesture, but Vasily, the knight standing before him, could read the irritation in it.
‘Things aren’t going well for him.’
His master, Leonid, had just returned from the imperial palace.
